Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 345 Lao Lin wants to start a business

The letter from Editor Tao was not long, but Mo Yan read it very carefully, and it took him a long time to look up from the letter paper.

The publication of "Black Sand Beach" did not cause any great response, but it received a lot of positive reviews from readers, which made Mo Yan very happy.

He was also happy about Tao Yushu's commission to write an article, as it proved that his level was recognized by the editor. It would become easier to publish his works in People's Literature in the future, which was another good thing.

As for Xu Lingjun's commentary article that Tao Yushu mentioned at the end, he was the least surprised because he knew about it in advance.

But after a while, he came to his senses.

its not right!
"Yenching Literature" was just published yesterday. No matter how fast Editor Tao's letter is, it is impossible for it to reach the troops in one day, right?

Mo Yan immediately realized that Editor Tao must have known about this matter in advance.

Editor Tao is the editor of People's Literature, so it is not surprising that he knows a famous writer like Xu Lingjun. Maybe they even know each other.

Thinking this in his heart, Mo Yan felt even more fortunate that Tao Yushu had noticed him.

A sudden heavy rain hit Yanjing after mid-October. It became colder day by day after that. The wind was so strong that it hurt my face when I rode my bicycle in the morning and evening.

"Although the autumn in Yanjing is beautiful, it is also short-lived!"

Lin Chaoyang had just arrived at the library to work in the morning and made a casual complaint, which was overheard by his colleagues. Before noon, Xie Daoyuan came over to ask about his well-being.

"When the weather gets cold, commuting to get off work becomes a bit of a pain."

"It's a pity that you don't even like the dormitory assigned by the school."

"Winter is coming soon. Have you bought your winter vegetables? Or coal? You just think about work all day. You need to pay more attention to your life."

"Take a few days off and come back to work after you have sorted out your family affairs."

Xie Daoyuan waved his hand and Lin Chaoyang had another day off!
Lin Chaoyang stood at the door of the library, watching the students passing by. The students studied so hard, but he only had holidays from time to time.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but spit on himself in his heart.

It's already vacation time, and you're still thinking about these shitty things.

Get on your bicycle and leave a chic back view to the library standing quietly there.

Instead of going home, he went to Langrun Lake Apartment first.

It’s almost noon, so I’ll go to my father-in-law’s house for a meal first.

Today is a weekday. My eldest brother-in-law is not at home. The two brothers Wen and Wu are at school. Mr. and Mrs. Tao and sister-in-law Zhao Li are all at home.

There was also Tao Yumo, who was supposed to be at work, but was also at home today, but he was lying sick in bed.

"What's going on?" Lin Chaoyang asked while standing at the door.

"I have a cold and a fever."

Tao Yumo replied in a muffled voice, picked up the toilet paper on the bedside table and blew his nose. Seeing this, Lin Chaoyang immediately closed the door, showing full disgust.

"Brother-in-law!"

The unwilling voice of the sister-in-law rang out in the room, and Lin Chaoyang said outside: "Your eldest nephew hasn't caught a cold yet!"

At this time, the mother-in-law started to criticize her sister-in-law. Tao Yumo caught a cold, and she didn't blame anyone but herself for wanting grace over warmth.

The temperature has dropped drastically recently, and I have to wear thin autumn clothes. If I'm not careful, I'll catch a cold.

At noon, when they were having lunch, Tao Yucheng suddenly came back. Zhao Li asked him, "Why did you come back at this time?"

"I wrote a film review and sent it to Film Creation. I'm fine now, so I came back."

"Film Creation" is a magazine sponsored by Yanying Studio. The editorial office is next to the Literature Department on the third floor of the main building of Yanying Studio. Lin Chaoyang would pass by it every time he went to Yanying Studio.

Zhao Li looked at him with a little surprise, "The one you worked on the other day?"

"Yes." Tao Yucheng vowed, "It will definitely be published this time!"

Zhao Li's attitude was noncommittal. She had heard this kind of talk so many times that she had become numb to it.

Tao Yucheng was heartless and didn't care about his wife's attitude. He turned around and started chatting with Lin Chaoyang.

"Chaoyang, my film review was about The Burning of the Old Summer Palace. Your movie is really popular right now. I heard that it also did very well at the box office in Hong Kong, and it must have made tens of millions?"

"The Hong Kong dollar is not worth much, it's only 4 million RMB, not even as high as the domestic box office."

Tao Yucheng teased, "You are so ungrateful. Hong Kong is only a small place, how many people are there here? Isn't 'The Behind-the-Curtain' going to be released soon?"

"Well, just these two days."

"The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "The Last Emperor" are based on the same script, but because the content is too much, it was split into two parts and released.

"The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" was released simultaneously in Hong Kong and mainland China on September 9, and "The Last Emperor" on October 21.

In Hong Kong, the maximum length of a movie’s release period is one month. “The Burning of the Old Summer Palace” was just taken off the screen these two days ago, and its final box office revenue was locked in at HK$1642 million.

Compared with the later version, the box office earned one million more, probably because of Lin Chaoyang's butterfly wings.

This result ranked among the top three in the Hong Kong film box office this year. Li Hanxiang was the biggest beneficiary of the movie's success. Now he has become a popular and sought-after director in the Hong Kong film industry, and investors are chasing him to give him money.

Even his New Kunlun Pictures started to shake. They originally said they would invest 30 Hong Kong dollars in "The Chess Master", but later doubled the amount to 60 Hong Kong dollars, which was much more generous than before.

Even when it comes to royalties, they are still as stingy as ever, this is what Lin Chaoyang complained about privately.

As for the film's leading actress, Liu Xiaoqing has become very famous in Hong Kong. It is said that when she attended events in Hong Kong, many fans came to support her and asked for her autograph.

On the other hand, the Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka Fai was in a bit of a pity. During the release of "The Burning of the Summer Palace", the Taiwan authorities officially announced that he had been banned.

When the news came out, Tony Leung's career, which had just started to improve due to "The Burning of the Summer Palace", immediately dimmed.

But he no longer cared about this, because he had been packed up by Li Hanxiang and sent to the mainland to film "The Chess Master".

For a young man like him who has not yet tasted fame and fortune, being banned by Taiwan does not seem to have any impact on him, as it does not hinder him from making movies anyway.

As for Lin Chaoyang, the screenwriter, he also attracted the attention of the Hong Kong film industry, and Li Hanxiang praised him highly, which made many filmmakers interested in him. Unfortunately, he was in the mainland and did not make a living by writing scripts, so this reputation did not really help him.

"The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" has been withdrawn from theaters in Hong Kong, but is still being shown in mainland China. However, there are no box office statistics at the moment. Except for China Film Corporation, even the production studio is unable to understand the box office performance after the movie is released.

In fact, these days China Film Corporation does not count movie box office figures. Instead, they count movie distribution revenues, and the box office figures can be roughly inferred from the distribution revenues.

"I had dinner with someone from the city's distribution company the other day, and I heard that their company earned 45 this month from 'The Burning of the Old Summer Palace,'" Tao Yucheng said mysteriously.

Lin Chaoyang had no idea about the "45" income of the provincial-level issuing company. Tao Yucheng explained to him:

"Now, after deducting the 90 yuan per film that China Film pays to the production studio, as well as the expenses for copies, the rest of the box office revenue for domestic films is the distribution income, which is generally 50%.

Of this 50%, China Film Group takes the lion's share, accounting for 70%. The other 30% is left to provincial distribution companies, which in turn pay 20% of their revenue and profits to the treasury, and 80% is used for the reconstruction of distribution and screening."

Lin Chaoyang sorted out the relationship between them, "30% of the provincial-level issuing company is 45 yuan?"

Tao Yucheng gave him a look and said, "Yes, and it's for a month."

According to this calculation, the box office revenue of "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" in the Yanjing area in one month was at least 300 million yuan.

Yanjing is an important ticket base for domestic film screenings. According to Tao Yucheng, the box office revenue of Yanjing multiplied by ten is basically the total box office revenue of the film nationwide, which is 3000 million.

There is an obvious difference between today's movie releases and those in later generations, which is that the screening cycle is very long. In later generations, many movies are taken off the screen within a month, and even if they are not taken off the screen, their box office potential has been exhausted.

But nowadays, many popular movies have a screening period of up to half a year. Of course, this period includes a lot of rural touring screening time.

The proportion of rural touring screening income to total distribution income is generally 70% of the distribution income of urban cinemas. The current urbanization rate in China is only 20%.

That is to say, urban areas, with a 20% population share, contribute nearly 60% of China's film box office, while rural population only contributes about 40%.

This figure also indirectly reflects the current economic gap between urban and rural areas in the country.

According to the momentum of "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace", it is estimated that the domestic box office should be at least 50 or 60 million.

Although it did not achieve the record-breaking results of "Shaolin Temple" and "The Shepherd", it can also be said to be outstanding.

"The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" is, after all, a serious historical film, and its audience is far less extensive than the previous two.

Unfortunately, no matter how popular the movie is, it has nothing to do with the screenwriter Lin Chaoyang.

This is not only true for him, but also for all people working in the film industry.

While eating, Tao Yucheng imagined the possible box office of "The Last Emperor" and thought that Lin Chaoyang should win a Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Award next year.

"It's impossible to win the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Awards. The movie is a co-production, but we were just assisting in the filming and are not even eligible to register," said Lin Chaoyang.

Tao Yucheng said regretfully, "That's such a pity! With the quality of these two films, they should have won awards no matter what. But your film The Shepherd didn't win that year."

Tao Yucheng felt sorry for Lin Chaoyang, but Lin Chaoyang didn't care at all. The first few sessions of these two awards were fine, but later on they were basically the product of the judges' own entertainment, nothing special.

After eating at Tao’s house, Lin Chaoyang returned to Xiaoliubukou Hutong.

It wasn't completely unreasonable for Xie Daoyuan to find an excuse for him to take a holiday. Winter was about to come, and winter supplies really needed to be prepared.

The population of Yanjing City has increased dramatically in recent years. One of the most notable features is that around the beginning of winter, the coal mines in various streets are extremely busy, with seven to eight or even more than a dozen coal-delivery tricycles often coming out of the coal mines at the same time.

In order to deliver winter coal to people's homes before winter, the coal plant will also hire some farmers in the suburbs who are off-season to strengthen the coal delivery team.

Although the limited amount of coal on the coal purchase certificate may not be enough for Lin Chaoyang's family to burn for a month, their family has never lacked coal. One of the biggest benefits of reform and opening up is that having money can actually improve living standards.

That morning, as soon as the coal from the coal factory was delivered to his home, Lin Erchun came over and started complaining to him.

Comrade Erchun’s theme is “waste”.

He said that when Lin Chaoyang first came to the city, the old couple hoped that Lin Chaoyang could have a home in Yanjing.

When Lin Chaoyang bought the house in the Overseas Chinese Apartment, they were very happy. Their son finally had a home in Yanjing, and their grandson would be a real Yanjing citizen in the future.

Later, Lin Chaoyang bought the yard in Mianhua Hutong, saying that it was for the old couple's retirement. This made sense, except that the yard was a little too big.

Later, Lin Chaoyang bought the house in Xiaoliubukou Hutong, and the old couple lived in Mianhua Hutong, and the Overseas Chinese Apartment was left vacant.

There are five people in the family, living in three houses, with a total of forty or fifty rooms, covering an area of ​​nearly three thousand square meters.

I can't live in it, I can't live in it at all.

Apart from anything else, the coal money for the past two winters is a considerable amount of money, not to mention that the Overseas Chinese Apartment is still vacant and the property fees have to be paid in full.

"You are rich now, but you can't go bankrupt in this way. As the old saying goes, if you can't afford to be poor, you can afford to be well fed and well clothed. If you can't plan well, you will be poor. You still have to be thrifty in your life..."

Comrade Erchun is best at using an abacus in his life. Lin Chaoyang listened to his words, but they went in one ear and out the other, and he was absent-minded.

"Dad, what do you think?"

"I also know that you young people want to live on your own. Your mother and I are thinking that we can move to the Overseas Chinese Apartment and rent out the yard in Mianhua Hutong. We can save a lot of money every year by renting out the yard this way!"

Listening to Lin Erchun's thoughts, Lin Chaoyang said helplessly: "Dad, why are you studying this again?"

"I am discussing this with you!"

Lin Erchun's tone was not as tough as when he spoke to him before. Lin Chaoyang wanted to say a few words to let him enjoy a peaceful life, but he suddenly stopped when the words came to his lips.

Because he realized that for his "filial piety", the old couple Lin Erchun had abandoned their home.

Now that they are in Yanjing, although they have no worries about food and clothing, they are probably like floating duckweed in their hearts.

"Okay, you take care of this matter." Lin Chaoyang said.

Hearing this, Lin Erchun was immediately delighted.

"That's right! You can't take anything with you when you are born, so we should save what we should save and spend what we should spend."

Looking at the smile on his face, Lin Chaoyang felt a lot better.

(End of this chapter)