Ni Fu took a bag into the Ming Pao building. The Ming Pao employees who met along the way who did not have New Year's Day holidays took the initiative to greet him.
Compared to the fat head and big ears after Ri, Ni Fu's figure was much better at this time, and he could only be considered a bit fat. When he came to Hong Kong, he was a super thin man and wrote a toad belly for many years.
Ni Fu came directly to Jin Yong's office. Jin Yong's assistant saw that it was Ni Fu and couldn't stop him, so he had to let him in.
After Ni Fu threw the manuscript of "Wish Monkey God" in the second half of the Wesley series "Chain" on the table, Jin Yong took off his glasses and said with a smile: "Brother Yiming, why are you here? I'll just ask someone to go to your house to collect the manuscript."
The people in the Ni family spoke very straightforwardly, or very aggressively, whether it was Ni Fu, Yi Shu or Ni Zhen. Ni Fu did not give Jin Yong any face at this time, and said straight to the point: "I want to increase the royalties, otherwise I really can't continue writing. Also, don't fool me with the trick of my younger sister, I won't eat that trick."
The reason why Ni Fu made a fortune by writing was because of Jin Yong's support, and the relationship between the two was very close later. However, even the best relationship made Jin Yong pay for decades, he would be dissatisfied.
Jin Yong was not good at speaking, and he was silent for a while before saying, "Didn't you just raised your royalties last year?"
Ni Fu slapped a "Sing Tao Ri" on Jin Yong's desk and said, "Look at what you said above? Kang Jianfei's new book manuscript is still 500 yuan, which is the first person to pay for a manuscript for a Hong Kong writer today. I said that Ni Fu is outdated!"
Jin Yong sighed and asked, "How much do you want?"
Ni Fu said angrily: "At least 501 yuan for a thousand words. I have written novels for decades, but I am not as good as a junior. Isn't this a joke?"
Hong Kong's economy has developed rapidly in the past two years, with prices and wages rising continuously. It is logical that it is time to add royalties to the writers. Jin Yong said: "A thousand words are too much. How about 400 yuan for a thousand words?"
Ni Fu said with a red neck: "No! I always check it out, what I care about is not the royalty, but reputation! Do you know how many people made fun of me last year? I can't swallow that breath."
Ni Fu really has reason to be angry. His Wesley series "Hair" was named the most popular novel for young people in Hong Kong the year before yesterday. The Wesley single-book released last year was sold for a special sale, and was even more popular by Huang Yulang to become the number one person in the literary world with a royalty of 500 yuan for a thousand words. Just when Ni Fu was in the limelight, he knew where Kang Jianfei appeared. With an unheard of time-traveling martial arts "The Legend of Qin", he directly snatched his popularity, and he also surpassed him in terms of royalties.
Ni Fu was so depressed that he wanted to vomit blood. He privately said many strange things about Kang Jianfei, and even expressed his disdain for "The Legend of Qin" in front of the reporter.
Jin Yong shook his head with great certainty and said, "Thousand words are 400 yuan. No more."
Looking at Jin Yong's calm and determined expression, Ni Fu had the urge to roll up his sleeves and beat him up. But his 20-year-old friend, Ni Fu knew how difficult it was to ask Jin Yong to add the royalties. He could only say helplessly: "Is this possible? Give me a royal fee of 400 thousand words, and it is said to be 550 thousand words."
Jin Yong didn't expect Ni Fu to come up with such an idea of ​​slapping the swelling face and said speechlessly: "The extra 150 yuan manuscript fee for a thousand words is 150 yuan. But it will be handed over to zhèngfu for a lot of manuscript taxes."
Ni Fu insisted on his own idea and said: "If the tax collectors come, explain the situation to them. If it really doesn't work, I will bear the manuscript tax myself."
This is called dying about face and suffering.
When it comes to the matter of manuscript remuneration, Jin Yong, who was silly speaking, suddenly became erotic and shook his head and said, "It's still not possible. If I raise you such a high manuscript remuneration, will the manuscript remuneration of other authors increase? The authors of "Ming Pao Weekly", "Ming Pao Monthly", and "Ming Pao Evening News" also increase their manuscript remuneration. Is it possible that I will lose a lot of money if they all increase."
"You...you argue, "Oriental Ri Daily" only gave Kang Jianfei a super high royalty. Why can't I do it!" Ni Fu didn't expect that he couldn't even pay for money, and he suddenly felt the urge to vomit three liters of blood in his heart.
"Brother Yiming, don't be anxious, please say something." Jin Yong saw Ni Fu's appearance of being about to go wild, and quickly spoke out to comfort him.
At that time, Jin Yong and Ni Fu's sister Yishu also had a good relationship, and Yishu's articles were also sales guaranteed for Ming Pao. However, because Jin Yong repeatedly rejected Yishu's request to increase the royalties, Yishu was so angry that he left Ming Pao directly, which caused much more losses than Yishu asked for the increase in royalties.
Ni Fu said: "What do you mean to me not be anxious? Look at what Ming Pao has been suppressed by Oriental Ri Daily this year? I can just fight with Oriental Ri Daily for me."
Jin Yong said: "A newspaper needs to be operated for a long time. Those hype methods can only bring temporary sales, and I don't want to do it."
Ni Fu really wants to say: I don’t want your sister. If it weren’t for the speculation of money, Ming Pao would have seen a sharp increase in sales that year and become one of the three major newspapers in Hong Kong now?
Seeing Jin Yong like this, Ni Fu knew that he would not want to increase the royalties again today, so he could only express his dissatisfaction with silence.
The two of them stared at each other for a while and then Jin Yong said, "Let's do this, the royalty will increase you by 410 yuan in a thousand words, and you will definitely not increase any more."
Ni Fu sighed and said, "410 is 410."
Seeing that Ni Fu was dealt with, Jin Yong finally showed a smile on his face and asked, "Have you read the "Oriental Ri Daily" these two days?"
Ni Fu said: "It's the New Year's Day holiday now, and many newspapers and magazines have asked me to make an appointment with articles on the New Year's special articles. I provide 10 articles for the publications every day. How can I read the newspaper?" Ni Fu said to Yang Yang's "Sing Tao Ri" that he brought, "The articles that compare me with Kang Jianfei are still shown to me by my son."
Jin Yong took out two copies of "Oriental Ri" from the drawer and handed it to Ni Fu and said, "Kang Jianfei's new novel is serialized, you can take a look first."
Today is January 2, 1981, and "The Ethereal Journey" has been serialized in "Oriental Ri" for two days.
Ni Fu didn't say a word, and looked straight in Jin Yong's office, looking through the newspaper.
At first, Ni Fu was quite disdainful of "The Journey of Ethereal", thinking that Kang Jianfei wanted to play the trick of traveling through history, and even wanted to mock him for his lack of skills. But soon he discovered something was wrong, because the novel's pen turned from Earth to Mars, and the cultivator battle between Fu Chongbi and Hua Meiniang on Mars was much more colorful than that of the current martial arts novel. Then the plot changed again, and he actually arrived at a heavenly star with an ancient Chinese historical environment.
After reading the two-day serial content, Ni Fu couldn't help but sweat and said nervously: "If this kind of cultivation novel becomes popular, martial arts and science fiction adventure novels will be miserable!"
"Yes." Jin Yong nodded.
As senior top novelists, Jin Yong and Ni Fu saw far more than others after watching "The Journey of Ethereal".
Ordinary readers will only find it novel and interesting after reading "The Journey of Ethereal". But after reading it, Jin Yong and the others saw the huge threat to martial arts and science fiction adventure novels.
In terms of fighting scenes, cultivation novels often move mountains and fill the seas, and fully exaggerate the internal skills of martial arts novels; in terms of plot development, cultivation novels take planets as scenes, incorporate various elements into them, and can open copies at will, which is enough to steal the limelight of science fiction adventure novels.
If this kind of cultivation novel becomes popular, then martial arts novels represented by Jin Yong and science fiction adventure novels represented by Ni Fu will face the danger of readers' loss.
Ni Fu asked: "How is the Oriental Ri newspaper selling?"
Jin Yong said: "The sales of Oriental Ri newspaper fell a bit a while ago, but Kang Jianfei's new book, which has been promoted for a long time, has been released, and yesterday's sales have returned to more than 150,000 copies. As for today's sales, it is estimated that it will increase a lot."
…………
…………
January 3ri, 1981.
Wu Chenggang deliberately wandered around the streets and paid attention to the bookstores and newsstands on the roadside from time to time. Although he did not sign "The Journey of Ethereal", he wrote it after all, and he modified the first tens of thousands of words, so Wu Chenggang was particularly concerned about the readers of this novel.
Wu Chenggang walked to a bookstore and asked, "Boss, "Oriental Ri"..."
Before he could finish his words, the boss interrupted: "Today's "Oriental Ri" is sold out, come again tomorrow."
Wu Chenggang asked: "Is the Oriental Ri newspaper very good to sell?"
The boss said: "Why is it hard to sell? Originally, after the end of "Xu Qin Ji", fewer people bought "Oriental Ri" newspapers, but "The Journey of Ethereal" has been published in a series. Buying newspapers these days is like robbery.
Wu Chenggang pretended to ask, " "The Journey of Ethereal" is so good?"
The boss smiled and said, "It's not that I'm talking big. After selling newspapers for so many years, "The Journey of Ethereal" is simply amazing. Only Kang Jianfei can write such novels. How can anyone else have such magical imagination?"
Wu Chenggang was a little disappointed. The boss praised the creativity of "The Ethereal Journey" from beginning to end, and did not mention the literary talent of the novel at all.
When he walked out of the book and newspaper store, Wu Chenggang couldn't help laughing. What was he competing with his cousin? And this novel was originally Kang Jianfei's creativity.
Wu Cheng had just arrived at the bus station and waited for a while and finally waited for the bus and was about to take the bus home.
There were a lot of people in the car, and Wu Chenggang could only squeeze into the crowd and pull the bar, but he heard someone beside him saying, "Hey, Abu, why haven't you finished watching it yet? Let me see it."
"Wait a minute, I'll finish reading the second time."
"What? You actually watched it for the second time. I said why did you watch it for so long!"
"It's going to be fine right away, who told you not to buy a newspaper yourself?"
"Where can I buy it, it's sold out long ago."
"You won't subscribe?"
"I'd booked if I knew it."
“…”
Wu Chenggang turned his head and saw two young men grabbing a copy of "Oriental Ri". Needless to say, the two must be watching "The Ethereal Journey".
The bus passed by a cinema. The most conspicuous poster at the entrance of the theater was "Sister Royal". Although the ticket buying team at the entrance of the ticket hall was not as terrifying as a few days ago, they still had to queue for two or three minutes to buy tickets.
Chapter completed!