Chapter 59: Incision

The massive success of Wind and Cloud sparked an extraordinary sensation.

The postman who usually delivered mail to Xianjin Publishing House found that the two cloth bags on the back of his bicycle were no longer enough. Instead, an entire sack of letters had to be secured with ropes.

Upon arriving at Xianjin Publishing House, he shouted directly, "Publishing house, come out and get your mail!"

With that, he dumped the sack of mail onto the ground and started grumbling.

"That damn near killed me. Delivering to just one place took this much effort. If there are this many letters from now on, I'm going to ask to change my delivery route."

Inside the publishing house.

Zheng Fei was utterly dumbfounded upon seeing such a massive pile of letters arriving in a single day. The readers of this era were simply too enthusiastic.

How on earth was anyone supposed to finish reading all of these?

No wonder Zheng Yuanjie back then had to buy ten properties just to store all his fan mail.

Yet, looking at the dense sea of letters before her, Xu Sansui's eyes were practically glowing. At that moment, she felt as though her stamp collection album wouldn't have enough pages to hold them all.

Meanwhile, for the past few days, Mo Changshan walked as if treading on air, occasionally breaking into a whistle. If not for his weight, everyone would have thought he was ready to leap into the air at any moment.

Thanks to the bestselling run of the Wind and Cloud manga, the publishing house had finally turned a profit and made money. After deducting printing and distribution costs, as well as Zheng Fei's print-run royalties, there was still a surplus of over five thousand yuan to be split between the two publishing houses.

Since it was a joint venture, twenty-five hundred of that belonged to Shanghai Animation Film Studio Publishing House, and the remaining half was theirs.

Yet this was only fair, considering that when they weren't making money previously, the Animation Publishing House had been supporting them.

According to their original agreement, Xianjin Publishing House had the right to use this portion of the profits without requiring further approval from the Animation Publishing House.

Having secured the funds, Editor-in-Chief Mo's very first action was to raise everyone's wages.

Xu Sansui, manga assistant: seventy yuan.
Old Master Ma: fifty yuan.

As for himself, his wage was raised to match the editor-in-chief of the Animation Publishing House: eighty yuan.

In addition to these adjustments, last year's year-end bonuses were finally distributed, giving twenty yuan to each person.

...

When Ma Youfeng received his money, his hands were trembling, and his heart overflowed with gratitude toward the young man named Zheng Fei.

He knew very well that without Zheng Fei, he would never have received this much money today.

The moment he got his cash, he rushed straight to the vegetable market, used up his entire month's meat ration coupons, and bought a full two catties of pork.

During the Spring Festival, the family hadn't been able to eat much meat; this month, they were going to make up for it properly.

As for Xu Sansui, the day after receiving her money, she sneaked off to the Shanghai black market and secretly bought a dozen imported manga books that had been smuggled in via small boats.

Among them were Go Nagai's Mazinger Z and Riyoko Ikeda's The Rose of Versailles.

...

In the lane near the publishing house.

When Mo Changshan arrived home, it was already very late. He tiptoed carefully, not daring to make a sound.

His home was extremely small, measuring only ten square meters yet housing three people. Mo Changshan was terrified of waking up their sleeping child.

He had married in his thirties, and now, at forty, his child had just turned nine.

In the eyes of outsiders, Mo Changshan was a man of high standing, the editor-in-chief of a publishing house. Whenever he went out, bearing the title of editor-in-chief, everyone treated him with great respect.

In reality, however, his take-home pay was only forty yuan a month, even lower than the workers at the Tanziwan Textile Factory.

Over the years, they had barely managed to keep the household afloat thanks to the subsidies provided by his wife, who worked as a university lecturer.

The last time he brought cake and fruit to Zheng Fei, he had to go to the Animation Publishing House and beg everyone he could just to scrape the money together.

Returning home this time, he carried a small box of cake and cradled a few books bought from the Xinhua Bookstore.

Gao Yulan glanced at the cake and then asked, "Who is this cake meant to be a gift for this time?"

Mo Changshan smiled and replied, "This time it's not for anyone else; we're going to eat it ourselves. And these books are for you."

"Old Mo, you're not running a fever today, are you?"

"I'm fine."

Mo Changshan softly shared the news that all one hundred thousand copies of Wind and Cloud had sold out with his wife.

Yet, upon hearing this, Gao Yulan grew somewhat worried: "If you arbitrarily raise wages and hand out money like this, won't you be held accountable later?"

Mo Changshan sighed.

"Since the organization gave us the green light to take this path, they can't expect to enjoy the rewards while we bear all the losses. If I don't even have this little bit of authority, what is the point of reform? We might as well just stick to the old planned economy."

Hearing this, Gao Yulan quickly covered his mouth. "You can say things like that at home, but don't you dare utter them outside, you understand?"

"Of course. I'm not that foolish."

"That's good."

Looking at the small cake, Gao Yulan cast a glance at their sleeping child.

"Things like this won't taste good by tomorrow. Let's wake up Xiaobei so we can eat the cake together."

Mo Changshan nodded.

In the dim light of the small room, a family of three gathered around a tiny cake, smiling brightly.

Mo Changshan looked at his slightly frail child, his eyes turning somewhat red. He resolved that from this day forward, he would ensure his child was well-fed and well-clothed.

...

The second day of the second lunar month.

The Dragon Raises Its Head.

On this day, many people rushed out to get haircuts, but inside the Animation Publishing House, a severe internal division erupted.

An internal meeting was called.

This internal meeting directed all its矛头 (spearheads) at Editor-in-Chief Chen Lida. A veteran editor spoke up:

"You know, when I got home the other day, my child asked me, 'Dad, why are you still drawing lianhuanhua [traditional Chinese serialized storybooks]? Manga feels so much better.'"

"As a lianhuanhua editor for ten years, the moment I heard those words, I felt truly devastated."

...

Although Jiang Weishan had been suspended from his duties, he still attended the meeting and let out a sigh.

"Some people in our publishing house have forgotten their roots. They've forgotten what made Animation Publishing House successful in the first place, and all they want to do is chase foreign trends."

Faced with the accusations from these comrades, Chen Lida had no desire to offer excessive explanations. He had originally prepared some manuscripts.

Now, he felt he didn't need to present them. In truth, he had many things he wanted to say to these colleagues, but looking at their expressions of shared hatred toward a common enemy, the words he intended to speak dissolved back into his throat.

As editor-in-chief, he naturally saw the dead end that lianhuanhua were heading toward.

This year, he had attempted to commission work from veteran lianhuanhua masters, but most of them declined under various pretexts.

The older generation of lianhuanhua artists no longer relied on lianhuanhua to make a living, while the younger generation was churning out a massive quantity of rushed, low-quality "running-horse books."

To seize the lianhuanhua market, certain publishing houses organized authors to hastily fabricate a vast number of exceptionally poor-quality serialized storybooks in a very short time.

There were quite a few people within their own publishing house who, in order to earn a few extra royalties, drew multiple lianhuanhua within a single year.

Yet Chen Lida felt none of this mattered; as long as people were willing to approach it seriously, lianhuanhua still had a way out.

That was until he saw the manuscript submitted by Zheng Fei, Wind and Cloud. In truth, he had always wanted someone to talk to about it.

He remembered how deeply shocked he was when he first saw this manga.

He had grown weary of the endless bickering between lianhuanhua artists and literary editors. In fact, as editor-in-chief, he had always harbored a lingering doubt: how should lianhuanhua be defined?

Were they works of art, or were they storybooks for telling tales? Because sometimes the contradiction was agonizing—they wanted artistic merit, yet they also wanted to tell a good story.

Yet how could one have the best of both worlds? You cannot have both fish and bear's paw. Even he understood that basic logic.

Wind and Cloud had opened his eyes. From this manga, he saw something remarkably pure.

Every single panel existed entirely to serve the story and the readers, rather than for the sake of art.

To Editor-in-Chief Chen, the essence of serialized illustrated stories should be reading, serving the narrative, rather than serving as so-called high art.

...

The reason they had all united today to attack him was because they felt a sense of crisis; they were afraid.

A core figure of the publishing house declared, "Since Xianjin Publishing House is turning a profit, there's no need for us to keep giving them that half of the wages anymore... And as for the building space they use, we lease it to them. Starting today, we must charge them rent as well."

This time, Editor-in-Chief Chen did not shield Xianjin Publishing House. Instead, he said calmly:

"Very well, I agree with your proposal. However, if we are going to draw the line this clearly, what happens if Xianjin Publishing House turns a profit in the future? Will the money they earn still be handed over to our publishing house?"

When Editor-in-Chief Chen tossed out this question, it instantly left everyone present in absolute silence.

Not a single person dared to pick up the thread. At this stage, if they still expected the other party to hand over their earnings, it would indeed be utterly shameless.

At that moment, Jiang Weishan stood up. He still believed that Wind and Cloud was merely a flash in the pan, and once this wave passed, Xianjin Publishing House would find itself at a dead end.

"I propose that we cut financial ties as soon as possible and not allow Xianjin Publishing House to continue sucking our blood."

Upon hearing the executive editor's words, several core members of the publishing house nodded in agreement.

"I second Executive Editor Jiang's proposal."

Chen Lida let out a sigh.

"Very well. Starting today, the finances of our two publishing houses will be completely separated."