Exciting 1979!

Chapter 253 Illustrations (Uncut Version)
The manager introduced the two of them.

Wei Ming, a well-known young writer in China.

Li Hanxiang, a renowned veteran director from Hong Kong.

Wei Ming was a household name for Li Hanxiang, but Li Hanxiang didn't actually know who Wei Ming was. During the time when Wei Ming was becoming famous, Li Hanxiang was filming for Shaw Brothers in Hong Kong.

The manager added, "Professor Wei Ming works at the Peking University Library and is also Mr. Wu Zuoren's neighbor and close friend despite their age difference."

Upon hearing Wu Zuoren's name, Li Hanxiang's attitude immediately improved, and he even started criticizing the manager of Rongbaozhai.

“2500 Hong Kong dollars is indeed a bit expensive; it’s an astronomical sum compared to the salary levels in mainland China.”

The manager was speechless for a moment, blaming himself for speaking out of turn. Besides, where was the price? It was meant for outsiders like you, so of course we had to charge you based on your income.

Li Hanxiang had dark skin, was tall and strong, and wore black-rimmed glasses. He was originally from Northeast China but later moved to Beiping.

As a teenager, he was admitted to the painting major of the National Beiping Art College, where he studied under Xu Beihong and Wu Zuoren. Therefore, he had a teacher-student relationship with Wu Zuoren. When he heard that Wei Ming was his teacher's close friend despite the age difference, he immediately turned to talk to him.

Wei Ming gratefully clasped his hands in a fist and palm salute to Li Hanxiang. Taking advantage of Li Hanxiang's help in making an offer, Wei Ming made a request: "I can accept HKD 2500, but I don't have any cash. It's all in my account. Can I use foreign exchange certificates?"

The manager was in a dilemma. Given Zhang Daqian's niece's situation, it was unlikely that foreign exchange certificates could be exchanged back into Hong Kong dollars.

Li Hanxiang was obviously aware of the domestic policy that made it easy for foreign exchange to come in but difficult to go out, so he offered to help. He paid Wei Ming with his own Hong Kong dollars in cash, and then asked Wei Ming to give him the corresponding foreign exchange certificates, since he would exchange them anyway.

However, he had one question: "Where did Teacher Wei get so many Hong Kong dollars?"

Wei Ming: "Besides writing novels, I also write songs. I've written a few songs for Hong Kong singers before."

"Oh, you even know music?" Li Hanxiang was a little surprised, thinking that with so many talents, it's no wonder that he could become Teacher Wu's close friend despite their age difference.

Li Hanxiang wanted to ask Wei Ming what songs he had written, but then Wu Zuoren arrived. As a student, Li Hanxiang quickly went over to greet him and chatted about his recent situation.

Wei Ming listened for a while and learned that Li Hanxiang's trip to Beijing was not only for the Rongbaozhai event, but also mainly for the script of "The Empress Dowager".

Although Li Hanxiang is known for his erotic films, he had already broken Hong Kong box office records multiple times in the 1950s with his Huangmei opera films. He was once very famous and was on par with great directors such as Chang Cheh, King Hu, and Chor Yuen. Moreover, he was the only one among them who was not known for martial arts action films.

However, the landscape of Hong Kong cinema has changed. These four directors are no longer effective. Now, it's the era of Michael Hui's urban comedies. In addition, Jackie Chan's "Young Master" brought the Hong Kong box office record to the tens of millions level for the first time this year.

However, a few years ago, Li Hanxiang needed to have heart surgery in the United States. Considering that he might die far from home, he risked returning to the mainland, where he met many colleagues in the mainland film industry and was received by Liao Gong. This gave him the idea to return to the mainland to make films.

Initially, the film was set in a teahouse, but it was felt that the dialogue would be too monotonous and not very engaging. Later, the film was set to be based on the life of Puyi, titled "My First Half of Life," but this also encountered some obstacles. Finally, the film was decided to be based on the life of Empress Dowager Cixi, titled "The Empress Dowager Reigns Behind the Curtain."

However, this project, from Shanghai Film Studio to Changchun Film Studio, has never been finalized.

Li Hanxiang, who had been waiting for a long time, also needed to make money, so he returned to Hong Kong and renewed his contract with Shaw Brothers. At the same time, he asked Yang Cunbin, a veteran screenwriter in China, to revise and improve the existing script.

This was his fifth trip to Yanjing. He participated in this anniversary event simply because he enjoys collecting things, but mainly to discuss script issues with the screenwriter.

Wei Ming used Li Hanxiang's Hong Kong dollars to buy two paintings, and then used RMB to buy some brushes, ink, paper and inkstones. He agreed to visit Li Hanxiang the next day and return his foreign exchange certificates. He stayed at the Yanjing Hotel for a few more days.

Li Hanxiang specifically said, "Send me another copy of your book later."

Wei Ming nodded in agreement, saying that they would take a group photo later, and this experience would probably be written about by Li Hanxiang in his column "Thirty Years in Detail".

When he returned home, Wei Ming recalled the two films, "The Burning of the Yuanmingyuan" and "The Empress Dowager". Among the directors of Li Hanxiang and Zhang Che's generation, only Li Hanxiang returned to the peak of his career in the 80s with these two co-productions.

At the same time, these two films solidified Liu Xiaoqing's status as the leading lady in mainland Chinese cinema, and also helped the up-and-coming newcomer Liang Jiahui win his first Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor and a ban in Taiwan.

When he got home, Wei Ming showed his mother the painting he had just bought.

Xu Shufen usually doesn't care much about these paintings, thinking they're a waste of money because they're not edible or drinkable. But today she's very happy, mainly because of the painting "Children at Play".

"Let's put this painting in the living room." Xu Shufen smiled from ear to ear. What mother doesn't want many children and grandchildren? This painting looks so festive.

Although this is a masterpiece by Zhang Daqian that could fetch tens of millions at auction in the future, paintings are meant to be seen; what's the point of rolling them up and storing them away?

"Okay, let's hang it in the living room." However, in order to maximize the lifespan of the painting, Wei Ming hung it in a place where it wouldn't get any sunlight and was far away from the toilet and kitchen.

The next day, Wei Ming went to the Yanjing Hotel to visit Li Hanxiang. The security guards there remembered him and let him through easily. Then, he met Li Hanxiang in the lobby as he came down to see him off.

Moreover, Wei Ming knew this guest.

The other person recognized him first: "Writer Wei, what brings you here?"

“Oh, Mr. Zhao,” Wei Ming said, looking at Li Hanxiang, “we’re probably here for the same person.”

Zhao Wei is the vice president of China Film Co-production Corporation. Beijing Film Studio's collaboration with Qingniao on "Heroes Have Emerged Since Ancient Times" also required going through this co-production company, and Zhao Wei was present at several of the meetings.

Zhao Wei was taken aback, and Wei Ming continued, "I borrowed money from Director Li yesterday, and I'm here today to repay it."

Next, it was Li Hanxiang's turn to ask a question: How did these two meet?

Zhao Wei then introduced the situation of "Heroes Have Emerged Since Ancient Times". Li Hanxiang actually knew about this. It was the film that Xia Meng produced after her comeback. It had also been reported in Hong Kong newspapers. He didn't expect Wei Ming to be the screenwriter. He actually knew how to write scripts!
After seeing Zhao Wei off, Li Hanxiang warmly pulled Wei Ming upstairs and into the house.

Wei Ming first returned the money, which Li Hanxiang accepted without counting. Then he took the gift from Wei Ming: a copy of the novel collection "Ferocious Animals" signed by Wei Ming himself.

After opening the book, Li Hanxiang glanced at the table of contents and then pointed to "The Herdsman" in surprise, saying, "Is it the 'The Herdsman' directed by Xie Jin last year?"

He knew Xie Jin and liked his movies very much. A couple of years ago, when he passed by the Shanghai Film Studio on his way back to the mainland, they even had dinner together.

Wei Ming nodded: "I also wrote the script."

Li Hanxiang's surprise reached a new level. Being able to write action movie scripts is not a great skill, since many of these films don't need a plot; beautiful action is enough. However, Xie Jin's masterpiece has been featured in the arts and culture sections of Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao, which requires a high level of scriptwriting ability.

He wrote it too?!

"Mr. Zhao just sent me Mr. Yang Cunbin's revised script of 'The Empress Dowager,' but I'm still not entirely satisfied," Li Hanxiang said after accepting the book from Wei Ming.

Wei Ming was familiar with Li Hanxiang's two films from the late Qing Dynasty: "The Burning of the Yuanmingyuan" and "The Empress Dowager". However, this project was a film from the beginning, titled "The Empress Dowager".

A single film encompasses a series of stories from Empress Dowager Cixi's entry into the palace to the burning of the Old Summer Palace by the Anglo-French allied forces, the death of Emperor Xianfeng, the ascension of Emperor Tongzhi, and Cixi's regency.

Wei Ming simply grunted in response, completely missing the underlying meaning in Li Hanxiang's words: "If you're not satisfied, there's nothing I can do. It's not like I wrote the script for you."

Li Hanxiang put it more clearly: "Since you can also write scripts, could you take a look at them for me?"

Wei Ming quickly waved his hand: "I haven't studied the history of the late Qing Dynasty in detail, and my understanding is rather superficial. I've been studying the history of the Republic of China recently."

"Why?"

"Because I need to write a novel about this period."

Li Hanxiang said "oh" and insisted again, "It's alright, take a look, maybe it can provide some different ideas."

As he spoke, he picked up the script from the table, and then Wei Ming's eyes lit up. He clearly saw that there was a book under the script, titled "The Complete Version of Kinpei Mo".

Li Hanxiang is a renowned master of romance and poetry. In a few years, he will collaborate with Shan Liwen on a film about the Golden Lotus, so it's not surprising to see this kind of thing here.

However, Li Hanxiang knew that mainlanders were very conservative, and fearing that the writer Wei might misunderstand him as a pervert, he explained:

"This is an antique, a finely bound ancient book published during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, and it even has rich and realistic illustrations. It is an incredible blessing that such a thing could survive after those ten years and be preserved so well. How could I bear to waste such a treasure? You understand?"

Wei Ming nodded: "I understand. Besides, the Peking University Library also has this book, but students can't see it. I've always believed that this extraordinary book has extremely high literary and historical value and is well worth studying."

Hearing Wei Ming's argument, Li Hanxiang was pleasantly surprised. He disliked some people in mainland China because he felt they were hypocritical and dared not face their own desires. He did not expect Wei Ming to directly admit that he had read it and that he had even studied it.

"Did you see illustrations in it too?" Li Hanxiang asked curiously.

Wei Ming laughed and said, "No, not at all." He knew more poses than the illustrations showed.

Li Hanxiang immediately said, "Then you can take a look at this script for me, and I'll lend you this book. It has illustrations."

Wei Ming smiled and shook his head: "I can take a look at the script for you, but there's no need for that book. I don't have the extra energy to look at it lately."

I have a girlfriend, who's much prettier than that.

Li Hanxiang smiled and said, "You take a look first, then stay for a meal later."

The script was over 30,000 words long, but Wei Ming read it very quickly. Li Hanxiang thought the kid was just being perfunctory.

As a result, during the meal, Wei Ming actually offered a lot of insightful suggestions.

"The script was written too hastily. They wanted to fit the story of Empress Dowager Cixi from entering the palace to ruling from behind the curtain into a 90-minute movie, and also wanted to cover various major historical events that happened during that time. This made many plot points superficial, like going through the motions, and there wasn't enough space to develop the characters. As a result, when I read the script, I felt that Cixi and Emperor Xianfeng were vague, the characters were not clear, and some of them didn't stand up to scrutiny."

Li Hanxiang couldn't help but want to slam his fist on the table. Yes, that's exactly the feeling!

"Do you have any ideas?" Li Hanxiang asked again.

Wei Ming: "The best way is to split it into two movies. The first one, 'The Burning of the Yuanmingyuan,' ends with the Anglo-French allied forces scaring away Emperor Xianfeng and others. The second one, 'The Empress Dowager,' tells the story of Cixi's rise to power. This way, we can play the role more freely."

This was exactly what Li Hanxiang did two years later. Dissatisfied with Yang Cunbin's version, he wrote his own draft, becoming increasingly excited as he wrote, and in just over ten days, he revised it into a 70,000-word script, deciding to film two movies at once. Li Hanxiang was quite interested in Wei Ming's suggestion and asked where the character development should be enriched.

Wei Ming gave two examples.

“I think that if you make a historical film and follow the official history exactly, you are less likely to make mistakes, but you are also less likely to make it stand out. In this case, you might as well incorporate some unofficial history to increase the drama. For example, if you want to portray Empress Dowager Cixi as ruthless, you can write that she turned her former rival, Consort Li, into a human pig after she came to power, just like Empress Lü Zhi.”

Li Hanxiang's eyes lit up, but his first thought was whether this would pass censorship in mainland China.

It seems that his frustration at being unable to pass projects over the years has unconsciously put shackles on himself.

Wei Ming continued, "And then there's Emperor Xianfeng. Do you think he might have considered killing the ambitious Empress Dowager Cixi on his deathbed, or that his ministers might have advised him to emulate Emperor Wu of Han and Lady Gouyi by killing the mother and establishing the son as heir? The portrayal of Emperor Xianfeng in the script is a bit too thin. This would make him more like an emperor, even if he wasn't a very successful one, he was still an emperor after all."

Li Hanxiang was even more smitten with Wei Ming. He said, "You say you don't know anything about the history of the late Qing Dynasty, but I can tell you you know a lot about it. Wei Ming knows a lot of the unofficial history that I've been reading recently."

However, this time he did not invite Wei Ming to write the script for him again, but wanted to ask his friends to learn more about this young man.

When Li Hanxiang saw Wei Ming off after dinner, he remembered something else: "You said you wrote songs for Hong Kong singers, did you bring any records with you?"

Wei Ming laughed and said, "I really didn't bring these, but you can buy them yourself when you get back. One is Zhang Mingmin's 'Liuliu De Ta' and the other is Tan Yonglin's 'Shui Zhong Hua'. I wrote several of the main songs."

Li Hanxiang, at his age, rarely experienced so many shocks in a single day, but he was still taken aback.

"You're that Amin?"

Wei Ming: "Yes."

Li Hanxiang said, "Then you don't need to send them. Knowing that I like Mandarin songs, a kid named Huang Zhan gave me two CDs. I've listened to these two CDs, and I really like Zhang Mingmin's songs."

Wei Ming thought to himself, "So you two know each other. As expected, you two are a perfect match."

"So what did he think of my songs?"

"Who?"

"The James Wong who sent you the record."

“Oh, he said your lyrics aren’t as good as his, and your music isn’t as good as Joseph Koo’s.” Li Hanxiang thought Wei Ming might not know the status of these two in the Hong Kong music scene and was just teasing him.

Wei Ming replied, "That's too high a compliment; I can't accept it."

At least these few songs aren't good enough to be compared to the Hui-Huang duo.

Li Hanxiang asked, "You know them too?"

Wei Ming laughed and said, "I've heard of the waves rushing and flowing."

The most popular TV series in Hong Kong this year is "The Devil's Beach," and the most popular song is the title track. Although it hasn't been officially introduced to mainland China yet, it's already quite popular in Guangdong.

Li Hanxiang became even more curious about Wei Ming: "You have other musical works in mainland China, right? I plan to bring them back and give them to my friends in the music industry."

Then Wei Ming talked about his representative works in mainland China, "The Same Song" and "On the Field of Hope".

Li Hanxiang: "You can buy them in record stores in China, right?"

Wei Ming: "How about I see you off? When are you leaving?"

"This Sunday, I'll be discussing cooperation with China Film Group."

Wei Ming nodded, indicating that he would visit again later. He had heard that the live record of the "New Star Concert" was about to be produced and released, and he might buy two copies to give to Lao Li. The record store had already started advertising it.

The next day, Wei Ming returned to work at the school and heard from the gatekeeper that they were going to surround Weiming Lake that day.

So after work at noon, he went over to watch the fun. Brother Feng led the way in catching fish in the lake, and they were all very plump. They would distribute them after the weight was determined.

Before the assignments were made, Wei Ming used Feng Ge's connections to get some small fry who hadn't escaped the net, and then went to Feng's house to see the cats.

When he checked today, he found that one of them was missing. It turned out that Aunt Zongpu had already taken her calico dog away, so Wei Ming simply took the police chief with him today.

He didn't bring a box; he just stuffed it in his clothes. Mei'er saw it but didn't say anything. She probably doesn't have much maternal love left now. She doesn't even have milk anymore, yet she's always thinking about suckling. It's so annoying.

Zhu Lin: That's what I think too, it's so annoying!

Wei Ming rode his motorcycle back to the Overseas Chinese Apartment. When he opened the door and unzipped it, he gave his mother a surprise. There was a cat head on his chest that looked around.

"Hey, Black Cat Detective!" She had also seen her son's work.

Moreover, it was agreed beforehand that he would bring it over in November, so Wei Ming had prepared a mixture of sand and put it in a plastic basin to serve as a litter box, but this was only a temporary measure.

Currently, the conditions for keeping cats in the city, especially in apartment buildings, are not mature. After all, their feces and urine are very smelly, and unlike dogs, they cannot be trained to relieve themselves during daily walks.

Currently, no bentonite cat litter that can clump has been invented abroad, let alone in China where there is no concept of cat litter and no market for it.

So for now, we can only use ordinary sand instead. Once it grows a bit bigger, we can move it to the courtyard house, since many of the valuable pieces of furniture there are afraid of being gnawed by rats.

Wei Ming also plans to set up a small house as his police station, where he can relieve himself in the vegetable garden.

"Sheriff" is its name. The cat is always cautious when it arrives in a new environment, and it immediately crawled under the sofa.

Wei Ming ignored it and prepared water and food for it, placing them beside it. When Wei Ming and his mother were eating, they saw it poke its little head out and lick the egg that Wei Ming had cracked for it.

Feeding cats with eggs these days is too extravagant, but it's still too young, so we'll transition it to solid food later.

It started barking again that night, and my mother couldn't sleep, so she asked Wei Ming for a book to read to help her fall asleep.

Wei Ming simply plugged his ears and continued writing his novel. It was nearing its end; just a few tens of thousands more words and it would be finished. He could already see the light at the end of the tunnel.

So Wei Ming planned to take a few days off to focus on intensive study, and the curator readily agreed, as long as Wei Ming handed the key to his colleague in the adjacent ancient book repository.

Wei Ming decided to go into seclusion immediately. That very evening, after having his last meal at home, he planned to move into the courtyard house. Xiao Hong also returned that night.

"I heard from Old Feng that you brought the police chief back! Where is he?!" Wei Hong asked excitedly, putting down her schoolbag. Before, it was someone else's cat, so she was somewhat polite to it, but now she wasn't so polite at all.

Kitten, your life is in danger!
Xu Shufen: "I finally stopped hiding under the sofa today, but you crawled back in as soon as you came back."

Wei Hong, with her butt sticking out, lay on the sofa and said, "Chief, how can you be so cowardly? How are you supposed to catch mice like that!"

Xu Shufen: "They're still catching mice, but this one isn't even as big as a mouse yet."

Wei Ming had already told his mother about his seclusion, and then he spoke to Wei Hong: "Xiao Hong, I went to the Friendship Store, but they don't sell Rubik's Cubes. However, I've already asked my pen pal in Hong Kong to help me."

"Thanks, bro. You know, today we even had a student from the Tsinghua University Mathematics Department wanting to join our Rubik's Cube Club. I think we can drop Peking University from the name of our club now."

“Wow, you’re even recruiting from other schools, that’s impressive,” Wei Ming said. “Besides exchanging Rubik’s Cube tips, you can start writing a book to systematically explain how to solve a Rubik’s Cube. I can recommend it to Melinda later.”

Wei Hong's eyes lit up: "Can we earn foreign exchange?!"

Wei Ming: "If you can publish, you can make money."

Wei Hong's bright eyes began to glow, like the eyes of a sheriff in the dark!

Xu Shufen came out carrying a plate: "Let's eat first."

Wei Ming: "Okay, I'll leave after I finish eating."

Wei Hong: "Go? Where are you going?"

“I’m going to the courtyard house to write the final chapter of my novel,” Xu Shufen said. “I’ve been thinking, how about I go live in the courtyard house instead of you living in the apartment building? The conditions here are better.”

Wei Ming shook his head: "The conditions over there are not bad either. They have everything they need. And when I get tired of writing, I can take a walk in the yard and look at the stars. Living in an apartment building wouldn't be so convenient. So this is settled."

Xu Shufen then said, "Then I'll bring you food."

Wei Ming thought for a moment, and realized that his mother also needed a sense of accomplishment and recognition.

"Just send me lunch. It's not safe to eat at night, so I'll just go to Yuebin Restaurant."

It's decided so happily. Wei Hong: "Oh, I almost forgot, quickly turn on the TV, I heard the results of the US election are coming out soon."

Peking University students are still so enthusiastic about current affairs.

As expected, today's news broadcast reported that the good-natured Carter failed to win re-election, losing to Hollywood third-tier star Reagan, and losing badly, with 469 votes to Reagan and 45 votes to Reagan.

Wei Ming was filled with regret. Although the whole world liked Carter, Americans knew that what they needed was Reagan.

~
On Saturday, Wei Ming remembered that Li Hanxiang was leaving the next day, so he went to the record store, bought a cassette tape, and visited him again.

This time, Li Hanxiang spoke frankly: "Teacher Wei, would you be willing to help me write a script? The one I have here."

(Yesterday's guaranteed minimum)
(End of this chapter)