Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 98: Forced Action
Two weeks after Zhang Chao sent the email, Xia Da packed his luggage and came to Yanjing with his full set of painting supplies.

Zhang Chao was in class and did not go to pick up Xia Da, but he called a car to take her to her house in Panjiayuan.

Following the text message sent by Zhang Chao, Xia Da dug out the key from under the doormat, opened the door and went in.

It was a clean and bright living room with no sofa, TV or coffee table. Instead, there were a few desks and office chairs, but no one was there.

There are two rooms, one of which is a larger one that was converted into a studio. Two wide and long workbenches are placed against the wall, and a few extra lighting lamps are placed there, which is enough space for three or four people to paint at the same time.

A small room was used as Xia Da's bedroom, with a bed, wardrobe and complete furniture.

After looking at it inside and out, Xia Da breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Zhang Chao was not bragging when he told her to "come over without worry, I will arrange it."

Before coming to Yanjing, Xia Da had contacted a painter friend she knew in Yanjing before, and agreed to come to be her assistant. After all, in this era, it is difficult for painters to have a stable source of income.

What's more, you can see your work published in Shueisha's comic magazine.

After class, Zhang Chao took a taxi here and picked up Yan Baohua who had just got off work.

As soon as they entered the room, Yan Baohua and Xia Da hugged each other and said with emotion: "I never thought that I would see you come back to work in Yanjing."

Then he looked at the environment and said to Zhang Chao: "You really put your heart into it."

Zhang Chao invited the two to have a simple meal. With Yan Baohua present, Xia Da was at least not so reserved.

After talking about the idea of ​​the progress of the comic book "Your Name" for a while, Zhang Chao suddenly asked: "I heard that you studied art design before?"

Xia Da hesitated for a moment before nodding.

Zhang Chao said: "Shueisha sent me an email, hoping that I would authorize them to produce some peripheral products of Your Name, such as posters, figurines, capsule toys, etc. It seems that this comic is quite popular."

Yan Baohua said: "Your Name is indeed good. The sales of our Yanjing Cartoons have quadrupled in recent issues. Some of our readers who came back from Japan said that this comic is also very popular in Japan. Otherwise, it would not have been moved from the supplement to the main publication."

Zhang Chao continued: "I was thinking, if they design it, why don't we design it ourselves and then authorize them to produce and distribute it in Japan. In short, we can't give away the copyright of derivative products.

If you can do it, I'll give it to you. If you can't, I'll find someone else."

Xia Da thought for a long time before nodding and saying, "If I have two assistants, I should be able to find time to do it."

Zhang Chao smiled and said, "That's you. Two assistants can be assigned to you anyway. Just find someone yourself. I'll send you Shueisha's needs when I get back."

Yan Baohua's eyes lit up, and he heard something, and asked tentatively: "What are you going to do...?"

Zhang Chao said: "Yes. The comic version of Your Name is so successful, it would be a pity not to develop derivative products. I think if we can come up with a suitable design plan and find a domestic toy factory to cooperate with, the sales should be good."

Yan Baohua sighed, "Our magazine also wanted to try this route to increase the magazine's income, but it was rejected by the higher-ups - are you going to set up a company?"

Zhang Chao nodded and said, "Yes. It is urgent and we have to do it. As the only domestic journal authorized to serialize, we hope that you, Chief Editor Yan, will support our work when the time comes."

Zhang Chao did not lie. After talking with Quan Yong about "The Cliff", he went back and did some calculations. He found that if he did not value himself and the resources around him, it would be a waste of resources.

"Your Name" novels, comics, the animation that will inevitably come in the future, and various peripheral products, as long as they are managed well, definitely have the potential to generate tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue.

"Better Days" will bring Zhang Chao tens of millions of dollars in revenue this year just from the sales of the novel and the film rights.

"Dwelling Narrowness", which is about to be completed, will also be a phenomenal work after being made into a TV series in its original time and space.

There is also "The Cliff" which Quan Yongxian is currently writing, which is also a phenomenal TV series - and later it spawned a prequel movie with a box office of one billion yuan.

As for the least promising "Young Babylon", someone actually asked about the film and television copyright, but he just didn't agree.

You have works that are destined to become hits in your hands, but you still want to live a carefree life alone. If you just make "licensing fees", the potential of your works will never be fully developed, and you may even encounter various disputes and troubles.

This is also the reason why Shueisha wanted him to authorize the development of "Your Name" peripheral products, but he wanted Xia Da to design it.

If it were abroad, writers like Zhang Chao would have signed contracts with literary agencies long ago, and a professional team would have operated and developed the commercial value of his works, without him having to do it himself. But in China now, let alone literary agencies, even performing arts agencies are mostly makeshift teams. How could Zhang Chao feel comfortable handing over the copyright of his works to them? Zhang Chao made the decision to set up a company because things had come to this point.

However, Zhang Chao does not want to expand his business at present. He just wants to start with the development of peripheral products related to "Your Name" and does not need to recruit a lot of people. However, he has to go to class and needs someone to manage daily affairs, but it is not easy to find people.

This is Zhang Chao’s biggest headache right now.

After dinner, Zhang Chao returned home alone. Not long after he sat in front of the computer, his cell phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number.

"Hello, I'm Zhang Chao, who are you?"

"Hello, Mr. Zhang Chao. I am sorry to bother you. I am Jeffrey Huang. We met at the office of Blog China."

"Oh, Jeffrey Huang, a top student from Harvard."

"You can just call me Huang Jiefu. This is my Chinese name."

"'Brother-in-law'? Never mind. I'll just call you Jeffrey. What do you want from me?"

"Mr. Zhang Chao, please try to persuade the boss, he's gone crazy!"

He then described to Zhang Chao what Dongfangxing had done in recent months. In fact, to sum it up, it was just like all the other Internet companies that were blinded by money, expanding at all costs, blindly increasing their scale, setting exaggerated market targets, with numerous factions within the company and chaotic management... The key point is that it had no ability to generate revenue on its own and was entirely dependent on venture capital to survive.

Dongfangxing, which received several more hot money, did not avoid any of these traps. "Blog China" has now moved into the most expensive office building in Yanjing, and the staff size has expanded to more than 500 people, more than 10 times the previous number.

The goal of "Blog China" has changed from "becoming one of the domestic portal websites" to "becoming the largest domestic portal website."

Jeffrey Huang finally said in a tone that was almost pleading: "I know you have a great influence on the boss. You may be the only one who can persuade him. The company is now like a wild bull that has been shot. It looks like it is running fast, but it is about to die."

As he had too many things to do, he had not paid attention to China Blog for a long time. He only posted short articles and random thoughts on it occasionally. He just thought that the webpage was updated frequently, with new features every week or two, but he did not think too much about it.

Zhang Chao still had good intentions towards Dongfang Xing, and the two of them did have a good relationship. It just so happened that he had no classes the next morning, so he agreed to his request and made an appointment to meet Dongfang Xing then.

The next morning, Zhang Chao came to "Blog China". Dongfang Xing was still very enthusiastic and took him to visit the new office area which occupied half a floor.

Back in Dongfangxing's huge office, Zhang Chao had just said a few words when he was interrupted by Dongfangxing: "Okay! Did Jeffrey ask you to come? Zhang Chao, I want to tell you this sincerely - I don't know as much about writing as you do; you don't know as much about IT as I do. We need to be fast now, so fast that those big companies can't react. The market is ours!
Anyone who cannot keep up with this pace will be eliminated.”

Zhang Chao knew that kind words would not work to persuade the damned ghost, so he could only sigh secretly in his heart, said a few more words, and then hurriedly said goodbye.

Not long after leaving BlogChina, Zhang Chao called Jeffrey Huang and told him that he could not persuade Dongfang Xing. Jeffrey Huang said in despair: "It has nothing to do with me. He just fired me."

Zhang Chao couldn't help but sigh that Dongfang Xing was now so "decisive and ruthless". Suddenly, he changed his mind and asked, "You are just a professional manager. As far as I know, Dongfang Xing didn't give you any equity incentives. Why do you look so sad?"

Jeffrey Huang replied: "I have my professional ethics and professional reputation! I came to my father's country from the United States because I saw the opportunities here and I want to build a great company. I will not allow my career to end in disgrace..."

Zhang Chao listened to him patiently, then said to Jeffrey Huang: "Where are you now? If you have time, come to my office in Panjiayuan. I have a job for you, are you interested? The address is..."

Jeffrey Huang thought that since he had nothing to do, it would be no harm to go, so he took a taxi to the address given by Zhang Chao.

When we arrived at the scene, we found that Zhang Chao's so-called company was located in a residential area, and its total area was not even as big as Dongfang Xing's president's office.

There was only a young man with a smile on his face, a pretty girl who hid in the room when she saw a stranger, and a few broken tables and chairs. The rest of the house could be described as "bare and bare".

Jeffrey Huang roared angrily: “Mr. Zhang, are you kidding me? I am a professional manager with ideals, and I don’t accept such insults!”

Zhang Chao said to him with a smile: "The office conditions are a bit shabby... But you are working for a college student who is less than 20 years old.

You are working for a writer who has written two novels with sales of over 100 million copies in one year! You are working for a writer whose comic book adaptation can be serialized in the largest comic magazine in the island country! You are working for a writer who will have a TV series and movies released nationwide every year this year!

You are working for the future George Martin, JK Rowling and Akira Toriyama! The works you are running will become classics like "A Song of Ice and Fire", "Harry Potter" and "Dragon Ball" - do you still think I am insulting you? Dear Geoffrey Huang. "

(End of this chapter)