Chapter 3

Wang Peng returned to the dormitory to sleep. The next morning, he got up early, then ran to the internet cafe and began updating. With the readers' support, Wang Peng's motivation to update grew stronger and stronger. Of course, the readers who criticized without cause also increased. Gradually, the online readers split into two factions: one supporting Wang Peng, the other desperately criticizing 《Fo Ben Shi Dao》 as if it had some deep grudge against them. Wang Peng never expected to so quickly enjoy the treatment that the great gods of his previous life received.

There are always people who, whether they have something to do or not, insist on finding faults. But no matter how they pick, it's just that the writing isn't exciting enough, or not rigorous enough! Gradually, some began to drag in personal attacks—this is what Wang Peng hates most. You say you don't like to read it, then don't read it. Even if you want to find faults, that's fine. Indeed, the first 100,000 characters of 《Fo Ben Shi Dao》 aren't very exciting, but dragging in the author himself or his relatives is unacceptable. That would just become a character attack!

Over the next five days, Wang Peng buried himself in typing at a frantic pace of ten chapters a day. And Wang Peng's frantic typing finally paid off—online, a 《Hong Huang Feng》 trend arose. Whether one liked it or not, there was no doubt that 《Fo Ben Shi Dao》 became popular, and wildly so, rapidly spreading across the entire internet. This brand-new story mode, called 《Hong Huang》 by the author Jiangbei Duchuxing, left everyone astonished. Though it started unimpressive, by the end it gradually became impressive.

Wang Peng stretched and thought, "If I keep going like this, it won't do." Although these five days' efforts brought considerable gains, the problem was that these five days were truly exhausting. He had once considered himself sturdy, but after five days of frantic typing, he had lost a noticeable amount of weight—so much that the word "emaciated" could now describe him. Continuing like this, he felt he would collapse entirely. He could hardly imagine how Sanshao could persist in updating nine thousand characters daily for years. No wonder Sanshao said his whole body was plagued by illness.

At that moment, Wang Peng's QQ notification sounded. This QQ was one he had only just applied for a few days prior. The entire QQ interface showed no significant difference from that of 2010. Perhaps this is why QQ managed to carve a bloody path out of the encirclement of so many real-time communication tools and eventually dominate China's instant messaging market, looking down on all rivals.

Wang Peng's QQ nickname remained the one he used in his previous life as an author: Jiangbei Duchuxing.

A penguin avatar kept flashing. Wang Peng clicked it once, the window popped up, he glanced at the name—it was the QQ number of the Xingchen editor.

"Hello!"

"Hello!" Wang Peng replied, "You are..."

"Let me introduce myself—I am an editor from the Taiwan Xingchen Cultural Publishing House!"

Ah, so it was an editor from a publishing house. Wang Peng had left his QQ number online because he didn't have a mobile phone. Presumably, they contacted him through that QQ number. In this era before Qidian existed, an author wanting to earn money naturally thought of publishing as a way to do so.

Just as later authors chose to publish novels on websites, current authors seeking higher royalties and greater influence for their works must choose large, properly operated publishers. Wang Peng had also heard of Xingchen—it is a major publisher in Taiwan.

Wang Peng also felt tempted—if a powerful publisher could publish his novel, it would undoubtedly greatly help promote 《Fo Ben Shi Dao》 and earn higher royalties. Moreover, Xingchen is a Taiwanese publisher; he doesn't just have publishing business on the mainland, but also in Taiwan proper, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Japan, and South Korea—something mainland publishers cannot match. It's not just about scale; for a publisher, scale and financial strength are certainly important, but so is the breadth of its network and connections.

"You came to me about 《Fo Ben Shi Dao》, right?" Wang Peng asked. This is basically nonsense—what else could it be for?

"May I ask, are the copyrights to 《Fo Ben Shi Dao》 still in your hands?"

"Yes, they are!" This was the first editor to approach him. Wang Peng didn't know why—logically, such an excellent work shouldn't be overlooked by publishers. He could only explain it by saying the time might still be too short.

Following that, the Xingchen editor began to speak at length about how long-standing the history of Xingchen Publishing was, how glorious its achievements, how extensive its business—basically, just short of telling Wang Peng that Xingchen was the most awesome publisher.

Of course, as someone who had been "mixing in the literary circle for many years," he certainly wouldn't be fooled by such bragging. This scale, while important, meant many key interests could not be compromised.

However, due to his being a newcomer, the Xingchen editor proposed a share of only four percent. Wang Peng nearly exploded with laughter—four percent? Ha, truly incomprehensible. Could they really not see 《Fo Ben Shi Dao》's potential? Or did they truly think Wang Peng knew nothing?

In fact, at that time people still couldn't see the enormous potential of online literature, still focusing on traditional literature, believing online literature could never make money like traditional literature could. So when later it emerged that some online authors earned over a million annually, they simply didn't believe it—how could it be? Three fen per thousand characters, yet able to accumulate to a million? Impossible.

Moreover, Xingchen Publishing, as a traditional literature publisher, could rely on its existing profits to temporarily avoid seeking new markets—especially on the mainland. This time they came to Wang Peng only because this editor happened to see his 《Fo Ben Shi Dao》 online, endured great hardship to convince the chief editor to sign and publish 《Fo Ben Shi Dao》. Unfortunately, even so, the terms offered were low. If it were Wang Peng's own book from his previous life, he would consider these terms acceptable. But this is 《Fo Ben Shi Dao》—a work destined to become a god-level masterpiece. To sell it cheaply like this, he absolutely could not accept.

No matter what, Xingchen's side refused to raise the share. The disagreement was too great: one side believed their work was absolutely god-level, absolutely could not be sold cheaply, absolutely deserved a high price to match the work, to compensate for day-and-night typing efforts, and firmly believed someone would recognize the hero—so they insisted on at least a ten percent share. The other side believed that although 《Fo Ben Shi Dao》 had achieved massive success online, no one knew whether, upon returning to traditional publishing, it would sustain its glory. There had been no precedent—this was a very risky move. Moreover, the author himself was a newcomer so new as to be a super newbie; such an author inherently had no pulling power. Moreover, Xingchen's business spanned all of East Asia—even with a smaller share, thanks to their strong sales channels, the returns would absolutely not be small. Most importantly, the higher-ups had not granted them much authority!

Both sides could not reach an agreement, neither would yield, and the result could only be a deadlock. Both felt deep down that the other would surely regret it!

Not long after their talk ended, Wang Peng's QQ rang again—another publisher, but this time different: it was a mainland publisher, and one Wang Peng knew—Jingchuuanqi Magazine Society, based in Wuhan. The chief editor wanted to talk to Wang Peng, Wang Peng did not refuse, and left a school address.

What Wang Peng didn't expect was that Jingchuuanqi Magazine Society's chief editor, Xu Qiang, arrived at the school early the next morning. Wang Peng was resting, so they met in the dormitory. Otherwise, they might not have met at all.

Unlike the arrogance of Xingchen Culture, to Xu Qiang, Wang Peng's 《Fo Ben Shi Dao》 was not something dispensable as it was to Xingchen.

The publishing industry competition is extremely fierce—they have yet to publish a bestseller. If this continues, they will eventually go bankrupt. At this moment, he discovered that 《Fo Ben Shi Dao》 online had stirred up a whirlwind. Though he didn't know whether, if published, it could sell how many copies, he was certain it would surpass any book they had ever published.

At this almost life-or-death moment, Xu Qiang could only come in person, hoping to secure a deal involving Taobao Wang Zhuang Tmall Taobao Wang Zhuang Cheng Zhuang www. taobar8. com Taobao Wang Zhuang Xia Zhuang Xin Kuan Taobao Wang Zhuang Xia Zhuang Xia Kuan Taobao Wang Zhuang Xia Zhuang Xin Kuan Qunzi Taobao Wang Zhuang Xia Zhuang Xin Kuan Taobao Wang Zhuang Xia Zhuang Xin Kuan Taobao Wang Zhuang Xia Zhuang Xin Kuan Qunzi Taobao Wang Zhuang 2012 Cheng Zhuang Taobao Wang Zhuang Cheng Zhuang Gou Wu www. suduwo. com Taobao Wang Zhuang Dong Zhuang Xin Kuan Taobao Wang Zhuang Dong Zhuang Yu Rong Fu Taobao Wang Zhuang Tian Mao Cheng Zhuang Taobao Wang Zhuang Tian Mao Cheng Zhuang Taobao Wang Zhuang Qiu Zhuang Gou Wu Taobao Wang Zhuang Qiu Zhuang Gou Wu www. pingjiatao. com www. taohu8. com Taobao Wang Zhuang Dong Zhuang Xin Kuan www. tmalsc. com Taobao Wang Zhuang Dong Kuan could be signed. Knowing his weakness, he began by lowering his posture, opening with a ten percent share offer.

Even so, Wang Peng still hesitated—after all, Jingchuuanqi's publishing channels were certainly inferior to Xingchen's, and choosing Jingchuuanqi meant giving up the Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc., Chinese-language novel market.

Seeing Wang Peng's hesitation, Xu Qiang kept increasing the offer—finally raising it to a fifty-thousand-yuan signing fee and a fifteen percent share before Wang Peng finally agreed to sign.

Of course, Wang Peng was not satisfied with this price—if he had given it to Xingchen to publish, even with only a four percent share, it would still be more than this. But Wang Peng thought: cooperating with a Taiwanese publisher would indeed bring higher royalties, yet he himself would be in a weak position. In that case, he might as well choose a smaller publisher—then at least he could have equal footing, even if he earned less, he would be willing.

In the end, both parties got what they wanted. Xu Qiang left satisfied, and Wang Peng, as desired, received fifty thousand yuan. For a considerable time afterward, he no longer had to worry about living expenses—he had finally escaped the stage of struggling for livelihood, and reached a modest prosperity. Not easy—after struggling this long, he finally made it to modest prosperity. Is it easy for him?!