NOVPUB
Chapter 406: Chapter 396 Huge Profit
Shen Yunfang’s days returned to normal after Li Xianglian took the children back to her hometown and Li Hongjun went to report to the Party school.
Every morning, she rose early to walk Taxue, then took care of the children at home, getting them up, feeding them, and sending them to the kindergarten. After that, she hurried to her classes. At noon, she would rush home for a quick meal, then back to school for afternoon classes. After picking up the children in the afternoon, she’d spend odd days teaching English at the school with the children, and even days taking them home. In the evenings, she played with the children, told them stories, and in her spare moments, continued to adapt "Transformers". On weekends when Li Hongjun returned, she had one more person to take care of. But she, the children, and Taxue still looked forward to the days when Li Hongjun would come home, and then, whenever they could, the family of five would explore the streets and alleys of the Capital.
The days passed in an orderly fashion until December of the seventh or eighth year, when Shen Yunfang finally saw the long-awaited news in the newspapers.
In December 1978, the Party convened the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Third Central Committee, a meeting of profound significance in the history of our Party, an epoch-making turnaround. It was a meeting that built on the past to create the future, and one that marked the beginning of the reform and opening up policies.
At this meeting, our great leaders pointed out that we should gradually forge a path for building socialism with Chinese characteristics, thereby unveiling the beginning of reform and opening up.
From a planned economy to a market economy, it would enable China to soar once again.
After the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Third Central Committee, Shen Yunfang took every opportunity to stroll the streets, but to her disappointment, she did not see the emergence of small vendors in the streets and alleys of the Capital. In fairness, she herself didn’t dare to be the first one to brave new waters—how could she expect others to take the lead?
Best to wait patiently for a while, she believed, the day she could make money was not far off.
While she didn’t see the domestic financial opportunity she had been hoping for, Shen Yunfang did see US dollars flowing in from abroad.
Joseph truly lived up to his reputation as a successful businessman and publisher.
In the past two months, he had organized a team back in his country solely in charge of publishing the "Transformers" comic series. Of course, the content in the already published "Transformers" was still what Shen Yunfang had provided him, but the packaging had changed significantly.
How to put it—the packaging was lavish, and the entire work was in color, from the inside out, making the comics appear much more upscale.
Joseph had good insight and capability. He targeted the markets in economically developed countries like the United States, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. He spared no expense over the past two months to promote it with overwhelming advertising. When "Transformers" was officially put on the shelves last week, sales were unprecedentedly booming in every store.
The initially planned 100,000 copies sold out in just a few days, and many people were left without a copy, prompting Joseph to rush to print a second and third edition.
The second issue of "Transformers" was released a week later, and its sales were even better than the first.
Subsequently, each week Joseph’s publishing house would release a new issue of "Transformers". The first print always had a bottom line of 300,000 copies, and they even accepted pre-orders.
Because "Transformers" was priced rather high, the first issue sold almost 430,000 copies, and after deducting expenses for publishing, promotion, and so forth, Shen Yunfang pocketed 350,000 US dollars.
Grinning like a satisfied cat with the 350,000 US dollars in hand, Shen Yunfang thought that the fee for one issue was 350,000 dollars; thus, once the hundredth issue of "Transformers" was released, she would become a multimillionaire. And when "Transformers" 2, 3, 4 and so on were published, wouldn’t she become a billionaire? Roar, roar, roar, roar!
Who would have thought, in her previous life, she struggled half her lifetime and only squeezed into the multimillionaire’s club in her fifties. This life, she could potentially become a billionaire before reaching thirty.
This really was an era filled with opportunities and challenges, where only those who deeply understood the world and accurately grasped the times could sail against the wind and arrive at the shores of success.
Comrade Li Hongjun was shocked by his wife’s speed of accumulating wealth; the previous amount of over ten thousand had already amazed him (he had fired guns and killed people but had never seen so much money), and this time it was even more—directly three hundred and fifty thousand US Dollars. When Jiang Wei was handling it for him, he was so surprised that he asked if his wife was dealing in arms, wondering how else she could get so much money so suddenly.
If he hadn’t been watching the whole process from start to finish, he would have thought the same.
In the end, Li Hongjun instructed Shen Yunfang to put the money in the space and take it out only when needed, having so much money in front of him made even this man with a big heart feel unease.
Shen Yunfang happily accepted the money, thinking that these US Dollars could appreciate in value in a few years. In her spare time, she also mailed ten episodes of "Transformers" to Joseph, roughly two and a half months’ worth.
After that incident, the end of the semester quickly approached. Last semester, because the school was relocating, the final exams were moved to the beginning of this semester. There had been an exam at the start of the semester, but for some reason, there was no news about the exam results from the school or the class, so it could be said that this semester’s final exam was everyone’s first official one.
All the students were eager, ready to show their ambition.
Shen Yunfang also studied hard. She had no intention of being the top student but didn’t want to be the last either. So, books still needed to be read, and lessons still needed to be learned. However, despite the intense pressure of final exam revision, Shen Yunfang’s evening English lessons continued as normal amidst the collective protests of her classmates. She deeply admired her classmates’ enthusiasm for learning and their hard-working spirit. Although it was tough, she could only comply with everyone’s wishes.
Finally, the first official final exam at North Agricultural University began as scheduled in January of ’79, with nearly seven thousand students from two consecutive years burying their heads in their papers. At that moment, apart from the rustling sounds of writing, no other noise could be heard in the school.
After three days of exams, Shen Yunfang said goodbye to her classmates and left with Ma Liang.
Over this holiday, Joseph was still releasing new "Transformers" comics, so during this break, Ma Liang and her senior sister had to continue working for her. To make contact easier during the holiday, Shen Yunfang decided to bring Ma Liang home with her to familiarize him with the place.
As a result, they ran into Aunt Sun from across the hall at the stairway entrance.
"Oh, Xiaoshen, is this a relative of yours?" Aunt Sun looked Ma Liang up and down with her eyes, then started to survey Shen Yunfang as if she had discovered something astonishing.
Shen Yunfang was annoyed by this neighbor, who loved to take advantage of small conveniences and enjoyed gossiping about others.
She would knock on the door for trivial things like borrowing salt or a lighter, but she never returned anything. The first time Li Hongjun came over and she saw him, she had the same look in her eyes, and shortly after, the rumor that Shen Yunfang was unfaithful began to spread around the family quarters. It was only after it was confirmed that Li Hongjun was indeed Shen Yunfang’s partner that the rumor gradually disappeared.
Shen Yunfang later learned that it was Aunt Sun who had started spreading the rumor.
"No, he’s my classmate. Aunt Sun, I can’t chat with you right now. My classmate came over to get some books, and I need to hurry and get them for him. He’s in a rush to get home." Shen Yunfang said with a smile and signaled for Ma Liang to follow her.
Once upstairs, Shen Yunfang did not keep Ma Liang for a long visit, handed him the tasks for the near future, and saw him downstairs, where she once again encountered Aunt Sun standing by the door, probably waiting specifically to see when her "classmate" would come down.
