Chapter Eight: Meeting Begins
After sending Xia Jing out of the residential area, Su Qingxiao finally returned to her own home.
As soon as she entered, she heard her older sister on the phone with someone.
"Yes, that's right. Please cancel "Azure Dream," the romance manga I was scheduled to submit for the serialization meeting the day after tomorrow. I'll submit a new manga tomorrow… Estimated length? Five chapters, it's a short story manga. Yes, that's right…"
It was a long while before Su Mingxi finally hung up her call with the editorial department staff.
"You're really taking Xia Jing's manga seriously, sis. You were worried you wouldn't make it to the company in time for them to submit the results tomorrow, so you bothered a colleague late at night to give them a heads-up, right?"
Seeing this, Su Qingxiao's eyes narrowed, and the suppressed mood from the story of five centimeters per second unconsciously lightened.
After all, Xia Jing was her friend, and she was the one who introduced him to her sister. She felt joy that Xia Jing was being taken seriously.
Su Mingxi glanced at her and said softly, "That friend of yours… he has a lot of potential."
"I can certainly see that," Su Qingxiao said.
"It's only a five-chapter manga! Yet it's created to be so touching. Of course, he has potential!"
"In recent years, several large manga magazine publishers have been actively promoting young manga artists, including Huanmeng Group. Our editorial department, from top to bottom, has been instructed to unearth as many young manga artists as possible. The difficulty for many New Manga Artists to make a name for themselves is much lower than before," Su Mingxi said.
"Qingxiao, I actually have high hopes for you. I think you might be able to get your manga serialized in Fantasy Dream Comic in just a few years. But you also need to work hard, otherwise…" Su Mingxi said.
"Don't let your friend get ahead of you."
"Hehe… Sis, you're overthinking it. My "sorrowful tale" has been serialized for half a year, and the accumulated fan popularity is there. No matter how excellent five centimeters per second is, how exaggerated can its serialization be over five weeks? It's still too early to surpass me," Su Qingxiao said with an indifferent smile… The next day… As soon as Xia Jing entered the classroom, he noticed that all his classmates were looking at him with strange expressions.
As for the reason, he understood it with a thought; many people must have seen him leaving with Su Qingxiao yesterday.
Never mind. Since Su Qingxiao herself didn't care, Xia Jing wouldn't worry about it. Let the gossip at school spread however it wanted; it would naturally dissipate over time.
During the time since he transmigrated, Xia Jing had been quite busy every day drawing manga, but now that the five centimeters per second manga was complete, he was just waiting for the results of tomorrow's serialization meeting to be released, which made Xia Jing feel a bit idle today.
He also habitually went to the rooftop at noon, not to draw manga, but to feel the breeze.
However, Xia Jing didn't encounter Su Qingxiao today.
But that was normal, he thought.
She also had a manga currently being serialized, so perhaps she was rushing her manuscript in some other hidden corner of the school… Another day passed.
As Xia Jing went to school and attended classes as usual, at nine in the morning… in a commercial building in the heart of Magic City.
This was the headquarters of Huanmeng Group, one of the six major manga companies in Xia Kingdom.
And the nineteenth floor was where the editorial department of this nationally renowned magazine company was located.
Huanmeng Group had dozens of various journals under its umbrella, and each journal had its own dedicated editorial team.
At this time, the editorial department floor was a flurry of activity, with people from various teams busy with their tasks.
Meanwhile, the editorial team members responsible for the Sakura Color Weekly journal were collectively waiting for the director to arrive in a conference room.
Although it was called a serialization meeting, it was actually just a serialization meeting for the editorial team specifically in charge of the Sakura Color Weekly journal.
A journal like Sakura Color Weekly, with weekly sales of hundreds of thousands of copies, wouldn't typically warrant the participation of Huanmeng Group's Editor-in-Chief in the meeting. Company leaders of that caliber would only attend serialization meetings for changes in serialized works in the Fantasy Dream Comic magazine, which had weekly sales exceeding ten million copies.
Therefore, the person presiding over this serialization meeting was Huang Yan, one of the seven directors of the editorial department.
Next to each editor and attending manager was a large stack of manga manuscripts, neatly arranged in order.
Su Mingxi was also seated at the first position to the left, below the director's main seat in the conference room.
From the seating arrangement, it was clear that her work performance ranked among the top two members of the editorial team responsible for Sakura Color Weekly.
Opposite her sat Gao Dian, a tall, thin man in his thirties.
His expression held a hint of determination as he looked at Su Mingxi, his biggest competitor in the Sakura Color Journal editorial team.
Although Su Mingxi was ten years younger than him, this woman's ability in an editorial role was truly undeniable. In two years, she had discovered several successful manga artists.
Especially the female High School Student manga artist "Shui Xi."
The latest issue's internal ranking for her "sorrowful tale" had been released, and its fan popularity vote ranking had risen to second, just over a hundred votes short of surpassing "high score love," the manga he was responsible for.
And from past precedents, the editor who performed best in Sakura Color Weekly every few years had a slight chance of being transferred within the editorial department to the Fantasy Dream Comic weekly to be responsible for the manga serialized therein.
Of course, this was not absolute; this spot would also be competed for by outstanding individuals from the editorial teams of several other journals with equally good sales.
But there was always a chance.
From the timing, it was likely that the editorial department's upper management had already begun to consider these personnel allocation issues.
Otherwise, Gao Dian wouldn't have been so nervous about today's serialization meeting.
This year's timing was indeed special.
If he could be transferred to be responsible for manga serialized in Fantasy Dream Comic, his income would at least increase seven or eightfold, and his industry status would also rise.
After all, the average sales volume per volume of the serialized manga on it never fell below one million copies, and even a very small percentage of manga editor commission would result in an annual income of millions of Xia Kingdom currency.
Su Mingxi, this woman, was indeed very capable. One day she would surely reach that level and become a core member of the Huanmeng Group editorial department, but for now… Gao Dian thought to himself.
Everything has a first-come, first-served basis. If such an opportunity arose, it should be given to me, who has toiled in the editorial department for over a decade, not to you, a new editor who only joined two years ago.
Gao Dian was very confident in the works he submitted for this serialization meeting.
But even a lion uses its full strength against a rabbit. The best way to prevent a competitor from achieving further success is to limit the number of pieces on their board during the serialization meeting.
He was determined to win both serialization slots today.
"Alright… let the meeting begin."
Director Huang Yan pushed open the conference room door and walked directly to his seat.
As soon as he sat down, he immediately got down to business.
"There are two vacant serialization slots in this serialization meeting. However, there are a total of twenty-one manga works submitted, so the competition is quite fierce. Now, everyone, please turn to the first manga work placed on your tables, "love like fireworks blooming!""
Upon hearing this, Su Mingxi picked up the stack of manga manuscripts that the staff had already organized.
Normally, manga submitted for serialization meetings were only two or three chapters long.
The attending editors wouldn't read them in detail; after all, with dozens of manga works submitted, if they were to read them all in detail, the meeting would last a day and a night.
Everyone was a professional editor, and when reading manga, they focused on the key points.
Art style, plot, pacing, dialogue… "This is really good!"
A few minutes later, after roughly finishing the three chapters, Su Mingxi thought to herself.
But unfortunately… it still wasn't enough.
Gao Dian looked at Su Mingxi's expression, his brows furrowing.
"So calm? Could it be that one of the two manga works she submitted is even more brilliant than the one I submitted?"
At this point, the attending editors all expressed their comments.
"Very good."
"Amazing! What a plot twist."
"I find it very interesting."
"A very good manga," Su Mingxi said.
"Since everyone's feedback is good, this manga will be temporarily observed."
Director Huang Yan put down the manga manuscript in his hand and spoke.
"Now, everyone, please turn to the second work submitted for review at this meeting, the manga copy of "five centimeters per second," placed on your desks."
Upon hearing this, Gao Dian casually picked up the stack of manuscripts on the table, and as soon as he held it, his brows furrowed.
"Why is it so thick?" Gao Dian asked aloud.
"Because all five chapters of this manga are here," Su Mingxi looked at Gao Dian and replied.
"It was submitted by me. It's a short story manga created by a New Manga Artist, so all its content has been released at the meeting."
"Short story manga? New Manga Artist?"
As Su Mingxi's words fell, everyone in the conference room exchanged glances, their thoughts beginning to wander.
Although Sakura Color Weekly did not reject the serialization of short story manga, short works certainly had low commercial value, and it was difficult to accumulate popularity. A five-chapter length would only allow for one single volume.
So, normally, the difficulty for a short work to pass a serialization meeting was certainly much greater than for medium-to-long-form works. Moreover, a New Manga Artist's work would also be subjected to more scrutiny.
Gao Dian's heart rejoiced even more upon hearing this.
"In that case, how can you compete with me?"
The two manga he submitted, "love like fireworks blooming" and "Moonlit Glazed," were both of extremely high quality, works by two rather well-known manga artists he collaborated with.
There was no way they could lose to a short work by a New Manga Artist.
It was a sure win.
Gao Dian opened the five centimeters per second manga manuscript, a smile on his face…