Literary Master 1978

"Me? How do I understand movies?"

"It doesn't matter if you don't understand. You can learn. Otherwise, why do you think I specially arranged for you to go to New Kunlun?"

Lin Chaoyang suddenly said these words to Tao Yushu, and she couldn't react for a while.

She resigned due to pregnancy. Although she came to Xiangjiang, she still wanted to return to her old job in the future.

Lin Chaoyang knew what she was thinking, and said with a smile: "There is no conflict between making movies, newspapers, and publishing. They are all cultural industries. In the future, if newspapers, magazines, and film companies catch you, you may become a strong woman in the new era!"

Hearing this, Tao Yushu couldn't help but rolled her eyes at him, "The more you talk about it, the more outrageous it becomes!"

After returning to his new home, Tao Yushu wandered around a little uncomfortable, but Tao Yumo was very excited.

"Sister, this house is much more comfortable than living in a courtyard. Is it really as expensive as Mrs. Li said?"

The sisters Tao Yushu and Zhang Cuiying chatted about houses when they went shopping. From Zhang Cuiying, they learned that the house price in Oriental Garden has reached 700 Hong Kong dollars per square foot, which translates into 6,300 Hong Kong dollars per square meter.

The market price of the house that Lin Chaoyang and his family live in is as high as more than 600,000. This is the price after the housing prices in Xiangjiang plummeted two years ago.

At the beginning of this year, housing prices in Xiangjiang were on the rise. Zhang Cuiying said that if the guarantees were not enough, the prices would rise within a few months.

"You have to ask your brother-in-law about this, I don't know about it either."

Lin Chaoyang said: "Xiangjiang has a small land and a large population, and the economic development is overheating. It is inevitable that housing prices will be high."

"People in Xiangjiang are really rich!" Tao Yumo sighed.

Lin Chaoyang said helplessly: "For ordinary working-class people, three to four thousand Hong Kong dollars a month is enough. Buying a house is not that easy. Now that the statement is issued and the situation has stabilized, housing prices in Hong Kong will definitely rise again. It’s the common people who are suffering.”

Tao Yushu asked: "By the way, Chaoyang, what about the rent?"

Li Hanxiang and his wife helped Lin Chaoyang arrange a place to live, and all daily necessities were fully prepared. Money was not mentioned at all.

"Let's talk about it later. The love I inherited from Old Li this time will definitely be repaid in the future."

Tao Yushu nodded and understood what Lin Chaoyang meant. It was easy to repay the borrowed money, but not so easy to repay the favor debt.

Sleeping on the new bed at night, Tao Yushu tossed and turned.

The longest time she had been away from home in her life was to go to the countryside. Now she suddenly came to Xiangjiang. It was incredible to think about it.

Seeing her like this, Lin Chaoyang pulled her to comfort her for a few words, and then the couple talked about their next life in Xiangjiang.

Living in the city is not easy, and money is of course the first priority.

Last month, Huacheng Publishing House settled another royalty payment for "Crossing Guandong".

Within half a year of publication, the cumulative sales of "Crossing Guandong" have exceeded the 3.1 million mark. This royalty settlement once again brought Lin Chaoyang 380,000 yuan in royalties. This time the royalties also increased the couple's bank deposits to more than 1.65 million. Yuan.

Unfortunately, the money cannot be taken out of the country.

Fortunately, "The Death of Van Gogh" was published in Hong Kong before. Although the royalties were compulsorily settled in foreign exchange, a 10% share was left to Lin Chaoyang. Now there is more than 40,000 Hong Kong dollars left, which is enough for Lin Chaoyang and his family to live in Hong Kong for several months. .

In another month, the royalties from the novels "The Death of Van Gogh", "Enter Guandong" and "The Chess Master" will be settled one after another.

By that time, their funds will be much more abundant.

Tao Yushu listened to Lin Chaoyang's words, and his originally uneasy heart gradually calmed down.

In the next two days, Lin Chaoyang took Tao Yushu and his sisters to get familiar with the surrounding environment, and walked around Xiangjiang to adapt to the local customs and customs.

Then Tao Yushu couldn't stand idle anymore and planned to go to Li Hanxiang's New Kunlun Pictures.

Although she came to Xiangjiang with an appointment letter issued by New Kunlun Pictures, she did not actually need to work.

But Tao Yushu just couldn't stay idle, and took the bus to the New Kunlun Film Studio on Lockhart Road early that morning. Lin Chaoyang was worried about her and went with her specially.

New Kunlun Pictures is a leather company. An office of less than 30 square meters is divided into three small rooms. The clerks and finance are in the same room. There is also a reception room. The last room is the office of Li Hanxiang and his wife. .

Tao Yushu had nothing to do when he went there. He just had a casual chat with Zhang Cuiying and listened to her talk about things in the Hong Kong film industry.

Another day later was the weekend, and Lin Chaoyang took Tao Yushu to Li Hanxiang's house for a party.

This party was different from the last one. Last time it was a celebration banquet held by Li Hanxiang for "Curtain Curtain", but this time it was a welcome party specially prepared by Li Hanxiang for Lin Chaoyang. For this purpose, he specially called many friends in the film industry.

Hu Jinquan, Yue Hua, Cai Lam, Ti Long, Xu Guanwen...

When Lin Chaoyang and his wife first entered the house, Tao Yushu was dazzled just by Li Hanxiang introducing a circle of acquaintances and friends, but Lin Chaoyang smiled and chatted with these people one by one as usual.

Mainly because most of these people are familiar faces to Lin Chaoyang, and future generations will have heard of their names even if they have not seen the works they participated in.

Today's party has more than ten people, all of whom can be said to be Li Hanxiang's most trusted friends. Moreover, these people are well-known in the Hong Kong film and television industry. Being able to bring them together shows Li Hanxiang's sincerity today.

Li Hanxiang, nicknamed Li Hei, has a bold personality and is informal when getting along with these friends. Today, most of these people are meeting Lin Chaoyang for the first time.

After introducing both parties, he talked about his relationship with everyone present.

Hu Jinquan is Li Hanxiang's sworn brother, and Lin Chaoyang has watched "Dragon Gate Inn" (not "New Dragon Gate Inn") and "Chivalrous Girl" directed by him.

Yue Hua and Ti Lung both started acting in martial arts films. Yue Hua's "The Drunken Man" is a classic, and Ti Lung has many more masterpieces.

Cai Lam is a writer and gourmet. He worked at Shaw Brothers in his early years and helped Li Hanxiang's crew.

Xu Guanwen started his career with "The Warlord" directed by Li Hanxiang...

After a detailed review of the past, the distance between everyone has become much closer.

Yue Hua is a fan of Lin Chaoyang's books. Although he became famous in Xiangjiang, he was actually born in Shanghai and raised in Guangzhou. He also loves reading in private.

Later, Li Hanxiang made Deng Youmei's novel "Smoke Pot" into a movie, which was the novel introduced to him by Yue Hua.

Lin Chaoyang has published three novels in Xiangjiang: "The Death of Van Gogh", "Enter Guandong" and "The Master of Chess", and Yue Hua has bought and read them all.

Therefore, after meeting Lin Chaoyang, he was very attentive and chatted with Lin Chaoyang for a long time, which felt a bit like a fan meeting an idol.

After talking about his feelings about Lin Chaoyang's novels, Yue Hua became concerned about Lin Chaoyang's new work.

"I wonder if you have any plans for your new work? When will we, the readers, have a look at it?"

Lin Chaoyang replied with a smile: "I finished writing "Enter Guandong" at the end of the year before last and took a break for more than a year. Now I am writing the new work. If it is quick, it should be completed in a month or two. As for the publication, it will definitely be postponed for some time. ”

Yue Hua immediately beamed when he heard this, "That's great."

Then out of curiosity about the mainland literary scene, Yue Hua inquired with Lin Chaoyang about some of his favorite writers, almost all of whom were acquaintances of Lin Chaoyang.

"We just met Deng Youmei a few days ago."

"I met Yao Xueyin twice. I remember it was during the Mao Dun Literature Award in 1982."

"Wu Zuxiang is a neighbor of my father-in-law's house. He taught me a lot in the early years. It's a pity that the old gentleman has stopped writing for many years."

"I have met Ba Jin, but I'm not familiar with him. His daughter Li Xiaolin has edited and reviewed my novels before."

…

When Yue Hua took Lin Chaoyang to chat, the others were also chatting separately, but they all paid special attention to him.

The people who came today are relatively veteran filmmakers. Most of them have backgrounds growing up in the Mainland. They usually get together to chat, and mostly speak Mandarin. They are very welcoming to Lin Chaoyang, a Mainland writer.

Everyone also knows that Li Hanxiang organized such a party today because of Lin Chaoyang.

Many of the famous mainland literary figures that Lin Chaoyang and Yue Hua talked about were famous before the founding of the People's Republic of China, and many people present had heard of them.

Listening to Lin Chaoyang talking about the figures in the mainland literary world like a treasure trove, everyone was a little surprised that he had such a wide network of contacts at his age.

Yue Hua was so happy to see that he was hunting, and he pulled Lin Chaoyang to chat endlessly. Li Hanxiang took advantage of Lin Chaoyang's drinking time and interjected:

"Chaoyang is not only famous in the mainland, but also famous in Xiangjiang and Wandao."

Lin Chaoyang quickly said something modest, and then said: "I don't have a good reputation in Wandao!"

Everyone burst into laughter after hearing this.

Last year, Lin Chaoyang went to Xiangjiang to accept the award and caused a lot of news. Naturally, everyone understood the meaning of his words.

After chatting for a while, Lin Chaoyang heard that Hu Jinquan was concerned about the contract between Di Long and Shaw Brothers. Di Long looked sad when he talked about it.

Ti Lung entered the Shaw Brothers Southern Actor Training School in 1968. In less than a year, he became famous by starring in the film "Dead Spot" directed by Chang Cheh.

For more than ten years since then, Ti Lung has been a popular niche student of Shaw Brothers, with a prosperous career and popular in Southeast Asia.

However, everything has advantages and disadvantages. Ti Lung has a heroic face, and most of his movies are martial arts and action movies. Over the years, his acting career has gradually solidified.

After the early 1980s, his career began to decline.

This year, his contract with Shaw Brothers will expire. Ti Lung, who wants to return to the top, does not intend to renew his contract with Shaw Brothers, so he has no job during this period.

"Shaw Brothers' style has really remained unchanged for so many years!" Hu Jinquan sighed.

In his early years, he worked on the studios of major film companies in Hong Kong, and also served as Li Hanxiang's assistant director. It was only in the 1960s that he made his own career.

In the mid-1970s, his directorial career was at its peak, and he successively produced many masterpieces in film history such as "Dragon Gate Inn", "The Heroine", "Spiritual Rain in the Sky" and "Legend of the Mountain".

In 1976, he was selected as one of the "Five Greatest Directors in the World" by the British "International Film Guide".

Over the years, the focus of his career has been on the Bay Island. This time he came to Hong Kong because the Hong Kong Film and Cultural Center organized the "Kim Chun Hu Retrospective Film Festival" for him this month. To a certain extent, it was a return to his hometown in glory and glory.

"Shao..." Cai Lan seemed to sigh, but his words were very restrained.

He also worked at Shaw Brothers a few years ago, and thus became associated with Li Hanxiang. After the 1980s, Shaw's right-hand man, Zou Wenhuai, left to establish Golden Harvest Pictures, and Chua Lam also left.

In the past few years, he has been prosperous in Jiahe. Last year he just supervised the production of Cheng Long's "Fast Truck", which ranked fifth in the annual box office rankings last year.

Li Hanxiang couldn't help laughing at this time, "So many talented people have been driven away by Shaw Brothers. Mr. Shao Liu probably can't sleep every day when he thinks about this."

Everyone couldn't help laughing again when they heard this.

It was evening, Li Hanxiang started to prepare wine and food, and said to Cai Lan:

"Don't you always like to eat? Chaoyang's cooking skills are also top-notch. You two will each make a dish tonight, and we will all taste it. Whoever cooks the best, we will call him a 'gourmet'."

Cai Lan looked at Lin Chaoyang unexpectedly, and he didn't expect that Lin Chaoyang actually shared the same hobby with him.

Others heard this and started to make a fuss, wanting to see the two's cooking skills.

Lin Chaoyang and Cai Lan smiled at each other, and Lin Chaoyang said, "Then let's learn from each other."

"Okay."

The ingredients in Li Hanxiang's house were all ready-made, and he bought a lot of things for today's party.

The two rolled up their sleeves, washed their hands, and each picked the ingredients they wanted to use, but there was only one set of kitchen utensils. They were humble to each other, and finally Cai Lan took the first step.

He picked some bean sprouts first, and then picked a piece of high-quality beef imported from Australia. Before he started to cut, he first filled a pot of water and put it on the stove to boil, and then he started to deal with the beef.

He sliced ​​the beef at a steady pace, showing that he was an expert. Everyone watched his movements with interest.

Before the water boiled, the beef was already sliced, with distinct slices and uniform thickness.

After the water boiled, add Japanese soy sauce. After the soy sauce boiled again, add a few pieces of chopped ginger. At this time, the soup in the pot was turbid, so throw the beef in and immediately use a strainer to scoop out the meat.

When the soup boiled again, add bean sprouts. When it boiled for the third time, put the beef that had just been blanched in.

"It's done!" Cai Lan said when the aroma in the kitchen was already fragrant. After serving the dish, he smiled and said to everyone, "Everyone, try it!"

Everyone was eager to try it. Li Hanxiang was impatient and took a bite of the beef with chopsticks and commented, "The taste is a bit bland."

After he tasted it, others tasted it and generally gave good comments. In the end, everyone concluded that Li Hei was only worthy of eating meat.