Courtyard House: Drunk and tipsy, the whole courtyard exposed at the start.

Steiner paused for a moment as he opened the envelope.

He pulled out the paper and read it page by page. When he reached the third page, his gray-blue eyes lifted, and for the first time he seriously examined the young man in school uniform in front of him.

"Mr. Zhang," he said slowly, "are you aware of the shareholder background of *The Asia Magazine*?"

"I know," Zhang Yaoyang said bluntly. "Big Beauty Capital owns 60% and is eager to exit. There are internal disagreements among the local shareholders, and they can't come up with the money to take over. They're losing two to three thousand Hong Kong dollars a month, and their cash reserves won't last until the end of the year."

Steiner remained silent.

He put down the letter of intent, took off his glasses, and slowly wiped them with a chamois cloth.

"Mr. Zhang," he said again, his tone changing, "I'm not a shareholder, just a hired designer. I can help you forward the documents to the shareholders."

"But I'd like to ask, what are your plans after you bought the magazine?"

Steiner was more direct than Luo Bing; he was just an employee, and changes in the shareholder structure didn't concern him much.

Zhang Yaoyang pulled a second envelope out of his bag.

Steiner disassembled it.

It is an English novel manuscript with a handwritten title:

**Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone**

**By J.K.Zhang**

He turned to the first page.

Three minutes later, he looked up.

"Did you write this?"

"Um."

"British?" Steiner stared at the line of English. "A magic school? An owl?"

"Chinese," Zhang Yaoyang said, pointing to his head. "I dreamt about it."

Steiner remained silent.

He placed the manuscript on his lap, his fingers unconsciously tracing the edges of the paper.

"Mr. Zhang," he said softly, "in 1945, I found a copy of 'The Little Prince' in the ruins of Weimar. I was twenty years old then, and I thought the world was over. That book made me believe that the world wasn't over yet."

He paused.

"Your story," he said, gently placing the manuscript back into the envelope, "also has that kind of thing."

Cheung Yiu-yeung didn't say anything. In fact, he didn't understand the deeper philosophical meaning of "Harry Potter"; he had only seen some movie clips.

But if you already have the ebook for this on your computer, what are you waiting for?

Just copy it.

How you interpret it is your business.

As long as I can make money and have the copyright, I'm fine with playing it however I want.

Steiner stood up.

"I can help you contact the shareholders at Big Beauty. I have connections with a few of the local shareholders." He put both envelopes into a file folder. "HK$38,000 for full copyright. They should be able to accept that price."

He walked to the door, then stopped.

"Mr. Zhang."

"Um."

"Cover design," Steiner turned his head, "I can continue."

After seeing the manuscript of "Harry Potter", he felt that the magazine would become popular very quickly, and then those shareholders would regret it.

Roy Cheung nodded: "The cover is still yours, but the inside pages need to be changed."

"How should it be changed?"

"Bilingual (English and Chinese)," Zhang Yaoyang gestured, explaining. "English on the left, Chinese on the right. The same article, in two languages."

Steiner looked at him, and for the first time, warmth appeared in his gray-blue eyes.

"Your magazine," he said, "is not for the British."

Cheung Yiu-yeung didn't answer his question; interpret it however you like.

He picked up his canvas backpack and walked out of the meeting room.

As the elevator doors closed, he heard Steiner's voice from the other end of the corridor, unusually cheerful: "Martha, this afternoon help me with Mr. Watson's lawyer... yes, the acquisition."

Steiner is even more decisive than Luo Bing in doing things.

Cheung Yiu-yeung just thought the price was cheap, but he didn't understand that the first one to two months after a magazine's launch are the time when its finances are most strained and shareholder disagreements are most intense.

Printing costs, royalties, distribution deposits, office rent—money flows out like water, and income only comes in gradually after publication.

September 1961 was the eve of the launch of The Asia Magazine.

Even someone as capable as Mr. Jin, Ming Pao is still losing money, let alone this English magazine that is about to be launched.

In this day and age, investing in newspapers and magazines is really not as good as buying property and collecting rent.

------------

With "A Deadly Secret," "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils," and "Harry Potter," plus "Mixue Ice Cream," Roy Cheung aims for success in both the arts and sports, solidifying his base in Hong Kong.

Newspapers and magazines were mostly unprofitable businesses in Hong Kong in the 60s, and ordinary people didn't get involved in them. But Zhang Dabiao understood the future value of these novels. Supporting two magazines with four Mixue Ice Cream stores was not easy, to be honest, but he could bear the losses.

Anyway, during the years he was in vocational school, he needed stability, stability, and more stability!

After graduation, I'll have more time to let loose and have some fun.

As for Mr. Jin's other works, Zhang Yaoyang thought for a moment and decided to leave them for now, since killing someone is just a matter of a quick death.

The two works I have now are enough.

When things really get really bad... then we'll forget about honor and just make up for whatever's missing.

------------

1961 9 Month 21 Day.

Ming Pao Editorial Department, 399 Jaffe Road, Wan Chai.

Teacher Jin sat in the editor-in-chief's office, with two newspapers spread out beside her.

One of them is their own Ming Pao newspaper—the new book "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber".

The other one is the newly released "Wuxia World"—the new work "Liancheng Jue".

His gaze fell on the headline of the main publication:

[New work by "Seven Rising Across the Rivers and Flying Tomatoes" - Jin Shuo's ghostwritten version of "A Deadly Secret" begins serialization]

"Seven Tomatoes Flying Across the River"? What on earth is that?

Teacher Jin said she couldn't help Sister Li.

baffling.

"Martial Arts World" was a weekly magazine published by his old rival, Luo Bing. Ten years ago, he met Luo Bing in Guangzhou. They drank together and talked about the martial arts world. Later, they went their separate ways, one in the south and one in the north, each running a martial arts newspaper (magazine), and engaged in a fierce rivalry for ten years.

But something's off with this episode of "Martial Arts World".

Luo Bing didn't write a single word in this issue.

The signatory is "Seven Rise Across the River to Fly Tomato," a completely new face.

Teacher Jin put down the newspaper and lit a cigarette.

He read the first three hundred words of "A Deadly Secret" three times.

Read the plot the first time.

Read the penmanship a second time.

The third time, he closed the newspaper and took a deep breath.

This "Seven Rise Across the River to Fly Tomatoes" is definitely not a newcomer.

His writing style is seasoned and his pacing is brisk, reaching a climax right from the start—that's the kind of skill that comes from writing for twenty years and wearing out dozens of pens. Yet, his ideas are bizarre and unconventional, completely deviating from traditional approaches, wilder than Luo Bing, and more uninhibited than himself.

Who exactly is this person?

And why is there a strange sense of familiarity—it's that kind of...

What does it feel like when your wife is kidnapped?

Look next door, my wife is still working hard, so it must be my imagination...

He looked out the window; the Wan Chai pier was shrouded in a thin mist, with boats casting long shadows.

He recalled the morning he arrived in Hong Kong by cargo ship in 1949, a morning shrouded in a thin mist. He was twenty-five years old then, working as an editor at the Ta Kung Pao newspaper, and writing novels in his spare time. A colleague asked him: "Can you make a living writing this?"

He replied: I don't know, let's try.

It was tried for twelve years.

He thought he was the one who had gone the furthest in this line of work.

Until this morning, I saw that person named "Seven Rising Rivers and Flying Tomatoes".

Where did this thing come from?