“Alright, stop apologizing to me all the time. Let’s get to business. You’ve quit Happy Children Magazine now—what are your plans? Or rather, what arrangements do you have for me? I doubt you wrote to ask me out just to apologize without any plan in mind, right?”
Listening to Qiao Shu say that, Weng Kanya also perked up and stopped saying those useless words. Instead, she reorganized her words and then said seriously.
“Teacher Qiao, according to the Reader Survey Report, the reason the sales of Happy Children Magazine’s children’s magazine rose for these two issues was largely because of you. And since you have this kind of ability, getting the highest rate of thirty yuan per thousand words is absolutely no problem.”
“I originally thought that even if we didn’t submit to Happy Children Magazine anymore, I could take this Reader Survey Report to knock on the doors of other magazines for you and have them invite you to write at thirty yuan per thousand words. But I didn’t expect… that shameless Zhu Hao would actually play the victim first! He framed us instead! Now the local children’s magazines aren’t willing to accept your manuscripts at a high rate per thousand words. The highest one only offered six yuan per thousand words…”
At this point, Weng Kanya wanted to apologize again.
However, Qiao Shu saw her intention to apologize and stopped her ahead of time. “Alright, I believe since you came to find me today, you must have a solution in mind.”
She was really fed up with Weng Kanya’s habit of apologizing at the drop of a hat. To be honest, this young girl hadn’t done anything wrong to her.
After all, even without her, as a new author submitting manuscripts, the rate per thousand words would have risen bit by bit, not jumped up all at once.
The only place where she had let her down was not telling her right away when she first learned her pay rate couldn’t rise, so she could choose to submit to another magazine instead of stubbornly sticking with one that didn’t value her.
“Actually, actually, I don’t even know if this counts as a good solution…”
Seeing how direct Qiao Shu was, Weng Kanya—who had already prepared her final plan at home and practiced her persuasive words countless times—ended up shrinking back a bit.
After all, she wasn’t sure if her plan would succeed.
If it didn’t… wouldn’t she be delaying Qiao Shu again…
“Whether it’s good or not, I’ll judge for myself once you say it, so go ahead.”
Qiao Shu had a good impression of this young woman, Weng Kanya.
Although the young woman had some of her own little schemes, she wasn’t a bad person, and she truly treated her with all her heart. So Qiao Shu thought it would be a good choice to have her as her editor from now on.
“Then, then I’ll say it!”
Under Qiao Shu’s encouragement, Weng Kanya took a deep breath, then took out another stack of documents from her briefcase and placed it in front of Qiao Shu.
“This is the plan for my final proposal. You can read it while I explain the proposal to you.”
Qiao Shu looked at the proposal placed before her and felt even more favorably toward Weng Kanya, who was so methodical and thoroughly prepared.
It seemed she had come fully prepared this time.
But when she saw the title of the proposal, she was stunned.
“Start our own fairy tale publication???”
Qiao Shu widened her eyes and looked incredulously at the document in her hand, then at the nervous and still very green Weng Kanya.
“Y-Yes, we can start our own magazine and create a fairy tale publication centered entirely on you…”
Weng Kanya, who had been nervous facing such a great beauty like Qiao Shu, gradually became smoother as she recited the lines she had practiced these past few days, and she grew less tense.
After all, this final plan was something she had pulled several all-nighters for, doing all her homework to shape it!
“Handling the magazine startup will be entirely up to me. My family has generations in the publishing world, so it’s a family legacy. Things like starting a publishing house—I can borrow channels from my family’s elders’ friends, so it’s not difficult at all.
“And you just need to be in charge of writing the stories for our fairy tale publication.
“Of course, this publishing house will revolve around you. After all, your fairy tales are the core of our magazine. Without you, the magazine couldn’t exist…”
Watching Weng Kanya talk animatedly with shining eyes, Qiao Shu was truly shocked by her idea.
She hadn’t expected this shy girl, who had been tiptoeing around and apologizing everywhere just moments ago, to become so confident and bold when speaking about her proposal.
Just because of her alone, to create a magazine and start a fairy tale publication…
“Editor Weng, you really know how to think big. Not to mention starting a magazine for me, even just launching a fairy tale publication for me… Do you think I have that many fairy tale stories? If it’s just me writing, how long would it take? Good stories need inspiration, you know.”
Qiao Shu’s words didn’t discourage Weng Kanya at all. Her face still showed composure and confidence, making it clear she had put tremendous effort into this plan.
“Teacher Qiao, don’t worry about the stories. Actually, it’s pretty simple. At the start, our fairy tale publication doesn’t need too many stories. As long as the quality is good, the number doesn’t matter. Here’s what I think…”
Listening to Weng Kanya’s steady explanation, Qiao Shu realized that Weng Kanya was truly serious and dedicated about starting this fairy tale publication.
Moreover, her plan was practically perfect, with very detailed survey reports and ample preparation. It was clear at a glance that the feasibility was extremely high.
“I’m just a little editor who’s only recently entered the fairy tale magazine world, so I don’t know many fairy tale authors and might not find high-quality ones. So for the early stage of our fairy tale publication, we don’t need other authors—just you is enough. If your early works are few, we can start with a fairy tale periodical, mainly featuring your fairy tales: a few short stories and one long story…”
As she listened to Weng Kanya’s explanation and looked at the proposal plan, Qiao Shu thought… Weng Kanya might be young, but she had real ability.
Even without her, a smart, hardworking, and bold girl like Weng Kanya would surely succeed in the future and carve out a place in publishing.
So she couldn’t help but sigh.
“Editor Weng, your previous magazine losing a talent like you is really a big loss.”
Weng Kanya, who had been talking so much her mouth was dry, suddenly felt full of energy upon hearing her goddess praise her like this!!!
“Teacher Qiao, so, so does that mean you agree to my proposal? You’ll partner with me to start the magazine and create your own fairy tale publication???”
The girl who had been so confident and bold talking about her expertise became nervous and shy again facing Qiao Shu.
“Mm, I think your proposal works. We can collaborate.”
Qiao Shu smiled and nodded. Although she didn’t know much about publishing houses or magazines.
But Weng Kanya seemed truly professional, and her proposal plan was really well done.
Even as a layman, she thought it was great and profitable.
“However, you still need to make a detailed cooperation plan. If it’s just the two of us starting this magazine, how do we calculate our investments? How do we split the profits? And how do we handle my manuscript fees.”
Although Qiao Shu found Weng Kanya reliable, things that needed clarifying upfront still had to be said clearly.
After all, if they didn’t settle it now, any disputes over profit sharing later would be ugly.
“I, I think this magazine is yours alone! The profits are all yours. Just pay me a salary to be the chief editor…”
Weng Kanya, who had thought of everything else, hadn’t considered investments or profit shares.
In her eyes, without Qiao Shu, this plan was just a paper tiger—poking it would deflate it completely, impossible to pull off.
So in her view, of course the magazine was Qiao Shu’s.
Seeing Weng Kanya lower her stance so much, completely unlike her scheming self before they met, Qiao Shu found it a bit amusing.
How was this Weng Kanya sometimes clever, sometimes seeming a bit silly.
But she was pretty cute. Partnering with her meant at least no worry about betrayal or deception.
After all, she just wanted to quietly write novels and make money, not actually manage a magazine.
So—
“How about this: we both invest in the magazine together as partners, and we split the magazine’s dividends according to our investment proportions…”
Before Qiao Shu finished speaking, Weng Kanya protested.
“How can that be! Teacher Qiao, that would be too much of a loss for you!”
“Let me finish. Although the magazine is a joint investment between us as partners, the fairy tale publication centered on me— all its profits go to me. You get no share from the fairy tale publication, just the magazine’s salary—of course, the editor-in-chief’s salary.”
As soon as Qiao Shu finished, Weng Kanya’s eyes widened in shock. She never expected Qiao Shu to make her the magazine’s editor-in-chief!!!
“Me? Editor-in-chief?”
Weng Kanya pointed at her nose in disbelief, saying in utter shock.
“Yes, you’re the magazine’s editor-in-chief. But in the early stage, no salary for you—just volunteer work. And same for me, no manuscript fees upfront. Once our fairy tale publication starts profiting, we’ll backpay your salary and my fees.”
Qiao Shu nodded calmly. This was something she had thought through carefully.
She didn’t want to take advantage of others, but she didn’t want others taking advantage of her either.
So the earnings from her own fairy tale publication had to be entirely hers!
As for the magazine… once it developed thanks to her fairy tale publication, with Weng Kanya’s abilities, she would surely launch other publications. So splitting the magazine dividends by investment proportion was completely fair! No one lost out~!
Weng Kanya didn’t catch on to any of Qiao Shu’s calculations!
At this moment, she was completely immersed in the bliss of being made editor-in-chief and couldn’t extricate herself~!
At that time, no one knew that in the future, a fairy tale publication with huge influence domestically and even internationally was born in this ordinary teahouse.
And at the very start, this renowned fairy tale publication and magazine of the future, with its great influence, had only two employees: one editor-in-chief handling all sorts of odd jobs—Weng Kanya—and one writer doubling as a simple illustrator—Qiao Shu.
Yet it was these two people who turned the magazine into the industry’s number one!