Chapter 101 Double Happiness
"Gao Jialin, your telegram!" The postman rode his bicycle through the campus and delivered the telegram to Gao Jialin.
"Jialin, is there something wrong at home?" Ma Chuanjie asked worriedly. Now it costs 13.5 cents to send a telegram per word. Who would be willing to spend so much money if it is not urgent? Gao Jialin thought so too. He took the telegram and opened it quickly. He was relieved after just a glance. "It's not from home. It's from the publishing house in Japan. My book starts selling today. The sales are pretty good. They are here to tell me the good news."
It is very inconvenient to make international calls nowadays, so Tokuma Shoten simply used a telegram to inform Gao Jialin of the good news. This method is the fastest. As for the small amount of money for sending the telegram, Tokuma Shoten doesn't care at all.
They have already earned hundreds of millions of yen from this book, and what is more valuable is that it has expanded the influence of Tokuma Shoten. Today, their stock has been soaring, and with the popularity of "Showa American Tale" in the future, it will continue to rise. Several major shareholders are very happy.
"Awesome!" The students who heard it all gave thumbs up.
"How many were sold? How much royalties did you get? The Japs are so rich, they must have paid a lot, right?" Ma Chuanjie asked enviously.
"The exact figures haven't come out yet, but Tokuma Shoten is already preparing to reprint the books. The royalties are indeed not small, but unfortunately I can't get foreign currency, so they can only convert it into RMB for me." Gao Jialin did not reveal his exact income as the figure was a bit high so as not to arouse jealousy.
The first print run of 300,000 copies brought in 63 million yen in royalties. Now, an additional print run of 500,000 copies brings in another 105 million yen. Even if we deduct the money given to the translator, Gao Jialin will still get 120 million yen. Converted into RMB at the official exchange rate, it's more than one million. It's really scary to say the least.
Seeing him say that, even though Ma Chuanjie was still curious, he was too embarrassed to continue asking, "What a pity! If only we could get Japanese yen, we could just stand outside the bank and exchange it for RMB that is several times the official exchange rate. You're really losing out."
The current official exchange rate of the US dollar to the RMB is around 3.45, but on the black market, it takes six or seven RMB to exchange for one US dollar, and sometimes it even exceeds ten to one.
The Japanese yen is also a popular international currency, and its exchange rate is only slightly lower than that of the US dollar. It is indeed a disadvantage to exchange it according to the official exchange rate.
However, Gao Jialin did not take this loss seriously. "Private exchange is too troublesome. If someone spots me, I might even lose my life. The foreign exchange department helps me to exchange, which saves me the trouble."
"What else does the telegram say?" asked another roommate, Yang Zhengtai. He just glanced at it and saw that there were quite a few words on it.
"He also asked me if I had time and whether I could go to Japan to hold a book signing event."
"Go ahead! Hurry up and ask for leave from school. Teacher Zhang will definitely approve it." The classmates' eyes were red with envy. This was going abroad, something they couldn't even imagine. And Gao Jialin was going abroad for the second time in just a few months.
"Let's wait until the summer vacation. I missed a lot of classes this semester and need to make up for it." Gao Jialin shook his head. Now that he can't have close contact with Japanese JK, OL, celebrities, and teachers, the appeal of going to Japan is naturally greatly reduced.
"When will your book be released in China? How come it has already started selling in Japan, but we haven't heard any news here?" Ma Chuanjie asked. They had not read Gao Jialin's manuscript, but had only heard the general story and were curious about the details.
"The publishing house is still reviewing it, and because a lot of notes need to be added, the process is slower," Gao Jialin explained.
The book "Showa American Story" uses a lot of memes, and how to explain these memes clearly to readers has become a very headache. The editors of the publishing house have lost a lot of hair these days.
Gao Jialin did not plan to go to Japan immediately, but he still had to report, so after chatting for a while, he knocked on Zhang Changqing's office door with the telegram. As soon as he entered, he saw Zhang Changqing's face full of joy.
"Jialin, I have good news for you. The list of winners of the first People's Literature Award has been announced. You have won the award together with 13 other works, including Wei Wei's "East", Gu Hua's "Furong Town", Liu Xinwu's "Bell and Drum Tower", Ke Yunlu's "New Star", and Wang Meng's "Long Live Youth". You are now on par with these famous writers."
"I'm just lucky. My literary attainments cannot be compared with those of these literary predecessors," Gao Jialin said modestly.
"Well, you should have this mentality. You are so young and yet you can win awards together with them. If you are not humble, you will easily be labeled as arrogant, which will be very detrimental to your future." Zhang Changqing was very pleased. If Gao Jialin was only suitable to be a writer, these would not be a problem, but his expectations of Gao Jialin were much more than that, so it was very important to behave well at this time.
Fortunately, since they met, Gao Jialin has never disappointed him in this regard, and his performance just now also proved this.
"It's just an internal notice now and it hasn't been announced to the public. I just received the call. They also asked you to go to Beijing next weekend to receive the award. You should be prepared when you go back later. I will help you with the train ticket. I will at least get you a hard sleeper this time." Zhang Changqing said happily. If the organizer hadn't repeatedly emphasized the need for confidentiality, he would have gone to the school radio station to announce the good news to all the teachers and students in the school.
"I have just studied the list, and six of the works have won the Mao Dun Literature Prize. Yours has a great chance of winning as well. The next award ceremony should be in 1988, just in time for your graduation. It would be so glorious if you could present this gift to your alma mater then." Zhang Changqing couldn't stop smiling when he thought of this scene.
The Mao Dun Literature Prize is the highest award in the domestic literary world. If Gao Jialin can win it, the Chinese Department of Pujiang College will become famous overnight. Looking at the whole country, which other colleges can cultivate a Mao Dun Literature Prize winner before the students graduate? Even Peking University can't do it! Such an honor will belong to Pujiang College for a long time in the future.
"Teacher, I have good news. Tokuma Shoten in Japan sent a telegram saying that my novel has achieved good sales and has the potential to become the best-selling work in the Japanese book market this year." It was not until this time that Gao Jialin found an opportunity to take out the telegram.
"Oh, this is a double blessing!" Zhang Changqing quickly took it and glanced at it, then stood up immediately, "Let's go and tell the department head and the principal the good news! Such good news must be let them know as soon as possible."
(End of this chapter)
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