The literary era since 1979

"Once Upon a Time" set a record of over 500 million Hong Kong dollars in box office in Hong Kong on the day of its premiere, and almost broke the single-day box office record of Hong Kong films previously held by "God of Gamblers". But no matter what, with such a rising trend, it is easy to beat "A Better Tomorrow".

What is even more shocking to the media is that the cost of this movie may be only half of that of "Hard Boiled"!
Xu Ke defeated Wu Yusen with absolute victory, but Fangyan just treated it as a small episode and did not pay too much attention to it.

I spent the entire afternoon in the office, thinking about what kind of gift I should give when I take over People's Literature to help the magazine, which has seen plummeting sales and declining reputation, to regain its footing and fight a comeback.

After getting rid of the mental burden of writing for awards, my thoughts became clearer. Since I was thinking of submitting "The Rise of the Great Qin" and "The Great Qin" to "People's Literature" for publication, I might as well continue to write historical literature and choose dynasties that are popular and highly concerned.

For example, Han, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties.

As for the Qing Dynasty, it is because from the late 80s to the early 21st century, there appeared a large number of historical novels like "The Yongzheng Dynasty" and "The Kangxi Dynasty", as well as Qing Dynasty palace dramas such as "The Secret History of Xiaozhuang", "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and "Startling by Each Step" which set off a viewing frenzy.

More importantly, "The Last Emperor", which is based on the Qing Dynasty, even won the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Picture.

This immediately boosted the enthusiasm of the film and television circles to shoot Qing Dynasty dramas, but it led to the opposite effect, and too many pigtail dramas made people feel sick.

Fortunately, at this time a dynasty emerged and competed with the Qing Dynasty. Of course, it was the so-called Ming Dynasty, which "unified the sun, moon, mountains and rivers."

The best among them are "Things about the Ming Dynasty", "The Ming Dynasty 1566", "Zhu Yuanzhang" and so on.

If Fangyan wanted to write "The Ming Dynasty 1566", it would be better for him to first write "Things about the Ming Dynasty" which has a popular science nature.

Of course, while writing, we have to fill in the historical loopholes in "Those Things in the Ming Dynasty" and correct the huge historical errors. Otherwise, "Wei Zhongxian" should be selected as one of the "Ten Sages of the Internet Temple" like in later generations. What Wei Zhongxian didn't die, the Ming Dynasty didn't fall...

However, the first part to be revised is the part about Zhu Qizhen.

Dangnian Mingyue praised Zhu Qizhen as a good man. The only reason given was that this guy abolished the system of human sacrifice before he died. It was simply a lie. How could this "Emperor who Calls at the Gate", "God of War in Tumu Fort", "Wara Student" and "Mingbao Zong" be worthy of such titles?
Just because he took part in the coup d'état and killed Yu Qian, can he be called a "good person"?
Besides, wasn't the throne taken from his younger brother, Emperor Jingtai? Emperor Jingtai was almost dead, and he had no legitimate son. The crown prince he recognized was Zhu Qizhen's own son. Zhu Jianshen, who had clearly taken the throne from his son, repeatedly wanted to depose the crown prince after he had seized it.

On the contrary, after Zhu Jianshen ascended the throne, he had been cleaning up the mess for the "Ming God of War" who interrupted the Ming Dynasty's rising national fortunes.

Redressing unjust, false and wrong cases, reducing the tax burden, suppressing rebellions, and of course the "plowing the yard and sweeping the holes" that Ming fans always talk about.

As for the historical flaws such as "Zhu Di's rebellion", "glorifying the Donglin Party", "the rumor that Fang Xiaoru's ten clans were exterminated", etc., they must also be corrected.

Fangyan touched his chin and decided to finish writing the revised version of "Things about the Ming Dynasty" before starting to write "The Ming Dynasty 1566".

The original drama can be said to have torn off the fig leaf of historical appearances, especially bringing the "Riddler of the Ming Dynasty" Jiajing to life.

He did not attend court for twenty years but was firmly in control of the government. On the surface, he was practicing Taoism and seeking immortality, but in fact he was playing with power through the balancing act between the Silijian, the Cabinet, and the Qingliu. His last sentence, "The water of the Yangtze River is clear, the water of the Yellow River is turbid, and both the Yangtze and the Yellow River flow into the sea", reveals the emperor's mind, and also presents the cruel truth of the operation of power in the feudal dynasty and the distorted struggle of human nature in the whirlpool of interests to the audience without reservation.

However, this has both advantages and disadvantages, because the whole drama is not a simple binary narrative routine of "the protagonist kills the villain", "justice defeats evil", or "the hero defeats the boss", so it is difficult for the audience who are accustomed to the "cool drama thinking" to understand it for a while.

For example, the weightlifting champion "Yan Shifan", the "physicist" Yang Jinshui, the "non-stick pan" Zhao Zhenji...

Unlike "Yongzheng Dynasty" and "House of Cards", although there are also complex political games and human entanglements, there are NPCs like "Wu Sidao" and "President Kinoshita" who explain and analyze the plot to the audience through narration or inner monologue.

"The Ming Dynasty 1566" lacks such characters that provide interludes of interpretation, which makes the entire drama obscure and difficult to understand, raising the threshold for viewing.

Fangyan was thinking of designing several such "Wu Sidao" in several camps, such as "Zhang Juzheng" would be quite suitable.

As soon as he thought of this, he immediately asked his assistant to help him collect information about the Ming Dynasty, such as "The 15th Year of Wanli", especially historical materials about the Jiajing Dynasty.

Under Fangyan's command, the staff in the entire Hong Kong Joint Publishing Company became busy in an instant.

At this moment, he caught a glimpse of Pan Yaoming out of the corner of his eye, seemingly slacking off, staring straight at the financial newspaper, reading it over and over again.

"Don't you usually dislike reading newspapers? Why are you reading them every day recently?"

"I heard from you that Japan's stock market, foreign exchange market, and real estate market will collapse in the second half of the year."

"Yes, that's what I said."

"Hey, you don't look anxious at all."

Pan Yaoming was extremely surprised. Although Japan had officially introduced the "Basic Land Law" to curb land speculation, the Japanese real estate market completely ignored these factors and continued to soar. The stock market also soared. The Nikkei index has reached more than 38000 points and is expected to reach 4 points.

"This is just the last carnival before the bubble bursts."

Fang Yan said that Wall Street companies such as Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers had already taken action. The stock index options purchased from the Japanese insurance industry were resold to other investment institutions, who then sold them to the buyers of the warrants and promised to pay profits to the owners of the "Nikkei Index Put Warrants" when the Nikkei Index fell. This was an undeclared financial strangulation operation by international bankers.

Wall Street used a large amount of cash to buy, while the Japanese believed that the possibility of a Japanese stock market crash was impossible. Both sides were betting on the direction of the Nikkei index. If the index fell, Wall Street made money and the Japanese lost money. If the index rose, the situation was just the opposite.

We are still on the eve of the war. Once a large number of stock index short selling options are in place, it will be time for the war to officially begin.

"Should I do it in January?"

Pan Yaoming swallowed nervously.

"Just buy a few short orders for fun."

Fang Yan said that Pan Yaoming's share, including his own, had already been assigned to Bai Ruoxue to handle.

…………

After a busy day, when I returned to the villa, a warm breeze hit me in the face, instantly warming my whole body.

Gong Xing stood up from the living room, and while instructing Wu Ma to serve the dishes, he came to him and said:

"I'm home?"

"Well, have you booked your tickets?"

Fangyan cast a questioning look.

"Everything has been arranged. Oh, and my eldest sister said she also wants to attend Tiesheng and Ximi's wedding."

Gong Xing took the woolen coat he took off.

Fang Yan let out a light exclamation. He had never expected that Fang Hong would actually volunteer.

"Ximi is treating our house as a temporary place to pick up the bride, and my eldest sister thinks that she is half of our family's married woman."

Gong Xing explained, "So we mainly invite makeup artists to dress up the bride."

"It's done!"

Fang Yan's eyes lit up. Ever since the TV series Dream of Red Mansions, Fang Hong has been involved in the field of costumes and props in the film and television industry, and has been getting more and more adept at it, especially in major film projects such as Farewell My Concubine and In the Mood for Love. If the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals had not established the Best Makeup and Best Costume Awards like the Oscars, she would probably have received at least one or two nominations.

"Also, I have already contacted the wedding MC and photographer you asked for. The whole team will go to Yanjing with us when the time comes."

Gong Xing sat down and picked up the bowl and chopsticks.

"Either our company's photography team is not professional, or they are the most suitable candidates."

Fangyan picked up a piece of pork ribs.

"Don't worry, that wedding company has been in business for many years and has hosted many celebrities and actors' weddings. They are quite experienced." Gong Wei said soothingly, "Will your company send representatives back to Beijing to participate?"

“I am the representative.”

Fangyan pointed at himself.

Gong Xing was not surprised. Instead, she mentioned another piece of news that surprised Fang Yan.

Lin Qingxia, Li Zhi, Gong Li, Zhu Lin and others who were free and had no film contracts were willing to go back to Yanjing with them and be bridesmaids for Chen Ximi.

"Hey, was this your idea?"

Fangyan raised his eyebrows.

"I just mentioned it to Qingxia, Zhulin and the others while playing mahjong, saying that I should go back to Beijing to be Ximi's bridesmaid and attend Tiesheng and his wife's wedding. I didn't expect that Qingxia and the others were all fans of Tiesheng's books. Especially after hearing me tell them about the love story between Tiesheng and Ximi, they all wanted to get involved, all thinking that they could do their part. I thought it was a good thing, so I didn't refuse."

Gong Xing held his chin with one hand and said with a smile: "What do you think?"

"This is also Qingxia, Zhu Lin and the others' intention. It's not easy to refuse directly."

Fangyan thought about the time when the two got married, and among the bridesmaids there were Zhang Yu and other famous actresses from the Shanghai Film Studio.

"I thought of that, too." Gong Xing joked, "But then again, why do I feel like we were more active in organizing Tiesheng and Ximi's wedding than we were in organizing our own wedding?"

"Because Tiesheng and Ximi deserve it. It's not easy for them both, so we should celebrate as much as possible."

Fang Yan felt that the atmosphere was a bit solemn, so he winked and said, "Besides, we can give ourselves a more grand ceremony, right?"

Gong Xing rolled his eyes in annoyance, "What are you talking about? How can you have a wedding twice?"

"There are also wedding anniversaries, the 25th anniversary is the 'silver wedding', and the 50th anniversary is the 'golden wedding'."

Fang Yan smiled and put his hand on the back of her hand.

Gong Xing's eyes were filled with autumn water, and deep affection was embedded in them, which could not be dissolved or dispersed.

………………

Time soon came to December, the wind was cold and the sky was gloomy.

The red lanterns hanging in the courtyard swayed from side to side, and the red ribbons fluttered.

"It should be almost done now."

Wang Shuo turned his head and looked at Shi Tiesheng and Yu Hua behind his wheelchair.

"Tie Sheng, we still have some time, take another look, and if there's anything wrong that needs to be corrected, tell me right away."

Yu Hua added.

"Good, good."

Shi Tiesheng glanced around and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

"If you have no objection, let's do this on the wedding day."

Yu Hua then asked about the arrangements for the convoy on the day of the wedding.

"Thanks to Mr. Fang."

Wang Shuo explained that Han Yuemin simply waved his hand and allocated four cars from his company, and then they would go around the city several times.

Shi Tiesheng wondered, "Is this too much?"

"How can it be possible? And this is what Teacher Fang meant. At least we must pass through Beihai Park and Ditan Park."

Wang Shuo said in a serious tone.

Hearing these two place names that were closely related to his life, Shi Tiesheng didn't want to refute for a moment.

Yu Hua asked, "By the way, Tiesheng, did Teacher Fang call you to tell you when he will be back?"

"said."

Shi Tiesheng smiled and said, "He also said that he brought a luxurious bridesmaid group for Ximi, saying that Lin Qingxia, Zhu Lin and others would come."

The two looked at each other in shock.

Wang Shuo couldn't help but sigh: "Only Teacher Fang and his team can do this."

"That's right. Compared with this group of bridesmaids, our group of groomsmen seems a little inferior!"

Yu Hua smacked his lips.

"We still have Teacher Fang!" Wang Shuo said leisurely, "As the saying goes, a pear blossom outshines a crabapple blossom."

"Iwako may not be among the best men. He said he wants to personally send Ximi off to the bride."

Shi Tiesheng said that according to traditional customs, when a daughter gets married, her parents will invite two men to escort her to her husband's house, commonly known as sending the bride off.

Considering that the place to pick up Chen Ximi was Fangyan’s old house in Nanluoguxiang, Fangyan was simply regarded as a part of Chen Ximi’s maternal family.

"Teacher Fang is really thoughtful. Only the uncle and aunt came from Ximi's family this time, so the number of people is indeed a little less."

There was a hint of admiration in Wang Shuo's tone.

"By the way, did Teacher Fang ask about the progress of The Legend of the Seven Heroes of Rainbow Cat and Blue Rabbit?"

Yu Hua suddenly said that because Fang Yan left in a hurry, the outline of the script was not completely completed.

"You can ask him when he comes back, but I'm afraid he won't be able to spare much energy and time by then."

Shi Tiesheng adjusted his glasses.

"Why?"

Yu Hua was very curious.

Shi Tiesheng replied: "According to him, he is busy with a new work."

Wang Shuo's eyes suddenly lit up: "Teacher Fang has already made some progress in his work that will win the Nobel Prize in Literature!?" (End of this chapter)