Walking the Path of a Workaholic in Cliché Novels (QT) Chapter 113

The glass door opened, and they saw employees who had been busy standing up and trying hard to smile. Soon after that, several people walked out, older ones in front and the younger in the back. The one in the front was a newly hired professional agent who looked to be in his thirties.

The agent walked up to An Yinong and said, “Boss, this way please.”

The group went directly to the conference room, along with the heads of various departments of the publishing house who had a say. As soon as they left, the junior staff began to chatter.

“So our new boss is really that kid?”

“Well, it must be Young Master He who is in charge. His son is only the boss in name only.”

“Although I know that Mr. He is a playboy, he is really a very elegant man. He looks to be in his early thirties in a suit. You can’t tell at all that he has such an old son.”

Compared with the bosses with big bellies and bald heads, He Chengjue, who had a good hairline and a relatively good figure, could indeed be considered high-quality stock. Moreover, the wealthy families in Hong Kong at the time all had the habit of marrying young wives, so there were many people eyeing him.

But some people also noticed An Yinong: “I think the young master is not bad, he is so handsome, worthy of being Miss Li’s child. In a few years, he will be a ‘good man’ again.”

“Ah, I really envy the children of rich families. They are still in middle school, but they are already the owners of a publishing house. And I still have to work hard for them.”

An Yinong was still a little young and childish, and people were more envious of his background and origin. While the employees were discussing the matter, An Yinong had already taken the boss’s seat, listening to the newly hired professional agent express his ideas.

An Yinong knew about the current problems of “Huayou” magazine, and the agent also knew about it. So he proposed to reduce some unnecessary columns, decrease the number of pages, and lower the price. He also actively established cooperative relationships with various newsstands to fully promote the magazine.

Of course, the most important thing was to support outstanding resident cartoonists. As long as they could publish a classic comic, their magazine will be able to regain its glory. Ultimately, the quality of comics was the key to whether the magazine could survive.

“It’s not easy to discover excellent new talents, and we have to be wary of poaching.” Xie Jiu, who was behind the Zhong family, was too ruthless. He actually provided housing for cartoonists who changed jobs.

Everyone knew how expensive housing was in Hong Kong. Wasn’t this accurate?

“So we need to cast a wide net, give newcomers opportunities, and provide old employees with sufficiently generous treatment.”

An Yinong was listening while taking notes on paper with a pen. Due to some of his minor shortcomings, he only wrote down a few key words or keywords and did not take long notes.

After the agent finished speaking and looked expectantly at An Yinong (not He Chengjue), An Yinong picked up his notebook and made a small suggestion.

“You said you’re cooperating with toy manufacturers to give away comic peripherals along with books?” The agent raised his glasses, looking a little curious.

An Yinong nodded: “The gifts can be small and exquisite, and they are often used in life, such as key chains. You can make small dolls of cartoon characters and hang them on them, or you can choose picture pendants. In addition, there are small coin purses for girls, small notebooks, small flashlights, and miniature models of some cool weapons in comics.”

He gave some examples to illustrate, and kept emphasizing that gifts can be small, but the quality must be good, so that people who buy books feel that they are getting good value for money or even better value for money, and are willing to use them on a daily basis. These small parts were also a form of publicity that could bring in more consumers.

And there were many consumers who were attracted by this kind of free gift when they could only buy one comic magazine.

As soon as he finished speaking, not only the agent’s eyes lit up, but He Chengjue also realized the benefits of this operation. He couldn’t help but pat his son on the shoulder and said, “This is a good idea. I’ll go buy another toy factory.”

“Ah?” He really didn’t understand the world of rich people.

An Yinong finally declined He Chengjue’s “brilliant idea” because he needed many kinds of gifts, including acrylic, plastic, paper, and cloth…a toy factory could not afford it.

“Of course, it is possible to find trustworthy manufacturers for in-depth cooperation.” He added that the prices of goods from large manufacturers were affordable and the workmanship was more guaranteed.

After the issue of the free gifts accompanying the magazine was decided, the agent took out several newly designed cover formats and wanted to finalize them.

An Yinong directly chose the cover with the largest and coolest pictures of anime characters. His reason was very simple: “I am here to buy comics, so of course I will choose comics that attract me. Putting a bunch of words will only make people doubt the nature of this magazine.”

So the cover was quickly decided.

When they were almost done talking about the new design of the magazine, they finally talked about the employee issues. Because many new bosses laid off employees as soon as they took over, old employees were a little nervous. The work at the magazine was not too strenuous and the salary was pretty good. If they are fired, it will not be easy to find another one.

The agent asked An Yinong for his opinion on this matter. An Yinong said that he would not interfere with his work as the president of the magazine, but hoped that everything in the work would be handled impartially and without favoritism or collusion.

In addition, comic magazines are, after all, magazines for young people. On the premise of ensuring the treatment of old employees, have you considered promoting more young people and giving them more opportunities? The agent naturally agreed and would promote more capable newcomers. The meeting lasted more than half an hour and was generally successful.

The agent’s ability was recognized, the previous employees were retained, and An Yinong’s status as the actual boss was also recognized. Seeing that they were optimistic about his son, He Chengjue was also very proud: How is my son stupid? He is so smart!

The conference room door opened, and a group of young employees stood up again. An Yinong walked past them with a standard smile on his face, and the others followed behind him. The black car drove away, and the magazine employees waited anxiously.

“There will be no layoffs, and we will add a few deputy positions. Young employees with outstanding performance can compete. In addition, the magazine will be suspended for two months to prepare for the revision, and we will try to recruit new talents. During the suspension period, the basic salary will remain the same.” said the new president.

The entire magazine’s staff cheered.

On the way back, He Chengjue kept praising An Yinong, saying that he had the same style as he did back then and was an excellent manager. He also asked, since An Yinong didn’t want a factory, did he want an apartment? A friend of his just bought a large piece of land to build an apartment, and if he invested some money, he could get two apartment buildings.

“You’ve been studying so hard lately, this is a reward.”

An Yinong: “…”

But he did think of another thing: if it was so difficult to discover new talents and leave behind successful authors, why not try it himself?

“Try what?” The system was stunned.

“Let’s see if I can draw a martial arts comic that gets rave reviews.”

An Yinong is a man of action who will do what he thought of. That night, he took out the most popular martial arts comic. There was a gap between comics and the line drawing that An Yinong was familiar with. It takes a period of practice to change the style. But he has to work hard just to study, so where can he find time to draw comics?

The system feels that this was not an easy task.

“Have you forgotten the shadow puppet?” An Yinong was confident, “The shadow puppet is not helpful for doing homework, but it can definitely be used to draw comics.”

As he was speaking, the shadow puppet appeared again and opened the comic book. Comic books contained a lot of pictures mixed with not many words, so they were not uncomfortable to read.

The way the characters were drawn was different from the line drawing he was good at or the popular comics in later generations, which was more powerful. The character modeling also paid more attention to the “sense of power”, so each one looks like a muscular explosion and a “fierce” face. As for the plot… three-fifths of it was fighting. Without a doubt, this was a manga for boys.

“It really works.”

The system just stared in amazement as the shadow puppet took out a pen and drawing paper and tried to learn the drawing techniques, while An Yinong on the other side lowered his head to do his homework, and did not interfere at all.

“This golden finger, which is usually used as a means of saving lives, can actually be used in this way?”

The system was particularly curious about the host’s current feelings. Was it really true that there was no hindrance in operating two bodies at the same time?

Suddenly An Yinong stopped writing: “The damage to the shadow puppet does not affect the main body, so when my main body is sleeping and resting, the shadow puppet can continue to paint and paint all night. Doesn’t this give me a lot more time?”

System: …who was more cruel, the host? He did his homework until very late, and also copied and learned how to draw comics until very late.

During this period, Granny Lian came over and wanted to bring him some midnight snacks, but he refused.

Later, he went to sleep, and the shadow puppet was still sitting at the desk, studying with a small lamp on. The system tried to communicate with the shadow puppet, but the shadow puppet could not speak, but could communicate with the system with a pen, which showed that the core inside was still An Yinong.

The system looked at the real body sleeping on the bed, then looked at the busy shadow puppet, and silently printed the word “submission” on its forehead.

From that day on, An Yinong began to practice comic skills with the golden finger. He bought a lot of paper and pens for comics, as well as a copy table and other items.

Reading, which he once loved most, had become a torture, and painting has become a relaxing entertainment. So he also used his free time between classes to practice drawing. He practiced by drawing various 2D images that his classmates wanted for free.

He was indeed very talented in painting, and with the foundation of painting from several worlds, he was able to try to create comics on his own in just half a month. The script he chose was “Desert Heroes: Devil City”.

There were two reasons for this choice: First, the most popular comics in the current comic market were martial arts comics and gangster comics, which were more easily accepted by the market. Second, by choosing this, he didn’t have to worry about conceiving the plot, which saved a lot of effort.

Moreover, it was also a commemoration of the past.

The plot of “Desert Heroes: Devil City” was very simple. The hero’s sister was kidnapped. He investigated all the way to the northwest, and then learned that these girls were kidnapped to Devil City, but no one knew where the city was. Those who knew kept their mouths shut, and even the hero pointed a knife at his eyes, they still refused to say anything. In desperation, the hero went to find Yu Linglong, who was known as the “Zhuge Girl”.

Linglong was good at calculating, fighting and talking. She was more charming and perfect than the male protagonist when she was dressed as a man. But she had a fatal flaw. She liked to solve puzzles. The more unknown the puzzle was, the more she wanted to solve it. So when the male protagonist said that there was a ghost city that no one could find, and he doesn’t know if he can find it, the female protagonist immediately came with her own dry food.

This was also a little hobby that was courting death. If she didn’t have the aura of the heroine, she might have died several times.

In general, this was a martial arts novel whose plot was not out of the ordinary in this era. It had a love line between the male and female protagonists, a detective line to answer questions and solve puzzles, one fighting scene after another, and a thrilling scene of changing clothes and entering a den of thieves.

“The plot is good enough, and the second thing is the painting style. This is a classical martial arts film, so the painting should also combine the styles of classical line drawing and modern comics, so that it has its own characteristics without being abrupt.”

An Yinong studied during the day, drew at night, corresponded with his unknown pen pal from time to time, and also found time to attend some necessary social activities (birthdays, weddings and funerals). Time passed by unknowingly.

Soon, the first chapter of this comic was completed.

“Although I think it’s good, I can’t rule out the possibility of ‘mom eyes’ in the middle.”

Whether he could make a living from comics depended on whether the market would accept his work, so he made a few copies and sent them to five comic magazine publishers, including Huayou, to see how they went.

After the letter was sent, there was a “long” journey of waiting. The upset An Yinong would even run around the house, reciting English essays aloud while running. The servants in the house curiously stuck their heads out and watched An Yinong running round and round.

When An Yinong came back panting, he found that Granny Lian was speaking to him awkwardly in English: “I heard that if you are in an English environment, you will learn English faster.”

In order to help An Yinong learn English well, Grandma Lian tried her best. An Yinong didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but he still accepted the kindness.

Because there was no one around to share this with, An Yinong also told this to ‘X’, the owner of the parrot ‘Thank You’ and a special pen pal: “I’ve been trying to draw comics recently and have submitted them. Do you think it’s unreliable to do this? – H”

“No, I am lucky to be able to do what I like. -X”

An Yinong looked at the words on the note, twirling the pen with his fingers, and muttered to himself: “I think so too.”