Ni Frame entered the "Ming Pao" building with a bag, and the "Ming Pao" employees who did not take the New Year's Day holiday met along the way took the initiative to greet him with a happy holiday.

Compared with the appearance of the fat head and big ears after rì, Ni Frame's figure at this time is much better, and he can only be regarded as a little fat. When he first came to Hong Kong, he was a super thin man, writing books for many years, and writing toad belly as a perennial student.

Ni Frame came directly to Jin Yong's office, and Jin Yong's assistant couldn't stop him when he saw that it was Ni Frame, so he had to let him in.

Waiting for Ni Frame to slam the manuscript of the second half of Wesley's series "Chain" "Wish Monkey God" on the table, Jin Yong took off his glasses and smiled: "Brother Yiming, why are you here?" I'll just ask someone to come to your house to pick up the manuscript. ”

The people of the Ni family speak very straight, or very impulsive, whether it is Ni Frame, Yishu or Ni Zhen. Ni Frame didn't give Jin Yong face at all, and said straight to the point: "I want to increase my salary, otherwise I really won't be able to write." Also, don't fool me with the trick of the little sister, I don't eat that set. ”

The reason why Ni Frame was able to make a fortune by writing was entirely because of Jin Yong's support, and the relationship between the two was also very close after that. No matter how good the relationship is, Jin Yong has been like a press fee for decades, so he has to be dissatisfied.

Jin Yong was not good at words, and was silent for a while before saying, "Didn't you get a salary increase last year?" ”

Ni Frame slapped a piece of "Sing Tao Rì Daily" on Jin Yong's desk and said, "Look at what it says? Kang Jianfei's new book remuneration is still 500 yuan per thousand words, and he is the first person in Hong Kong to be paid for his manuscript. ”

Jin Yong sighed and asked, "Then how much do you want?" ”

Ni Frame said angrily: "At least 501 yuan for 1,000 words." I've been writing novels for decades, and I'm not as good as a junior, isn't it a joke? ”

In the past two years, Hong Kong's economy has developed rapidly, and prices and wages have risen continuously. Jin Yong said: "500 words in a thousand words is too much. How about 400 yuan for 1,000 words? ”

Ni Quan blushed his neck and said, "No! Lao Cha, what I care about is not the manuscript fee, but the reputation! Do you know how many people made fun of me last year? I couldn't swallow that breath. ”

Ni Frame does have reason to be angry, his Wesley series "Hair" was rated as the most popular novel among Hong Kong young people the year before last, and the Wesley single book released last year was a big hit, and he was the first person in the literary world to be fired by Huang Yulang into a 1,000-word remuneration of 500 yuan. Just when Ni Frame was in the limelight, the ghost knew where Kang Jianfei came from, with an unheard of martial arts "Xun Qin Ji". directly stole his limelight, and also overpowered him in terms of manuscript fees.

Ni Huan was so depressed that he wanted to vomit blood, and said a lot of strange things about Kang Jianfei in private, and even in front of reporters, he also expressed his disdain for "Xun Qin".

Jin Yong shook his head very affirmatively and said, "400 yuan for 1,000 words." Couldn't be more. ”

Looking at Jin Yong's calm and resolute expression, Ni Frame had the urge to roll up his sleeves and beat him up. But the two have been friends for 20 years, Ni Frame knows how difficult it is to get Jin Yong to increase the manuscript fee, so he can only say helplessly: "Then this will not work, you give me a remuneration of 400 yuan for 1,000 words, and it is 550 yuan for 1,000 words to the outside world." ”

Jin Yong didn't expect Ni Frame to come up with such an idea of slapping a swollen face and becoming fat, and said speechlessly: "The extra thousand words are 150 yuan for the manuscript." But it has to be handed over to zhèngfǔ a lot of manuscript taxes. ”

Ni Frame insisted on his own idea and said: "The tax collector came to explain the situation to them, that is, if it really doesn't work, I will bear the manuscript tax myself." ”

This is called death to face and to suffer sin.

When it comes to the matter of remuneration, the clumsy Jin Yong suddenly became articulate. Shaking his head and saying: "It's still not good, if I give you such a high salary, should the other authors' salaries be raised?" The authors of "Ming Pao Weekly", "Ming Pao Monthly", and "Ming Pao Evening News", will their remuneration also increase? There's no way I'm going to tell them you're getting paid for your work. If it goes up, I'll lose a lot. ”

"You...... Sophistry, "Oriental Rì Daily" only gave Kang Jianfei a super high remuneration. I can't do anything about it! Ni Quan didn't expect that he couldn't post money, and he suddenly had an urge to vomit three liters of blood in his heart.

"Brother Yiming, don't worry, you have something to say." Jin Yong saw that Ni Frame looked like he was about to go berserk, and hurriedly reassured.

At the beginning, Jin Yong also had a good relationship with Ni Frame's sister Yishu, and Yishu's article was also a sales guarantee for "Ming Pao". But because Jin Yong repeatedly rejected Yishu's request to increase the manuscript fee, Yishu was so angry that he left "Ming Pao" directly after the stiffness, and the loss caused was far greater than the increase in the manuscript fee that Yishu requested.

Ni Frame said: "What do you mean I don't worry? You see what "Ming Pao" has been pressed into by "Oriental Rì Daily" in the past year, and I can increase my remuneration to fight with "Oriental Rì Daily". ”

Jin Yong said: "A newspaper has to operate for a long time, and those hype methods can only bring temporary sales, and I disdain it." ”

Ni Quan wanted to say: Disdain your sister, if it weren't for the hype of the pen, "Ming Pao" would have soared in sales that year and become one of the three major newspapers in Hong Kong now?

Seeing Jin Yong like that, Ni Quan said that he didn't want to increase the manuscript fee today, and could only express his dissatisfaction in silence.

The two stared at each other and held their breath for a while, and Jin Yong said: "That's it, the manuscript fee will increase to 410 yuan for you in 1,000 words, and it must not rise again." ”

Ni Frame sighed: "410 is 410." ”

Seeing that Ni Frame was done, Jin Yong finally showed a smile on his face and asked, "Have you read the "Oriental Rì Daily" in the past two days? ”

Ni Frame said: "It's the New Year's Day holiday, and many newspapers and magazines have asked me to write special articles for the New Year, and I provide 10 manuscripts for publications every day, so how can I have time to read newspapers?" Ni Frame raised the "Sing Tao Rì Daily" he brought and said, "The article comparing me with Kang Jianfei on this article was still shown to me by my son." ”

Jin Yong took out two copies of "Oriental Rì Daily" from the drawer, handed them to Ni Frame, and said, "Kang Jianfei's new novel has been serialized, you can take a look first." ”

Today is January 2, 1981, and "Ethereal Journey" has been serialized in the "Oriental Rì Daily" for two days.

Ni Frame didn't say a word, and looked directly at the newspaper in Jin Yong's office.

At first, Ni Huan was quite disdainful of "Ethereal Journey", thinking that Kang Jianfei was going to play that trick through history again, and even wanted to laugh at his poor donkey skills. But soon he found out that something was wrong, because the novel went from the earth to Mars in one turn, and the cultivator fighting method between Fu Chongbi and Hua Meiniang on Mars was far better than the current martial arts novel. Then the plot took another turn, and it actually arrived at a Heavenly Court Star with an ancient Chinese historical environment.

After reading the two-day serial, Ni Frame couldn't help but sweat, and said nervously: "If this kind of Xiuzhen 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 Frame have seen far more than others after watching "Ethereal Journey".

Ordinary readers will only find it novel and beautiful after reading "Ethereal Journey". But after Jin Yong and the others read it, they saw the huge threat of Xiuzhen novels to martial arts and science fiction adventure novels.

In terms of fight scenes. Xiuzhen novels often move mountains and reclaim the sea, and complete the internal strength of martial arts novels; In terms of plot development, Xiuzhen's novel uses the planet as the scene, integrating various different elements into it, and you can open a copy at will. Enough to steal the limelight from science fiction adventure novels.

If this kind of Xiuzhen novel becomes popular, then the martial arts novels represented by Jin Yong and the science fiction adventure novels represented by Ni Box are in danger of losing readers.

Ni Box asked, "How is the Oriental Rì Newspaper selling?" ”

Jin Yong said: "The sales of "Oriental Rì Daily" fell a little some time ago, but Kang Jianfei's new book, which has been promoted for a long time, was serialized, and yesterday's sales returned to more than 150,000 copies. As for today's sales, it is estimated that it will rise a lot. ”

…………

…………

January 3, 1981.

Wu Chenggang deliberately wandered around the streets. Keep an eye out for roadside newsshops and newsstands from time to time. Although he did not sign "Ethereal Journey", after all, he wrote it, and the first tens of thousands of words were also revised by him, so Wu Chenggang was particularly concerned about the readers' feedback of this novel.

Wu Chenggang walked to a newspaper store. Asked: "Boss, ...... of Oriental Rì Daily"

The boss didn't wait for him to finish, he had already interrupted: "Today's "Oriental Rì Newspaper" is sold out, let's come back tomorrow." ”

Wu Chenggang asked: "Is Oriental Rì Newspaper very good?" ”

The boss said, "Why is it not easy to sell?" Originally, after the end of "Xun Qin". There were fewer people who bought "Oriental Rì Newspaper", but "Ethereal Journey" was serialized. Buying newspapers these days is like robbery.

Wu Chenggang pretended to ask: ""Ethereal Journey" is really so good-looking? ”

The boss smiled: "It's not that I'm talking big, after selling newspapers for so many years, "Ethereal Journey" is simply amazing." This kind of novel can only be written by Kang Jianfei, how can other people have such magical imagination? ”

Wu Chenggang was a little disappointed, and the boss was praising the creativity of "Ethereal Journey" from beginning to end, without mentioning the literary brilliance of the novel at all.

Walking out of the bookstore, Wu Chenggang couldn't help laughing, what was he fighting with his cousin? And this novel was originally Kang Jianfei's idea.

Wu Cheng just came to the bus stop, waited for a while and finally waited for the bus, ready 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 horizontal bar, but he heard someone next to him saying, "Hey, Abu, why haven't you finished reading it yet?" Show me. ”

"Wait, I'll read it a second time."

"What? You actually watched it a second time, I said how did it take so long! ”

"Right away, who told you not to buy a newspaper yourself."

"Where you can buy it, it will be sold out a long time ago."

"You won't subscribe to the newspaper, will you?"

"I knew that I had already booked it."

“……”

Wu Chenggang tilted his head to look, but saw two young people grabbing a copy of the "Oriental Rì Daily". Needless to say, those two must be watching "Ethereal Journey".

The bus passed by a movie theater, and the most conspicuous poster at the entrance of the theater was "Royal Sister". Although the ticket queue at the entrance of the ticket hall is not as terrifying as a few days ago, you still have to queue for two or three minutes to buy tickets.

Wu Chenggang suddenly felt strongly that his cousin had such a great influence in Hong Kong!