Witty Wife, Better Life

Chapter 364: Chapter 354 Unexpected Path to Wealth

This meal was the most relaxing and joyful one that William’s family had since they came to China.

Shen Yunfang was responsible for hosting William and his daughter-in-law Lucy, while Adam also stumbled through a conversation with Pangpang, sometimes requiring Shen Yunfang’s assistance. Nevertheless, the two kids never grew tired of it; over the course of the meal, they had already established a deep friendship.

After the meal, the police asked Shen Yunfang to continue helping them until William’s family was safely delivered to their destination.

Shen Yunfang had no objections. During the meal, she, William, and Lucy had gotten along very well; they were good friends.

However, it didn’t take much effort from Shen Yunfang after that. As soon as the group left the restaurant, they saw a young man with an anxious expression on the street, looking around as if searching for something.

When he saw William’s family, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he came running over, almost tripping in his haste.

"Oh, thank God, I have finally found you." These words were spoken in Chinese, "Hello, Mr. William. I am so sorry, I had an emergency at noon and had to step away for a bit. By the time I dealt with it and came back, I could not find you anymore. I was really anxious..."

Shen Yunfang frowned as she listened to him, thinking to herself that he must be some leader’s relative, venturing out as a translator with such subpar English skills; he was truly embarrassing himself internationally.

Since the translator had been found, Li Hongjun and his family were no longer needed, so they handed the situation over to the two police officers. Shen Yunfang bid farewell to William’s family, and Li Hongjun took his whole family back home.

On the way home, Shen Yunfang exclaimed, "I never expected that our family would have such an experience just by going out for some fun this one time."

"It’s a big world full of wonders. If you think about it, it’s not all that strange. Who knows, maybe in the future, when our country becomes more powerful, the streets will be full of blonde-haired, blue-eyed people," Li Hongjun inadvertently spoke the truth.

Shen Yunfang smiled and nodded her head. In the not-too-distant future, it definitely would happen.

The two of them put the incident out of their minds as soon as they got home; it was just a chance encounter, and in principle, they would not have any interactions in the future. After all, they were not on the same level (as far as Shen Yunfang knew, William was the owner of a company in Germany), but unexpectedly, just three days after they had parted, William’s family found Shen Yunfang again.

This time, someone was sent to look for her at the Agricultural University.

"Shen, I am so happy to see you again," Lucy said enthusiastically as she hugged Shen Yunfang.

"Uh, I am very happy to see you all again, too," Shen Yunfang was a bit stunned. Being called out of the classroom to be hugged, one could imagine how many eyes were watching her through their classroom (University classes were usually large, with one classroom accommodating one or two hundred people).

Despite her happiness, Shen Yunfang knew that William and Lucy must have come to her for a reason.

So, in the office generously provided by the department head, William and Lucy explained their purpose of visit.

The origin of it all still lay in that day when Adam and Pangpang became good friends, and when it was time for them to part, Adam gave his new friend Pangpang a small toy car he owned. And Pangpang, having heard his mother say that one should return favors, looked around and could only take out a sketchbook his mother had drawn for him from his pocket and gifted it away.

It was originally a trivial matter among children, but later, at the international friends’ gathering on Monday night, Adam’s gift of the sketchbook happened to catch the eye of a publisher from overseas. After browsing it for a while (he couldn’t understand Chinese, so he was just looking at the pictures), he had an interpreter explain the Chinese meaning to him, and thought that such sketchbooks are very meaningful, and are good teaching materials for children’s learning and enlightenment.

Foreigners take intellectual property very seriously, and although he thought highly of the sketchbook, he would absolutely not copy it after returning home. The first thing he thought of was to ask the author if they were willing to sell the idea.

Of course, what caught the publisher’s eye was the idea, and to be honest, compared with professional work, Shen Yunfang’s drawings still fell somewhat short.

So the publisher approached William, who gladly agreed, happy to be of help to a friend (he considered this a win-win situation for both parties).

And that led to the meeting that took place today.

Upon hearing this, Shen Yunfang was surprised—she had never expected that the comic strips she had casually drawn would be valued by someone, let alone an international friend. Such booklets of comics are common in China and nothing special.

It wasn’t until after talking to the publisher, Joseph, that she learned he was particularly interested in some elements in Shen Yunfang’s sketchbook that were different from traditional painting. It was hard to explain, but Shen Yunfang summarized that, to make it clearer for children, she drew key points very exaggeratedly and mostly used cartoon-style drawing, with text that was as simple and comprehensible as possible. Indeed, what might be commonplace in the future appeared quite novel at the present time.

Joseph’s intention was to purchase the rights to this series of sketchbooks from Shen Yunfang, and if she had more such creative works, he would be very willing to buy them. Shen Yunfang had drawn the Thirty-six Stratagems from "The Art of War" for her child, totaling ten books or ten stratagems.

After listening, Shen Yunfang felt dizzy. Since her arrival in this era, she had considered resuming her old profession and using her abilities to make money, but she never imagined that she would earn money through painting and writing... oh, or it could be called adaptation. It really was an unexpected turn of events.

The decision was significant, and she couldn’t make it alone, so she and Joseph agreed she would have her husband discuss it with him on Zhou Tian (Sunday).

Joseph agreed happily.

After the group of international friends left, the Agricultural University was abuzz; many looked at Shen Yunfang differently, with envy, jealousy, and resentment following their jealousy and irresponsible rumors began to appear.

Shen Yunfang didn’t pay attention to these, although she figured they were probably just calling her a traitor to her country. She had already openly shared the story of her chance encounter with William’s family, but there were still those who let their imaginations run wild, and there was nothing she could do about it.

When Li Hongjun came home on Saturday night, Shen Yunfang told him the whole story and concluded, "I want to sell, but we make decisions together in this family, so I need to know what you think."

Li Hongjun, seeing her sly expression, reached out and gave her a playful rub: "You, with your little schemes, always use them on me. When have I ever opposed anything you wanted to do?"

Shen Yunfang coquettishly clung to his arm and said, "Oh my, I’m just considering that it’s doing business with international friends. You’re a soldier; I wonder if this could cause you trouble. If it’s inappropriate, you must tell me. Actually, whether I sell it or not isn’t so important."