Backtracking to the Age of Literature and Art

Chapter 208 Two in One
Hu Changqing is a beginner, so he just learns a rule, which is the same as anyone he learns.

He urgently needs to find a chance to fight, so when he learned that Yu Dong was here, he ran over to find him as soon as possible.

Yu Dong is not in a hurry to revise the manuscript. If he wants to revise the manuscript, he must not write another one out of thin air. He needs to have the first draft, and his first draft is in Jinling.

"You can play cards, but it's just the two of us, we can't play."

"Didn't Yang Peng come, plus my roommate, there are exactly four of us."

"Your roommate?" Yu Dong asked suspiciously.

"Yes, Wang Jingkang, it may be because we are about the same age, so we were arranged together. I also discussed it with Lao Wang, and gave us a room number in Room 416——"

"House number?" Yu Dong was taken aback, what kind of operation was this, "What's it called?"

"An old tree is sprouting." Hu Changqing laughed, probably he himself thought the name was very pleasant, "Now there are too many young people in the science fiction world, I have to cuddle with Lao Wang to keep warm."

"It's only been less than a day, but you guys are showing class feelings. Okay, let's go to your room to play."

"It's not very nice in your room."

"My room is small."

"It looks quite big..."

Hu Changqing yelled, Yu Dong had already left his room, and he had no choice but to keep up.

The two went to 416, and Yu Dong raised his eyes to see the white paper pasted on the door, with four words written on the paper: old tree sprouts.

"Scary, it's quite formal." Yu Dong joked.

Knocking on the door, Wang Jingkang opened the door wearing big trousers and a vest. At first sight, he saw Yu Dong was wondering, and then he saw Hu Changqing who was following him, and immediately knew who the young man standing in front of him was.

"It's Teacher Yu Dong, please come in, please come in."

"Don't dare, just call me Yu Dong."

Hu Changqing handed the poker to Yu Dong, and said, "Since I recognize them all, I won't introduce them to you. The two of you go in and chat for a while, and I'll call Yang Peng."

After Hu Changqing left, Yu Dong entered the room and said with a smile, "Mr. Wang came yesterday?"

"Well, I came here yesterday morning." He picked up the shirt on the bed and put it on, and said a little embarrassedly: "I heard that Lao Hu said that I was going to your room, and I was about to get dressed, but I didn't expect you to come here."

Wang Jingkang doesn't seem like a chatty person, but it's probably because they met for the first time, so they still can't let go.

After all, it only took one day to get into a heated fight with Lao Hu, so Wang Jingkang should not be too introverted.

Yu Dong chatted awkwardly with Wang Jingkang for a while, and Hu Changqing came with Yang Peng and He Hongwei.

Hu Changqing introduced them first, and then said, "At first, I thought that there were not enough people, but now there are more people. Xiao He will study by the side for a while, and then go into battle when he has learned it."

Of course He Hongwei had no objection, nodded and said: "Let Yang Peng go first, he has more experience in 'gambling' than me."

A few people sat down, and Hu Changqing enthusiastically explained the rules of smashing eggs to them, while Yu Dong listened and occasionally added a sentence or two.

After talking like this, Hu Changqing didn't ask them if they remembered it, and directly announced the start of the war, "Let's not waste time, use the battle as a substitute for training, and wait until you make a mistake when you don't understand."

Wang Jingkang said with a smile: "It's good to say that fighting instead of training. If aliens invade the earth in the future, we don't have the time and opportunity to know ourselves and the enemy. We can only use fighting instead of training and slowly explore."

Hu Changqing shuffled the cards and took everything with him, then Wang Jingkang grabbed it first: "Old Wang, you come first--you say that I and Yu Dong are treated as aliens. But with your head, why do you think about it every day? Alien invasion?"

Wang Jingkang said, "I think about it every day, and the more I think about it, there is no hope. I always feel that our earth has no advantages. I can only hope that aliens will find us later."

"Hey, if we let them come first, we will definitely not be able to beat them." Hu Changqing said: "Being able to find us means that their technological level is much higher than ours."

Yang Peng touched the card and said seriously: "Teacher Fushui, I have a different opinion. If they come first, it means that their technological level is much higher than ours, but it is also possible that only scout soldiers or even wanderers will come. ...In your "Alien Monkey", isn't the person who fell into the earth not an army, but a traveler?"

He Hongwei said, "My opinion is even more different. I think even if aliens find us first, it does not mean that their technological level is ahead of us. It may also be because their evolutionary direction is very suitable for them to travel in the universe, rather than How high is the level of technology. Just think about it, if there is such a kind of creature, they don't need air, they don't have temperature requirements, and they can fly..."

"I don't refute the first two, but it is very difficult to achieve flight, because you are talking about flight in the universe, which is impossible in our current physical system. There is no..."

"I think it's possible. If this creature has a large pocket that can hold a pile of stones, when flying in the universe, he only needs to throw a stone in the opposite direction."

"Isn't this the spacecraft becoming refined?"

At this time, the cards have been drawn, and Hu Changqing caught the bright card, and he played the card with a smile: "Three of three belts, one pair of four...Actually, I don't think aliens may be bad for us. Civilization invades at will, and maybe it will help us. The aliens described by Clark in "The End of Childhood" did not occupy the earth, but helped the earth develop technology."

"That's because it is set that the earth is about to become extinct, and they are just watching over the disappearance of human beings." He Hongwei said: "Our guesses about advanced civilizations have not been confirmed. Continuation, I would rather kill the wrong than let it go, and wipe out all alien races."

When it comes to the topic of alien races, several people have different opinions.

But when it comes to whether to continue exploring the universe, the caliber of the few people is surprisingly unified.

Even a pessimist like He Hongwei thinks: "Of course we have to look for them, and we have to die happily, and if we don't look for them, they will find us."

After chatting about the universe for a while, a few people brought the topic back to reality. He Hongwei asked, "Brother Dong, your "Resident Evil" will be published tomorrow. There should be a book for "Science Fiction World" right now?"

"There should be." Yu Dong nodded.

"You said you saw Sister Xiao at night, and I asked her for a copy, would she give it to me?"

"Probably not." Yu Dong shook his head.

"why?"

"Sister Xiao makes money without distinction." Yu Dong said with a smile, "If you want it, I'll get you a copy tomorrow morning."

"Do you have a signature?"

"bring."

Hearing that there were still signatures, Yang Peng hurriedly said: "Senior brother, you can't treat one more favorably than another."

"Okay, you have it too."

Wang Jingkang looked at the two young men, then at Yu Dong, and coughed lightly: "Ahem, I..."

"Everyone has a share, but you will have to return it when you publish the booklet in the future."

"Brother Dong was joking, who else in the sci-fi world has the strength to publish a booklet besides you. By the way, Brother Dong, how many copies are you printing for the first time?"

"Eighty thousand."

He Hongwei was a little disappointed when he heard this number, "Why is it only [-]? This book has sold millions of copies in the United States, so it must be printed in six figures at least. This [-] is not enough to sell."

"It's almost [-], and the domestic market is like this now. If there is more, the publishing house will bear the risk." Yu Dong said.

Yang Peng also said, "That's right, if you don't sell enough later, you can reprint it."

He Hongwei curled his lips, "Anyway, I feel that it is definitely not enough to sell. You have no idea how popular this book is here in Rongcheng. When there are no holidays, many students in our school go to the bookstore every day to ask. I have a few classmates, I heard that there will be a book signing event the day after tomorrow, but I never went back. They knew that I knew Brother Dong, and they wanted to get autographed books from me through the back door, and they said they would give me two yuan for a book, but I didn’t agree."

"You should agree. After taking the money later, we will share it." Yu Dong said with a smile.

In fact, He Hongwei's feelings are different from other people's.

Rongcheng is the base camp of "Science Fiction World", and their promotion here is naturally stronger than other places, so much so that Jin Jiang Hotel has put up an advertisement for the signing event the day after tomorrow, and people who eat and stay at Jin Jiang Hotel every day can see this advertise.

The transportation is not developed these days, and the people who can come to participate in the signing are basically people from the city, unlike the fans of the later generations who can rush to the battlefield from thousands of miles away when they are summoned.

Therefore, in order to have a good signing result, "Science Fiction World" will naturally focus on promoting it in this city.

The book signing this time is at the Xinhua Bookstore on Renmin South Road. This bookstore is not small. It was established in the 50s and has a history of 40 years. It can be said to be a landmark building in Chengdu.

Yang Xiao and the others have prepared everything very well this time, and they want to make the signing party this time prosperous, so that it will be more convenient for publicity later.

……

Yu Dong and the others played cards all afternoon, and in the evening Yang Xiao and Tan Kai came to the hotel to invite the authors to dinner.

The Galaxy Awards this time was not as big as last year, and no heavyweight guests were invited, but according to Yang Xiao, although the battle was small, it attracted much more attention than before.

"Last year, we invited a lot of media. This year is different. As soon as the news of the Galaxy Awards was released, they rushed to the door. There are too many, and I have to screen."

Speaking of this, Yang Xiao had a smile on his face.

Tan Kai asked her before if she would invite a few heavyweight guests to fill the scene this year, and she said no.

This stems from the self-confidence given to her by her rising performance in the past two years. Today, unlike in the past, the sales volume of "Science Fiction World" has exceeded [-] copies, and the momentum has not slowed down. Not surprisingly, it will break through [-] copies this year.

You know, their sales volume was only a few thousand two years ago, and it was a bimonthly magazine at that time.

In other words, in just two years, the annual sales of their magazines have increased tenfold.

The most important thing is that they don't have to worry about manuscripts now.

Those people in the editorial department are so busy every day that they can't even review manuscripts.

As soon as there are more manuscripts, the acceptance criteria will follow, and the quality of the magazine will naturally follow, and the quality of the magazine will attract more readers, and attract more readers...

Speaking of this, Yang Xiao really wants to thank Yu Dong.

Tan Kai reported the data to her before, saying that among the manuscripts received by the editorial department, the number from Jinling was significantly higher than that from other regions.It was later found out that it was Yu Dong who set up a science fiction association in Jinyi and set up a support fund, so Jinling's contributions were very enthusiastic.

For this reason, Yang Xiao also joked with Tan Kai that they have always wanted to make Rongcheng the science fiction capital of China, and now that Jinling is born, it might become their strong opponent.

After dinner, Yang Xiao and Yu Dong chatted alone for a while, mainly about the signing event.

She took out a red envelope and gave it to Yu Dong, "This is a bit of meaning from the bookstore."

Yu Dong weighed it and said with a smile: "This means that the weight is not light."

"I counted it for you, 500 yuan." Yang Xiao smiled, "I know you don't like it, but this is already a lot."

Yu Dong nodded. It was indeed quite a lot. The current book signings will not sell many books, and signing hundreds of books is already very impressive.Calculated on the basis of five hundred, it means that Yu Dong can get one yuan for signing a book, and the author's remuneration will be calculated separately.

Of course, for bookstores, what they get is not just the profit of five hundred books.The signing event was held, which itself is also a kind of publicity for the bookstore.

Seeing Yu Dong accepting the "red envelope", Yang Xiao smiled and said: "There is one more thing to trouble you. Since "Resident Evil" became famous, many friends asked me for books, but I didn't immediately agree. Come and ask what you mean."

When she asked for a book, she naturally referred to the signed book, and it was specially signed.

If it was another author, Yang Xiao would not be so careful.The main reason is that Yu Dong himself is well-known in the literary circle, and he may have a different view on this kind of thing. The more important thing is that Yang Xiao knows a little about Dong's relationship with Jimmy, and he also knows that he is not short of money.

Yu Dong didn't care about this matter, and said with a smile, "It's okay, later, sister Xiao, you told me the names of these friends, and I will write a few books."

Hearing Yu Dong's promise, Yang Xiao said with a smile, "Then I will thank you on behalf of those friends, and I will list the names for you later. You know one of them. I happened to meet him when I went to the Association for Science and Technology last time." When I arrived at Mr. Kang, he also asked me for books.”

Hearing that Mr. Kang wanted a book, Yu Dong couldn't help but say, "Then I'll write it tomorrow."

……

The next afternoon, the Galaxy Awards ceremony went smoothly. "Second World" won the special prize, "Seven Shells" and "Iceman" won the first prize, and He Hongwei and Yang Peng both won the second prize.

After the award ceremony, Yu Dong and the others were surrounded by a group of reporters.

Because there are so many reporters, in order to seize the opportunity, some reporters resorted to black tricks and held up a copy of "Resident Evil" in front of Yu Dong: "Mr. Yu Dong, Mr. Yu Dong, I have already read your "Resident Evil". Wonderful……"

(End of this chapter)