Chapter 35: The Second Generation of Wealth (2)

Trying to make milk tea was something for later. Right now, the most important thing was to open the package that the Publishing House had sent.

It should have been opened yesterday, but after visiting Principal Jiang’s house, she completely forgot about it until after breakfast when she saw the two large bundles leaning against the wall.

Su Ting pulled a chair up to sit in front of the plastic bags. She first touched the surface of the bag, feeling that it was layered inside, and the texture was a bit strange. Then, she tugged at the bag’s mouth, which was tightly bound with string and sealed with tape. She realized she couldn’t open it, so she asked He Yan to find her a pair of scissors. She cut open the mouth of the bag.

Without the constraints of the bag’s opening, the contents began to shift and tilt outward, with some things even falling onto the floor.

Su Ting stood there, stunned, then picked up an envelope from the floor, holding it up and studying it closely.

The recipient was a durian, and the sender was a reader. Hmm, quite symmetrical and straightforward—immediately clear it was a letter from a reader.

She then looked at the other letters. The recipient was the same, but the senders varied—some used real names, others used pseudonyms. After reading about ten letters, Su Ting understood. The Publishing House had forwarded the reader letters to her.

But with two large plastic bags, there must have been several hundred letters!

Had she really become so popular, with so many readers?

“Mom, what’s this?”

Hearing He Yan’s voice, Su Ting snapped back to reality and saw that he was holding a paper envelope, which was clearly different from the usual reader letters.

“Let me see.” Su Ting took the envelope from He Yan’s hand, opened it, and pulled out the contents.

At the top was a letter with very simple content: Since Out of Peach Blossom Village had been so popular during serialization, the Publishing House had decided to compile it into a book.

The comic book was priced at 26 cents per copy, with an initial print run of 10,000 copies, and a 15% royalty…

At this point, Su Ting did some quick calculations in her head. The price of each book was 26 cents, and with 10,000 copies being printed, that totaled 2,600 dollars. The royalty at 15% would be… Su Ting reluctantly grabbed a piece of paper and a pen to work out the calculation and arrived at the final result.

Three Hundred and Nine!

This was the income she had earned from publishing her comic book.

Compared to the payment for serializing, this sum wasn’t much, but it was understandable.

Publishing ten thousand copies seemed like a lot, but compared to the monthly circulation of Comic Book Report, it was nothing. Because of the large circulation, Comic Book Report paid very generous fees, making the publishing income seem small in comparison.

However, Su Ting was quite satisfied.

With the royalties from this publication, plus the previous payments for the manuscript, her comic book had earned her five hundred and four.

If she had accepted Principal Jiang’s offer to become a teacher, her monthly salary would probably be around twenty-five or twenty-six, at most no more than thirty, and no more than six hundred a year.

When she calculated it, the manuscript payment from her comic book alone could cover a teacher’s annual salary.

Moreover, five hundred and four might not be all the royalties. If the comic book sold well and had the chance to be reprinted, the Publishing House would definitely pay royalties based on the number of copies printed.

Of course, the comic book might not sell well, and there might be no reprint, but Su Ting had only spent about a month on creating this comic book, including the preparation time.

One month of hard work, earning five hundred and four, wasn’t bad at all.

Although the reason for earning so much was because the comic book had become popular, if her next comic didn’t pass review, she might not earn a single cent. But thinking positively, even if she didn’t make a profit for a year, it was still good to earn well during the year she published.

With this in mind, Su Ting, who had originally planned to rush the manuscript and send out the new story by the end of the month, felt she could afford to relax for a while longer.

So, Su Ting ignored the editor’s deadline at the end of the letter and, without a shred of guilt, pushed her work back. She had a grand excuse—she wanted to read the reader’s letter!

……

The entire day, Su Ting had been reading letters from readers, even before going to bed.

When He Dongchuan got into bed, he glanced at the letter she was holding. He didn’t see much, but he did notice that the letter was from a young man, and that his wife was reading it with great focus, her face constantly lit with a smile.

He Dongchuan leaned against the headboard, raised his hand nonchalantly, and slipped it behind Su Ting’s neck to pull her into his arms, asking: “What are you reading?”

“Letters from readers.” Su Ting replied, just finishing the letter. She put it down, turned to He Dongchuan, and said: “Do you know? This reader is a young man from the city. After graduating from middle school, he didn’t follow the policy to go to the countryside. There were no work arrangements on the street, and his family had no connections, so he’s been unemployed for the past two years. After reading my story, he was inspired and plans to go support the border areas.”

As she spoke, Su Ting frowned slightly.

He Dongchuan asked: “What’s wrong?”

Su Ting sighed and said: “I don’t know if going to the border is a good thing for him.”

If she had been born in this era, like most of the educated youth, she might have thought going to the border was the right decision.

But she was born in the 1990s and had experienced the explosion of information. She knew that most of the people who went to the countryside in this era ended up doing nothing.

Once they arrived in the countryside, it was possible for people to display great talents and lead the common people toward shared prosperity. But such cases were rare, as the majority of people in the world remained ordinary. Su Ting didn’t know if supporting the border areas would be a good thing for this reader.

He Dongchuan asked: “What has he been doing these past two years without a job?”

Su Ting was taken aback by the question. She quickly picked up the letter and skimmed through it. “He probably hasn’t been doing anything. He says he really likes reading comic books, and most of his time is spent at bookstores or small comic book stalls.”

“That’s it. Although the street didn’t arrange a job for him and his family has no connections, if he had the will, he could’ve picked up some manual labor or found odd jobs, and his life wouldn’t be so aimless.”

It was true that finding formal work wasn’t easy, but many state-owned factories outsourced small manual tasks, and some units hired temporary workers. Even for temporary work, there was a lot of competition for the good jobs, and what was left were the harder ones.

He was a young man with strong limbs, yet he had wandered the streets for two years. Either he was afraid of hard work or lacked the initiative. If not, he could always ask around the street and would definitely find a way to make money.

In He Dongchuan’s view, if he didn’t have an awakening today and continued his aimless life, he wouldn’t amount to much in the future.

It was better to go to a more difficult place and face the harsh realities of life. If he could endure it and become clear-headed, even if things were tough now, his future wouldn’t be too bad. If he couldn’t endure it, whether he stayed at home or went to the border, the result would be the same.

After hearing He Dongchuan’s words, Su Ting thought for a moment and asked: “Do you think this is a good thing for him?”

He Dongchuan replied: “It’s a good thing, but the outcome may not be good.”

“What if the outcome isn’t good?”

“If the outcome isn’t good, then it’s his own problem. Seventeen or eighteen is not a child. He should take responsibility for the choices he makes.”

Su Ting realized she might have been brainwashed by online opinions.

In fifty years, when a star in their twenties or thirties makes a mistake, fans often argue that they are just kids. Sometimes, she also feels like she has too much to say, but after spending time with He Dongchuan, she noticed that people from this era were indeed more mature.

Psychologically, she was actually two years older than He Dongchuan. In her work, she could already handle everything on her own, but when she left the work environment and returned home, she still felt like a child.

There would be many people like her in fifty years.

Su Ting thought that there were two main reasons for this phenomenon: first, people received higher education, and many finished college by the age of twenty-two or twenty-three, entering society later, which meant their minds matured later as well.

Second, people got married and had children later. Su Ting always felt that marriage and parenthood helped mature people’s minds.

Among the people she knew, some still seemed like kids before marriage, and when she first heard they had gotten married and had children, she found it hard to believe. They themselves were still children—how could they take care of another child?

But when she met those same friends again, now parents, she often found that they had matured a lot and truly had the look of responsible parents.

Yet many people who had not married, even if they were over thirty, still had childish qualities. Sometimes, they would even feel like they were still young.

With this mindset, when Su Ting read the letter, she couldn’t help but worry that the young man might not be mature enough. She feared that after reading her story, he might make an impulsive decision that he would regret for the rest of his life.

He Dongchuan said: “You’re just a creator. Your job is to create good stories, not to be responsible for every reader’s life. If you try to do that, all you’ll achieve is putting layer after layer of shackles around your own neck.”

Su Ting felt that He Dongchuan’s words represented another theory.

Many people believed that creators should be emotional, understanding the suffering of the world in order to write about the complexities of life. But he seemed to think that creators should be rational, not preachy or advisory, and simply write their own stories.

Both theories had their merits and drawbacks. The first could easily lead to depression, while the second lacked emotional depth. The balance between them was something she would have to figure out for herself.

In the end, Su Ting listened to He Dongchuan’s advice and decided not to worry about the future of the reader named Zhang Yaping. However, she thought that perhaps she could write a letter and ask the Publishing House to forward it to him.

But by then, it was already late, and she didn’t feel like getting up to find paper and a pen, so she decided to leave replying to the letter for tomorrow.