Exciting 1979!

Chapter 470, "The Shepherd's Spring," Premieres

Actually, this is easy to solve. As long as Wei Ming makes a phone call before he comes and asks them to turn off the streetlights, the neighbors will naturally disperse, and then he can sneak in under the cover of night to steal a kiss.

However, those things can wait until later. Right now, Wei Ming led the two women into the inner courtyard and opened the calligraphy and painting room.

Zhu Lin twirled her hair with her fingers: "Why are you suddenly admiring paintings so late at night instead of sleeping?"

Wei Ming told them, "I saw on the news today that Zhang Daqian just passed away in Taiwan."

"Oh, so?" Zhu Lin asked again. She wanted to sleep; if she didn't, her period would start again.

Wei Ming: "With Zhang Daqian's death, the prices of his works will definitely rise. I'll pick a few with repetitive themes or ones that I don't like. When you go to Hong Kong, Sister Xue, give them to Ah Long and ask him to handle them for me."

He opened a box and took out paintings according to the labels. "Oh, I can also take out some works by Qi Baishi and other deceased artists, and have him help me get rid of them."

Wei Ming certainly wasn't short of money, whether in RMB or foreign exchange, so Gong Xue was a little curious: "Why would you sell it when everything is fine?"

Wei Ming glanced at the boxes full of calligraphy and paintings in the room: "Because we have too many. Contemporary artworks like calligraphy and paintings need to circulate in order to raise their prices."

Seeing that they still didn't quite understand, Wei Ming sat on the box and explained, "My dad bought them for 30 Hong Kong dollars, but in reality, if they were in Hong Kong, these things would be worth at least several million Hong Kong dollars."

"Ah!" Both of them were surprised, never expecting that their uncle had gotten such a great bargain.

Wei Mingdao: "This valuation is based on the current acceptance of these calligraphers and painters' works in the Hong Kong art market. When these works appear in the auction market, as high prices are called out one after another, the theoretical value of other works under the same author's name also increases. So I need to release some works to stimulate the market and raise the value of the paintings I have."

Seeing how the two of them were processing this, Wei Ming asked, "Do you think I'm too calculating?"

Gong Xue shook his head: "I'm just curious. You can donate 100 million so easily, so how high must your expected value be for these paintings to make you put so much effort into them?"

Wei Ming held up one finger. Zhu Lin: "Ten million?"

Gong Xue took a deep breath: "He probably meant one hundred million."

Because she knew how rich Hong Kong people were. Ah Ying told her that there was a businessman known as the "Superman of Hong Kong" whose net worth was conservatively estimated at HK$100 billion.

Zhu Lin was about to express his disbelief when Wei Ming laughed and said, "I meant to say, 100 billion."

"What!?" Even Gong Xue was baffled. These were all the paintings? This couldn't be right.

Wei Ming: "10 billion is even a conservative estimate. If our country is strong and our people are wealthy, the rich who control most of the wealth can naturally buy anything of high value. When sports cars, yachts, and private jets can no longer satisfy them, non-renewable works of art will naturally come into their sights."

Of the paintings Wei Ming had already seen, few fetched over 100 million at auction, but he had seen several that sold for tens of millions. Most of the paintings, even the more ordinary ones, could sell for hundreds of thousands, while calligraphy was cheaper.

The two older sisters blinked with their mouths slightly open. Suddenly, Zhu Lin asked, "You just said that the wealthy people who control most of the wealth, that shouldn't be the case, right?"

Wei Ming: "Don't think it's impossible. Even excluding outliers like me, can ordinary people compare to the wealth that Xiaomei and Biaozi control now? Moreover, Xintiandi is still expanding. As long as the policies are relaxed a bit more, I guarantee that Xiaomei will make Xintiandi ten times larger. The gap between them and ordinary people will only widen. Okay, let's not talk about that anymore. That's not something we can control. We just need to live our own lives well."

When Gong Xue looked at the scroll in his hand again, he felt its weight; these paintings were so valuable!

Wei Ming had previously asked me to pick out a few pieces to give to my father and brother. I need to ask them to keep them safe, because they might be worth a car someday.

He also let Zhu Lin choose, but Zhu Lin's parents didn't like this kind of thing. Zhu Lin asked Wei Ming to send her two papers on weapons and medicine. Wei Ming told her to go play with eggs, so she went.

Wei Ming picked out ten paintings for Gong Xue, told her to pack them up, and asked, "So when are you leaving?"

When Wei Ming asked, Gong Xue had no choice but to tell the truth, saying that the procedures for entering the country to visit relatives were still in progress and were not so easy.

Wei Ming slapped his forehead: "It's true that entry from Hong Kong has become stricter now. We should still go through the official channels for this kind of thing. Aunt Xia Meng wrote to me saying that she's coming to Yanjing soon. I'll ask her for help then."

Gong Xue nodded, and Wei Ming announced, "Let's go to sleep."

Zhu Lin, who had started yawning, finally perked up. It was better to enjoy himself here. In Tuanjiehu, they had to be wary of their neighbors above, below, left, and right, so no one dared to let loose.

Just as the three of them were flying through the sand and stones, pulling up mountains with their strength, and killing two fish with one arrow, a group of three thieves arrived at Nanluoguxiang.

One of them said, "Brother, I've already scouted the place. There's a big house there. A woman used to live there, but no one's been there lately, not even at night. I heard they even have a color TV!"

A color TV costs one or two thousand yuan; if they can steal one, it will be enough for the three of them to live on for a long time.

However, once you get to that alley, the streetlights are incredibly bright, especially the lamppost near the gate.

Under the lamplight, they simply didn't have the courage to stand at the doorway of that wooden door.

They walked over and glanced at the place. Seeing that there was no lock on the outside, which meant someone was home, they became even more timid and went straight over. The kid who had scouted the place earlier even got punched by the older brother.

This place is uninhabited!
Even if no one is around, they wouldn't dare to work under the streetlights.

This kind of work is the kind of job that should be kept out of the light of day.

The next day, Wei Ming, feeling refreshed, pushed open the door to the inner courtyard.

There are two gates to this courtyard. Even if you manage to get past the first gate, there is still a second gate and a third bedroom door.

Moreover, there are two bicycles in the outer courtyard, which would usually deter petty thieves.

However, Wei Ming was still uneasy. He felt that besides being unable to see the light of day, thieves were also afraid of something else: "movement".

He touched the door between the inner and outer courtyards, wondering if he could install a trigger alarm on it. The sirens on police cars are very frightening to guilty thieves.

As soon as it rings, they'll run away immediately.

To solve this problem, Wei Ming made a rare trip back to Peking University today to ask his classmates majoring in mechanical and electrical engineering for help, explaining that his home had just been burglarized.

Everyone was happy to help Teacher Wei Ming and offered various solutions.

They had a plan, but no money. So Wei Ming called Wei Hong over and told them to ask Wei Hong for money to buy materials and conduct experiments. He added that it didn't matter if they couldn't succeed; they could just consider it a social practice.

A few days later, Xia Meng arrived in Yanjing and brought with her the Mandarin version of the script for "Paper Butterfly".

Xia Meng's status was undeniable, so Wang Yang summoned Siqin Gaowa and they met at the Beijing Film Studio, finally securing the lead role for Siqin Gaowa.

Wei Ming, the middleman, was also present at the time. After the matter was settled, Wei Ming told Xia Meng about asking her for help.

She readily agreed. Gong Ying now mainly works for her family's garment factory. Moreover, Xia Meng's husband has now gotten close to Langning Company and is also preparing to open a garment factory in Shenzhen. Because Langning wants a large enough piece of land, they directly allocated a small plot for them to use.

"Xiao Wei, have you finished your film 'The Shepherd's Class'?"

Wei Ming said, "We're still doing the final adjustments. We should be able to watch it this weekend."

Xia Meng: "Okay, I'll leave after I finish watching it."

During this time, Wei Ming introduced Gong Xue to Xia Meng.

When the weekend arrived, Ge You arrived early at his parents' home at the Beijing Film Studio. He was already quite grown up and usually lived in the company dormitory.

Today is the first informal screening of "The Shepherd's Spring" at the Beijing Film Studio, and he certainly can't miss it. Not only him, but his dad and mom will also go to see it.

On the other side, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Chen Kaige, Feng Xiaoning, and Feng Xiaogang, who had been specially notified by Wei Ming, also arrived.

Tian Zhuangzhuang and several other classmates have also completed the post-production work on "Red Elephant," so I want to see what another work by a young director from the Children's Film Studio is like, and whether it is really as Kai Ge boasted.

As for the other important member, Zhang Yimou, he didn't come. Besides the long distance, it was also because his daughter had just been born and his wife was still in her postpartum period.

The date of their "daughter's" birth in their previous life was exactly the day before they decided to film "One and Eight" in Guangxi. Therefore, their daughter's birthday was the last day of their ordinary life, hence the name Zhang Mo.

However, in this life, Zhang Yimou did not participate in the other classmates' "One and Eight", but instead participated in Wei Ming's "Spring of the Shepherd's Class", so his eldest daughter with his wife was named "Zhang Fangchun".

"Hey, Brother Han, please come in, please come in."

When Feng Xiaogang arrived, he did not sit down immediately, but stood at the door as a greeter. His obsequious behavior was quite despicable to the second-generation directors like Tian Zhuangzhuang and Chen Kaige.

However, Feng Xiaogang didn't think so. He hadn't seen Master Ming for a long time, so he had to make a good impression.

Han Sanping and Mi Jiashan are currently studying at the Beijing Film Academy. Wei Ming had previously treated them to two meals. Han Sanping also frequently visits the Beijing Film Studio to check on the post-production progress. Naturally, they were also present at this first screening.

Of course, Gong Xue and Zhu Lin were indispensable. They were even more concerned about the quality of the final film than the other participants, because they saw the effort and sacrifices Wei Ming had made for it.

He's someone who loves sex and a comfortable life, yet he spent several months in a remote mountain village in Southwest China, living a life devoid of any quality of life, all for this film. He must have had high hopes for this movie.

Finally, the two factory directors and Ms. Xia Meng arrived. With everyone present, the event could begin. Director Wang Yang and Ms. Xia Meng humbly offered Yu Lan the seat in the middle, as today was the home turf of their children's film studio.

The film was not shot in chronological order, but instead started with the mischievous child blocking the village chief's chimney, which led to the fact that the village primary school no longer had a teacher.

So the first one to appear was Xizi. Xizi and Lele were sitting between Gong Xue and Zhu Lin. As the biggest star in the whole film, Teacher Xizi was also invited. Accompanied by cheerful music, Xizi nimbly jumped up and down, and Ge You, with his face covered in soot, popped out and answered questions one-on-one with his father Ge Cunzhuang, who looked somewhat like him. The audience laughed frequently.

Ge You wasn't actually that bald, but Wei Ming made him and his son get the same Mediterranean bald look.

Moreover, the rural Sichuan scenes captured by Wei Ming's lens are so beautiful. Wei Ming didn't deliberately beautify them; he simply chose a pretty village. And the scene of smoke rising from chimneys naturally gives people a sense of peace and tranquility.

After the conversation between the village chief and the principal, father and son, about the opposing forces of Heaven, the principal approached Zhong Wei, an old rightist who had been sent to the countryside. Zhong Wei was one of the few people the principal knew who had been teachers, and even a university professor.

"But I teach music."

"Forget about teaching, just get these little brats under control first," the principal said.

At first, the father and son's goal was simply to find someone to discipline Chen Pipi and other mischievous boys, so as to prevent them from causing trouble for the village.

Li Baotian, the lead actor, overheard some Beijing Film Studio employees whispering behind him, "He actually looks like a university professor." "Yeah, I really didn't expect that."

Although Teacher Zhong was no longer as dignified at this time, his temperament and integrity remained. Wei Ming felt that Li Baotian deserved a nomination for the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Awards.

Next, Teacher Zhong, just like Ash Ketchum, began to recruit the elementary school students one by one. The three most important starter Pokémon were Clefairy, Grass, and Green.

When Xizi saw Wang Fei appear, she immediately turned around and winked at her. Wang Fei reluctantly smiled and replied that she had come with her mother.

Liu Lin's mother accompanied her. Seeing her precious daughter make her entrance looking so miserable, her mother felt both proud and heartbroken.

Of all the children, only Wu Jing came with his own small backpack and a Plum Blossom brand tracksuit with the two big characters "China" on the chest. He had worn this outfit since he was a child.

At first, there was a lot of laughter in the audience. Xia Meng found that Wei Ming had made the movie very lighthearted, and some of the children often came up with wonderful lines that made people laugh out loud.

However, as the story of the three children was told in turn, the audience was sometimes laughing, sometimes silent, and sometimes heard wiping away tears and sobbing.

At the end of the film, accompanied by Hu Weili's deeply moving original music, the emotions reached a climax, culminating in a collective outburst when Teacher Zhong left and the students bid him farewell with paper airplanes.

At this moment, even the coldest heart cannot escape tears, especially those who personally participated in the filming of this movie. Chen Kaige shed tears himself, while observing Tian Zhuangzhuang, who still hadn't reacted.

Old Tian was determined to compete with Wei Ming, so he went to the movie with the intention of finding fault. But after seeing this, he was actually convinced.

He never expected that a director who had neither family background nor systematic training could make a film of this caliber. If Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou hadn't both been of this caliber, he would have suspected that his two classmates had ghostwritten the film.

However, Tian Zhuangzhuang was convinced, but he didn't want to shed tears. As a boy from Yanjing, he had to save face. Besides, after being exposed to films like "Mom, Love Me Again," he felt he could hold back his tears.

Even after the tractor carrying Teacher Zhong drove away, Tian Zhuangzhuang kept crying out in his heart, "Take him away! Take him away! Please take him away!"

Then the camera zooms out, and the tractor stops in the middle of the frame. The emotional music stops as well, and in the silence, Teacher Zhong leaves the frame. A little while later, he returns to the tractor carrying a small monkey.

As the tractor moved on and the music started again, Chen Kaige saw Tian Zhuangzhuang slap his thigh hard and shed two strings of tears of relief. Kaizi was also satisfied.

At this point, the movie ended, and Tian Zhuangzhuang commented to Chen Kaige, "It's much more sophisticated than 'Mom, Love Me Again'."

He used a "high-level" word. He also cried when he watched "Mama" and cried his eyes out because he thought of his father, Tian Fang, who wanted to take care of his parents but could not.

However, he doesn't think "Mama" is a particularly great work. He feels that the tear-jerking moments in the film are very formulaic, the kind that makes you cry when someone points a gun at your head.

But "The Shepherd's Spring" moved the viewer in a subtle and gentle way, and in the end, the viewer was moved by the protagonist's fate.

Because he could see that if Teacher Zhong didn't take Pipi away, he would really die. As a conscientious viewer, he didn't want such a good mentor to leave like this. He had finally seen the light at the end of the tunnel, but his wife's departure dealt him a fatal blow.

He deserved a better life!
However, Wei Ming did not openly criticize Wei Ming this time, as he did in "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain." Instead, he used subtle tactics, which Tian Zhuangzhuang considered a drawback.

That's too subtle. I heard this movie is going to be exhibited abroad, and he's worried that foreigners won't understand it.

There was no time to think too much. Tian Zhuangzhuang joined the others in clapping. The applause was very enthusiastic, clearly not the kind of polite applause, and it lasted a very long time.

For a long time, Director Yu Lan wanted to say a few words, but she couldn't get a chance to speak. In particular, that guy named Feng Xiaogang not only led the applause but also shouted "Awesome!" which was really vulgar.

Feng Xiaogang was also happy because he thought that he had participated in such a great work and that he would have a place in the Chinese film industry in the future.

In the end, Wei Ming had to calm everyone down before the enthusiastic applause finally stopped.

Yu Lan asked the two people next to her, "Director Wang, Comrade Xia Meng, how was the filming? Would you like to say a few words to everyone?"

Wang Yangxian said, "As the saying goes, heroes have emerged from among the young since ancient times. Director Wei Ming's work makes me, someone who has been in the film industry all my life, feel ashamed. Why don't you just come to the Beijing Film Studio? I'll make you the fifth marshal."

Wei Ming quickly stood up and waved his hand modestly: "The Beijing Film Studio is full of talented people. There are senior directors like Chen Huai'ai and Xie Tieli. How could I possibly be the fifth most handsome man? I'm just doing this for fun."

His comment about "just dabbling" disappointed many actors, but also relieved many directors.

Xia Meng continued, "My assessment is that it's beautiful, pleasant to listen to, and touching."

Hearing Xia Meng's comment include "pleasant to hear," Hu Weili, sitting in the back row, stroked his beard with satisfaction.

Xia Meng continued, "Ah Ming, you didn't even ask Qingniao to collaborate on such a great movie. Sigh, I really envy DreamWorks Pictures. Where did that company come from?"

The movie's opening credits feature the logos of both the Children's Film Studio and DreamWorks.

Wei Ming whispered, "Aunt Xia, don't worry. I recently wrote a proposal, and we can continue to work together."

However, DreamWorks will definitely take the lion's share in this collaboration, and this movie isn't really Xia Meng's cup of tea.

Xia Meng exclaimed her approval after hearing this.

Yu Lan then asked, "Comrade Xia Meng, do you think Hong Kong audiences will like it?"

Xia Meng said earnestly, "I definitely don't like it as much as 'Shaolin Temple,' but it's a blessing for Hong Kong audiences to see such a film that shows such beautiful human nature."

Needless to say, this film will definitely be heavily promoted to Sil-Metropole Organisation.

The audience then left in an orderly fashion, while Wei Ming stayed behind to discuss the matter of sending the film to Cannes with the factory manager.

Before Gong Xue could react, Xizi darted to Wang Fei's side: "Sister Fei, I'm going to Hong Kong to film a movie soon. Is there anything you need me to bring back for your uncle?"

Wang Fei: "No."

However, her mother was busy chatting with Xizi with a smile; she was a big fan of Teacher Xi.

In this movie, Xi Zi is considered the second male lead, and his performance is even better than that of the other second male lead, Ge You. It's just a matter of whether these two will win the Cannes Best Actor award first.

Later, the Film Bureau also watched "The Shepherd's Spring" and made several suggestions for improvement, but Wei Ming rejected them one by one because they were not constructive suggestions. They were just uncomfortable if something wasn't changed, but Wei Ming believed that he understood movies better than they did.

They didn't insist in the end. Wei Ming's influence was too strong now, and his connections were extensive. Putting aside everything else, if you didn't approve it for him, he could really go and talk to the Minister of Culture about it.

So a copy of "The Shepherd's Spring" was directly sent to France by plane.

On the same day, Sister Xue also went to Hong Kong with Ms. Xia Meng. This flight would stop in Shanghai and Guangzhou.

When we stop in Shanghai, we'll pick up Gong Xue's mother, and when we stop in Guangzhou, we'll drop off Siqin Gaowa. For the next period of time, she will be experiencing rural life in Guangdong.

She has no shortage of rural life experience, but the rural conditions in different regions are really different, and there is a lot to learn about them.

Gong Xue left, and Zhu Lin's relatives came, but Wei Ming still insisted on staying with Sister Lin at Tuanjiehu.

Firstly, I was worried about the dangers faced by women living alone. Secondly, I wanted to teach Sister Lin some new skills, since Amin had already learned them, so I wanted her to try them out as well.

Without Gong Xue watching over her, Sister Lin can be more relaxed.

A few days later, before the good news from Cannes arrived, the good news from the Hugo Awards came from Melinda.

The shortlist for this year's Hugo Awards has been announced, with five entries in each of the four categories: novel, novella, novella, and short story.

Mr. Why's "District 9" was shortlisted in the short story/novella category, but the most prestigious category for this award is novel.

This incident even made the news, almost at the same time that Wei Ming received the news.

State media also pay close attention to Wei Ming's news abroad, and they will report any good news in China, such as the publication of a translation of a work that has received great acclaim, or which writer or singer from which country has expressed their appreciation for Wei Ming.

However, compared to the news of being shortlisted, Wei Ming was more concerned about the first Santana in China that had just been successfully assembled in Shanghai.

……

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