Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 476, "The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts," one month's electronic manuscript fee.

Although Cao Sheng wanted to laugh, he could understand why Wang Jing was not optimistic about Ali's future.

Because at present, it is indeed difficult to be optimistic about the future of Ali. Ali's e-commerce and online shopping are seen as unreliable by many people.

E-commerce sounds very sophisticated.

But things that are high-end and sophisticated are generally considered irrelevant to most people.

This is very out of touch with reality.

Online shopping is very trendy.

However, its numerous pain points make it seem unreliable to many consumers.

For example, topping up your account is inconvenient; if you want to buy something online, you first have to go to the bank to transfer money.

For example, the payment-before-delivery transaction method makes consumers worry that they will transfer the money but not receive the goods, or that they will receive counterfeit or substandard products.

For example, these days, it's common for mail to get lost. Consumers worry that if their purchases get lost on the way, who will be responsible for the loss? Will the seller send them a replacement?
and many more.

In Cao Sheng's memories before his rebirth, the majority of people were not optimistic about Ali's future, including those domestic investors who claimed to have sharp eyes.

In the original timeline, after Ali went public, Jack Ma revealed in an interview that in order to raise funds, he personally led a team to visit investors one by one, only to be rejected by them time and time again.

What does this mean?
Does this mean Jack Ma is a poor orator and couldn't convince the investors?
Who dares to say that Jack Ma's eloquence is lacking?
Cao Sheng believes that this only shows that Ali was not favored by domestic investors in its early stages, and even with Jack Ma's eloquence, he could not convince those investors.

Therefore, Cao Sheng believes it is normal for Wang Jing to be pessimistic about the current state of Ahri.

"You talk to them for me first! Ask them how many shares they can give me, and at what price. Try to get as many shares as possible, and try to get the price down as much as you can."

Cao Sheng said to Wang Jing.

Wang Jing frowned. "You really want to invest in this company?"

Cao Sheng hummed in agreement.

Wang Jing couldn't help but persuade her again: "Boss, what are you really thinking? There were plenty of these internet companies in the US that relied on hyping up concepts before, but what happened to them? Do you know anything about it? You must have heard about how the dot-com bubble burst, right? Now so many internet companies in the US have gone bankrupt, what future do these copycat internet companies in China have? In my opinion, companies like Ali are just barely hanging on right now, and nobody knows how long they can hold on."

Cao Sheng chuckled softly.

Wang Jing frowned and continued, "Boss! I'm serious. The dot-com bubble burst less than two years ago. There's almost no chance of it being inflated again in the short term. I know you're rich, but you've already invested a lot of money in the past two years. You probably don't have much money left, right? We're currently preparing to acquire shares in the Oriental Sunrise Hotel. If you invest in Ali now, will you still have enough funds to acquire the Oriental Sunrise Hotel shares?"

Cao Sheng's brows twitched slightly, thinking to himself: So that's what she was worried about.

Yes!
After investing over 5000 million yuan in Tencent a few days ago, he indeed doesn't have much money left.

He had previously expressed his intention to invest to Tencent and Ali around the same time.

result?

Ahri declined.

No chance at all.

Therefore, he focused his strategy on Tencent. He hadn't expected to get 10% of Tencent's shares, but since Ali didn't give him the opportunity to invest, he tried every means to persuade Tencent to transfer more shares to him.

They ultimately acquired a 10% stake in Tencent.

The price he paid was over 5000 million yuan.

That money was originally intended for him to invest in two companies, Tencent and Ali.

Now... the money has already been spent.

Ah Li changed her mind and agreed to let him invest.

Then he can only use the little money he has left.

As Wang Jing had predicted, he did not have much money left.

After all, he was reborn at the end of 1997, which was almost Chinese New Year.

And it is only 2002 now.

It has only been a little over four years since he was reborn.

In such a short period of time, how much money could he have made by writing novels and screenplays, investing in real estate, and acquiring shares in two online novel platforms?
For the past four years, his main way of making money has been writing novels and screenplays.

The property does generate some rental income each year.

But not many.

He invested a large sum of money in the renovation of three residential buildings in Shenzhen. After renting them out, the monthly rent was just enough to cover the bank loan for those three buildings.

Invested in two online novel platforms—Rongshuxiao and Qidian.

Since he invested in Rongshu, the business has been burning through cash and has never been profitable, so he has never received any dividends.

starting point?

Qidian has not yet turned a profit, nor has it ever distributed dividends to him.

He made his most money the year before last, when he sold several scripts to Hollywood, plus a few to Hong Kong and mainland China, earning over 100 million that year.

But he didn't sell many scripts last year. His income mainly came from the royalties of his novels, both traditional and simplified Chinese. In total, the annual income from new and old books combined was only a few million yuan. Adding his script fees from last year, his total income barely exceeded 20 million yuan.

An annual income of 20 million is not a small amount in China at this time of year.

It can amaze countless people.

But compared to his income two years ago, it's much less.

All things considered, he now has less than 15 million yuan left.

Using this money to invest in Ali (a popular Chinese online game company) will certainly not yield many shares, but it's still acceptable.

However, acquiring a majority stake in the three-star Oriental Sunrise Hotel at the same time would certainly not be enough.

However, Cao Sheng is not worried about funding.

He paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "Sister Jing, you don't need to worry about the funding. If you don't have enough money, you can borrow ten or twenty million from the bank. You should be able to get it. What do you think?"

Wang Jing was surprised, "Are you sure you want to take out a bank loan to invest?"

Cao Sheng nodded.

Although he doesn't have much money on hand right now, he has invested in the film "Drishyam" with his script fee and will receive a share of the box office revenue.

Judging by the timeline, the box office revenue sharing for this movie should be coming in soon.

In addition, the movie "Infernal Affairs" will be released this summer, which is coming soon. He has invested in this movie and will receive a larger share of the box office revenue.

Based on the film's box office performance in the original timeline, he should be able to get a substantial share of the box office revenue once it's distributed.

Therefore, he is not worried about not being able to repay the bank loan in a short period of time.

Even without these incomes, his royalties this year should be enough to pay off most of the loan of ten or twenty million.

For Cao Sheng, the most valuable opportunity was to invest in Ali.

If you miss this opportunity, you may never have another one.

Seeing that Cao Sheng remained unmoved, Wang Jing gave a self-deprecating smile and finally stopped trying to persuade him.

I just feel a little frustrated.

Because despite all the persuasion she had given Cao Sheng, she couldn't change his decision to invest in Ali.

……

into the night.

Cao Sheng sat in the computer chair in the study on the third floor.

The computer was already on. But he wasn't in a hurry to start writing. It wasn't that he wasn't in the mood to write tonight, but rather that he had just finished eating and wanted to rest for a bit.

He sat in the computer chair with his feet propped up on the edge of the desk, lounging there in a relaxed, semi-reclining position.

Holding a mobile phone in my hand.

I'm going through some unread text messages from today.

One of the text messages was from my college roommate, Song Chao.

Song Chao: "Ah Sheng, how much did you earn in royalties on Qidian this month? Can you tell me? I'm really curious."

Upon reading this message, Cao Sheng smiled.

Since the 1st of this month, many people have asked him this question intermittently.

A colleague sent him a private message on QQ to inquire about it.

Some curious book fans, after adding him as a QQ friend, also sent him private messages to inquire.

Jin Qiaoyin, his former editor at Rongshuxia, also sent him a private message on QQ asking him this question.

When Cao Sheng saw Jin Qiaoyin ask this question, his first suspicion was—did Mr. Zhu from Rongshuxia want to know this number? Did he ask Jin Qiaoyin to ask it?
"More than 11."

Cao Sheng casually replied to Song Chao.

Soon, Song Chao replied: "Wow! That much? Really? Does this amount of royalties exceed the monthly royalties the publisher gives you?"

Cao Sheng chuckled and replied again, "No, I also get a share from the publishing house, and it's more than that in royalties every month."

Song Chao: "How much royalties does the publishing house pay you each month?"

This time, Cao Sheng didn't give an exact number. "Not many. By the way, how have you been lately?"

Song Chao: "How much is 'not much'? Is it 500,000? Me? I'm still the same as always, I definitely can't compare to you, right?"

While replying to other people's text messages, Cao Sheng also took the time to chat with Song Chao for a while.

We didn't discuss any very in-depth topics.

In the original timeline, he and Song Chao had a very good relationship.

But after graduating from university, as time went by, we gradually lost touch because we rarely saw each other.

Even after his rebirth, he still maintained a good relationship with Song Chao.

However, as a reborn person, his mental age is much older than Song Chao's, so their relationship is very superficial and they can hardly open up to each other.

In fact, it's not just Song Chao who has difficulty opening up to others.

After his rebirth, he found it difficult to open up to anyone.

This is probably the difference between the mindset of middle-aged people and that of teenagers.

Young people crave understanding and recognition.

But by middle age, he doesn't know about others, but he himself no longer cares whether anyone can understand or agree with him.

Making money became his pursuit after his rebirth.

Building on this pursuit, he also wants to make progress in writing, to write some works he wants to write, and to strive to leave his mark in the field of online literature.

……

"Holy crap! Over 11? Qidian pays him over 11 a month? How is that possible?"

In a company dormitory in a certain city.

Song Chao looked down at Cao Sheng's reply on his phone. Although his chat with Cao Sheng had ended a while ago, he was still surprised and couldn't believe that Cao Sheng could earn so much from a single book on Qidian in a month.

This is too exaggerated.

His parents worked hard in their hometown for most of their lives, but they probably never earned this much money. The family's current savings don't even add up to 3 yuan.

Cao Sheng's monthly royalties, excluding those from the publisher, amounted to over 11 yuan.

Song Chao tasted the bitterness of envy, jealousy, and hatred.

Although Cao Sheng was his college roommate.

I have a good personal relationship with him.

But Cao Sheng's income still made him feel seriously unbalanced.

He stood there in a daze for a while, then got up, went downstairs, went to a nearby internet cafe, turned on a computer, and went online to the author forum on Qidian.

I'd like to see if any other authors have disclosed their royalties from last month.

Don't say it, there really is.

He soon saw several posts about royalties.

"Thanks to Qidian.com, I have the opportunity to earn money from writing. Last month, I earned over 2800 yuan, awesome!!!"

Song Chao clicked on the post, but found that the post did not reveal the title of his work. It only said: "Like many friends, I have been writing for more than two years. In these two years, I have started at least seven or eight works. Some have tens of thousands of words, some have hundreds of thousands of words. The longest one is the one that is currently being serialized and published. It has 32 words. The reason why I was able to write such a long book is because Qidian gave me the opportunity to publish and make money from it. Unfortunately! I am clumsy. Last month, I only updated about 12 words. With the royalties, full attendance bonus, and reader rewards, the total income was only a little over 2800 yuan. I hope you can forgive me, hehe."

There are many comments under this post.

1st floor: "Although the original poster's income cannot be compared with that of Zhongyuan Yidianhui, 2800 a month is already very impressive, exceeding the income of white-collar workers in many big cities."

2nd floor: "Kill the poster who's showing off!"

3rd floor: "2800... The poster must be a master! Confirmed!"

4th floor: "Old Pig only got a little over 8000 in royalties this month, while the poster got 2800, which is already amazing!"

5th floor: "Could I ask the original poster what the average subscription rate is?"

6th floor: "The most amazing one is Zhongyuan Yidianhui. I can't believe my eyes. He actually earned more than 11 yuan in royalties last month. It's like a cow standing on its head! Damn!"

……

In front of the computer.

Song Chao looked slightly surprised when he saw this.

He didn't expect that people on this forum already knew about Cao Sheng's royalties from Qidian last month.

"Did the news spread that fast?"

He whispered to himself.

After thinking for a moment, he left the thread and wanted to see if anyone on the forum was discussing Cao Sheng's royalties.

Not long after, he actually found a post.

The post was titled: "OMG! Zhongyuan Yidianhui earned over 11 yuan in royalties last month, can you believe it?"

Click on this post.

The post reads: "Shocking news! You might not believe it, but I just messaged Zhongyuan Yidianhui to ask how much he earned for his writing last month, and do you know how he replied? Over 11! Holy crap! At first I thought I was seeing things, I checked it several times, and it was still over 11. I'm absolutely stunned! Do you guys believe this number?"

1st floor: "Holy crap! Really? Over 11?"

2nd floor: "Impossible, right? Old Pig's royalties last month were only a little over 8000. Although Ah Hui's 'The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts' had an average subscription of over 10,000, the royalties couldn't possibly exceed that much, could they? How is this possible?"

3: "Terrifying!"

4th floor: "I just asked Ah Hui too, and it really is over 11. I'm shocked too."

(End of this chapter)