Anticipating the Enemy

Guo Yuan hesitated for a moment, but chose not to leave outright. Things like this would probably happen often in the future. He could dodge the first day, but not the fifteenth. He would treat this as practice in advance.

With that in mind, Guo Yuan openly sat down on another reclining chair. A wooden tea table stood between the two of them. Secretary Xiao Su came over and brewed tea on it. Judging by how practiced she was, she had clearly done this plenty of times before.

Guo Yuan could not understand what was being sung onstage, nor was he in the mood to listen. He simply took out his phone and started browsing Tieba.

Tieba was no longer as glorious as it had once been. Those major forums from back then were nowhere near as active, while the popular ones mostly churned out stale, low-effort content.

But the post recommended on Tieba's homepage today was rather interesting.

It was from Sun Tieba, and the protagonist was the poster's boss. The poster said his boss was in his early forties and ran a wholesale grains company, earning several million a year.

When men got money, they were liable to go bad. The poster's boss had found himself a mistress behind his wife's back.

After a while, the poster's boss grew tired of the mistress, so he found a second one.

Then the poster's boss began running back and forth between the three women.

But one day, the second mistress suddenly got pregnant—and the first mistress found out.

So the first mistress went and beat the second mistress until she miscarried. When the poster's boss arrived and discovered the miscarriage, he slapped the first mistress several times across the face, rupturing her cochlea.

Before long, the first mistress's brother learned about it. To stand up for his sister, he went after the poster's boss and beat him to a pulp. He was currently being resuscitated at the hospital.

The poster heard from a colleague at the hospital that they had contacted the boss's wife to sign the surgical consent form, but she said over the phone that she had to stay with the child while they did homework and could not come to the hospital. She agreed to stop treatment.

Guo Yuan had initially thought it was just a made-up story for attention, but in the next second, the narrator's voice sounded in his mind:

This really happened. And it was the wife who anonymously told the first mistress about the second mistress's pregnancy. She was the real mastermind behind it all!

The moment he heard the narrator's voice, Guo Yuan felt a chill run down his back. So the real person involved was right here!

By the time Guo Yuan finished reading the post, the performance had ended, and applause rose from below the stage.

Only then did Wang Qiu sit up from his reclining chair. Turning to Guo Yuan, he asked, "Mr. Guo, you don't enjoy opera?"

"Yeah. I don't like opera at all. What young person these days likes this stuff? This place is pretty boring to me." Guo Yuan put away his phone and replied expressionlessly.

Wang Qiu froze at that. Guo Yuan had put it far too bluntly. On the surface, he was voicing his dissatisfaction with this place to Wang Qiu, but there was also a hint of indirect mockery in it.

Wang Qiu was a little dumbfounded. Were young people nowadays really this lacking in social awareness?

Still, Wang Qiu was an old hand in Jianghu, so he would not get angry over something so minor. He chuckled and said, "It seems Mr. Guo doesn't enjoy spending much time with an old man like me!

"Then I won't beat around the bush. Mr. Guo, I'm rather interested in your novel and would like to buy its film and television adaptation rights. Would you be interested in selling?"

"Of course I'm interested. Unlike you, Manager Wang, with your successful career, I'm short on money right now. Nothing could be better for me than turning my novel into cash."

"Since Mr. Guo is interested, then we can continue our discussion. I like to put the unpleasant words first. Domestic adaptations these days all emphasize major IPs. The more famous a novel is, the more it will naturally sell for.

"Mr. Guo, the quality of your work is unquestionably excellent, but your popularity is far too low. So the price is destined not to be very high."

What Wang Qiu said was half true and half false. The market conditions he described were for online IPs; physical books had another set of procedures. He said it this way to drive down the price.

Guo Yuan curled his lip. This was what people meant by an old fox.

First, he had tried to establish dominance when they met. Now, he was using the market prices of online IPs to lower Guo Yuan's expectations for his work.

"Mr. Guo, to be honest, I know you're also selling the film and television rights to this novel over in Japan. We're both Chinese, so the terms I offer will definitely be better than theirs. You can rest assured of that.

"You can call your lawyer or agent in Japan right now and ask what price the television station there quoted you. I'll add ten percent to it. Let's make friends—what do you say?"

The old fox's third move was to play the emotional card. He claimed they were compatriots, but compatriots were exactly who he was trying to fleece. The normal price for the work was twice the television station's offer. If the old fox added ten percent and Guo Yuan sold, he would lose everything.

Guo Yuan was extremely displeased, but his expression did not change. "Manager Wang, I personally would certainly prefer to work with people from our own country, but all the rights to my work have been authorized to Lawyer Hu over there. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to make a decision without going through him. I'll definitely need to discuss it with him before making a decision."

"Of course you should discuss it with Lawyer Hu, but we can still settle the general framework first!

"After all, the rights to the book are in your hands. Lawyer Hu is merely your agent." Manager Wang calmly persuaded him.

The old fox wanted him to sign a letter of intent. Once he did, the old fox and the Japanese television station could use it to keep other Japanese entertainment companies that were negotiating with Lawyer Hu out of the picture. Then the only choices left to him would be them, and they could manipulate the price however they wanted.

"Manager Wang, do you want to sign a letter of intent first?" After hearing the narrator's words, Guo Yuan asked bluntly.

Manager Wang had not expected Guo Yuan to ask so directly. But since Guo Yuan had asked, Manager Wang naturally would not back down. He nodded without hesitation. "Signing a letter of intent would benefit both sides.

"Once the letter of intent is signed, we will definitely acquire the film and television rights to Mr. Guo's work. All that remains afterward is to negotiate the price.

"You won't have to worry anymore about selling the adaptation rights to your work, and we can arrange resources ahead of time and prepare for filming and promotion. Why not?"

At that point, Guo Yuan suddenly no longer wanted to play along with Manager Wang. He smiled and said, "Manager Wang, are you in such a hurry to sign a letter of intent with me because you want to shut out anyone else interested in buying my novel?"

The smile on Manager Wang's face stiffened. Clearly, he had not expected Guo Yuan to have guessed what he was thinking.

Wang Qiu attributed Guo Yuan's ability to see through him to Lawyer Hu having briefed him in advance. At the same time, Wang Qiu wondered whether some other publisher or company had already approached Guo Yuan first.