In the afternoon.
Eastern Publishing House.
The phones kept ringing, and the employees could no longer answer them!
"It's another rush!"
"The Bookstore wants to order 4,000 copies of Fortress Besieged!"
"There aren't enough first prints to sell, let's add more!"
"I've contacted the factory!"
"Aiyo, this is too popular, my god!"
"200,000 for the first print. Are they going to sell it out on the same day?"
"Impossible, right?"
"How is that impossible? According to the data from the major bookstores, Fortress Besieged has already cleared 70% of its inventory. At this rate, it'll be sold out by nightfall! Two hundred thousand yuan sold out in one day? No one in the publishing industry has ever done this before! "
Two hundred thousand First Prints was not a small amount!
For a typical new author, it was very common for a first print run of 10,000 to 20,000 copies. Only some of the best-selling authors' new books would a publishing house dare to raise their first print run to 100,000 copies. Furthermore, this was based on the yearly sales. The publishing industry was in a slump right now, and with the impact of the Internet, a novel that could sell 100,000 copies a year would already be considered a relatively best-selling novel. But no one at Eastern Publishing House could have expected that the 200,000 copies of Fortress Besieged's first print run would not even be enough to cover a single day's sales!
Crazy!
They had all gone mad!
On the other side, a female editor quickly walked over.
Everyone smiled and cast their gazes over.
"Little Li!"
"Well done!"
"You've made a contribution again!"
"Editor Li, focus!"
As he spoke, someone even took the lead to applaud!
Li Mei was a little embarrassed. "It was Teacher Zhang who took care of us. I didn't do much."
At that time, Zhang Ye had just fallen out with his previous publishing firm, and a lot of people were trying to recruit him. Eastern Publishing Firm did not have much hope of getting him as they were not the best in the industry and their scale was not considered large either. As such, they just sent Li Mei, a newcomer, to give it a try. No one could have expected that Li Mei would actually manage to get the job and even get on good terms with Zhang Ye's mother. After that, all of Zhang Ye's publishing work and communications were handed over to Li Mei to handle. Over the past two years, there had not been any accidents. A lot of publishing firms were trying to poach Zhang Ye, hoping to get a piece of the pie. But for some reason, Zhang Ye had only been working with Eastern Publishing Firm for the past few days. He had not signed the copyrights to a second publishing firm, and it was the same for Fortress Besieged!
Li Mei became a celebrity in the industry!
From then on, Eastern Publishing House gained a firm foothold in the industry!
Chief Editor's Office.
Li Mei knocked on the door cautiously and came in. "Editor-in-Chief, you were looking for me?"
When the editor-in-chief saw that it was her, he immediately gestured for her to come over. "Xiao Li, you're here? Take a seat, take a seat. What water are you drinking? I have some good tea here. "
Li Mei quickly waved her hand. "No need, no need."
The editor-in-chief laughed. "Have you seen the sales figures for Fortress Besieged?"
"I saw it." Li Mei was also quite happy.
"You're really something!" The editor-in-chief said in a gratified manner, "I thought that we wouldn't be able to get it this time, but who could have expected that Teacher Zhang would still let us publish a new book!"
Li Mei said, "Teacher Zhang is actually very easy to talk to. He's not as bad-tempered as the rumors say. As long as the collaboration goes well with him, he won't change companies. He also doesn't really care about how much the royalties are. He doesn't mind if it's a little more or a little less. That's just how he is."
"You're the one who did a good job." The editor-in-chief smiled and said, "How long have you been at the publishing firm?"
Li Mei did some calculations. "It's been more than three years."
The editor-in-chief nodded. "The higher-ups have decided to give you more courage."
Li Mei was stunned. "Huh?"
The editor-in-chief smiled. "From tomorrow onwards, you will take over the distribution department."
The distribution department?
The person in charge?
Li Mei was a little stunned!
…
Fortress Besieged's sales were booming!
During the day, a lot of people got their hands on the book and started reading it immediately.
Sometimes, a book selling well did not mean that it was good. There were too many factors that could affect a book's sales, such as the publicity or the author's reputation. Fortress Besieged's current craziness was all because of Zhang Ye's personal reputation. Just like Zhang Yuanqi and the other Heavenly Kings and Queens, if they published a book together, the sales wouldn't be too bad either. But as for the content, it all depended on the content.
At Peking University.
Yao Jiancai's daughter, Yao Mi, came running back.
"I've got it!"
"How many copies?"
"My mom just sent three copies over!"
"Give me a copy!"
"I want one too!"
"I wonder if it'll be good."
"It's a book written by our Chinese department's teacher, so how can it not be good!" Yao Mi was actually not very confident when she said that. It was a long novel, a marriage theme, and pure literature. This was Zhang Ye's first time dabbling in all of these. It was a completely different concept from Ghost Blows Out the Light, so she did not know what the content would be like.
So everyone in the dormitory sat together and started reading through it.
Just like that, they spent a full three hours reading it.
Suddenly, a roommate exclaimed, "Oh my God!"
Yao Mi was also astonished. "Th-This is too good to read!"
The girl next to her said, "What do you mean by good to read? That's such a vulgar adjective. It can't describe this book at all! "
Yao Mi asked, "Then what adjective should I use?"
The girl said loudly, "It's so fucking godly!"
That's right!
It's godly!
His roommates all had a feeling that they were in awe of the heavens!
…
At Zhang Xia's house.
Grandma Zhang was leaning back in her recliner, reading a book.
Her son called out to her a few times, telling her to take her medicine, but she did not hear him.
"Mom."
"Ah?"
"It's time to take your medicine."
"Oh, OK."
"What book are you reading? Why are you so focused? "
"Hur hur, it's Fortress Besieged."
"Zhang Ye's new book? Is it good to read? "
Zhang Xia hesitated for a moment before giving what she felt was the most appropriate evaluation. "It's not a matter of whether it's good or not, it's a matter of how shocking it is!"
Her son said, "Then I'll read it too."
But Zhang Xia laughed and said, "You've been ignorant since you were young and can't calm down. You won't be able to understand the language and culture in this book. This is a book written by a person of great wisdom. This Little Zhang is really too surprising. If he were to venture into the international literary scene in the future, he would probably scare a lot of foreigners to death. The foreigners still don't know that there's such a genius in China, right?"
After taking her medicine, Zhang Xia continued reading Fortress Besieged and did not move an inch for the entire day.
…
At an author's studio.
The author, Chen Xian, had also received this book. It was brought back by someone from his studio, but he did not read it and just tossed it aside.
"Teacher Chen, tonight's Qilu Literature Prize …"
"Let's leave it to fate. We can't ask for it."
"We should have a high chance of winning."
"Let's hope so. No one can say for sure until the end."
"Do you think Zhang Ye has a chance of winning?"
"Has he written a pure literary novel?"
Chen Xian shook his head. In the field of poetry, there was probably no one in the entire Chinese literary scene who could surpass Zhang Ye. This was something that had been proven countless times. But when it came to literary novels and long pure literary novels, no one was afraid of Zhang Ye. As no one had ever seen him write such a book before, they did not think much of it. They only thought that the literary world was pressured into giving him a nomination for the Qilu Literature Prize after seeing that it was not given to Zhang Ye for the Yanhong Literary Prize, but it was only a nomination. Of course, they wouldn't award him the Qilu Literature Prize.
But when Chen Xian received a phone call, he suddenly had a bad feeling about it.
It was a call from an old friend of his.
"Old Yu?"
"Chen Xian, have you gotten your hands on Fortress Besieged?"
"I have a copy. Why?"
"Have you read it?"
"Why would I want to read it?"
There was silence on the other end of the line for two seconds. "I suggest that you read it."
Chen Xian was taken aback. "… OK."
After hanging up, he immediately looked for the book and flipped to the first page.
An hour later, Chen Xian's expression changed. He closed the book and took a deep breath. All of a sudden, he felt a little bitter in his throat. It was as if he had taken some Chinese medicine!
Could he really write a pure literary novel?
Thinking of the question he had posed earlier, he could answer it now!
That's right!
He really could write it!
Chen Xian was really shocked. Even though he was also one of the people who denounced Zhang Ye in the literary world back then, even though he was extremely prejudiced against Zhang Ye, he was still shocked by this book!
How could there be such a book in this world?
How could there be such a person in this world?
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
