Chapter 147
After Jiang Ning arrived in Beijing, he did not go directly to the training team. Instead, he first found a hotel to stay in, and then went to a real estate agency to ask about the current housing prices in Beijing.
There is no need to think about the housing prices within the Second Ring Road. When Jiang Ning asked about the housing prices in the Second Ring Road, he thought it was not 1997, but 2017.
In this era, housing prices in the Second Ring Road were as high as 20,000 to 30,000 yuan per square meter, which shocked Jiang Ning.
You have to know that when she was in college in 1999 in her previous life, the average salary was only 500 yuan a month. Now, it is only the beginning of 1997, but the price per square meter is 20,000 to 30,000 yuan.
This is not the down payment, nor the price of the entire house, but the price per square meter.
However, when Jiang Ning asked about the third ring road outside the second ring road, the price dropped rapidly. Depending on the location, it was only two to four thousand yuan per square meter, and buying a house also came with a household registration. This is the same as in Shanghai, but there is a Hudong area in Shanghai where you can find bargains, but there are no places to find bargains in Beijing.
After comparing, Jiang Ning directly chose to buy in Chaoyang District.
A house that costs 2,100 yuan per square meter, even if it is 100 square meters, is only 200,000 yuan. If the down payment is 30%, it is only 60,000 yuan.
This winter vacation, because of the broadcast of the third part of "Justice Bao" on the Z Province TV station, the sales of the physical book of "The Great Song Dynasty" have never dropped. In fact, because it is all finished, people buy the whole set. The publisher also came up with a complete set of classic collector's editions and a complete set of classic collector's editions. At present, the sales of the six books combined are close to 10 million. The bulk of Jiang Ning's royalties come from the physical book royalties of "The Great Song Dynasty".
"White Snake's Cultivation of Immortality" has been serialized for such a long time. Although it has been strongly promoted by "Wuxia" and the publishing house, and driven by "The Great Song", its sales are not as high as "The Great Song", but so far, the sales of several books combined have reached more than four million. Although this sales volume is distributed to each volume, it is just over one million, or even less than one million, but the total sales volume added up is impressive.
In particular, the film and television rights of "White Snake's Immortality" have been sold. Seeing that the big director came in person to discuss the copyright, he should attach great importance to the copyright of this movie. I believe that the project should be approved soon. If this movie can be made and successfully released, the readers of "White Snake's Immortality" alone will bring a wave of box office to this movie. If the movie is good, it will also feed back to the physical book of "White Snake's Immortality", which will inevitably bring a new wave of sales.
The publication points of her two works are not low, from the original twelve points, now it has increased to thirteen points.
Teacher Yu once said that he could live off the book "To Live" for the rest of his life.
Jiang Ning is the same now. With the royalties from her two works, "The Song Dynasty" and "White Snake", she can live a life of ease for the rest of her life.
On the contrary, the copyright fees for film and television copyrights and TV drama copyrights of this era are not as high as those in later generations.
The only thing Jiang Ning is worried about now is that after the completion of "White Snake Cultivation", the fixed monthly fee of more than 20,000 yuan from "Wuxia" will be gone. Then, will she be able to pay off her current mortgage of up to 10,000 yuan per month on time?
Therefore, she really needs to be careful when buying a house now, and keep at least enough money in her bank card to cover the entire mortgage payment for one year.
Thinking of this, Jiang Ning, who originally wanted to take a break for a while before writing again, couldn't sit still anymore. What was the point of taking a break! Open article! Must open the article!
However, before she started writing, she still called Wang Yong and told him that she had decided to write about officialdom in her next article.
After Wang Yong learned that Jiang Ning's "White Snake Cultivation" was about to be completed, he immediately reported the news to Director Li Ang and Editor-in-Chief Bao. During the serialization period of "White Snake Cultivation" in "Wuxia", although the magazine sales were not as good as when "Da Song" was serialized, the peak monthly sales were almost five million. But that was with the support of the TV series. "White Snake Cultivation" was able to maintain the total monthly sales of "Wuxia" at more than three million without any support from the TV series. It was already a hit among hits and a surprise among surprises.
When Director Li Ang and his colleagues heard the news that "White Snake's Cultivation of Immortality" was going to be completed, even though they were also promoting other new literary works in "Wuxia" magazine, there were still very few works that could reach the level of phenomena like "The Great Song Dynasty" and "White Snake's Cultivation of Immortality".
Although there are more time-travel works on the market due to these two works, in terms of subject matter, "The Song Dynasty" is no longer considered new. It can only be regarded as the originator of time-travel criminal investigation literature. However, "White Snake" is definitely not even a substitute for other literature.
How many authors can study "Animal World" so thoroughly? Even the habits of snakes are so clear. Even the part about snakes in "Animal World" has only been released in one issue, but Jiang Ning was a person who read all of "Animal World" in his previous life. Therefore, when he wrote about the little white snake and other snake-footed monster cultivators in the Snake Valley, his writing was particularly wonderful and immersive, and the details were also very full and in place. This is something that other authors cannot imitate even if they want to.
Who cares that it’s 1997 now and they haven’t watched “Animal World” enough?
Another very important point is that the article "White Snake's Cultivation of Immortality" created a brand new system of cultivation of immortals. This is also a pioneering point in the cultivation of immortals literature. Many previous works on cultivation of immortals were actually stream-of-consciousness cultivation of immortals.
For example, "Shushan", starring Lin Qingxia in 1983, is actually a representative of the current works on cultivating immortals. It is a typical stream of cultivating immortals with consciousness. There are also "Journey to the West" and "Investiture of the Gods", etc. They cultivated some kind of magical powers. For example, Sun Wukong practiced "Seventy-two Transformations" and "Somersault Cloud", etc. There is no "White Snake Cultivation of Immortality", no matter whether it is mortal cultivation or demon cultivation, there is a cultivation system from Qi training to Mahayana.
Surprisingly, this system of cultivating immortals was accepted by many people at once, and after getting inspiration from "White Snake's Cultivation of Immortality", some people began to write articles about the cultivation of immortals by the human race, serializing them in "Wuxia", and the results were very good, but it has not yet reached the same influence as "White Snake's Cultivation of Immortality".
Therefore, once "White Snake's Cultivation of Immortality" is about to be completed, they will inevitably face the same situation as the previous "The Cultivation of Immortality in the Song Dynasty", that is, reducing the first print run and shrinking the market.
Now Jiang Ning called Wang Yong and said that she had already thought of her next article, which would be about officialdom.
Wang Yong couldn't help but inform Director Li Ang and Editor-in-Chief Bao of the news.
They also face a consistent choice: whether to continue serializing Ning Meng's new works in "Wuxia", or to continue to maintain the pure martial arts style of "Wuxia" without transformation.
Why did the magazine "Wuxia", after achieving a glorious monthly sales volume of more than 3.5 million in the 1980s, face the prospect of having its branch closed in the early 1990s? In addition to the fact that their magazine's top authors were poached, there was another very important reason: while other magazines were flourishing, "Wuxia" was sticking to publishing only martial arts works.
In other magazines, whether it is youth romance or chivalrous and tender love, it is divided into sections, and the subject matter of each section is different, so that every reader can find what he wants to read.
But "Wuxia" is just about martial arts.
Although the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s were the golden age of martial arts novels, the magazine "Wuxia" was limited to martial arts works, and it could only attract readers who liked to read martial arts works. Other readers had no interest in the magazine.
The reason why "Wuxia" broke the past conventions and achieved a miracle of total sales of more than 5 million during the serialization of "Da Song" was mainly because "Da Song" was written from the perspective of the female protagonist. In addition to the old readers of "Wuxia" in the past, it attracted a large number of female readers and readers who like to read criminal investigation works, as well as readers attracted by the new theme of "time travel". In addition, it was adapted into a popular TV series. With these multiple approaches, it created such a miracle of monthly sales.
What they are facing now is whether to transform and whether to serialize Ning Meng’s new work, a piece about officialdom, in the magazine “Wuxia”.
This is not something that can be decided on a whim.
The first thing they have to consider is the reaction of the original readers of "Wuxia" to this matter.
When "Wuxia" was serializing "The Great Song Dynasty", many readers had already called and written to say that "Wuxia" was in decline and that it had actually started serializing criminal investigation works. They said that "The Great Song Dynasty" was not a martial arts work at all, but could only be considered a criminal investigation work at best.
Of course, some readers also refuted: "If "The Great Song" cannot be considered a martial arts work, then can "Lu Xiaofeng", which is also a detective martial arts work, be considered a martial arts work?"
"The Great Song Dynasty" and "White Snake's Cultivation of Immortality" can barely be considered martial arts works, and have been accepted by "martial arts" readers. However, Ning Meng's new officialdom novel has absolutely nothing to do with the word "martial arts". It is a pure modern officialdom novel.
They no longer doubt Ning Meng's writing ability, but they are afraid that if this article is serialized in "Wuxia", it will not be well accepted and will be collectively boycotted by the old readers of "Wuxia", or even turn from fans to haters.
It's not impossible.
The direct result was that the "Wuxia" magazine not only failed to transform successfully, but instead suffered a devastating blow.
But if Ning Meng's new works are not serialized in "Wuxia", it means that Ning Meng will choose to cooperate with other magazines, and then the fact that they have been carefully hiding Ning Meng's true identity will no longer be hidden.
Why have they kept Ning Meng's identity strictly secret? Aren't they afraid that what happened in the early 1990s will happen again? They are afraid that the top authors of their magazine will be poached by other magazines?
If her new work is not serialized, then she is not being poached by another magazine, but has left on her own initiative.
What level of author is Ning Meng now? The author of "The Great Song Dynasty" has a total sales volume of nearly 10 million physical books, and it is only a matter of time before the total sales volume of the book "The Great Song Dynasty" exceeds 10 million.
Although she has only written two works so far, both of them are phenomenal.
Therefore, whether or not to serialize Ningmeng’s new work is not something they can decide immediately.
Director Li Ang, Chief Editor Bao, Wang Yong, and other new editors of the magazine all went to the conference room to discuss this issue.
After discussing it for a long time, no one could solve this problem. Some people could not help but complain: "Why does Ning Meng want to write about officialdom in her next work? Why does she have to write about modern officialdom? Can't she write about ancient officialdom? Insert martial arts elements into it, just like Justice Bao. She wrote about Justice Bao solving cases, and there were ancient knights protecting him, similar to characters like Zhan Zhao. Why does she have to write about modern officialdom? What's so good about this?"
They also don't understand why Ning Meng gave up the current prosperous martial arts market and good situation to write about the modern officialdom which is completely unfamiliar to her.
Moreover, many of the management within "Wuxia" knew Ning Meng's true identity. What does a high school student, a little girl who is only sixteen or seventeen years old, know about the officialdom? Does she know how to write the word "officialdom"? Just write about officialdom?
This is no longer just a question of whether or not to serialize Lemontree's new work; it's that they have no confidence in Lemontree's new work.
If Ning Meng's real identity is really an old policeman in the system, then there is no problem. Since you are in the system, you can write whatever you want. At most, we can discuss the issue of magazine transformation. Now there is another point involved. Is Ning Meng's new work worth it for "Wuxia" to take such a big risk to serialize it and make some transformation?
This is something that no one has confidence in.
Not to mention the new editors, even Chief Editor Bao and Director Li Ang couldn't make up their minds to make the decision to do this right away.
To be honest, Wang Yong didn't have much confidence either.
Director Li Ang said to Wang Yong, "Xiao Wang, you are the editor-in-charge of Ningmeng. Can you persuade Ningmeng to change the modern officialdom into the ancient officialdom and insert some martial arts elements?"
Wang Yong nodded and said, "Okay, I'll ask and try my best to persuade her, but I can't guarantee whether I can persuade her or not."
Just like before, people from "Wuxia" magazine wanted Ning Meng to continue writing the second and third parts of "The Great Song Dynasty", but Ning Meng said that the case had been completed and she would not write "The Great Song Dynasty" anymore. She wanted to write a new article with a new theme, and it was an animal cultivation article that people had never seen before.
They couldn't convince her.
Director Li Ang also thought of the situation when Ning Meng insisted on writing "White Snake Cultivation".
Some authors write whatever their editors tell them to write, or whatever is popular. For example, when "The Great Song Dynasty" became popular, many imitators came out, and countless time-travel and criminal investigation works came out. When "White Snake's Cultivation of Immortality" became popular, countless works on the cultivation of immortals came out.
But some authors are not like that. They write whatever they want to write and whatever inspiration comes to them. They don’t care what your editor wants or what your editor suggests. One advantage of this type of authors over the previous type is that they are more likely to produce a big hit, while the previous type of authors is stability.
Obviously, Lemonmeng belongs to the latter category.
After writing two big hits, she completely ignored the life and death of the magazine and just wrote officialdom articles.
Director Li Ang said, "If she insists on writing about modern bureaucracy, we should not rush to reject her new work. Let her send it to us first. Didn't we sign her work before? We don't have anyone to sign her. She can submit it to wherever she wants. The fact that she is willing to call us now means that she has a bond with our magazine."
Jiang Ning had no idea that "Wuxia" had already held a meeting to discuss her new work. She was currently buying a house in Chaoyang District.
Thinking about the future housing prices, Jiang Ning calculated the money in his passbook and decided to buy a 200-square-meter apartment at 2,000 yuan per square meter, with a down payment of only 120,000 yuan.
One hundred and twenty thousand was already a sky-high price for many ordinary people at that time, but it was nothing for Jiang Ning.
She wanted to emulate a certain host in later generations and buy herself a house every month so that when she was in her forties, she could retire and travel around the world to collect writing materials.
But although she was only a division-level cadre in her previous life, she had been promoted to deputy bureau-level in terms of power and responsibilities. In fact, the next step is to be firmly at the deputy bureau-level. Therefore, she is very clear about many development directions of this era, and naturally knows which direction to invest in this era is the most profitable.
Putting aside other things, everyone knows the two Mr. Ma. Even if you don’t make equity investments in them, there are still some well-known companies in later generations, such as several major electrical appliances and Yike, which are also known to everyone. Even if you don’t know these, you must know Moutai, right?
Even if you don't know all this, there was another major event that happened in 1997 that almost everyone knew about, as Hong Kong returned to China: the Asian financial crisis.
This is a man-made stock market crash.
Jiang Ning did not study finance. She knew about this, but she could do nothing about it. Not to mention that she could not participate in this kind of international chess game now, even in her previous life, she was not capable of playing such a big game.
But at least one thing is that there are too many ways to make money in this era, and there is no need for her to get involved in this stock market crash.
Jiang Ning wants to make money, not just for the sake of making money, but because she is thinking about the chip and lithography technology that will be a bottleneck for our country in the future. If she has enough money, can she plan investment research in advance?
At the moment, all this is still too far away for her, so she should buy her house first.
Song Peifeng and Jiang Ning arrived in Beijing almost at the same time. Unlike Jiang Ning who was still wandering around and buying a house in Beijing, he did not stop at all after arriving in Beijing and went straight to the winter camp training team in Beijing.
Currently, there are more than 200 people selected from all over the country in the training team. After passing multiple exams, only 50 people will be left for the final finals to decide the six places that will represent the country in international competitions. In addition to these six places, in order to prevent some accidents, there will also be six backup places. In other words, there are only six people who can finally participate in the competition.
More than 200 top Olympic talents were promoted step by step from national competitions to enter the winter camp, and then six were finally selected from the winter camp. This is truly one in a million, and the top six were selected from the most talented high school students in the country.
When Song Peifeng arrived at the training team, he went straight to the dormitory area.
Although the dormitory area is divided into different areas for men and women, they live in the same white dormitory building. Just like the new dormitory building of Wucheng No. 1 Middle School, it is divided into male and female areas. Boys live in the left area and girls live in the right area.
When Song Peifeng entered the dormitory building carrying his luggage, his eyes unconsciously looked towards the dormitory area on the right. He knew what he was expecting.
In fact, every student who comes here comes with the desire to bring glory to the motherland and to win honor for the motherland. Although men and women are mixed, there is no phenomenon of falling in love at this time. Everyone's mind is on intensive study, learning combinatorial reasoning, generating functions, graph theory, recursive relations, embedded sums and products, probability, number theory and so on. The continuous intensive study every day is enough to kill all their brain cells. How can anyone have free time to talk about other things?
Math is much more interesting than relationships, okay?
Song Peifeng also thought so in the past.
Song Peifeng still thinks so today, but he always unconsciously searches for her figure in the crowd.
He is not some slow person.
If he had only a vague feeling before, after he realized that he was unconsciously searching for her figure in the crowd, he immediately realized what he had done.
It was not because they were both from Wucheng, or because they were the only two people in Wucheng on this trip.
He knows himself too well. He is not the kind of person who would have any psychological fluctuations towards others just because they are classmates or colleagues from the same place.
After realizing his own thoughts, he was not the kind of person who would hide his thoughts or even suppress his ideas. He did not think there was anything to suppress. When he realized his own thoughts, he just let it go and followed his heart to pursue the other person.
Why do we say chase instead of pursue? Because pursuit is actually an act that will disturb others. He knows very well that just like he himself does not want to be disturbed by anyone, he knows that Jiang Ning will not want to be disturbed either, as that will only make her feel troubled and disgusted.
He hadn't spoken to her many times, but he just knew it somehow.
In the past, if someone said that Song Peifeng had a crush on someone, not only would others not believe it, but Song Peifeng himself would not believe it either. He knew very well that if he liked someone, he would take the initiative to pursue it and would never stand still.
But when facing Jiang Ning, he knew clearly that he could not and would not rashly disturb her before he gained her favor, or before they became familiar friends.
Even so, he was still full of joy, just because there was such a person in this world. Just seeing her made his heart beat fast and filled with joy.
Even though he was still young, he had read enough books and seen enough of the world to know that not everyone in this world was lucky enough to meet such a person.
Most people, searching among the vast crowd, will never meet such a person in their entire life, but he met him when he was a teenager, when his time was best.
How lucky.
He even felt inexplicably fortunate that he had never cared about his appearance in the past, but now he took the initiative to maintain his good looks so that he could stand out in the crowd, as long as her eyes could stay on him for a moment or a second.
Even though he sometimes even felt that when she looked at him, she was looking at an old friend whom she admired.
That was definitely not the same thing as what he felt towards her.
The girl he likes and admires always looks up and is always pursuing progress and excellence.
But the more she did this, the more he admired her. Just seeing her was like seeing sunshine all over her body, and his heart was filled with pure joy and happiness.
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