Chapter 541 - Settling scores! (1/2)
Chapter 541: Settling scores!
At home.
At the dining table, the family of three enjoyed their dumplings.
After the announcement of the news of the SARFT's new list of banned artists, Zhang Ye was informed of it by his eldest younger sister who called him. It was only after her call that he found out about the big news and he hurriedly rushed onto the internet to verify it. When he saw it, he suddenly burst out laughing.
His mother asked, ”Why did your sister call you for?”
Zhang Ye laughed and said, ”The SARFT has lifted my ban.”
”When did this happen?” His mother put down her chopsticks when she heard this.
”Just a while ago. The list no longer has my name on it.” Zhang Ye was feeling in such a great mood that he stuffed two dumplings into his mouth at the same time with his chopsticks.
His father also stopped eating and said, ”Does that mean that from today on, no one will be able to stop you from appearing on television, doing your own programs or publis.h.i.+ng books?”
His mother said, ”Of course, if he is no longer banned, who would care about those! This is great, it's already been so many days, but my son is finally free now. Little Ye, was it Chief Wu who helped you?”
”It has to be,” Zhang Ye said.
His mother rapped the surface of the table forcefully with her hand. ”I really like that Chief Wu! Invite her over for dinner some time. I will cook to thank her myself.”
His father interrupted and said, ”Forget it. Do you even know how high Chief Wu’s rank is? Why would she come here for dinner? Do you think she lacks any dinner invitations?”
”That's true, I don't think we can get her here with an invite either,” his mother said.
His father looked at him. ”Remember to send your thanks to Chief Wu.”
Zhang Ye sighed. ”I know, the two of you don't need to worry about that.”
Later in the afternoon.
Having just had his ban lifted, he received a phone call almost immediately.
It was not a number he was familiar with, and the voice on the other side was a woman.
”h.e.l.lo, may I know if this is Teacher Zhang Ye?”
”That's me, who is this?” Zhang Ye headed back to his room to take the call.
”Teacher Zhang, how are you? My name is Li Mei and I'm with Eastern Publis.h.i.+ng Firm.” She sounded a little cautious over the phone, like a young and inexperienced worker.
Zhang Ye felt a realization as he said, ”Publis.h.i.+ng firm? Oh, what's the matter?”
Li Mei paused for a short moment before saying softly, ”It's like this. I would first like to ask you if the copyright to Legend of Wukong still belongs to you? Our firm has just had a meeting and we agreed that we would really like to take up your novel as our new project, but we don't know if we can have the honor of working with you on it. Yes, you might not have heard of our publis.h.i.+ng firm, so I would like you to lend me your ear on this matter. We might not be very well known in our industry or operate on as large a scale as Beijing Education Publis.h.i.+ng Firm, but our funding and marketing budgets are definitely not inferior to any of those big time publishers. If you are willing to let us buy your copyrights to Legend of Wukong, then we will a.s.sure you that we will definitely devote our utmost to funding and promoting the novel.”
Zhang Ye laughed and said, ”The copyright has not been sold yet, but I would like to hold on to it for now. There's no rush.”
”Teacher Zhang.” Li Mei sounded a little anxious now. ”If you're free, perhaps we could meet in person and have a chat? I know you're busy, so anytime is fine. I can follow your schedule.”
Zhang Ye rejected by saying, ”We'll see how it goes.”
When the call ended, someone from Huanan Publis.h.i.+ng Firm called as well.
It was a man. ”Teacher Zhang, we've read your latest novel and we like it very much. Could we discuss the rights of the simplified Chinese version of Legend of Wukong?”
Zhang Ye still said, ”I won't be talking about this today, we'll see how it goes.”
That man immediately responded by saying, ”You can state the price you want for it and I will report it to my management. If they are okay with it, then we can sign the contract. We will start on the promotions immediately to push for this novel's sales . Since the whole country is currently talking about you and you're the hottest topic right now, we would like to make use of this to our advantage in promoting Legend of Wukong. The sales figures will definitely be better than usual, but if we drag this on for too long, then wouldn’t it be a pity? If you're okay, why don't we meet in person instead?”
Zhang Ye did not flat out refuse him. ”Let me think about it.”
That man said, ”Alright then, if you have the intention of selling the copyright, you must remember to contact us. We might not be the top publishers in our industry, but we're definitely a professional team and an old name in the industry.”
Four or five calls came in successively and they were all from different publishers.
Zhang Ye just responded diplomatically to them and hung up.
Then, there were also other publishers who probably did not have a way to contact Zhang Ye directly and had to send him private messages over Weibo, using Tieba, and other methods to communicate with him. They all expressed their interest in obtaining the publis.h.i.+ng rights for Legend of Wukong. Some of them even offered to buy out the returned copyrights for Ghost Blows Out the Light and Zhang Ye's Compilation for republishment. They also stated their offers to him, with some ranging high and others lower.
But Zhang Ye did not reply, not because he did not want to sell the rights. He did not have much money right now and needed it for his living expenses, but after the previous incidents with the old publishers for his works, Zhang Ye had lost confidence in publis.h.i.+ng firms. He thought that he had a rather good relations.h.i.+p with them before things turned sour. When he got banned by the SARFT, they all came to him asking for compensation, stepping on him while he was down. Although Zhang Ye could understand their circ.u.mstances as the SARFT was their overseeing authority, Zhang Ye still felt uncomfortable about how it happened, especially Beijing Education Publis.h.i.+ng Firm. He burned this into his mind knowing that even though they were also in a difficult situation and were just following orders, the compensation of a few million was still too much to ask for! Hur, they had really burned the bridges back then!
And just as he was speaking of the devil.
At a little past 2 PM, a call from the editor-in-chief of Beijing Education Publis.h.i.+ng Firm, Zhang Kui, arrived. When the call was answered, he immediately identified himself.
Zhang Ye laughed and said, ”Why would you be looking for me?”
Zhang Kui was the person who had initiated the compensation for breach of contract. He had burned the bridge back then mainly because the ban by the SARFT had led them to believe that Zhang Ye would have no more future in the entertainment business and would not be able to make a comeback for sure. As a result, his firm had decided to make Zhang Ye liable for most of the compensation terms to offset any losses as they had already printed many copies of Ghost Blows Out the Light when it was forced to be taken off the rack. But it turned out, rather than a loss, their publis.h.i.+ng firm had actually even made a tidy sum on the novel as Ghost Blows Out the Light was very popular. When they asked for the compensation amount, they were actually squeezing as much out of Zhang Ye as they could.
But who could have expected the matter to develop beyond everyone's expectations? Not only did Zhang Ye not disappear from the public's eye after his ban, he even rose in popularity and was active every day up until just two hours ago, when the SARFT finally removed his name from the ban list. This was clearly not something that Zhang Kui could have considered, and if he had done so, he would not have taken such extreme measures back then!
Zhang Kui had thought through several approaches before the call and said with a laugh in his words, ”Teacher Zhang, we probably had some misunderstandings before this. Actually, when we asked for the compensation previously, it was just so that we could answer to our management. You probably understand that we cannot make the decision on a lot of matters just by ourselves. With such strict ban in place, no one in the industry dared to be slow in implementing the measures to enforce upon the banned artists. Hur hur, but now that everything has turned out well for everyone I would like to congratulate you, Teacher Zhang, on your return to the entertainment business. We already expected such an outcome as we know that, with your talents and capabilities, you would come back sooner rather than later. And so, we can now continue working together again.”
Zhang Ye curled up a corner of his mouth. ”Continue working together?”
”Yes.” Zhang Kui continued speaking in his own world of thoughts, ”The 3.5 million compensation previously was just a matter of procedure, but since you've already been unbanned now, we would of course return the fee to you. The firm will re-sign the copyrights to Ghost Blows Out the Light back from you together with your new novel, Legend of Wukong. We will continue working together to promote the new novel well to push it to greater sales and, of course, I will be personally overseeing all of that myself.”
Zhang Ye understood clearly what he meant.
Beijing Education Publis.h.i.+ng Firm wanted the copyright to Legend of Wukong. As long as he sold it to their firm, they would return the compensation fees and get back the copyrights for the simplified Chinese version of Ghost Blows Out the Light. In other words, as long as the copyright to Zhang Ye's new novel were not sold to them, as long as the copyright to Ghost Blows Out the Light was not resold back to them, then the 3.5 million in compensation would not be returned to him!
They were using money to entice Zhang Ye to force him to sign the contract!
Zhang Ye was still wondering when he would settle scores with them, but little did he expect that they would come knocking on his front door so quickly. They even tried to coerce him into a deal? They tried to get their hands on the copyright to his new novel?
Ha!
Zhang Ye said to him in a direct manner, ”Editor Zhang, do you know why I did not even hesitate when I transferred the 3.5 million RMB compensation to you at that time?”
”Eh?” Zhang Kui was taken aback by this question. This question had actually been on their minds all this time and they'd always wondered about it. If it were anyone else, they wouldn't possibly have agreed so quickly to the terms. They either would not agree to pay or just haggle the amount. Never had they encountered someone like Zhang Ye who would pay up without a question.
”Because,” Zhang Ye said, ”The losses that your publis.h.i.+ng firm will be facing soon would greatly exceed that amount! That is the reason why I paid up happily without any hesitation!” This guy had such an vengeful soul! Having been so harshly treated by the Beijing Education Publis.h.i.+ng Firm when Zhang Ye was in the dumps, if he did not return their favor, it would not be his style! After taking a chunk off me, I don't need you to return what was taken! I would let that chunk rot in your stomachs so that you will feel sick forever!
Zhang Kui's face sank, obviously not believing what he had just heard. Make a greater loss? What could they possibly lose? Even if they could not get the copyright for Legend of Wukong, they would just not earn any money from it, so what was there to lose? Hur, what an odd claim!
The call ended.
On the other side.
At Beijing Education Publis.h.i.+ng Firm.
Zhang Kui laughed it off and began his work for the day. He did not take Zhang Ye's words to heart. Even if it was a pity that they could not get the copyright to Legend of Wukong, they would still be able to operate without it.
However, the matter was clearly not as simple as Zhang Kui thought. Little did he expect that Zhang Ye's words would come true and come true so quickly!
An hour later, Beijing Education Publis.h.i.+ng Firm received a rectification notice from the authorities. They also received another, more shocking notice of review!
The whole firm was thrown into a mess immediately!
”How can this be!”
”What? This…”
”Why did this happen?”
More than a dozen published works from the firm had been ordered to be removed from the shelves!
A Widow's Spring.
Milk.
Tang Dazhang's Compilation: Audio and Visual Works.
100 Crosstalk Highlights: Audio and Visual Works.
Etc, etc, etc, all of them were ordered to be removed! Many of the included t.i.tles were newly published works and even included Tang Dazhang's crosstalk compilation which they had just bought the copyright for and spent so much on promotions for. The CDs were already printed and packed but not distributed for sale yet. So how could it be banned just like that? They read through the notice and found out that it was because the content was deemed sensitive and also involved some plagiarized works and forbidden words!
An emergency meeting was convened!
The publis.h.i.+ng firm's upper management was all called to attend!