Turn right 100 meters outside the back entrance of the school, and it is a pedestrian street with a bad reputation in the city.

On both sides of the street, a variety of shops hang neon signs. From snacks such as lamb skewers, barbecue, egg scones, and sugar gourds, to casual drink shops such as coffee shops, bubble tea shops, and tea houses.

And somewhere on this street, there is a small bar, the owner of the name Siyuan, to take drinking water and think of the source, this name is often jokingly called "forcibly elegant" by several old customers.

Li Xiang often comes to Siyuan Bar on weekdays to sit and observe the pedestrians coming and going outside the transparent window, or the every move of the guests in the bar, and it is an afternoon to sit.

It's a clean bar, without the nightclub or discotheque vibe of some bars. The music is also relatively soothing and moody, and the overall atmosphere is quiet, so it is also more suitable for meeting people or ordering a few drinks with friends on Saturdays and Sundays.

Li Xiang pushed the door in, sat in front of the bar, and said to the bartender:

"Mr. Tony, have a glass of gold fiss."

The bartender of Siyuan Bar is a handsome young guy about twenty-seven or eight years old, in order to improve his "B style", so he has an English name Tony, the name seems to be a bit rotten, but according to himself, he gave himself this "stage name" at the beginning, because of the barber Tony's stalk, so that many young people can smile when they hear this name, and suddenly shorten the distance between him and the guests.

Tony put down the glass he was wiping and pulled out a few jars.

The bartender was making a cocktail while chatting with Li Xiang:

"Coming back?"

"Well, I went home for the Spring Festival before, and now that the new semester has started, it is natural to come. I made an appointment to come here today, and I'll go to the booth there in a moment. ”

"Well, there aren't many guests right now, so you can sit by yourself."

With the right proportions of gin, syrup, lemon juice and lime juice plus soda, you get a classic gin fizzle. Some people may feel that drinking like this is like drinking a drink. However, Li Xiang himself doesn't like spirits very much, and feels that the taste of spirits is a little too exciting. If you want to drink it, it is usually mixed with water or some other ingredients to make a cocktail.

Of course, if you have to drink it for entertainment or for some reason, although you don't like spirits, Li Xiang's amount of alcohol is still okay.

In the world of halberds, Li Xiang also occasionally drank a little, and even tried to learn bartending for a while for his little hobby. Jin Fei Shi is one of his favorite "alcoholic beverages". Because of this, he is also often joked about by some friends in good faith. Say he's a kid with the taste buds.

The purpose of his visit to this bar today is not to have fun or to observe passers-by and try to imitate their movements and behaviors. Instead, he had previously discussed with people in Japan about the copyright dispute over the Sword Art Online Saber chapter, which is now published on the Internet.

According to Li Xiang's understanding of island people, many island people don't drink very well, but they inexplicably like to drink. Before the negotiation, it would be great if you could get the other party half-drunk.

With such an abacus, Li Xiang made an appointment here where the two sides met.

"By the way, can you please help me mix two glasses of water cut whiskey in a moment?"

The bartender stopped pouring soda in his hand and rolled his eyes at Li Xiang:

"You shouldn't be sincere in making things difficult for me."

Whisky is made from barley and other grains, aged in oak barrels for many years, and then blended into a strong distilled spirit at around 43 degrees. The alcohol content of 43 degrees is already a bit too stimulating for many non-heavy alcohol lovers. Adding the right amount of water can achieve the purpose of making the whisky soft and better in the mouth.

The so-called water-cut whisky is actually whiskey mixed with water to drink. The reason why the bartender said that Li wanted to make things difficult for him is because generally in bars, this kind of "water" is not to add water directly to the wine, but to add ice cubes to the glass, and use a long bar spoon to pluck and rotate the ice cubes to lower the temperature of the wine glass, pour out the melted water, but keep the ice cubes still in the wine glass. After that, add the whiskey to the cooled glass, continue to swirl the ice cubes in the glass, and dilute the whiskey with the water produced by the melting of the ice cubes until the surface of the glass frosts.

The process of melting and diluting the ice cubes often lasts more than 10 minutes, don't look at it is just holding a bar spoon for ten minutes, no iron fist that has been exercised will never be able to take it down, even if it is an iron fist, the bartender's wrist is absolutely sour after a glass.

"Come on, it's not that you don't make money, just one word, okay?"

“OK，OK。 The guest is the biggest, I tune, I tune it. ”

Tony had to succumb to Li Xiang's obscenity.

After Li Xiang slowly drank the cup of Jin Fei Shi he ordered, Junichi Watanabe, who had come from the island country, pushed the door and entered.

After making a gesture to the bartender and signaling that the other party could start making watercut whiskey, Li Xiang got up to greet him and said in fluent and mellow Japanese:

"Hello sir, I'm Li Xiang. Are you Mr. Watanabe? ”

"Eh, yes. I'm Junichi Watanabe, hello Mr. Lee. ”

"Standing here is not an option, Mr. Watanabe, please come with me."

Li Xiang led the other party into a booth.

Generally speaking, at the beginning of the meeting, the two sides should talk about issues that are not very important in order to bring them closer. According to this convention, Li Xiang first introduced himself to Watanabe.

"I didn't expect Mr. Li to be just a college student now, you must know that our boss has always felt that Mr. Li's tone in the email is very mature and rational, so we have always felt that Mr. Li should be at least forty years old now, and after we really met, I realized that Mr. Li is still so young."

Watanabe said with a smile.

"Is my tone in the email really that old-fashioned? Looks like I'm going to pay attention to it later. ”

Li Xiang also smiled.

"Actually, it's not just about this aspect, we always felt that Mr. Li Xiang should be the main producer of that season's animation, and an animation production supervisor who has a good relationship with our company told us that with the narrative rhythm and storyboard level of this animation, the supervisor can't get it without twenty or thirty years of experience. So we really thought at the time, Mr. Li, that you must be quite old. ”

After a few minutes of small talk, Watanabe felt that the time was right, and tentatively tried to explore the situation.

He needed to try to understand exactly where the production team for the animation was.

This anime is not the point. The real thing is whether the other party's production team has the ability to consistently produce the same kind of work as before. And if so, are there any know-how or special methods and techniques?

Dengeki Bunko has the largest number of new writers in the island country light library, and in recent years, it has also been working on adapting the light in the library into anime and manga to increase its influence and sales.

It is often said why light animation has become so popular in recent years? It's because of the library and the magazine that they have money! However, the cost of producing animation is a large amount, and the specific figure may vary depending on the animation production cycle, the complexity of the scene, etc., but generally speaking, the cost of animation production at the same time is in the same order of magnitude as that of a movie.

After analyzing the video uploaded by Li Xiang to Station B, the island country believes that from the completely unified style before and after the video and the quality of the painting that has hardly changed at all. It is likely that the other party has mastered the technology of using computer software to directly model and create 2D flat animation.

Generally speaking, when a painter paints scenes and characters, because they are working on people, there will eventually be some small flaws and pictures that do not conform to the laws of nature. Similar to the distortion of the proportions of the figure's body, the wrong placement of layers between objects, and the problem of molding. In layman's terms, this situation is a "collapse".

The vast majority of serialized animations have more or less the problem of collapse, the difference is that the quality of the work is less and less obvious, and it does not affect the viewing experience. And some works that are released directly without proofreading and review due to rush work may have some serious mistakes, such as the animation "Sister Fei Mei" that will eventually be recorded in the annals of history.

Of course, there are many other factors that affect the quality of the animation, and it would be far away to say too much, in short, from the overall point of view. The animated video released by Li Xiang, in terms of quality, does not look like a product made using the current production modes and methods of the island country.

From a certain point of view, the current animation production system of the island country has almost reached the limit of the traditional way of animation production by painters. And the video released by Li Xiang is even higher than this, indicating that Li Xiang's side is likely to have mastered the epoch-making animation production technology.

What exactly this technology is, and how to get it, has become the question that has been most interesting to the deneki library, which has been plagued by the cost and benefit of animation production.

You must know that the electric shock library is like the starting point network of Huaguo, and the light resources in their hands can be described as grasping a lot of them. If they can get the new technology that can produce animation quickly, well and economically, they can poach people to set up an animation branch, and their own authors can make their own animation promotions, and produce and sell their own. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have no middlemen to make the difference?

The other party came prepared, but Li Xiang, who had lived more than twice as long as the other party, was definitely not a fuel-efficient lamp. He had already expected this situation, or he had caused it to happen. Moreover, as the owner of this hypothetical "technology", although he is the infringing party, at the same time, as the demandee, he actually holds the initiative in negotiation.

"It's true that animation requires a lot of experience. However, I personally think that although animation has become more and more commercialized in recent years, it is still a form of story expression, which can be said to be an art. Art is a unique thing, and it emphasizes the individual's talent for understanding art. There's no reason to say that you can't animate without experience, right? ”

Li Xiang's answer was not what he asked, and it was ambiguous. It's like a slippery loach, leaving no room for the other party to start.

At this time, the waiter brought two glasses of water-cut whiskey that Li Xiang ordered.

There is a crystal clear ice cube suspended in the amber liquor, and the surface of the glass, a layer of "frost" caused by the temperature difference between the low temperature and the room temperature of the wine, makes the wine in the glass more dreamy and mysterious.

"Give Mr. Watanabe a glass of water-cut whiskey, and I'm welcome."

Li Xiang raised the wine glass in his hand, took a sip of it himself, and signaled the other party to be casual.

"With all that said, I think it's time to get down to business. Mr. Watanabe is supposed to be negotiating with me on behalf of Dengeki Bunko, right? On the question of copyright, what conditions do you intend to make? ”

Li wanted to preempt the conversation and control the dominance of the conversation.

"Ahem, Mr. Li, I think you are also very aware that there are a large number of characters, dialogues, and worldview background settings from the work "Sword Art Online" by our author Chuan Yuanli in your works. And posting it on the network, which is quite a clear infringement......"

"Mr. Watanabe, you should be able to understand that although the anime we talked about has indeed become popular on the Internet, I have not used it for any fee or profit. If I really want to say it, the anime I posted instead promoted your company's Light Sword Art Online. Your company will even profit from it. Since you have sent you to negotiate with me, doesn't it mean that your company actually does not care about copyright issues, but is willing to cooperate with me? Could it be that I misunderstood what you sent in the email? ”

Li Xiang continued:

"Let's be straightforward, I have the simplest solution. You take a percentage of my work and then give us some special treatment. No more copyright issues for my work. This is what I have agreed with you in our previous email exchanges. ”

"We agree to this plan." Junichi Watanabe said that due to the entrance of a glass of whiskey, his face was already visible to the naked eye, "but I have a different opinion about the specific proportion of the portion, and some other questions." ”

Li Xiang spread his hands: "I want to hear it in detail." ”

Junichi Watanabe said, "We believe that you have a strong ability in animation production, and I think that your ability is now being used by small talents. After much discussion, we now have a new plan. Regarding the infringement of the previous work, we will not pursue it. We are willing to sign a new agreement directly with you, and hope to reach cooperation in the animation of the works of other writers under our company. We believe that with your production strength, the works produced will have a strong role in promoting the sales of our works. ”

"But until then, to be on the safe side, as 'customers' we want to be able to actually see your animation process. Of course, Mr. Li Xiang, don't worry, this is just that our company wants to actually understand the situation, so that my superiors can also have a correct understanding of your strength, which is also to facilitate our cooperation. ”

Hearing this, Li Xiang first nodded, and then shook his head.