1990: Starting from Baojia Street

After the slogan "Keep the championship in the East" came out, it fermented for a few days and spread more and more widely.

The impact on the box office has already begun to show, but it will take some time to see how it will develop in detail.

On May 28, after Liu Hang reported the box office data of "Time Traveler" in Japan, he talked about the situation in Hong Kong.

"The pre-sale of movie tickets is very good. The data we have obtained now shows that the pre-sale box office has reached two million."

Zhou Yan didn’t know what the pre-sale level of two million was exactly. He had never paid attention to these data before.

"Are the pre-sale ticket prices all for the 30th?"

"No, 60% came from the 30th, 30% came from the 31st, 8% came from June 1st, and the remaining 2% came from all other days combined."

"Time Traveler" is scheduled to premiere on May 30th, so the most popular pre-sale tickets now are naturally those for May 30th.

The 31st was a Saturday, and there were a lot of people watching the movie, and quite a lot of people bought tickets in advance.

"So if you calculate it this way, the first weekend box office is close to two million."

"It can be said that the next few days will be the peak period for ticket sales, so the box office for the first weekend should be far more than two million."

Zhou Yan nodded and said, "Tell me after the first weekend box office figures come out. Don't report the relevant situation before then."

"OK, all right."

"How far has the piano boy's concert in Hong Kong in July progressed?" Zhou Yan asked.

"Almost everything has been arranged. When the Hong Kong side learned that we were going to perform, they welcomed us very much and even suggested increasing the original four performances to ten."

"Ten shows is not enough. They have other performances."

"Well, I also said this to the other party, and they also expressed their understanding."

This time, the piano youth orchestra’s performance in Hong Kong was not an individual project of their studio, but a collective activity carried out in conjunction with the Ministry of Culture.

In addition to the Piano Youth Orchestra, many cultural groups from the mainland also go to Hong Kong to promote exchanges between the two sides.

The Writers Association is also going to send a group to Hong Kong to participate in a literary exchange meeting between the two places. Vice Chairman Tie Ning personally called Zhou Yan and asked if Zhou Yan was willing to go with the team, but Zhou Yan has not yet agreed.

Their writers association attaches great importance to this exchange meeting and wants to send some truly influential writers there, rather than selecting people based on their qualifications.

If people were to be selected based on influence, then basically those selected would be young and middle-aged writers. Perhaps in order to get Zhou Yan's agreement, Tie Ning specifically mentioned on the phone that they also planned to invite Yu Hua to participate in this literary exchange group.

Perhaps in Tie Ning's opinion, Zhou Yan and Yu Hua have a close relationship, and the two will decide whether to join this group based on each other.

In addition, Tie Ning also asked Zhou Yan directly whether he was willing to be the team leader.

Zhou Yan replied that even if he joined this literary exchange group, he would not be able to serve as the group leader.

Tie Ning felt a little regretful when she heard that Zhou Yan didn't want to be the team leader. She believed that as the most influential writer of the younger generation, Zhou Yan's role as team leader had special significance, symbolizing that China's literary world was thriving.

Zhou Yan was not afraid that he would not be able to control the situation. No matter how senior or junior those people in the Writers Association were, he would say a few nice words to praise them if he was happy, but if he was unhappy, he would not even look at them.

The main thing is to do your job. Since you are a team leader, you must take responsibility and not just sit there doing nothing and make a fool of yourself.

After Liu Hang finished his work report, Zhou Yan looked at his watch. It was already ten forty, almost time for lunch, so he wanted to take advantage of this time to watch the orchestra rehearse.

In the practice room where Zhou Yan's band was, the band was rehearsing a segment of "Eternal Night".

Due to its high difficulty, "Eternal Night" appears frequently in rehearsals. The level of an orchestra mainly depends on the performance of such difficult songs.

For songs like "Eternal Night", they basically kept rehearsing intensively.

After listening to them practice together for a while, Zhou Yan looked around and asked, "Where is your leader?"

"Sister Xiu has asked for leave today."

"Oh, yes, she's getting married."

Fang Xiu is getting married on May 31st. Zhou Yan has already received the invitation. He happens to have nothing to do in the next two days, so he will probably attend the wedding.

"Since Fang Xiu is quite busy recently, please take care of the rehearsals during this period, Yue Lin."

Yue Lin is the conductor of the orchestra. He may have a better overall understanding of the orchestra than Fang Xiu, so it is reasonable to let him arrange rehearsals.

During normal rehearsals, although Fang Xiu, the band leader, was in charge of the arrangements, Fang Xiu mainly referred to Yue Lin's opinions. After all, the orchestra basically followed the rhythm of the conductor.

"No problem, brother."

Zhou Yan nodded, didn't say anything else, turned around and walked out of the practice room.

But before he had gone far, Li Biru caught up with him from behind.

"Senior brother, senior brother."

Zhou Yan turned around and asked with a puzzled look, "What's wrong, Biru?"

"I……"

Seeing that Li Biru was hesitant to speak, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Why, do you want to ask me for a raise?"

"It's not my business, it's Sister Xiu's business."

"What happened to your sister Xiu?" Zhou Yan asked curiously, "Didn't she take a leave to go back and take care of her wedding?"

Li Biru sighed slightly, "She went back to take care of the wedding. She had everything ready, but something went wrong today, so she had to ask for leave."

"What happened?" Zhou Yan asked.

"Sister Xiu didn't let me tell you." Li Biru muttered.

Zhou Yan looked at Li Biru without saying anything, waiting for her to speak again.

If Li Biru really listened to Fang Xiu, she wouldn't have rushed out to find him now.

After being stared at by Zhou Yan for a while, Li Biru stammered, "Originally, they had already booked a restaurant for the wedding banquet, and everything was fine, but today the restaurant owner suddenly changed his mind and said that they would not use the restaurant. If this situation had happened earlier, it would have been more troublesome to find another restaurant, but it wouldn't have been a big problem. But today is already the 28th, and the date is almost here. It's not easy to find a suitable restaurant on the spur of the moment."

There are many hotels in Yanjing, but there are fewer suitable for wedding banquets. There are many people getting married during this period, so it is not easy to book a hotel on the spur of the moment. If you go to find a hotel on the spur of the moment, you may not be able to find a satisfactory one, and it may cost a lot more.

I have to say that this restaurant owner is really unkind. He was not afraid of someone falling when he removed the ladder temporarily.

It is very likely that no agreement was signed in advance, so Fang Xiu has no way to restrain the other party now.

This is only because he hasn't met someone with a stubborn mind or a bad temper, otherwise his store would have been smashed.

After a moment's silence, Zhou Yan asked Li Biru, "Can you contact your sister Xiu now?"

"I know she's at Yanshi University looking for her husband Zou Yong. I have Zou Yong's office phone number."

Zhou Yan nodded. "Go call Zou Yong now. If Fang Xiu is there, ask her to put down everything she is doing and come to my office."

"Okay, brother, I'll make the call right away."

Li Biru smiled. Having been in the orchestra for so many years, she naturally knew what Zhou Yan meant by this was to help Fang Xiu solve the hotel problem.

In fact, when Li Biru first knew about this, she told Fang Xiu not to bother looking for a place herself, but to go directly to Senior Brother Zhou and ask him to help find a restaurant.

With Brother Zhou's ability, solving the restaurant problem would definitely be a piece of cake.

However, Fang Xiu asked Li Biru not to tell Zhou Yan. Fang Xiu told Li Biru that she could of course go to Zhou Yan shamelessly, and she also believed that Zhou Yan would and was able to help her.

But she is the leader of the band. If she takes the lead in asking Zhou Yan for help in solving personal matters, will everyone follow suit in the future?
There are about 200 people in the entire orchestra now. Occasionally, someone comes to Zhou Yan for help, and Zhou Yan will be annoyed to death every day.

Therefore, she had to set a good example and not bother Zhou Yan with such personal matters.

……

An hour later, Fang Xiu came to Zhou Yan's office.

"Senior brother, are you looking for me?"

Zhou Yan had just finished his meal and was reading a newspaper. When he saw Fang Xiu, he did not mention the marriage first, but asked, "It's noon, have you eaten yet?"

Fang Xiu was stunned. She was a little confused by Zhou Yan's question.

On the phone, Li Biru told her that Brother Zhou Yan was very angry when he learned that she had suddenly asked for leave, and asked her to come back quickly.

So, after receiving the call, she hurried back.

"I...haven't had time to eat yet."

Zhou Yan looked at his watch, stood up and said, "It's not too late yet, there should be food in the cafeteria."

The cafeteria in their studio serves lunch quite early, and most people finish their lunch between 11 and 11:30. It is already past 11:50 now, and the cafeteria is basically empty. However, the cafeteria usually keeps the food until around 1 o'clock.

After saying that, Zhou Yan walked out the door.

When he reached the corridor, Fang Xiu was still standing there in a daze.

"What are you standing there for? Let's go eat. The cafeteria made braised pork today. If you're lucky, you can have some."

……

Fang Xiu was lucky. When they arrived at the cafeteria, there was still an extra portion of braised pork, and Kong Chao gave it all to her.

After finishing their meal, they found a seat and sat down. Fang Xiu did not rush to eat, but looked at Zhou Yan puzzledly.

"Let's talk after we finish eating." Zhou Yan said with a smile.

Even though Fang Xiu was confused, she could only listen to Zhou Yan and eat first.

She was also exhausted. When she received the news that the hotel had broken the contract in the morning, she first ran to have an argument with the hotel owner, but to no avail. Then she went to find Zou Yong to discuss what to do.

Before I could come to a conclusion, I received a call from Li Biru and ran back in a hurry.

She was already hungry, and she didn't want to keep Zhou Yan waiting for too long, so she finished her meal very quickly, then wiped her mouth and said, "Brother, I'm done."

Zhou Yan nodded, looked around the cafeteria, and then asked, "Fang Xiu, what do you think of holding a wedding in our cafeteria?"

"Our cafeteria..." Fang Xiu was halfway through her words when she suddenly realized something.

Her eyes suddenly turned red and she was almost on the verge of collapse.

But she was the leader of the Piano Youth Orchestra after all, so she remained calm and quickly adjusted her mood. She said, "Did Biru tell you about me? That damn girl, I told her not to say anything."

"Don't blame her. She did the right thing. But you didn't tell me about this. I'm your boss, your senior, and your friend. Wouldn't I help you with this?"

Fang Xiu said quickly, "Brother, I know if I tell you, you will definitely help me, but this is my personal matter. If I ask you to help me solve my personal matter this time, then other members will follow suit and bother you with their personal matters, and the rules will be disrupted."

Zhou Yan waved his hand, "This has nothing to do with the rules. Whether it's you or anyone else in the orchestra, if you need my help with any personal matters, I will definitely help if I think I can. If I can't, I will tell you directly and won't give you a perfunctory answer. In addition, you think you are very thoughtful, but have you ever thought that as the leader of the orchestra, if I, your boss, can't even help you with this matter, then why should other members stay here wholeheartedly in the future? Also, you are the leader of the Piano Youth Orchestra. If something goes wrong with your marriage, it will not only be your own loss."

"I……"

Fang Xiu wanted to defend herself, but found that she could not refute anything Zhou Yan said.

Yes, she just thought that as the team leader, she should not take the lead in bothering Zhou Yan with personal matters, but she did not think that the studio could not even solve the problem of her as the team leader, so the other members would naturally be disappointed.

"Okay, I won't look for a hotel for you. If you don't mind, let's get married in the cafeteria."

"I……"

Fang Xiu just opened her mouth when Zhou Yan interrupted her with a wave of his hand, "Today is the 28th, plus this afternoon, there are still two and a half days until your wedding. Let the members of the group help out and decorate the cafeteria to make it more festive."

"No need to arrange it, senior brother, just give us a place to use..." Fang Xiu's voice became smaller and smaller because she saw Zhou Yan's face full of displeasure.

"It's settled. I'll talk to Li Biru later. She's good at these things." Zhou Yan tapped the table with his fingers, his tone unquestionable. "In the future, not only you will get married, but any employee who has worked in our studio for three years can get married in the cafeteria. I'll have the logistics department implement this. When an employee of the studio gets married, all the expenses for on-site layout will be connected with the logistics department, and catering expenses will be reduced according to job level. This will be a new benefit of our studio in the future. It's just right that you're getting married, so you can set an example for others. Since it's a sample, then do it well. Although the time is a bit rushed, we have so many people, so there shouldn't be any problem."

Fang Xiu listened to Zhou Yan's words in a daze, and suddenly she had an idea in her heart that she was willing to go through fire and water and die for Zhou Yan. She finally understood why the subordinates of those leaders in ancient times were willing to work for them.

If this happened in ancient times, she would also work hard for a leader like Zhou Yan. (End of this chapter)