Backtracking to the Age of Literature and Art

Chapter 258 Kane Liu

"Forget it, let's go back and find someone who understands it. Jimmy's Chinese seems to be very good. You can also ask him, but he is very busy at the moment and can't take care of this." Jeff suggested.

Hans shook his head, he really couldn't wait to go back and understand.

"If I don't understand what this sentence means, I can't even eat."

Jeff secretly sighed, Hans is good at everything, but he is too stubborn.

"Then what else can I do? Why don't you buy a Chinese dictionary and look it up word by word."

"Forget about the dictionary. I feel like I can't even look it up in the dictionary. I'll ask someone else."

Just doing what he said, Hahns began to look for Chinese in the team of book friends.

But this is not an easy task. Chinese, Korean, Japanese... East Asians seem to look similar. Hahns asked several times in a row, either they are not Chinese, or they are just like Zhang Li. What is it.

There was a young man who seemed to understand, but he couldn't express the meaning clearly after speaking in English for a long time.

"Hello, I can help you take a look."

Just when Hans was about to give up hope, a person walked by and said to him with a smile, "I just saw that you were looking for someone to translate Chinese."

The person who spoke was about seventeen or eighteen years old, and looked very handsome.It looks like an East Asian
"Oh, good." Hahns handed the book to the other party, "Are you Chinese?"

The other party nodded, looked at the words on the title page, and then said with a smile: "This sentence is not difficult. It means that with a scale, you can know how to measure fairness, and with compasses, you can know how to draw a correct circle. , the following sentence..."

"I know the latter sentence."

Hahns looked at the black-haired boy in front of him with surprise. He heard the boy's pure Boston accent just now, and thought he was a brave kid. He didn't expect the other party to solve the problem so easily.

And what did he say?Is this not difficult?

"Hi, may I ask what your name is?" Hahns asked.

"You can call me Kane."

"you……"

"I'm sorry, I'm here to attend the signing event, and I have to queue up."

Kane waved his hands hastily, and then walked towards the back of the team.

He came a bit late, the queue was already long, and he was afraid that if he was delayed for a while, it would not be his turn.

Seeing that Kane ran away, Hahns did not give up and followed him.

When Kane reached the back of the queue, Hans followed up panting, only tens of meters away, and he was out of breath.

"I'm getting old, I can't outrun you young people."

Hans supported his knees and looked at Kane, "Now that you are in line, can you chat with me?"

Kahn stared at Hahns in great surprise, "Of course, but what do you want to talk to me about?"

"From your accent, are you from Boston?"

"That's right, I came here from Boston to attend YU's signing event. You should know that this is a rare opportunity."

"Have you heard of the YU Umbrella Reading Club?"

Kane smiled and said: "Of course, the YU Umbrella Reading Club is very famous among us. I heard that this time the book signing will also participate in the book club. Before, a classmate gave us a petition banner, and I also signed my name. Just now Seeing the banner hanging next to it, I thought about looking for it to see if I could find my name, but considering the time, I didn’t do so.”

Hahns looked at the banners hanging around the bookstore, and said with a smile, "I am from the YU Umbrella Reading Club, and our reading club also has members from Boston, and we are planning to open a branch in Boston in a while, I don't know if you appreciate it. not interested."

"Of course." Kane raised his eyebrows, "I've always been curious about the YU Umbrella Reading Club. Science fiction is not a big hit in the United States. It's not easy to find some large-scale sci-fi reading clubs. And YU is still Chinese. , it's not easy."

"Have you come to the United States since you were a child? Have you ever lived in China? Because I hear your accent..."

"My accent is deliberately practiced. In fact, I came to the United States with my family when I was 11 years old."

"So it's like this... Are you in a hurry to go back today?"

Kane shook his head, "I can't go back today, I'm going to stay in New York for one night."

Hans said with a smile, "If you have time, you can come to our reading club to have a look."

Kane thought for a while, then nodded, "Okay, but it seems that it will take a long time."

The queue ahead is still very long, and it should take a long time to get to Kane.

"It's okay, I will wait for you."

……

The signing meeting was going on in an orderly manner, and the store manager Hal has been "serving" by the side, adding water and changing pens by himself.

At noon, he made another table of hearty Chinese food, but Yu Dong simply took a few bites and went back to his seat to sign autographs for the book friends.

Seeing such a diligent YU, Hal was moved to the point of tears.

Because it has been agreed in advance that this time, the Little Bear Bookstore will provide a venue to help with publicity, so there is no need to pay YU additionally.

In other words, no matter how much YU signs today, it won't have much impact on himself, at most it's just some more royalties.

But compared to the sales of millions of copies, no matter how hard YU works, there is no way to improve much.

Even so, YU has never been lazy.

It’s just that the signing is in Chinese characters, so the speed is very slow. In the middle, Hal wanted to tell Yu not to sign Chinese characters, but to only sign the English abbreviation, and there are only two letters of Y and U in total, which can greatly save time.

Moreover, once Yu Dong gives readers a special signature, it will take longer. Sometimes it will be a long list, and Hal feels very tired watching it.

In fact, Yu Dong also knows how to sign faster, but he is unwilling to do so.

On the one hand, he came here with great difficulty and had so many readers cheering him on, so he naturally had to be worthy of the love of these readers.On the other hand, he insisted on using Chinese characters, and often wrote some long sentences, hoping to make these Americans have some interest in Chinese culture.

This kind of influence may not be too deep, but everything is done step by step. If today's book signing can make ten book friends interested in Chinese characters and deeper Chinese culture, Yu Dong believes that his Persistence is not in vain.

……

At about three o'clock, Yu Dong was already feeling very tired.

The intensity of this signing will be completely different from the last signing in Rongcheng. Last time, Yu Dong could control the rhythm by himself, and sometimes he would chat with readers while holding a teacup.

But since the autograph session started today, Yu Dong's strings have been stretched.

Others will come over after a while to report on the queue outside. From morning to now, the queue has not been shortened, and people are constantly joining in.

Seeing Yu Dong beating his arm, Jimmy ran over and lowered his head and said, "Don't be in such a hurry, it's a big deal to work overtime at night, or some people just don't want to sign. I'll tell someone in a while, let readers stop queuing up .”

Yu Dong looked at the time, "It's still early, no need, if there are still so many people at five o'clock, it's not too late to notify. As for overtime work, forget it. It doesn't matter if I work overtime alone, and it will also involve other people. Readers, they are standing in line, much more fortunate than me."

Jimmy shook his head and smiled, "I should really record what you said just now, so that those readers can hear how much you take care of them."

After a while, Hal went to find Jimmy again: "Mr. James, what time can YU check in today?"

Jimmy looked at Hal with a smile, "Why, I'm afraid that YU will leave work early, and you won't be able to sell all the books you bought?"

"No, no." Hal waved his hands again and again, "Actually, I was worried that we didn't buy enough, we bought a total of 1000 copies of "Second World", sold nearly [-] copies, and there are more than [-] copies left. "

"It seems that you don't have enough confidence in this signing. You only bought [-] copies. I thought you would buy at least [-] copies."

Hal was taken aback.

Ten thousand copies, this Jimmy really dare to say.At that time, he had already made a great determination to buy [-] books, but he didn't expect that he might face the situation of not having enough books now.

Of course, Jimmy mentioned the number of [-] copies to tease Hal. According to today's progress, [-] copies is impossible.

In fact, Jimmy was quite surprised when Hal said that nearly [-] copies had been sold. After all, this is not a small amount.

He looked at the time, and it was almost four o'clock, "I suggest you get another thousand to two thousand copies, even if they can't be sold out, there shouldn't be many left."

"With your words, I feel relieved, and I will contact you now."

It's not difficult to buy books, it's hard to say how many, one or two thousand copies can be transferred casually, and you don't even need to contact Bantam Company, just go to those booksellers.

……

When Yu Dong was about to rest for a while, a boy with black hair and black eyes came up, he loosened his wrist, and asked in Chinese:

"Is it Chinese?"

The young man nodded and also said in Mandarin, "Yes."

Hearing the other party's standard Mandarin, Yu Dong smiled knowingly, "Come here to study?"

"No, I came here with my parents when I was a child."

"That's rare. Your Mandarin is very standard. It doesn't look like you've been here for a long time." Yu Dong was a little surprised. He had chatted with several Chinese Americans before, let alone came to the United States when he was a child, even if he just came here People who are young, Mandarin also has a foreign flavor.

The young man in front of him was very nice, he couldn't recognize "abc", and he even had a taste of Southwestern Mandarin.

Facing Dong's praise, Kane explained with a smile: "I have never given up on learning traditional Chinese culture, and we have always spoken Mandarin at home."

"Very good, keep it up. What's your name?"

"The English name is Kane Liu, and the Chinese name is Liu Yukun."

"Liu Yukun, it's pretty good..."

Yu Dong subconsciously wanted to boast, but then he suddenly realized that this name... He raised his head and looked seriously at the young man in front of him. He had a handsome face and clear eyes, exuding a kind of confidence from the inside out.

Liu Yukun, considering his age, was indeed that old.There should be no mistake, this Liu Yukun is that Liu Yukun.

Originally, Liu Yukun was happy when Yu Dong asked his name, because usually there would be a special signature if he asked his name.But just as Yu Dong was about to start writing, he suddenly stopped, and Liu Yukun became anxious, and hurriedly said, "Wen Dao Liu, the rain of rain, the insects of insects."

If Liu Yukun had a pen in his hand at this time, he would like to write his name on the paper.

Seeing Liu Yukun's anxious look, Yu Dong thought it was quite interesting, but he didn't rush to sign for him, "Do you like science fiction?"

Liu Yukun nodded fiercely, "Of course, especially your science fiction novels, which let me see a new world. If I didn't like "Second World" and you, I wouldn't have come all the way from Boston."

"Since you like it, stick to it. Maybe one day you will sit in this place and sign for readers who like your works. If there is such a day, I will definitely become your reader. You were born in China and grew up in the United States. And you haven’t given up on learning traditional Chinese culture, maybe one day, you can write a work that is different from others.”

Yu Dong's encouragement made Liu Yukun stunned. He stared blankly at Yu Dong and the seat where Yu Dong was sitting, and the noisy chatter in the bookstore rang in his ears.

These noisy voices gradually became clearer, slowly echoed in the ear canal, and finally merged into one sentence, which was Yu Dong's voice, "What are you thinking?"

"Oh, I didn't think about anything..."

Yu Dong smiled. They chatted for a long time. If the chat continues like this, the people behind should have opinions. He took a pen and wrote on the title page: Liu Yukun, I hope to read your work one day——Yu Dong .

"Give you."

"Thank you, thank you." Liu Yukun took the book as if he had found a treasure.

After Liu Yukun left, Yu Dong went into the intense signing work again.

Until 05:30, Comrade Jimmy stopped people from queuing outside. At this time, there were still about 300 people queuing.

After more than an hour, when it was almost seven o'clock, the signing was finally over.

There were also some people who came late and missed the signing, so they could only stand at the door of the bookstore beating their chests and feet.However, this is a small number. Today’s signing session was relatively successful. The final statistics showed that there were more than 600 people, and [-] books were sold. Most readers bought two copies.

More than 3000 people came to a signing event, which can definitely be called a large scale.If Yu Dong worked more shifts and signed in at ten or even eleven o'clock, he should be able to break through to four thousand.

In fact, it’s not that there is no moisture at all. Some of the 600 person-times were organized by the book club, and some readers queued up twice.

Some readers at the top of the queue found that there was still a chance after signing, and ran to the back to line up again. They hoped to get a special lottery by queuing one more time.

That is to say, each reader is limited to only two books. Otherwise, if you encounter some hot-headed local rich readers, you will have a lot more books signed out today.

Of course, today's achievements like this also depend on the marketing of Bantam Company, Universal Pictures, Bear Bookstore and Deep Space Company.

However, Jimmy believes that this time is just a small test. After "Second World" and "Resident Evil" are released one after another, he is confident that the data will double.

　Thank you [Huang Tian Zai Kong] for the 100 tip
　　Thanks to [Five Bamboo Rats] for the 200 tip
　　
　
(End of this chapter)