Following the route he had set at the beginning, An Yinong visited more than twenty bookstores in a row. It turned out that only half of the bookstores sold the “Huayou” comic magazine, and they were all placed in the corner. Several issues had not been sold in a row and were covered with a layer of dust.
He took out a sum of money for a ‘questionnaire’ and asked the clerk about the sales of various comic magazines. As expected, ‘Huayou’ had been at the bottom for several months, but Zhong’s ‘Xia Dao’ became famous because it contained several well-known cartoonists who had their own fans.
Afterwards, he went to the largest bookstore – Sanyou Bookstore. This was a bookstore that the original owner often visited in his memory. The comics there were very complete. The single volumes and magazines that could be placed in this bookstore were all those with good sales. Comics that were unknown would not appear here at all. Therefore, if you want to understand the recent trend of comics, it is most appropriate to come here.
If there were computers in this era, he wouldn’t have to visit every store to find out the sales of comic magazines.
“Sir…” He subconsciously called out his own ‘exclusive Baidu Encyclopedia’, but then he remembered that the world had changed and that person had forever remained in the past. He was stunned for a long time. After traveling for so many days, he thought he could adapt quickly, but it turned out not to be the case.
“I have to find something to do.”
Sanyou Bookstore occupied a building with three floors. The first floor sold various stationery, while the second and third floors sold books.
“Hello, where is the comic shelf?” An Yinong was too lazy to search his memory, so he asked the clerk.
“It’s on the second floor. You’ll see it when you turn left after going up,” said the clerk.
He went to the second floor and found a shelf that sold comics. Many people who looked like students were squatting there reading. Most of them would not buy it, but choose to leave after viewing it. After all, it was a fast-moving consumer product, and the price was not cheap, and students didn’t have much money.
An Yinong squeezed in and found that one side of the shelf was filled with comic magazines and the other side was filled with single volume books.
Comic magazines were mostly about comics that were currently being serialized, and one magazine could have seven or eight different works. On the other hand, single-volume books were mostly comics that have already been serialized and have received good reviews.
He took a rough look at the comic books on the shelf. The lower shelves were all children’s comics with childish styles, while the upper shelves were all martial arts comics and gangster/dao comics with tough styles, with a few comedy comics mixed in.
Comics for boys were basically about martial arts and the underworld, with a realistic style. There was no shadow paper, effect paper, etc. that were commonly used in later generations. Every stroke was hand-painted.
“The fighting moves are so beautiful to watch.” The boy who was reading the comics nearby was immersed in it.
“Are there no girls’ comics at this time?” An Yinong looked around the shelves and didn’t find any comics about women. “No wonder all the people reading here are boys.”
“Is it because the background is fictional? The comics from the neighboring island country haven’t even entered the Hong Kong market?” If it were the real world, the streets would be full of comics from the neighboring island country.
In fact, this was an advantage, especially for comics industry operators. Because comics from neighboring island countries have not been imported, there was a large blank in the market here waiting to be tapped.
The best-selling comic book magazine right now was the “Xia Dao” comic book published by the Zhong family, because martial arts comics were very popular themes. But what about detective stories? What about horror and weird stories? What about romance stories? What about adventure stories? What about female-oriented stories?
There were so many subjects to paint.
“Let’s take a look at the comics that are selling well recently.”
Not far from bookstore, a man in a black Tang suit was drinking coffee in the cafe next door. His secretary reported to him about his adopted son’s recent situation.
“Heh.” The man sneered, “So he was fooled by someone?” Using himself to commit emotional fraud to protect his sweetheart… um… very good, an operation that no normal person would think of.
“It brings shame to the people.”
“The person involved in this incident is He Laosan’s only son?” the man asked again.
The secretary nodded: “Yes, the He family seems to have known about this.”
The man hesitated for a moment and said, “Doesn’t he want to study abroad? Tell him that I have fulfilled his wish. He will take a flight tonight. Also, help me pick out a gift for the He family. It must be something that a 15 or 16-year-old boy would like.”
“Yes, sir.”
The man pulled a bill out of his wallet and placed it on the table. “Now I’m going to go buy some things. You don’t need to follow me.”
“But boss…” The secretary nodded and took a step back, but the two bodyguards were a little hesitant.
“The security in Hong Kong City is not that bad yet.” The man walked out of the cafe and headed towards the bookstore.
At this time, An Yinong had already roughly flipped through all the recent comics. He didn’t find any that were particularly attractive, but of course they were not particularly ugly either.
“The subject matter is still a bit monotonous, without the flourishing of various schools of thought in later generations.”
After thinking for a while, he took all the comic books on the shelf and put the adult comics on the shelf.
He picked up the stack of books, which felt as heavy as a 50-pound fat boy.
“Wow, so many? Are you going to buy them all?” The people who were trying to get the books showed envy, “You are so rich.”
Is there money? But he only felt heavy.
An Yinong went downstairs carefully, then gently piled the books on the checkout counter and waved his hand: “Miss, checkout.”
“Check out.” Almost at the same time, a book with a yellow cover called “Communication Skills” appeared on the table.
An Yinong looked up and saw a familiar handsome man. He was wearing a black Tang suit again today, but the material was matte. This person seemed to have a classical and noble temperament, but there was a scar on his eyebrow, so in addition to the classical and noble temperament, there was also a bit of indescribable rebelliousness.
An Yinong blinked, trying to pull his gaze back: as soon as he touched this person, his heartbeat went out of control, and he couldn’t figure out what this loss of control meant.
The other party also lowered his head to look at him: “We meet again.”
“Hello.” An Yinong’s voice sounded weak to begin with, and it was made even more childish by the man’s deep voice. He coughed and lowered his voice, “Come to buy books?”
“Well, you buy comics?” the man asked.
“Yeah, it’s very popular among us boys (emphasis) to read comics recently.”
The man was stunned for a moment, and his gaze shifted from An Yinong’s face to the thick stack of comics. His eyebrows with thin scars raised slightly, and a smile appeared on his face.
An Yinong: “…” Although there was no evidence, he felt that this person was laughing at his childishness.
“You first.”
“You first.”
They spoke at the same time again. An Yinong smiled and said, “I have a lot of books. You can pay first.”
“First come, first served.” But the man picked up his book.
Since the customer didn’t want it, An Yinong asked the clerk to pay. He bought a lot, so it took him several minutes to finish.
“Sir, the total is eighty-seven dollars and fifty cents. Would you like us to provide door-to-door delivery/service?”
An Yinong shook his head, paid the money and took the book away.
The man looked at his back until the clerk reminded him that it was time to pay. He opened his wallet and pulled out a bill, still looking outside: “Boy?”
When he got home, his family didn’t say anything about him buying so many comic books. Instead, He Chengjue remembered the comic magazine and said that the property transfer contract had been delivered and An Yinong just needed to sign it. In addition, an agent had been found and he would take him to the publishing house in two days.
“If it were you, how would you solve the sales problem?” An Yinong asked.
“Several cartoonists have been poached.” He Chengjue disagreed, “Then just find two more.”
An Yinong: …It was too naive of him to ask his scumbag father for advice.
The next day when he went to school, Zhang Ming from the next class was gone, and all his personal belongings had been moved away. His admirer asked about it, but the teacher just said, “He left with his mother.”
“Is he going abroad?” Someone showed an envious expression. These days, going abroad was equivalent to crossing class boundaries.
“No. It seems he moved. Maybe he went to another middle school?”
The students speculated for a while but couldn’t come to a conclusion, so they put the matter behind them.
Without Zhang Yu and Zhang Ming, An Yinong’s campus life was very comfortable. His only pain was studying, but his academic performance was improving slowly, or rather, his endurance was also improving slowly. As for Wen Long, he never appeared again after that. An Yinong thought that this person had completely left his life.
At this time, the publishing house of “Huayou” magazine had already been transferred to An Yinong’s name, and He Chengjue said that he would take him to the magazine in a few days to check out the situation.
Because many people in the class also liked to read comics, An Yinong asked other classmates about the “Huayou” magazine.
“Are you talking about the magazine ‘Huayou’? The comics in it are not good. They are ugly and expensive.” said a classmate who likes to read comics.
“That’s right. Ever since Zhen Weilong went to Xia Dao magazine, Hua You can no longer be read.”
“Many newsstands don’t have it. I can’t buy it even if I want to. It’s too troublesome.”
An Yinong summarized several problems of this magazine:
The price was high, and although it was thick, the price-performance ratio was average. The two best comics had been transferred to other magazines, and there were no new people to take over. Also, it was only available in a few bookstores, which made it inconvenient to buy.
After noting it down, he asked the students, “If you could designate a comic strip of a certain theme to appear on the market, what theme would you want?”
His original intention was to investigate what kind of comics they were interested in, whether it was passionate adventure or reasoning and analysis. As a result, seven out of ten boys chose erotic comics.
“…”What did he expect from boys of this age?
“If there are comics with girls as the main characters, would you read them?” An Yinong asked them. As a result, more than half of the people answered with certainty that they would not read them. They said they did not like to read about love stories.
“All that love going on, eh, it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.”
“There are also female protagonists who work hard for their careers.”
However, no one was interested, not even the girls. They said they didn’t read comics.
In the world of fiction, the male and female perspectives are equally divided, because there are as many male readers as female readers. However, in comics, the majority of readers are male, and female readers have not yet been cultivated.
After much thought, An Yinong decided that he should not do anything stupid. Both he and the magazine publisher under his name should start with “martial arts comics” to pave the way, and then consider other subjects after they have a reader base.
A few days later, He Chengjue drove over to pick up An Yinong, and they were going to the publishing house.
An Yinong looked at his watch and said, “Uncle Cai, please go home.”
“What’s the matter?” He Chengjue was puzzled at first, until An Yinong, who was wearing a school uniform, changed into a western suit.
The suits are also tailor-made, but the style was not so suitable for Asian teenagers, as the body shapes of Asians were different from those of Europeans and Americans. Fortunately, An Yinong’s appearance and mature temperament could make up for this inappropriateness.
He Chengjue in the car suddenly became nervous. He adjusted his tie and said, “Good boy, is dad handsome today?”
“What? Do you have a date?”
“No, it’s your first day at the magazine office, and dad wants to keep you company. Isn’t he handsome?”
An Yinong was helpless: “Handsome, very handsome, even more handsome if you pull in your belly.”
“What? Am I fat again? Looks like I need to go to the gym.”
An Yinong turned to the secretary who looked calm and professional. It was said that this was the secretary selected by Grandpa He himself and she was very capable. An Yinong guessed that she knew where to go and what to do today, and had already collected information.
“Ms. Julie, what’s the current situation of “Huayou” magazine?” he asked directly.
The secretary showed no surprise or any other expression. She naturally took out a stack of information: “Huayou Magazine…”
Sure enough, the secretary had already learned about the entire situation of “Huayou” magazine, including the previous president, employees, operating conditions and the previous resume of the newly hired agent.
The secretary knew more specific and detailed information than An Yinong. An Yinong took notes while listening, and asked questions when he encountered something he didn’t understand.
“Huayou” was once glorious, but because the He family did not attach importance to comics, it has been hit hard recently. Of course, the basic framework was still there, and the employees were all experienced people, so the situation was not bad. As for the newly hired agent, he used to be the editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine and he had the ability.
As we were talking, the car stopped in front of a four-story modern-style building. This was where the publishing house of “Huayou” magazine was located.
The car door opened and He Chengjue and An Yinong walked out.
“Dad.” An Yinong called He Chengjue, “I can do it myself.”
He Chengjue was not a fool, he was just surprised that his son would behave like this. “Okay.” He took a step back naturally and looked at An Yinong with a smile.
WhiteMoon x BlackSun 
Off to work! Thank you for the chapter!
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