On March 7, the third day after the release of "Never Let Me Go", Chen Hongheng went to Zhou Yan's office and reported on the situation of the literature department in the past few days since its establishment.
Several members of his team have now arrived, and there is no pressure on personnel for the time being. However, Chen Hongheng still drew up a list and hoped that the Human Resources Department could help the Literature Department recruit five more people.
Zhou Yan simply looked at the list and signed it directly without saying anything.
Since I told Chen Hongheng before that I would give him enough autonomy, there is no need to ask Chen Hongheng for five recruitment quotas now.
Chen Hongheng was also surprised when Zhou Yan signed without asking. He didn't expect that Zhou Yan would really let him go.
After getting the note signed by Zhou Yan, Chen Hongheng added, "The publishing house wants to arrange a book signing for you, but it may have to be postponed for a while."
"Why?" Zhou Yan asked.
Chen Hongheng said with a smile, "Because we can't find so many books at the moment."
Since it is a book signing, you must ensure that there are books. Otherwise, what will you sell to other readers when they come?
Even if you don't sign many copies, I would conservatively prepare a thousand copies.
But now there are not so many books in Yanjing.
The sales of "Never Let Me Go" were so good that Yanjing originally had some spare capacity, but several nearby cities were clamoring for books, so they transferred some to it.
If you force it together, you can definitely get a thousand books, but you can't affect the normal sales of other bookstores just because of signings. Isn't this putting the cart before the horse?
"Isn't four hundred thousand copies enough so quickly?" Zhou Yan was also a little surprised.
"It's not that they sold out so quickly. It's just that some places are stocking up in case there are no more books to sell later, and some other counties are also asking for goods. I heard Liu Yang say that the first printing ones won't last too long, so the publishing house has already A total of six printing plants across the country have been contacted to print, and one million copies should be printed this time.”
"They are quite courageous."
"Haha, they are also very anxious, because after the previous sales peak period passes, sales will drop rapidly."
Zhou Yan nodded. Chen Hongheng was right. Sales would indeed drop rapidly in a few days.
On the one hand, the popularity will decrease, and on the other hand, piracy will appear.
When pirated versions come out, fewer people will buy genuine ones.
"Dong dong——"
There was a knock on the door.
Zhou Yan responded, "Come in."
The door opened and Akina Nakamori came in excitedly, "Look at me——"
After entering the door, Nakamori Akina saw Chen Hongheng and was suddenly stunned, holding back what she was going to say.
Zhou Yan introduced her with a smile, "This is Chen Hongheng, the director of the newly established literary department of the studio. This is..."
"Hello, Miss Nakamori." Chen Hongheng smiled and said hello to Nakamori Akina in neon language.
Nakamori Akina was quite surprised to hear Chen Hongheng speaking neon language. She replied in Mandarin, "Mr. Chen, your neon language is very standard."
"Ms. Zhongmori, you are overrated. Your Chinese is standard."
"No, no."
Zhou Yan asked her, "What did you want to say just now?"
Akina Nakamori smiled and raised the book in her hand, "I bought a new book of yours at the airport."
"My new book?" Zhou Yan looked confused.
Chen Hongheng next to him also looked puzzled.
And the reason why they were confused was because the cover of the book Nakamori Akina was holding was completely different from "Never Let Me Go".
"Yeah, your new book."
Seeing Zhou Yan's confused expression, Nakamori Akina was very puzzled. Didn't the new book just come out? Not only did the news report it, she also heard Zhou Yan say it on the phone.
In fact, she had already agreed with Zhou Yan before that Zhou Yan would prepare a book for her, but when she met a vendor selling it at the airport, she felt that she was destined to buy one.
"Show me the book."
"Oh."
Akina Nakamori walked over and handed the book to Zhou Yan.
Zhou Yan took the book and couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when he saw the cover. It actually said "Don't Let Me Go" and the author's name was Zhou Yan.
He flipped back again, starting with the author's introduction and writing a long paragraph, but a lot of the information in it was wrong.
For example, the profile says he was born in 1966, but he was born in 1970, a difference of four years.
The profile says he is a native of Yanjing, but he is from Jinling.
However, it was right to study at Yangyin and stay at the school to teach. Apart from this information, there were some flattering words that made Zhou Yan blush.
"The most outstanding compositional genius of this century."
"The youngest film master."
"Music albums have sold hundreds of millions worldwide."
Because it was too much nonsense, Zhou Yan did not finish reading the introduction and turned to the back.
After the introduction, there is a preface by the author.
Zhou Yan did write a preface to "Never Let Me Go", but the content was very simple. It roughly described why this book was serialized in "October" and mainly talked about his encounter with Zhang Shouren during the author meeting.
But the preface to the book he was holding was not that at all.
The key thing about this preface is that it has a title, "Every lonely night is accompanied by words and notes."
The content also matches the title. It mainly tells the story of how "I" gradually transformed from a lonely little boy who was not understood by ordinary people to a world-renowned artist.
Not to mention, although this preface is very ridiculous and exaggerated, it is very emotional. The person who wrote this has two brushes.
Zhou Yan couldn't help but sigh that he was working so hard to engage in piracy now, and he even wrote the copy himself.
But what Zhou Yan is confused about is why this piracy person would make up these things by himself?
The author's introduction and the preface are included in the original book. You can't just copy them. It would be time-consuming and labor-intensive to compile a set yourself.
Is it possible that people who do pirates have some bad tastes?
But when you turn to the next chapter, Zhou Yan will understand why.
This is not a complete book at all. It only contains the first third of "Never Let Me Go", which was previously serialized in "October".
In other words, when this pirated version came out, the genuine book had not yet come out, so they had no place to copy it. They could only take the tens of thousands of words serialized in the magazine and add other things to make a book.
The next 100,000 words are more complicated, including "Border Town" by Shen Congwen and "Flowers in the Mirror" by Li Ruzhen, which can be said to be three books in one.
Chen Hongheng sat nearby and always wanted to see what the book was about, but he was too embarrassed to go over and read it.
After Zhou Yan read it, seeing that he was curious, he handed the book to him, "Take a look, it's very interesting." Chen Hongheng became even more curious after hearing what Zhou Yan said. Isn't it just a pirated book? Why is it interesting?
After Chen Hongheng flipped through it, he couldn't help but laugh and said, "The person who does this can be considered a talent. Maybe they want to seize the market in advance, so they did this."
Zhou Yan nodded, "It seems that they are also anxious and even went to the airport to sell them."
"Don't rush it. In a few days, high-quality pirated copies will be released, and there will be no market for this book." Chen Hongheng curled his lips and asked strangely, "Why did they add "Border Town" and "Flowers in the Mirror" at the end? If I made a pirated copy, I would definitely reprint the previous content, so it would not be easy to detect.”
Chen Hongheng is right. "Border Town" and "Flowers Through the Looking Glass" are works from different eras. The wording and sentence construction are completely different from "Never Let Me Go". If others flip through it casually, it will be easy to see the problem.
"Maybe the piracy people have a hard conscience and want to let readers at least see two more books." Zhou Yan shrugged and smiled.
"So it's still worth the money." Chen Hongheng laughed.
Nakamori Akina was listening to their conversation, and everyone was stunned.
"Do you think this is piracy?"
"It's not as simple as piracy. Piracy can at least see the original content. There is only one third of the content in this one, and the rest is from other books."
This book was recently updated in ##六@@九@@书@@!! Updated!
"How could this be? The girl selling books seemed very honest and told me that she was a salesperson at the airport."
The salesperson at the airport... Zhou Yan found that Akina Nakamori was really easy to be deceived. She could believe such a clumsy lie. How could an airport salesperson sell books to passengers? It was impossible even to think about it.
Chen Hongheng also stood up at this time and said goodbye with a smile, "Boss, Miss Zhongsen, you guys chat, I'm going back to work."
Zhou Yan nodded, "Go and do your work."
"Goodbye, Mr. Chen."
After Chen Hongheng left, Akina Nakamori sat down next to Zhou Yan and said angrily, "I'm so stupid, I was cheated again."
Zhou Yan smiled and took a copy of "Never Let Me Go" from under the coffee table, "You said you wanted to read it, I've prepared it for you, why would you buy it from someone else?"
"I just think it's quite fate. I happened to meet someone selling your book, and I also want to increase the sales of your new book."
Akina Nakamori looked at the book she bought and became more and more angry. Suddenly she picked up the book and wanted to throw it into the trash can.
Zhou Yan stopped her, "What are you doing?"
"Of course this kind of book should be thrown into the trash can."
Zhou Yan smiled and took the book into his hand, "You don't have to throw it away. It's a blessing in disguise. You have come into contact with two excellent Chinese literary works. You can read "Border Town" and "Flower in the Mirror" here... Of course, you have to wait. Your Chinese skills should be higher.”
"Really? Are these two books good?"
"Well, good."
"Oh, then it's somewhat useful."
"Then stay, see it often, and you won't be deceived again in the future."
"Yes." Akina Nakamori nodded, and then became annoyed again, "Why did I believe that girl? Okay, let's not talk about this anymore-"
Nakamori Akina hugged Zhou Yan's neck and asked, "What should we have for dinner?"
Zhou Yan was stunned by this question. Normally, shouldn't she ask "Do you miss me?" Even Zhou Yan was ready to answer.
Unexpectedly, she acted out of common sense and first asked what to eat for dinner when we met.
"I asked Kong Chao to prepare hot pot in the evening, and we cooked it and ate it."
"Hot pot." Nakamori Akina's eyes were bright. It was obvious that she was very satisfied with the hot pot.
Zhou Yan also knew that she loved hot pot, so he specially asked the cafeteria to prepare it.
The reason why Akina Nakamori is happy is not only because she loves hot pot, but also because of Zhou Yan's thoughtfulness. She is very addicted to the feeling of being seriously considered.
Asking "Do I miss you?" may get false answers, but asking "What are you having for dinner?" can get real answers.
But then she pouted and said, "Can you eat hot pot?"
She knew that Zhou Yan was very strict about his diet, especially oil and salt, so he basically wouldn't eat hot pot.
Zhou Yan smiled and said, "It's okay to have a meal once in a while, and what we eat is mandarin duck hotpot."
Akina Nakamori smiled and kissed Zhou Yan on the face, "Thank you for your hard work."
Zhou Yan curled his lips, "Although it's not unfortunate, your condolences are not sincere enough."
Nakamori Akina knew what Zhou Yan meant, and kissed Zhou Yan on the lips coyly, and then stood up quickly, "I have to go back to the hotel first, and then come back to have dinner with you later."
After speaking, she ran away without waiting for Zhou Yan to answer.
Zhou Yan licked his lips. The remaining lipstick on it had a slightly sweet and floral fragrance, which was the same as the lipstick when they kissed for the first time.
……
Akina Nakamori came to Yanjing this time to record the two songs "Fireworks" and "Return to the Province".
It would have been better to come back after a while, but she knew that Zhou Yan's new book had been released, so she couldn't wait to arrive in Yanjing in advance.
In the next few days, Zhou Yan basically spent half a day in his office, and another half day in the recording studio with Akina Nakamori to record new songs.
While recording, I also encountered some troubles.
She sang the song "Returning to the Province" very well, and it felt right. Some minor issues could be fixed with a few simple adjustments.
But when she sang "Fireworks", it always felt wrong.
Zhou Yan hoped that when she sang this song, her voice could be sweeter or even a little bit sweeter, but the effect she produced was not good.
Her resonance is so good, even if you tell her to be sweeter and more pinched, she will still have the same 3D reverberation feeling when she sings.
Zhou Yan even asked her to try singing "Christmas Song" to find out how she felt, and she felt the same when singing it.
After adjusting for a long time, Zhou Yan felt that maybe this song was not suitable for Nakamori Akina to sing at all, and maybe it would be better to sing it for Kudo Shizuka.
Although Kudo Shizuka's singing skills are not as good as Nakamori Akina's, she can sing this kind of song.
After pondering for a long time, Zhou Yan said, "How about I stop singing this song and give you another song?"
He sounded like he was discussing, but Akina Nakamori was very excited, "No, this song cannot be changed, even if it is "Return to the Province", this song cannot be changed."
Of course, this song cannot be changed, because this song is full of memories of her and Zhou Yan. Now as long as she sings this song, she can think of the fireworks that night.
Therefore, she must sing this song herself and cannot give it to others.
Seeing how excited she was, Zhou Yan said quickly, "Okay, okay, if you don't change it, if you don't change it, we will make adjustments."
Nakamori Akina clenched her fists and was very motivated, "Don't worry, I will definitely make adjustments."
Zhou Yan also clenched his fist and responded to her, "Okay, I believe you." (End of Chapter)