The literary era since 1979

"What, Zhang Guorong is coming to our house to celebrate the New Year!?"

When Fang Yan heard the news from Gong Xing, she excitedly slammed her hands on the table and stood up suddenly.

Yang Xia also opened her mouth wide, unable to speak for a moment.

Fang Yan had an expression of disbelief on her face. "Brother, sister-in-law, is this true? It's true!"

"What do you think?" Fang Yan rolled his eyes.

Gong Xing smiled faintly, and then told the whole story of inviting Zhang Guorong to spend the New Year with him.

"Wow!"

Seeing Fang Yan almost jumping up with excitement, Yang Xia pushed her down on the chair and said, "You are not allowed to tell anyone about this."

Fang Yan and Gong Xing smiled at each other. If the news that Zhang Guorong came to their house to celebrate the New Year spread out, the whole Nanluoguxiang would be in an uproar.

One after another, they flocked to their yard to chase their idol. Not to mention whether these people could celebrate the New Year, they themselves must have had a difficult New Year.

"Then I will have to cook more dishes and entertain Zhang Guorong well."

Yang Xia cast a questioning look, "Yanzi, Xiaoxiang, do you know what kind of food he likes to eat?"

"Mom, Zhang Guorong is from Hong Kong, so of course he often eats Cantonese food." Fang Yan's eyes sparkled.

"I can't cook Cantonese food." Yang Xia shook her head, "But I remember there is a restaurant specializing in Cantonese food not far from home..."

"I think it's you who wants to eat Cantonese food."

Seeing the little sister nodding excitedly, Fangyan slapped her on the head without any hesitation.

Gong Xian couldn't help but laugh and said, "Mom, there's no need to prepare anything specially. He will never be picky about the dishes."

"Yes, just treat him as an ordinary guest. It's nothing more than an extra pair of bowls and chopsticks."

Fang Yan comforted him, "We'll cook the dishes the same way we did during the Chinese New Year, just make a little more."

Yang Xia's anxious heart was completely relieved, and she then gave an instruction:

"Remember to tell your brother-in-law and sister about this, otherwise when they come back for the New Year, they won't be mentally prepared and will be frightened."

"it is good!"

Fang Yan and Gong Xing looked at each other and smiled.

………………

As the year draws to a close, every household is busy purchasing New Year's goods, posting Spring Festival couplets, hanging lanterns, cleaning the courtyard, etc.

Fang Yan brought a batch of New Year's goods to Yonghegong Street, so that Yu Hua, Chen Ximi and others could take them with them when they returned home for the New Year.

Shi Tiesheng handed over the distribution of New Year's goods to his sister Shi Lan, and then held a meeting in the conference room in Fangyan to discuss the plans for Ming 88.

"After the New Year, we will publish a recruitment notice in the newspaper and hire at least two translators who know Japanese."

Lu Haiyan looked around and said, "Otherwise, the cooperation that Mr. Fang negotiated in Japan will not be able to move forward."

Shi Tiesheng said seriously, "Yes, after all, except for Yanzi, no one among us here understands Japanese, let alone Japanese translation. Therefore, novels from Japanese mystery magazines such as "Crow City" and "Phantom City" cannot be reprinted in "Mystery World"."

"Then it's settled."

Fangyan was thinking that when Yoko Suzuki returned to China from Japan, he would ask her to recommend a few reliable and capable translators.

After all, these days, jobs are guaranteed to be assigned, and it is impossible for scarce talents like foreign language translators to be lost to outsiders.

"Next is the creative cooperation in TV series and movies."

Shi Tiesheng said slowly, "I will be the main writer of Desire, which we will be working on with Yanjing Television Art Center, with Yu Hua and Ximi as our assistants. Farewell My Concubine, which has already started filming, will be directed by you, Yanzi. In addition, Yanjing TV, CCTV, Beijing Film Studio, Xi'an Film Studio, Shanghai Film Studio and other companies are interested in establishing cooperative relations with our studio, hoping that we can provide more and better scripts for their filming and production."

Fangyan looked left and right, "For example?"

Wang Shuo immediately said, "Teacher Fang, do you still remember Ye Daying?"

Fangyan nodded. This Ye Daying was a classmate of Gong Xingke. He was recommended by Xi'an Film Studio to study in the director training class of Beijing Film Academy. In the future, like Feng Xiaogang, he would also be a professional in filming Wang Shuo's novels, such as "Big Breath", "Forever Lost My Love" and "Half Sea Half Flame".

"Ye Daying took a liking to my novel, The Troublemakers, which was published in Harvest last year."

Wang Shuo grinned and said, "He wants to adapt it into his debut as a director. I'm going to help him with that."

Fang Yan raised his eyebrows and did not object. Instead, he recommended Ge You, Liang Tian, ​​Zhu Lin and others to Wang Shuo to star in the movie.

"Of course there is no problem with that!" Wang Shuo was also ready to bring his lackey, Feng Xiaogang, to the crew of "The Troublemakers".

After some discussion, everyone began to discuss the development strategies, editorial policies, and expansion plans of magazines such as "Mystery World" and "Fairy Tale World", including the creation of another magazine on "Martial Arts and Fantasy" and the World Science Fiction Conference hosted by "Science Fiction World".

As we talked, time passed by unknowingly, and soon it was February 2, New Year's Eve.

In the evening, as the sun was setting, Fang Yan braved the cold wind and stood at the gate of the courtyard, looking around, hoping for the familiar car.

Finally, after much anticipation, Fang Yan, carrying Zhang Guorong and Gong Xing, parked the car steadily within her sight.

Zhang Guorong wore a knitted hat, a mask and a military coat, covering himself completely so that no one could tell who he was.

Fang Yan was so excited that she rushed forward in one step, "Zhang..."

"Shh!"

Gong Xing covered her mouth and made a gesture to keep her quiet.

"It's cold outside, let's go inside."

Fangyan rolled his eyes in annoyance, then called Zhang Guorong to go into the house.

Along the way, people would greet each other and say "Happy New Year" from time to time, and some people also noticed Zhang Guorong who was wrapped tightly.

Fangyan simply made excuses by saying that they were friends he had invited to his home to celebrate the New Year. When the neighbors heard this, they didn't take it seriously at all.

So, the group entered the house smoothly without making too much noise.

At this moment, Yang Xia, Fang Hong, Han Yuemin and others had already been waiting in the house. When they saw Zhang Guorong, they were surprised and happy.

"This is my mother..."

"The person sitting here is my brother-in-law, Han Yuemin, and next to him is my sister, Fang Hong."

Fang Yan simply introduced them one by one, "As for the one in her arms, it is naturally my niece, Han Yue."

Zhang Guorong smiled, greeted her, and then handed over the gift he had specially bought from Wangfujing Department Store.

"Well, it's good that you're here. Why bring any gifts?" Yang Xia smiled and asked everyone to sit down.

Zhang Guorong sat between Gong Xing and Fang Yan. The joyous atmosphere brought him closer to Fang Yan's family.

Suddenly, there was the sound of "crackling" firecrackers beside my ears, and a New Year atmosphere different from that in Hong Kong gradually spread in the alley.

………………“Is this the Spring Festival Gala?”

Zhang Guorong stared at the TV and saw the Spring Festival Gala hosts including Ju Ping, Sun Daolin, Wang Gang and Jiang Kun standing on the stage.

Fangyan asked, "What do you think?"

Zhang Guorong pondered for a moment and said, "It feels a bit similar to the TVB anniversary celebration I watched."

“It does have some similarities to TVB’s anniversary show, but the program settings are still different.”

To be more specific, most of TVB's anniversary programs are singing and dancing programs. Even if there are different types of programs, they are basically based on magic, acrobatics, and Cantonese opera. For example, during the TVB anniversary celebration in 83, Andy Lau, Tony Leung Chiu-wai and others, who were part of the Five Tigers of Wireless, performed acrobatics in person.

In order to attract attention, Andy Lau even personally performed the "stone breaking with chest" move.

"Yes, yes. The most worthwhile things to watch during the Spring Festival Gala are the crosstalk and skits. You won't see them in Hong Kong."

Han Yuemin drank the wine in one gulp.

Zhang Guorong was full of confusion, "What is crosstalk? What is skit?"

"It's no wonder you didn't know."

Dialects made people smile. Although crosstalk existed in both the north and the south, Mandarin was widely used in the north. Even dialects were used as the burden and characteristics of crosstalk. Therefore, crosstalk in the north spread all over the country without any obstacles.

On the contrary, southern crosstalk, which is mainly performed in Cantonese, has its scope of dissemination severely limited by the dialect alone.

It is destined to become popular only in eastern Guangdong, Hong Kong and other regions. Moreover, there are many dialects in eastern Guangdong, and many places have local dialects.

As for sketches, there is no need to say more. Sketches are the product of the combination of performance, drama, crosstalk and other categories. It is even more impossible to have them in Hong Kong!

…………

Listening to the dialect explanations of "crosstalk" and "sketches", Zhang Guorong only had a vague understanding and was full of doubts.

But when he saw Zhao Lirong's Emergency Room, Feng Gong's Blame It On, and Jiang Kun's Elevator Adventure, he suddenly became interested in sketches and crosstalk, and couldn't help but sigh:
"This is the first time I've seen this kind of program. It's really interesting."

“Interesting, isn’t it?”

Han Yuemin, Yang Xia, Fang Hong and others looked at each other with bright smiles on their faces.

Zhang Guorong nodded and picked up piece after piece of pea yellow with chopsticks. He had never tasted such a flavor in Hong Kong.

"But brother, you came at the wrong time. The skits and crosstalks in previous Spring Festival Galas were actually more interesting."

Fang Yan stared at him intently, "For example, "Eating Noodles", "Mutton Skewers", "Filming", "Heroic Mother"..."

"Swallow, what you said is true."

Han Yuemin said that the previous Spring Festival Galas that had the participation and planning of dialects were definitely much more exciting than those in the past two years.

Zhang Guorong was greatly shocked. He was surprised that the dialect was the core planner of the previous Spring Festival Galas, and was also surprised that he was the creator of the sketch.

"It's just a trivial matter, not worth mentioning." He said in dialect lightly.

Zhang Guorong suddenly realized, "No wonder Fang Sheng wanted to invite me to sing on the Spring Festival Gala, it turns out there is this relationship."

Gong Xing explained on behalf of Fang Yan that singing on the Spring Festival Gala would be a perfect benefit to Zhang Guorong himself.

"That's right, that's right. Fei Xiang on last year's Spring Festival Gala had no fame or status comparable to yours, but after singing "A Fire in Winter" and "Clouds of Hometown", he became a household name across China. At least half of the country's 10 billion people know him!"

Han Yuemin smiled and said that his clothing brand was selling well all over the country thanks to Fei Xiang's popularity.

"If you want to enter the mainland market in the future, you absolutely must participate in this Spring Festival Gala."

There is one more thing Fangyan hasn't said yet: as time goes by, it will become less and less likely that just anyone can go on stage at the Spring Festival Gala.

Zhang Guorong said that he would bring this matter to his agent and Cinepoly, and he believed that they would not refuse such a great opportunity.

"Once you decide which year's Spring Festival Gala you will participate in, I may arrange for Deng Liyun, Matsuzaka Keiko, Li Zhi and others to participate at the same time."

Fangyan gave a playful smile.

Zhang Guorong, Yang Xia, Han Yuemin and others were so shocked that they couldn't believe their ears.

"Nothing surprising."

Fangyan waved his hand disapprovingly, saying that he and Teresa Teng had already made an appointment, and it just so happened that the two sides had begun to break the ice.

Zhang Guorong opened his mouth, and then a cunning look flashed in his eyes:

"I wonder if what Fang Sheng said before still counts? If I perform on the Spring Festival Gala, will he really write a Mandarin song for me?"

"How difficult is that? For example, the lyrics of "Evening Wind Blows in My Heart" have both Cantonese and Mandarin versions."

The dialect rolled his eyes, it's not that Zhang Guorong couldn't sing "Chi Ling", which is extremely suitable for "Farewell My Concubine".

Songs like "Exploring the Window", "How to Sigh", and "Wanjiang" also seem good...

While he was thinking, the Spring Festival Gala gradually came to an end, and soon it was time for the penultimate program, "Making Up Excuses".

Niu Qun's constant repeating of "Leader, colon" made everyone in the room laugh so hard that they fell backwards.

Even Zhang Guorong couldn't help but have an idea, that is, he must have a roast duck meal when Quanjude opens after the New Year.

In such a joyful atmosphere, the sound of firecrackers outside the house became louder and louder, which immediately aroused the interest of Zhang Guorong and others.

Fang Yan then took his younger sister, Zhang Guorong and others, each holding a bunch of fireworks and firecrackers, and started playing in the noisy alley.

Zhang Guorong's face was full of excitement. After all, he hadn't touched these things for a long time, and he couldn't help but regain the joy of setting off fireworks and firecrackers in the past.

"boom!"

"Boom!"

Accompanied by loud bangs, the fireworks bloomed like flowers, competing with each other in beauty and blooming in the night sky.

A flash of light shone on Zhang Guorong's smiling face, and the children and adults sitting in groups of three or four nearby inadvertently saw his profile.

A small voice suddenly emerged from the crowd, "Do you think that person just now looks like someone?"

The girl playing with firecrackers said weakly, "You don't mean to say that he looks like Zhang Guorong?"

"Yes, I want to talk about Zhang Guorong."

The man looked back again and again, but because it was dark, he could only get a rough idea of ​​what was going on. "Do you think he is..."

"How is that possible? You must be dazzled." The girl shook her head. "How could Zhang Guorong appear in our alley?"

As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately attracted the approval of everyone.

After all, no one could believe that Zhang Guorong was actually in Nanluoguxiang, and was celebrating the New Year and playing with fireworks with Fangyan's family! (End of this chapter)