My Years as a Copyist in Taiwan

Zhao Wen now has a female bodyguard, Chen Erfeng.

Chen Erfeng also works part-time as his martial arts instructor. The Chen family's ancestral precept is that only the old style of martial arts can be passed down directly and cannot be taught to outsiders, but other styles can be taught to outsiders.

At almost nineteen years old, it's a problem for her to loosen her muscles and bones, but for Chen Erfeng, this is not a problem at all, because she is a simple-minded person without any feelings.

Turning the neck and opening the shoulders, flipping the elbows and pulling the back, rotating the hips and squatting down—after just 15 minutes of practicing for the first time, Zhao Wen was sweating profusely. This bone-loosening exercise was clearly dismantling bones!

It was too agonizing. Zhao Wen gave up several times, but Chen Erfeng watched intently, shouting, "Don't force me to help you..."

The Wuji high stance exercise, with its upright posture, relaxed waist and tucked buttocks, leaves the whole body feeling sore and numb after less than ten minutes. The agonizing feeling is even worse than the bone-relaxing exercise.

Chen Erfeng was honest and kind, but in order to persuade Zhao Wen to persist, she went against her conscience and said, "This is a skill that my Chen family developed specifically for longevity. If you keep practicing it, you can live past a hundred years old with ease. But if you stop halfway now, the accumulated blockages won't dissipate, and in less than twenty years, you'll be dead..."

"..." Zhao Wen really regretted believing Chen Erfeng's nonsense back then. Now, it's better to believe it than not. What if what this silly aunt said is true?

In 82, the average wage of the working class in Taiwan was between NT$8000 and NT$10000. Zhao Wen gave Aunt Chun NT$8000 a month, which was the standard for a senior clerk in a private company. Therefore, Aunt Chun felt very bad. After Brother Deng left that night, she took her daughter Alai with her the next day.

The girl looked quiet, but she was very clever. Aunt Chun made two hand gestures, and she immediately understood. She took a rag and cleaned upstairs and downstairs, front yard and back yard, inside and out, until the house was spotless. She even picked up the fallen leaves under the rose trellis in the corner of the yard.

When Ah Lai was a child, he could still utter a few words, but as he grew older, he became less and less eloquent. The people in the old wooden alley thought he was born mute.

Zhao Wen had seen some fragmented popular science articles in his previous life, so he suspected that this was mostly autism, but few people in this era understood this concept.

Mr. Snail learns things very quickly now. When the mother and daughter communicate using sign language, he can understand what a certain gesture means after seeing it only once. In just a few days, he has mastered most of the sign language.

Sometimes, the old woman would gesture and gently instruct, "Wipe slowly, don't get the manuscript dirty," and Ah Lai would nod and slow down. Sometimes Ah Lai would stop, point at Zhao Wen standing in the stance, and gesture to his mother, meaning, "Poor man, that woman is too fierce..."

Zhao Wen sipped his tea, watching the mother and daughter "whisper" in front of him, secretly amused. It was just too funny.

He's not a stingy person. Ah Lai is so kind and does things so well, shouldn't he get paid?

The following month, looking at the 16000 NT dollars in her hand that she couldn't refuse, Aunt Chun even thought for a moment, "Ah Wen, are you having an affair with Ah Lai? Ugh, ugh, ugh..."

In August, the heat in Tainan is unbearable. In the old wooden alley, every household has lowered their bamboo curtains, but Zhao Wen's family doesn't need to, because he keeps the door closed and hides inside to enjoy the air conditioning.

He's had a really leisurely two months. Filming for "My Fair Princess" has already started, and he transferred six million to Brother Deng's account early on before completely letting go of everything.

Shuji Fujino was efficient. The first print run of the Japanese translation of "Norwegian Wood" was 30,000 copies. The contract stipulated that "full payment would be made upon printing," so the full prepayment was made before the book was even released.

Meanwhile, the sales of "Love Letter" and "You Are the Apple of My Eye" in Japan have been going strong for almost three months, and they don't seem to be declining at all. Last week, they even saw a sales surge thanks to word-of-mouth endorsements from a national treasure-level baseball star. They have already been reprinted 21 times, with 68 copies sold. This number can't compare to "Japan Sinks," but it's only been less than three months.

Mr. Fujino felt that if he only ate Mr. Snail's rice for the rest of his life, he could probably make a fortune!

In these three months, he has lost count of how many times he has paid back Mr. Snail. He has received gifts such as "You Are the Apple of My Eye," "Love Letter," and vinyl records. Sometimes, the finance department has to go to the bank two or three times a day.

Now, the combined edition of "Spirited Away" is almost finished being translated, and "Norwegian Wood" is about to be released. The first two books are already so substantial, so the latter two are bound to take off! If we can also invite Mr. Snail to hold a few more book signings, my Kodansha's revenue for the next two years will be more than enough!

Besides the more than 3000 million NT dollars returned from Japan, the return figures from Taiwan are also jumping up and down, and Mr. Snail's savings have exceeded 7000 million! The main contributor to this is actually that album, and the queen of pop hasn't settled accounts with him in Southeast Asia and South Korea yet.

As Zhao Wen was calculating the accounts in his notebook, the phone rang. It was his older sister, the pop diva, speaking softly and with a smile: "Wen, have you been free lately? The final accounts for the record are done. Come to Taipei, I'll treat you to dinner."

The next day, Zhao Wen still took the "English Lady" to Taipei. Chen Hanyi Erfeng did not go with him because young Jia Jinwen was going back to Taipei to study in September and was working overtime to learn kung fu during this time.

Of course, the main reason he didn't let her come along was that Zhao Wen was going to visit Brother Deng, whom he had hit it off with at first sight, and he was afraid that if he said something wrong, the two of them would start arguing again.

Instead of going to the villa of the diva Teresa Teng on Qilu Road in Beitou, we met at a Shanghai restaurant on Minsheng East Road. Teresa Teng was wearing a moon-white short-sleeved cheongsam and waved with a smile when she saw him come in.

Sitting next to her was Deng Changxi, wearing a neatly ironed light gray shirt. Upon seeing this, he quickly stood up, reached out and shook hands with Zhao Wen, very warmly, and seemed about to say something but then hesitated.

"I originally wanted to invite you to my home in Beitou, but my older brother is too concerned with practical etiquette, and my parents are also here. It would be too awkward for the whole family to be together. I often come to this restaurant; the food is good and it's quiet. We can eat here more comfortably."

Teresa Teng's situation at this time was quite troublesome, but since he was her own brother, she could only make do with it.

Several light dishes, such as braised fish fillets and stewed bamboo shoots, were already laid out on the table; they had all been ordered in advance.

Teresa Teng gently pushed a leather-bound document with a subtle pattern towards Zhao Wen: "Keep this safe. It's a cashier's check issued by Formosa Bank, totaling 12.8 million, and it's redeemable at any time. As of the end of July, there were 215,000 such checks in Southeast Asia and South Korea combined."

After saying that, the superstar crossed her legs, placed her two small hands on her knees, and playfully swayed them, waiting for Zhao Wen's surprise.

This was indeed a pleasant surprise, and a windfall at that. Zhao Wen hadn't initially considered promoting Southeast Asia and South Korea.

Zhao Wen stopped calling her "Sister Lijun" and went straight to the point: "Sister, you really are my sister, haha, and Brother Changxi, you've worked so hard!"

Deng Changxi: "Mr. Snail..."

"Brother Changxi, call me Awen."

"Ah Wen! I covered the entire Southeast Asia trip, so I know the momentum best. The initial order of 50,000 copies in Singapore and Malaysia sold out in less than two weeks, and we had to order more stock three times. The Chinese communities in Bangkok and Jakarta are even more enthusiastic; record stores sell out the day they put them on their shelves. If we hadn't run out of stock, we could have sold tens of thousands more!"

Deng Changxi was also a book lover and the most learned among the Deng siblings. So when his sister said she wanted to help Mr. Snail sell albums, he put in all his effort.