Chapter 204 White Whale

Chapter 204 White Whale

Chapter 204 White Whale
Wang Zixu's first reaction was a little hurt, his second reaction was a little aggrieved, and his third reaction was that Zuo Ziliang's words were a bit fucking harsh.

His wife had left. For him, this was like Guan Yu's sacrifice of his seal. Going after her was a favor, and not going after her was a favor. In the final analysis, he didn't want to, but there was no way. He felt like there was a void in his heart.

Leaving without saying goodbye is abandonment. Wang Zixu was abandoned by his mother when he was 8 years old. This may have led him to subconsciously never think that women are animals that can be kept, just like white whales.

If a white whale bites off one of your legs, you'd better wave goodbye to it and watch its dorsal fin disappear into the horizon. Because it is destined to be lost. Since it cannot be lost, it is better to leave a trace of beauty at the end of the story.

So, what was originally a very beautiful (questionable) thing turned into ammunition used by Zuo Ziliang to attack himself, which is not beautiful.

Wang Zixu expressed his protest to Zuo Ziliang. Zuo Ziliang smiled strangely, said nothing, and just shook his head.

"I didn't mean what you understood."

"Then what do you mean?"

"Then tell me more details," Zuo Ziliang said, "Do you really have a wife?"

The prince opened his mouth in vain, his words still circling in his mind, when the door of the office opened and Ye Lan poked his head in:
"Two grown men are talking about family?"

Zuo Ziliang hesitated to speak. Wang Zixu felt that he wanted to say something more, and looked at him, but he was unwilling to speak again.

"What are you talking about?" Ye Lan pretended to be strolling around, walked in, closed the door tightly, then turned around and sat on the sofa.

"Nothing, just some script stuff." Zuo Ziliang returned to his desk to pack up the documents.

"Stop pretending." Ye Lan sneered, "Are you talking about Xunyi-related things?"

Wang Zixu and Zuo Ziliang looked at each other. They hadn't figured out how to discuss this with Ye Lan.

"Do you think I'm stupid? I felt something was wrong with Lao Wang this morning. And you, Zuo Ziliang, have been acting strange lately. Do you think I can't see it?" Ye Lan crossed his long legs, put his arms on the back of the chair, and acted like a big boss. "Tell me! What's going on?"

Wang Zixu glanced at Zuo Ziliang and told him truthfully about what happened when Xinyi came to his house.

After hearing this, Ye Lan unexpectedly did not loudly condemn Zuo Ziliang, but instead looked thoughtful and said:
"If we all want to jump ship, then Xunyi will lose its united front value and it will be difficult to sell at a high price, right?"

Wang Zixu smiled bitterly: "The problem now is that the driver wants to fight to the end."

"Forget it, I understand," Zuo Ziliang sighed and slowly sat down on the chair, "Everyone has their own aspirations, there's no need to force it. If you don't want to work together, just leave."

This time, Wang Zixu and Ye Lan looked at each other in bewilderment. Ye Lan asked, "What are you going to do with the shares?"

After listening to this, Zuo Ziliang turned around silently, went back to his desk, took out a brown paper file bag and threw it on the table.

"I mortgaged my house in Donghai and borrowed some money. I was going to use it as funds to fight Xunyi. If you want to leave, it will be used as money to redeem your shares."

Ye Lan's eyes widened: "Are you crazy? Did Xun Yi steal your wife? Why are you going against them like this?"

Zuo Ziliang lit a cigarette: "I have my reasons."

Ye Lan counted on his fingers and said:
"Operation, community, connections, resources, spending, optimization... we are not better than the opponent in any aspect. The only advantage we have is that our speech therapists have more experience than the opponent."

Zuo Ziliang squinted his eyes and smiled, blowing out a smoke ring from his mouth:
"And they are paying high prices to recruit people. We are losing speech therapists. I estimate that in about three months, the quality of their speech therapists will catch up with Wen Ai."

Ye Lan said: "Yeah! So you knew? Even so, you still want to go against Xun Yi?"

"Again, I have my reasons."

Wang Zixu asked: "Is this also part of your ideal?"

Zuo Ziliang did not deny it.

Wang Zixu thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll work with you for another three months. I can also find a way to deal with my house and make some money."

Ye Lan slowly turned his head and looked at him in disbelief: "Are you crazy too?"

Wang Zixu said: "We have a chance."

"There's something wrong."

"There really is a chance," he explained. "An Younan came to me yesterday and used very generous means to try to pry me over. If they were really that successful, she wouldn't be so eager to achieve success."

After listening to this, Ye Lan expressed his rare agreement: "Judging from Xunyi's past practices, they also implement the law of the jungle internally, where the fittest survive. Projects that fail to produce results in the short term will definitely be eliminated on the spot. But does this apply to An Younan?"

Wang Zixu asked: "What happened to An Younan?"

"Think about An Younan's background." Ye Lan said, "Give me a hint. The father of the CEO of Xunyi Company also has the last name An."

"Don't they have the same surname, father and son?"

"I heard that the father of the CEO of Xunyi married into the family, so he took his mother's surname. Now that Xunyi has become big, it is possible that his daughter will change her ancestral surname."

Wang Zixu carefully recalled the scene when he first met An Younan. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this guess was reliable. He nodded and said:
"She is indeed a bit like a second-generation person. I used to wonder if she could really manage such a large amount of funds when she is so young. But if we consider it from the perspective of training a successor, then it is possible."

After saying this, Wang Zixu sighed, "We have finally developed an industry with our small business, but in order to train a successor, they just throw a lot of money at us and let us do it. It's really frustrating to compare ourselves with others."

Zuo Ziliang said: "Don't be angry. This world is just a makeshift team."

Ye Lan spread his hands: "Even if we know this, there is nothing we can do? What's the use?"

Zuo Ziliang put out his cigarette and said, "If it's half a year later, when Wen Ai has grown into a medium-sized enterprise, I still have the confidence to compete with them, but not now. Right now, we can't even compete with Mao."

Today's Wen Ai, thrown into the vast East China Sea, is like a grain of sand thrown into the Yellow River.

Open the street view on the map and randomly arrange a photo of an office building, and you may find 17 or 18 companies of the same size as Wen Ai. They are all small-scale.

When they encounter Xun Yi now, it is as if they have just left the Novice Village and run into the final boss of the entire game, with no chance to go back.

"But we are not without a chance. Since An Younan is a powerful figure, even if we can't solve the problem, we can start by solving the problem of people."

Ye Lan pouted: "Can you still attack An Younan himself?"

Zuo Ziliang shook his head: "Did you forget? We have a little prince."

……

Wang Zixu got up too early in the morning and had breakfast too late. When he arrived at the community, he felt his mind was a little unclear and his forehead was throbbing with pain.

He has recently begun to get used to the life of an editor, and it has gradually become a pleasure for him to read all kinds of submissions in his mailbox and give some revision suggestions to novice writers.

In addition to reviewing the manuscript today, he also has other tasks - he plans to ask Ning Chunyan for some money.

After discussing one or two brilliant ideas with Zuo Ziliang and Ye Lan, we found that the biggest problem was still the lack of money. A lot of money.

He had invested 80 yuan in Ning Chunyan. The magazine had been doing well recently, so he planned to ask her to give him some of the money back. Ning Chunyan left in a hurry that morning, and he didn't have time to ask her. At about noon, Ning Chunyan came back. Her face was full of worry and concern.

Before Wang Zixu had the chance to start talking about his own affairs, Ning Chunyan started to complain:

"The printing factory is really unkind. They won't lower the price at all and they still charge us for storage fees. Isn't this sucking our blood?"

Diao Yiwen raised her head first and asked, "What's the matter?"

"Well, isn't it about money?"

Ning Chunyan sat down, took off her high heels, and adjusted her stockings at the toes. Wang Zixu and Diao Yiwen were the only two people in the room, and she didn't treat them as outsiders.

Wang Zixu cleared his throat and decided to talk about something else first: "Chen Qingluo has asked for leave."

"Really?" Chen Qingluo often asked for leave, and Ning Chunyan had long been accustomed to it. "Hey, how was your conversation that day?"

"It's okay, it's okay." Wang Zixu felt that it was a bit against his will to say this, and said, "I went to Shi Tonghe's house with her."

Upon hearing this, Ning Chunyan's foot stepped off the chair and missed: "What?"

Diao Yiwen also came over.

"We talked to Shi Tonghe about his work, but it wasn't a very pleasant conversation."

Wang Zixu's words were vague, but Ning Chunyan understood them. She was afraid that Diao Yiwen might hear her, so she also said vaguely:
"Okay, after all, he is a senior, it is normal for him to look down on us juniors. But then again, at least this means that you and Qingluo have reconciled. By the way, why did she ask for leave again?"

Wang Zixu said: "She said she found inspiration and needed to go home and write it down immediately."

Ning Chunyan was stunned and said, "Ah, why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Weren't you busy earlier?"

"Once she says something like that, she will definitely go crazy when she gets home. She might not even have breakfast yet. If we leave her alone, she will faint from hunger at home."

Wang Zixu was stunned for a moment, and immediately said, "Where is her home? I'll bring her some food."

"You don't have to do anything, I'll do it." Ning Chunyan patted his shoulder with a smile. To those who didn't know Chen Qingluo's writing habits, her smile was strange.

Ning Chunyan went on to say, "Ever since the Little Prince issue became a huge hit, our sales in recent issues have not been very good."

Wang Zixu nodded: "That's normal. Many people just watch it for fun. After buying one issue, they may not buy the next one."

"Yes, I was overwhelmed by the traffic of The Little Prince and overestimated the current print media market." Ning Chunyan said, "The Little Prince was sold out that time, and we kept reprinting it. As a result, the sales of the next two issues were halved, and the sales of the most recent issue were halved even more."

Wang Zixu asked, "Did you lose money?"

Ning Chunyan's expression was a bit bitter: "Losing money is not a big deal, but the printing factory is unwilling to give in. If we reduce the print volume, the charges will not be much lower. If we print too much and cannot sell it, it will be stored in the warehouse and we will have to pay the warehouse fee."

Wang Zixu asked cautiously, "So there is no problem with the funds now, right?"

"Barely breaking even - breaking even means that the income and expenses are balanced when the funds are used up. If there is still a loss in the next period, then we will have to pay for it."

Diao Yiwen asked: "Sister Xiaochun, how can we change this situation next?"

"Order more manuscripts and make them better." Ning Chunyan waved his hand and said, "We can't have only one little prince. We need to cultivate more new talents who can hold up the stage. It would be best if we can use the remaining influence now to invite manuscripts from a few famous writers."

After she finished speaking, she was stunned and couldn't help but feel sad: "Originally, we set up this magazine to change the current situation of only looking for celebrities to commission articles, but now we are forced to go down this path!"

Diao Yiwen said, "There's nothing we can do, Sister Xiaochun. This is reality. Readers are very realistic. If you don't publish articles by celebrities, they will never pay."

Ning Chunyan turned to Wang Zixu and asked, "What did you want to tell me just now?"

"nothing."

Wang Zixu had long given up the idea of ​​asking her for money. This was also a poor guy.

"Why don't you start now and go find famous writers to commission articles? Here, I have the contact information of many writers, you can contact them..."

Diao Yiwen hesitated and said, "Sister Xiaochun, I'm not familiar with her, can I get a manuscript?"

"It's okay. Just chat with them and you'll get to know each other. Even if they don't give face to Xin Shang, they will give face to me."

"Sister Xiaochun, I believe they will give you face. What if they just talk to me and don't give me the manuscript?"

"Then let's wait to die!"

Wang Zixu walked out of the door silently, looked at the sky outside the railing for a while, and suddenly his mind clicked.

Then, he immediately turned around, returned to the room, and said to Ning Chunyan:
"Chun Yan, do you want to ask the little prince for an assignment?"

The room fell silent. Ning Chunyan stared at him with her beautiful eyes and asked, "What did you call me just now?"

"I call you editor-in-chief."

Ning Chunyan said nothing and lowered his head to pack his things.

"Let's ask the little prince to do an article for us." Wang Zixu suggested again, "Let's promote it appropriately. If the sales of the next issue increase, our reputation will also spread, and our financial situation will be much better."

Ning Chunyan packed up her things, using her hands to hide her panic: "No way."

"why not?"

"We can't be too, too..." After hesitating for a long time, Ning Chunyan lowered his voice and said, "We can't rely too much on him."

After she said this, her face turned red again.

The prince ignored the little girl's attitude and said, "This is not a question of whether to rely on him or not. Our lives are at stake now, so why not ask him for help?"

"It's not as scary as a life-or-death situation, is it?"

Diao Yiwen also chimed in: "Yes, just ask him for help. He will definitely be willing to help. If it doesn't work, Editor-in-Chief, you can pledge your love to him."

"What are you talking about?"

The two women started making noise again.

Wang Zixu's cell phone rang. He looked down and saw it was Xiao Mengyin.

(End of this chapter)