Who Makes the Decisions

By the time Yang Rui was copying out Book Two of New Concept English, students from other schools had begun appearing outside the gates of Xibao Middle School again. Wearing bamboo hats and slippers, they squatted beside the stone benches, heads down as they copied away. Some better-off students stopped students entering and leaving the school, offering to pay a premium for mimeographed copies of New Concept English.

Book One of New Concept English alone ran to three hundred pages. Even after Yang Rui removed the illustrated exercises and other such material, the main text still exceeded 160 pages. Since mimeographing could only print on one side, all that paper brought the cost of Book One to one yuan. Not every student could afford it, either. When the offered price rose to one yuan fifty, quite a few students gritted their teeth and sold their copies.

Wang Guohua immediately told Yang Rui the news and asked, "Should we print New Concept English ourselves? If we sell it for one yuan fifty too, we could make a fifty-percent profit."

Yang Rui did not answer. Instead, he scratched his head and said, "Everything we've put out so far is Book One of New Concept English, right? People are coming to copy even that?"

He had not even finished copying out Book Two yet.

Book One of New Concept English consisted entirely of short sentences, at most reaching the level of simple dialogues and describing pictures. One person would ask, "Where has Henry gone?" and the other would answer, "He might be in his room. I'm not sure."

In later years, never mind middle school students-even the better elementary schools would have finished teaching English at this level before graduation. In Yang Rui's eyes, the real substance of New Concept English lay in Books Two and Three. For students preparing for the Gaokao in particular, Book Three was the most valuable.

As for Book One, Yang Rui had only wanted everyone to familiarize themselves with the teaching approach of New Concept English first. This was not an era when you could walk into any bookstore and find a roomful of study aids. Quite a few students had never even seen multiple-choice questions. Without a gradual progression, they might well freeze up.

Wang Guohua did not understand Yang Rui's puzzlement, however. "Before this, we'd only heard people talking about how good New Concept English was. We'd never even seen it around here. After you brought it out, I thought it was especially good too. Why wouldn't they copy it?"

"You know New Concept English has four books, right? I wrote 'Book One' on the cover," Yang Rui explained.

"I know." Wang Guohua nodded, then looked at Yang Rui in confusion.

Yang Rui asked again, "Don't you think it's too easy?"

"Oh, the beginning is a little easy, but the sentences get a bit longer toward the end." As he spoke, Wang Guohua lost confidence and asked, "Have I got something wrong?"

"No, no. As long as it suits you." Yang Rui patted Wang Guohua on the shoulder and thought, Looks like I was the one who got it wrong. Wang Guohua scores around thirty in English, which is average for the repeaters' class. Students in other classes who score in the teens or single digits really are suited to Book One of New Concept English.

Yang Rui had, in fact, still overestimated the English proficiency of students in this era. Leaving everything else aside, English education in later years began in elementary school, whereas Wang Guohua and the others had only begun learning it around 1980. They also lacked suitable teachers and could only mark English words with pinyin to read them aloud.

By now, Wang Guohua had only studied English for two years in total, and for most of that time he had been left to his own devices. His level was even somewhat below that of an eighth grader in later years. He could score thirty only because the English paper on the Gaokao was easy, not because his proficiency was that high.

English proficiency was low in schools and even lower in society at large. Customs positions, for example, which were highly sought after in civil service examinations, frequently had questions such as "Write out the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet" on their recruitment exams in the 1980s. Even so, many people still could not answer and cursed furiously, "I'm Chinese! Why should I learn English?"

Realizing the situation was different, Yang Rui changed his thinking as well. He rested his chin on his hand for a while, then said, "Go down the mountain this afternoon. Head to the county town and find my cousin Duan Hang."

"The captain of the Criminal Police Unit?" Wang Guohua was still a little afraid when it came to the police.

"Didn't you say we should print New Concept English? I originally wanted to wait until Book Three before printing it. Since Book One is suitable, we'll start now."

"Then why do we need to see him?"

"Have you forgotten that Yan Laosi found a printing plant before? I already asked my cousin to look into it. Go down the mountain now and tell him we want to use the printing plant to print books. Ask him to figure something out." Printing plants were all state-owned enterprises. Strangers who came to print publications needed letters of introduction. Through some unknown connections, Yan Laosi had found a suitable printing plant willing to print test papers for him on the sly. Such a resource was extremely hard to come by, which was why Yang Rui had wasted no time in bringing in family help to take him down.

It could be said that the printing plant was the key factor in Yan Laosi's downfall.

Still, their willingness to print test papers for Yan Laosi did not mean they would print for anyone else. Yang Rui had therefore asked his cousin to make further inquiries. Even if he had no results by now, he presumably had some leads.

Daunted, Wang Guohua said, "I hear printing plants are really expensive. If we ask them to print books, what happens if we can't sell them?"

"If mimeographed textbooks sell, why wouldn't letterpress ones?"

"That's different. With mimeographing, we can print as many as we want. The machines at a printing plant are so fast..."

"It's precisely that speed that makes it cheap. We can mimeograph a few thousand sheets a day, but that makes fewer than a hundred books. It's not even as profitable as test papers. With letterpress printing, though, we can print as many as we can sell." Yang Rui paused. Seeing Wang Guohua's awkward expression, he asked, "You still don't seem very optimistic?"

"I just think it's too expensive. Since it's a factory, they'd have to print a few thousand copies at a time, wouldn't they? Wouldn't that cost a few thousand yuan? Look at our school. There aren't even a hundred people who can spend one yuan on a book. Even counting students in the county town and surrounding townships, selling a thousand copies would be uncertain. Besides, plenty of students would rather copy books than buy them. A book costing over a yuan is still pretty expensive." Wang Guohua scratched his head as he rattled all this off, then chuckled twice and said, "If you think it'll work, I agree too. I just think we should be a little cautious."

Yang Rui was somewhat surprised. He had not expected Wang Guohua to be so sensitive to costs and prices.

If Wang Guohua felt this way, the other members of the Rui Study Group presumably had similar thoughts.

Moreover, the other members of the Rui Study Group probably would not support him as much as Wang Guohua did.

Yang Rui pondered for a moment, then said outright, "The printing will use the Rui Study Group's funds. Since you're not optimistic about it, let's discuss it."

"How?"

"Gather all the Rui Study Group members and reserve members. We'll discuss it and vote on whether to print."

Wang Guohua was startled. "Then what if the vote is against printing?"

It was fine if there was no vote, but once a vote was held, losing it would greatly diminish his prestige.

"If we don't print, we don't print. I'll listen to everyone. This will also be a good chance to improve the Rui Study Group's internal procedures." Yang Rui wanted to use the opportunity to put the Rui Study Group in order. After all, things were going smoothly within the group now, and nobody would try anything strange. But as the members grew older and the Rui Study Group accumulated more, dissenting voices would inevitably arise. Rather than responding passively when that happened, it was better to have a rehearsal now.

Yang Rui himself was very optimistic about New Concept English. This was not a matter of judgment; history had proved it.

However, the more copies a printing plant produced in a single run, the lower the cost. Although Yang Rui hoped to print as many as possible, the others in the Rui Study Group did not necessarily think the same way.

As it stood, the Rui Study Group could accumulate a thousand yuan in funds every fortnight, more than Xibao Middle School's operating budget. Yang Rui was not at all surprised that some members might develop a miserly mindset.

That was determined by their differing life experiences and backgrounds.

Wang Guohua lowered his head and thought for a while, but then said, "That's not fair. Even if we vote, only members should vote. Reserve members aren't members. They shouldn't take part."

There were currently only four full members: Wang Guohua, Cao Baoming, Huang Ren, and Su Yi. Even Liu Shan was still a reserve member. If voting was restricted to full members, any proposal Yang Rui made would pass.

Yang Rui had his own aims, so he shook his head firmly and said with righteous conviction, "I didn't lay out detailed voting procedures before because I wanted to consult everyone. After all, the Rui Study Group belongs to all of us. Everyone's opinions should be heard. This time, let's have the reserve members participate too, and invite those actively seeking membership to sit in."

Watching Yang Rui's eyes, Wang Guohua said, "Whatever anyone else thinks, I still think the decisions you make are best."

"Even if I'm to make all the decisions in the future, everyone still has to vote to agree to that," Yang Rui said meaningfully.