Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 120 The First Generation of Dongguan-style Service
There is a fifteen-minute break between plays and movies, which allows the audience to calm down, go to the bathroom, and for the drama club to tidy up the stage scenery and props.

When the audience had taken their seats again, a huge screen had been lowered in front of the stage curtain. The lights dimmed and the music from the movie started.

To be fair, "Better Days" is indeed a good movie. But with the precedent of "Wotou Guild Hall", the audience's emotions have already been vented once;

In addition, the live impact of drama is naturally stronger than that of movies, so after the screening of "Better Days", there was no thunderous applause.

But overall, it was quite enthusiastic. After all, the subject matter of the movie is closely related to campus life. Although the top students at Yanda University generally lack the experience of being bullied, they can still empathize with their peers.

The crew of "Better Days" and director Lin Zhaohua were invited to the stage.

Zhang Chao, Zhang Aijia and Lin Zhaohua sat in the middle seats, and even the leading actors Zhou Xun and Zhang Zhen had to sit at the side. After all, this was his home court.

After discussing his creative ideas, Yu Hua, who had been hiding in a corner, was discovered by the students, and everyone urged him to speak.

Yu Hua took the microphone and asked only one question: "When will Wotou Guild Hall be performed at Yanshi University?"

The atmosphere in the theater suddenly became joyful. This "Performance & Screening Rehearsal" activity lasted until 6:, when it ended with everyone reluctant to leave.

Zhang Chao also became a real celebrity in Yanda University.

Before, most of the classmates had only heard that there was a new person in the school. He was specially recruited, published a book, and was the richest man. These were all campus legends.

Now I finally have a concrete understanding of his talent.

The next day, when Zhang Chao went to the cafeteria to get food, he finally felt the attention he received at Changfu No. 3 Middle School again. During class, people would often bring his published novels to him for autographs.

But fortunately, the Labor Day holiday is less than a week away.

The May Day holiday in 2005 will be 7 days, which is a real long holiday, not a "short holiday".

The crew of "Youth Like You" originally wanted to take Zhang Chao on a roadshow, but on the evening of April 4, Zhang Chao boarded a plane with his teacher Yu Hua and his classmates from the "Writers Graduate Class" and went all the way to Guangzhou.

Huacheng Publishing House invited him, a "gold medal writer", and other writers who were not "gold medal" enough to come to Guangzhou to collect folk songs.

Various field trips are benefits provided by publishing houses to writers with whom they have good relationships. Building relationships and collecting writing materials are secondary, while traveling is the primary purpose.

Xiao Jianguo and Zhu Yanling from Huacheng Publishing House both felt that Zhang Chao had become noticeably colder towards them since last year's Shanghai Book Fair.

In order to "rekindle love" with Zhang Chao, Huacheng Publishing House spent a lot of money this time. Not only did it invite the entire "Writer Graduate Class" students and teacher Yu Hua, but it also arranged a one-day trip to Hong Kong Island in the itinerary.

In this way, the size of the entire field trip group reached nearly 30 people.

Except for a few students who wanted to go home, almost everyone else came. Seeing their sincerity, Zhang Chao had no choice but to follow them.

On the first day of the field trip, we mainly visited the historical sites and revolutionary sites in Yangcheng. As a city with a pivotal position in modern history, the various celebrity residences and old European-style buildings in Yangcheng are still worth seeing.

On the first night, Huacheng Society arranged for everyone to watch "Better Days". Zhang Chao had to watch this movie for the third time in a month and a half.

However, what made him happy was that the attendance of "Better Days" in Yangcheng Cinema was very good. During the prime show at 7: p.m., the theater was basically full.

Judging from the flow of people entering the theater, the box office of "Better Days" is obviously more popular than Cage's "National Treasure" released at the same time.

The majority of moviegoers are teenagers, many of whom come in groups of classmates, and there are also many parents who bring their children.

Zhang Chao breathed a sigh of relief, this time slot choice was indeed the right one.

On the second day, everyone was woken up early in the morning - today we had to take the customs bus to Hong Kong Island. This was also the one that everyone was most looking forward to during the trip.

However, Zhang Chao did not go with them. Not only had he just been there a few months ago, he had been there many times in his previous life in Shenzhen. He also did not have the task of purchasing milk powder, cosmetics, digital products, health care drugs... for his relatives and friends. Naturally, he wanted to sleep a little longer in the hotel.

In order to avoid nagging from the people from Huacheng Society, he did not bring his pass.

After everyone left, Zhang Chao took a nap until 10 o'clock, then got up to wash up. Then, wearing shorts and flip-flops, he took a taxi and went to Panxi for morning tea.

After ordering a basket of shrimp dumplings, a basket of chicken feet, a case of roast goose, and monk fruit tea, Zhang Chao began to enjoy a morning that was completely his own.

Here, no one knows him. He doesn't need to write novels or scripts, he doesn't need to review manuscripts, he doesn't need to communicate and socialize with people who are close or distant, he doesn't even need to talk, and he only needs to tick the menu to order food.

This environment made Zhang Chao feel more relaxed than ever before. After a morning tea, Zhang Chao stayed up until 1pm, and finally had a plate of dry fried beef noodles before returning to the hotel and going to sleep.

In the evening, Zhang Chao found a food stall to fill his stomach, then went to Shangxiajiu for a stroll and returned to his room at almost 10 o'clock.

At this time, the field trip group had also returned, all of them carrying large and small bags and looking exhausted, forming a sharp contrast with the energetic Zhang Chao.

However, when they saw Zhang Chao, they were angry, which made him confused. Lei Pingyang, a classmate in the writer class, found an opportunity to secretly tell Zhang Chao: "The publishing association in Hong Kong Island that is connected with Huacheng Publishing House organized a press conference, but the reporters who were present heard that you were not there, and they all left..."

Zhang Chao: "..."

The itinerary for the next three days was relatively unremarkable. We first went to Conghua to soak in hot springs, then went to Qingyuan to eat free-range chicken, and then spent half a day in a meeting to discuss some random literary topics.

However, Huacheng Publishing House was not completely without gain. At least it got more than 20 manuscripts for Huacheng magazine. Even Yu Hua said that he was considering whether to submit his just completed novel Brothers (Part 1) to Huacheng Publishing House for publication.

Yu Hua hadn't published a long work for ten years. This statement made Xiao Jianguo very excited, and even his frustration at not being able to get Zhang Chao's manuscript was diluted a lot.

Zhang Chao is now running his own literary magazine, so it is understandable that he is unwilling to submit his manuscript to other journals. Huacheng Publishing House is mainly eyeing his "The Great Doctor" - didn't they say that they would consider publishing a single volume in two years? This is not a long period in the publishing industry, so it is important to lay the groundwork now.

On May 5, everyone came to Dongguan, visited textile factories and electronics factories, tasted Dongguan's Tangxia Lu Goose and Houjie Rice Noodles, and then came to the hotel's conference room in the afternoon. After the last summary meeting, this field trip was over.

But just after President Xiao Jianguo finished his final speech, the door of the conference room was pushed open. A fat man with a southern-style appearance, bald head, and golden body walked in and greeted everyone.

Xiao Jianguo was stunned, not knowing where the other party came from.

The fat man introduced himself: "My name is Mai Jiatang. My ancestors are from Guangdong Province. Now I am a small 'Datuk' in Malaysia. I am a good friend of the owner of this hotel. I heard that there are many writers here today. I have always admired you cultural people..."

This McDonald mumbled for a long time, just asking everyone to stay one more night, and he wanted to do his best to be a good host.

Xiao Jianguo said: "Everyone's plane and train tickets have been booked..."

Dato Mac waved his hand and said proudly, "It's okay, cancel them all, I'll ask my assistant to reorder for you."

After several rounds of negotiations, he used money to settle all the reasons for not going. Even the hotel owner came out to vouch for him, guaranteeing that McDat had no ill intentions. Besides, there were only 30 writers in the group, so who would dare to do anything to them?
Xiao Jianguo discussed with everyone for a long time and decided to go and take a look. After all, they would only stay for one more night, so they were not afraid of having too many people.

Dato Mac was overjoyed and immediately invited everyone to get into several business cars. They sped along the way and arrived at the Prince Hotel in just over ten minutes.

McDat first treated everyone to a seafood feast with a high purine content, and gave everyone local specialties as souvenirs, and then booked luxurious single rooms for all members of the tour group in the hotel. All the receptions were very rich and warm.

Seeing that he had no ill intentions, everyone slowly let down their guard.

Around 8 o'clock in the evening, McDonald suggested that everyone take a bath, so the tour group naturally divided into two teams, men and women, and went to the men's and women's areas respectively.

Zhang Chao had already noticed something was wrong, but since everyone else was going, he had no choice but to follow.

Soon, they were led to a separate small hall. As soon as they sat down, the door of the small hall was opened, and Dato Mac walked in with his head held high, followed by two rows of tall beauties wearing ancient costumes with thin gauze that hid their flesh, wearing Peking Opera headgear, wearing stage makeup, and holding round fans.

Yishui has charming eyes and eyebrows, skin as white as fat, a waist as thin as a snake, and looks to be at least 170cm tall. Her long legs can captivate any man.

After entering the door and standing, the beauties all half-knelt and saluted, half-covering their pretty faces with round fans, and said in a delicate voice: "My dear gentlemen, I am here to pay my respects..."

None of the writers had ever seen such a scene. Even Yu Hua was stunned. He couldn't sit or walk. His whole body felt numb, as if he had been poisoned by Zhao Min's "Ten Fragrances Softening Muscle Powder".

Dato Mac said proudly: "This is our latest service project, called 'Red Sleeves and Fragrance', which is most suitable for people of culture like you. I carefully selected it, and when I heard that you were coming to our Dongguan City, I started preparing non-stop!"

Then he pointed at all the beauties and said, "They have all undergone professional and standardized training. You are the first batch of customers to experience it. Everyone can choose according to their preferences. I will cover all the expenses! If you don't like it, we also have 'Modern Times', 'Light Dance', and 'Western Style'. I'm sure there is a service that you will be satisfied with!"

Zhang Chao saw that all the elder brothers were dumbfounded and shook his head. Now he was the only one who was still sober, so he asked directly: "Boss Mai, you want something, right? Just tell me."

Dato Mac casually hugged a beautiful woman, gave Zhang Chao a thumbs up, and said, "I never thought that heroes would emerge from youth! It's actually very simple. I invited you all here because I had an idea. I want you great writers to write a biography for me, my father, and my grandfather! You name the price for the royalties!"

Yu Hua also came back to his senses and said hurriedly: "We usually don't write for others..."

While touching the beautiful woman, Dato Mac said nonchalantly: "I won't write about ordinary things, but I can write about extraordinary things. Let me tell you, this biography of our three generations of grandparents and grandchildren should mainly highlight the theme of 'promoting positive energy' and 'transmitting positive energy'. It should set an example for the descendants of our Mac family, so that the family tradition will be positive..."

More than a dozen writers present all felt a black screen before their eyes.

(End of this chapter)