Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 400 Where does inspiration come from?

"Three books! Is three books a month okay?"

After hesitating for a moment, Yan Qiansan started to bargain with Cao Sheng.

Cao Sheng chuckled and shook his head. "President Yan! I just said, at least five books per month."

Yan Qiansan chuckled as well, picked up his glass, and said, "Come on, Mr. Cao, let's have another drink!"

After they each drank another glass of wine, Yan Qiansan smiled and said, "Mr. Cao, do you have any other conditions? Are they just the two conditions we just discussed?"

Cao Sheng: "That's all, just these two conditions."

As Yan Qiansan picked up some food with his chopsticks, he said, "I can agree to the first condition. As for the second condition... could you let me think about it a little? I'll give you an answer by tomorrow at the latest, okay?"

He planned to have the publishing house's review editors take a good look at that Qidian.com website to see what percentage of the works on the site were suitable for publication, and whether they could ensure that five suitable works could be selected for publication each month.

Before today, he hadn't paid much attention to Qidian.

I admit I don't know enough about the works on this website.

Based on the principle of caution, he felt it would be better to let the subordinates understand the starting point first before making a decision.

Cao Sheng smiled and said, "Of course."

……

After finishing lunch and leaving the hotel, Cui Xinyu whispered a report: "Boss! The vice president of Huacheng Publishing House has arrived in Huizhou and wants to meet with you this afternoon or evening. What do you think? Should we go and meet him?"

Sun Liang, who was following behind them, suddenly quickened his pace, jogged to the roadside, opened the car door, and Cao Sheng walked to the car door, stopped, and looked at Cui Xinyu beside him, "Let's meet! After all, we've worked together before, and since the vice president is here this time, we can't be impolite. You arrange a time and place for dinner with him, and you can come with me."

Cui Xinyu nodded repeatedly.

Cao Sheng looked away and got into the car.

Sun Liang closed the car door and quickly got into the car with Cui Xinyu. Then, the car drove away.

……

The deputy general manager sent by Huacheng Publishing House this time was a woman in her forties named Ding Baihe.

Accompanying her was her secretary, a young woman named Xu Xinyi.

evening.

Accompanied by Cui Xinyu, Cao Sheng arrived at a restaurant called Jiangshang Yuwei.

On the way there, Cui Xinyu told Cao Sheng, "This restaurant specializes in river fish from the Xin'an River. I've eaten there twice, and they're incredibly fresh and delicious, without any muddy taste. You'll see when you try them."

Cao Sheng didn't say anything.

He wasn't particular about food.

But if there's something delicious, he's also interested in trying it.

As soon as the car arrived at the entrance of Jiangshang Fish Restaurant, Cao Sheng got out, and Ding Baihe and Xu Xinyi quickly came to greet him.

"Mr. Cao! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Hello, Mr. Cao!"

Cao Sheng didn't know them, but they had seen Cao Sheng's photos online and could recognize him at a glance.

Cao Sheng stopped and looked them over, then smiled and asked, "Hello! And who are you two?"

Wearing a beige women's suit, Ding Baihe adjusted his glasses, extended his right hand, and smiled, "I am Ding Baihe from Huacheng. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Cao. You are even more handsome than in the news photos!"

Cao Sheng reached out and shook her hand. "President Ding, it's a pleasure to meet you! Welcome to Huizhou, you must have had a long journey!"

Ding Baihe withdrew his right hand, clasped his hands together at his lower abdomen, and smiled broadly. "It's not hard work at all. I have to thank Mr. Cao for giving me the opportunity to visit Huizhou! If you hadn't suddenly published a new book, I wouldn't have had the chance to come to such a beautiful place as Huizhou! Hehe."

Her words made everyone in the room laugh.

Cao Sheng: "President Ding really knows how to talk! He makes me feel ashamed."

As he spoke, Cao Sheng looked at the young woman next to Ding Baihe.

The young woman quickly stepped forward, extended her hand, and smiled, "Good evening, Mr. Cao! I am Xu Xinyi, Mr. Ding's secretary. You can just call me Xiao Xu."

The girl looked to be a few years older than Cao Sheng, but she was very humble and asked Cao Sheng to call her Xiao Xu.

Ding Baihe has an ordinary appearance, but he is well-dressed and has a gentle temperament.

Xu Xinyi is like a delicate young lady. When she smiles, she has two deep dimples at the corners of her mouth, bright eyes, and taut, slightly flushed skin, like a beautiful red apple.

At this moment, Ding Baihe stepped aside and gestured, "Mr. Cao, please come in! Shall we go inside and talk?"

Cao Sheng nodded and gestured, "Please, Mr. Ding!"

"Mr. Cao, please!"

After exchanging pleasantries, the group went into the shop together.

A waiter came up to greet us, and soon the proprietress also came out to serve us.

The group was seated in a private room on the second floor by the window.

After ordering the food and drinks, while waiting for them to be served, Ding Baihe began to chat with Cao Sheng about the mountains, rivers, and historical sites of Huizhou. He spoke slowly but very eloquently.

As a tourist city, Huizhou has so many things to talk about.

The various scenic spots, local famous teas, ancient buildings, jade and calligraphy supplies on the old streets, and so on, are endless topics to discuss.

During their casual conversation, the food and drinks they ordered were served one after another.

Many of them are freshwater delicacies from the Xin'an River, such as fish, shrimp, and crabs.

Each one was incredibly delicious, earning high praise from Ding Baihe.

She seemed very patient and never mentioned the simplified Chinese copyright of Cao Sheng's new book.

He would occasionally raise his glass to toast Cao Sheng.

She seemed to be enjoying the food, and her eyes, glancing out the window from time to time, were full of appreciation. Outside the window, one could see white-walled and black-tiled houses, the winding Xin'an River, as if she had traveled back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

She didn't bring up the main topic until the food on the table was almost finished and the bottle of rice wine was nearly gone.

“Mr. Cao, since we collaborated on ‘Living with an Air Hostess’, Huacheng has basically not worked with you again. This is the most regrettable thing for everyone at Huacheng in the past two years, and I feel the same way. So, when I heard that you have a new book, I took the initiative to ask the general manager to let me come to Huizhou to see you, hoping that you and Huacheng can rekindle our relationship. I wonder if Mr. Cao can give us a chance?”

After she finished speaking, she and her secretary, Xu Xinyi, both smiled at Cao Sheng.

Even Cui Xinyu, who was sitting next to Cao Sheng, looked at Cao Sheng curiously, wondering if Cao Sheng would choose Hua Cheng? Cao Sheng smiled silently.

"To be honest, Mr. Yan from Changjiang Literature and Art asked me a similar question at noon today."

Ding Baihe and Xu Xinyi's expressions changed slightly.

Ding Baihe: "President Yan? President Yan has come to Huizhou in person?"

Cao Sheng nodded with a smile.

Ding Baihe gave a wry smile, "I didn't expect President Yan to personally come. It seems he's determined to win! I wonder if Mr. Cao has already signed the new book for him?"

Cao Sheng shook his head slightly, "No! Of the two conditions I set, President Yan only agreed to one in person. As for the second condition, President Yan said he needs to think about it and will probably give me an answer tomorrow."

Ding Baihe's eyes lit up, and he leaned forward unconsciously, asking with a smile, "Oh? I wonder which two conditions you mentioned? Could you tell us so that Huacheng can also make a choice?"

Cao Sheng looked at her.

Ding Baihe's eyes shone with anticipation.

Cao Sheng smiled and said, "It's very simple. The first condition is royalty sharing. Based on the royalty sharing ratio of my previous book, I'll add two more points."

Ding Baihe nodded slightly and pressed on, "What's the second condition? Please tell me!"

Cao Sheng: "We select 5 works to publish every month on Qidian.com, at least 5!"

Ding Baihe was stunned for a moment, clearly not expecting the second condition to be like this.

She asked instinctively, "Oh? Why? Is Qidian.com one of your businesses?"

Cao Sheng smiled and said, "Not entirely! But I own some shares and want to support this website."

Ding Baihe nodded, leaned back in his chair, narrowed his eyes, pondered for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said, "Mr. Cao! My status is not as high as Mr. Yan's, so I cannot give you an answer to either of your conditions on the spot. Therefore, could I go out and make a phone call to ask my superiors? Don't worry! I will be back soon. Please wait a moment, and I will give you an answer when I return. Is that alright?"

Cao Sheng, after hearing the first part of her words, thought she was going to reject his two conditions on the spot.

After listening to the second half, I realized that I had misunderstood.

He nodded and gestured, "Please go ahead, Mr. Ding! I'll wait for you here."

Ding Baihe smiled and stood up, patting his secretary Xu Xinyi on the shoulder. "Xiao Xu, you keep Mr. Cao company for a couple more drinks. I'll be right back!"

Xu Xinyi quickly agreed.

After Ding Baihe left, Xu Xinyi quickly stood up and raised her wine glass with both hands to toast Cao Sheng.

Cao Sheng did not disrespect her just because she was a secretary.

I clinked glasses with her and took a sip.

He was actually quite interested in Xu Xinyi.

It wasn't that he was lusting after her body, but rather that he thought the secretary was quite nice. She wasn't stunningly beautiful, but she was still pretty, a delicate and charming type of beauty, and it would be respectable to take her out.

The key issue is that he is not very satisfied with Cui Xinyu's abilities.

Cui Xinyu has made several mistakes at work.

For example, when he was in Hong Kong, he was invited to a cocktail party hosted by Yinghuang. He was surrounded by people toasting him and originally hoped that Cui Xinyu could help him fend off the drinks.

The results of it?
Cui Xinyu was in a corner with other people's assistants and agents, drinking one glass after another, socializing with those people, and never came over to him to stop them from drinking.

In the end, he drank too much and was taken to a hotel room by someone else. Cui Xinyu didn't even know which room he was taken to.

Ultimately, that night, he, a grown man, was taken advantage of by a woman.

Recently, he asked her to help him find out if there was a director in mainland China named Ning Hao, but she has been unable to find out.

While it's possible that Ning Hao hasn't directed any works yet, it could also be due to Cui Xinyu's lack of work ability or weak connections.

Therefore, Cao Sheng has been considering changing his secretary for the past two days.

Cao Sheng felt that Xu Xinyi, who was standing in front of him, was more capable than Cui Xinyu.

If he couldn't reach a cooperation agreement with Huacheng this time, he was thinking of poaching Xu Xinyi to be his assistant.

Of course, if he reaches a cooperation agreement with Huacheng this time, he will not consider poaching this girl for the time being.

As for Cui Xinyu?
Although Cao Sheng wanted to replace her, he did not intend to fire her.

He just felt that Cui Xinyu was not suitable to be his assistant, but since she became his assistant, his work attitude had been satisfactory.

For example, she was always responsible for cleaning, washing clothes, buying breakfast for him, and so on. Whatever he asked her to do, no matter how big or small, Cui Xinyu would do it conscientiously.

Therefore, although Cao Sheng wanted to replace her, he also planned to give her a different job, such as helping to expand the Xitong Internet Cafe under his name.

Alternatively, he could send her to Shenzhen to help manage his three buildings there.

"Mr. Cao, when do you usually create? During the day or at night?"

Xu Xinyi looked for topics to talk about with a big smile on her face.

Cao Sheng smiled and replied, "When I have time! I haven't graduated yet, so I can only write in my spare time, day and night."

Xu Xinyi said "Oh", and then asked, "Where do you get your inspiration? I think this is something that many people are curious about, because since you started writing, it seems that every book you write is full of creativity and originality, such as: 'I Want to Become an Immortal', 'Tomb of the Gods', 'The Exquisite Pagoda of Heaven and Earth', 'The Romance of the Primordial Era', etc. Where do you get the inspiration for these books? Can you tell me? I am really curious."

Cui Xinyu's curiosity was also piqued, and she looked at Cao Sheng.

Cao Sheng: "Take a guess?"

Xu Xinyi blinked. "Life experience? And you must have read a lot of books before, right? Is that where you drew inspiration?"

Cao Sheng smiled and said, "I'm so young, how much life experience do I have? Besides, I personally think that writing online novels doesn't require much life experience, which is probably a very different aspect from writing traditional novels."

Xu Xinyi looked surprised. "Oh? Really? You think writing a work like yours doesn't require much life experience? No way!"

Cao Sheng: "Experience is definitely necessary. For example, if you have enough experience, you can write more vivid and realistic characters when creating them in your books. The characters' ways of dealing with people will also be more experienced or shrewd. But our online novels mainly focus on fantasy themes, such as Xianxia, ​​Xuanhuan, Fantasy, and ancient mythology. These themes are all fantasy themes. To write these themes well, I personally think we need to unleash our imagination. Imagination is the most important thing! As long as our imagination is rich enough, we can describe the imagined world vividly, which will make the readers feel very immersed. Add some exciting main plots, and a book will be very good. Don't you think so?"

Xu Xinyi nodded repeatedly.

Sitting next to Cao Sheng, Cui Xinyu also seemed to be deep in thought.

Xu Xinyi exclaimed, "Hearing your words is worth more than reading books for ten years! It's so true! People used to tell me that to write well, you must have rich life experience, otherwise you won't have anything to write about. After hearing what you said today, I realize that those people were talking nonsense! They were just making assumptions!"

Cao Sheng chuckled, “That’s not it! It’s just that before there were online novels in China, the things written by traditional Chinese writers were basically closer to reality. So, they really needed life experience to write, otherwise, what they wrote would not match reality and would be floating in the air.”

Back then, probably few people imagined that one day there would be a group of authors like us, specializing in writing stories that float in the air, right?

(End of this chapter)