Zhou Yan talked to Xu Feng on the phone, changed his clothes, and prepared to go to the studio.

But as soon as he stepped out of the door, the phone rang again in the living room, and he turned to pick it up.

"Hello?"

Yu Hua's voice came from the other end of the phone: "Are you at home?" ”

Zhou Yan looked at the door that had been opened, and then nodded, "Well, at home, what's wrong?" ”

"I'm going to play with you." Yu Hua said.

"Play with me? You're one. ”

"With Tie Sheng."

Zhou Yan thought for a while and said, "Don't come to my house, go to my studio, you wait at home, I'll pick you up." ”

"I'm sorry I want you to pick it up...... When will you arrive? ”

"For a moment."

"Then I'll wait for you at home."

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yan drove to Yu Hua's house.

Yu Hua and the others now live near the Yanjing office of Zhou's company, and Zhou Yan is also a stop when he goes to the studio, and he has to make a detour to pick up Shi Tiesheng.

A few minutes later, Zhou Yan picked up Yu Hua.

Sitting in the co-pilot, Yu Hua said with a smile, "It's still comfortable to have a special car, I'm wondering, do I have to learn a driver's license." ”

"If you want to learn, you can learn it, isn't that thing easy to learn?"

Among the writers Zhou Yan knows, Yu Hua is relatively receptive to new things, he now uses computers, and he uses computers more frequently than Zhou Yan.

"It's easy to learn a driver's license, but it's hard to buy a car, how much does your car cost?"

"The company has given it, I don't know the specifics, about more than 200,000?"

Yu Hua stammered, "Tsk, isn't this a house running on the road?" Are there any cheaper cars? ”

Hearing that Yu Hua was studying the matter of buying a car, Zhou Yan said with a smile, "It seems that you have been financially prosperous a lot recently." ”

"I can't thank you for this, I took some licensing fees for the last videotape, and recently Neon was asking me for "Eighteen Years Old Away Away" and "Mistakes by the River", and the money was more." Yu Hua was puzzled again, "Don't you know about this?" ”

Zhou Yan was surprised, "Why should I know?" ”

"They told me they wanted to make a collection of the three of us."

"Really? They didn't contact me. ”

In terms of writing, Zhou Yan is basically handling it himself, and if Neon really has a publishing house to do this, he will definitely contact him.

Even if the publishing house didn't know the situation and contacted Tomson, Tomson would definitely tell him about it as soon as possible, but so far, he has not received this news.

Yu Hua frowned, "That's strange, it stands to reason that the reason why they want to make this collection must be because you, me and Tie Sheng are all naked." In that case, they should have looked for you first, and then ours, I thought you knew about it. I'm going to talk to you today about it. ”

"I haven't heard of you, when did they find you?"

"The call I made the afternoon before yesterday, Li Xiaoling helped contact me."

Li Xiaolin is the chief judge of "Harvest" and the daughter of the famous writer Ba Jin, she has a very good relationship with Yu Hua, and now Yu Hua's first choice for works is also "Harvest". It is normal for the other party to contact Yu Hua through Li Xiaolin.

"Did Tie Sheng get the message?" Zhou Yan asked again.

Yu Hua nodded, "I got it, he was later than me, he received it yesterday afternoon." Before I called you, I called him first, and he said there was this thing. ”

Zhou Yan groaned, not understanding what the situation was.

Could it be that Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng were deceived?

This possibility is very small, because Yu Hua said that it was Li Xiaolin who helped the other party contact him.

Moreover, if this is a scam, Zhou Yan can't figure out what the other party is trying to deceive.

Seeing Zhou Yan's frowning, Yu Hua was also worried, "There won't be any problems, right?" ”

Zhou Yan shook his head, "I don't know, but don't be in a hurry to sign it first, if there is a contract, give me the contract, and I'll let our company's legal counsel help take a look." ”

"Then if they don't look for you, we don't need to sign a contract."

"That's not it, if there is really a neon publishing house that wants to help you publish, it will be the same with me or not."

"Okay, I see."

Then the two didn't talk about it, Zhou Yan took a detour to pick up Shi Tiesheng, and then the three of them went to the studio together.

When he got downstairs, Yu Hua looked at the building and said to Zhou Yan, "Rock-paper-scissors." ”

Zhou Yan was puzzled, "What are you doing?" ”

"Whoever wins, who carries the iron sheng."

Zhou Yan immediately understood, he said with a smile, "You don't have to carry it, I have an elevator here." ”

"There's an elevator?" Yu Hua looked surprised, this building didn't look like there was an elevator.

"I'll show you there."

Zhou Yan pushed Shi Tiesheng into the first floor, and then walked to the west side of the building.

"There's an elevator." Yu Hua looked up and down and said curiously, "Why is there an elevator here?" ”

"Originally, there was no elevator, but it was later installed."

"Can the elevator be installed in the back? I've never seen it, high-tech. ”

"What kind of high-tech, the elevator is not complicated, let's go."

This elevator is rarely used, because this building has a total of three floors, and the elevator is on the west side, so people who go up to the second floor basically do not go to the west side to take the elevator.

Even if you go up to the third floor, you rarely go around to the west side.

For the most part, this elevator is used to transport goods.

When I took the elevator before, I thought about transporting things, so the elevator was also very large.

After going upstairs, Zhou Yan first took them to the recording studio and practice room.

Now the studio has recruited a lot of people, and has also recruited a little girl at the front desk, but there is basically nothing to do at the front desk now, so Xiao Li at the front desk also works part-time as a life assistant to Zhou Yan and the general manager of the studio.

After visiting the studio, Zhou Yan instructed Xiao Li to make three cups of tea, and then took Yu Hua and them to the office.

Entering the office, Yu Hua sighed with emotion, "The recording studio and practice room are so luxurious, I didn't expect your office to be so simple." ”

Zhou Yan took out two packets of Hongtashan from the drawer and threw them to them, "I don't usually come often, it's a waste if the layout is too good, it should be flowered, and the province should be saved." ”

Yu Hua was not polite, and directly opened a package of Hongta Mountain, gave one to Shi Tiesheng, and ordered one himself.

Shi Tiesheng took a puff of cigarette and said with a smile, "Zhou Yan's style has always been like this, he has always been very low-key, it's been so long, it's not like you don't know." When we first met, I thought he was just a regular college student. ”

Yu Hua shook his head and disagreed, "He said provincial, you really believe it, although there are not many things in this office, but if you look at this sofa and this coffee table, as well as the table and chairs in his office, it is not cheap at first glance." ”

As he spoke, he also touched the sofa, "This good sofa is comfortable to sit on." ”

Zhou Yan joked, "Comrade Yu Hua, how did you become materialistic now." ”

Shi Tiesheng also laughed, "This guy is originally material, you just found out." ”

Regarding Shi Tiesheng's comments, Yu Hua gladly accepted, "That's right, this is who I am." Before I went to pick you up, I was still telling Zhou Yan if there was any cheap car to buy one. If you want to buy a car, and come to Zhou Yan's side in the future, you don't need him to make a special trip to pick it up, I'll drive you over. ”

"If you want to buy a car, don't take me as an excuse."

"If you want to buy a car, it should be soon, didn't Zhang Dao and them go to Cannes? When the "Alive" movie wins the award, the sales will definitely soar, and then it will be published in Europe, and the manuscript fee will be enough for you to buy a car. ”

"I hope to win the award, but how can the award be so easy to win, I don't expect this film to make me much money."

Hearing this, Zhou Yan couldn't help but smile.

"Alive", since the film won the award in Cannes, its popularity has risen all the way, not only selling well in China, but also selling very well in France.

Later, Yu Hua himself said that he lived by "Alive".

Although this is an exaggeration, it does show how popular "Alive" is.

Throughout the history of modern Chinese literature, there has never been a pure literary work that can obtain the results of "Alive", the key is that the more this one sells, the better it gets, and after selling it for 30 years, the annual sales volume is a number that the vast majority of works can never surpass.

The three chatted for more than half an hour, and the Piano Youth Orchestra came to rehearse, and Zhou Yan took Yu Hua and them to listen to music for a while.

After listening for a while, Zhou Yan's pager received Hua Yang's message, so he told Yu Hua and them, and he returned to the office to call Hua Yang back.

After the phone was connected, Zhou Yan asked, "What's the matter, Mr. Hua." ”

"Good news, Neon's Shueisha has contacted us and wants to publish it for you, and if you are interested, I will call them."

Zhou Yan picked the corners of his mouth, it turned out to be Shueisha, and it should be them who went to find Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng.

"Well, no problem, just give them my contact information, and if they can reach me this afternoon, give them the phone number of my studio office."

"You're in the studio right now."

"Well, I'll call you right in the office."

"Okay, no problem, I'll tell them, contact you directly."

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yan returned to the practice room, and about half an hour later, Xiao Li came over and told Zhou Yan that a call came in, he nodded, and went to the office to answer the phone.

"Hello."

The other party heard Zhou Yan's voice and said with a smile, "Hello, Mr. Zhou Yan, I am Chen Hongheng, the client of Neon Shueisha, and Shueisha has entrusted me to contact you here, hoping to publish your three articles "Tree Hole", "The Death of the Town Mayor" and "The Knife in the Clear Water" under your name. ”

Zhou Yan asked directly, "Have you already contacted Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng?" ”

"That's right, Mr. Zhou Yan, I have indeed contacted Mr. Yu Hua and Mr. Shi Tiesheng here, and have reached a preliminary cooperation intention with them. Shueisha's idea is to make a book specifically for the three of you, Mr. Yu Hua will include "Eighteen Years Old" and "The Mistake by the River", and Mr. Shi Tiesheng will include "Fate is Like a String" and "My Distant Qingping Bay". ”

Zhou Yan asked directly, "How many years to sign, how much is the royalty, how much is the first printing?" ”

Chen Hongheng replied quickly, "Sign for ten years, 10% of the royalties, of which you 5 percent, Mr. Yu Hua 3 percent, Mr. Shi Tiesheng 2 percent, the first printing of 30,000 copies." ”

"Ten years is too long, 10 percent is too little, and the first printing of 30,000 copies is also less."

Chen Hongheng explained, "In the neon market, the royalties are basically 10 percent, and the first printing is 30,000 copies...... If you think it's less, you can mention 40,000 copies. ”

Zhou Yan knows that the normal royalty is 10 percent, and the better ones can talk about 11 or 12 percent.

But the reason why Shueisha wants to make this collection is mainly because of a gimmick, the videotape of a few of them in the general's house before sold well, and Zhou Yan's fame is great, so the sales of this book will naturally not be too bad.

Shueisha was originally a comprehensive publishing house, and they wouldn't do it if they didn't make money.

Now it is Shueisha who takes the initiative to find them, and since this is the case, Zhou Yan will not meet this condition.

He thought about it for a while, and directly offered the price, "Sign for five years, the first printing of 80,000 copies, based on ten points of royalties, and for every 100,000 copies sold, one point will be raised, with a maximum of 16 percent." If Shueisha agrees to this condition, then there is no problem, if not, then forget it. ”

Chen Hongheng was silent, because of the condition Zhou Yan said, he had no way to call the shots.

After pondering for a moment, Chen Hongheng said, "Then I'll contact Shueisha first to see if they are willing to agree to this condition." ”

"Okay, you go and ask, my condition is not very high."

"Well, I'll get back to you as soon as possible."

"It doesn't matter if it's fast or not, if they don't want to, Mr. Chen, you can persuade them. Tell them about Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng's fame in China, and let me tell you a piece of news, Yu Hua's adaptation of the film of the same name "Alive" is now participating in the Cannes International Film Festival, and it is very likely to win. The award will be announced in two days, and by then, this may not be the case. ”

"Okay, I see, I'll do my best to persuade them."

After Chen Hongheng said this, he suddenly felt a little weird, he was obviously commissioned by Shueisha, and he also took Shueisha's money, how could he feel that he was helping Zhou Yan to talk to Shueisha?

Hey, it's the same for whoever you help, the main thing is to promote their cooperation.

Here, after Chen Hongheng hung up Zhou Yan's phone, he quickly contacted Shueisha.

When they first heard this condition, Shueisha disagreed, they felt that it was a bit high, and the tiered royalties were indeed feasible, but the maximum could only be mentioned as 14 percent, and the first printing was reduced from 80,000 to 60,000.

At this time, Chen Hongheng began to play, he told Shueisha about "Alive" participating in the film festival, and told them that "Alive" is likely to win an award this year.

Shueisha got the news and quickly went to verify it.

Confirming that the news was true, Shueisha also agreed to this condition very decisively.

Of course, they are not sure if "Alive" will win an award at the Cannes Film Festival, but they are willing to gamble, and the gambling cost is not high, but the ladder royalty is raised by two points, and the first printing is 20,000 more copies.

If the "Alive" film can really win at the Cannes Film Festival, this is nothing at all.

When Chen Hongheng called Zhou Yan again, Zhou Yan and the others had already finished listening to the music and returned to the office, discussing where to go to eat at night.

"Let's go eat mutton shabu in the evening, I know a ......"

In the middle of Zhou Yan's words, the phone rang.

"I'll answer the phone."

Zhou Yan picked up the phone, "Hey." ”

Chen Hongheng's happy voice came from the other side, "Mr. Zhou Yan, originally Shueisha's side did not agree to your conditions, and insisted on only giving 10% of the royalties and the first printing of 40,000 copies, but after my unremitting efforts, they finally changed their minds. Now they have agreed to your request, but what do you think about the subsequent increase in this tier? Does the extra count as your own? ”

"No, no matter how much the royalty is, it will be divided according to the original proportion, 50 percent, 30 percent, 20 percent." Zhou Yan said.

"Okay, then I'll confirm with Mr. Yu Hua and Mr. Shi Tiesheng, if they have no problems, I will draw up the contract and find a time for us to sign it."

"You don't have to bother, they're all here with me."

Saying that, Zhou Yan turned on the speakerphone, and then beckoned to Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng.

Yu Hua pushed Shi Tiesheng to the phone.

"Who?" Yu Hua asked.

Chen Hongheng on the other end of the phone said, "Mr. Yu Hua, Mr. Shi Tiesheng, I am Chen Hongheng, and I have contacted you before. ”

"Oh, Mr. Chen."

"Just call me Xiao Chen, it's like this......"

Then Chen Hongheng told Yu Hua the conditions he had negotiated with Zhou Yan, and of course Yu Hua and they had no objections to this condition.

Although the royalty Zhou Yan accounts for the majority, it is also normal, not to mention that Shueisha is mainly for Zhou Yan's fame, just in this collection, Zhou Yan's length also accounts for the highest proportion, and this sharing ratio is basically consistent with the proportion of words.

After confirming that there was no problem, he made an appointment to sign the contract in a few days, and when he was about to hang up the phone, Zhou Yan asked again, "What is the name of our collection?" Is it settled? ”

"Shueisha's order is "China's Excellent Collection", if you have other ideas, you can put them forward." Chen Hongheng said.

Zhou Yan looked at Yu Hua and them, and said, "Let's discuss it and give you an answer when we go back." ”

"Okay, wait for your news."

After hanging up the phone, Yu Hua pouted and smiled, "Are we like Xiao Wang now, it can be regarded as a combination." ”

Shi Tiesheng walked to the coffee table in a wheelchair, "I've only heard that the band has a group, but I haven't heard of a writer or a group." ”

"I can't say that there is no, what were the eight masters of the Tang and Song dynasties before, and the four masters of the early Tang Dynasty, aren't they all combinations?"

"Those are all names given by posterity."

"It's really a serious combination, how can there be." Yu Hua said.

In fact, Zhou Yan really heard of such a thing as a writer's combination, and later Rao Xueman, who wrote youth pain literature, had a writer's combination with two other female writers.

At that time, this group was quite gimmicky, known as the first writer group, and Zhou Yan also paid attention to it.

Later, the group soon disbanded, but it was lively when the group was lively, but Zhou Yan didn't hear any news when it was disbanded, and many people may not know that Rao Xueman also had a combination with others.

Writers engage in combinations, which is pure nonsense, and more for gimmicks.

Yu Hua mentioned the combination because he thought it was interesting. (End of chapter)