At night.

Liu Cixin leaned on the head of the bed to read Li Mu's new book "The Divergent", and his wife went to bed after washing and covered herself with a quilt:

"Hey, how much do you think "Three-Body Problem" can sell this time?"

Liu Cixin glanced at his wife, then retracted his gaze and continued to flip through the book:

"It's hard to say."

"Didn't you say that "The Three-Body Problem" had a very enthusiastic response? The Wandering Earth sold 300,000 last time, why does "Three-Body Problem" sell for 500,000 this time, right? ”

"Except for Li Mu, if you want to sell the copyright of my novel for 50,000 yuan, will anyone buy it?" Liu Cixin turned his head to look at his wife, paused for a moment and continued, "Li Mu wrote to me before he first started writing a book, and I encouraged him to write boldly in my reply. ”

Liu Cixin's wife was quite unimpressed with her husband's words: "Li Mu has such a big achievement at a young age, and people are good at it, and the trader who loses money will not do it." ”

"The theme of "The Three-Body Problem" is a bit sensitive, and it is not easy to adapt, if you don't do it, you will lose money, and if you sell 300,000 yuan, I feel a little unhappy in my heart, let Li Mu look at it and give it, how much he gives, we will take as much as he wants."

"What if people are only willing to give 100,000? Do you also sell? Liu Cixin's wife was not angry, "Anyway, "The Wandering Earth" and "Country Teacher" each sold 300,000 yuan, and "The Three-Body Problem" can't be sold cheaper." ”

Liu Cixin put down the book in his hand and turned off the light to sleep, but did not reply to his wife.

In fact, from his psychological price, the film and television copyright of a novel can be sold for 100,000 yuan, which is quite a lot.

In 09 years on the original timeline, at that time, "The Three-Body Problem" had already become quite famous in China and became a well-deserved best-selling novel by Liu Cixin.

And it was also in this year that Liu Cixin sold the film and television rights of the novel at a price of only 100,000 yuan. And only 9 years later, the price of the film and television rights of "The Three-Body Problem" has risen to 120 million.

At present, the market response of "Three-Body Problem" is indeed very good, but how much money did Liu Cixin take? The novel was serialized in a science fiction world magazine, and Liu Cixin received a fixed manuscript fee, one or two hundred yuan per thousand words, and the total manuscript fee for "Three-Body Problem 1" was only tens of thousands of yuan.

After the fire of "Three-Body Problem" in 09, Liu Cixin earned hundreds of thousands of dollars and sold the copyright at a price of only 100,000 yuan, and now "Three-Body Problem" only earns tens of thousands of manuscript fees, and Liu Cixin's psychological price for film and television copyrights will naturally not be high.

But......

Liu Cixin thought about Li Mu's new book "The Divergent" he just read.

"Is my "Three-Body Problem" worse than this book? If this book can be a big seller in the United States, then why can't my "Three-Body Problem"? ”

Then he thought of "The Hunger Games", is "The Three-Body Problem" worse than "The Hunger Games"? But The Hunger Games sold 20 million copies in the United States! and has been on the New York Times bestseller list for dozens of weeks.

……

A week later.

Science Fiction World Magazine.

As soon as Liu Cixin walked in, he immediately felt the warm atmosphere here, and when he inquired, he learned that it was Li Mu's new book "Divergents", which sold well in the United States.

As of yesterday, the novel has been officially released for exactly a week, and the sales in the United States have officially exceeded 300,000 copies!

Liu Cixin was shocked.

300,000 copies were sold in just one week, how many copies did you sell in a month?

At least 1.2 million copies!

And what about that year?

Li Mu: This is another novel with tens of millions of sales?

In the afternoon, Li Mu also rushed to the magazine office to meet Liu Cixin, who looked ashamed.

"The last time we met, you said that the two of us were the science fiction writers in Asia who were most likely to win the Hugo Award first, and now you have three Hugo Award nominations in one fell swoop, and I am still far from even one nomination, which is really ashamed."

Li Mu said with a smile: "There is no future, at most it is the darkness before dawn, "The Three-Body Problem" must be a Hugo Award-level work, otherwise I wouldn't have come to you to sign a contract in a hurry." ”

Liu Cixin shook his head and smiled.

He loves the novel "The Three-Body Problem" more than anyone else, but to say how much "The Three-Body Problem" can achieve, Liu Cixin really has no confidence.

Li Mu, Liu Cixin, Qin Li, Yang Feng, Yao Haijun and several others gathered in the reception room to chat with each other, and when the atmosphere was almost over, Li Mu began to talk about business.

"The Three-Body Problem" basically represents the highest level of Chinese science fiction, and it composes a far-reaching and magnificent hymn to civilization with its majestic narrative strength, which makes people deeply shocked and can't put it down. Such a work should not stop at just 200,000 words, and what I want to buy this time is not only the copyright of the "Three-Body Problem" that has been written, but also the copyright of the "Three-Body Problem" trilogy. ”

Liu Cixin couldn't help but be moved when he heard Li Mu's evaluation of "The Three-Body Problem" so highly, but when he heard that Li Mu wanted to buy the copyright of the "Three-Body Problem" trilogy, he was a little hesitant in his heart.

He does have some ideas in his head, but he can't guarantee that these thoughts will support him to write the trilogy of "The Three-Body Problem".

It shouldn't be a big problem to write "Three-Body Problem 2", but the trilogy is ......

"The "Three-Body Problem" trilogy - movie, TV, online drama, Internet University, animation, comic copyright, 1.5 million, if Brother Liu has no opinion, then we will sign the contract under the witness of several editors of the magazine."

"Huh?"

Everyone in the entire conference room was taken aback, and the number Li Mu opened had exceeded everyone's expectations.

Previously, everyone predicted that Li Mu would most likely buy the film and television copyright of "The Three-Body Problem" at a price of 300,000, and the maximum would not exceed 500,000, but in fact, 300,000 is far beyond the market price.

But no one thought that what Li Mu wanted was not just a "Three-Body Problem", but a "Three-Body Problem" trilogy.

I don't know what the quality of the next two "Three-Body Problem" trilogy is!

Everyone even didn't expect that Li Mu directly offered a price of 1.5 million!

There is no such price in the whole of China!

Da Liu once said that he would not write novels that could not make money. Before "The Three-Body Problem" became popular all over the world, he never felt that he could support his family just by writing novels. Now Li Mu is willing to take out 1.5 million to buy the copyright of the "Three-Body Problem" trilogy, 1.5 million in 07, Da Liu's head is a kind of mentality of dying for his confidant.

Editor Qin Li was stunned.

Editor Yang Feng was shocked.

Yao Haijun, the deputy editor-in-chief, even suspected that he had misheard.

Liu Cixin assured Li Mu with a solemn face: "Don't worry, I will do my best to write the following content, and I will never let you spend a lot of money to buy a bunch of garbage words back." ”

Li Mu smiled: "I believe it." ”

At this point, even if the matter is basically decided, all that remains is to find a lawyer to draw up a contract and formally sign a contract, and there are a lot of follow-up things, Li Mu and Liu Cixin have to stay in the city for a few days.

That night, Liu Cixin found Li Mu's room with a heavy heart.

"I thought about it carefully, I do have some ideas in my head, but I am really not sure if these ideas can support the length of the trilogy, or ......."

"How can you not be sure? I have read "The Three-Body Problem" no less than three times, and it can be said that this novel has far-reaching ideas, magnificent ideas, and endless brain holes, and it is by no means completely encompassing only 200,000 words, and with the foundation of "Three-Body Problem 1", there will be no problem in supporting the trilogy. ”

Liu Cixin blushed a little and said: "In fact, many of the ideas in "The Three-Body Problem" are inspired by you, if it were not for your part of the creativity, "The Three-Body Problem" might lose a lot of color. ”

"Huh?"

Li Mu was stunned for a moment.

Liu Cixin smiled: "You don't remember? The last time the Galaxy Award was held, it was also in the city, we all drank too much, I had to pull you to talk about some of my ideas, you also said at the time that this is an idea that can win the Hugo Award, if I pester you again, you have to copy it as a respect. I didn't listen, and continued to pester you to discuss the plot, I remember that you casually said a lot of ideas at that time, and these ideas helped me a lot to write "The Three-Body Problem". ”

Li Mu thought about it carefully, and it seemed that there was really such a thing.

Liu Cixin said again: "So without your help, I'm really afraid that I won't be able to write a trilogy, so I ......."

"So what?"

Liu Cixin: "So let's continue to discuss the next plot." ”

"Huh?"

Then, Liu Cixin stayed in Li Mu's room for a whole night, and after one night, Liu Cixin finally officially constructed a complete theory of the dark forest under Li Mu's various inspirations.

The next morning, Liu Cixin seemed to have opened up the second pulse of Ren Du, and his confidence in writing the "Three-Body Problem" trilogy directly doubled, and at the same time, he also felt Li Mu's awesomeness more deeply.

"The Law of the Dark Forest."

"Decisive battle for the Trisolar."

"Two-way foil."

……

And so on and so forth.

Every time I think of it, every time it becomes more systematic, every time it is more perfect.