Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 426: Only fit to eat meat
"Me? How would I know anything about movies?"

"It doesn't matter if you don't understand. You can learn. Otherwise, why do you think I specially arranged for you to go to New Kunlun?"

Lin Chaoyang suddenly said this to Tao Yushuo, and she was a little overwhelmed to react for a moment.

She resigned because she became pregnant. Although she came to Hong Kong, she still wanted to go back to her old job in the future.

Lin Chaoyang knew what she was thinking and said with a smile: "There is no conflict between working in movies and newspapers and publishing. They are all cultural industries. In the future, you can manage newspapers, magazines, and film companies. Maybe you will become a strong woman in the new era!"

Tao Yushu couldn't help but roll his eyes at him when he heard that. "You're getting more and more ridiculous!"

After returning to the new home, Tao Yushu was walking around a little uncomfortable, but Tao Yumo was very excited.

"Sister, this house is much more comfortable to live in than a courtyard house. Is it really as expensive as Sister Li said?"

When the Tao Yushu sisters went out shopping with Zhang Cuiying, they talked about houses. They learned from Zhang Cuiying that the housing price in Oriental Garden had reached HK$700 per square foot, which means the housing price per square meter is as high as HK$6300.

For example, the house that Lin Chaoyang and his family live in has a market price of more than 60 yuan, and this is the price after the housing prices in Hong Kong plummeted in the past two years.

At the beginning of this year, housing prices in Hong Kong rose. Zhang Cuiying said that the price may rise again in a few months.

"You have to ask your brother-in-law about this. I don't know either."

Lin Chaoyang said: "Hong Kong has a large population and limited land, and its economy is overheated, so high housing prices are inevitable."

"People in Hong Kong are so rich!" Tao Yumo sighed.

Lin Chaoyang said helplessly: "The average working class can only make three to four thousand Hong Kong dollars a month, and it is not easy to buy a house. Now that the statement has been issued and the situation has stabilized, the housing prices in Hong Kong will definitely rise again, and the ordinary people will suffer."

Tao Yushu asked, "By the way, Chaoyang, how about the rent?"

Li Hanxiang and his wife helped Lin Chaoyang arrange accommodation and prepared all necessary daily necessities, without mentioning a single word about money.

"Let's talk about it later. I will definitely repay Lao Li's favor this time."

Tao Yushu nodded and understood what Lin Chaoyang meant. Borrowed money is easy to repay, but debts of favor are not so easy to repay.

Tao Yushu tossed and turned in his new bed at night.

The longest time she had been away from home in her life was to work in the countryside. Now she suddenly came to Hong Kong. It was incredible to think about it.

Seeing her like this, Lin Chaoyang took her aside and comforted her for a few words, and then the couple talked about their future life in Hong Kong.

Living in a city is not easy, and money is of course the first priority.

Last month, Huacheng Publishing House settled another royalty payment for Crossing the Guandong.

Half a year after its publication, the cumulative sales of Crossing the Guandong have exceeded 310 million. This royalty settlement once again brought Lin Chaoyang 38 yuan in royalties. This royalty also made the couple's bank deposits exceed 165 million yuan.

Unfortunately, this money cannot be taken out of the country.

Fortunately, "The Death of Van Gogh" was published in Hong Kong before. Although the royalties were forced to be converted into RMB, Lin Chaoyang was still left with a 10% share. Now there are more than Hong Kong dollars left, which is enough for Lin Chaoyang and his family to live in Hong Kong for a few months.

In another month, the royalties for the novels "The Death of Van Gogh", "Crossing the Guandong" and "The Chess Master" will be settled one after another.

By that time, they will have much more funds.

As Tao Yushu listened to Lin Chaoyang's words, his originally uneasy heart gradually calmed down.

In the next two days, Lin Chaoyang took the Tao Yushu sisters to familiarize themselves with the surrounding environment, and walked around various places in Hong Kong to adapt to the local customs and practices.

After that, Tao Yushu couldn't sit still anymore and planned to go to Li Hanxiang's New Kunlun Pictures.

Although she came to Hong Kong with a letter of employment issued by New Kunlun Pictures, she did not actually need to go to work.

But Tao Yushu just couldn't sit still, so she took a bus to New Kunlun Pictures on Lockhart Road early in the morning. Lin Chaoyang was worried about her, so he went with her.

New Kunlun Pictures was just a shell company. An office of less than 30 square meters was divided into three small rooms. The clerks and the finance staff were in one room, there was also a meeting room, and the last room was the office of Li Hanxiang and his wife.

Tao Yushu didn't have much to do there, just chat with Zhang Cuiying and listen to her talk about the Hong Kong film industry.

Another day passed and it was the weekend. Lin Chaoyang took Tao Yushu to Li Hanxiang's house to attend a party.

This party was different from the last one. The last one was a celebration party held by Li Hanxiang for "The Last Emperor", while this time it was a welcome party specially prepared by Li Hanxiang for Lin Chaoyang. He specially called many friends in the film industry for this purpose.

King Hu, Yue Hua, Cai Lan, Ti Lung, Xu Guanwen...

When Lin Chaoyang and his wife first came in, Tao Yushu was dazzled by Li Hanxiang's introduction of a circle of acquaintances and friends. However, Lin Chaoyang smiled and greeted these people one by one with a normal expression.

The main reason is that most of these people are familiar faces to Lin Chaoyang. Even if later generations have not seen the works they participated in, they have heard of their names.

There are more than ten people attending today's party, all of whom can be said to be Li Hanxiang's most trusted friends. Moreover, these people have a good reputation in the Hong Kong film and television industry. Being able to bring them together is enough to show Li Hanxiang's sincerity today.

Li Hanxiang, nicknamed Li Hei, has a bold personality and is not particular about details when getting along with these friends. Most of these people today are meeting Lin Chaoyang for the first time.

After introducing both parties, he began to talk about his connections with the people present.

King Hu is Li Hanxiang's sworn brother. Lin Chaoyang has seen "Dragon Inn" (not "New Dragon Inn") and "A Touch of Zen" directed by him.

Both Yue Hua and Ti Lung started out as actors in martial arts films. Yue Hua's "Drunken Master" is a classic, while Ti Lung has even more representative works.

Cai Lan is a writer and gourmet. He worked at Shaw Brothers in his early years and helped out in Li Hanxiang's crew.

Xu Guanwen made his fortune with the film "The Great Warlord" directed by Li Hanxiang...

After recounting the past, the distance between everyone has been shortened a lot.

Yue Hua is a fan of Lin Chaoyang's books. Although he became famous in Hong Kong, he was actually born in Shanghai and grew up in Guangzhou, and he loves reading in private.

Later, Li Hanxiang made a movie based on Deng Youmei's novel "The Tobacco Pot", which was the novel introduced to him by Yue Hua.

Lin Chaoyang has published three novels in Hong Kong so far, namely "The Death of Van Gogh", "Crossing the Guandong" and "The Chess Master", all of which Yue Hua has bought and read.

Therefore, after meeting Lin Chaoyang, he behaved very attentively and talked to Lin Chaoyang for a long time, feeling a bit like a fan meeting his idol.

After talking about his feelings about Lin Chaoyang's novels, Yue Hua was concerned about Lin Chaoyang's new work. "Do you have any plans for your new work? When can we readers have a glimpse of it?"

Lin Chaoyang smiled and replied, "I finished writing "Crossing Guandong" at the end of the year before last, and took a break for more than a year. I am writing a new work now, and if I'm fast, it should be finished in a month or two. As for publishing, it will definitely be postponed for some time."

Yue Hua smiled happily upon hearing this, "That's great."

Then, out of curiosity about the mainland literary world, Yue Hua asked Lin Chaoyang about some of his favorite writers, almost all of whom were acquaintances of Lin Chaoyang.

"We just met Deng Youmei a few days ago."

"I met Yao Xueying twice. I remember it was when I won the Mao Dun Literature Prize in 82."

"Wu Zuxiang was a neighbor of my father-in-law's family. He taught me a lot a few years ago. The old man has stopped writing for many years... It's a pity."

"I have met Ba Jin, but I am not familiar with him. His daughter Li Xiaolin once edited my novels."

……

When Yue Hua was chatting with Lin Chaoyang, the others were also chatting on their own, but they all paid special attention to him.

The people who came today are all relatively veteran filmmakers. Most of them grew up in the mainland. When they get together to chat, they mostly speak Mandarin. They are all very welcoming to Lin Chaoyang, a mainland writer.

Everyone knows that Li Hanxiang organized such a party today just for Lin Chaoyang.

Many of the mainland literary masters that Lin Chaoyang and Yue Hua talked about became famous before the founding of the People's Republic of China, and many people present had heard of them.

Listening to Lin Chaoyang talking about the figures in the mainland literary world as if he knew them all, everyone was a little surprised that he had such a wide network of contacts at his age.

Yue Hua was delighted to see the prey and started chatting with Lin Chaoyang. Li Hanxiang took the opportunity when Lin Chaoyang was drinking water to interrupt:

"Chaoyang is now not only very famous in the mainland, but also in Hong Kong and Taiwan."

Lin Chaoyang quickly said a few humble words, and then said: "I don't have a good reputation in Wandao!"

Everyone burst into laughter when they heard this.

Last year, when Lin Chaoyang went to Hong Kong to receive an award, it caused a lot of news, and everyone naturally understood the meaning of his words.

After chatting for a while, Lin Chaoyang heard King Hu concerned about Ti Lung's contract with Shaw Brothers. Ti Lung's face was filled with worry when he talked about this.

Ti Lung entered Shaw Brothers' Southern Actor Training Class in 68. In less than a year, he became a star for his role in the movie "Blind Spot" directed by Chang Cheh.

For more than ten years thereafter, Ti Lung remained Shaw Brothers' most popular actor, with a flourishing career and popularity in Southeast Asia.

However, everything has its pros and cons. Ti Lung has a face that looks like a hero, and most of the movies he starred in were martial arts and action movies. His acting style has gradually become solidified over the years.

After the early 1980s, his career began to decline.

This year, his contract with Shaw Brothers is about to expire. Ti Lung, who wants to return to the top, does not plan to renew his contract with Shaw Brothers, so he has no work during this period.

"Shaw Brothers' style hasn't changed at all over the years!" King Hu sighed.

In his early years, he worked on the sets of major film companies in Hong Kong and was also an assistant director to Li Hanxiang. It was only after the 1960s that he made a name for himself.

In the mid-1970s, his directorial career was at its peak, and he produced many masterpieces in film history, including "Dragon Inn", "A Touch of Zen", "Rain in the Empty Mountain", and "Legend of the Mountain".

In 1976, he was selected as one of the "Top Five Directors in the World" by the British "International Film Guide".

His career focus has been in Taiwan over the years. He came to Hong Kong this time because the Hong Kong Film Culture Centre held the "King Hu Retrospective Film Festival" for him this month. In a way, it can be regarded as a return home in glory.

"Shaw Brothers..." Cai Lan seemed to sigh, but his words were restrained.

He also worked at Shaw Brothers in the past few years, and that is how he became acquainted with Li Hanxiang. After the 1980s, Run Run Shaw's right-hand man Zou Wenhuai left to establish Golden Harvest, and Chua Lam also left.

He has been doing very well in Golden Harvest in recent years. Last year, he produced Jackie Chan's "Wheels On The Road," which ranked fifth in the annual box office rankings.

Li Hanxiang couldn't help laughing at this time, "So many talented people have been chased away by the Shaw Group. Mr. Shao Liu probably can't sleep every day thinking about this."

Everyone couldn't help but burst into laughter again when they heard this.

As the evening approached, Li Hanxiang began to prepare wine and food, and said to Cai Lan:
"You've always loved food, haven't you? Chaoyang's cooking skills are top-notch too. The two of you should each prepare a dish tonight, and we'll all taste it. Whoever cooks the best, we'll name him a 'gourmet'."

Upon hearing this, Cai Lan looked at Lin Chaoyang in surprise. He didn't expect that Lin Chaoyang actually had the same interests as him.

When the others heard this, they all started to make a fuss, wanting to see the two's cooking skills.

Lin Chaoyang and Cai Lan smiled at each other, and Lin Chaoyang said, "Then let's have a discussion."

"it is good."

All the ingredients in Li Hanxiang's house are ready-made, and he bought a lot of things for today's party.

The two rolled up their sleeves, washed their hands, and each picked out the ingredients they wanted to use. However, there was only one set of kitchen utensils, so they were polite to each other and in the end, Cai Lan took the first step.

He first picked some bean sprouts, then selected a piece of premium beef imported from Australia. Before he started to cut the beef, he first filled a pot with water and put it on the stove to boil, and then started to process the beef.

His pace was neither fast nor slow, but he sliced ​​the beef quickly. It was obvious that he was a veteran, and everyone watched his movements with interest.

Before the water boils, the beef has been sliced, with each slice distinct and of uniform thickness.

After the water on the stove boils, add Japanese soy sauce. After the soy sauce boils again, add a few pieces of galangal paste. At this time, the soup in the pot is turbid. Throw the beef in and immediately use a colander to scoop out the meat.

When the soup boils again, add the bean sprouts. When it boils for the third time, add the blanched beef.

“Done!” Cai Lan said as the aroma filled the kitchen. After serving the dishes, he smiled and said to everyone, “Everyone, try it!”

Everyone was eager to try it. Li Hanxiang was impatient and took a bite of beef with chopsticks. He commented: "The taste is a bit bland."

After he finished tasting, others tasted it too, and generally gave good reviews. In the end, everyone concluded: Li Hei is only worthy of eating meat.

(End of this chapter)