Chapter 309 Good news comes one after another

Chapter 309 Good news comes one after another

Chapter 309 Good news comes one after another
Taishan Kobayashi got up early in the morning, stretched his body, and had Meiji milk and rice balls for breakfast. The rice balls were bought at 711 during the discount period and placed in the fresh-keeping room. He ate one to fill his stomach as soon as he got up.

He is similar to Junji Ito (Ichikuma Yasuda), both are otakus. In fact, many Japanese people of his age are otakus.

It's just that Yasuda Kazuma has a strong dream to become a cartoonist, while Kobayashi Taizan has no dream. If I have to say one thing, it's that if you go to Wangjiang Dumplings for dinner today, don't meet "that" waiter.

At the Wang Jiang Dumplings downstairs, a certain clerk was very enthusiastic and asked a lot of questions. Kobayashi Taishan's impression of him was "terrifying"!
"An email from Teacher Gu Lu!"

Originally, Kobayashi Taishan opened his computer slowly, but when he saw the email, his hands moved as fast as if he had wound up a spring.

The reply was a crackling one, and the letters were very "wordy" in the Japanese tradition. A lot of honorifics were used, and the useful information could be simply summarized as "The translation is progressing very smoothly and will be completed in five days."

The five days also included the calibration time. Kobayashi Taishan looked at the manuscript in his computer and said, "For "A Bouquet of Flowers in Alzheimer's Garden", I feel that Mr. Gu Lu can set a record and win the Naoki Prize."

The Naoki Prize is the highest award for popular fiction in Japan. According to the rules, any article or book published in Japan is eligible to participate in the selection, regardless of nationality. However, no writer other than Japanese has won the award, whether on Earth or in the parallel world.

On the contrary, the Akutagawa Prize was won by a Chinese writer.

The reason for this judgment is based on the feedback from Taishan Kobayashi when he was translating the text, which was so tearful.

It is precisely because he likes the work that Kobayashi Taishan's translation progress is much faster than the above arrangement. He also hopes that good works can be published in China as soon as possible.

Kobayashi Taishan did not encounter any difficulties in translation, but he encountered difficulties outside of work.

After joining the Lu Translation Association, he was urged to write novels or draw comics. According to the president, "You have translated so many works by Gu Lu, haven't you learned anything? Even if you haven't, you should gain something, because we all have."

Kobayashi Taishan, who was forced to create, is so tired!
Speaking of coercion, Tangyuan is also a victim.

"Tangyuan, you have to give it your all. Didn't you agree to serialize a novel in 'Youth' to practice writing? Where's the novel?" Gu Lu asked.

According to his understanding of Li Guyuan, this guy would never delay in doing things, so it could only be that he lacked confidence. As a bad friend, you should strike back when it is necessary, but you should also be clear when it is necessary to encourage.

"There's a small problem," Li Guyuan said. "I originally wanted to dramatize high school life and write it into a novel."

"and then?"

Li Guyuan said, "Then I found that the content is similar to "Hyouka"!"

Bingguo? Why did they mention this novel? Gu Lu was at a loss for words.

"Gulu, you founded the publication club, and Su Zhemu rejoined the Classical Club that was about to close down. There was also the campus festival, the student celebration we just experienced, and so on." Li Guyuan said, "Hyouka was written by you, Gulu, based on campus life, and it has a certain degree of predictiveness."

"Wait, that's a bit confusing." Gu Lu said, "Is your novel based on me as the protagonist?"

"No." Li Guyuan shook his head. Of course he wrote it based on himself.

"That's fine, I have ice fruit, can't you have your own fruit?" Gu Lu asked.

"Can I?" Li Guyuan asked hesitantly.

"Of course you can. Your high school life was much richer than that of the average student. Is there anything wrong with writing a novel based on yourself? No problem!"

Gu Lu's words were not consolation. As the vice president of the publication and one of the main founders, when "Young China" swept the country, Li Guyuan's name appeared in Guangming Daily and Southern Metropolis Daily, which was very impressive.

Even though most of the credit goes to Liang Da Shen and Gu Lu who copied this article, if it weren't for Li Guyuan's solid logistics and making the club run very well, Gu Lu wouldn't have had it so easy.

"Okay!" Although Li Guyuan lacked confidence in himself, he had great faith in his friend Gu Lu's judgment. He said that he would send the manuscript he had written when he got home after the evening self-study.

The matter was over. When Gu Lu was about to get up, Li Guyuan suddenly spoke again.

"By the way, Gulu, I have another question. Can you answer it for me?" said Li Guyuan.

"You said." Gu Lu looked like a caring teacher who knew everything.

"Who is the real-life prototype of Fan Lu, the heroine in Hyouka? CC, or your old junior high school classmate Zhou Lin, Gulu." Li Guyuan became curious after regaining his confidence.

“?” Gu Lu looked at Tang Yuan blankly.

"Fan Lu is so curious, I think it's CC." Li Guyuan also analyzed, "CC is very curious, but I'm not very familiar with Zhou Lin from the next class, we haven't met many times."

You gotta say it, you gotta say it, if you think about it carefully, the personality of the heroine in Hyouka is really a bit similar to Qi Caiwei.

On the one hand, empathy is high.

On the other hand, his imagination is also very unique, which can be seen from CC's reading notes every time.

"What the hell? It's adults' business, kids, don't ask questions." Gu Lu sent Tang Yuan away.

The furnace has cooled down in October and there is no need to turn on the air conditioner in the community office.

I remember that the air conditioning in the club office had a very good cooling effect, much better than in the classroom. If it was too hot, Gu Lu would come here to cool off.

The gray sky is like the teacher’s serious expression.

History class in the afternoon.

"What are you drawing on your desk?" Gu Lu leaned over curiously because he noticed that his deskmate was working on a big project with a compass.

This behavior is very bad, but many students do this. In a broader sense, it is also learning from Mr. Lu Xun.

"Nothing!" Qi Caiwei immediately covered the project with both hands.

CC was like a little lion defending his territory, very excited and covered tightly.

If I don't want to see it, then I won't show it. What's so exciting about it? At worst, I can watch it secretly after school or tomorrow when I go to school. Gu Lu thought to himself. He didn't make any moves to force his way through the blockade.

Qi Caiwei breathed a sigh of relief. She looked so sneaky that I would have thought she was eating snacks in class.

Gu Lu was looking forward to history and politics classes, because they might trigger the synthesis sequence. [Kenneth Graham's fairy tales] [national books of a certain country] [popular science books], I don't know what they are yet.

As for popular science books, with the existence of Flatland, Gu Lu has already left his name in the field of popular science. Would it be too much to write another one?
"Stone carvings from the seventh century were discovered on the Greek island of Crete. What does this prove, students?"

"It proves that Greece already had written laws in that era."

"We all know that the origin of the Western legal system is in the Roman era..."

The course is modern Western law and education.

Anyway, Gu Lu listened to the class seriously, and it felt like opening a blind box.

I didn't win the box today.

At half past six, just as Gu Lu left school, the phone rang.

It wasn't a coincidence; the other party called at the exact time.

"One bad news and two good news, Brother Gu, which one do you want to hear first?" This was Yao Xiaoju's opening remark when he made the phone call.

"The good ones are left behind, what are the bad ones?" Gu Lu asked.

Yao Xiaoju said on the phone, "The bad thing is, Brother Gu, you may have to take a few days off and come to London. This is quite troublesome."

Huh? Gu Lu said, "Should I listen to this bad news together with the good news?"

"That's right, then I'm going to tell you good news." Yao Xiaoju said, "The English version of The Little Prince has sold over 80,000 copies in two weeks, and it's expected to reach 100,000 copies next week. Puffin Books wants to hold a book signing event."

Going to London for a book signing? And wasn't the sales of The Little Prince in the UK in a slump before? Why did it suddenly rise?

"Don't worry about the visa, Brother Gu. I will arrange everything including food, accommodation and transportation." Yao Xiaoju added.

Book signing event... Gu Lu suddenly thought that it would be good to go to places you have never been to.

"I will take a leave of absence. The sales are good, and Puffin Books is holding a book signing event for me. Are these two good news?" Gu Lu asked.

"It can only be counted as one. There is another good news." Yao Xiaoju said, "After the sales of The Little Prince exceed 100,000 copies, Puffin Books will launch it in the English cultural circle."

Wow! It is indeed good news. English is the common language of the world, and it covers many countries. At least Gu Lu knows about the United States, the Maple Leaf Country, and the Kangaroo Country.

Next, Yao Xiaoju asked Gu Lu what was the acceptable royalty rate for the English version of his next book, Mr. Holmes.

"If possible, I hope to be similar to Neon." Gu Lu responded.

"This is too challenging," Yao Xiaoju said with a smile, "but one must dare to dream. I will work hard towards the goal you mentioned."

Once you gain fame, you will have bargaining power.

Yao Xiaoju was not good at small talk. He hung up the phone after he had finished talking about what needed to be said. Come to think of it, small talk was expensive for international long-distance calls. Gu Lu also started to scan his mailbox.

"Being able to write about club activities so colorfully is much better than some of the great writers on the Internet." Gu Lu couldn't help but sigh after reading the file sent by Li Guyuan via QQ.

When Li Guyuan grows up, he should be able to make a living as a writer, right? Gu Lu suddenly thought that if the original body had a normal family, with the original body's writing talent, he might have achieved something. "It doesn't matter. I'll give you one third of my medal of honor!"

"Speaking of which, why are you hungry again? You're still growing, still growing."

Taking an apple out of the refrigerator and starting to eat it, Gu Lu saw the reply letter from Xiaolin Taishan. Good news came one after another!
"I'll ask for leave tomorrow. Will it take more than ten hours to fly to London?" Gu Lu thought to himself.

His geographical impression of Britain comes from "Yes, Minister", which is not a typical European country. He likes "United with the Netherlands to form Spain, United with Germany to form France, United with France and Italy to form Germany, and United with France to form Germany and Italy".

School.

"Director Hu, you said something before, which I think makes a lot of sense," said Principal Chang.

As long as you think it makes sense, then it makes sense. Director Hu is all ears.

"We can't let Student Gu pass the exam too quickly," said Principal Chang.

When did you say that? But Director Hu still nodded in agreement.

"Student Gu was very proud of his youth. At the age of 16, he had achieved something that ordinary people could never achieve in their entire lives." Principal Chang said, "But he is still a student after all, and he will do many impulsive things."

Director Hu knew about it and was talking about the student celebration.

Hey, principal, this is a bit too much. You have enjoyed the benefits and even changed the annual school celebration to a school celebration that overlaps with the student celebration. Are you going to settle the score later?

What are you talking about! Principal Chang is such a smart person, he will definitely not settle the score later.

"You are familiar with Gu, so you can call him to the office and give him some advice later." Principal Chang said. It's time to give him some advice. If he dares to host the student celebration today, he will have to poop and pee on his head tomorrow!
"Me?" Director Hu's eyes widened wider than ever.

"Is there any problem?" Principal Chang asked back.

Oh, one has a black face and the other has a red face, so I am the black one, right? Director Hu is not stupid, and he immediately draws inferences from one instance to another. Why did he ask me to come to the principal's office? It must be that the principal wants to stand on the side of Gu Lu.

This will not only have a wake-up effect, but will also not affect the teacher-student relationship between the principal and the students.

"No problem. Xiao Gu and I are quite familiar with each other, so it is indeed my responsibility to remind him," said Director Hu.

"Yeah." Principal Chang added that it should be a little more serious, after all, this incident itself is very serious.

I understand, I need to highlight the key points so that the principal can mediate. Director Hu automatically translated into Chinese in his mind, and left to do his work after listening.

The first level of officialdom crushes people to death!
As soon as he walked onto the playground, Director Hu felt that the grass was a bit hard. No wonder the No. 8 Middle School’s football team performed so poorly. How could they train on such a hard grass?

While Director Hu was thinking about all sorts of things, he just happened to run into Gu Lu.

"Director Hu, I need to talk to the principal about something." Gu Lu said.

The first thing he did when he asked for leave was to go to his class teacher, but when Teacher Gao heard that he was going abroad and asked for a leave of absence of four or five days, it was obviously not something she could decide.

"Oh, okay, let's go. I'll take you there." Director Hu said, "The school has something going on, and we just happened to be looking for you."

"What's the matter?" Gu Lu's first reaction was that the school was going to give him money again? In the previous two semesters, he had received quite a lot of miscellaneous bonuses.

The two of them went to the principal's office together.

Principal Chang was stunned. Is it so fast?

Then he asked the assistant to bring tea. Xiao Gu didn't drink tea, so he brought boiled water.

The assistant also gave him some small fried dough twists. You see, the assistant remembered Gu Lu's preferences. Usually, they were small snacks for show. Gu Lu would occasionally eat two fried dough twists when he was greedy.

"Principal, Xiao Gu has something to ask you, so I brought him here on the way." Director Hu said.

"Oh? What's the matter, classmate Gu?" asked Principal Chang.

"I want to take a few days off," Gu Lu said, "My agent told me that the English version of The Little Prince is selling well abroad. It will soon exceed 10 copies, and I'm going to London to hold a book signing event. We may also discuss the publication of the book."

The last half of the sentence was what Gu Lu just thought of. One hundred thousand copies is not much money. He was specially asked to come from China, and the air travel expenses were quite expensive. There must be other purposes.

"?"

"??"

Both Principal Chang and Director Hu had question marks in their eyes. Why did the principal have an extra question mark? Because his eyes were bigger and he could see more doubts.

"Book signing in London," Principal Chang was the first to react, "The Little Prince is also popular in the UK?"

"It can be considered a hot seller. The Little Prince has been in the top ten of Nielsen's weekly book rankings for two consecutive weeks." Gu Lu was referring to the data his agent told him. "The results are not bad."

The school knew that Gu Lu’s books sold well in Japan, but they didn’t know that they could also take Europe by storm!
The importance of Europe, at least in the opinion of President Chang, is far greater than that of Japan. This can be seen from the ratio of how many people in China learn English and how many learn Japanese.

Principal Chang always thought he was very optimistic about Gu Lu's future, but he didn't expect that compared with reality, he was still pessimistic.

"Why is there no news at home?" Principal Chang asked, "I remember the newspaper did an interview with you before?"

"The Little Prince has sold one million copies in China, and the UK only sells one-tenth of that, which is not a big deal," said Gu Lu. He meant it. Because in the next decade, the national pride of the post-2000s and post-90s generations will soar.

But it was not the case in 2013. This was an era when public intellectuals were everywhere and intellectuals were everywhere! In addition, people of Principal Chang's generation had some admiration for Europe and the United States.

"So there's nothing good to publicize, so I didn't mention it." Not to mention that Gu Lu just knew the news, even if he knew it, he wouldn't bring it up on purpose.

Can it be the same? !
Can this be the same?!
"Ahem," Principal Chang coughed twice, "There are not many works that can achieve excellent sales in Europe and the United States at present, so it is still worth talking about."

"I'll definitely do it next time," Gu Lu said, "Then Principal Chang, regarding my request for leave..."

"No problem. This is the key to expanding our overseas influence. The school will definitely support it." Principal Chang said immediately, "After all, it is during the school term. Our school will arrange for a teacher to accompany you."

He then added that the travel expenses for the accompanying teachers would definitely be provided by the school.

"Thank you, Principal." Gu Lu thanked him, it didn't matter if there was one more person.

"By the way, Director Hu said that the school wants to talk to me about something. What is it?" Gu Lu finished talking about his own affairs.

"It's like this..." Director Hu just started to speak when he was interrupted by Principal Chang.

"Because the cafeteria is going to change contractors recently, I asked you to come and ask what the specific requirements are," said Principal Chang.

"Ah?" Director Hu was stunned by such a sharp turn.

Principal Chang glanced over and the latter immediately said that he had received the message. "That's right, we at No. 8 Middle School must take students' feelings into consideration in all aspects. Xiao Gu, you are also a student representative, so I want to ask for your opinion."

"There are no specific requirements, just a little more variety and better hygiene." Gu Lu added, "We must pay close attention to hygiene."

"Okay, no problem. Our school will definitely follow this requirement when bidding. If you are worried, our school can give you the right to inspect and supervise at any time." Principal Chang waved his hand and asked, "How long is the specific leave time?"

"About four or five days later." Gu Lu responded.

"Be safe along the way."

Point out Gu Lu? Principal Chang felt that it was unnecessary. He suddenly thought that maybe it was because of Gu Lu's drive that he could achieve such great success.

So there is no need at all!
After the conversation, Director Hu saw Gu Lu off.

What a flexible attitude. Director Hu sighed in his heart, but he still gave a side reminder.

"Xiao Gu, you are also a great writer and are noticed by many people. So you should think carefully before doing some things," said Director Hu.

Gu Lu agreed, he knew what Director Hu was talking about.

Director Hu knew that Gu Lu was a smart man and that a loud drum did not need a heavy hammer, so he did not say anything more. He sent the students to the teaching building before leaving.

It was not just Principal Chang's words that he asked a teacher to accompany him. As the school, they still had to take responsibility for this. Besides, the cost of going there and back was expensive, but as the top key high school in Fog City, it was still easy to afford.

The school arranged for Zhang Hanli, an English teacher who had experience studying in the UK, to accompany Gu Lu to the UK.

When the arrangements were made, Zhang Hanli was confused.

"But I am studying at the University of Nottingham, so I am not very familiar with London," said Zhang Hanli.

It doesn't matter whether you are familiar with it or not, at least you can communicate with the locals in English. It is much better than others.

Thinking about being able to travel at public expense, Zhang Hanli thought about it and agreed.

"Is this true? Gu Lu is holding a book signing event abroad?"

Zhang Hanli knew that Gu Lu was a famous student writer, but he never thought it would be so exaggerated.

(End of this chapter)