Chapter 250: There were a lot of people at the book signing event
Chapter 250: There were a lot of people at the book signing event
Huafeng Publishing House?
With the introduction of Vice President Li Heng, Gu Lu had a preliminary understanding. Huafeng was founded by a Japanese who loved Chinese culture, and initially wanted to translate and publish ancient Chinese books.
The reason for this arrangement is mainly due to the "Mythology of the Three Kingdoms".
Think about how popular "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is in Japan. There are representative works on the Three Kingdoms theme in the gaming, animation, and film and television industries.
There's a lot to be done!
However, Huafeng Publishing House, which wanted to recreate the myth, failed miserably and was on the verge of bankruptcy several times.
Firstly, translating classical Chinese into Japanese requires an editor with high literary literacy; secondly, a large part of the reason why "Three Kingdoms" is so popular is due to Yoshikawa Eiji.
Yoshikawa Eiji's status in Japan is only comparable to that of Natsume Soseki. The most famous doujinshi in Japanese history, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Heroes", is the version that Japanese readers are more familiar with.
In 06, Huafeng Publishing House was acquired and published some relatively marginal works.
"We at Huafeng Publishing House are very sincere." Li Heng looked sincere, "I hope Mr. Gu Lu can consider it. We Chinese people will definitely help Chinese people."
Li Heng didn't take any food because he sneaked in and didn't have a breakfast coupon.
"It's fine for Chinese people to help Chinese people," Gu Lu said, "but the stamp duty for my book The Little Prince was 11.5%. I believe the next book will not be less than 13%."
"But President Li gave me 11%?" Gu Lu looked at the middle-aged man in a black suit in front of him.
"We at Huafeng Publishing House are currently wavering about the future path, so 11% royalties is the highest within my authority." Li Heng showed an embarrassed expression, "Please forgive me, Mr. Gu Lu. I promise that if we cooperate on the next book, I will definitely give you a high price."
The implication is that you should bear with it a little.
The first book hasn't even been explained yet, but you're already making plans for the second book? Gu Lu heard this and said, "I don't have any plans to write a new book at the moment."
"We don't need a new book. We can publish a Japanese version of Mr. Gu Lu's Sherlock Holmes." Li Heng said, "With Mr. Gu Lu joining us, our Huafeng Publishing House will definitely stand out and let the Japanese see the elegance of our people!"
"If there is nothing wrong with Teacher Gu Lu..."
Li Heng was interrupted by Gu Lu.
"I think Huafeng Publishing House must not have as good publicity resources as Xiangchuan Publishing House, right? So at least in my opinion, under the same stamp duty, I can favor Huafeng just to support my compatriots." Gu Lu said coldly.
"In addition, even if it is published in Xiangchuan Press, it can also let the Japanese know the style of Chinese people." After saying this, Gu Lu got up and left.
I met this guy so early in the morning that I didn't even have the appetite to eat my sandwich.
"Too selfish. He doesn't have any spirit of dedication at such a young age. He will definitely be an ungrateful person in the future!" Li Heng's face turned from cloudy to gloomy.
Li Heng stared at Gu Lu's back as he left, thinking, "No wonder they say you can't trust your compatriots when you're abroad. What a piece of shit."
It ruined Gu Lu's good mood for the whole morning, but it also indirectly showed that "The Prince at That Time" sold very well and was profitable, which is why it attracted monsters and demons.
Li Heng's behavior is a bit low-level. Although he is the head of a publishing house, Huafeng Publishing House is too weak.
He was angry and immediately started to fan the flames on the Internet, "The strongest high school student in history? A genius worth 30 million? Is there no genius in Japan that can match him? Praising a foreign writer every day." "We in Japan are also a country that produces geniuses. Has our Yamato nation lost self-confidence?!" "Can we really tolerate a Chinese high school student conquering Japan?"
I don’t know whether Li Heng was pretending to be a little devil or he just regarded himself as a spiritual devil.
He created a pseudonym and posted three messages on Yahoo, all of which were to incite hatred.
The current level of chaos in the Yahoo forum is comparable to that of Weibo after 2020.
It's so exaggerated.
After a while, I received many replies from Japanese netizens.
[Yes, the Japanese have lost their confidence. We have the US military as our father, but does China have that?]
As the saying goes, "Meiji nurtured scholars, Taisho nurtured the country, Showa nurtured demons, and Heisei nurtured pigs." I am a typical Heisei pig. If you are mean to me, I will lie down where I am.
[A genius comparable to Gu Lu? Are you talking about Kyushu prodigy Katsudane Maru? After reading Gu Lu's "The Prince at That Time", you will understand that Katsudane Maru is not good enough.] A Japanese who makes rational analysis.
This netizen took out the official data from the publishing house, and the sales of Katsudane Maru's new book were also several levels lower.
[The poster's IQ must be questionable. He was recognized by Kenji Miyano at the age of 16? Who can compare?] A die-hard fan of Miyano.
[What does his conquest have to do with me? Can maid cafes in Akihabara be cheap?] The Japanese who have nothing to do with it.
[I feel like the poster is not a Chinese, but a Huaxia. I have met Huaxia people who feel resentful when they see their compatriots living well, and their tone is very similar.] The Neon Truth Emperor.
"Neon is finished! How could you not feel anything at all?" Li Heng became even angrier, especially after seeing the post from the Emperor of Truth. He wanted to explain, but the next second, the post was deleted.
"..."
Li Heng found that he had been working in Neon for more than ten years, but he could not do anything to the other party.
On the one hand, the reputation of Gu Lu's works in Japan has been quite good, having been praised successively by Junji Ito, Natsuhiko Kyogoku, and Kenji Miyazawa.
On the other hand, Li Heng underestimated the special status of fairy tale writers in Neon.
Soon, Li Heng received a call from his boss, who was the president of Huafeng Publishing House.
"President Gu Chuan, please rest assured that I will definitely help you revive your publishing house." Li Heng expressed his sincerity firmly on the phone.
I don't know why, Li Heng is very sincere to foreigners, but he plays tricks on Chinese people...
Gu Lu left the hotel restaurant and quickly adjusted his mood. He walked around the hotel and happened to see a bookstore.
"In China, with the support of the Children's Literature Publishing House, the books are placed in stores for recommendation. In Japan, it's still far behind... Wait, why are you suddenly talking about Echizen Ryoma?"
It was not bad for Gu Lu to see his book in both the fairy tale section and the bestseller recommendation section.
The best-selling books in the bookstore are still light novels and mystery novels. Gu Lu doesn't understand Japanese, so he can only guess. However, a book called "Angel Killing" seems to have sold over a million copies, as if one book can make you rich and free.
Gu Lu also wanted to get one.
"I should have been able to draw "Malice", "Astrology Murder Case" and "Like a Haunted Thing". Am I wrong?"
Gu Lu speculated that the range of books synthesized by the golden finger was the bookshelf in his previous life.
Before traveling through time, he was a failed writer, but he loved reading and buying books very much. There was no TV or coffee table in the living room of his rented house, but instead there were several nine-layer bookshelves reaching the sky.
There are nearly three thousand books in the collection, which is almost equivalent to a reading corner. Because he buys books too frequently, Gu Lu has not had time to read many of them.
Why does Gu Lu have such an imaginative inference?
It came from the "Selected Short Stories of Aimée" that he had won by chance. He had never heard of this strange French short story master.
When I was reading in my mind, I felt that a certain story looked familiar, as if I had read it before.
I racked my brains to recall and it seemed that I had bought it in my previous life.
The books on the two channels, Kongfuzi.com and Zhongtu.com, are particularly cheap. For example, the latter often has discounts on 88 books for 10 yuan, a % discount plus a % discount.
In his previous life, Gu Lu often bought more than a dozen books at a time, and it was common for him to not remember what books he bought.
"The previous Jieyou Grocery Store was pretty good." Gu Lu felt sorry.
Since he was already here, he couldn't just not buy anything, so Gu Lu bought some comic books by Kuroko.
People in the AV area＜Book area＜Comics area＜Peripheral area.
It was almost noon and the bookstore was getting more crowded.
There are really office workers nearby who read comics during their lunch breaks. China is a country of comics, and the audience base is really huge.
When Gu Lu passed by, he heard two office workers who had just entered the store. He was unsure of the pronunciation of "Gu Lu".
Neon office workers usually wear dark brown suits, which are a little lighter in color than Li Heng from Huafeng Publishing House.
At noon, I just grabbed some food to eat, then went back to the hotel to take a rest and wait for the next activity.
He wasn't nervous at first because it wasn't his first time.
But "Teacher Gu Lu, this is the draft process and the on-site map, we are making the final confirmation. Our bookstore welcomes you!" said the bookstore manager.
"Teacher Gu Lu, if you encounter impolite extremists, please hide in the bookstore immediately. Our publishing house will definitely ensure your safety." Vice President Yukou.
What do you mean? Gu Lu stared at the adult in front of him.
Yukou immediately explained, "We are worried that there will be some extreme populists who will not want to see Chinese authors achieve such good results."
"Of course, there are usually no accidents. If there are accidents..."
"Stop." Gu Lu stopped the translator and told him not to set up targets randomly.
Yukou glanced at his watch.
At about the same time, Gu Lu and his group arrived at Sanseido Bookstore and everything had been arranged.
The long table for the book signing event is placed on the left side of the entrance, so ordinary customers go to the right when entering, and those attending the book signing event go to the left, so as not to delay each other.
More than forty new books, "The Prince at That Time", are arranged into a book wall, which is the best poster.
The store manager and Yukou stood on both sides of the table, like door gods.
The translator stood behind Gu Lu, a bit like a ghost. Gu Lu also prepared his signature, which he had practiced professionally.
After a while, a bookstore clerk whispered something to the manager, who had a complicated expression.
"President Yukou, have you invited any readers outside to come and show your support?" the store manager asked politely.
"I didn't hire anyone to pretend to be a reader." Yu told the truth.
No? The store manager looked a little skeptical.
Why are there so many people here?!
For an ordinary author, a book signing event usually attracts about one or two hundred people.
But at that moment, more than 300 people had gathered outside the bookstore.
The crowd was clearly divided into two categories: the older ladies and uncles were book fans, while the younger students were a different kind of "star chasers".
Look at the younger crowd -
"That's Gu Lu? Just like in the comics, not very tall, but with a very good basketball IQ."
"It looks worse than the comics."
“I didn’t expect that people from the second dimension would come to the third dimension to hold a book signing event.”
“I also want to be such a genius!”
……
(End of this chapter)