Chapter 64: Color Manga

Zheng Fei rode his bicycle and brought his younger sister to the East China Cafe.

Upon entering the establishment, the little girl felt a bit nervous, as it was her first time dining in such a high-end venue.

Zheng Fei, however, was completely at home. After finding a table and sitting down, he immediately called out, "Waiter, come take our order."

"Two orders of toasted bread, fried pork cutlets, thick soup, and coffee—everything in duplicate."

The waiter asked, "Do you have food tickets?"

Zheng Fei frowned and replied, "Yes."

The waiter was the same one from before, but for some reason, his attitude toward Zheng Fei was not very friendly, and his expression was quite sour.

Yet Zheng Fei had no idea that this waiter, named Zhou Haisheng, detested him thoroughly.

Seeing him dining at the cafe with another young girl made him even more unhappy, and what depressed him the most was that Comrade Haitang had not visited the shop for a long time.

......

For the first time in her life, Zheng Shuyao tasted a fried pork cutlet. Her eyes widened, and her face was filled with an expression of sheer disbelief.

"Brother, this is just too delicious!"

She couldn't bear to finish it all at once. Just like Zheng Fei when he first came here, she wanted to pack some to take back so that Grandpa Sun and Grandma Zhang could also have a taste.

Finally, she took a sip of the coffee. The next second, her brows knitted together into a knot: "This tastes awful! Our grassland milk tea is much better."

Hearing her younger sister constantly praise the milk tea from the grassland, Zheng Fei couldn't help saying, "In a couple of years, I'll go visit your grassland and see just how good that milk tea really is."

"Brother, are you really going?"

The little girl was immensely excited.

"I have that intention."

Now that he knew the reason, since Zheng Yuanshan couldn't come back, he, as a son, should indeed go visit him.

Zheng Shuyao said with conviction, "I won't speak for other things, but it's definitely much better than this bitter stuff."

As soon as Zheng Shuyao spoke those words, the expressions of quite a few people dining in the cafe turned somewhat unnatural. The waiter, already very displeased, looked even grimmer.

After finishing the coffee, Zheng Fei sat in the shop for a while, gazing at the window seat not far away.

He suddenly remembered that a girl who used to smile a lot loved sitting in that exact spot, and Zheng Fei had shared two meals with her there.

Who would have thought that in the blink of an eye, Haitang had already been abroad for some time. He wondered if she had started washing dishes yet.

Whenever he thought of this girl, Zheng Fei couldn't quite describe the feeling, but knowing it would still be two or three years before he could see her again left him somewhat melancholy.

People were always like this—when they possessed something, they never knew how to cherish it, and especially afterwards, they would always feel that everything was meaningless.

......

What Zheng Fei did not know was that, not far from here, a group of people were engaged in a heated discussion about his work.

At a project selection meeting, several copies of the manga *Wind and Cloud* were placed on the table. A young man dressed in a very fashionable style introduced:

"This manga can be said to be a dark horse of the new year. In less than half a month, it has sold 100,000 copies... Personally, I think this type of manga is extremely suitable for adaptation into animated films. During my studies in Japan, many animated films were adapted from manga, which saves the production company a lot of creation time."

As soon as he finished speaking, an animation director participating in the meeting chimed in: "I have also read this manga. Aside from the story, I feel it lacks any core substance; not only does it lack educational value, but it is also unsuitable for children to watch."

As a new-generation animation producer, Fang Zailiang hated this kind of rhetoric the most—always talking endlessly about educational significance.

Fortunately, he was quite lucky, considered one of the first beneficiaries of the reform and opening-up. Afterward, his workplace sent him to Japan for advanced studies, where he learned a great deal of advanced knowledge in animated filmmaking.

He had hoped to return to China and display his talents, only to find that his hands and feet were tied, and a metaphorical tighter-circumference spell was constantly placed over his head.

Especially during project selection meetings, the discussion could never escape those four words: "educational significance," and people always stubbornly believed that cartoons were meant exclusively for children.

To Fang Zailiang, however, art was art, and education was education. If one insisted on conflating the two, the path left for them to walk would become very narrow indeed.

In his view, the starting point of Chinese animation was even higher than that of Japan. Tezuka Osamu, revered as the "God of Japanese Manga," had once made a special trip to China to apprentice under the Wan brothers, the directors of *The Monkey King*.

As someone who had studied overseas, what Fang Zailiang found most unacceptable was how fond these people were of playing the teacher, throwing around talk of educational significance as if failing to instill a lesson in others was a crime.

Not long ago, when he saw the manga *Wind and Cloud*, he was deeply shocked.

He truly had not expected that such a "flower" could bloom in the current soil.

Especially upon reading *A Unemployed Young Man Decides to Die*, that young man named Zheng Fei had genuinely inspired him.

After pondering for over a month, he finally mustered the courage to organize a project selection meeting, but judging from the current remarks of the leaders, the probability of the project passing was not very high.

Fang Zailiang argued, " *Wind and Cloud* has been tested by the market. This kind of story appeals to all ages, and if we make it, it will undoubtedly sell very well and achieve high box office numbers."

At the mention of the word "box office," many people present frowned, as the term was far too unfamiliar to them.

"Comrade Xiao Fang, your ideology has some issues. As an animation studio, we serve the people; we cannot constantly think about making a profit."

"I also agree with Director Zeng's words. The manga *Wind and Cloud* is indeed good, but it is fine as a picture book; adapting it into an animated film is quite inappropriate."

In the end, under the rejection of the assembled leaders, the project selection meeting organized by Fang Zailiang failed. He had failed to persuade them.

Yet a single failure did not make Fang Zailiang give up. He intended to fight to the end—since that unemployed young man named Zheng Fei could draw such stories, having more contact with him might lead to even better manga works.

......

After leaving the cafe, Zheng Fei returned home and wrote a reply letter to his father, Zheng Yuanshan, mostly consisting of expressions of concern.

In this era, carriages and horses were slow, and letters traveled far. In the letter, Zheng Fei told him to take good care of himself and strive for a speedy recovery.

He also informed him of his younger sister's mid-term exam results and enclosed a copy of the *Wind and Cloud* manga.

Tucked inside the book were twenty 10-yuan banknotes, along with a slip of paper bearing a single sentence: Take good care of yourself, and in a couple of years, I will bring my little sister to visit you.

Had this letter not arrived so early, Zheng Fei had intended to send a color-printed version of the manga to truly astonish him.

......

With the addition of extra hands, the second volume of *Wind and Cloud* no longer used black-and-white art, but full color instead.

Although coloring was an extra step, compared to the previous black-and-white illustrations, it actually reduced the overall workload.

It was no exaggeration to say that many manga artists from his past life were fully capable of drawing in color.

Yet if you asked them to draw in black and white, they would undoubtedly curse up a storm. To put it colloquially, once the makeup comes off, you can tell who has been swimming naked.

Because black-and-white manga lacks color, making it stand out requires a more engaging story, more expressive panel layouts, and much higher demands for line work.

Color manga, however, is like makeup—it looks wondrous, and even minor flaws can be masked by color.

By May, the chill in Shanghai had receded, and some people had even begun wearing short sleeves.

Though the Progressive Publishing House did not have many staff members, it was exceptionally busy. Under Zheng Fei's direction, everyone finally completed the final coloring for the second volume of *Wind and Cloud*.

Xu Sansui, wearing his glasses, lay back in his chair like a deflated balloon, muttering to himself, "I must rest properly for a whole month."

Li Ziwei genuinely had not expected that drawing could be this passionate. These past two months had been utterly thrilling, with every single day a race against time.

Looking at the original manuscripts completed collectively by everyone, he felt an immense surge of excitement and couldn't help silently reflecting: "Fortunately, I chose this path."

After more than two months at the publishing house, Zhang Mingzhu's hair had become just as frizzy as her cousin's.

The reason was simple: she kept scratching it herself. Because she had a good perception of color, she was entrusted with heavy responsibilities and put in charge of coloring.

The pressure was agonizingly high, and whenever the stress peaked, she would either bite her pencil or scratch her scalp. Over time, the crown of her head had been scratched into a bird's nest.

Her greatest worry now was whether, if she didn't break this habit, she would eventually give herself a Mediterranean bald spot.

Zhou Weiguo was mainly responsible for line art in this team, and his state every day was like he had been injected with chicken blood.

What excited him the most was that the front and back covers of the *Wind and Cloud* manga had also been finalized, and his name finally appeared on the back cover.

Manga Assistants: Xu Sansui, Li Ziwei, Zhang Mingzhu, Zhou Weiguo.

Just as they finished their work, Mo Changshan returned from the Xinhua Bookstore and excitedly announced to everyone:

"The leaders at the Xinhua Bookstore learned that our second volume is in color, and they hope we can print 150,000 copies directly this time."

Upon hearing this news, the exhausted employees instantly perked up with excitement.

Only Zheng Fei remained as steady as a mountain, still quietly drawing. Mo Changshan walked over and, upon seeing the dozens of draft sheets on Zheng Fei's desk, was filled with astonishment.

"Teacher Zheng, have you drawn a new manga?"

"That's right."

"What kind of genre is this? I can't quite tell."

"You could consider it science fiction."

Hearing the words "science fiction," Xu Sansui—who loved *Doraemon* above all else—instantly came back to life and rushed over to Zheng Fei's workbench.

"Teacher Zheng, can I take a look?"

"Go ahead."