Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 780 Not Delaying Either
If it were the original Saint Seiya, He Qingsheng might not be able to get into it.

The opening scene, which features a god's fall and the birth of 100 children, would definitely make an old scholar like He Qingsheng frown and shake his head in disbelief.

It's even possible that they might follow Buffett's example and come up with something that's "utterly nonsensical." First of all, it doesn't make logical sense.

Chen Fan can now be considered a literary giant, especially after being taught by Professor Xu, he is well-versed in both Chinese and Western learning and has a broad knowledge of ancient and modern times.

If he were to write this story, it would naturally be written in a different way.

The story opens with a battle for the Saint Cloth, where the protagonist fights his opponent to the death. When he is injured, flashbacks are interspersed, clearly explaining the background of the story and the origin of the protagonist in the first chapter.

The story of a hundred children is irrelevant; it has absolutely nothing to do with the main plot. In fact, later anime adaptations changed it to 100 adopted orphans. ...So it's still not that important.

This part was omitted, which saves the reader one point of contention.

In addition, Chen Fan also refined the training process before awakening his inner universe.

Otherwise, if people could awaken their cosmos simply by doing extreme physical training every day, then Tokyo University's special forces would probably be so numerous that they could fight a Saint Seiya team battle.

So he drew on Western prayer techniques, Indian meditation and yoga, Tantric visualization methods, Taoist methods of preserving the spirit, as well as breathing techniques and bone-strengthening methods, and other ancient cultivation methods from around the world. He also incorporated the nightly prayers that the trainees in the training camp had to offer to the gods, and created a cultivation system that could directly advance one's "sixth sense".

It shares the same magical setting as Western fantasy, both requiring divine blessings.

With the Western fantasy system he had previously compiled, the Saint Seiya training system that Chen Fan compiled this time is more "objective" and "realistic".

Against the backdrop of the current qigong craze, coupled with Chen Fan's story setting and descriptions, even an old writer like He Qingsheng was quickly drawn in and became completely engrossed in the story.

Generally speaking, older scholars have more discerning tastes and always like to study and research as they read, which is essentially "nitpicking".

Therefore, it's not easy to get He Qingsheng so engrossed in something.

This is why he sighed.

After successfully holding the first cultural exchange between the two countries at the beginning of the year, Hideo Takahashi seems to have become addicted, sending out invitations almost every month, and has already held four exchange events this year alone.

The organization of these events, along with the business of undertaking book publishing and printing, has made Takahashi Publishing House famous and rapidly risen to prominence, showing great potential to become a first-class publisher of small-format books.

As a result, their influence has grown.

As the longest-standing partner of Takahashi Publishing House, the Jiangnan Writers Association has never been left behind. Over time, almost all the main leaders of the organization have made a trip to the publisher and brought back the latest news from there.

The reason it is "almost" is because only Chen Fan did not go; even He Qingsheng went to see what was going on.

Therefore, He Qingsheng is now very familiar with the situation in the world of small-book calligraphy.

In the first half of this year, the best-selling book on the bookstore was "The Legend of the Dragon Riders," imported from the American publisher Thousand Sails, and it has remained popular ever since, overshadowing all other books.

Let's not even mention Chen Fan's books. Of the books he submitted to Takahashi Publishing House before, only "Shanghai Spy Shadow" can be considered a semi-mystery popular novel. The rest were almost all serious literature, and these kinds of books can't possibly compete with popular books in terms of sales.

However, the sales of "Shanghai Spy Shadow" are quite good, with the number of copies exceeding 40, which is enough to earn top-tier royalties. Chen Fan has lived up to the top-tier contract that Hideo Takahashi offered him.

But none of these can compare to "Legend of the Dragon Knight".

Only Saint Seiya gave He Qingsheng hope.

Although this matter doesn't really concern him much... it's related to money.

He Qingsheng took a sip of wine, ate a piece of fish, looked up at Chen Fan, and smiled, "There's something you know, right?"

Chen Fan was holding a large bowl of rice, drinking was just to keep the guests company. His mouth was stuffed with pine nuts like a squirrel's. He just glanced at him, signaling him to stop being mysterious and continue.

He Qingsheng took another sip of wine and said, "On July 13, the document 'Regulations on Profit Retention for State-Owned Enterprises' was issued. Our Writers Association is a foreign exchange earning unit, and we also received a notice."

Chen Fan only remembered this matter after hearing about it. He swallowed the food in his mouth, looked at him, and asked, "What percentage of foreign exchange can be retained?"

He Qingsheng gestured, “Referring to non-trade foreign exchange units, it’s 30% to 40%. This is determined based on the amount of foreign exchange earned. The higher the foreign exchange quota, the higher the percentage that can be retained.”

Chen Fan chuckled and said, "This ratio is not bad."

He Qingsheng nodded, "That's definitely enough. Even those who trade products only get 25 percent."

He picked up a piece of fish, looked at Chen Fan, and smiled, "The key is you. The more foreign exchange you generate, the higher the percentage. How much foreign exchange you can generate determines the upper limit of our unit's foreign exchange retention."

He wasn't praising Chen Fan; he was simply stating the facts.

To date, the sales of all other authors' works are not even a fraction of Chen Fan's sales. Moreover, Chen Fan's sales are still rising, while others' works sell a little in the first two months, and then the sales drop more and more, with almost no promotional value.

Chen Fan's works, however, have a steady stream of sales, with decent monthly sales.

Publishing other people's works by Takahashi Publishing House can only be described as breaking even; making money is impossible, at best it's just generating buzz.

However, this was enough for Takahashi Publishing, which was not a large company to begin with.

Only by publishing Chen Fan's works did they earn a considerable amount of money.

Moreover, barring any unforeseen circumstances, this Saint Seiya series will likely be published by Takahashi Publishing, which could potentially propel them into the ranks of top-tier publishers.

Chen Fan thought for a moment and asked, "What about the individuals? How many should we keep?"

Before He Qingsheng could speak, he continued, "If it's too little, I'll switch jobs. It just so happens that Ba Jin has advised me several times, and Jiangying Film Studio, Secretary Fang has also said he would help me get promoted. Although we are both deputy directors, I will be the top leader. It's better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of an ox."

He only remembered that a policy on foreign exchange reserves was about to be introduced, but he forgot that it was for organizations, not individuals.

All the achievements are the result of collective efforts; what right does an individual have to receive foreign exchange?

However, this can be discussed within the workplace.

As for whether it will work out? We have to discuss that first!
As soon as Chen Fan finished speaking, He Qingsheng rolled his eyes and said, "Come on, you can only roam freely here. If you really went to Ba Jin's place, he would lock you up in a dark room every day to write books."

He then stopped arguing with him and said directly, "In principle, there's no personal retention; at most, you'll get a bonus. But regarding your question, our presidium and council have already discussed it in meetings..."

Chen Fan suddenly interjected, "I, as the vice chairman, didn't even participate?" He Qingsheng immediately retorted, "Don't you know about the principle of recusal for those involved?"

Chen Fan raised his hand. "Please continue."

He Qingsheng said, "I can consider leaving you 5%. Don't think it's too little. Go out and ask around, who has foreign exchange?"

Chen Fan clicked his tongue and remained silent.

Five percent is fine too.

Of his royalties, 5% is in foreign exchange, and the remaining 95% is naturally paid in local currency, so the total royalties will not be less.

Actually, he doesn't care about foreign exchange. The main thing is that nowadays you need receipts to buy things. If you don't have a receipt, the best way is to use foreign exchange to buy things at foreign-related stores. It's a bit more expensive, but there are no restrictions.

So he definitely has to fight for this, otherwise his quality of life will plummet, and he might not even be able to eat meat, which would be very pitiful.

Since each household has been equipped with a full set of home appliances, the remittance coupons that were previously received have been almost spent. Now that this foreign exchange retention policy has been introduced, the remittance coupons will most likely be lost, so the only option is to try to secure a share of foreign exchange retention for themselves.

If you really think about it, we're actually losing money.

Once this thought crossed Chen Fan's mind, he strongly suspected that the policy was aimed at him, although he had no evidence.

Seeing that he acquiesced, He Qingsheng didn't say anything more. Then he brought up the matter of the unit, saying, "Now that you've returned to the provincial capital, you should go to the unit and let people know that you're still one of them."

And your office has now become Xiao Bian's private office, which many people are envious of. You need to go there and show your face to support her; you can't always rely on me and Secretary-General Xu.

Old Zhao and Old Qian, who took over the correspondence center, were saying last time that they were waiting for you to come back and give a lecture to the new students. Old Sun, who took over the "Literary Youth" magazine, has been thinking of treating you to a meal and asking you some questions..."

……

After finishing his meal, He Qingsheng left with the manuscript of "Saint Seiya." He still needed to organize the translation team to quickly translate the book into Japanese and then send it to the notebook company.

Chen Fan's previous works had already generated over $300,000 in foreign exchange, which was already quite exciting. Considering the popularity of "Legend of the Dragon Knight" in the small book market, wouldn't the royalties for "Saint Seiya" increase tenfold when it is published?

More than three million US dollars, which is almost the entire foreign exchange earnings of Jiangnan Province last year. How could he not make a big splash this time?!
We must hurry and earn the money back as soon as possible.

I'm so excited!

……

After He Qingsheng left, Chen Fan took a shower at home, changed his clothes, put the papers he had written over the past few months into his briefcase, told the two sisters, and then went out and drove to Jiangnan University on the other side of the lake.

At this time, Professor Xu was working in his office.

When he's not teaching, his main job is to do humanities research.

It used to be a little better. The old man had been engaged in scholarship for decades and felt that he had done enough research in his field. As long as he summarized most of his life's work and published a "notebook" in the end, it would be a perfect ending.

The so-called "annotation" is to provide commentary on a certain ancient classic. This classic is not chosen randomly; it must be a major classic among the "Hundred Schools of Thought," such as the Analects, Mencius, or the Tao Te Ching, Zhuangzi, and so on.

Being able to annotate ancient classics is one of the most perfect achievements of great scholars throughout history.

The other is "establishing words," which is too difficult, directly pointing to the position of a sage, and is completely outside Professor Xu's consideration.

However, after Chen Fan proposed a new approach, Professor Xu experienced a resurgence in his career. He further expanded his research, publishing several papers that explored new perspectives beyond studying history and literature through cultural relics.

For example, the reenactment of the lives of historical figures, the historical changes of regions, and even the causes and processes of the formation of ethnic groups.

The assignment Chen Fan is now submitting is a research result based on Professor Xu's papers.

He strongly suspected that Professor Xu had watched the variety shows on CCTV later, which were clearly programs such as "Biographies of Masters," "Encountering Jiangnan," and "Green Waters and Lush Mountains."

He had been saving these for himself to improve his academic standing, but Professor Xu had managed to get them out of his way beforehand. ...At his age, he's still so calculating; it's like he's deliberately trying to make things difficult for him!
Professor Xu was pleased with Chen Fan's arrival.

He glanced briefly at the assignments submitted by his star student, nodded slightly, and set them aside. Then he said, "I heard you're going to make a movie, or even become a director? What will you do with your classes when school starts in September?"

Chen Fan quickly smiled and said, "This is what I'm thinking. We still have a month. I'll get all the preparations done first, and then we'll officially start filming after school starts."

I teach folklore, which belongs to the humanities and can also be classified as a sub-discipline of sociology and law. In principle, it's primarily offered as an elective course; only sociology majors are required to take it.

So overall, there aren't many classes; I only need to teach two large lectures per week. The school can schedule my classes on Monday afternoons and Wednesday mornings, one large lecture each time, lasting two hours.

At other times, I can go about my own business, so we don't interfere with each other. What do you think?

The school certainly couldn't schedule both classes on the same day, as that wouldn't be in line with the course schedule, but alternating days would be fine.

In this way, he only needs to stay in the provincial capital for two days a week, from Monday noon to Wednesday noon, and he can arrange his other time freely. It doesn't have much impact on him, and he can do both without any problems.

Professor Xu smiled and said, "You chose to teach folklore because of this, right?"

Before Chen Fan could speak, he waved his hand with a smile, "Then we'll arrange it as you said. But the teaching content needs to be reviewed by me in advance. If it's not up to standard, you'll have to come back to work."

Anyway, his main purpose in temporarily transferring Chen Fan to the school to teach was to remove him from the Writers' Association, so that he wouldn't make too many contributions and block other people's way.

This is not like the wars of the past, where whoever was capable was chosen. In the end, it was not uncommon to see generals in their early twenties.

When working within the system, one must abide by its rules. Early success is not necessarily a good thing; taking a break and resting is actually more beneficial for long-term development.

Haven't you seen those people who rose to the top in a few years ago now falling from grace one by one?!

So as long as Chen Fan doesn't make any big moves at work and stays at the school obediently, he doesn't care what subject he teaches or how he teaches it.

As for what he wants to do—directing or making movies—let him be.

It's impossible to make a movie with no artistic merit and still cause such a stir, right?

Seeing that Professor Xu was so understanding, Chen Fan grinned and said, "Okay."

(End of this chapter)