Sending money? Has Ren He gone mad? Xu Nuo wondered.
His voice had been a bit loud just now, and several classmates in front who were packing up their things also heard it. They looked at each other and chuckled softly, "He doesn't even have money to go out and play, what's he pretending for?"
As school let out, a bustling crowd made its way outside, where an elderly man clad in simple cotton attire but with a distinguished air and sprightly spirit stood out, seemingly waiting for someone at the school gates.
"Why does he look so familiar?"
"Can't remember, but he does look vaguely familiar."
For middle school students, they might have seen Elder Zhou on the news, but it would be difficult for them to remember such a distant figure who was not a star or anything of that sort.
Having done his homework after receiving Elder Zhou's call, Ren He recognized him immediately and approached, "Elder Zhou, hello, I am Ren He."
Elder Zhou looked Ren He over with a smile upon hearing this, "You look spirited, young man. You must exercise regularly. Let's walk and talk."
Elder Zhou had come alone, without a luxury car or a driver, and it was this little detail that endeared him to Ren He, as he suddenly transformed from a grand old man into an ordinary grandfather coming to pick up his grandson from school.
Simple and down-to-earth—that was Ren He's first impression of Elder Zhou. Not like the grand masters he had imagined, who traveled with entourages and even lacked a private car. He might have even taken the train and a public bus to get here.
Ren He had earnestly collected news about the elderly gentleman after receiving his call: famously frugal, it seemed his major social activities were promoting classic literary works, and he was incredibly supportive when discovering good pieces.
Now, to say that Elder Zhou's students were scattered throughout the vast regions of Jiang Nan and the Capital was no exaggeration, and indeed, many politicians and businessmen hoped to become his students.
However, he never took on students, only those writers he had supported or those who admired him were willing to affectionately call him Elder Zhou or Teacher Zhou.
"Why did you think to write the 'Three Character Classic'? Was it really written by you?" Elder Zhou asked with a smile, still finding it hard to calm his emotions after a week: a 14-year-old kid had rewritten such a traditional classic; it made the decades the rest had spent seem like living in a dog's belly.
"Can I skip this question?" Ren He said with a bitter smile, "I bet you're very surprised, but what I can guarantee is, if any copyright issues arise, I will take full responsibility for all consequences, Elder Zhou doesn't need to worry about that."
Truth be told, although he had copied a classic, Ren He only wanted to make money and nothing else. He didn't need fame or others' recognition of his literary talent; he just wanted to make money, plain and simple.
After all, Ren He was just an ordinary man, rough around the edges. If someone said he wouldn't use the resources he had at his disposal on reliving his life, that would go against the character of an ordinary person. Did he feel any psychological pressure? Yes, but it was just a little.
Ren He had thought it over carefully. If most people were in his shoes, he didn't believe they would leave the classics untouched.
Everyone is an ordinary person; there's no need to be sanctimonious. It's another matter entirely to insist that the work was your own creation and to be self-indulgent in that belief.
After giving it some thought, Elder Zhou shrugged, "If you don't wish to discuss that, let's leave it. The primary purpose of my visit is to talk about the copyright issue and to settle the royalties."
"I've thought about it, 6% is fine, but it should be 6% of the retail price, not the wholesale price," Ren He stated with conviction.
Royalties, a system that has been used worldwide for hundreds of years, equates to the royalties Ren He would receive = (Book retail price) x (Circulation volume) x (6%).
In general, a royalty rate of 8% is quite common, but that is based on 65% of the wholesale price. In comparison, the 6% Ren He demanded was higher.
Elder Zhou stopped walking and gazed deeply at Ren He, considering the proposed 6%. It wasn't clear who would be at a disadvantage; all that could be said was that both parties stood to make money. Then he suddenly laughed, "Alright, let's do as you've suggested. This is my first time negotiating with a 14-year-old. It's a bit challenging to know where to start. If I push too hard, they might say I'm an old man bullying you."
"Elder Zhou definitely won't take advantage of me," Ren He said with a chuckle.
"Let's go, find a place to treat me to a meal, and we can sign the contract while we're at it. I've brought the contract with me."
"There's a noodle shop up ahead that's pretty good, and then there's the manuscript fee for the third page of the Capital Daily..." Ren He said, rubbing his hands together awkwardly.
Elder Zhou's eyes suddenly widened: "You're just treating me to noodles?"
"That's the deal, and I even have to use the manuscript fee you gave me," Ren He said, turning out his pockets to show the only 50 cents inside: "Would you believe me if I said I wrote the Three Character Classic for money?"
Elder Zhou burst into hearty laughter: "Well, if it's just noodles, then it's just noodles! When I was in the Capital, I always wanted to have a bowl of Zha Jiang Mian but never found the time. Today, I suppose it's thanks to you!" As he said this, he took an envelope out of his pocket and slapped it into Ren He's hand: "A-grade poetry manuscript fee, 48 yuan per line for you."
Poetry manuscript fees have always been calculated by line, but most of the so-called literati only get about 100 yuan for a poem, with even some works priced at one yuan per line. Thus, Ren He had been somewhat unsure about the Three Character Classic's manuscript fee, as he didn't know how much he could get.
Ren He started counting the money right in front of Elder Zhou, totaling over 8000!
"Forty-eight yuan a line... had I known, I would have split it into more lines..." Ren He muttered softly.
"Now I really believe it."
Ren He was taken aback: "Believe what?"
Elder Zhou's expression turned complex as he said, "I believe that you wrote the Three Character Classic for the money. You're the first person who's counted the manuscript fee right in front of me. Those literati are afraid that such an act will taint their works with the smell of money, hoping that in the eyes of others they remain aloof from the world, untouched by worldly concerns."
Ren He snickered: "Don't mind me, I'm just a blatantly worldly person; I don't have time for all that pretense. But have you heard the saying, 'Great vulgarity is great elegance'?"
"Great vulgarity is great elegance..." Elder Zhou pondered the meaning behind these words: "Hahaha, what a 'Great vulgarity is great elegance'!" To tell the truth, it was his first time hearing this phrase, which was not surprising, since even this saying was brought over by Ren He from a parallel world.
So it was that Zhou Wumeng brought Ren He a manuscript fee of over 8000 yuan, along with the potential for a continuous flow of royalties, and as a result, Ren He took Zhou Wumeng out for egg noodles at a roadside diner.
Zhou Wumeng seemed even happier.
As they were parting, Zhou Wumeng asked, "If you have more work like the Three Character Classic in the future, we can continue to work together. Our literary history has seen too many instances of book burnings and Confucian burials, and the scourge of literary inquisitions. This has led to very little progress in our literature from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods up to now, with too many historical classics lost in the river of time."
Ren He stroked his chin, considering that the cultural trajectory of this parallel world might indeed have been thrown off course by those historical acts of knowledge destruction. There might have been grand works in history like those from his former life, but they were all erased. However, copying classics was a life-threatening endeavor for him, and he did not intend to risk his life frequently in the short term. He replied, "Not for the time being. I almost lost my life for this one."
"Hmm?" Zhou Wumeng was puzzled. What did he mean by 'almost lost my life for this one'?
"No worries, I mean that just writing this almost killed me," Ren He couldn't exactly tell the other person he was now entangled with the Divine Punishment System...
As Ren He saw Elder Zhou off, he had no idea that Duan Xiaolou had been observing the scene from behind them.
Doubt flashed in her eyes as she felt like she had seen this old gentleman somewhere before, perhaps in the news a few days ago.
Duan Xiaolou got home and without acknowledging her parents' greetings, she rushed to her room, turned on her computer, and began to search for the news she remembered. It took her half an hour to finally find it: a feature interview in the Capital Daily with editor-in-chief Zhou Wumeng: "The Three Character Classic is a Milestone in the Education of Young Children."