Chapter 66 The Quota Has Been Approved

In a narrow lane, two shabby-looking young men were carrying bamboo carrying poles loaded with goods, walking through the alleys and hawking their wares.
"Peanuts, melon seeds, cockroach repellent..."
Hearing their cries, someone in the alley called out, "Hey vendor, give me twenty cents' worth of melon seeds, and make them the salty kind."
"Right away."
Through a period of trial and error, Taotao and Xiusheng discovered one thing: acting poor really kept them safe from being arrested.
As long as you looked worse off than everyone else, nobody would have the time or energy to report you.
Of course, what they hated most were local thugs and hoodlums, who frequently intercepted them and arbitrarily looted some of their goods.
Following Zheng Fei's advice, the two had been in this trade for half a year. Although their families constantly pointed fingers and scolded them, they were actually making real money.
In half a year, the two had earned over 1,600 yuan, much more than the factory department heads.
And following Zheng Fei's instructions, they deposited all this money in the bank instead of keeping it at home.
Zheng Fei told them that the political climate might improve next year, and by then, they could lease a storefront near the Bund.
At that time, they would specialize in selling various dried nuts to tourists.
...
Passing by the entrance of a Xinhua Bookstore, they noticed a long queue outside and a poster pasted on the door.
Upon seeing the poster, the two of them became extremely excited.
"Brother Fei, a new book is out!"
Taotao was full of envy. After working with Zheng Fei for several months, he had developed a strong yearning for art.
Pity he lacked any talent in that area. Seeing the large crowd gathered here, the two men turned their carrying baskets toward the people in line and asked,
"Comrades, care to buy some melon seeds?"
The bestseller status of *Fung Yun* Volume 2 came as no surprise, especially since the sales of Volume 1 had been so stellar.
Many readers had been waiting for the second volume. A clerk at the Xinhua Bookstore had just opened a carton and placed the books on the shelves when they were instantly snatched up by the crowd.
Helplessly, the clerk wrote on a small blackboard: *Fung Yun* is sold out for today.
"Manager, our store is out of stock."
The bookstore manager furrowed his brow, returned to his office, and cranked the telephone handle. "Director Ou, are there any copies of *Fung Yun* left in the warehouse? If so, our branch wants another ten boxes."
"They're all gone. We'll have to wait for the printing plant."
Director Ou, who was in charge of sales and distribution for Xinhua Bookstore, had received quite a few phone calls today, all demanding shipments.
Seeing such strong sales, Director Ou really wanted to wave his hand and order an additional printing of 500,000 copies, but the superiors' attitude remained ambiguous; 150,000 copies was the absolute limit he could apply for.
...
Ever since *Fung Yun* became a bestseller once again, the Shanghai Fine Arts Publishing House held another meeting.
Anyway, everyone was long accustomed to solving problems through meetings. If one meeting couldn't fix it, they would hold two.
After the meeting commenced, Section Chief Wang of the publishing house stated, "Because of someone's brilliant decision, our publishing house has suffered a massive loss in revenue. At forty-five cents per copy for 150,000 copies, if our finances hadn't been separated from Advanced Publishing House yet, our share would have amounted to at least 4,000 yuan."
The finance department staff chimed in with complaints as well: "We've published quite a few manhua picture books this year. Although sales are decent, the costs are also very high. After deducting printing and distribution expenses, we're basically breaking even."
Seeing someone in the house stirring up trouble, Jiang Weishan furrowed his brow and stubbornly defended his stance: "Manhua picture books are the foundation of our publishing house. It's bad enough that you don't support your own people, but why are you puffing up others while deflating our own prestige?"
Section Chief Wang harbored a deep-seated hatred for Jiang, the deputy editor-in-chief who had advocated for the financial split. The mere thought that Advanced Publishing House might become wildly successful in the future filled Wang Jinshan with intense displeasure. A cooked duck had been handed over to someone else; who wouldn't be angry? Even though Jiang was the deputy editor-in-chief, Wang retorted aggressively:
"Then why don't you guys put out a blockbuster hit yourselves? We won't have a single word to say."
Yet as soon as he said this, everyone fell silent instead, until a young man suddenly piped up:
"I think we don't necessarily have to cling blindly to the traditional manhua picture book format. It's not like we can't draw comics in Zheng Fei's style."
When he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the entire conference room turned quite eerie, especially for the picture book editors and the heads of the creative team, whose glares at him looked as though they wanted to devour him alive.
Chen Lida had barely spoken throughout the entire meeting, merely listening to them bicker back and forth. Finally, as the meeting drew to a close, he dropped a bombshell:
"In two months, a delegation will be heading to Hong Kong. The higher-ups have allocated a total of three slots to our publishing house, and we must finalize the name list this weekend."
Hearing this, everyone instantly shifted their focus. The head of the manhua picture book editorial office declared on the spot, "Our department definitely needs one slot."
"The creative studio needs one too, nobody objects to that, right?"
"Why should you? You take a slot every single time. Our art editing office needs one as well."
Section Chief Wang chimed in, "Our publishing department has to fight for one this time, too."
...
The renewed bestseller status of *Fung Yun* made Mo Changshan's mouth curl into a grin so wide it almost reached his ears; right now, he was utterly infatuated with that fellow surnamed Jiang.
After deducting printing and distribution costs, they actually managed to net a profit of 15,000 yuan, and this time they didn't even have to split it with the Shanghai Fine Arts Publishing House.
This time around, Mo Changshan substantially increased the royalty payments for Zheng Fei. Normally, the basic royalty for color comics was relatively high, ranging from 8 to 22 yuan per page.
Editor-in-Chief Mo offered Zheng Fei 20 yuan per page. Although much of the comic's content was completed with the help of assistants, Mo Changshan naturally wouldn't nitpick over such details. With such a lucrative cash cow on hand, finding ten comic assistants for him was no problem at all.
In other words, for Volume 2 of *Fung Yun*, Zheng Fei's basic royalties alone would exceed 2,000 yuan. If the print-run royalties were factored in as well, Zheng Fei would likely pocket over 5,000 yuan.
While Zheng Fei earned handsomely, the publishing house also made a tidy profit. Looking back, half a year ago the publishing house didn't even have the funds to help the comrades celebrate the New Year properly.
Now, with such a massive sum resting in their bank account, Mo Changshan still felt somewhat unaccustomed to it.
Gazing at the dilapidated lane before him, a sudden ambition stirred in Mo Changshan's heart: once the publishing house earned a bit more money, he would simply relocate it to the banks of the Huangpu River.
He would emulate those old Shanghai elites—enjoying a cup of coffee before starting work, admiring the Huangpu River, and then slowly easing into the workday.
Aside from this matter, there was something else that made Mo Changshan even happier: the leaders of the Publishing Bureau had actually allocated two delegation slots to their publishing house.
Moreover, this trip would be personally led by the leader in charge of propaganda, heading to Hong Kong for a cultural inspection tour.
However, Mo Changshan had caught wind of some insider information: this cultural tour had another crucial objective.
The leadership felt that since the domestic publishing and distribution sector produced so many works, they ought to explore whether some could be marketed abroad to earn foreign exchange in the process.
One of the slots would undoubtedly be assigned to Zheng Fei. Mo Changshan held high hopes for Zheng Fei's new comic, titled *Village Teacher*.
Both in terms of its thematic depth and its elevated perspective, it far surpassed *Fung Yun*. Zheng Fei had to be urged to complete the creation within the next two months.
By then, they could bring *Village Teacher* along to be exhibited in Hong Kong; creating a sensation right out of the gate would be the ideal outcome.
As for the other slot, he felt deeply torn—should he keep it for himself, or give it to Xu Sansui?
Such opportunities were exceedingly rare, and Mo Changshan desperately wanted to go himself, but he was well aware of how these two slots had materialized.
Had Deputy Editor-in-Chief Chen not put in a good word, the Publishing Bureau would never have granted a small publishing house like theirs two whole slots.
Mo Changshan had a gut feeling that one of these slots was explicitly reserved for Xu Sansui. At this thought, Mo Changshan couldn't help letting out a sigh.
"It seems I'll just have to wait until next time."