It is impossible not to play mahjong. People live to play mahjong.
When Zhuo Liming once again received an invitation to play mahjong from his boss and colleague, he was already used to it. He skillfully put down the unfinished draft, and when he arrived at the old place with ease, Mu Suxing and Shen Xing were already waiting there.
He looked around but couldn't find his other old friend. He then looked at the two people opposite him and saw that they had already pulled out their chairs skillfully and sat down calmly, as if nothing was wrong.
With a little love for his colleagues, Zhuo Liming still asked, "Isn't Editor-in-Chief Qiu coming?"
Mu Suxing looked at him in surprise: "Why did you call him here?"
Zhuo Liming: “?”
Seeing that he still looked confused, Mu Suxing had no choice but to ask, "Do you want him to force you to go back and draw the draft?"
Zhuo Liming understood.
"In short, I declare," Mu Suxing said, "From today on, Editor-in-Chief Qiu is officially kicked out of our Huaying Mahjong Exchange Association. We will not play with him anymore."
Shen Xing clapped his hands in agreement.
This is not difficult to understand. After all, it is a serialized weekly comic book. The relationship between the editor and the comic book author is inevitably a battle of wits and courage at times. Seeing Mu Suxing's serious look at this moment, Zhuo Liming felt familiar and funny: "Aren't you always fast? Haven't you finished drawing the next issue of Sherlock Holmes yet?"
Muxuxing coughed.
Shen Xing said, "Hey, didn't we agree to play mahjong? Why are you bringing this up? Come on, come on, sit down. Today we're only going to play mahjong, not discuss the manuscript."
Zhuo Liming couldn't help laughing: "What about the missing person? If Editor-in-Chief Qiu can't come, we can't get four people together."
"That's easy. Any of you can just make a phone call and ask a free friend to come over."
As Shen Xing spoke, his eyes and Zhuo Liming's eyes fell on Mu Suxing. The latter spread his hands, looking helpless: "Don't look at me, it's useless to look at me. If it weren't for the fact that I can't offer a reward, I guess my circle of friends would probably all be offering a reward for me by now."
Zhuo Liming thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll do it."
He pulled out his cell phone's address book, his eyes flickered across a long list of contact names, and soon fixed on a familiar name. The phone beeped twice and was quickly connected.
Zhuo Liming didn't have any time to be polite to his old friend. He chose to get straight to the point: "We're short of one, Lao Meng. Do you want to play mahjong with me?"
All in all, Zhuo Liming has known Meng Zhiyuan for almost ten years.
Ten years ago, the two began serializing their works in Baiyun Comics at about the same time, and they became popular at the same time, which brought the fledgling Baiyun Comics to the level of the three major comic magazines. Later, they met at the annual meeting of Baiyun Comics and naturally became friends. After so many years, the friendship between the two is naturally incomparable to that of ordinary friends.
Because of this, when Zhuo Liming made such an invitation, Meng Zhiyuan agreed without thinking: "Okay, where is the location? I'll find you."
Ten minutes.
The empty seats were filled by new mahjong players, and the atmosphere in the box gradually became more subtle. Meng Zhiyuan looked at Mu Suxing, then at Zhuo Liming, and repeated, "Playing mahjong?"
Zhuo Liming said affirmatively: "Yes, is there any problem?"
Meng Zhiyuan was speechless.
If it were in the past, this activity would certainly not be allowed. The competitive pressure on Baiyun Comics is already extraordinary. It is already quite difficult to maintain stable updates for a long time, not to mention taking some time out of work to entertain yourself forever.
But now...
Meng Zhiyuan rolled up his sleeves and got on with it!
It has to be said that after the fatigue of drawing at the desk for a long time, occasional relaxation is still very comfortable - especially since he has good luck with cards today. He has won seven or eight games in a row since he sat down.
"Open the bar!"
When Meng Zhiyuan happily scooped up a handful of banknotes again, Mu Suxing couldn't help but ask, "I heard that Mr. Meng Zhiyuan has terminated his contract with Baiyun Comics?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Meng Zhiyuan hadn't replied yet, and Zhuo Liming was surprised - he thought that according to his last routine, Mu Suxing would say that he would play for a few more days before mentioning the signing.
Meng Zhiyuan's mind was completely on mahjong at the moment. He didn't think much about it when he heard it, and subconsciously said "hmm".
Mu Suxing glanced at the cards in front of him and asked, "I wonder if Mr. Meng is interested in serializing it in Huaying Comics?"
"OK."
The two of them exchanged glances and a question that should have been handled with great caution was resolved casually during the break in playing mahjong.
It is undeniable that the reason why Zhuo Liming called his old friend out, besides because they hadn't seen each other for a while, was also to encourage the other party to change jobs - of course, considering that Meng Zhiyuan has now left "Baiyun Comics", Zhuo Liming's behavior cannot even be considered poaching, it can only be said that he is introducing a reliable new author to the boss.
Before this, Zhuo Liming even seriously considered how he should cooperate with Mu Suxing to complete the work of recruiting new comic authors, but he didn't expect that none of them would be of use.
It was not until the whole mahjong game was over and the two began to discuss when to go to the cinema to sign the contract that Meng Zhiyuan realized belatedly what he had agreed to.
Having said that, Meng Zhiyuan didn't regret it. For him, serializing in any weekly comics magazine wouldn't be a good choice. With the current sales and influence of Huaying Comics, this is even the best choice for many people.
It was five in the afternoon when the show ended. Meng Zhiyuan thought that since he had already met the chance, he might as well sign the contract today. The comics author took the initiative to ask, so Mu Suxing naturally had no reason to refuse. After the four of them left the chess and card room, they went straight back to the Huaying Comics editorial department.
Meng Zhiyuan looked at the rules and regulations listed in the document.
The contract terms were almost the same as those circulated by the outside world—or even more favorable. Even the exclusive terms that the people in Huaying Comics jokingly called the "tyrant contract" were not found by Meng Zhiyuan.
In Meng Zhiyuan's opinion, even the so-called "unfair terms" are understandable in their requirements - compared with ordinary contracts, the benefits provided by exclusive contracts are aimed at cultivating Huaying Comics' own cartoonists. For this type of authors, there will naturally be more additional restrictions. Otherwise, what if they encounter an ungrateful person
No matter how conscientious Huaying Comics is, it is not a charity.
The only thing that puzzled Meng Zhiyuan was...
"This copyright sharing..." Meng Zhiyuan was a little confused.
Take his recent animation adaptation "Night Watch" for example. The popularity and sales of this adapted animation produced by Yunsu Animation can be said to have created a new low in the history of Yunsu Animation. Yunsu Animation suffered a huge loss, and its good investment was wasted.
Even in such a situation, Huaying Comics not only had no intention of lowering the price for the copyright, but even offered a high price at his peak period!
Qiu Fengmao actually couldn't quite understand why Mu Suxing would offer such a high price, especially since it had already been confirmed that Meng Zhiyuan's next work would be the second part of "Night Watchmen".
But even though he didn't understand, after this period of time, Qiu Fengmao had already been convinced by Mu Xuxing. To put it bluntly, at least 90% of the credit for the current status of "Huaying Comics" goes to Mu Xuxing alone. Regardless of whether this deal is worth it or not, even if Mu Xuxing wants to spend money, then let him spend money.
Therefore, in response to Meng Zhiyuan's question, Qiu Fengmao just smiled and said, "This is what our boss meant - since he gave this price, then at least in his opinion, you deserve this price, it's that simple."
Is it that simple
Meng Zhiyuan was a little bit unbelievable.
Meng Zhiyuan still remembers clearly how the Baiyun Comics editorial department reacted when he said he wanted to continue drawing the second part of "Night Watch". You know, it was Huaying Animation that wanted the animation copyright of "Night Watch" at the beginning, but it was only because Yunsu Animation intercepted it that it "escaped".
If it were another company, they probably would not want the animation copyright of the second part of "Night Watch" no matter what. However, Huaying not only took it, but also directly offered a price that was much higher than he imagined.
Huaying—or to be more precise, what is Muxuxing thinking
At the same time, in another office just separated by a wall.
Mu Suxing couldn't answer Meng Zhiyuan's doubts, because the next second after they returned to the company, he was pulled away by someone with an expressionless face.
"Where is the storyboard outline for Cells at Work!" Fang Lian asked.
"The deadline is the day after tomorrow. Is the Sherlock Holmes comic book not finished yet?" This was the soul-searching question asked by the editor-in-chief on behalf of Qiu Fengmao.
Dai Yuyan was a little more gentle than the other two. She spread out the notebook in her hand and said, "Regarding the short animation "Red Cliff", Master Zhang Hongyuan hopes that you can talk to him about his specific ideas and opinions..."
Muxuxing started to have a headache again.
But Shen Xing also came over to join in the fun: "Boss, I've finished drawing "Taking Over Las Vegas", give me a new script to draw!"
Facing the unblinking gazes of the crowd not far away, even Mu Xuxing couldn't help feeling a little stressed at the moment: "I'll keep drawing. I'll finish drawing ten episodes in two days."
"I have already drawn 90% of the next issue of Sherlock Holmes, I will definitely be able to catch up!"
"Please tell them that I will come to visit you in person in a couple of days, and we can talk about the style and concept of the entire series..."
As for Shen Xing—
Mu Suxing said calmly: "Good boy, you are already a mature comic book author, you should learn to write scripts for yourself."
An hour later.
After great effort, he finally sent those people away and Mu Suxing finally breathed a sigh of relief. He looked at the documents piled up in front of him that was almost as high as a mountain for a while, closed his eyes, and then opened them again.
I'm not dreaming.
Realizing this cruel fact, Muxuxing took a deep breath. After working diligently and conscientiously for nearly three years, the boss of Huaying, who has always been known as a model worker, made his first historic decision -
While no one was in the office, Mu Suxing quickly packed up his things and ran away without looking back.
Three days later, the 27th issue of "Huaying Comics" will be released.
When many Huaying readers finally got their favorite comics and were ready to enjoy this week's update, and then opened the front page of "Huaying Comics", a completely unexpected notification suddenly entered their field of vision -
I saw that the place where Sherlock Holmes was originally published read:
Out collecting materials, see you in a week.
—Muxiuxing.
Luo Gaofeng: