Chapter 36: The Power Revealed

On the highway leading to Jiang City, Zhang Bowen was driving the car toward his rural hometown. His elderly mother, upon hearing that her grandson had become the top scorer in the college entrance examination, was eager for them to return as soon as possible so she could boast about it in the village.

Just then, his phone chimed with a new text message, and the car’s Bluetooth speaker immediately broadcast: “At 9:17 am on June 24th, your card ending in 8233 received a deposit of 13,320 yuan from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (interbank transfer). Your balance is now 14,191.31 yuan.”

The clear and articulate announcement instantly dispelled Zhang Chu’s drowsiness. If nothing unexpected had happened, this would be his father’s royalty payment.

Since his father’s money had arrived, his own royalties should be coming soon as well.

These days, what’s the use of being the top scorer in the college entrance exam?

If you want to go anywhere, you still have to ask your parents for money. Zhang Chu had been yearning for his royalties to arrive for ages.

At this moment, Chu Lan, sitting in the passenger seat, spoke indignantly, “The royalty was clearly supposed to be fifteen thousand, yet they deducted nearly seventeen hundred. Isn’t that daylight robbery?”

“Exactly, the royalty tax is too high. The amount they took could have bought me several rare books,” Zhang Bowen echoed. Over the years, the royalties he received were few and far between; this was the largest payment yet.

Previously, he only received a few hundred or a thousand at most, and the tax deducted was negligible. Now that the royalties exceeded ten thousand, the deductions were much more significant.

Zhang Chu had previously researched how the royalty tax worked. It was basically the same as on Earth, using four thousand yuan as the cutoff point.

If a royalty payment didn’t exceed four thousand yuan, one could deduct eight hundred yuan as expenses, and the remainder would be taxed at 20%. However, due to national policy, the taxable amount would be reduced by 30%, which meant the final tax rate was actually 20% × (1-30%) = 14%.

If the income exceeded four thousand yuan, then 20% would be deducted as expenses, and the remainder would be taxed—so the royalty tax payable was 11.2% of the royalty income.

“Mom, this is actually much better than personal income tax. It’s the only income category with a deduction,” Zhang Chu explained, knowing royalty tax calculations could be tricky. “Once Dad’s book starts selling, you’ll see how favorable the royalty tax really is.”

Zhang Bowen, being in book sales himself, certainly understood that this rate was very advantageous for authors—the more royalties, the more cost-effective the tax.

“I think my ‘Principles of Deductive Reasoning’ could definitely be published. I’ve already planned out the later plot. If it gets serialized in ‘Chronicles of Mystery,’ the publishers will notice it.”

Later on, when monthly income exceeds eighty thousand, the personal income tax rate can reach 45%; but for authors, whether the monthly royalties are eighty thousand, a hundred thousand, or even a million, it’s still taxed at 11.2%!

That’s not a small difference. Authors complain not about the royalty tax rate being high, but about the low tax threshold.

At least with personal income tax, the threshold is thirty-five hundred, but for royalties, anything above eight hundred is taxed.

At this, Chu Lan no longer thought her husband and son were fantasizing. After all, even the most unlikely feat of topping the college entrance exam had been accomplished—everything else seemed possible now!

“Then put in some effort and finish your novel. Stop reading all the time. Our bookstore has staff; it doesn’t have to be you watching over it.”

Hanlin Pavilion Bookstore was just getting by, but they did have a cashier. Normally, it was Zhang Bowen, the owner, and the cashier taking turns at work.

In his previous life, after Zhang Chu returned home as a “boomerang kid,” he and Zhang Bowen took turns running the place, saving the cost of hiring a cashier.

“Writing can’t be rushed. You can’t have both speed and quality,” Zhang Bowen replied methodically.

But Chu Lan immediately retorted, “Why not? My son wrote ‘The Death of Red Hare’ under the pressure of the exam, and in just a few days at home, he finished ‘Detective Sherlock.’ Both works have speed and quality!”

As the spotlight shifted to him, Zhang Chu quickly changed the subject. “Dad, did you see the online buzz? ‘Chronicles of Mystery’ seems to be trending, and there’s a lot of attention online.”

“Why is the magazine so pragmatic? Everywhere is filled with news about your novel as the top scorer, and the rest of us writers are completely ignored, as if the entire magazine only has your work,” Zhang Bowen said resentfully. It was rare for him to have a story published in a magazine, but after searching the internet, he could barely find any coverage related to himself.

Zhang Chu could only shrug helplessly. “They just want to sell more copies. At least, I’m more famous than you right now.”

That’s reality—publicizing Zhang Chu and ‘Detective Sherlock’ clearly brought more profits.

“By the way, do any stores in town sell ‘Chronicles of Mystery’?”

Zhang Chu realized he’d asked a foolish question; the answer was obvious.

The new issue would be published tomorrow, but he wouldn’t be able to see his own work right away—the sample copies sent by the magazine would come by post, which could take ten days or even half a month to arrive.

Zhang Bowen was helpless too. His mother had spoken—nothing was more important than her pride. Zhang Chu had to return to the town, or else she’d be furious!

“Our store definitely has it. Just wait a couple of days. If you can’t wait, read the digital version for now.”

That was probably the best solution. Zhang Chu couldn’t think of any other way.

After all, ‘Chronicles of Mystery’ wasn’t a mainstream magazine. If it were Readers, Yilin, Youth Digest, or Zhiyin, you could find the latest issue even in rural towns.

…

In the editorial department, Han Kai, who was monitoring the data in real time, nudged his colleague Wan Yuan. “Hey, chubby, check it out—our magazine’s search and website traffic are soaring. Go ask the tech team to add two more servers to the website!”

“Who even checks our site? I don’t know what these people are looking for,” Wan Yuan muttered. He was originally an editorial staff member, but now that the magazine had become explosively popular due to the top scorer’s new book, the shortage of hands was obvious, and as the most junior, he’d been assigned here to help out.

“Probably looking up author profiles. And quite a few people are ordering the July issue. Sales for past issues have also increased significantly!”

Previously, the official website of ‘Chronicles of Mystery’ had pitifully low traffic, but now it was struggling under the load, and access was painfully slow.

Han Kai had never seen anything like it since he started working there. Even during the Holmes-themed writing contest, there wasn’t a tenth as much attention as now!

Just then, the magazine’s chief editor, Chen Haodong, suddenly appeared behind them, his deep, world-weary voice asking, “You just reported that magazine sales have risen a lot. Show me the actual numbers.”

“Mr. Chen, today we have over five million additional page views. We’ve sold 110,000 e-book copies, mostly from the past six months’ issues. As for the July print edition about to be released, 31,000 copies have already been ordered, and we have 2,571 new annual subscribers…”

Chen Haodong nodded with satisfaction. All the publicity resources invested were clearly paying off now.

Although most of the online traffic was just spectators, 110,000 e-book sales was no small feat—this was only from the official website, not including other sales channels.

Likewise, print magazine sales were clearly up. The June issue had only two or three thousand online sales, but July had already reached thirty thousand!

Among all these buyers, only about two thousand chose an annual subscription, which was not a trivial expense—over a hundred yuan.

The once precarious financial situation of ‘Chronicles of Mystery’ was suddenly alleviated. Even though the July issue hadn’t even been shipped yet, for the first time they didn’t feel strapped for cash.

“Very good. Send me the numbers every hour from now on. Also, get in touch with our distributors and see if they can provide their sales data.”

Chen Haodong couldn’t rest yet. He still needed to contact the printing factory. With so much attention on the July issue, they had to ensure a steady supply.