But he still has a long time to think about it and does not need to rush for a moment.

Back at Manga Island, Qin Ya met Meng Huo who came to work that afternoon and immediately said, "Teacher, you have a guest on the island. I have been waiting for you for two days."

"Who?" Meng Huo asked.

"Director Muto, you should be very familiar with it."

The director of Muto, Qin Ya mentioned, Meng Huo only knew one, that is, the director of Muto of the Go Association in the East District. Apart from that, he did not know anyone with the surname Muto. However, when he heard of the identity of this guest, Meng Huo suddenly lost interest.

"If it comes for the suspension of "Chess Soul", just send them away for me and say I'm not available."

He told Qin Ya that it was already certain that the discontinuation of "Chess Soul" was not allowed to change again, and Meng Huo could not change it again.

Qin Ya shook her head: "Although they came for this matter, teacher, you should go to see them. After all, they have been waiting for you for two days, and maybe... teacher, you can find unexpected surprises in them."

"An unexpected surprise?"

Meng Huo looked at Qin Ya inquiringly, but Qin Ya smiled slightly and never gave too much explanation.

"Isn't this woman deliberately lie to me?" - This thought flashed through Meng Huo's mind. However, from his understanding of Qin Ya, Qin Ya is not the kind of person who will lie to prevent the discontinuation of "Chess Soul".

Moreover, this kind of lie is too fake, you can understand it by contacting Director Muto.

After a brief thought, Meng Huo decided to believe Qin Ya for a while. He was a little interested in the so-called unexpected surprise, so he told Qin Ya to reply to them and agreed to meet the visiting chess players in a hotel at night.

After get off work in the afternoon, Meng Huo went back to take a shower, and then set off with Qin Ya to the hotel.

In the hotel, all the chess players led by Director Muto were already sitting. In addition to Muto, Meng Huo also met Su Hua's chess institute director and several professional chess players who had dealt with - most of the guests were acquaintances, and only very few didn't know them.

"Why are you all here?" Meng Huo unexpectedly had such a big situation: "Sorry, I left Manhua Island for something, and I have to wait for so many of you for two days."

"It doesn't matter, this is our mistake." Director Muto said with a wry smile. He Xi's movements two days ago are actually not a secret. If they pay a little attention, they will know in advance that He Xi is going to Yanjing to defend.

"Teacher, Miss Qin, please sit down." The chess players enthusiastically invited Meng Huo and the others to the table. Qin Ya is the assistant of "The Soul of Chess". Her identity is good, so she will naturally be in the meeting today.

After Meng Huo sat down, he asked, "Is Comic Island OK?"

“Good ting!”

“I feel fresh these two days.”

The chess players did not wait for two days, and enjoyed the style of comic island.

"We came here this time to thank the teacher." After the greetings, Director Muto said: "Thanks to the launch of "Soul of Chess", the development of Chinese Go in less than two years has exceeded the total of the past decade, and the Go Association has also successfully turned losses into profits."

"Turn losses into profits?" Meng Huo was surprised: "Didn't your chess halls in various places lower the prices again this year?"

He has always been paying attention to the trends of the Go Association. In the past two years, in order to increase the number of Go enthusiasts, the Huaxia Go Association has greatly reduced the cost of the "chess hall", the main source of income. In the chess halls in each local city, the hourly consumption is 1 to 2 yuan cheaper than Internet cafes.

Thanks to the implementation of this plan, the number of enthusiasts in China Go has indeed grown rapidly, reaching the highest growth rate in two hundred years. However, the daily maintenance costs of chess halls are not low. While attracting enthusiasts, the low price is far from turning losses into profits.

"I remember reading a local report a few months ago." Qin Ya also interjected and said, "The daily maintenance costs of Su Hua's chess hall are still more than income. You have to seek subsidies from the association every month. Am I remembering it wrong?"

Her words made Su Hua's director of the Chess Academy laugh: "No, Miss Qin, you remember correctly. In fact, the operation of the chess hall is indeed a little loss. This situation may not be changed in the next one to two years."

"In order to maintain the growth rate of Go enthusiasts today, we will not change the low-price strategy within two years." Director Muto added two sentences and said: "If the effect does not decrease significantly in two years, it may continue to be maintained."

"Then how can your association make money?" Meng Huo asked.

"Teacher, our association's original way of making money was quite different, but it has not been developed."

Director Muto explained that with the popularity of "Soul of Chess" and the sharp reduction in the costs of chess halls in various places, the number of Chinese Go enthusiasts has shown a booming trend, which has also driven the development of all aspects of the Go Association.

First of all, there are more various Go cram schools. In order to increase your understanding of Go, a large number of enthusiasts and beginners are no longer satisfied with the primary teaching provided by the chess hall, but have sought cram schools for professional chess players. The Chinese Go Association can charge fees by introducing and conducting cram schools.

Subsequently, the increase in enthusiasts led to the increase in various competitions, attracting many investors, and the operation and bonus burden of the competition were shared. The sales of various Go-related books and instruments have also increased explosively in the past two years, becoming the main revenue of the China Go Association.

"Just talking about chessboards, we now sell more than the past year." Muto sighed: "The prices of chessboards with history and brands have risen even more. In the past, 10,000 chessboards are now snatched by 30,000."

With the recovery of Go, the concept of Go brand is also recovering. The prices of cultural relics with a sense of history have skyrocketed. Some players from the Go Association have sold some useless cultural relics at home, and many little rich people have been born.

Qin Ya was stunned when she heard this. Although she knew that "Soul of Chess" had brought great changes to the Go world, she did not expect the changes to be so earth-shaking.

"You are not deliberately praising Teacher He Xi, are you?" She said suspiciously: "Why don't I feel that the reality has changed so much? There are not many people around me who go to cram school because of "Chess Soul"."

When Meng Huo heard this, he looked at Qin Ya in a little shocked manner. He thought that Qin Ya was talking about this just now, but seeing Qin Ya like this, the surprise she talked about was something else.

Muto laughed: "Miss Qin, what era is now? Not everything can be seen from its popularity. The biggest income of our association now comes from reality, but from the Internet."

"network!?"

“Yes, the Internet!”

Muto explained that although offline cram schools and product sales are good, their online operations seem to be more successful. Nearly half of the cram schools are conducted online through video guidance, which greatly saves costs and is easier to cooperate with Go enthusiasts’ time and attracts more people to sign up.

Similarly, the Go Association has opened a "Go Mall" online, directly selling various props. There are many merchants recognized by the Go Association to sell, with guaranteed quality and service, and the sales volume is quite good.

Moreover, the association operates a Go game battle platform, which is jointly organized online and offline, and often holds various events, and the platform itself has a very good game revenue.

"You guys are really modern." Meng Huo was shocked. This Go Association is not simple, and the marketing techniques are quite good. Phoenix Company's comic layout on the Internet is far inferior to theirs.

Moreover, it only took two years for the Go Association to open up online and offline. When they continue to play for more than ten years, this activity may really achieve a complete recovery and become a national-level competitive activity.

"Because we have an excellent financial backer..."

Director Muto smiled and said, he dare not say that everything today is the achievement of the Go Association. Professional chess players generally have no business acumen. And what creates today's miracle is the funder behind the association. As long as it provides an opportunity for its powerful think tank, they can reactivate any sunset industry.

As for Chinese Go, the comic "Soul of Chess" is such an opportunity.

"Teacher He Xi, I heard you plan to stop the serialization of "Soul of Chess"?" Muto slowly put away his smile and his expression became formal.

Meng Huo came true and nodded, "That's right, but if you want to persuade me, I think I'd better die this heart... This is something that has been confirmed, and I won't change this plan."

The president of Su Hua Chess Academy then asked: "Stop serialization means stopping for a period of time, not permanently, right?"

Meng Huo nodded again. He just stopped serializing during his travels. When he came back from the outside world, he would soon make "Chess Soul" reprinted. The entire serialization time was unlikely to last more than half a year.

"It turns out to be so." The president of Su Hua Chess Academy showed a relieved expression and said: "We did want to stop you from discontinuing the publication by Teacher He Xi. "Chess Soul" is very important to our association. We are very worried about the impact it will have after it ceases."

"But after learning about your plan by Mr. He Xi, we found that there was not enough reason to stop you."

Director Muto shook his head. After all, the Go Association asked He Xi for the comic "Soul of Chess", but He Xi had nothing to obtain from the Go Association - the identities of the two parties were unequal, the Go Association was at a disadvantage in the negotiations, and they had received a lot of care, and now they were not qualified to take further measures.

What's more, after the investigation, they also found the reason for He Xi to do so. This cartoonist worked so hard in the past that when the Go Association wanted to ask the editors of Phoenix Company to persuade He Xi, no one agreed to do so.

The comics that have been discontinued this time are not only "The Soul of Chess", and the most likely impact is not the Go Association, but Phoenix Company. However, even so, Phoenix Company is still willing to bear this loss and risk, giving He Xi some time to rest.

After investigating these inside stories clearly, the Go Association found that it was powerless and could not bear to be shameless and then he made a tough call for He Xi to change his mind - so their biggest goal for this trip was another thing.

Meng Huo found that the topic was coming, so he couldn't help but cheer up.

However, Wuto did not express his purpose at once, but first took out a thick document bag and handed it to Meng Huo.

"What is this?" Meng Huo opened the file bag curiously and pulled out the files inside. Then the top document title attracted his attention: "...Huiyue Studio Transfer Agreement?"

"Yes, Huiyue Studio is the only animation studio among the top ten animation studios in China now, and it is not part of Phoenix and Zhongxia companies." Director Muto nodded and said, "We bought it and wanted to give it to Teacher He Xi. I hope you can promise us something."

Huiyue Studio, Meng Huo remembers this studio - this is an animation studio formed by a group of very talented painters. It has a very high level and has made several ordinary comics into popular animations with high returns.

He knew that this studio was because Chen Jie and Alice had mentioned it before his eyes. It was also the old employer of the firm's voice actors, except for Phoenix Company, and Zhongxia Company also wanted to acquire it several times.

However, Huiyue Studio has a very good performance and many people are willing to invest. It is said that there are also major forces behind it. The founders of the studio announced that they would not sell it to others, so they are still the only ones.

"Is this the surprise?" Meng Huo turned to look at Qin Ya, and Qin Ya nodded slightly to him. It seemed that she knew about this in advance.

Meng Huo turned his gaze back to Director Muto: "How did you buy Huiyue Studio?"

"We have some connections with this studio." Director Muto knew what Meng Huo was thinking and explained: "Teacher, don't worry that they won't cooperate after getting it. We used normal means to buy them after obtaining the consent of Huiyue Studio."

The reason why I thought of buying an animation studio for He Xi was actually a last resort. He Xi has never liked to receive gifts, and it was so troublesome to give him a chessboard in the past, so they had to consider it from his perspective and give him something that would be helpful to him.

Huiyue Studio is indeed very attractive to Meng Huo. He has specially seen the works of this studio. The quality of employees is not inferior to that of several other animation departments of Phoenix Company. If it is put in his hands and activates the potential of those employees, the effect it can be achieved by another "island" studio.

"..." Meng Huo tapped the table with his fingers and thought for a moment: "What do you want me to promise?"

When Muto heard Meng Huo's words, he immediately knew that they had chosen the right gift this time. He felt relieved, then sat upright and said, "Teacher He Xi, I wonder if you have considered the animation of "Soul of Chess"..."
Chapter completed!