Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 300: The King's Vanguard, Lin's Disciple

The past decade has been a heavy blow to China's news and publishing industry. Institutions have shrunk, key personnel have been lost, and news reporting and speech have been restricted.

With the liberation of thought, domestic news gradually broke through the taboos and ushered in the spring of journalism. Newly established newspapers and magazines in various places emerged like mushrooms after rain.

Against this background, "Beyond Eight Hours" magazine was officially launched in 1980.

This magazine was founded in Tianjin. As its name suggests, the message it wants to convey is different from that of most magazines today.

“Eight hours” naturally refers to working hours, and “outside eight hours” refers to time and things outside of work, right?
What would that be?

It’s entertainment!
In terms of specific content, you can regard it as the early 1980s version of "Zhiyin", which often publishes some eye-catching articles.

For example, when dances were popular, it would publish an article titled "Talking about Dancing and Dances", which seemed to be a serious effort to educate readers about the subject, but at the same time you could also understand it as a form of propaganda, or "skirting the edge" in the words of later generations.

"A Game of Chess" has been released for more than a week, but it has hardly made any splash in the domestic film industry, not only in the film industry, but also among movie fans.

Under this situation, cinemas across the country would show the film for ten days or half a month, and then gradually withdraw it from theaters when new popular films came out. Just like those unpopular films in the past, it had neither audiences nor attention.

But at this time, an article about the behind-the-scenes story of "A Game of Chess That Has Not Been Finished" was published in Tianjin's "Beyond Eight Hours" magazine, which attracted the attention of many readers and viewers.

——"The Love and Hate Behind the First Sino-Japanese Co-production Film".

There are no gossip magazines nowadays. Although "Beyond Eight Hours" claims to be a combination of documentary and entertainment, to some extent it is equivalent to the gossip magazines of this era, except that the scale is not as large as that of later generations.

"The Love and Hate Behind the First Sino-Japanese Co-produced Film" is a long article of more than 8,000 words, which specifically describes the details of the birth of "A Game of Chess That Has Not Been Finished".

Nowadays, people lack entertainment means, and movies are a form of mass entertainment. Articles like this one that tell the behind-the-scenes stories of movies are naturally very popular.

The content of this article is quite detailed, and it also introduces the various details of the film on and off the stage.

Perhaps because I felt that the article should have a breaking point, the author spent a lot of time and effort writing about the content of Yanying Studio inviting Lin Chaoyang to join the crew. If you count carefully, it takes up almost half of the article.

The author spared no effort in describing the entire process from Yanying Studio inviting Lin Chaoyang to join the crew to the final falling out between the two sides in a vivid and heart-wrenching manner, which is exactly in line with the "love and hatred" in the title of the article.

After the magazine was published, the article quickly aroused heated discussion among readers.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that “Eight Hours Beyond” is not well-known in later generations and sounds like a tabloid.

But in fact, its sales volume today is not low. Although the sales volume of 300,000 to 400,000 copies per issue cannot catch up with those popular magazines that easily sell millions of copies, it is still somewhat famous nationwide.

When this incident happened last year, it was circulated in a small circle within the Yanjing film circle. It was not a secret, but only more people in the industry knew about it.

Now, as more and more readers read this article, this case that happened more than a year ago has been brought up again and has become the focus of many people's attention.

In the simple minds of the vast majority of ordinary people, the Japanese are full of evil. Even though the diplomatic relations between the two countries have been normalized in recent years, the people's ideas have not changed much.

The article successfully portrayed Lin Chaoyang as a staunch patriot who had a dispute with Yan Film Studio and the crew over their stance, and even turned against them. The article won the admiration of many readers, who wrote to the editorial office to praise Lin Chaoyang's firm stance.

The incident was normal up to this point, but probably out of indignation, many readers actually wrote letters to Yanying Studio to scold them.

Yanying Studio was puzzled at first. Why did they suddenly receive a hundred or eighty letters from viewers, all of which were abusive?

When I found out what was going on, I immediately felt very aggrieved.

Unlike later times, government agencies and state-owned enterprises can treat ordinary people like a grandfather scolding his grandson. Even CCTV has to go on the "News Broadcast" to apologize when it is scolded by the people.

Naturally, Yanying Studio did not dare to offend these enthusiastic readers, so it reported the matter to the Tianjin Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

"Beyond Eight Hours" is a publication under the Tianjin Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and Yanying Studio found the right person to report the situation to.

From the perspective of Yanying Studio, the conflict between them and Lin Chaoyang last year could at best be regarded as a disagreement in their creative concepts.

Although the relationship between the two parties was difficult to ease afterwards, it did not cause any bad impact and the matter just passed.

The narrative of the article "Beyond Eight Hours" is obviously malicious, deliberately portraying Yanying Studio as a villain.

Moreover, the article was published a few days before the release of "A Game of Chess That Is Not Finished", which coincided with the formation of public opinion after the release of the movie and directly affected the box office of the movie.

As the article continued to spread, its influence became increasingly greater, and it has caused irreversible adverse effects on Yanying Studio. It is understandable that they approached the Tianjin Federation of Literary and Art Circles for communication.

After receiving a tip-off from Yanying Studio, the Tianjin Federation of Literary and Art Circles investigated the article in "Beyond Eight Hours" and found that the description was basically correct, but the stance was indeed somewhat biased.

After asking the editor, I learned that this article was written by Wu Ziren, a young editor in the editorial department, and it contained some personal national sentiments.

The leaders of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles asked Wu Ziren about his source of information. His articles all wrote about the behind-the-scenes stories of "A Game of Chess That Has Not Been Finished", so even if it was hearsay, there must be a source.

Wu Ziren was young and full of enthusiasm, and he didn't want to say anything at first, but he was a young man after all and had never experienced any big scenes. He was tricked by the leaders of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles and confessed everything.

It turned out that he had recently been getting close to Zhang Manling, who was assigned to the Yenching University Literary Association. A few days ago, the two saw the announcement in "Popular Movies" that "An Unfinished Game of Chess" was going to be released, and Zhang Manling told him about the feud between Lin Chaoyang and Yenching Film Studio last year.

After listening to the article, Wu Ziren thought it was a very interesting topic. His family was a family of art and he had some connections in the film industry. He also asked people about some behind-the-scenes stories of "A Game of Chess That Has Not Been Finished" and wrote this article.

After learning about the situation, the leader of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles called Zhang Manling to confront her. Upon learning that she had been betrayed by Wu Ziren, Zhang Manling first glared at him fiercely, then puffed out her chest and proudly admitted the incident.

"I instigated him to write that article, but we were both truthful and did not fabricate facts."

Zhang Manling took all the responsibility on herself, and her actions made Wu Ziren feel ashamed.

After hearing what Zhang Manling said, the leaders of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles were puzzled. "Isn't your work "There is a Beautiful Place" going to be made into a movie by Yanying Studio? Why are you going against them?"

Zhang Manling remained silent.

Feeling guilty, Wu Ziren spoke up for Zhang Manling: "Manling was trying to stand up for her good friend." "Good friend?" The leader of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles immediately realized that Wu Ziren must be talking about Lin Chaoyang, "What does he have to do with this?"

"Manling's novel was published thanks to Lin Chaoyang's recommendation. She said that Lin Chaoyang was like a mentor to her.

This is a good opportunity to give Yan Film Studio a bad rap."

The leader was at a loss for words after hearing this. "You little girl, you still want to go against a department-level film studio? Aren't you afraid that they won't film your novel?"

"My novel is being filmed by Qingying Studio. Besides, if they don't want to film it, then they don't have to. What's the big deal? There's more than one Yanying Studio in China!"

Zhang Manling had a rebellious temper and was not at all flustered when faced with the leader's questioning. Instead, she stiffened her neck as if she was ready to sacrifice herself.

She was an excellent student at Yanjing University. On the eve of graduation, she published two influential novellas. Now she is a well-known young writer in China. After being assigned to the Tianjin Writers Association, she has always been the focus of the leaders.

Now the situation is clear. The article was fabricated by these two young people, but how to deal with Zhang Manling and Wu Ziren has become a headache for the leaders of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

Both of them are newly assigned college students and are highly valued by the unit.

Especially Zhang Manling, who just graduated from university, has already achieved considerable success in her creative writing and is a key training target for the Tianjin Literary Association in the future.

After some discussion, the two were given a warning and asked to write a self-criticism respectively, as a small lesson for the two young men.

In terms of external attitude, the Tianjin Federation of Literary and Art Circles mainly defended its own children. Its response to the film studio was:
I checked and there is no problem. The content of the article is factual.

What I mean is that the reason why your Yanying Film Studio has been criticized so harshly by readers is all your own fault. Don't come to me to cause trouble, but look for the reasons in your own mind.

After receiving the reply from the Tianjin Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the film studio naturally felt depressed and angry.

These days, the influence of the article in "Beyond Eight Hours" has been growing, and many readers have written to call them traitors.

Naturally, they couldn't swallow this, so they brought the matter to the Film Association.

"An Unfinished Game of Chess" can be considered a political task. The person who proposed the co-production was also a big shot of the Film Association, so the Film Association naturally had to support Yanying Studio.

However, the Film Association is only a group member of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and the two parties have no affiliation, so handling this matter in this way becomes a difficult problem.

After much deliberation, the people from the Film Association came up with a solution for Yanying Studio.

Doesn’t the Tianjin Federation of Literary and Art Circles have “Beyond Eight Hours”? Their Film Association also has “Popular Movies”!

"Beyond Eight Hours" only sold a few hundred thousand copies, while "Popular Movies" sold millions of copies. When it comes to public opinion influence, the Film Association is not inferior at all.

That evening, when Lin Chaoyang just returned home, he found two more guests at home.

"Why are you two here?"

The visitors were Jiang Huaiyan and Chen Huaikai from Yanying Studio.

"We can't come yet? You too, why didn't you tell us that you moved? If we hadn't asked Li Tuo, we wouldn't have been able to find your home." Jiang Huaiyan complained.

"Yushu is pregnant, and this place is close to her workplace."

Lin Chaoyang explained with a smile, and Tao Yushu came over and whispered in his ear that the two of them were carrying things to the door. Lin Chaoyang was immediately moved.

"No one comes to see you for no reason. Tell me, what's the matter?" he asked straight to the point.

Jiang Huaiyan and Chen Huaikai looked at each other and gave in to each other.

"Old Chen, go ahead."

"You do it."

……

The two of them pushed each other for a long time, and Lin Chaoyang was getting a little impatient. "Alright, alright, are you here for the "Beyond Eight Hours" thing?"

In the past half month, the article "The Love and Hatred Behind the First Sino-Japanese Co-produced Film" has attracted quite a bit of attention. As someone involved, Lin Chaoyang certainly couldn't have been unaware of it, and people around him have discussed it countless times.

Chen Huaikai asked: "Chaoyang, do you know the whole story of this?"

"What do you mean?"

Seeing that Lin Chaoyang didn't seem to know, Chen Huaikai asked, "Don't you know who wrote the manuscript for "Beyond Eight Hours"?"

"I'm getting more and more confused. Wasn't the manuscript sent by the editorial department?"

Chen Huaikai explained to him doubtfully: "The manuscript was written by the editor of the editorial department, but there is another master behind it."

"Who?"

"Zhang Manling."

When Lin Chaoyang heard this familiar name from Chen Huaikai, he was stunned. "You said she wrote the manuscript?"

"She worked with the editor of 'Eight Hours Beyond' to come up with this. We have found out everything!"

After being surprised, Lin Chaoyang immediately understood why Zhang Manling did this.

(End of this chapter)