About ten days later.

Chu Li and Zhuo Chuan each dragged a heavy suitcase back home, and they took the same flight back home as Gu Baizhi and the others. It was not because they were enemies, but because they had agreed to buy a flight back home for one day. When Chu Li and Gu Baizhi looked at each other, they could feel the conspiracy in each other's eyes, which was "putting the children together so they can play by themselves and parents can take the opportunity to rest."

On the way back, according to Zhuchuan's interrogation, Chu Li learned that Jiang Yucheng put aside his dignity without much hesitation and readily agreed to participate in the cooperation plan with Herman.

"You always have to give me some soup when I eat," Jiang Yucheng answered very calmly, "What else?"

"You will not be able to speak to me in such a ridiculous and arrogant tone for three years," Zhu Chuan raised his chin and said in a very annoying way, "You are a defeated general."

"Yes, I have lived for more than 20 years and finally won this time. The Maritime Department won when the other party was completely obsessed with me. I am so jealous." Jiang Yucheng smiled crookedly and kicked Zhechuan. "I will give you a banner to hang on your door when you go home. 'Congratulations to Zhechuan for finally temporarily defeating the kid next door in his lifetime' - 'temporarily defeated', temporarily."

Zhuchuan took off his neck pillow and covered Jiang Yucheng's face with it.

Chu Li withdrew his gaze from the two fools and looked at Gu Baizhi. Gu Baizhi held his face with one hand and looked insightful: "The diamond ring is really big, congratulations."

Chu Li blushed a little: "Ugly stuff from a boutique."

"Don't lie to me. A boutique won't have such an ugly ring. It won't sell. The owner is not stupid enough to buy such a ring," Gu Baizhi waved her hands. "This kind of ring can only be placed in a formal jewelry store with a seven- to eight-digit price tag. People will ignore its ugliness and then say with a guilty conscience: My God, this diamond ring is so beautiful!"

Chu Li felt that what Gu Baizhi said made a lot of sense——

At least that's what she thought.

Gu Baizhi sighed: "That's great, Teacher Zhuchuan is very generous, hurry up and marry her before other editors in the same field react - a man who spends money on you may not necessarily love you, but a man who buys you a seven-figure diamond ring definitely loves you to death."

Chu Li was just feeling bored and fumbling around at the moment. After hearing what Gu Baizhi said, he laughed into a vomit bag and asked, "What will the other editors think of this?"

"Everyone rushed to read it," Gu Baizhi said calmly, "but I am not one of them. I will never be able to get along with the author in my life, because before I have the chance to see their beauty, they have already made me lose the confidence to explore their beautiful side."

Chu Li smiled and bent over.

This once again reinforced the fact that Gu Baizhi's personality was very much to her liking.

——Then five minutes later, knowing that Gu Baizhi had brought a bag worth about one thousand yuan for each girl in the editorial department, Chu Li thought about his own suitcase full of refrigerator magnets as souvenirs, and became more determined in this idea.

Chu Li: "So do you really still need people?"

Gu Baizhi: "You can come after you finish Herman's book. With such great achievements, I can at least give you the position of editor-in-chief, even if you can't get a promotion."

Chu Li smiled and narrowed her eyes: "I also want to have an editor-in-chief who buys me bags when I go on business trips."

Gu Baizhi: "To the person who owns a house, turn your head to the left. Do you see the man sitting on your left? If you act coquettishly and stamp your feet to your husband, he will buy you a suitcase of bags."

Chu Li turned to face Zhu Chuan. Zhu Chuan heard what Gu Baizhi said and covered Chu Li's ears with his hands: "Don't spoil a simple girl who only knows which store on Taobao sells a sturdy and long-lasting bag."

Gu Baizhi smiled sarcastically: "It wasn't me who bought her a house and put it on her hand."

Zhuchuan: “…”

…

After more than ten hours of transfer and long-distance flight, the group returned home smoothly.

After saying goodbye to each other at the airport, Chu Li and Zhu Chuan returned home and took a nap.

Perhaps because she had accomplished something she had been thinking about, and because she was tired from the journey and now that she was home she was completely relaxed, Chu Li had a high fever the next day... She rested for half a day, and then could not stand Liang Chonglang's desperate urging, so in the afternoon, under Zhuchuan's disapproving gaze, she begged him to drive her to work.

Zhu Chuan was reluctant at first, thinking that Liang Chonglang must have been in such a hurry because of some terrible thing. The two argued with each other for a while. Finally, seeing that Chu Li had a swollen throat and couldn't speak, but still insisted on going back to report, Zhu Chuan had no choice but to stuff her into his car. He couldn't really let her squeeze into the subway...

Along the way, she took advantage of Chu Li's inability to speak and lectured her like an old mother.

"When you're almost done, send me a WeChat message and I'll pick you up and take you to the hospital." The man holding the steering wheel frowned. "What's the temperature? How about the one you measured before you left?"

As he said this, he reached out to touch Chu Li’s forehead.

Chu Li dodged and put his hands back on the steering wheel to indicate safe driving, then gestured: thirty-nine degrees, no problem.

"39 degrees is fine, how many degrees is a problem? What should I do if I get feverish? I'm not smart to begin with," Zhao Chuan insisted, adding, "Let's go to the hospital first, don't rush to sleep when you come back, write your resignation report first..."

Chu Li glared at him: Resignation? If you resign now, will you take those two little brats, Agui and Suo Heng, to their book signing next year?

Zhuochuan: "You still have the energy to glare at me."

Chu Li reached out and patted his thigh.

Then he said in a hoarse voice: "I still have the energy to hit you, shut up."

Zhuchuan: “…”

Half an hour later, the car stopped at the gate of Yuanyue Society. Chu Li unbuckled her seat belt and got out of the car. She walked two steps into Yuanyue Society and suddenly felt something was wrong. She turned around and saw that Zhaochuan's car was halfway in the gate. At this moment, the man was leaning on the car window, talking to the security guard and pointing at her.

Chu Li was stunned for a moment, and then his phone rang. He picked it up and saw -

【Actor Teacher: Look, look, come in quickly, I'll be waiting for you downstairs. 】

Chu Li was silent for a moment, raised the corners of his lips, put away his phone, smiled and waved to the man behind him, then trotted up to the office building. Liang Chonglang was already leading the legal department, marketing department, editorial department and others waiting in the conference room.

Chu Li opened the door and saw the complete array. He was stunned for a moment. When he sat down, he realized——

It turned out that since the day she sent back the news that "Hellman had been dealt with", everyone in Yuanyue Publishing House was as happy as the New Year... The colleagues in the legal department worked out the publishing contract between Hikawa Mirai and Hellman with unprecedented efficiency. In addition to the first print run of one million copies and the astronomical figure of twelve points by Kodama Shin*, in order to ensure that the contract could be signed, many tempting conditions were also stuffed into the contract -

For example, the contract of a general Yuanyueshe would never include the promise of a cooperative distribution channel for traditional Chinese characters in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. In the past few days, the company was not the exclusive agent, and the commission was very low, so low that Chu Li read it three times and thought that Liang Chonglang was sent down to earth by the God of Wealth to distribute money.

All copyrights of related works, including film and television copyrights, audio book copyrights, animation and comic adaptation copyrights, etc., were released, and the agency fee was directly a capital 0%, as if he was a good person who was willing to do the dowry for Chu Chuan for free...

Chu Li looked at the contract and recalled how Liang Chonglang was madly challenging himself and constantly fighting against himself while signing the contract. He almost laughed out loud.

At the same time, she felt somewhat relieved, and thought that Yuanyue Society could finally save her from worry this time... She nodded with satisfaction, and said in her hoarse voice like an old witch: "Okay, it's very sincere."

Liang Chonglang smiled happily: "You should talk to Chu Chuan more. It's better to keep the wealth within the family. He's Herman. You saw how much The Magpie on a Branch sold last year. In the next three years, we will have to eat meat or air. We'll just have to wait and see."

Chu Li nodded, indicating that he understood.

After reading Zhuchuan's contract, Chuli gestured that she would show the contract to Zhuchuan and would try her best to persuade him - of course, she did not tell Liang Chonglang that because he was anxious to call her back to play while sick, someone had already forced her to resign... Putting Zhuchuan's contract aside, Chuli then reached out without hesitation to ask for the new serial contracts of Suo Heng, Ah Gui, and Sui Guang -

She had been prepared for Liang Chonglang to hesitate and fail to produce the product.

But when Liang Chonglang waved his hand and really took out three contracts, Chu Li was so shocked that he thought he had walked into the wrong door, or he had traveled through time to the Yuanyue Society from a parallel dimension.

"Did you take the wrong medicine?" She looked at Liang Chonglang in surprise, "It's suddenly so effective."

"We've already agreed to sign several contracts together, and we've already agreed to give some benefits to the other two authors. It's you who's always so anxious." Liang Chonglang handed the two contracts to Chu Li.

Since it was said to be a benefit, Chu Li accepted it with profuse gratitude, and felt more at ease, thinking that he could finally give Ah Gui and Suo Heng an explanation for their long wait: at least the terms in Zhuochuan's contract could really be said to be very beneficial.

Chu Li took the contract. She originally thought that according to what Liang Chonglang said, the three contracts should be similar. At most, they would not promise Ah Gui and his friends three high first prints and the royalty points would be slightly different. So she just flipped through it carelessly.

Then I realized something was not right.

First, the promise of the traditional Chinese language distribution channel for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan is still there, but it has changed from being a non-exclusive agent of Zhuchuan to an exclusive agent, and there is still a 50% commission;

Compared with the price per thousand words of the previous book by the two authors, the serialized manuscript fee only increased by RMB 10 and RMB 15 per thousand words respectively;

The clauses for giving up agency for film and television copyrights and other copyrights have disappeared. We are still the exclusive agent, with a 35% agency fee.

——There is also the copyright ownership period of the work. The loud "ten years" almost blinded Chu Li's eyes.

Hello, why don’t you just say that you spent the “astronomical price” of 150 yuan per thousand words to buy the lives of these three authors? ! ! ! !

This crappy contract has the nerve to call it a benefit? ! ! ! ! ! !

Should the refrigerator magnets I brought back for you be called God’s gift? ! ! ! ! ! !

Chu Li slammed the three contracts onto the table. Everyone present, except Liang Chonglang, jumped in shock. Chu Li was so angry that his face turned pale and his head ached. He pointed at the two broken contracts and asked with all his strength, "You call this welfare?!"

Liang Chonglang smiled and said, "Not all authors have access to overseas traditional Chinese channels..."

Chu Li felt like he was going to die of anger. He didn't know if this counted as murder. His head was buzzing and his mood was all over the place: "After paying 50% in taxes, there's not a penny left... The author is not a fool. If you want to do this, you might as well not give it to him. Who are you looking down on?"

After she said this, she coughed madly, and the smell of blood came out of her throat!

The editor of Moonlight stood up and poured her a glass of warm water. Chu Li took a sip and breathed a sigh of relief. She felt as if her chest was broken and was pumping bellows.

She took a deep breath and tried to persuade him: "Lao Liang, it's really ugly for you to be like this. What would Suo Heng and the others think if they knew?"

Liang Chonglang said nothing, but kicked the henchman next to him, and the people around him immediately started talking at once -

"There is a confidentiality clause. How could they know?"

…

"Chu Li, don't always stand on the author's side. You are an employee of Yuanyue Society. Think about our interests."

…

"Wow, the promise of an overseas channel that didn't exist before is not considered a benefit? At least it's a promise, and even a small amount is still meat, right?"

…

"Whatever less money we make from Chu Chuan, we have to make up for it by getting some from other authors..."

…

"How do you know they won't agree?"

When all the noises rushed towards Chu Li, she suddenly heard a buzzing in her ears and a headache that was about to explode. She looked around at the people from the Legal Department and the Marketing Department in confusion, and suddenly realized why these people gathered here today...

She blinked, and in the crowd, the smile on Liang Chonglang's face seemed to be infinitely distorted.

It's like someone poured a basin of cold water over my head.

Chu Li slammed the table in the conference room with both hands.

The surroundings suddenly became quiet.

Ah Xiang stood up in dismay, tugged at Chu Li's sleeve, found a chair for her to sit down, and stood on her left. He rarely spoke in a stern voice, "Come on, come on. Can't you just talk slowly about what's going on?... Mr. Liang, you're going too far. Our boss just came back from abroad, and she came here to look at the contract with red eyes. She has worked hard even if she has no merit, right? What's more, she has made great contributions. If she thinks the contract is not suitable, we can just discuss and revise it. Why do you have to cause a quarrel..."

Chu Li waved his hand and interrupted Ah Xiang.

He stood up, glanced at the people around him, and said slowly: "Before he left, Teacher Xia always told us to respect the author and the reader. Who of you really took that to heart——"

The voice became deeper and deeper. She moved her lips, but her throat was on fire and she could not make any sound at all.

At this time, people were talking around her, and she found that the voices were much quieter. She originally thought that they had really learned their lesson, but after listening for a while, she found that this was not the case, because at this time, the sound in her right ear was louder, and the sound in her left ear was quieter.

Chu Li glanced blankly at Ah Xiang beside her and found that she had been talking to someone from the marketing department...but she couldn't hear her voice at all——

Chu Li raised her hand to cover her right ear, and then she realized that it was not because someone spoke softly or something, but that she could not hear anything with her left ear.

Chu Li: "..."

Chu Li was a little panicked at the time——

First of all, I wondered if I would become deaf after I left.

Then I thought, if the person waiting downstairs knew about this, he would chop me into meat paste, right?

……………………Fuck Yuanyue Society, these idiots!

This was the first time since Chu Li joined Yuanyue Society that he had the serious thought of running away and quitting.