Chapter 174

Wei Ming thought to himself, why wouldn't I agree? Although changing it to a picture book meant one more person to share the money, the price of a picture book was far higher than that of a paperback text book; picture books were too profitable abroad!

Moreover, he had originally intended this book as a breakup fee; even if Melinda took it all, it wouldn't be a problem, as long as she helped him get the pen name "mrwhy" out there.

So at noon, Wei Ming immediately went to the post office to send a telegram to Melinda, just two letters: "ok."

Good news followed one after another; early the next morning, Director Wang Bairong of the Shanghai Animation Er Yingchang called Wei Ming to say that the BBC had already sent the first payment for "Strange Tales of the Heavenly Book."

"The first payment is a full 200,000 pounds; our Shanghai Animation Er Yingchang has really made a name for itself among all the film studios in the country this time!" Wang Bairong said, unable to hide his excitement.

Hearing this news, Wei Ming was also stunned for a moment.

The butterfly effect?

In his previous life, this cooperation hadn't succeeded; not only was there no first payment, but there wasn't even a deposit, but at that time the Shanghai Animation Er Yingchang had already started the project and couldn't stop, so they had to bite the bullet and do it themselves.

Although his version of the script was more commercial and had more humor, the basic framework was still the original one; was this enough to make the BBC change its mind?

But regardless, this was a good thing and a great opportunity for domestic animation to spread abroad.

Wei Ming asked: "What about my manuscript fee?"

Wang Bairong said: "Writer Wei, you are at Peking University now, right?"

"Yes."

"Good, wait for me; I'll deliver it to you personally, and then we can chat in detail," Wang Bairong laughed. "I almost forgot to tell you, I came to Yanjing for a meeting and brought the manuscript fee with me."

Wei Ming left work early in the morning, and he and Wang Bairong agreed to meet at the Long March Canteen.

"Over here!"

As soon as Wei Ming entered, he saw Wang Bairong waving at him.

"Did you order?" Wei Ming sat down and asked.

"Not yet, you order; I don't know what to eat." Director Wang looked troubled.

The dishes here probably didn't suit the tastes of Wang Bairong, a Shanghainese, so Wei Ming picked two dishes.

At this time, Wang Bairong also handed a thick envelope to Wei Ming.

Wei Ming didn't hesitate and opened it directly to take a look, finding two types of currency inside.

"This is... Foreign Exchange Certificates?" Wei Ming held six hundred-dollar bills, and the rest were ten-dollar ones.

Foreign Exchange Certificates had only just appeared on the historical stage on April 1st, and from then on, the country had a "super currency." Although in principle, Foreign Exchange Certificates and Renminbi were exchanged at a one-to-one ratio, in reality, the purchasing power of Foreign Exchange Certificates was much stronger than that of Renminbi.

Foreign Exchange Certificates were a quasi-currency, and their scope of use was much stronger than the Overseas Remittance Certificates that previously served as vouchers for material supplies. In the future, Friendship Stores would also gradually open to citizens holding Foreign Exchange Certificates; whoever had them in their hands was the boss.

And in principle, when leaving China, the Foreign Exchange Certificates in hand could be exchanged back into foreign currency at the official exchange rate.

"That's right, 600 in Foreign Exchange Certificates, plus 1,000 Renminbi," Wang Bairong laughed. "Don't mind it; there are too many people in the factory who want to share the Foreign Exchange Certificates, but the higher-ups didn't give much, and the vast majority have to be turned over."

Wei Ming nodded and had no objections; he had already understood one principle: if you want to earn foreign exchange, it's better to cooperate directly with people outside.

He was more curious about how the BBC agreed to the cooperation.

"You didn't give up more benefits to facilitate the cooperation, did you?"

"No, no, absolutely not. It's still as agreed before: the rights in Asia belong to us, and outside Asia belongs to the BBC."

Although the lion's share of the benefits went to the BBC, the BBC almost bore all the production costs, which was very fair.

Wang Bairong said again: "I heard from the translator there that the BBC was indeed hesitant at first, worried that foreigners wouldn't understand the story. Later, there was an article in 'The Times,' which seemed to be written by a Chinese student in the UK about their study experience in China. The article highlighted the popularity of your novel in China, saying it was a Chinese-style Prometheus story."

Wei Ming's movement of picking up his chopsticks stopped.

Wang Bairong laughed: "It is said that this article was quite popular; maybe there's a reason for that."

Now Wei Ming couldn't focus on eating this meal; could it be that Melinda hadn't contacted him for so long because she was busy with this?

Now he couldn't wait to finish his meal and send another telegram to Melinda.

However, in the end, Wei Ming chose to write a letter; letters had warmth, telegrams did not.

Director Wang Yang of the Beijing Er Yingchang thought the same, so he wrote a long letter to Ms. Xia Meng, earnestly hoping that the two sides could cooperate on the movie "Heroes Come from Youth," and detailed the story, and of course, the author of the story, Wei Ming.

Xia Meng still remembered Wei Ming; after all, a handsome guy left a deep impression, and she didn't know if his friend's father was still inside.

At this time, Xia Meng had established the Blue Bird Film Company for some time, but she hadn't found a project she was satisfied with yet.

Xia Meng personally tended to prefer filming artistic films with depth, but a large part of the company's startup money came from the Huo family, and she didn't want the investors to lose money; kung fu martial arts films were indeed easier to profit from.

"'Heroes Come from Youth'? This name seems a bit familiar."

Xia Meng suddenly remembered something and called the family's helper to ask if the newspaper from a while ago was still there.

"It's here; I was thinking of selling it in a few days."

Xia Meng: "Find it for me to see."

After a search, Xia Meng found "New Evening News" from the pile of newspapers.

At the time, she had only paid attention to the current affairs and economic news sections and hadn't read the serialized novel on it; she didn't expect that young writer to have actually sent the novel to Hong Kong.

Being able to conquer the newspaper industry in both the mainland and Hong Kong at the same time showed that this story indeed had its merits, so Xia Meng started reading it seriously from the first issue.

Coming out of the Long March Canteen, looking at the Foreign Exchange Certificates in his hand, Wei Ming didn't have anything special he wanted to buy for the time being, so he would just keep them.

His cash flow was now over twelve thousand.

When he returned to the South Gate, he saw Liu Rulong's bicycle, and upon arriving at the dormitory, he indeed saw this kid waiting for him, and he was even carrying a handbag.

"What's the situation, going out?"

"Mm!" Liu Rulong said, "We have already finished part of the content, and I'm planning to go to Shijiazhuang to talk to the people at Hebei Fine Arts Publishing House in person. If they can accept this drawing style, we will continue to draw."

Because Ah Long's grandfather, Yang Songqiao, had always cooperated with Hebei Fine Arts Publishing House, he had some connections there.

As for wanting to go in person, one reason was the fear of losing the manuscripts, and the other was the fear that the other party might have doubts, so he wanted to persuade them himself.

Wei Ming looked at those ten black-and-white manuscripts.

"Not bad, not bad; this is definitely a depth charge for the current comic book market!" Wei Ming praised.

According to the current market price, 10 pages meant 100 dollars, and it hadn't even been a week yet.

!

Although the speed of making money was a bit slow for the current Wei Ming, once the team matured and could enter a larger market, the money-making prospects would be limitless!

There was still some time, so Wei Ming personally rode his motorcycle to take Ah Long to the train station.

"Call me before you come back; I'll come to the station to pick you up, and we can go into the city to spend some money."

While eating at the faculty canteen in the evening, Wei Ming saw Uncle Ping'an with Lele, so he went over to eat with them.

Ever since his wife and son went to the Northwest, Wei Ping'an was too lazy to cook, so he just took Lele to eat at the canteen, occasionally going to restaurants.

Uncle Ping'an first cared about Wei Ming's study progress, and then talked about the house.

"They are still inquiring about the Overseas Chinese Apartments for you, but I have another piece of good news about a house here."

"What good news?"

"It is rumored that Yanjing is going to launch a pilot project for commercial housing, meaning that whoever has money can buy an apartment."

Wei Ming also knew about this; it should be the pilot project with two apartment buildings in the Tuanjiehu area, which seemed to be happening this year. In his previous life, he knew the first batch of residents in the Tuanjiehu residential area.

This Tuanjiehu residential area had both pros and cons for Wei Ming.

The disadvantage was the distance; Tuanjiehu was on the East Third Ring Road in Chaoyang, and it would take more than half an hour by motorcycle; he still wanted to live closer to Peking University.

The advantage was that the apartments there were small, probably only half the size of the Overseas Chinese Apartments, so even if the unit price was the same as the Overseas Chinese residential area, the money he had was enough to buy one directly.

Wei Ming nodded: "This can also be considered an alternative plan; if it really doesn't work out, I can buy one first. There are too many children writing to me after 'Black Cat Detective,' and my dormitory is almost full."

Even if he didn't live there, it would be fine for storing letters.

Besides "Black Cat Detective," yesterday the "Youth Literature" publishing house also sent Wei Ming all the letters from young readers for the three-issue serialization of "Jumanji" at once—a big package.

Now Brother Feng's bed was full of Wei Ming's letters, and many of them were stamped with the Monkey stamps just issued this year.

When walking out of the canteen, a light drizzle began to fall from the sky.

Uncle Ping'an couldn't help but say: "'A drizzling rain falls like tears at the Qingming Festival'; tomorrow is Qingming, and I don't know if your father will forget to visit the graves since he's so busy now."

"Don't worry, he remembers every year; this is a big deal for him."

It was just that the situation was a bit different this year.

The next day, Wei Jiefang visited the graves of his grandparents, as well as his parents, Wei Senhao and Fan Erxiu, who were "buried together," and his feelings were very complicated.

The old man was still alive, which was a good thing—better to live a miserable life than to die—it was just a pity for his mother, who hadn't enjoyed any blessings at all.

After visiting the graves and returning home, Xiao Hong also returned.

She was in a good mood; she had taken the second-year exam, and she still got the top grade in the grade, although the advantage over the second place wasn't as big as before; it was a narrow victory.

Then the school let her attend classes with the second-year science class.

This year's college entrance exam added a "preliminary exam" system for the first time, with a unified exam in May; only those who met the standard could participate in the formal college entrance exam in July. It was said that this preliminary exam would eliminate half of the candidates.

The principal told her that her ability to participate in the 1980 college entrance exam would depend on the score of this preliminary exam.

So she had to quickly raise her grades in this month or so. Hmph, Peking University, I'm definitely going to get into you!

Peking University.

Wei Ming had just sent the script for "The Ox and Ox Two" to Wu Tianming of the Xi'an Er Yingchang, and then he received a package from Hong Kong.

"Ha, little baby Ah Min actually sent me a package too!"

……

(Begging for monthly tickets!)

(End of chapter)