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

These words caused an uproar in the office.

Old Li stood up abruptly, his face darkening. "Zhang Dabiao, do you know what you're saying? The copyright of all publications belongs to the state and the publishing house. You, a student, want to retain the film and television adaptation rights? That's utterly absurd!"

The principal panicked and quickly tugged at Zhang Dabiao's sleeve: "Dabiao, don't be ridiculous! These conditions are outrageous!"

Zhang Dabiao shook off the principal's hand, stood up, and slowly put the drawing back into his canvas bag.

"Editor-in-Chief Li, I'm not discussing this with you, I'm informing you." Zhang Dabiao zipped up his bag, slung it over his shoulder, and said, "You know the value of this set of drawings better than I do. It's not an ordinary comic book; it's a complete storyboard for an animated film."

"Any animation studio can make a complete animated film by copying this, and it will be of absolutely high quality, even high quality on a global scale. You all know whether I'm exaggerating or not."

Zhang Dabiao walked to the door, stopped, and turned to look at Old Li, whose face was ashen.

"I don't need that two thousand yuan. If you think the conditions are too harsh, that's fine. I'll find another publisher that can agree to them."

"If all else fails, I'll contact the Ministry of Foreign Trade. They deal with foreign trade products, and these comic books are one of the key cultural products they promote every year."

"This quality should sell well."

A layer of cold sweat instantly broke out on Old Li's forehead.

This kid knows exactly where to strike. He understands all too well how desperately the country needs foreign exchange, and he also understands how much of a political achievement a publishing house needs to earn foreign exchange and gain international recognition for its cultural works!

If this masterpiece really slips through his fingers and is directly assigned to another publishing house by the Ministry of Foreign Trade for printing, he will be in trouble with the higher-ups, and his time as editor-in-chief will be over!

In the office, other editors were still making sarcastic remarks: "You think we can just go to the Foreign Trade Department like that?"

"Young man, who are you? Does anyone in your family work at the Ministry of Foreign Trade?"

Zhang Dabiao remained silent, collecting manuscripts, while his homeroom teacher, Teacher Zhou, couldn't hold back any longer. He was about to show off—[My son Fengxian is invincible!]

"Uh-huh!"

"Um, let me say something, let me introduce myself."

"This student, Zhang Dabiao, is my prized student, Zhou Muye."

"Don't underestimate him just because he's only a vocational school graduate, but—"

"He's a part-time designer at the Ministry of Foreign Trade, enjoying the待遇 (treatment/benefits) of a section chief, and has already been allocated a cadre-level apartment!"

Upon hearing this, all the editors at the publishing house stared wide-eyed!

"Just a vocational school graduate, probably not even graduated yet? And he's already enjoying the benefits of a 'full-rank' section chief? And even been allocated a cadre-level apartment?"

"Isn't this ridiculous?!"

Teacher Zhou was standing there smugly, and even threw out a remark—

"Don't believe me? Call and check, call now!"

"Who would dare lie about this? The person is right here; investigate all you want!"

The principal didn't speak. He had heard about Zhang Dabiao's affairs, especially about this art student going to the Beijing Art Academy to do music, messing around and messing things up, and even getting two pieces of music into the textbooks.

With his own school's students being so awesome, and Teacher Zhou acting as his mouth double, he can just relax and watch the show.

The crowd still didn't believe it, and someone asked, "Why?" Teacher Zhou replied with one sentence—

"Just look at the fact that he earned $280,000 for the country in two years through product design—and that money's already in his account!"

"He's still owed $620,000!"

Teacher Zhou didn't go into the remaining details, firstly because he didn't know them in detail, and secondly because there was no need to. These figures alone were already alarming enough!

Suddenly someone slapped their forehead—"Are you Zhang Dabiao, the tough guy who shattered the ice with a single punch at the Shichahai ice rink?"

Oh my, it's spread all the way here?

Zhang Dabiao bowed and said, "You flatter me. Those are just empty titles, not worth mentioning."

Then someone excitedly shouted, "You're that Zhang the philanthropist from Nanluoguxiang?!"

Zhang Dabiao's face turned green—[You're the philanthropist! Your whole family are castrated!]

"etc!"

Just as Zhang Dabiao's hand was about to grasp the doorknob, Old Li gritted his teeth and shouted.

"You win. I agree to your terms. I'll go and apply to the higher-ups!" Old Li finally compromised.

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

"sign!"

Old Li slammed his hand on the table and picked up the pen.

Half an hour later, the publishing house quickly finalized the matter.

It's just a matter of adaptation rights. Actually, this should be a matter for the Ministry of Culture. Even if it is an adaptation, it should be the Ministry of Culture and the original comic book author who should be dealing with it. Can the publishing house make a movie out of it?

So the publishing house leaders approved the manuscript immediately after reviewing its quality.

Even if any disputes arise in the future—it's not like our publishing house is using your work to adapt into a movie or anything like that, and we can't possibly authorize it to anyone else; we've never seen that happen before. As long as your book is published by our publishing house, whatever you say goes.

"Our editor-in-chief said that as long as you guarantee publication through our People's Fine Arts Publishing House, we'll agree to all other conditions!"

"The payment will be calculated at the highest tier!"

"181 interior pages plus 2 covers, totaling 2694 yuan!"

"I'll take you, Da Biao, to the finance department to collect your royalties in a bit!"

With a few quick swipes, Lao Li signed his name on both contracts and affixed the publisher's official seal.

Only then did Zhang Dabiao slowly sign his name in the "Party B" section.

Each person shall have one copy of the contract.

Old Li carefully put his copy of the contract into a file folder and then put it into a locked filing cabinet.

After finishing all that, he hugged the stack of drawings tightly in his arms, just like he was holding his own son.

"Zhang Dabiao, just you wait and see!"

"At the latest, by early next month, this copy of 'Nezha Conquers the Dragon King' will be displayed on the counters of Xinhua bookstores across the country!"

Old Li was so excited that the flesh on his face was trembling.

Zhang Dabiao stood up and shook hands with Lao Li.

"Then I wish us a pleasant cooperation."

As he walked out of the publishing house, Zhang Dabiao touched the contract in his pocket.

He didn't really care much about the 2694 yuan in royalties.

What's truly valuable is the clause written in black and white in the contract—Zhang Dabiao personally retains, but is not limited to, the adaptation rights in various media forms such as film, animation, television series, and comics.

In this era of extremely weak copyright awareness.

Zhang Dabiao retained the IP adaptation rights to his works.

This is a hen that lays golden eggs.

Although these things won't be of much use for the next few decades, at least if you're making animation, you can't avoid Zhang Dabiao—that's a kind of guarantee.

Having settled things with the publisher, Zhang Dabiao wasn't idle. He still had a comic book series, "Heroes and Daughters," waiting for him to draw, a strong contender for awards.

But after he drew the sample, Teacher Zhou showed no interest at all, probably because he was too tired from drawing last month. So he gave Zhang Dabiao some instructions and told him to go play by himself.

This style of comic book is now considered too conservative by the conservative Mr. Zhou, so he's too lazy to participate.

And there is another crucial issue.

Since you're aiming for awards and have already collaborated on one film, it would be best if your second film were a solo effort. Otherwise, what if the rules change?

Zhang Dabiao thought for a moment—

That makes sense!