So the sisters, along with Little Duoduo, went to look at apartments together. After three days, Gong Mingxia bought three apartments in the same complex for 4,000 yuan per square meter—a 40-square-meter one-bedroom, one-hall, and two 65-square-meter two-bedroom, one-hall units. In total, the three apartments cost her 680,000 yuan. Because she paid for all three apartments at once, she got a discount from the original price of 4,200 to 4,000 yuan per square meter.
The full payment of 680,000 yuan, plus various additional taxes, brought the total to around 700,000 yuan.
The reason for choosing the same complex was to make it easier for Meng Xiuying to help take care of things in the future.
Two of the apartments, both 65 square meters, were on the second and third floors, while the 40-square-meter one was in a high-rise building with an elevator.
In 1999, there were no high-rise buildings, only flat ones with a maximum of seven floors. Even the high-rise buildings did not exceed 18 floors; they were fixed at 16 floors. So the elevator apartment she purchased was on the tenth floor, which is considered a condo type.
Meng Xiuying was certainly envious, but she also knew that she did not have the means to envy at the moment. Without the thirty thousand yuan lent to her by Gong Mingxia, along with the support from home, she probably wouldn’t have been able to write as steadily this year.
"How’s your book doing? Have you submitted it to a publisher yet?"
Meng Xiuying nodded, "I have approached several publishing houses. They all seem interested, but I haven’t found a suitable one yet."
"Which ones?" Meng Xiuying listed a few. "They need me to cut it down to four or five hundred thousand words." Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by novel-fire.net
Gong Mingxia frowned. "They want to cut it in half? That’s too much, isn’t it?"
"Yes, and the price they’re offering isn’t high either. Even for one million words, the publishing fee might only be a few tens of thousand yuan!"
Gong Mingxia was clearly dissatisfied with the price, but from what Meng Xiuying said, that was the situation for now. Because publishing a book was not about making money; it was about building a reputation. After thinking it over, Gong Mingxia told her the decision she had come to.
"I’ve thought of an outline. This year, we continue writing. You’re saving your work on the computer now, aren’t you?"
"Yes, with the money you gave me, I bought a computer and got an internet connection."
"Good. That’s settled, then. You’ll keep moving forward with our previous collaboration. As for the book, let’s not publish it for now and see how things go. I still have twenty thousand yuan here; take it for your expenses. If there’s anything you lack, just tell me. You don’t need to worry about the apartments right now—I’ll handle the paperwork in the next few days, and then I’ll go back. We can communicate through the computer afterward. I’ll find an internet café and we can email each other or chat on QQ. You know QQ, right?"
"Sis, you even know about QQ?"
Gong Mingxia laughed, "Yes, I’ll get an account later."
"Sis, have you never considered getting a telephone installed?"
Gong Mingxia was taken aback and then smacked her forehead, "Look at me, I totally forgot about that. You’re right, I should get a telephone. I’ll have it installed once I’m home. It will make our communication much easier. You should get one, too!"
Meng Xiuying agreed, "Sure. A telephone is convenient. If we need a lengthy conversation, we can go to an internet café and email. After all, emails are much faster than writing letters."
After discussing their future communication strategies, they also talked about the details of their new work.
Meng Xiuying trusted Gong Mingxia too much to ask why she couldn’t publish the book at this time. It wasn’t that Gong Mingxia wouldn’t say, but rather, she couldn’t explain that if they published now, it wasn’t certain whether they would earn notoriety, but surely they wouldn’t make money. They needed a platform first to gain fame, and then, by publishing afterwards, they would acquire both fame and fortune.