Chapter 143: Two-Pronged Preparation

Donglai Magazine is quite similar in business scope to ours, both being published in the format of fiction magazines. It is the largest magazine publishing house in the entire Lihua County. Its readership spans the entire surrounding area of Lihua County, and I heard that every issue has a circulation of at least over thirty thousand copies, Wang Mengzi explained.

In other words, the immense potential of our magazine publishing house made them feel threatened, and that is why they stirred up that so-called Director Sun to strangle us?

Zhang Ye was beyond furious.

How could such a thing happen?

Just because they are incompetent themselves, they want to crush a magazine that performs better than theirs?

This method is simply sickening.

At this thought, Zhang Ye felt so depressed he almost wanted to vomit blood.

Let us go. What else can we do now? We can only go and plead with Director Sun to see if he can loosen his grip, Wang Mengzi said helplessly.

Now that Tianmeng Magazine had its throat choked, no matter how much unwillingness and anger she harbored in her heart, she had to resolve this matter first.

Otherwise, not only would Fantasy Youth face suspension of publication, but their reputation would also suffer a heavy blow. After all, they had received subscription orders from over seven thousand, nearly eight thousand readers. Although those would certainly be refunded later so the readers would not suffer any losses, the heartfelt passion of readers who loved Fantasy Youth would inevitably be betrayed.

And they could never allow such a thing to happen. Even if there was only the slimmest of hopes, they had to fight for it.

The situation has not yet reached a point where it cannot be resolved, so you do not need to worry, Zhang Ye comforted, a trace of cold light flashing in his eyes.

Then, he continued: Look at how late it is now. Director Sun must have already gotten off work. Even if we went over right now, we would not find anyone. How about tomorrow? Tomorrow, I will accompany you there.

Seeing Wang Mengzi nod, Zhang Ye pulled her back inside the magazine office.

Editor-in-Chief Xu, issue the notice that the magazine office will operate as normal. Proceed with printing what needs to be printed and organizing what needs to be organized. We will resolve this matter. Currently, the editorial team had also begun organizing manuscripts for the second issue in preparation for the next publication. This could not be stopped; otherwise, even if the printing presses were running at full capacity later, they would not be able to churn out that many copies in time.

As for printing, the current magazine office was still somewhat weak. They did not dare to purchase too many printing presses, as those were certainly not cheap. Of course, the primary reason was that Zhang Ye did not want to endure the condescending attitudes of other printing houses ever again.

The News and Publication Bureau... Zhang Ye sat in his office chair and rubbed his clean-shaven chin.

It seems Han Xingchen works at the News and Publication Bureau! Zhang Ye suddenly recalled the elderly Han Sheng he had saved yesterday. When his son was introducing himself at the time, it seemed he had mentioned that he worked at the News and Publication Bureau.

Perhaps we can pull some strings! Zhang Ye did not expect the other party to be a high-ranking official, but as long as he was someone within the same system, he believed it would be much easier to talk to than an outsider like himself.

With this thought, he made up his mind.

Tomorrow, it was time to go visit the elderly Han Sheng.

...

Cousin, how did things go? Inside a private room of a restaurant, a flushed, heavy-set man raised a wine glass, drank it with immense satisfaction, and looked toward the bald-headed middle-aged man seated at the head of the table.

This middle-aged man was rather thin and wore glasses, the light reflecting off them shimmering with a sense of authority.

Barring any accidents, Tianmeng Magazine will have to close its doors in three days, the middle-aged man smiled, a strange look flashing in his eyes.

Having climbed to his current position after more than a dozen years, he particularly relished the feeling of controlling other people's destinies. This made him feel that this was what life was truly about, and this was the manifestation of power that someone in a superior position ought to possess.

What a pity, the middle-aged man muttered under his breath. What he pitied was not Tianmeng Magazine, but the owner of the magazine, Wang Mengzi.

Wang Mengzi's beautiful face, curvaceous figure, and the unknowingly emanating frail temperament all naturally evoked a desire to protect her. When he accidentally bumped into her on a previous occasion, he had actually taken a fancy to her. It was only because he had been busy with matters recently that he had delayed taking action.

He had not expected that as soon as he finished his work, his cousin would come looking for him, saying he wanted to cause trouble for her. After all, he was not the kind of man who lost his wits at the sight of a woman; otherwise, he would not have reached his current position. Therefore, weighing the pros and cons, he decided to help anyway.

Good, I will thank my cousin in advance here, the man said, pushing a thick envelope forward.

Hmm, I will accept this item. However, that Wang Mengzi has no connection to you whatsoever; why do you want to ruin them? The middle-aged man skillfully slipped the envelope into his jacket pocket and asked casually.

Blame it only on the fact that her Tianmeng Magazine developed too quickly. In Lihua County, there can only be one leader. They have already threatened me, Zhao Qian said with a flicker in his eyes.

The development of Tianmeng Magazine was simply too fast. Upon issuing its inaugural debut, it received seven to eight thousand subscription orders—a full quarter of their Donglai Magazine. If it were allowed to continue developing, it probably would not take long before they squeezed Donglai Magazine right out of the market.

In his eyes, this was absolutely unacceptable. Moreover, the boss of the affiliated Donglai Culture Co., Ltd. would never tolerate such a thing happening either. For the sake of his own future and to preserve Donglai Magazine's hegemony in Lihua County, he had no choice but to resort to such dark maneuvers.

Anyway, this was not the first time he had done such a thing.

Furthermore, the most crucial point was that the business scope of Tianmeng Magazine was similar to that of his Donglai Magazine. Both were fiction serialization magazines, and both targeted the adolescent youth market. Once Fantasy Youth, published by Tianmeng Magazine, grew stronger, it would inevitably squeeze and reduce their own living space. When that happened, not only would the hegemony of the Lihua County magazine industry shift, but Donglai Magazine's sales would also shrink. If the superiors blamed him for this, his position would be in jeopardy.

Therefore, whenever any magazine showed signs of surpassing them, he never hesitated to suppress it. It was just that this time, due to Tianmeng Magazine's rapid growth, the methods had become somewhat more intense.

I am telling you, things like this should be done as little as possible. Growing stronger yourself is the ultimate truth. We are all in the same line of work; pushing people to the absolute limit can sometimes be quite troublesome, Director Sun glanced at Zhao Qian and offered a word of warning, given their familial ties.

Rest assured, Cousin, I understand. The model of Tianmeng Magazine this time is still quite successful. We will subsequently make revisions based on this, which will surely boost our sales, Zhao Qian smiled and nodded, though a different light flashed in his eyes.

Toward this cousin of his, he did not hold as much respect and friendliness as appeared on the surface. Because of the relationship between their parents, the two families actually harbored a minor grievance between them. Besides, seeing that even his own relative charged him such exorbitant sums of money, resentment naturally brewed in his heart and left him feeling unbalanced.

Therefore, while enlisting Sun Zhenghua this time around, he had also taken other actions and prepared a backup plan.