British writer

Fleet Street,

Editorial Office, Manchester Guardian.

"What did you say!? They were all sold!? A total of 20,000 copies were sold!?"

Disbelief was written all over Scott's face.

It was not hard to see from his expression that Doyle was not alone in being shocked by the sales of The Scotsman.

Cooper raised his hand,

"Dude, calm down."

Don't look at Cooper calm now,

Last night, when he got the sales statistics, he was even more excited than Scott, and even broke a beautiful porcelain cup.

After "There Were None" began serialization, "The Scotsman" gradually increased its circulation in London, from eight thousand to fifteen thousand, and then to twenty thousand.

I thought I would finally encounter Waterloo yesterday, but I didn't expect the result to be completely opposite.

How can this not be exciting?

Scott sank back into the armchair and rubbed his temples,

According to the plan, the book review of the "Manchester Guardian" will give "The Hound of Baskervilles" a lot of space, and now it seems that it will be changed.

Scott couldn't help muttering: "Fxxk! I'm going to work overtime again..."

Even so, he had a big smile on his face.

Lu Shi on the side took the opportunity to say, "Um...Mr. Scott, can you give us a letter of approval for the retraction?"

Only then did Scott remember Lu Shi's purpose of looking for him, and he couldn't help looking at Lu Shi with a strange look, as if he was studying alien creatures.

Lu Shi was stared at awkwardly,

"Mr. Scott?"

"Huh~"

Scott heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Mr. Lu, it's very rare to withdraw a manuscript. Of course, according to our friendship, it's okay to withdraw an editorial that hasn't been published for you, but you should give me a reason anyway." Bar?"

The reason, of course, was the gaze of Queen Victoria,

Although Lu Shi wanted to have the capital to be on the table, he could directly provoke the queen, so he avoided it if he could.

But it certainly cannot be said clearly.

Lu Shi was silent.

Scott said helplessly: "Then I can only say sorry to you. As the editor-in-chief, I must consider the issue with the interests of the newspaper as the starting point."

As he spoke, Scott raised the Scotsman in his hand.

The meaning is already very clear,

Under the attack of multiple parties, Lu Shi still has the ability to challenge Holmes head-on. As long as the editor-in-chief is a normal person, it is impossible to let this kind of cash cow and traffic password go.

If you want to let it go, you have to have a reasonable reason.

Lu Shi had already guessed that there was no hope for this matter, and Scott would not agree.

Taking a step back, even if Scott agrees, Saatchi will not agree, and "Guns, Germs and Steel" will still be seen by Queen Victoria.

If that's the case, then don't force it.

Anyway, there is no deeply politically sensitive content in that book, so it should not offend the queen. The only possibility is to be invited to be an aide.

This is also very good, not to mention fame and fortune, but also get a place to live in the UK.

Lu Shi said goodbye: "Then I'll go first."

He turned and grabbed the doorknob.

But Scott stopped him: "Dear Lu, wait a minute!"

The word "dear" was so numbing that Lu Shi got goosebumps all over his body in fright, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, like a wild cat with its hair fried.

He warned: "Mr. Scott, we have something to say."

Scott embarrassed,

"Mr. Lu, what do you think about the sales of The Scotsman?"

Yesterday, both he and Cooper thought sales would not look good,

But reality hit them hard in the face.

Cooper said with a wry smile: "Well, even I, the editor-in-chief, are extremely unfavorable. Who would have thought... After all, the streets and alleys were all discussing Sherlock Holmes yesterday, as if "And And There Were None" never existed."

The two were puzzled.

Lu Shi mused, "Probably because of the silent majority."

He took a newspaper casually and wrote large Arabic numerals on it——

20000.

"That's the silent majority."

This is a bit difficult to understand.

Cooper scratched his head, not understanding what it meant.

Lu Shi said: "It's very simple. The silent majority is the sales volume of The Scotsman. It is a 'majority' because it directly determines the life and death of the newspaper; it is 'silent' because it is a bunch of cold sales. The figures only tell the facts."

Cooper and Scott looked at each other,

Faintly, they felt that what Lu Shi was talking about was very important, but to what extent it was so important, it was difficult to explain clearly.

Two editors, one for 21 years and one for 29 years,

At this moment, they actually felt that their level was far from enough.

Lu Shi continued: "Mr. Cooper, outside of this string of numbers, there are a few people who are cursing, crying, and dying for Holmes. What's the point?"

Deafening!

suddenly see the light!

Cooper stared at the "20000", nodded and said: "That's right. We don't care about some people, but this string of numbers, if it is reduced by three to five thousand, it will be a real big deal."

Scott also wanted to understand, and said with a sinister smile: "I was walking on the road, if a passerby suddenly yelled 'I want to eat shit', I would definitely ignore it instead of dissuading him and debating with him whether it should Eat shit."

Cooper froze for a moment, then laughed,

"No! You should immediately take off your pants and let him eat shit in the street!"

"piss off!"

Scott punched Cooper in the shoulder.

Lu Shi felt emotional,

These two old brothers are so cruel, they even compared "The Hound of the Baskervilles" to shit...

(The views of the characters in the book have nothing to do with the author.)

It is true that "The Hound of Baskervilles" is an anomaly in the entire Sherlock Holmes series, but it is not so bad.

Lu Shi interrupted the play between the two: "Don't talk nonsense, you two, be careful not to be hacked to death by fanatical readers."

The joke brought Cooper and Scott back to work.

Cooper asked: "So what do we do? Although the sales of The Scotsman are climbing now, and the silent majority is on the side of 'And There Were None,' I don't always feel safe."

Of course not safe!

If Sherlock Holmes is allowed to dominate the public opinion, "There Were None" will be affected sooner or later.

Lu Shi smiled and asked: "Mr. Cooper, if more than 99% of the citizens in the UK are conservative, do you still dare to call out liberalism?"

Cooper nodded.

"meeting."

Lu Shi shook his head,

"Editor-in-Chief Cooper would do that, but Petty Citizen Cooper wouldn't."

This sentence alone is enough to wake up Cooper and Scott.

People have the heart to protect themselves,

If a person disagrees with the prevailing opinion, he is more likely to remain silent for fear of being ostracized,

The result is that, amidst the silence of non-mainstream viewpoints and the outcry of mainstream viewpoints, mainstream viewpoints expand and strengthen in a spiral form, and eventually become a kind of public opinion covering the entire society.

This is the relationship between And None Survived and The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Scott said seriously: "What should we do?"

Lu Shi first thought of polls,

Polls can let minorities know that they are not such a minority. It is very marketable in countries with ballot systems.

However, Gallup, Pew Research Center, and Youguan were all formally established in the 21st century. Before that, the major media basically had to rely on their own polling departments to support themselves, or universities and other scientific research institutions released poll results. .

Lu Shi looked at Scott and then at Cooper,

There is no doubt that the current "Manchester Guardian" and "Scotman" do not have the concept of polls,

To be precise, no institution has the concept of polls.

Lu Shi pondered, thinking that this might be a good business, if he could find an authoritative endorsement, it would be worthless.

Seeing Lu not talking, Scott was a little anxious,

"Mr. Lu?"

Only then did Lu Shi come back to his senses, and replied: "It's actually not difficult, as long as the silent person knows that he is not alone. Can't the Manchester Guardian do this?"