Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 119 Zhang Chao's Double Blossom

As The Great Doctor was noticed and reported by mainstream media, the sales of Youth also reached a new level. Among the young people, buying a copy of Youth and posting a favorite cover has become a trend.

Seeing the reprint orders for "Youth" flying like snowflakes from all over the country to the editorial department of "New Sprout", Zhao Changtian was a little unhappy.

Because he regarded "readers designing their own covers" as a "trick", he refused to let "New Sprout" participate in the printing of author cartoon image stickers. He believed that since one was already given away in the magazine, readers would not spend money to buy new stickers after trying it.

After all, 3 stickers can almost buy another magazine.

As a result, a week later he received news from the cooperating printing factory that the author's cartoon image stickers were selling like hot cakes, and the number of prints was nearly 10 times the sales volume of the magazine.

If we only count the gross profit, the money Zhang Chao earns from selling one sticker is almost equal to the money he earns from selling one magazine...

Upon hearing the news, Zhao Changtian felt a tightness in his chest and nearly passed out - no wonder Zhang Chao was so generous in sharing the profits and hardly bargained. He was not targeting the hard-earned money from selling magazines!
Zhao Changtian couldn't bring himself to say that he wanted to get involved now. He just decided that no matter what ideas Zhang Chao had later, he would put them aside and just follow him.

Many publishing houses also began to order the publication of "The Great Doctor" from Zhang Chao, and some even offered 17% of the royalties. However, Zhang Chao rejected all of them, saying that "The Great Doctor" would be serialized in the magazine for at least 2 years before considering publishing it as a single volume.

Although this news disappointed the publisher, it reassured the authors of Youth. If a magazine has a long-running ace series, the overall sales of the magazine will definitely not be bad, and it can also drive other authors to sell well.

In addition, various businesses of "Midnight Tide" have gradually been expanded.

Ma Boyong's two novels, "The Wind Rises in Longxi" and "She Died on QQ", were both handed over to Changjiang Literature Publishing House, with royalties of 8%. The first print run of the former was 5 copies, and the first print run of the latter was 3 copies, both of which reached the bottom line of "bestsellers".

This made Ma Boyong, who was experiencing physical book publishing for the first time, very satisfied.

What made him even more satisfied was that Zhang Chao contacted an artist named Yu Yanshu through Xia Da, and prepared to turn his "The Wind Rises in Longxi" into a cartoon.

If all goes well, Zhang Chao will also help contact Shueisha - after all, the Japanese people are still very interested in the Three Kingdoms theme.

Recently, Zhang Chao clearly felt that Prince was working harder. Even when he came to the office occasionally, he seldom caught him slacking off and writing novels during work - after all, the workload of reviewing each issue of "Youth" was enough to almost exhaust him.

There are also good news coming from the island country. The novel "Your Name" has ranked 4th on the Kadokawa Bunko light novel sales list, with more than 6000 copies sold every week; the first single volume of the manga also has good sales.

Quan Yongxian became the first contracted author from outside, and Huayi agreed to buy the script of "The Cliff" at a price of 3 yuan per episode, a total of 40 million yuan based on the estimate of 120 episodes.

The news that Quan Yongxian sold a script for over one million was known to his classmates in the writer class. They were all jealous and eager to sign a contract with Zhang Chao's company.

As the main writer, Quan Yongxian received 70% of the royalties. This was the first time he made so much money from writing, and he worked so hard to write the subsequent scripts that Zhang Chao had to advise him to take care of his health.

Zhang Chao did not take the 30%, but added a little to make up 200 million, and reached a verbal agreement with Huayi that he would participate in the investment of "Cliff". He did not invest in "Better Days" before because there was no one to check the financial situation. Now with Huang Jiefu, a top student from Harvard Business School, it would be a pity not to let him show his talent.

Huang Jiefu is also very busy. Zhang Chao has to attend classes every day and spends most of his time on creation after class, so apart from checking the general direction, he is almost a hands-off boss.

But this also satisfies Huang Jiefu's dream of doing business. Seeing his works shine in the commercial field, the pie that Zhang Chao painted for him doesn't seem so empty?

However, as the number of people increased, the original two-bedroom apartment was no longer sufficient. Zhang Chao was forced to buy a four-bedroom apartment nearby so that Ma Boyong and Huang Jiefu would not have to squeeze into one desk to work.

The original two-bedroom apartment has completely become the territory of the comics and design team headed by Xia Da.

Huang Jiefu was actually quite dissatisfied. He thought that he should rent an office building to do his job now. Working in the community was not high-end enough.

Zhang Chao slapped him on the back and said, "In the next few years, we will only buy offices and not rent them."

"Better Days" is also about to be released, and is currently being screened in various places for warm-up. Under the arrangement of Zhang Chao and the Chinese Department of Yanda University, one of the previews and the meeting with the main creators was held at Yanda University.

Yanda also had the unique idea of ​​putting this preview together with the first public performance of "Wotou Guild Hall" by the Yanda Drama Club, and invited drama clubs from many universities such as Tsinghua University, Yan Normal University, Yan University of Technology, and Renmin University to observe, and the Chinese Academy of Drama, as a professional judge, was naturally not absent.

The crew of "Youth Like You" was naturally very happy. A preview could allow more than a dozen active university students to see the film, so why not? Moreover, the screenwriter of "Wotou Guild Hall" was also Zhang Chao, so it was also a show of support for his own people.

After the Chinese Department of Yan University released the event poster for "Performance and Screening of Zhang Chao's Works", Yan University was in an uproar.

Everyone had heard that the drama club was rehearsing an incredible play for two full hours, directed by Lin Zhaohua, the former director and vice president of the People's Art Theatre, current director of the Yenching University Drama Institute, and dramatist.

After watching the rehearsal version, the school leaders directly allocated 5 yuan for them to buy props and costumes. Not to mention "Better Days", as the most popular domestic film during the May Day period, it is a great honor to be able to see this movie written by my classmates in my school in advance.

However, the theater had limited seats and could not really sell tickets. So as soon as the tickets were distributed to the various departments, they were snapped up. Even Zhang Chao himself only got two internal tickets, one for the prince and one for Yu Hua.

On April 4, the last Sunday before the May Day holiday, at 24 p.m., the Yan University Theater was packed with people and noisy. Even the school leaders sitting in the front row were a little surprised, because some big professors' lectures were usually not so lively.

Zhang Chao and the main creators of the "Better Days" crew sat in the audience, feeling the waves of noise coming from the "back", and they felt a little nervous.

Students from top universities such as Yanda and Tsinghua University have very discerning tastes, and it is not easy to conquer them. Their comments can even reverse the reputation of a movie.

When Stephen Chow's "A Chinese Odyssey" was released in 1995, it was considered a terrible movie that no one could understand and the box office was not ideal.

However, in the past two years, with the continuous deconstruction, interpretation and explanation of this movie by college students in major BBSs, the reputation of "A Chinese Odyssey" has reversed and it has become a "post-modernism" classic.

This is something even director Liu Zhenwei did not expect.

The first performance was the premiere of "Wotou Guild Hall". As the lights in the theater dimmed, the melodious sound of the harmonica rang out, and the noisy voices soon calmed down. Everyone stared with wide eyes and pricked up their ears, wanting to see what this drama, which had been passed on by word of mouth within Yanda for more than two months, was like.

Zhang Chao is also looking forward to it.

The stage curtain opened, and a vivid interior of a dilapidated courtyard house was presented to the audience - judging from the scenery and props alone, the 5 yuan spent by Yanda was not wasted.

As the characters appeared one by one, the scenes of joy and sorrow in the small courtyard quickly captured the audience's hearts.

In Zhang Chao's opinion, the students' acting skills are naturally not as mature and natural as those of the People's Art Theatre's actors, and they are a bit too forced in many places - but it is precisely this "excessive effort" that constitutes a special artistic tension unique to student drama.

He Jiping turned her head to Zhang Chao and said, "You've put a lot of effort into researching the material for this play, right?"

When she was writing "The Best Restaurant in the World", in order to make the details in the script truly reproduce the original historical appearance, she spent a whole year just experiencing life, visiting old artists and chefs, and learning roast duck skills.

Before the script was finished, He Jiping passed the second-level chef certificate.

Although "Wotou Guild Hall" does not have so many professional details, the occupational arrangement of various small characters before liberation is a great subject. The excrement collector, the plaster seller, the stewed meat seller, the college student... their words and deeds must conform to the characteristics of that era.

Zhang Chao said with some emotion: "A good play is harder to write than a movie."

He Jiping nodded with deep emotion.

Yizhe remained true to himself and asked Zhang Chao, "This play is very suitable for being adapted into a TV series. You see, as long as we add two more characters..."

Zhang Chao gently waved his hand and said, "Let's not talk about this now. Let's watch the show."

With the wonderful performance of the actors, two hours passed by unknowingly. When the curtain fell again, the lights came on, and the actors took their bows in the center of the stage, the audience woke up from their dream.

Thunderous applause resounded throughout the Yanda Theater, and many students even stood up and applauded.

The actors bowed three times in a row, and only when they pulled Zhang Chao onto the stage for the last time did the applause die down.

The drama club members of Qinghua University, Yanshi University, Yan University of Technology and other schools who were invited to watch the performance all had wonderful expressions on their faces, some were shocked, some were disappointed, some were in awe...

The president of Qinghua University's drama club muttered to himself, "Is this... is this still a student drama?"

Several teachers from the Central Academy of Drama who were in charge of organizing this year's College Student Drama Festival looked at each other in bewilderment and raised another question: "Can our students from the Central Academy of Drama stage such a play?"

The leader of Yanda University was very satisfied with the result. He picked up the microphone and said to the students, "Everyone, please be patient. We will soon show another work written by Zhang Chao, the movie "Young Like You".

Zhang Chao has been at YNU for less than a year and has made great achievements in both drama and film. I hope that everyone can gain some insights by watching Zhang Chao’s works and create works that will make YNU proud! ”

After hearing all these official words, Zhang Chao just wanted to retreat tactically...

(The next chapter will be posted tonight.)
(End of this chapter)