CHAPTER 114: CHAPTER 113: MAKE IT UP YOURSELF

It has been ten days since Yin Minghong met with Yin Yinyin, and today the newspaper finally officially opens for business. Mu Qingmei has also finally started working — in fact, those who were hired have been working for several days already, but it took until now to finish hiring everyone.

At 10 o’clock in the morning, the third floor of the newspaper office was converted into a large conference room. The newspaper staff sat in designated seats, each wearing a badge indicating their position.

Though it’s a newly established small newspaper, the departmental setup is rather formal, divided into News, Commentary, Culture, Editorial, Distribution, and Printing departments. The Printing department members are not present, and naturally, the Editorial department has the most staff: text editors, art editors, proofreaders, typesetters. In this era when everything still relies on manual efforts, the Editorial department is almost equivalent to physical labor in intellectual work, requiring a collaborative division of labor.

There is also a finance accountant, which was naturally arranged by the Jing Family and not open for external recruitment.

Mu Qingmei was naturally hired, and her current position is ’Culture Department Junior Editor’ — though she is indeed a junior editor, naming the position like this is a bit too strange, isn’t it!?

This naming is definitely Jing Zhengwei’s bad taste, he really doesn’t respect people!

Since reading that exam piece full of malice yet brimming with righteousness, Mu Qingmei faintly realized that Jing Zhengwei is a cultural person among merchants, a rogue among cultural people, a privileged heir among rogues — arrogant, presumptuous, full of superiority, clearly someone who has never been beaten!

After observing for a week, Mu Qingmei discovered a major difference between Youth Daily and other newspapers — setting aside the Editorial department as the laborious department, in other newspapers, the News and Commentary departments have the most members, but Youth Daily has the most members in the Culture department, with only two people in the News and Commentary departments combined — one each in both departments!

Just from the job distribution, Mu Qingmei knows that Youth Daily is definitely not aiming to publish a current affairs newspaper. Current affairs newspapers rely most on timeliness, which requires a lot of news reporters and commentary editors to sustain, and having only reporters is not enough; reporters also need informants to reach any news site at the first moment, like "Xuanzhu Daily," which is a current affairs newspaper.

The emphasis on culture over news indicates that Youth Daily aims to publish thematic culture-oriented journals to attract attention by publishing themed articles, much like "Battle Card Daily," which details various Combat Technique card duel reports and strategies — although Combat Cards are niche, the players are die-hard fans, and since Battle Card Daily is expensive, the newspaper is doing quite well.

Could it be that Jing Zhengwei intends to publish an entire newspaper of articles that openly encourage and secretly incite? But that flavor is too strong, surely people will feel physically uncomfortable after reading a lot.

While Mu Qingmei was lost in her thoughts, a man and a woman entered the conference room. The woman, dressed in blue, had exquisite makeup, wore glasses, and exuded an aura of ’inner wisdom makes one elegant,’ but her slight eye bags suggested overwork.

The man wore luxurious clothes, had handsome features, meticulously groomed hair and eyebrows, and exuded a lazy and affluent aura. Although Mu Qingmei had seen him before, the more she looked, the more he resembled her family’s lazy cat that does nothing but eat, poop, sunbathe, and not catch mice — are there really people who live as lazily as cats these days?

Everyone in the conference room immediately stood up to greet: "Hello, Editor-in-chief, hello, Mr. Jing!"

Of course, the two who entered were Youth Daily’s Editor-in-chief, Qing Lan, and the newspaper’s operator, Jing Zhengwei!

"No need for formalities, sit down." Leyu and Qing Lan sat at the main seat of the conference table and said casually, "Also, there’s no need to call me Mr. Jing here, address me as the Chief Editor instead."

Mu Qingmei took a close look and saw that Leyu’s badge clearly had five large words: "Culture Department Editor-in-Chief"!

The Chief Editor and the Editor-in-Chief are different. The Chief Editor is responsible for all aspects of the newspaper and organizes and leads the Editorial department’s daily operations, coordinating layout configuration and interview manpower deployment. In contrast, the Editor-in-Chief is only responsible for the paper’s editing business. The former is the manager of the entire newspaper, while the latter only manages the Editorial and Culture departments.

Theoretically, the Editor-in-Chief should follow the Chief Editor’s leadership.

However, everyone took one look and immediately understood Jing Zhengwei’s intention.

The Chief Editor handles business when there is any, and when there isn’t...

As for why Jing Zhengwei gave himself an ’Editor-in-Chief’ position, everyone thought about it and concluded that this young master probably wanted to experience the hardships of the common folk, working at the newspaper for a few days to understand the people’s conditions, and will likely promote a new Editor-in-Chief after a few days.

Moreover, since Jing Zhengwei is the Editor-in-Chief, he can use work as an excuse to find the Chief Editor and then in the soundproof office of the Chief Editor...

Many editors, whether thinking they might have a chance to become Editor-in-Chief or imagining some not-suitable-for-youngsters scenario, had flushed faces and looked at Jing Zhengwei and Qing Lan expectantly.

Leyu was not polite and directly assumed the stance of a person in charge, asking, "Mr. Jie, is everything arranged at the printing press?"

Jie Zifu, a middle-aged man in his forties, was once the Editor-in-Chief of "Xuanzhu Daily" before being sidelined due to internal strife. Invited by the Jing Family, he didn’t hesitate to return to his old profession — for a middle class person like him, who lives well but can’t squeeze into the bourgeoisie, losing a job hits hardest.

After all, Leyu isn’t a demon and hasn’t gone so far as to make Qing Lan start from scratch as Editor-in-Chief. Even in mobile games, you get a five-star operator/SR/cherished character to start with, so Leyu hired someone experienced like the old editor to make Qing Lan’s transition smoother and navigate the beginner phase more easily.

"Everything is ready, and the layout template has been initially designed." Jie Zifu replied respectfully, "As long as the articles are submitted, we can immediately print the inaugural issue of Youth Daily."

Leyu nodded in satisfaction, scanned the conference room’s crowd, and said, "Alright, I won’t say much more. Since you’re here at the Jing Family’s newspaper, you should know what kind of business we are — put aside your literary ideals and your modesty and self-respect; this is not a place for ’using literature to carry the message.’ It’s just a factory producing goods."

No one reacted much, as Leyu said, because they already knew what kind of job they applied for. Besides, there was no space in the entire Xuanzhu County for a desk, and any scholar with real integrity wanting to challenge authority through literature would have been sunk to the bottom of the sea long ago.

"Youth Daily’s tone is that of an entertainment newspaper," Leyu knocked on the table, "Although it’s named for youth, our audience is not just the young. The young, the middle-aged, and the old are all our target customers. We don’t need to publish articles discussing current affairs that young people don’t care about; what we need to publish is the ’nutrition’ they need and the ’reality’ they care about."

"First, Lu Zhqing," Leyu looked at the art editor, "can you draw smut?"

Lu Zhqing was stunned and instinctively asked back, "What kind of picture?"

"Smut picture."

"Smut what?"

"Smut picture."

"Are you talking about red-blue-yellow smut pictures?"

Leyu’s face turned dark, "If you mess around again, I’ll have security throw you off the third floor."

Well-read and respected, with over twenty years of painting, Lu Zhqing’s face turned red with embarrassment, "But, what do those pictures have to do with the newspaper?"

Leyu slammed the table hard, "Of course they have something to do with it! What kind of paper is this? Youth Daily! What do young people like the most? Smut pictures! If we want to grab attention and make young people buy our paper, of course we should give them what they like! And it’s not just young people; middle-aged, old people like it too. Don’t you like smut pictures, Lu Zhqing?"

Upon hearing these words, everyone’s expressions changed slightly. Several female editors were already blushing, and Mu Qingmei clenched her fist even tighter. This era doesn’t yet have crimes like ’workplace harassment,’ or else Mu Qingmei would certainly have flipped the table and punched Leyu to death with one hit.

Lu Zhqing was choked by Leyu’s words to the point that he couldn’t reply, but Leyu had already run out of patience, "Just say if you can draw or not; I’m planning to fill the entire page with images on the first page. If you can’t draw, I’ll have to find someone better."

Disgraceful!

Rogue!

Beast in clothing!

The heavens are unjust, allowing such a person to start a newspaper!

Lu Zhqing was so angry that his face turned pale. He slammed the meeting table with both hands, glaring furiously, and righteously shouted at Leyu:

"I can draw!"

"If you can draw, just draw. Why are you shouting? Sit down." Le Yu dug his ears, "I’ll tell you what to draw later... By the way, can we print color newspapers now?"

Jie Zifu shook his head: "No, only black and white."

After saying that, he gently advised, "Editor Jing, if it’s too vulgar, it might be resisted by the upper class, affecting the newspaper’s sales..."

"Tsk, only black and white, huh... But you can still make a lot of art with black and white." Le Yu felt a bit regretful, it seemed that the Radiant Youth wouldn’t be able to see the beautiful girl with blonde twin tails and different colored eyes. "And don’t worry. You all, your understanding of erotic art is still too shallow, just knowing how to expose legs and sell flesh. You have no idea how magnificent the pinnacle of erotic art that can easily provoke the desires in people’s hearts can be."

As Le Yu said this, he couldn’t hide his confidence and superiority, which overflowed. It was hard for him not to feel superior—after all, the erotic art that appeared in this world over five thousand years wasn’t as much as he had seen.

Don’t underestimate erotic art, you fools!

However, in others’ eyes, this became yet another characteristic of Jing Zhengwei’s lascivious nature.

Like Mu Qingmei, she had shifted from outrage to being a bit fearful of Le Yu—how disgusting must someone be to say something like that so openly?

She even felt that hitting such a person would dirty her fists.

But Le Yu quickly returned to normal: "Let me tell you about the specific plan for the ’Youth Daily.’

"The ’Youth Daily’ is expected to consist of three A2-sized sheets per issue, totaling 12 pages. To grab attention, the first page must feature high-resolution images across the entire page, ensuring that the middle-aged and elderly in Xuanzhu County can’t take their eyes off it;

"Pages 2 to 4 I plan to set as a ’Knowledge Discussion Section.’ I know you have many questions, so I’ve already prepared a template."

Le Yu took out a piece of paper and passed it around for everyone to read. After seeing it, each showed different reactions—some surprised, some enlightened, some overjoyed, each differently.

When Mu Qingmei saw it, she immediately understood why everyone reacted that way:

"What are we seeking throughout our lives?"

"Selected Answers—"

"Nietzsche (linguist, cultural critic, composer, philosopher): Life has no purpose, only process. The so-called ultimate goal is nothingness."

"Wang Lufei (ordinary scholar): Freedom.

We pursue money only to prevent money from chaining our hands;

We pursue power only to prevent power from blocking our paths;

We pursue knowledge only to prevent knowledge from binding our eyes;

We pursue health only to prevent health from imprisoning our bodies.

In a lifetime of pursuit, it is only about doing what we want to do. Doing the work we love, going to places we like, staying with people we cherish, that’s it."

"Edward Elric (Alchemist): In my field, there is a saying..."

Just by taking a glance, Mu Qingmei knew the value of this ’Knowledge Discussion Section’: it allows many people to express their views and have extensive discussions around a single topic.

Similar articles are not unheard of, in fact, there are many. Many classical contents are records of debates between two persons, and many writers, poets, and scholars have made different answers to the same proposition in different eras.

But these articles fail to attract the general public because they are either mentor-disciple dialogues or two-person debates and invariably one side’s viewpoint is superior to the other’s, making the whole text a sort of ’viewpoint output.’ Viewpoint output isn’t bad, but it always has a preachy feel.

And those discussions on the same topic across ages have too high a reading threshold.

Another important point is that past articles’ grammar doesn’t fit modern syntax, feeling odd even if translated, making them uncomfortable to read, not to mention their erudite language, incomprehensible to the common folk.

Whereas the ’Knowledge Discussion Section’ discards the above shortcomings, integrating all the strengths, allowing respondents to use modern grammar to discuss and answer on the same topic.

Everyone is equal, respects each other, and no one is more outstanding than another. Whoever speaks reasonably deserves everyone’s acclaim.

By continuously reading multiple answers, Mu Qingmei could clearly feel the clash of different worldviews within them.

She seemed to see many people gathered together, people of various identities, ages, education backgrounds, some unknown, some renowned worldwide, all elucidating their differing ideas for the same topic.

Collision of knowledge.

Collision of values.

Collision between people.

Mu Qingmei was so excited she trembled slightly, passing the paper to the editor beside her, who also became excited.

After everyone had finished reading, Le Yu asked: "What do you all think of this ’Knowledge Discussion Section’ model?"

"It’s great!"

"Very good!"

"It’s simply a groundbreaking creation!"

Even the composed Jie Zifu couldn’t help but clench his fist: "Editor, your idea is really fantastic! I believe that once our ’Youth Daily’ starts publishing, the entire Dongyang District... no, the entire Radiant will be focused on us! The publishing industry will be revolutionized because of us!"

Jie Zifu’s words got everyone thrilled, but Le Yu waved his hand: "It’s not that exaggerated; if it does well in Xuanzhu County, that would be great."

At this time, Mu Qingmei asked, "Editor, so how will the Knowledge Discussion Section operate? Will we discuss several topics weekly and then find people to respond, subsequently selecting excellent responses to publish—"

Le Yu shook his head: "No need for such hassle; I’ll come up with a few topics each week. Rest assured, they will surely be topics that provoke debate and deep thought among readers."

Talking about provocative, eye-catching topics, what you all derive from your discussions can’t possibly compare to the hot topics sorted out by UC editors and Zhihu baits panning for gold on the internet. Le Yu casually recalled one ’if tomorrow is the end of the world,’ feeling that people in this conference room would start lamenting.

Mu Qingmei barely accepted Le Yu’s ’arrogant’ notion, asking: "Then what about responses? We must solicit submissions from people, right?"

"No need to solicit submissions." Le Yu extended an index finger, sweeping it across everyone in the conference room.

"All selected responses, you guys will write them yourselves."