Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 288 It's time for me to leave
Wang Meng saw Zhang Chao "put down his cup and chopsticks and couldn't eat" and was silent for a long time, so he quickly said: "Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying that you have a bad character."

Zhang Chao heaved a sigh of relief when he heard this, and said, "In fact, there are often two voices in my heart. One voice tells me, 'Forget it. What's the point of winning the argument? Will it sell one or two more books, or will it make them shut up from now on?'

But there is another voice saying, 'Why should we just let it go? Will we just let it go and they will shut up?'

No matter which voice it is, it will not allow me to be hit on the left cheek and then extend my right cheek to be hit again.

In fact, I have never "hunted down" anyone who argued with me, even though I have the right and ability to do so many times. "

Wang Meng smiled heartily after hearing this and said, “I feel relieved when you say that. Reading can bring people maturity beyond their age. But maturity can also mean becoming worldly-wise or even cunning.

The most important thing is that I saw that you didn’t argue with others out of resentment or hatred, and that’s enough.”

Wang Meng's words reminded Zhang Chao of what Alai said to him three years ago. At that time, he was also in the whirlpool of public opinion, but it was not as powerful as it is today.

The two seniors, who were more than 30 years apart in age, were both worried that Zhang Chao would become bad-tempered due to frequent questioning, so their advice to him was similar.

However, Zhang Chao knew in his heart very early on that the path he was taking was destined to be lonely and controversial.

From blindly plagiarizing works from his past life memories, to slowly developing his own literary thinking, to using "Crime Police Glory" as a shell to create a new work, to the completely original story of "Young Meteor"...

When Zhang Chao was reborn, he thought that he did not have the insight and writing ability to become a pure literary writer. Even if he wanted to write pure literary works, he could only follow the works in his memory.

This is equivalent to planting a seed of unrest in your heart.

However, as he was involved in different controversies again and again, he was forced or took the initiative to clarify, debate, and express his literary ideals in public again and again...

Just like two pieces of iron that were crudely welded together, they were repeatedly heated by fire and hammered by hammers, and then layers of impurities fell off...

The two pieces of iron became one again, purer, tougher, and sharper than either of the original pieces.

So how could Zhang Chao have any resentment or hatred?

As his creative ability improved, Zhang Chao became more open-minded and fearless than when he was just reborn.

Zhang Chao ate the last dumpling and said to Wang Meng: "Thank you for your concern. In fact, if I wait a few more years, I will have some hair on my face, and there will naturally be less controversy."

Time is on my side after all!" Then he laughed twice.

Wang Meng was also happy. If time is not on the side of a writer who has achieved so many literary achievements at such a young age, then would it be on the side of those critics with gray hair and foam at the corners of their mouths after just a few minutes of talking?
Wang Meng said: "If it were me back then, I back then..." He never finished talking about what happened back then.

But Zhang Chao understood what he meant. Wang Meng was about the same age as himself when he became famous, and he was also controversial. However, Wang Meng's "controversy" eventually made him waste 15 years in the frontier, and he missed the most critical youth and middle-aged period for a writer's growth.

But time has passed, and looking back today, I can only sigh inwardly.

Zhang Chao consoled him: "Your 'back then' has been written into the literature history textbooks. It is an achievement that many people can only dream of."

Wang Meng laughed and said, "You are quite good at flattering! If you can flatter, flatter more. I don't like to hear flattery from others, but I like to hear it from you."

Zhang Chao shook his head and said, "Is it a lot? Not much!"

The two looked at each other and laughed out loud again.

It was already past two in the afternoon when Zhang Chao came out of Wang Meng's house. He drove around for a while before driving to the office of "Chaotide Culture".

He hasn't been back for almost half a year. Almost all of his work and communication are done through the Internet. Even when he went back to Yanjing for a meeting last time, he didn't even come to see me.

Fortunately, the team is made up of young people, and they don’t have much objection to this approach. Instead, they feel that their talents can be better utilized without Zhang Chao’s presence.

Today, Zhang Chao has become more of a spiritual totem and ultimate trump card for "Chaotide Culture". In terms of daily operations, he is basically not needed to intervene anymore.

Of course, things like signing potential writers, finding potential works, and promoting and releasing them still require Zhang Chao to control the direction.

No one in the country can match his ability to market cultural products.

Zhang Chao parked his car in the community and went directly to the main office where Huang Jiefu and his colleagues were.

The office is still the same office, but there is a reception desk at the door, and a screen wall is installed to separate it from the interior. The new logo designed by Xia Da for "Chaotidal Culture" is prominently displayed on it - several waves with the meaning of Chinese ink painting, surrounding the artistic words "Chaotidal Culture", which is classical, simple and grand.

The room has also been redecorated, especially with a bunch of spotlights added, making it look brighter and more elegant, with a bit of a high-end feel. There is also a fortune tree and a fish tank at the door. I don't know when Huang Jiefu started to believe in Feng Shui.

The girl at the front desk was sorting out the materials with her head down when she suddenly saw a strange black figure flashing before her eyes. She called out to the person who came over: "Hey, hey, who are you looking for? You need to make an appointment, make an appointment."

Hearing this, the black shadow turned back to the front desk. It was a young man who looked familiar. He smiled and said, "I'm looking for Mr. Huang. I guess I don't need an appointment."

The receptionist resisted the urge to roll her eyes - who is our Mr. Huang? How many big cultural companies, film and television companies, and advertising companies in China are lining up to talk to him about cooperation. It would be a mess if he came without an appointment.

Her professionalism allowed her to still speak in a gentle tone: "You'd better make an appointment."

The young man said readily, "Okay, call Mr. Huang and tell him that Zhang Chao is looking for him."

The receptionist picked up the phone and pressed the internal call shortcut button as usual. After a while, Huang Jiefu answered the phone. The receptionist said, "Mr. Huang, there is a person named Zhang... Zhang... Chao... who... wants..."

Before she finished speaking, the receptionist put down the phone in panic, stared at Zhang Chao who was still smiling in front of her with wide eyes, and stammered: "Zhang... Mr. Zhang, I... I didn't know you were here..."

Zhang Chao waved his hand nonchalantly and said, "It's okay. Are you new here? Can I come in?"

The receptionist nodded and shook his head, which was not the right answer.

However, her embarrassment was soon resolved by Huang Jiefu and others who came out to greet her.

Huang Jiefu was very excited to see Zhang Chao, whom he hadn't seen for a long time. He gave him an American hug and complained, "Why didn't you tell me you were coming so I could postpone my afternoon schedule."

Zhang Chao smiled and said, "I just don't want to affect your normal work. You can also tell Lao Ma and the others that you don't have to come specially. We can talk about it after you're done."

After the huge box office success of "Your Name" last year, the scale of "Tide Culture" has further expanded. The courtyard house has not been purchased yet, but the office layout has been adjusted. Huang Jiefu is responsible for daily operations, business development, and investment cooperation.

Ma Boyong, Shuang Xuetao, Xia Da...even Xu Ruiya were assigned to independent office areas, each busy with their own work.

Following Huang Jiefu out came a few strangers. Zhang Chao only knew from the email that there were many new employees joining the company, but he couldn't match the people with their names.

Huang Jiefu said: "This is Zeng Jianhong, a graduate of Yanda University, a few years older than you. He is now in charge of the development of domestic commercial IP. He negotiated a good price for the development of your children's book "Children of the Exiled Meteor";

This is Jiang Zi, who graduated from Columbia University and returned to China. She is in charge of overseas investment management. She is currently in charge of the movie "Gone Girl";
and this……"

Huang Jiefu led Zhang Chao inside and introduced these newcomers to him. Zhang Chao greeted them warmly and politely. Most of these people were seeing Zhang Chao for the first time, so they were curious and nervous. After all, there were too many halos surrounding him, so some of them couldn't see his true face clearly.

They may not be interested in the literary quality of Zhang Chao's works, but they all know that the reason why "Tidal Culture" exists is because there are millions of people in the world who are readers of this young man in front of them.

It can be said that this promising literary agency was created by Zhang Chao typing word by word on the keyboard!

Moreover, Zhang Chao's marketing techniques for cultural products such as books and movies over the past two or three years have become classic cases in the business world and have been repeatedly studied. In particular, the unexpectedly popular "Your Name" last year directly hit the "Baby Project" which was backed by two film and television giants, Huayi and Yinghuang, and even had a significant impact on the box office of the subsequent "Warring States".

Huayi has never recovered since then. Not only has the company been repeatedly investigated, all its film and television projects have been frozen, and even the younger brother of the Wang family has disappeared, and no one knows where he has hidden.

It can be said that Huayi has basically been removed from the domestic film and television industry. The first giant of private film and television, the leader of Chinese films... all became illusions.

"Chaotide Culture" not only holds the copyrights of many books by Zhang Chao, but also those of Quan Yongxian, Liu Cixin, Ma Boyong, Xia Da and others. Their books are all top-notch bestsellers. They are either contracted authors of "Chaotide Culture" or simply senior executives.

In 2007, when the domestic cultural industry was about to explode, the desire for high-quality content permeated the entire industry. Looking back, everyone found that it was Zhang Chao, a young man with no experience in literature, who was the first to complete resource integration and chain connection.

Looking at the cards in the hand of "Tide Culture", everyone's saliva is flowing.

In addition to "Your Name", the "Sanjin Romance" series of special programs planned by Zhang Chao last year also broke the CCTV10 documentary ratings record. The accompanying two books "Sanjin Romance Figures" and "Sanjin Romance Figures" also sold over 100 million copies.

The famous scenic spots and ancient buildings in Shanxi that the writers visited in the documentary have welcomed a wave of tourism. Some places were caught off guard and could only resort to limited ticket sales to control the enthusiastic audience.

Who wouldn’t be jealous of such an effect?
Although Zhang Chao disappeared for several months afterwards, he produced amazing works when he reappeared. Not only did the story of "Meteor and the Boy" become three books, each of the books easily became the sales champion in its category and has not left the throne until March.

Take the "Our Way to School" project he initiated, for example. It has become the most eye-catching educational charity project in the country in recent years.

As more and more photos and texts were uploaded, the number of visits to the "Our Way to School" website increased, and the server had to be continuously expanded to carry people's encouragement and care for children.

The Internet service department of "Chaotide Culture" was separated out in such a muddled way, and the person in charge was Li Wandong, who helped Zhang Chao buy his first house three years ago.

He officially resigned from the School of Computer Science at Yanda University and joined "Tide Culture". "Our Way to School" was originally created by Zhang Chao at his request.

At the beginning of March this year, the number of visits to the website "Our Way to School" exceeded that of Dongfangxing's "Blog China", becoming one of the top ten blog portals in China, but "Our Way to School" is more focused.

As more and more "roads to school" in remote areas have received basic repairs, the brand reputation of "Tide Culture" has also reached its peak.

Although "Our Way to School" is a project that requires a loss of money, the money invested in it has been earned back a hundred or even a thousand times in other ways. Since the influence of the website has fermented, "Tide Culture" has been very successful in negotiating projects.

Especially when it comes to matters that require the cooperation of government departments, it is extremely smooth. When many people see people from "Tide Culture" come out to talk about things, they like to first talk about which "road to school" they are paying attention to and how much money they have donated to help children build roads.

Afterwards, when everyone analyzed why this plan was so successful, they found that in addition to taking advantage of the debate between Zhang Chao and Sun Yunxiao, it was also because Zhang Chao hit the most traditional and simple understanding of charity among the Chinese people - building bridges and paving roads are immeasurable merits.

All these incidents have made Zhang Chao almost a legend in the company. Especially for those who joined the company after October last year and have never met Zhang Chao, they can only know him through word of mouth from old employees and bits and pieces on the Internet.

Now, I finally see a living one!

The girl at the front desk was still looking at Zhang Chao lingeringly until his back disappeared behind the door of Huang Jiefu's office: "He is Zhang Chao? How can he be Zhang Chao? He is Zhang Chao!"

I imagined countless encounters with this young boss, but I didn't expect it to start with such a classic "misunderstanding-offense". Isn't this a coincidence?
The little girl secretly pulled out a new novel from the drawer - "The Only Beloved in the Prosperous Age: The Imperial Concubine is Too Cold" - at the beginning of this book, doesn't the heroine offend the young emperor who was on a secret visit due to misunderstanding, and then was forcibly married back to the palace and named imperial concubine?

The little girl thought of Zhang Chao's gentle smile when he left, and her heart started pounding: If it were him, if it were him...

Of course, Zhang Chao didn't know how many people were excited by his appearance. He just followed Huang Jiefu around, greeted everyone, and followed him into the office.

There were two people sitting in the office. They were also a little excited when they saw Huang Jiefu and Zhang Chao coming in. They came to Huang Jiefu to discuss cooperation, but they didn't expect to run into Zhang Chao, who was always elusive. It was a pleasant surprise.

Huang Jiefu introduced: "These two are comrades from the Guizhou Cultural Department. They came here to discuss the planning and implementation of the TV special with us. This is Director Wang, and this is Director Li."

The two of them hurried forward and shook hands with Zhang Chao. Director Li also said, "It was a rare opportunity for us to meet you. I never thought that we would meet again in Yanjing four months later."

Zhang Chao was stunned and asked, "Where did this come from?"

Director Li explained: "As soon as the news of your presence in Shilei Village spread, our propaganda department rushed to Shilei Village overnight, but we didn't expect to meet you in the end. This is because we didn't do our job well! We need to reflect on this!"

This made Zhang Chao feel embarrassed, and he said, "I went to Shilei Village to get some peace and quiet. I was afraid of you guys coming in large numbers, so I left first."

Director Li said repeatedly: "I understand, I understand. It's us who didn't think it through! We need to reflect on this!"

Zhang Chao didn't know how to respond to the politeness, so he could only say, "You guys continue talking, I'll listen. I won't interfere in business matters."

Then he pulled an office chair and sat in the corner.

Huang Jiefu and the other three saw this and sat back on the sofa to start talking about cooperation. However, the two leaders, Li and Wang, kept glancing at Zhang Chao as they talked, as if they were particularly eager for Zhang Chao to say something.

But Zhang Chao seemed to be unable to see or hear what they were talking about. He was typing away on his cell phone, and it was unclear whether he was sending text messages or replying to emails.

Is he still creating? I heard that Zhang Chao is very good at using his spare time to write, which is why he has so many works at such a young age.

Thinking of this, Director Li and Director Wang couldn't help but stand in awe!

In fact, Zhang Chao was concentrating on playing games - during his stay in Ludao, he specially replaced his mobile phone with a parallel imported BlackBerry 8800. After flashing the system, he could install classic games such as Build a House and Snake.

He was playing the game of building a house, and he had already built more than 80 floors...

Driven by this atmosphere, the two parties quickly reached a cooperation intention. It was still the golden combination of "Chao Tide Culture" and "CCTV10" that took action to complete the production of at least 7 episodes of Guizhou Cultural Travel Special Program before July this year.

This way you can catch the summer vacation tourism boom.

Time is already very tight, but with the successful experience of "Sanjin Fengliu", everyone is full of optimism.

After politely declining their dinner invitation and seeing them off, it was already evening.

Zhang Chao said to Huang Jiefu: "Call everyone here, I have something to say."

Huang Jiefu knew that what Zhang Chao was talking about at this time must be no trivial matter, so he quickly called Ma Boyong, Shuang Xuetao, Xia Da and others over, and asked the others to leave work early.

Zhang Chao looked at the young people gathered in the living room. They were the first ones who started a business with him. They had become mature and steady, completely different from their youthful temperament back then. He felt deeply moved.

As everyone was looking on expectantly, Zhang Chao said something that surprised everyone: "Now, it's time for me to leave."

(End of this chapter)