Chapter 528 Not Even Enough Books for the Book Signing

On March 7, the third day after the release of "Don't Let Me Go", Chen Hongheng went to Zhou Yan's office and reported on the situation of the literature department since its establishment.

Several people in his team have now arrived, and there is no pressure on personnel for the time being, but Chen Hongheng still drew up a list, hoping that the Human Resources Department can help the literature department recruit five more people.

Zhou Yan simply glanced at the list and signed it without saying anything.

Since he had told Chen Hongheng before that he would give him enough autonomy, there was no need to ask Chen Hongheng for five recruitment quotas now.

Seeing Zhou Yan signed without asking, Chen Hongheng was also quite surprised. He didn't expect Zhou Yan to really let him do it.

After getting the note signed by Zhou Yan, Chen Hongheng said, "The publishing house wants to arrange a book signing for you, but it may be postponed for a while."

"Why?" Zhou Yan asked.

Chen Hongheng said with a smile, "Because so many books can't be transferred for the time being."

Since it is a book signing, there must be guaranteed books, otherwise what can readers sell to them when they come?

Even if there are not many books signed, a conservative estimate is that a thousand books should be prepared.

But Yanjing doesn't have so many books now.

The sales of "Don't Let Me Go" are too good, and Yanjing originally had some surplus, but several nearby cities clamored for books, so some were transferred there.

If we force it, we can definitely get a thousand books, but we can't affect the normal sales of other bookstores because of the signing. Isn't this putting the cart before the horse?

"Four hundred thousand copies, are they not enough so soon?" Zhou Yan was also a little surprised.

"It's not sold out so quickly, but some places are preparing stocks to prevent the books from being sold later, and some other counties are also asking for them. I heard from Liu Yang that the first prints can't last too long, so the publishing house has contacted a total of six printing factories across the country to print, and this time it should print one million copies."

"They are quite courageous."

"Haha, they are also very anxious, because after the previous peak sales period is over, sales will drop rapidly."

Zhou Yan nodded, Chen Hongheng was right, sales will indeed drop rapidly in a few days.

On the one hand, the popularity will decrease, and on the other hand, pirated copies will appear.

When pirated copies come out, fewer people will buy genuine copies.

"Knock knock--"

Someone knocked on the door.

Zhou Yan responded, "Come in."

The door opened, and Nakamori Akina came in excitedly, "Look at me--"

After entering the door, Nakamori Akina saw Chen Hongheng, and suddenly froze, holding back what she was about to say.

Zhou Yan introduced her with a smile, "This is Chen Hongheng, the director of the newly established literature department of the studio, and this is..."

"Ms. Nakamori, hello." Chen Hongheng smiled and greeted Nakamori Akina in Japanese.

Nakamori Akina was quite surprised to hear Chen Hongheng speak Japanese. She replied in Mandarin, "Mr. Chen, your Japanese is very standard."

"Ms. Nakamori, you are too flattering, your Chinese is standard."

"No, no."

Zhou Yan asked her, "What did you want to say just now?"

Nakamori Akina smiled and raised the book in her hand, "I bought a copy of your new book at the airport."

"My new book?" Zhou Yan looked puzzled.

Chen Hongheng next to him was also confused.

The reason they were confused was that the cover of the book in Nakamori Akina's hand was completely different from "Never Let Me Go".

"Yes, your new book."

Seeing Zhou Yan's puzzled expression, Nakamori Akina was very puzzled. Didn't the new book just come out? Not only did the news report it, she also heard Zhou Yan talk about it on the phone.

In fact, she had already agreed with Zhou Yan before, and Zhou Yan prepared a book for her, but when she saw a hawker selling it at the airport, she felt that it was fate, so she bought a copy.

"Let me see the book."

"Oh."

Nakamori Akina walked over and handed the book to Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan took the book and saw the cover. He couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. It really said "Never Let Me Go" on it, and the author's name was also written as Zhou Yan.

He turned back again, first the author's introduction, which was a long paragraph, but a lot of the information in it was wrong.

For example, the introduction said that he was born in 1966, but he was born in 1970, four years apart.

The introduction says that he is a native of Yanjing, but he is from Jinling.

However, it is true that he studied at the Central Conservatory of Music and stayed to teach there. Apart from this information, there are some flattering words that make Zhou Yan blush.

"The most outstanding composing genius of this century."

"The youngest film master."

"The music album has sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide."

Because it was too much nonsense, Zhou Yan did not finish reading the introduction and turned to the back.

After the introduction, there is an author's preface.

Zhou Yan did write a preface for "Don't Let Me Go", but the content is very simple, which is to roughly describe why this book was serialized in "October", mainly talking about the encounter with Zhang Shouren at the Writers' Congress.

But the preface of the book in his hand is not that.

The key is that this preface actually has a title, called "Every lonely night is accompanied by words and notes".

The content is also matched with the title, mainly describing how "I" step by step from a lonely little boy who is not understood by ordinary people to a world-renowned artist.

It’s true that although this preface is written in a very ridiculous and exaggerated way, it is quite emotionally moving. The person who wrote it is quite talented.

Zhou Yan couldn't help but sigh, now pirates are so hardworking, and they even write their own copy.

However, Zhou Yan was puzzled, why did the pirates write these things themselves?

The author's profile and the content of the preface are all in the genuine book, can't they just copy it directly? Writing a set by yourself is time-consuming and laborious and thankless.

Could it be that the pirates have some bad taste?

However, Zhou Yan understood why when he turned to the back.

This is not a complete book at all. It only contains the first third of "Don't Let Me Go", which was previously serialized in "October".

In other words, when this pirated version came out, the genuine book had not yet come out, and they had no place to copy it. They could only get the tens of thousands of words serialized in the magazine, and add other things to make a book.

The hundreds of thousands of words in the back are more complicated, including Shen Congwen's "Border Town" and Li Ruzhen's "Flowers in the Mirror", which can be said to be a book with three flavors.

Chen Hongheng sat next to him and wanted to see what the book was like, but he was too embarrassed to go over and take a look.

After Zhou Yan finished reading, he saw that he was curious, so he handed the book to him, "Take a look, it's quite interesting."

After hearing what Zhou Yan said, Chen Hongheng became even more curious. Isn't it just a pirated book? Why is it interesting?

After Chen Hongheng flipped through it, he couldn't help laughing and said, "The one who did this is also a talent. Maybe they want to seize the market in advance, so they did this."

Zhou Yan nodded, "It seems that they are also anxious. They even ran to the airport to sell it."

"It's necessary to be anxious. In a few days, high-quality pirated copies will come out, and this book will have no market at all." Chen Hongheng curled his lips and wondered, "Why did they add "Border Town" and "Flowers in the Mirror" at the end? If I were to make a pirated copy, I would definitely just repeat the previous content, so it wouldn't be so easy to find."

What Chen Hongheng said was right. "Border Town" and "Flowers in the Mirror" are works from different eras. The wording and sentence structure are completely different from "Don't Let Me Go". If others flipped through it casually, it would be easy to see the problem.

"Maybe the people who pirated the books felt guilty and thought that at least readers could still read two books." Zhou Yan shrugged and smiled.

"So it's still worth the money." Chen Hongheng laughed.

Nakamori Akina was listening to their conversation and was stunned.

"Do you think this is piracy?"

"It's not as simple as piracy. At least you can see the original content in piracy. This one only has one-third of the content, and the rest is from other books."

This book was recently updated in ##六x-on:x-on:九x-on:x-on:书x-on:x-on:吧!! Update!

"How can this be! The girl selling books looks very honest and told me that she is a salesperson at the airport."

An airport salesperson... Zhou Yan found that Nakamori Akina was so easy to be deceived. She actually believed such a clumsy lie. How could an airport salesperson sell books to passengers? It's impossible to think about it.

Chen Hongheng also stood up at this time, and said goodbye with a smile, "Boss, Ms. Nakamori, you guys chat, I'm going back to work."

Zhou Yan nodded, "You go and get busy."

"Goodbye, Mr. Chen."

After Chen Hongheng left, Nakamori Akina sat down next to Zhou Yan and said angrily, "I'm so stupid, I was deceived again."

Zhou Yan smiled and took a copy of "Don't Let Me Go" from under the coffee table, "You said you wanted to read it, I've prepared it for you, why do you still buy it from others."

"I just think it's fate, I just happened to meet someone selling your book, and I also want to increase the sales of your new book."

Nakamori Akina looked at the book she bought, and the more she read, the angrier she got. Suddenly, she picked up the book and wanted to throw it into the trash can.

Zhou Yan stopped her, "What are you doing?"

"Of course, this kind of book should be thrown into the trash can."

Zhou Yan smiled and took the book in his hand, "No need to throw it away, you can be regarded as a blessing in disguise, you have come into contact with two excellent Chinese literary works, you can read "Border Town" and "Flowers in the Mirror" here... Of course, you have to wait until your Chinese level is higher."

"Really? Are these two books good?"

"Yes, very good."

"Oh, then it is still somewhat useful."

"Then keep it, so that you can see it often, and you will not be deceived again in the future."

"Yes." Nakamori Akina nodded, and then became annoyed again, "Why did I believe that girl? Okay, let's not talk about this-"

Nakamori Akina hugged Zhou Yan's neck, "What are we going to eat tonight?"

This question made Zhou Yan stunned. Normally, shouldn't she ask "Do you miss me?" Zhou Yan was even prepared for how to answer.

Unexpectedly, she did not play by the rules and asked what to eat tonight as soon as they met.

"I asked Kong Chao to prepare hot pot tonight, and we'll eat hot pot."

"Hot pot." Nakamori Akina's eyes sparkled, and it was obvious that she was very satisfied with the hot pot.

Zhou Yan also knew that she loved hot pot, so he specially asked the canteen to prepare it.

The reason why Nakamori Akina was happy was not only because she loved hot pot, but also because of Zhou Yan's thoughtfulness. She was very addicted to the feeling of being seriously considered.

Asking "Do you miss you" may get a false answer, but asking "What to eat tonight" can get a real answer.

But then she pursed her lips and said, "Can you eat hot pot?"

She knew that Zhou Yan usually had very strict control over his diet, especially oil and salt, so he basically would not eat hot pot.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "It's okay to have a meal occasionally, and we're having a shabu-shabu pot."

Nakamori Akina smiled and kissed Zhou Yan on the face, "Thank you for your hard work."

Zhou Yan curled his lips, "Although it's not a loss, your consolation is not sincere enough."

Nakamori Akina knew what Zhou Yan meant, and kissed Zhou Yan on the lips shyly, then quickly stood up, "I have to go back to the hotel first, and come back to have dinner with you later."

After saying that, she ran away without waiting for Zhou Yan to answer.

Zhou Yan licked his lips, and the lipstick left on them was slightly sweet and floral, the same as the lipstick when they kissed for the first time.

...

Nakamori Akina came to Yanjing this time to record the two songs "Fireworks" and "Returning Home".

Originally, it would be better to come back in a few days, but she knew that Zhou Yan's new book was published, so she couldn't wait to go to Yanjing in advance.

In the following days, Zhou Yan basically spent half a day in his office, and another half a day in the recording studio with Akina Nakamori to record new songs.

During the recording, there were also some troubles.

She sang the song "Returning Home" very well, and it felt very good. Some minor problems can be simply adjusted.

But when she sang "Fireworks", it always felt wrong.

Zhou Yan hoped that when she sang this song, her voice could be sweeter, or even a little bit, but the effect she made was not good.

Her resonance was too good, and she was asked to be sweeter and a little bit, but she still sang with the feeling of 3D reverberation.

Zhou Yan even asked her to try to sing "Christmas Song" to find the feeling, and she sang with the same feeling.

After adjusting for a long time, Zhou Yan felt that this song might not be suitable for Akina Nakamori to sing at all, and it might be better for Shizuka Kudo to sing it.

Although Shizuka Kudo's singing skills are not as good as Akina Nakamori, she can handle this kind of song.

After a long silence, Zhou Yan said, "How about we not sing this song anymore and I'll change it for you?"

He was negotiating, but Akina Nakamori was very excited, "No, this song can't be changed, even if it's "Homecoming"."

Of course this song can't be changed, because this song is full of memories of her and Zhou Yan. Now, as long as she sings this song, she can think of the fireworks that night.

So, she must sing this song herself and can't give it to others.

Seeing her so excited, Zhou Yan hurriedly said, "Okay, okay, no change, no change, let's adjust it."

Akina Nakamori clenched her fist, very motivated, "Don't worry, I will definitely adjust it."

Zhou Yan also clenched his fist and responded to her, "Okay, I believe you." (End of this chapter)