Chapter 114: Mom, I pick up garbage to support you. 16
Jiang Fanyue's life has been very regular these days.
Every morning, she and Erniu ride bicycles to school together.
When they get to school, they don't interfere with each other and treat each other as if they don't exist.
She listens carefully in class, reads for about an hour at noon, finishes the homework for the day before school is over, and then rides bicycles home with Erniu.
After dinner and a bath, she bends over her desk and writes until 10 o'clock in the evening, then puts down her pen and goes to sleep.
On weekends, she did not spend all her time writing. Instead, she went to the factory to see the newly produced toys, observed the Gesang flower seeds in the pots, and told stories to Yao Ruirui and Yao Miaomiao...
So it took Jiang Fanyue more than a month to finish "Wishing Mirror".
She wrote all 50,000 words one by one in neat handwriting.
Yao Rong is still Jiang Fanyue's first reader.
On a winter afternoon, the sun was slightly drunk. Yao Rong sat under the wind chimes, brewing a pot of tea, and slowly flipping through Jiang Fanyue's stories.
The system also virtualized a pot of tea to accompany Yao Rong in reading.
As she read, it transformed the boring system space into a spring-like appearance, and soon afterwards, it turned spring into a drizzling autumn rain.
A forest of thousands of feet rose from the ground, and beasts and bees and butterflies appeared at the same time.
It was not until Yao Rong closed the last page of "Wishing Mirror" that the system "dinged" and wiped out all illusions.
[What a lively text] The system sighed, holding the teacup and taking a sip of tea, [I just couldn't help but consume some energy to transform the scenery I read between the lines]
Yao Rong agreed: "It is indeed very spiritual."
Five days later, at Changjin Publishing House, Xiao Jianguo closed his notebook and sighed in the same way: "In terms of skills, the author still has many shortcomings. But this natural spirituality is enough to make up for any shortcomings."
Lu Junhao has been promoted from an intern editor.
Xiao Jianguo was a senior editor of the publishing house. He founded the new newspaper "Children's Monthly", but he could not handle it alone, so Lu Junhao was transferred to help Xiao Jianguo.
Hearing Xiao Jianguo's words, Lu Junhao smiled and said, "I like this book too."
Xiao Jianguo pushed his glasses with his index finger and said, "This book is divided into six short stories. I plan to publish two short stories in each issue of the newspaper, for a total of three issues."
Lu Junhao quickly wrote it down.
Xiao Jianguo thought about it and added: "When you reply to this young writer, tell her that if she wants to write a medium or long story in the future, she can write the beginning and send it to me. If the story is suitable, she can continue to write while serializing it in the newspaper."
But soon, Xiao Jianguo changed his mind: "Forget it, I will reply to her in person."
"Fairy Tale Monthly" does not have a fixed contributor, and the articles in the first issue are almost all contributed by the editors of the publishing house.
If this young writer named Jiang Fanyue is well cultivated, he should be able to provide more manuscripts to "Fairy Tale Monthly".
So when Xiao Jianguo replied, in addition to talking about business, he also gave Jiang Fanyue a lot of suggestions for improvement as a reader.
Soon, Jiang Fanyue received a reply.
The moment he held the envelope, Jiang Fanyue knew that his manuscript had been accepted.
If the manuscript was rejected, the envelope containing the notebook would not be so thin.
Opening the envelope, Jiang Fanyue saw a remittance slip with a face value of 700 yuan.
Although she knew that if the manuscript was accepted, based on the number of words in "Wishing Mirror", her royalties would definitely not be much lower, but when she really saw the data, Jiang Fanyue's heart was still pounding.
Logically speaking, "Grandpa Big Tree" only received 20 yuan for a thousand words, and "Wishing Mirror" only received 700 yuan for 50,000 words. At first glance, it seems that the royalties per thousand words have been reduced a lot, but in fact, it is not the case.
The price of a short story will definitely be slightly higher than that of a medium or long story.
New authors usually get between 10 and 15 yuan per thousand words. The publisher offered 14 yuan per thousand words for Wishing Mirror, which was quite good.
At least Jiang Fanyue was satisfied.
She kept the remittance slip and unfolded the letter.
Looking at the revision suggestions in the letter, Jiang Fanyue felt like she had found a treasure. She was more surprised than the 700 yuan manuscript fee.
At the same time, Yao Rong was in the market.
The factory could mass-produce 40 toys every day, so every five days, Yao Rong would personally deliver the 200 toys to the market and hand them over to Zhao Zong, who would then transport them to other stores.
After handing over the goods, Zhao Zong said, "Sister Yao, two stores have contacted me and said they want to buy more goods to sell. Do you think we should hire more employees to make toys?"
Yao Rong asked about the situation carefully, and then heard Zhao Zong pat his chest and assured, "I still have some connections here. Even if the number of toys doubles, we can sell them all."
Yao Rong pursed her lips and smiled, "Of course I believe in your ability. Otherwise, I would not have chosen you to help."
Zhao Zong felt warm in his heart, but the next second, Yao Rong changed the subject, "But in the short term, the factory is not suitable for recruiting more people."
Zhao Zong looked puzzled.
He was smart and could do things, but because of his lack of experience, he could only see the current profits and lacked long-term considerations.
Yao Rong sat on the bench and taught him: "It has only been a month since the factory was established?"
"The old employees have not been fully integrated, and the factory's rules and regulations are still in the trial stage. If we rush, problems will easily arise later." "
So this year, we just need to develop step by step. Then in the spring of next year, I will rent a store and a warehouse in a department store to further promote our brand name, and then consider expanding staff and production."
"A tall building starts from the ground. If the foundation is not solid, even if we run the fastest at the beginning, it is easy to be surpassed by those who come later."
"So every step here cannot be rushed, and there is no need to rush. Think about it, in the short term, can other toy brands compete with us?"
Zhao Zong pondered.
Since he became a member of "Fairy Tale World", he has paid more and more attention to the toy market.
The products of "Fairy Tale World" may not be the most exquisite and the most durable, but they are definitely the cheapest among the same quality.
Firstly, because other toys are shipped from the south, the transportation costs and losses are included in the cost of the toys.
Secondly, because the materials used in "Fairy Tale World" are all local wood in Changjin City, the price is cheap, so the cost is naturally reduced.
Zhao Zong was completely convinced: "Sister Yao, you are right, I am too impatient."
He sighed in his heart, and he really has a lot to learn.
You can't be complacent because of a little achievement.
Yao Rong smiled: "It's a good thing that young people are energetic. If you have spare time, you can look for more helpers. When the factory expands next year, you will become the director of the marketing department. You can't be without anyone under you."
As a boss who started from scratch, he must have a deep understanding of the skills of painting cakes.
Especially in such a hard-working and simple era, painting cakes is even more successful.
For example, Zhao Zong, who was already very convinced by Yao Rong, was directly moved to tears and wanted to work overtime and work all year round to discover talents for the factory.
"I will definitely work hard to let the children in the city, no, let the children in the province play with toys from the fairy tale world!"
Yao Rong could only sigh that young people are full of passion.
After bidding farewell to Zhao Zong, Yao Rong returned home.
The weather was getting colder, but there was charcoal burning in the house, and Yao Rong took off her scarf as soon as she entered the house.
Jiang Fanyue was lying on the edge of the bed reading a book. When she saw Yao Rong coming back, she happily shook her legs and announced: "Mom, I got 700 yuan in royalties! A full 700 yuan!"
Yao Rong raised her eyebrows slightly: "You have become a little rich woman all of a sudden."
Jiang Fanyue looked like a miser: "I will save it well and not spend a penny."
"That's not right, I still have to spend money. I have almost finished reading the fairy tales that Taotao left for me. I want to go to the bookstore to buy some famous books at home and abroad."
From the letter that Editor Xiao wrote to her, Jiang Fanyue thought clearly about how to improve herself.
In addition to writing more, it is also important to read more classics.
Yao Rong laughed: "I'll pay for it."
It's a good thing for her daughter to be independent, but she would definitely support buying books to enrich herself.
Jiang Fanyue thought about it and hugged Yao Rong's arm: "Then you should pay for it for me, Mom."
She would use the money saved to buy new clothes for her mother.
***
Qi Yingyi and his wife are both from Changjin City. After graduating from A University, a top domestic university, they both accepted the invitation of Changjin City Machinery Factory to become technical consultants in order to take care of their elderly parents.
Both are in their thirties and have a daughter, Qi Yaning, who is in the fourth grade of elementary school.
However, their daughter Qi Yaning did not inherit her parents' learning ability at all. She was always at the bottom of the class, with her Chinese and math scores just over 100.
Qi Yingyi and his wife often quarreled over their daughter's education. They tried to find time to tutor their daughter, but to little avail.
Last night, their daughter brought back a math test paper with a score of 40. Qi Yingyi and his wife couldn't help but quarreled again. He didn't sleep well at night, so he woke up early, went out to buy breakfast for his wife and daughter, and went to the newsstand at the corner to buy newspapers.
The newsstand owner was an acquaintance of Qi Yingyi, and he smiled and greeted Qi Yingyi.
Qi Yingyi forced a smile on his face: "Give me a copy of Changjin Weekly."
The boss handed him the Changjin Weekly quickly and enthusiastically promoted it: "Advisor Qi, Changjin Publishing House has recently published a new newspaper called "Fairy Tale Monthly", which is very suitable for your daughter's age. Do you want to see if there is anything you need?"
The quality of newspapers produced by Changjin Publishing House is guaranteed, and Qi Yingyi also asked for a copy.
When he returned home, his daughter Qi Yaning had already woken up and was sitting in the living room in a daze.
Qi Yingyi said: "Yaning, breakfast is here, and Dad bought you a newspaper."
Qi Yaning didn't say anything, but just picked up the breakfast and ate it silently.
Twenty minutes later, Qi Yingyi and his wife went out to work together. Before leaving, he reminded her: "Yaning, you must complete the homework assigned by the teacher at home."
Qi Yaning silently unzipped her schoolbag, took out her homework, stared at a calculation problem for a long time, and tried to write something, but her mind was blank.
She put down her pen suddenly and wanted to go back to her room to sleep. When she passed the tea table, she caught a glimpse of the four big words "Fairy Tale Monthly".
Qi Yaning blinked, picked up the thin newspaper, and read it slowly.
Lions, grass, sun, moon...
The world depicted in the newspaper is full of innocence and imagination, which temporarily makes people far away from the suffering of reality.
Until Qi Yaning read a novel called "Wishing Mirror" -
the first protagonist of the Wishing Mirror is called Ayi.
He has been stupid since he was a child, but his father is known as the smartest scientist in the world.
Everyone who knows his life story looks at him with complicated eyes.
Ai went through untold hardships to break into the holy land of the elves and made a wish to the wishing mirror in exchange for a smart brain.
The wishing mirror made his dream come true.
He successfully surpassed his peers, got full marks in every subject, and was always the first in the grade.
The price of variable intelligence is the loss of his father's love.
His father no longer accompanies him to eat every day, walks with him after dinner, or takes time out of his busy schedule to go to the amusement park with him...
At the end of the story, Ayi returns to the wishing mirror and asks it to give him back the father who loves him.
"I want to be smart because I'm afraid that my father will be disappointed in me and that he doesn't like me."
"If the price of becoming smart is to lose his love for me, then all this will be meaningless to me."
"I'd rather remain a happy stupid kid."
After making a wish, Ayi hurried back home.
His father stood behind the door holding a cake he made himself, smiling and wishing him a happy birthday.
Ayi finally asked the question that had troubled him for a long time: "Dad, if I always fail in exams, will you still like me?"
The father seemed a little surprised that he would ask this, but soon, he gently squatted in front of Ayi: "There are many smart children in this world, but you are my child. I will always like Ayi."
...
Bean-sized tears flowed from her eyes and dripped onto the newspaper, blurring the words.
Qi Yaning held the newspaper and burst into tears.
She felt that she was Ayi in the story.
She had the most powerful parents in the world, but she performed very badly.
Every time her parents quarreled because of her grades, she was very sad, so she started to study harder.
But she has tried her best, why her grades haven't improved, why are mom and dad still quarreling.
Mom and dad must be very disappointed in her.
Have they ever thought that it would be better if their child was not her?
I don't know how long she cried, but suddenly there was a sound of a key being inserted into the lock at the door.
Then, Qi Yingyi and his wife came in with lunch packed from the cafeteria.
Hearing Qi Yaning crying, the couple was startled and ran to Qi Yaning and asked her if she was feeling unwell.
Under the couple's patient questioning, Qi Yaning sobbed and told them her thoughts incoherently.
The couple looked at each other with shame on their faces.
The mother wiped Qi Yaning's tears with a tissue. Seeing Qi Yaning crying, she couldn't help crying: "Yaning, I'm sorry, this is not your problem, it's mom and dad who did something wrong."
Qi Yingyi also reflected: "We always forget that you are a child with independent thinking, not an appendage of your parents. We tried so hard to make you become what we expected you to be, but we never considered your feelings..."
This was a rare opportunity for communication. Qi Yingyi poured Qi Yaning a glass of water and chatted with her for a long time.
Knowing that Qi Yaning had the courage to speak her mind to them after reading a novel in "Fairy Tale Monthly", Qi Yingyi said happily: "This newspaper is worth buying. We will buy one copy every month in the future, and then mom and dad will read it with you, okay?"
Qi Yaning pursed her lips and nodded shyly.
*
Kuang Zimo was born into a cadre family and suffers from congenital disabilities. When he walks normally, nothing can be seen, but as long as he walks faster or runs, his physical defects will be completely exposed.
A smart child often has a stronger self-esteem than his peers.
Kuang Zimo hates to see sympathy in other people's eyes, so he dislikes going out more and more.
When his peers were playing wildly outside, he always sat quietly by the second-floor window sill reading.
Although he was only ten years old, Kuang Zimo read a lot.
Every morning, the nanny would bring breakfast and newly bought newspapers to his room.
After breakfast, Kuang Zimo read the newspaper as usual.
"Fairy Tale Monthly?"
Kuang Zimo glanced at the name of the new newspaper, frowned, and put it aside.
However, by the afternoon, he had finished reading the other two newspapers.
Kuang Zimo was a little bored, leaning against the wall, his eyes empty, looking at the children running and laughing outside the yard.
"So noisy."
He snorted unhappily, hiding the envy in his eyes, and picked up the Fairy Tale Monthly that he had thrown aside.
"Forget it, I've already bought it, I might as well just read it to kill time."
Kuang Zimo cursed "boring" while reading, and then he turned to the end of "Fairy Tale Monthly". Kuang Zimo
didn't have much feeling about the first story of "Wishing Mirror".
But the second story -
the protagonist of the second story, Xiao Erduo, could no longer stand up because of an accident before he learned to walk.
His parents, grandparents, and grandparents all loved him very much, but Xiao Erduo still felt inferior because of his disability.
He wanted to see the colorful world outside with his own strength, instead of sitting in a wheelchair and being pushed by his family.
Then one day, Xiao Erduo met a flying elf with wings.
He looked at the elf with envy and said, "I really want to have wings like you."
But what he didn't know was that the elf had the magic of the wishing mirror, and his sincere words were fulfilled by the wishing mirror.
When Little Ear woke up from the bed again, he found that he had turned into a swallow.
He was terrified at first, but then he slowly became happy. He stumbled and fluttered his wings and soon learned to fly.
He passed through the overlapping branches and leaves, and through the crowded houses. The world appeared in front of him from another perspective.
He cheered for seeing the world.
But soon, Little Ear was hungry, and he wanted to catch insects to eat.
As a swallow who changed his job halfway, he struggled for a long time but couldn't find a single insect.
When he stood on a branch in despair, a bird, a stray cat under the tree, and a cicada on the tree all started to chat with him.
He told these little animals about his past, saying that he envied the little animals for living freely, while the little animals envied him for having a place to shelter from the wind and rain every day, and being well fed and clothed every day.
Just then, the sky suddenly became gloomy, and a flash of lightning broke through the sky. The stray cat was so scared that its hair stood up and ran to find a place to shelter from the rain.
Little Ear followed the bird and fled to a house.
But that family only had a bird's nest, which was barely enough for the bird to hide in.
In the end, Little Ear could only huddle under the eaves and listen to the thunderstorm all night.
When the rainstorm dispersed, he was found by the elves because he was hungry and cold.
The elf apologized to him and asked him if he wanted to remove the magic of the wishing mirror. Little Ear nodded seriously and told the elf: "I found that with wings, there will be other troubles. Every life is not easy."
“Instead of envying what others have, why not think of ways to make your life more exciting.”
The elf asked, “How do you want to live a more exciting life?”
Little Ear flapped his wings: “I want to learn how to build an airplane and fly into the blue sky in another way.”
…
“Naive!”
Kuang Zimo cursed harshly, but a hint of crying leaked out of his voice: “This child named Little Ear has such naive ideas!”
He turned the page to see if Little Ear learned to build an airplane, but found that this story…
was already over!!!
Ahhh, so there is no ending for Little Ear?
Kuang Zimo was mad: "What's wrong with this author? When writing fairy tales, shouldn't the ending be happier?"
"Little Ear is admitted to a prestigious university, successfully realizes his dream, and travels around the world on a plane he built... Shouldn't it be written like this!!!"
He flipped the newspaper back and forth, making sure that the address and contact information were left on the newspaper, and quickly took out a pen and paper from the drawer, intending to write a letter to the author to protest.
***
Most new newspapers have a print run of about 10,000 copies when they are first released.
But at Xiao Jianguo's strong suggestion, the first issue of "Fairy Tale Monthly" was printed in a total of 20,000 copies.
On the day the newspaper was sold, Lu Junhao was so nervous that he couldn't sit still.
Xiao Jianguo, who was standing next to him, was still leisurely brewing tea.
Lu Junhao approached: "Editor Xiao, aren't you nervous?"
If the sales volume on the first day is not good, the newspaper that Xiao Jianguo has put so much effort into will basically be declared dead.
"Why are you nervous? We only printed 20,000 copies. With the popularity of Changjin Weekly, Children's Monthly will definitely sell out."
Xiao Jianguo couldn't stand the impetuousness of young people, but he also understood Lu Junhao. He patted Lu Junhao on the shoulder and explained: "Besides, don't you think that newspapers issued on the market are almost all for people in government agencies to read?" "
If children want to read stories, they can only buy a whole storybook, but a storybook is not cheap. In comparison, a newspaper is affordable for most families."
Lu Junhao's emotions were soothed.
He asked, "Editor Xiao, then can you predict how many copies of "Fairy Tale Monthly" can be sold on the first day?"
Xiao Jianguo said, "About 5,000 copies."
As for the specific data, we can only wait.
This wait lasted until the afternoon when work was over.
"Old Xiao, you haven't gone home yet?" The editor-in-chief walked out of the office and saw Xiao Jianguo still sitting there. He said with a smile, "Aren't you very optimistic about this newspaper? Then what is there to worry about?"
Xiao Jianguo was about to speak when Lu Junhao's body directly knocked open the office door. An excited and loud voice came from the door to the end of the room: "Editor Xiao, it's done, it's done——"
The eyes of everyone in the publishing house were focused on Lu Junhao.
Lu Junhao panted: "On the first day, a total of 16,000 copies of "Fairy Tale Monthly" were sold!"
"The newsstand asked us to print more. They said that in the afternoon, there were parents who went to the newsstand to buy this newspaper!"
The editors of the publishing house were shocked.
They all knew that "Fairy Tale Monthly" was sold in conjunction with the popularity of "Chang Jin Weekly".
With the size of "
Chang Jin Weekly", the performance of "Fairy Tale Monthly" would definitely not be bad. But Lu Junhao's words clearly meant that many people did not buy "Fairy Tale Monthly" for "Chang Jin Weekly", but for "Fairy Tale Monthly".
This kind of thing usually happens in newspapers with a fixed readership, but now it happened in a new newspaper. Is this reasonable?
Reasonable!
It is too reasonable!
When the postman delivered boxes of readers' letters, Xiao Jianguo was sure that the newspaper "Children's Monthly" was much more popular than he expected when he saw the immature handwriting on the letters, which was obviously written by children.
Lu Junhao classified all the readers' letters and finally counted them. He found that one-third of the readers' letters were written to Jiang Fanyue.