Backtracking to the Age of Literature and Art

The company has basically made plans for what will happen after "The Da Vinci Code" is released.

A long time ago, Deep Space had negotiated with the three authors of "Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" and won the copyright of several works under their names.

This time when the public opinion rose, Shen Kong was not in a hurry at all, and took advantage of the situation to sell another wave of their books. After "Holy Blood and the Holy Grail", several other novels such as "Inheritance of the Redeemer" will be re-released one after another.

Even some articles in the media criticizing "The Da Vinci Code" were arranged by Jimmy. Jimmy's idea is very simple. Since someone will definitely pick out protests and opposition, it is better to muddy the water first.

Although the articles Jimmy asked to post were criticizing "The Da Vinci Code" on the surface, they justified "The Da Vinci Code" inside and outside the words, and at the same time dragged "Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" into the water.

……

When public opinion was rising, Yu Dong quietly went to the Piedmont region of Italy.

The Piedmont region is located on the edge of Italy, close to the Mediterranean Sea, and is the largest wine-making region in Italy.

Yu Dong was going to attend the Grinzana Carver Literary Award Ceremony. He arrived at a small town in the Grinzana Carver area the afternoon before, and was personally received by Salvatore, the chief executive of the Piedmont region. Yu Dong.

It was unplanned for Salvatore to personally receive Yu Dong.

Originally, when they heard that Yu Dong was going to attend the award ceremony, the award committee attached great importance to it, and decided that the vice chairman of the Italian Literature Foundation, Betona, and the person in charge of Sei Publishing House would come to receive Yu Dong together.

But after Salvatore heard the news, he offered to lead the team to meet Yu Dong himself.

Yu Dong didn't know that the local chief executive was here until he saw Salvatore.

Salvatore was very enthusiastic and gave Yu Dong a big hug as soon as they met, "YU, welcome to Piedmont. It is you who make the sunshine in Piedmont so bright."

After listening to the translation, Yu Dong said with a smile, "Mr. Haleb, I heard that when I came here, the sunshine in Piedmont this year is very good, and the grapes this year are a little sweeter than previous years."

These words reached Salvatore's heart at once. He held Yu Dong's arm and said excitedly, "YU, you must try our local wine, and you will never be disappointed. Please Get in the car with me, on the way to the hotel, we will talk while walking."

In this way, Yu Dong was "hijacked" by Salvatore into the car, and then accepted the baptism of "sales" by Salvatore for nearly an hour.

The purpose of Salvatore's coming to receive Yu Dong was very different from that of the vice chairman of the Literary Foundation and the people at the publishing house. His purpose was full of commerciality.

Compared with other European countries, Italy seems to have a special preference for the East.

Although it is well-known in most European countries, its reputation in Italy is very different. Many Italians are obsessed with Dongfang to a crazy point.

Last year, a well-known Italian publishing house conducted a survey asking readers to list their ten favorite books.They collected more than 2000 questionnaires in total, and 100% of the readers listed Yu Dong's books in the list, and even more than [-] readers listed ten books that were all Yu Dong's.

In the end, after statistics, Yu Dong's novel "Xiang Xi" won the most votes, No.2 was "The Crowd", and No.3 was "The Second World".

This result is somewhat unexpected.

In the world, Yu Dong's most famous novel should be "Second World". Because of the movie bonus of the same name with a box office of one billion US dollars, many people who don't usually read books will know this book.

In terms of sales, it should be "Old Book". Although "Old Book" was released a long time later than "Second World", the sales volume has already caught up, firmly sitting on the top spot.

But the most popular in Italy is neither "Second World" nor "Old Books", but "Westward" and "The Crowd".

Last year, Italy's newly established Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities invited Dong Dong and Hua Yu to travel in Italy.

Their intention was obvious. Naturally, they hoped that Yu Dong and Yu Hua, two internationally renowned writers, would come to Italy to have fun, and then write some essays and say something nice to them.

This kind of thing happens all over the world, and Italy is no exception.

It's just that Yu Dong and the others are too busy to accept the invitation.

So when Yu Dong came here this time, Salvatore was of course unwilling to let go of this opportunity, and he kept advocating to Yu Dong how good the Piedmont region was, how beautiful the scenery was, and how pleasant the aroma of red wine was.

I have to say that the Piedmont region is indeed very beautiful. The idyllic scenery here is better than many places in the east. There are buildings that have been preserved for a hundred years everywhere on the road.

These quaint buildings are half hidden in the beautiful countryside, and the interplay of light and shadow really makes people feel like they are in Monet's paintings.

When he was about to arrive at the hotel, Salvatore pointed to a castle in the distance and said, "That is Grizzana Carver Castle, where the award ceremony will be held tomorrow, and the hotel you are staying in is only a few hundred meters away from the castle After dinner, we can go and have a look. Follow the path and pass through the grape fields."

Yu Dong followed what Salvatore pointed out, and there were vineyards all over the castle of Grinzana Carver.

These grapes have not yet reached the harvest time, but looking at the green grapes hanging on the branches, it can be predicted that this year will be a bumper harvest year.

But Yu Dong doesn't really want to see grapes right now, because he has heard grapes too many times along the way. "Are.

The hotel where Yu Dong stayed was actually relatively simple, and it was one of the few places nearby where he could live.

Although the hotel facilities are simple, but the dinner is very pompous, the best wine and the best white truffles, all kinds of Piedmontese local delicacies are served on the table for Yudong to taste.

And every time Yu Dong tasted one, Salvatore would ask him how he felt expectantly.

Those who didn't know, thought Yu Dong was a gourmet.

In fact, Yu Dong didn't have much research on food, so he thought black truffles were okay, but white truffles tasted strange.

After the meal was over, Salvatore took Yu Dong to chat for a long time, and once wanted to take him for a walk outside, but was declined by Yu Dong.

The scenery in the countryside is indeed beautiful, but it is not a good choice to go out at night. Who knows what strange mosquitoes are hidden in the holes in the vegetation.

In the end, Yu Dong couldn't take it anymore, he smiled and said to Salvatore, "Maybe, Deep Space Company can cooperate with the Piedmont region to transport local...such as wine to other places go."

Upon hearing Yu Dong's words, Salvatore clapped his hands and said, "Is there any interest in this field in Deep Space?"

Yu Dong secretly twitched the corners of his mouth. It didn't matter whether he was interested in this field or not. The important thing was that he couldn't bear Salvatore's fatigue bombardment anymore.

He hinted to Salvatore more than once that he needed to rest from the fatigue of the journey, but Salvatore didn't seem to hear it.

"Deep Space Company has relatively few physical businesses, but the wine market is huge, and we can try to cooperate. Mr. Halleb, as you know, the Amazon website of Deep Space Holdings has strong sales capabilities."

"That's right, we..."

Salvatore chatted with Yu Dong for another ten minutes before finally reluctantly leaving - he did not attend the Grizzana Carver Literary Award Ceremony, nor would he live here.

After Salvatore left, Yu Dong couldn't help rubbing his brows with a tired look on his face.

Rossi, who was following him, shook his head with a smile, "Although this Mr. Haleb is very... talkative, he is one of the few chief executives who cares about the people's livelihood in this area."

Yu Dong and Rossi are also old acquaintances. Rossi is Giuseppe's official translator. Every time he goes to China, Giuseppe will bring Rossi with him.

This time when I came to Italy from the east, I called Rossi.

"I didn't expect that I was here to attend the Literary Award Ceremony, but I was dragged by Salvatore into a half-day unilateral business meeting." Yu Dong smiled and shook his head, "They still don't like Deep Space Company very much. Understand, if you understand, you will know that I actually don’t care much about the company’s business.”

Hearing that Yu Dong said that he didn't take much care of the company's business, Rossi was noncommittal, but just smiled and said, "Even if there is no Deep Space Company, I wouldn't be surprised that Salvatore came to you, after all, you are in Italy now. He is so famous. Although he is the governor of the Piedmont District, he can meet you and take a photo, which can also become his bragging capital. If you can praise Piedmont in the article again, then It would be even better. Italy has attached great importance to tourism in recent years, and I believe that the Piedmont region must also have tasks, so Salvatore will be so concerned."

Yu Dong shrugged his shoulders. He has been to many places, but he seldom writes for a certain place. Except for Jinling, Jincheng was written in Yu Dong's essays seriously, and Yu Dong is still there. Jincheng left behind a "Mo Bao".

It is said that the calligraphy left by Yu Dong at the Lanshi Hotel had already been sold for several million yuan... Of course, the hype of calligraphy and painting is very illusory.

As for the painting "Luo Luo", there was indeed someone asking for a price of 400 million if the Lanshi Hotel was willing to part with it.

But the problem is that these words are all from some kind of dinner and wine table, and they can't be taken seriously at all.

If Lanshi Hotel really wanted to sell it, they would naturally not buy it.

I also know that these people are addicted to their mouths, and the Lanshi Hotel also yelled, no matter how much money is paid outside, they will not sell this painting, let alone 400 million, even if it is 4000 million. .

In this way, both sides are bluffing, so the price of this word will be fired up?
But to be honest, if Lanshi is willing to sell for 50 million, there are still people who are willing to buy it.

After all, Yu Dong's calligraphy works are very rare, and "Luo Luo" is an original poem, which of course easily attracts the attention of collectors.

Most importantly, "Luo Luo" still has a story.

For cultural products, stories are the most important. Only with stories can they be sold at a high price.

This story was spread by Lin Ruoqi, the manager of the Lanshi Hotel. He said that Yu Dong wrote this poem under the pseudonym Sanren of Cucumber Garden when he was courting his wife, Cheng Yanqiu, a famous musician.

At that time, Yu Dong admired Cheng Yanqiu, but he was too embarrassed to say it face to face, so he secretly sent a letter to Cheng Yanqiu, which contained this letter.

Cheng Yanqiu liked this poem very much, but he didn't know that it was written by Yu Dong...

The story is purely fictitious, but many people believed it at the time.

Not to mention those people who didn't know the truth, even Cheng Yanqiu's aunt asked Yu Dong if they were true after seeing the rumor, and she was quite disappointed when she found out that it wasn't true.

Now Salvatore is looking for Yu Dong. On the one hand, he wants to cooperate with the Deep Space Company through Yu Dong, and on the other hand, he may also want Yu Dong to help bring the goods.With Yu Dong's current reputation, as long as he wants to, he can naturally sell Piedmont's wines better with a few words.

"Writing essays for Piedmont is unlikely, but maybe I will write a novel set in Italy later?"

Yu Dong just said it casually, but Rossi said excitedly, "Really, is it really possible for you to write a novel with Italy as the background?"

Probably because he didn't expect Rossi's reaction to be so strong, Yu Dong twitched the corner of his mouth and said with a smile, "Anything is possible, maybe I'll be inspired once I come here."

Rossi said full of expectations, "I hope you will be inspired. Italian readers like you very much. If they can see that you have written a novel set in Italy, they must be very happy."

In fact, Yu Dong still doesn't know why the Italians like him so much. He tried to analyze the reason, but he couldn't figure it out.

Italy is not even the main marketing place of Deep Space Corporation, but Yudong's loyal readers here exceed those of Britain, France and Germany.

Before, Deep Space Company wanted to use the upcoming movie "The Beautiful Legend of Sicily" to promote Yu Dong, but later found that Yu Dong's reputation in Italy was better than Giuseppe's, and later relied on "Widow of the Widow" "Death" made a wave of publicity for "The Beautiful Legend of Sicily".

Of course, they not only liked Yu Dong, but also Yu Hua more.

In addition to France, Italy is also Yu Hua's big "ticket warehouse". "To Live" has sold more than 60 copies in Italy.

It is precisely because Italian readers love him so much that he was invited by the Grinzaner Carver Literary Award this time, so he will take the time to come here. His time is very tight, and the signing of the new book is only held. It's not easy to come here once.

The Grinzaner Carver Literary Award has awarded the International Fiction Award to two Chinese writers, Yu Hua and Yu Dong, for two consecutive years. In addition to literary factors, there must be considerations in this regard-they also hope to award the Raise the profile of this award for a popular writer.

This is also what the Grinzana Carver Literary Award has been doing. In addition to the regular awards, they have also set up other special awards, which are awarded all over the world for the purpose of publicity around the world.

"Go to bed early, I was quarreled by Salvatore today and I have a headache, and now I urgently need to sleep with my head covered."

Yu Dong yawned, told Rossi and went back to his room. He needs to catch up on his sleep. After attending the awards ceremony tomorrow, he will go back to China immediately.