1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Later, Akina Nakamori started to think about how to sing "Fireworks" well. Zhou Yan didn't accompany her anymore, and she stayed in the recording studio alone.

On the afternoon of March 10th, Zhou Yan took some time to go to the recording studio to see how Akina Nakamori was practicing. As soon as he returned to the office, the phone rang.

Zhou Yan walked over and answered the phone, "Who is this?"

"Mr. Zhou, it's me, Liu Wenwu." A steady voice came from the other end of the phone.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Boss Liu, is there any progress on the project?"

He was asking about the "Yongzheng Dynasty" project, which Zhou Yan had been keeping an eye on since the end of last year, but there had been no news.

Liu Wenwu sighed slightly, "There is progress, but it's not a good one. After discussion, CCTV decided not to take on this project."

In fact, this project was originally initiated by Liu Xinwu alone.

From purchasing the film and television adaptation rights for the novel to finding a screenwriter later on, he not only paid for it himself, but also did everything himself.

After more than two years of preparatory work, he contacted CCTV through Wu Zhaolong in the team and wanted to make this project a CCTV project.

Wu Zhaolong is an editor of CCTV and joined the creation of "The Yongzheng Dynasty" as an individual.

Originally, everything was going smoothly, but after CCTV went through a series of internal processes, it was ultimately determined that the project was too risky and decided to abandon it.

The so-called high risk is mainly because we don’t know whether the drama can be broadcast in the end. If the drama cannot be broadcast in the end, then all the money will be wasted.

When Zhou Yan heard what Liu Wenwu said, he was not worried but very happy because it would make it easier for their studio to participate in the project.

"CCTV has decided not to cooperate. It seems they have their own plans. So what are your plans now, Mr. Liu?" Zhou Yan asked.

"I plan to stick to the original plan and raise money myself," said Liu Wenwu.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Boss Liu, can't we just solve the money issue between the two of us?"

Liu Wenwu was quite surprised to hear Zhou Yan say this, "Boss Zhou, are you still willing to cooperate with me?"

"Why not? I said I'm optimistic about this project."

"But now CCTV has stopped accepting this project."

Liu Wenwu believes that the reason why Zhou Yan is interested in this project is because of its relationship with CCTV.

Zhou Yan contacted him after they discussed cooperation with CCTV.

Now that CCTV has decided not to take on this project, it seems that there is no need for Zhou Yan to cooperate with him.

"No, no, no, my acceptance of this project has nothing to do with CCTV. Now that CCTV is not accepting it, our cooperation will be easier."

"Mr. Zhou, you have to think carefully. CCTV didn't accept this project because it might not be broadcast. In other words, even if we shoot the TV series, there might not be a TV station that can broadcast it."

If CCTV can't broadcast it, other TV stations may not be able to do so either.

The key point is that there are only a few TV stations that can broadcast such a large TV series.

The reason why Liu Wenwu sighed just now was because of this.

Zhou Yan smiled and thought to himself that Liu Wenwu was a very honest person who was willing to speak out the ugly truth first.

If it were someone else, they might really feel like backing off because of Liu Wenwu's words, but Zhou Yan would never do that.

Even if it is because of the butterfly effect, and "The Yongzheng Dynasty" is not broadcast in this life, or is not broadcast on CCTV, Zhou Yan does not care.

Because he cares about the project itself, it is very important for the TV drama department to be involved in the project itself.

"Boss Liu, don't worry about this. Even if no one wants to broadcast the TV series after it's finished, I won't have any complaints."

Liu Wenwu pondered for a moment and said, "In this case, it would be petty for me to say anything discouraging. How about this, after we finalize the script, we can discuss how to cooperate in detail. What do you think, Mr. Zhou?"

"Has the script not been finalized yet?"

"Well, there are still some unsatisfactory parts. Liu Heping and I are working on fixing them. It shouldn't take long."

"You guys took a long time to prepare." Zhou Yan said with emotion.

It has been nearly three years since Liu Wenwu bought the film and television adaptation rights, and the script has not been completed yet. It is indeed quite slow.

Liu Wenwu thought Zhou Yan was worried about the production cycle, so he smiled and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Zhou, these are just minor issues and will be resolved within ten days. I'm already looking for a suitable director, and we can proceed on two fronts without delaying the production cycle."

Zhou Yan thought for a moment and asked, "Is it convenient for me to go and take a look?"

Hearing this, Liu Wenwu did not hesitate at all, and even said with a little excitement, "Of course no problem, you are welcome anytime."

"Where are you?"

"We are in a guesthouse in Xiaoxitian."

"What's the exact location and name of the guesthouse?"

"Ruiqi Guesthouse is just opposite Xinghuo Primary School, south of Wenhuiyuan Road."

Zhou Yan looked at his watch and saw that it was three o'clock, so he said, "Okay, I'll be there right away."

The main thing is that this location is not far from the studio, only a few kilometers, so it is very convenient to go there.

"Okay, I'm here in the guesthouse right now, room number is 202," said Liu Wenwu.

……

Afterwards, Zhou Yan did not waste any time and asked the driver to take him to the place Liu Wenwu mentioned.

The location is easy to find. Just turn from Xinjiekou Street toward Wenhuiyuan Road and it’s only about three or four hundred meters away, you will see the Ruiqi Guesthouse that Liu Wenwu mentioned.

Zhou Yan asked the driver to go back first and went into the guesthouse alone.

The conditions of the guesthouse are average. It looks shabby from the outside and is also very simple inside.

Zhou Yan went straight up to the second floor, found room 202, and knocked on the door.

As soon as the door was knocked, a voice came, "Coming."

Soon, the door opened from the inside.

The person who opened the door was a short, unkempt man in his forties.

Zhou Yan recognized the man as Liu Heping.

But before he could speak, Liu Heping spoke first, "Teacher Zhou, nice to meet you."

At this time, Liu Wenwu also came over from behind, "Mr. Zhou, I'm Liu Wenwu, this is Liu Heping."

He was afraid that Zhou Yan didn't know them, so he took the initiative to introduce himself.

Zhou Yan smiled and shook hands with each of them. "I've heard a lot about you. I'm sorry to have caused you trouble by my sudden visit."

"No, no, it's just that our environment here is simple, I hope Mr. Zhou won't mind."

The environment was indeed simple. The room was not big, with two 1.2-meter-wide beds. The whole room was a mess, with all kinds of books and documents everywhere, and there was not even much room to step. The key point was that they smoked, and the room smelled like old smokers. It was really uncomfortable when I first came in.

Liu Wenwu found a chair for Zhou Yan and then poured him a cup of tea. "The conditions are simple, and there is no good tea."

Zhou Yan took the cup and said with a smile: "I can see that you have been here for quite a long time."

"It's mainly him. He's lived here for a few months and almost didn't go back for the New Year. The rest of us don't usually live here."

After Liu Wenwu finished speaking, he took out a box of cigarettes and offered it to Zhou Yan first. Zhou Yan waved his hand to indicate that he didn't smoke, so he threw another one to Liu Heping.

Soon, the two began to smoke.

Liu Heping smiled and said, "Fortunately, it went very smoothly overall."

“It was really going smoothly.”

In fact, the script had already been written for 27 episodes before Liu Heping came to Yanjing, but Liu Wenwu felt that the structure of the script needed to be improved.

Therefore, Liu Wenwu specially brought Liu Heping to Yanjing, and then formed a planning team to assist Liu Heping in completing the script writing.

"Teacher Zhou, would you like to take a look at the script?" Liu Wenwu took the initiative to ask Zhou Yan to take a look at the script.

Before this, Zhou Yan had only seen one version of the planning proposal and had not seen the complete script. After all, the script had not been released before.

"Of course." Zhou Yan smiled. This was also the purpose of his trip.

Liu Wenwu had prepared a script in advance and gave it to Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan took the script and said with a smile, "Then I'll read the script first."

"Mr. Zhou, look, don't worry about us."

Zhou Yan nodded and began to read the script carefully.

Zhou Yan was reading the script, while Liu Wenwu and Liu Heping were smoking and observing Zhou Yan.

They had both seen Zhou Yan on TV before, and when they met him in person this time, they were amazed at how handsome he was, as if he had walked out of the TV.

Liu Wenwu is 34 years old this year, only seven years younger than Zhou Yan, but when the two stand together, it feels like they are a dozen years apart.

Such an incredibly handsome young man has turned out to be a well-known director, musician, and even a famous writer both at home and abroad.

Although the two of them did not have time to read Zhou Yan's new book due to script issues, they knew how popular "Never Let Me Go" was recently.

Several other people in the planning team have mentioned this book when chatting these days.

Liu Wenwu had read Zhou Yan's "Tree Hole". At that time, he didn't know Zhou Yan and thought that the author "Zhou Chan" was at least a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties. He didn't expect that he was actually a young man in his twenties.

If you think about it, when Zhou Yan wrote "Tree Hole", he was at most 21 years old, or even younger.

After all, the publication of a novel must be later than the time it was written. As for how much time difference there is, no one knows. Maybe Zhou Yan was not even 20 years old when he wrote "Tree Hole".

Liu Heping has also watched "Tree Hole". Not only has he watched "Tree Hole", he has also studied the movie "Tree Hole". He really studied it, studying the movie "Tree Hole" segment by segment, and also studying its script.

Now that Zhou Yan has come to read the script, Liu Heping is also very curious about how Zhou Yan will evaluate their script.

Zhou Yan read the script so quickly that Liu Heping and Liu Wenwu were surprised.

Both of them are engaged in writing work. Liu Wenwu used to be an editor. His reading speed is faster than that of ordinary people, but Zhou Yan's reading speed still makes him feel ashamed.

When he came across a passage with few words, Zhou Yan would just glance at it and turn the page.

The speed was so fast that one wondered whether he had read the script carefully.

The reason why Zhou Yan read so fast was, on the one hand, that his reading speed exceeded that of ordinary people, and on the other hand, he had watched "The Yongzheng Dynasty" and knew the plot. The script he had in his hands now was not much different from the final TV series.

It is normal to have differences. There is no TV series script in the world that is exactly the same as the final film, and modifications will definitely occur during filming.

When seeing the same things, Zhou Yan would look faster, but when seeing different things, he would slow down a little.

Among these different places, Zhou Yan thought that some were better in the previous life, and that this version was good for some other places. During the reading process, he wrote down the places that he thought were better in the previous life version.

By the time Zhou Yan finished reading the script, it was not yet six o'clock.

After reading it, Zhou Yan breathed a sigh of relief, and Liu Heping and Liu Wenwu beside him looked over.

Meeting their eyes, Zhou Yan exclaimed, "This script is very good."

Hearing Zhou Yan's praise, the two of them seemed to have taken a reassurance pill and continued to look at Zhou Yan with expectant eyes.

But after Zhou Yan said this, he didn't say anything else.

Liu Wenwu was stunned. "No more?"

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "This script has so many advantages that I can't tell you all of them at once. Besides, you two don't want to hear those compliments from me today, right?"

Now Liu Wenwu came to his senses and realized that Zhou Yan had some opinions about the script.

He didn't mind listening to other people's opinions, so he asked, "Does Mr. Zhou have any suggestions?"

Since Liu Wenwu asked, Zhou Yan didn't beat around the bush and said directly, "There are indeed a few places..."

As he spoke, he flipped open the script, pointed to one place, and said, "The other places are just minor problems. This one is really a bit long-winded."

They both stretched their heads to look, and then looked at each other with surprise in their eyes.

The reason they were surprised was because this was the issue they had been discussing these days.

The original plot in the book was that Liu Molin had to pass three levels to meet Su Shunqing and play the piano to show his talent. The novel wrote it in great detail and with great visuals, but the script didn't work.

They thought of many ways together, but none of them worked, and they were at a loss.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Yan could see the problem with such a long script at a glance.

But if you think about it from another perspective, the problem in this place is indeed serious, so serious that people can see it at a glance.

"I don't know, what's the problem here, what suggestions does Mr. Zhou have?"

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "I suggest that we simplify this paragraph."

"This..." Liu Wenwu was a little reluctant, because this part of the original novel was very well written.

Zhou Yan smiled and said nothing. He didn't necessarily have to convince Liu Wenwu.

He turned to another page, "This place..."

Seeing Zhou Yan skipping the area in front, Liu Wenwu suddenly became anxious and grabbed Zhou Yan's hand, "Boss Zhou, is there really no way to fix that area?"

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Anyway, I don't have any good ideas. The final decision still depends on you. I am only responsible for raising questions, not solving them."

After hearing what Zhou Yan said, Liu Wenwu sighed, "Okay." (End of this chapter)