Chapter 235: Can popular science be written like this?

Chapter 235: Can popular science be written like this?

Chapter 235: Can popular science be written like this?
"Not really, I just want to ask, if I publish in literary magazines like Sichuan Literature, will the reward be greater?" Gu Lu asked.

Sichuan Literature is the top literary journal in Sichuan and Chongqing. It is well-known in the Bashu region, but it is not widely known outside of Sichuan and Chongqing.

"The importance of Sichuan Literature should be similar to that of Youth Digest," Director Hu said after some thought. "If it can be published in literary magazines such as Harvest or October, the reward will definitely be doubled."

"What if, I mean if, I publish it in People's Literature, wouldn't the reward be better?" Gu Lu asked.

What a wild idea! What is the concept of people's literature?

Let me just say two things. First, the current price of People's Literature is 300-600 yuan per thousand words, and the lowest price has exceeded the upper limit of most magazines.

Secondly, People's Literature is a core literary journal with the highest impact factor among literary journals.

To put it more directly, many members of the presidiums of provincial writers' associations have never had their articles published in People's Literature.

However, Director Hu remembered that the student in front of him was Gu Lu. If he worked hard for two or three years, he might be able to succeed!

"There will definitely be more rewards. I guess the school will make a special report for you when the time comes." Director Hu said, "As for more specific ones, the school still needs to think about it, but you will definitely be satisfied anyway."

The report topic of a high school is generally about the top scorer in the college entrance examination in the province (city) that the school has produced. Only then will the topic be submitted to the education department.

It depends on the quality of the report. If it is good, the education department will send it to other high schools for study.

Strictly speaking, if it were a dozen or twenty years ago, Gu Lu's fame overseas would have been enough to warrant a report.

However, the phenomenon of worshipping foreign things and fawning on foreigners was not so serious in 2013. At least, only by winning awards abroad could one make a big splash.

"Okay, I understand." Gu Lu got a satisfactory answer.

"Student Gu Lu needs to work hard. There are less than two years left," Director Hu encouraged.

After replying with an expression of "I'll do my best", Gu Lu left without disturbing Director Hu's work. After all, the director was only slightly injured and would not leave the front line.

After having dinner in the cafeteria, Gu Lu slowly walked home.

The cafeteria of No. 8 Middle School, although the taste is average, seems to be quite healthy and there is nothing wrong with it at present. Later, it also clearly stood up against the entry of pre-prepared meals into the campus.

It is a rainy season in the mountain city at the end of March. The main road is fine, but when you turn into the small road, you can see potholes of various sizes.

"Yes, yes, yes, I forgot to check it this morning - the flashlight is still there, the flashlight is still there." Gu Lu saw the flashlight. It had been on all night, and it must be out of power at this moment.

"People are not as bad as we think." Gu Lu thought so and unwrapped the rope made of twisted plastic bags.

But last night I was worried about someone stealing it, so I wrapped it around and around and tied it into a knot.

A knot is like a knot in the heart. The tighter it is at the beginning, the harder it is to untie. Anyway, Gu Lu got a little annoyed after doing it for a while and started to untie the knot violently.

He would take it home to repair the power, and if it was not fixed tonight, he would take it out.

Working day and night, walking home like a zombie after get off work, and stepping into a puddle because of the darkness when you are almost home, just imagine how uncomfortable it would be?
Gu Lu also took this into consideration when he did this.

When he got home, Gu Lu caught a glimpse of a white note stuck on the back of the door, with the words "Water the Flowers" written on it in red marker.

Yes, Lu Ping's parents sent another pot of flowers. But this time they didn't mention the composition, maybe Lu's mother had let it go. As for the flowers, according to Pingtou Ge, "My mother said that you like flowers and you will definitely be able to take good care of them, so I'll give you another pot."

It must be well raised... Gu Lu returns to the present, he is confident!
This is a peony.

After watering the flowers, Gu Lu began his day of reading.

Next is working time, it feels great to be a plagiarist.

When I was writing novels before, even though I didn’t spend a lot of time writing, I didn’t really have any time to rest. Of course, if writing can provide a stable income, it would surpass 80% of the industries.

Three hours later, it was already nine o'clock.

"There are still more than 40,000 words, and it's almost finished!" It can be handed over to President Jian the day after tomorrow at the latest.

After all, the two consecutive films are not as good as "The Little Prince" in various dimensions, so this is an opportunity to return to the top!

"Oh no, I was so excited while typing that I forgot the time. Why didn't the alarm I set go off?" Gu Lu then remembered that he was so excited while typing that he turned off the alarm as soon as it went off.

What's the use of you? Gu Lu glared at his phone fiercely, not even noticing it ring again.

Bullying the phone for being unintelligent and not being able to refute, Gu Lu jumped up from the stool, took out the charged flashlight and rushed downstairs.

Then... on a dark road, there were two flashlights.

"That's quite interesting." Gu Lu picked a spot and tied his flashlight to it, still following the old rules, using a plastic bag rope.

Gu Lu inherited his original body's habit of going to the market to buy vegetables and hoarding all the plastic bags he brought back.

With three flashlights, the dark road without street lights was barely able to avoid potholes.

When I got home, I received a penguin message from Gu Jiayu.

[Gu Jiayu: Brother, brother, I took the mock test and I scored 681 points. Is this score high enough to get into No. Middle School?

Gu Jiayu: I’m going to sleep first. I have to get up early tomorrow to memorize English words.]
There has been progress. Gu Jiayu's previous average score should have been around 650. It is absolutely rare to increase it by 20 or 30 points at once.

No wonder Miss Gu hasn’t talked to him recently. It turns out that she has been working hard silently and amazed everyone.

"According to the previous admission score of No. 8 Middle School, it won't be lower than 690, just a little bit off." Gu Lu replied: Wow, it has increased so much? How did you do it? It's amazing!

The female knight is not stupid. She can get a mobile phone or a computer. What school's score line can't be found online? Obviously, this message was sent to praise. Gu Lu still has some emotional intelligence.

In the next two days, Gu Lu's activities were very regular, going to school and writing after school.

On Wednesday, Gu Lu became successful.

"'Flatland' is finished! There won't be any problems this time like there were with 'Who Moved My Cheese?'" Gu Lu sent the manuscript to President Jian.

As soon as I took my hand off the mouse and picked up the phone, a call came in.

It’s an unfamiliar number, and the phone’s location is Shanghai.

Although it is certain that it is not Gu's mother who changed the number and called, although she has not done so at the moment, Gu Lu is always worried.

Connect——

"Hey?"

"Who? Oh oh ok."

"I probably can't help."

"That's no problem."

Gu Lu hung up and was silent for a while. He frowned and tried hard to dig out the memory of his original body.

The person who called was Mu Xue, and she claimed to be her cousin.

If the other party had not been able to accurately tell some private family information, Gu Lu would have thought that the person on the other end of the phone was a liar.

"It seems like there really is such a person. Her grandmother, should I call her great aunt?" Gu Lu couldn't tell either.

Mu Xue’s great-grandmother and Gu’s great-grandmother are sisters, so this relationship should go back three generations.

I've only met him once, and Mu Xue's family has become rich, so their branch has moved to Shanghai, and they haven't come back for the New Year for several years.

The relationship between relatives in rural areas will become weak if they don’t visit each other for a period of time, so I only met them once when I was a child.

The reason why I still remember it after so long is that Mu Xue was dressed like a little princess at that time, and was very beautiful.

With so many complicated relatives, Gu Lu didn't know whether he had remembered the relationship correctly.

I don’t know where the other party got his cell phone number from. Mu Xue is about to graduate from East China Normal University this year.

Mu Xue joined a project initiated by East China Normal University called "Survey and Research on Middle School Students' Education", which mainly involved field surveys on three subjects: middle school students' mental health, their ability to bear academic tasks, and their learning attitudes.

The city she chose was in the southwest region where educational resources are underdeveloped. Since her hometown is a foggy city, it was natural for her to choose this city.

"In fact, except for Jiangsu and Zhejiang and Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the educational resources in other places are average. The Fog City is not that bad, and it is a municipality."

Gu Lu refused to admit defeat, but he knew in his heart that the Southwest F4 had very few educational resources, especially before 2018.

The other party called just to ask him to help introduce the principal to someone. He wanted to do an investigation and needed the school's consent.

Although he had no connection with the other party, it was just a small favor, so Gu Lu felt it was not a big deal to agree to it.

After washing up and going to bed, President Jian in another city, who was already dozing off, received Gu Lu's new work.

I couldn't sleep, so I immediately opened the email. I saw that President Jian had already made up his mind that he would publish this book regardless of the quality.

[Salute to all residents of Space Country, especially Mr. Ronaldo
This book was written by a humble little man in Flatland.

Although he once only knew the two-dimensional world
[…]
The basketball that Zhang Yudong gave to Gu Lu was named Ronaldo. No one knew how he would react when he saw it.

"Two-dimensional world?" The opening made President Jian serious, because he seemed to have regained the state of watching "The Little Prince".

He wasn't wondering who Ronaldo was, because it was obvious from the beginning that he was a character in the book.

I am more concerned about what the two-dimensional world is and the flat country.

The key is that if it is defined as a popular science novel, the plot cannot be too complicated, otherwise it will not achieve the effect of popular science.

So, what do you do?

Then the opening chapter made President Jian secretly applaud.

[I call our world "Flatland" not because we call it that, but so that you, the lucky readers living in Spaceland, can understand its nature more clearly. Imagine a huge sheet of paper with lines, triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons and other shapes on it, which are not fixed in their positions but can move freely on or in the plane...]
The article begins with the perspective of the residents of Flatland.

It's like placing a coin on the table and then slowly bringing your eyes to level with it.

There is only one line, which is similar to the perspective that all residents of Flatland can see.

Why add a similar? Because the lines of the coin are still three-dimensional, but there are no three-dimensional objects in Flatland.

"It's back, all of it is back, this wonderful imagination that only children can have."

President Jian continued to watch, and many doubts arose in his mind, "If there is no three-dimensional, does it mean that there is no sun, moon, and stars? Then what will the mountains, rivers, and houses look like?"

Next the book begins to introduce flat countries, such as houses.

"There are more pictures, but this time they are much worse than the ones of the Little Prince." President Jian smiled.

The houses in Flatland are all pentagonal, because if the houses are built in triangles or quadrilaterals with sharp angles, they will hurt the residents.

“It’s easy to hide knowledge in it, the relationship between edges and corners.”

Next, the author slowly writes about what the residents look like, how to distinguish between men and women, the classes of the Flatland, etc.

President Jian, the president of the Children's Literature Publishing House, has read too many popular science books.

But there is no doubt that Gu Lu’s new work “Flatland” must be the best combination of fun and popular science.

The reading experience of more than an hour is excellent and will definitely not make children feel bored.

At first, President Jian wondered why Gu Lu chose only niche topics, either fables or popular science. Now he realizes that he has a narrow vision and genre is not a shackle.

"After turning fairy tales upside down, are you going to mess up the field of popular science novels too?" This is the only thought that President Jian has at the moment.

Publish, must publish, first print run 20 copies!

President Jian took out his cell phone and was about to call the author, but stopped halfway. It was a bit late now, so he could call tomorrow.

Gu Lu did not receive a call from President Jian late at night, but there was an international call from Neon.

To be honest, Gu Lu has a very broad mind. He not only likes the RMB, but he is also tolerant of the Japanese yen.

So for the sake of Japanese yen, Gu Lu went to the business hall to activate international long-distance service. It was rather troublesome to activate the service in 13, and he also needed to go to the business hall to deposit a few thousand yuan in advance.

A strange Chinese accent came from the phone, and the man introduced himself first, "Hello, Teacher Gu Lu..."

Fuji TV International Liaison Division? Probably a translator or something like that.

Then a voice in Japanese came from the side, probably the official contact person for today, "Hello, Mr. Gu Lu, I am Ume Asayama of Fuji TV, the director of the copyright department."

What is the copyright department? Gu Lu didn't know either, so he responded politely and waited for follow-up.

"We at Fuji TV's Wonderful Stories of the World want to buy four novels, Owl Man, Yesterday's Park, Iron Pillar, and Ceiling Walker, and adapt them into TV series."

Yesterday's Park and the Owl Man were also adapted by Shiqi in the previous life on Earth. As for the Iron Pillar and the Walker - never mind, Gu Lu agreed to sell them.

Just for this price, Gu Lu is waiting for the other party to quote.

"Teacher Gu Lu, do you think 300 million yen is okay for the adaptation fee of your work?"

"Mr. Nakai, Mr. Yasuda... Mr. Junji Ito bought the copyright for my manga adaptation for 200 million yen." Gu Lu responded.

What this means is that if comic adaptations are this expensive, film and television adaptations cannot be so cheap.

There was a long silence on the other end of the line before a strangely accented Chinese voice rang out again, "Teacher Gu Lu, our Shiqi has been on the air since the 90s and is already very well-known. The adaptation will also bring huge publicity to your work."

Although Shiqi is very famous in Japan, the show was still being filmed on Earth when Gu Lu traveled there, and the actual cost of filming each episode was very strictly controlled.

"Besides, the price we pay for copyrights is always 250 million yen. Since Mr. Gu Lu is a famous writer, we raised the price with sincerity."

That makes sense. Gu Lu almost believed it. He said, "But as far as I remember, Shiqi's ratings have been declining year by year."

With just one sentence, the two people on the opposite side were silenced.

"400 million yen, Mr. Gu Lu, this price is all the sincerity we can offer. Please consider it."

The current exchange rate is more than 200,000 yuan. Gu Lu is not sure about the market price of neon, and this thing cannot be found on the Internet.

The bargaining just now was also a subconscious action.

After thinking for more than ten seconds, Gu Lu agreed, "Okay, 400 million yen, I also watch Shiqi often."

"Teacher Gu Lu also watched Shiqi. As far as I know, the copyright of this series has not been sold in China. Is it true?"

Damn, I'm used to it. In the future, Douyin and Bilibili will have a lot of clips, even with Chinese cooked meat, but now...

"Huh? Didn't Hong Kong TVB broadcast it?" Gu Lu asked back. It's good to learn different things. TVB did introduce it and translated it as "Fantasy Century".

"TVB, it is indeed true. It is my fault. I am sorry, Mr. Gu Lu."

"It's ok."

"The male lead in Yesterday's Park is played by Koichi Domoto. Do you think it's okay, Mr. Gu Lu?"

Gu Lu was quite positive about making money, but arranging who to perform was beyond Gu Lu's knowledge.

Then they discussed the general aspects of the contract. Both parties have completed preliminary negotiations and will arrange for people from the TV station to come to China probably next week.

"In this way, my royalties in Neon can increase further." Gu Lu thought to himself after hanging up the phone.

Falling asleep wrapped in money.

The next day.

As soon as school was over, Gu Lu rushed home and didn't go to the cafeteria because he wanted to have a good meal outside to celebrate today.

As you enter Lao Lei’s Fish Hotpot from the front door, you can see a photo of Gu Lu, Wu Du, Tu Liang and the boss.

The business license and health certificate are hung below the photo.

Whenever a diner asks who is in the photo.

"The youngest one is the smartest kid in our mountain city, Gu Lu, who wrote The Little Prince. The one on the left is Teacher Tu Liang, who writes poetry. The one on the right is our No. 8 Middle School teacher Wu Du, who is also very talented."

According to the shop owner, Wu Du was a teacher at No. 8 Middle School, proving that his identity as a writer was not very recognized.

In addition, "The Little Prince" and "Dreaming" are also displayed in the store, and if customers are interested, he also sells books part-time.

"Is this reasonable? What did the street office say? The street lights are not working because the wiring is old. There was originally a plan to replace them, but because we had no choice but to tie a few flashlights ourselves, the street office said that it would not affect the normal lives of residents, so the construction plan was postponed. What a joke!"

"Then can we repair it in advance by removing all the flashlights?"

"I heard it's not possible. The specific time has been arranged."

……

People are not as good as imagined, Gu Lu wondered in his heart, it seems that this time he meant well but ended up with a bad result?
The street lights were not repaired until the end of March.

In April, "People's Literature" was put on the shelves and published "Double Lanterns" and "Rui Yun".

(End of this chapter)