Training the Heavens

Chapter 101 Double Happiness
"Gao Jialin, your telegram!" The postman rode his bicycle through the campus and delivered the telegram to Gao Jialin.

"Jialin, did something happen at home?" Ma Chuanjie asked worriedly. It costs 1 cents to send a telegram per word now. Who would be willing to spend so much money unless it is an emergency?
Gao Jialin thought the same. He took the telegram and opened it quickly. He felt relieved after just a glance. "It's not from home. It's from the publishing house in Japan. My book started selling today and the sales are pretty good. They are here to give me the good news."

It is very inconvenient to make international calls nowadays, so Tokuma Shoten simply used a telegram to inform Gao Jialin of the good news. This method is the fastest. As for the small amount of money for sending the telegram, Tokuma Shoten doesn't care at all.

They have already earned hundreds of millions of yen from this book, and what is more valuable is that it has expanded the influence of Tokuma Shoten. Their stocks have soared today, and with the popularity of "Showa American Story" in the future, they will continue to rise. Several major shareholders are very happy.

"Awesome!" The students who heard it all gave thumbs up.

"How much did it sell for? How much royalties can you get? The Japanese are so rich, they must have paid a lot, right?" Ma Chuanjie asked enviously.

"The exact figure has not come out yet, but Tokuma Shoten is already preparing to reprint the book. The royalties are indeed quite a lot. Unfortunately, I can't get the foreign currency, so they can only convert it into RMB for me." Gao Jialin did not disclose his exact income. The figure was a bit high to avoid arousing jealousy.

The first print run of 300,000 copies meant royalties of 63 million yen. Now, an additional print run of 500,000 copies means another 105 million yen. Even if we deduct the money given to the translator, Gao Jialin can still get 120 million yen. Converted into RMB at the official exchange rate, it is more than one million yuan, which is really scary.

Seeing him say that, even though Ma Chuanjie was still curious, he was too embarrassed to ask any further. "What a shame! If only we could get some Japanese yen. We could just stand outside the bank and exchange it for RMB several times the official exchange rate. You're really at a loss."

The current official exchange rate of the US dollar to the RMB is around 3.45, but on the black market, it takes six or seven RMB to exchange for one US dollar, and sometimes it even exceeds ten to one.

The Japanese yen is also a popular international currency, and its exchange rate is only slightly lower than that of the US dollar. It is indeed a disadvantage to exchange it according to the official exchange rate.

However, Gao Jialin did not take this small loss seriously. "Private exchange is too troublesome. If someone spots me, I might even lose my life. The foreign exchange department helped me exchange, which saved me the trouble."

"What else is in the telegram?" asked another roommate, Yang Zhengtai. He had just glanced at it and saw that there were quite a few words on it.

"He also asked me if I had time and whether I could go to Japan to hold a book signing event."

"Go ahead, ask for leave from school quickly, Teacher Zhang will definitely approve it." The classmates' eyes turned red with envy. This was going abroad, something they couldn't even imagine, and Gao Jialin was going abroad for the second time in just a few months.

"Let's wait until summer vacation. I've missed a lot of classes this semester and need to make up for it," Gao Jialin said, shaking his head. Without close contact with Japanese women, office ladies, celebrities, and teachers, going to Japan naturally felt less appealing. "When will your book be released in China? How come it's already selling in Japan, but we haven't heard anything about it here yet?" Ma Chuanjie asked. They hadn't read Gao Jialin's manuscript, only the general idea, and were curious about the details.

"The publishing house is still reviewing it, and because a lot of notes need to be added, the process is slower," Gao Jialin explained.

The book "Showa American Story" uses many memes, and how to explain these memes clearly to readers has become a very headache task. The editors of the publishing house have lost a lot of hair these days.

Gao Jialin didn't plan to go to Japan immediately, but he still had to report, so after chatting for a while, he knocked on Zhang Changqing's office door with the telegram. As soon as he entered, he saw Zhang Changqing's face full of joy.

"Jialin, I have good news for you. The winners of the first People's Literature Award have been announced. You've been awarded alongside thirteen other works, including Wei Wei's 'The East,' Gu Hua's 'Furong Town,' Liu Xinwu's 'Bell and Drum Tower,' Ke Yunlu's 'Rising Star,' and Wang Meng's 'Long Live Youth.' You're now considered one of these renowned writers."

"I'm just lucky. My literary attainments cannot be compared with these literary predecessors," Gao Jialin said modestly.

"Well, you should have this mentality. You are so young and yet you can win awards with them. If you are not humble, you will easily be labeled as arrogant, which will be very detrimental to your future." Zhang Changqing was very pleased. If Gao Jialin was only suitable to be a writer, these would not be a problem, but his expectations of Gao Jialin were far more than that, so it was very important to behave well at this time.

Fortunately, since they met, Gao Jialin has never disappointed him in this regard, and his performance just now also proved this.

"It's just an internal notice now and hasn't been announced to the public. I just received the call. They also asked you to go to Beijing next weekend to receive the award. You should be prepared when you go back later. I can help you with the train tickets. I will at least get you a hard sleeper this time." Zhang Changqing said happily. If the organizers hadn't repeatedly emphasized the need for confidentiality, he would have gone to the school radio station to announce the good news to all the teachers and students in the school.

"I just studied this list. Six of the works have won the Mao Dun Literature Prize. Yours has a great chance of winning as well. The next award ceremony should be in 88, which is right when you are about to graduate. It would be so glorious to present this gift to your alma mater." Zhang Changqing couldn't stop smiling when he thought of this picture.

The Mao Dun Literature Prize is the highest award in the domestic literary world. If Gao Jialin can win it, the Chinese Department of Pujiang College will become famous overnight. Looking across the country, which other university can cultivate a Mao Dun Literature Prize winner before the student even graduates?
Even Peking University can’t do it! This honor will belong exclusively to Pujiang College for a long time to come.

"Teacher, I have some good news. Tokuma Shoten in Japan sent a telegram saying that my novel has achieved good sales and has the potential to become the best-selling work in the Japanese book market this year." It was not until this time that Gao Jialin found the opportunity to take out the telegram.

"Oh, this is double happiness!" Zhang Changqing quickly took it, glanced at it, and immediately stood up. "Let's go and tell the department head and the principal the good news! Such good news must be let them know as soon as possible."

(End of this chapter)