The literary era since 1979

"Qingxia, why are you here?"

Wang Zuxian held Lin Qingxia's arm and followed Fang Yan out of the hotel.

Lin Qingxia gave him a meaningful look, "Why you came is why I came."

"What do you mean?" Wang Zuxian's clear eyes were filled with confusion.

"Whatever Shaw Brothers asked you to do, I'm doing it for Golden Harvest now."

Lin Qingxia said in a voice that only the two of them could hear.

"what!"

Wang Zuxian suddenly realized and screamed.

This immediately attracted Fang Yan's attention. He opened the car door and looked over in surprise, "What's wrong?"

"I just accidentally stepped on Xiaoxian's foot."

Lin Qingxia hurriedly explained and then pulled Wang Zuxian to sit in the back driver's seat.

"So you're just like me."

Wang Zuxian lowered her voice and said, "I thought you and Fang Sheng, you two were..."

Lin Qingxia closed the car door and asked, "What is it?"

"It's a friend." Wang Zuxian changed her words, "Otherwise why would you come to see him so early?"

Lin Qingxia rolled her eyes. "I've only met him a few times. We're not even ordinary friends."

"But the scandal between you and Fang Sheng was so big that even I knew about it in Taiwan. Many media outlets speculated that you broke up with Qin Xianglin because of a third party like him." Wang Zuxian whispered, "They also said that if you could lure him to Taiwan, it would be a great achievement and you could be awarded the Blue Sky and White Sun Medal..."

"Xiao Xian!"

Lin Qingxia pinched her face in embarrassment.

The noise of the two laughing and joking immediately aroused the curiosity of Fangyan, who was sitting in the passenger seat: "What were you talking about?"

Wang Zuxian suddenly had an idea, "We were talking about Qingxia going to San Diego International University to study acting last year."

"If I remember correctly, San Diego International University is in the United States, right?" Fangyan said with a smile.

Lin Qingxia responded with an awkward but polite smile. She couldn't say that she broke up with Qin Xianglin because she broke off the engagement, so she went to the United States to calm down and stay away from the gossip of the Hong Kong and Taiwan media. So she had to change the topic to what she saw and heard at the University of San Diego.

"I often hear news about Fang Sheng from international students at school, and I also bought your book Guns, Viruses, and Steel."

"Really!"

"But I haven't finished reading it. There are many parts that I don't understand."

"That's normal, just like if you tell me something about acting, I might not understand it."

Fangyan waved his hand: "Every profession has its own specializations. Professionals should do what they are good at. There is no need to force it."

Lin Qingxia smiled. She seemed unable to put on any star airs in front of him, nor did she feel any star pressure. She felt extremely relaxed inside.

Seeing them staring at each other, Wang Zuxian nudged her gently with her elbow and said softly:

"Look, they said you two aren't even ordinary friends. Sure enough, the newspaper was right..."

"Those are all random things written by unethical journalists!"

Lin Qingxia glared at him unhappily.

Wang Zuxian put her arm around her best friend and leaned on her shoulder. "If you ask me, if I have to choose one among Qin Han, Qin Xianglin and Fang Sheng, I will definitely choose him 100%. As she said this, she looked straight at Fang Yan's profile.

Lin Qingxia gouged her eyes, "Be realistic, there's no way you two can get along, don't say this kind of nonsense again, be careful or you'll be banned like Liang Jiahui, and you won't be able to act in this life."

Wang Zuxian asked: "If you were in my shoes, which one of the three would you choose?"

"I don't choose any of them," said Lin Qingxia.

Wang Zuxian said in a joking tone: "I know, you won't choose Qin Xianglin anyway, right?"

"You still say it!"

The two girls tickled each other and couldn't help but burst into laughter like silver bells. …………

Xu Ke’s film studio is located on Weizhou Road, Kowloon Tong, and has only two offices, a conference room and a dozen workstations.

At this time, Xu Ke and Shi Nansheng were greeting Fang Yan, Lin Qingxia and the other two with smiles on their faces, and they were exchanging greetings with each other.

Fang Yan looked at Shi Nansheng and said, "Maybe I need to trouble you to book a boat ticket back to Guangdong."

When this was said, Xu Ke, Lin Qingxia and others were shocked, especially Wang Zuxian, "Are you leaving Hong Kong?"

Fang Yan nodded and said, "I have a lot of things to do and cannot stay in Hong Kong for too long. Now that I have met with Shaw Brothers and have reached an agreement with Golden Harvest, I think it is time to return to the mainland." Then he reminded her suggestively, "I will call Aunt Six later."

"I should really give Mrs. Fang a call."

Shi Nansheng glanced at Wang Zuxian: "Has Mr. Fang decided when to leave?"

Fangyan said bluntly: "The day after tomorrow, preferably the afternoon."

Shi Nansheng readily agreed, then took Lin Qingxia's arm with his left hand and Wang Zuxian's arm with his right hand:
"Come to my office, we'll have a good time together and let the men talk about theirs."

After watching the three people walk into the conference room, Xu Ke led Fang Yan to his office and closed the door:
"Teacher Fang, you are doing this to use Jiahe to make Sixth Master and Mrs. Fang make a decision as soon as possible, right?"

“That’s indeed the meaning.”

Fang Yan said, "I can't wait in Hong Kong just for Shaw Brothers. If they are really sincere, they can just go to Beijing to discuss cooperation like you did, Director Xu. Or they can just make a phone call or write a letter."

Xu Ke raised his eyebrows, "You are so confident, it seems that you must have had a good talk with Jiahe."

Fang Yanyan succinctly recounted everything that happened last night, including the scripts of "Die Hard" and "Police Stories".

"Police movie, this term sounds quite fresh."

Xu Ke thought about it carefully, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt it was. "You prepared this for Golden Harvest, so what are you going to prepare for Shaw Brothers?"

“I actually thought about this yesterday.”

Fang Yan said: "If we want to reverse Shaw Brothers' current predicament, we must have a completely new type of film to replace the declining Shaw Brothers martial arts films. I think about it, since Golden Harvest is making police stories, why can't Shaw Brothers make gangsters? Where there are police, there are gangsters; where there are saints, there are thieves."

"Like the gangsters in The Godfather and Scarface?"

Xu Ke's eyes lit up instantly.

"Are there any films of this genre in Hong Kong now?"

Fangyan raised a smile.

“Not much, and not as sophisticated as Hollywood.”

Xu Ke explained that before the 1980s, Hong Kong's gangster movies were mostly divided into two types.

One is social documentaries, such as Shaw Brothers' "Skynet" and "The Strange Case of Hong Kong". These films are adapted from real cases and strive to restore the truth, but the box office is not high, and they are critically acclaimed but not commercially successful.

The other type is the "social fantasy film", which incorporates gangster elements and gangster issues into the film and has a relatively detailed description of the underworld, such as "The Big Robbery", "Big Brother", "Son of the Gangster", "Sha Danying" and so on.

But overall, Hong Kong's gangster films are still in their infancy, with small numbers and low quality, and have not yet formed a truly unique genre.

"Oh, I didn't expect to catch up on time."

Fangyan shook his head and laughed.

Xu Ke said with expectation in his tone, "You don't want to help Shaw Brothers create a type of gangster film that is unique to Hong Kong, do you?"

"I'm just talking. How can I write a gangster movie script with my status?"

Fang Yan spread his hands and said, "Besides, I know nothing about the underworld in Hong Kong, so I have no idea where to start."

"Too."

Xu Ke always felt that there was something strange about these words, but he couldn't find out what was wrong.

Just as the two were discussing the promotion and marketing plan for "Once Upon a Time in China", there was a sudden knock on the door.

Wang Zuxian followed behind Shi Nansheng and said boldly that she had just called Fang Yihua, and Fang Yihua hoped that she and Run Run Shaw could treat him to dinner before leaving Hong Kong. (End of this chapter)