Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 210 Literature, Ice and Snow, and Crisis
Even more anxious than Jiang Wen were Wang Shuo and Feng Xiaogang, the couple directly involved.

Actually, Feng Xiaogang initially had his eye on Wang Shuo's "Air Hostess" and "Forever Lost My Love".

However, because he was selected as a pilot company, according to the requirements given by the optoelectronics company, Wang Shuo could not just sell scripts like in the original timeline, and had to bear part of the production costs.

Then Wang Shuo felt that these two scripts were rather troublesome, involving both airplanes and ferries, which would cost a lot more in selection fees.

So they decided to change it to "I Am Your Father," a script that could be filmed anywhere in Beijing, and it was a work that Wang Shuo had only written a couple of years ago, so the content was also more profound.

Unfortunately, the problem lay in this 'depth'.

After being criticized by name, Wang Shuo was still indignant and wanted to defend himself, while Feng Xiaogang was much more pragmatic, begging and pleading everywhere to find out exactly where the problem was.

Although "I Am Your Father" is quite explicit, there have been many films and television dramas with explicit content in the past two years. Apart from those that are particularly outrageous, I haven't heard of any projects being specifically criticized.

Is Optoelectronics' sudden move a targeted attack on Dingli Pictures, or is it a move to tighten regulations on a large scale?
If it's the former, that's fine; if it's the latter...

So not only Feng Xiaogang, but also several other companies mobilized their connections to try and find out the reason.

Zhang Yan was originally quite easygoing; after all, "The New Dragon and Phoenix" was a fictionalized historical drama and didn't involve anything too sensitive.

But Zhang Guoli was a novice after all, so he was inevitably apprehensive and saw danger everywhere.

To put his mind at ease, Zhang Yan had no choice but to inquire with the former director, Leader Lin.

"It has nothing to do with anyone else."

It seems that Leader Lin has been doing quite well lately. He only made Zhang Yan wait for five minutes before giving his answer: "It's just that Wang Shuo was unlucky enough to run into trouble."

Back in June, Shanghai Literature published a reflective article titled "Ruins in the Wilderness: A Crisis of Literature and Humanistic Spirit," which argued that contemporary literature was facing serious problems.

The article openly names Wang Shuo, arguing that he and the "Wang Shuo phenomenon" he represents are the biggest cause of this crisis, and also describes Wang Shuo's article as "a charlatan's gimmick."

“When we started this pilot program, some people brought up that article and tried to kick Wang Shuo out. Although the optoelectronics company ultimately did not agree, it still had to show some attitude.”

"From what you're saying, Wang Shuo will most likely pass the test in the end?"

"He should be able to pass, unless he does something stupid."

Leader Lin paused for a moment, then said, "However, this is only the first hurdle, not the last one—to put it bluntly, this matter is ostensibly about literature, but behind the scenes it involves many other things."

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Yan couldn't help but shake his head secretly.

Wang Shuo was criticized for writing "hooligan literature" a couple of years ago, and that was entirely justified. However, to escalate the criticism to the point of calling it a "literary crisis" is a bit of an overreaction.

Of course, Wang Shuo also brought this upon himself. In the past two years, he really thought he was a "master". He not only walked around the capital with his head held high, but also frequently published articles in the newspaper to attack others, offending all sorts of people from all over the country.

He even had to criticize Lu Xun, implying that while Lu Xun was good at writing current affairs commentary, when it came to writing novels, it had to be our Master Shuo.

After making the call, Zhang Yan felt completely relieved and didn't bother to worry about any further twists and turns in Wang Shuo's matter. He just waited for the approval from above before returning to Tianjin to officially start filming.

As a result, from that day on, the five companies that attended the meeting were dragged into a period of wasted time.

The optoelectronics people never mentioned the approval process. Instead, they held a brainstorming session with the optoelectronics experts, asking them to offer some insightful and unique perspectives with the goal of promoting industry development.

What they say sounds grand and dignified on the surface, but in reality they are just waiting for the right moment for a 'reversal'.

We have no choice but to wait.

Giving advice is a difficult task for others, but for Zhang Yan, he can easily come up with two or three ideas, and they don't involve major reforms; they only require minor adjustments to be effective.

So by the fourth night, he was so pent up he could barely breathe.

Just as he was thinking of visiting Tao Hong at the Central Academy of Drama, Tao Hong called him on her own initiative.

"We're really on the same wavelength; I was just about to call you too."

"is it?"

Tao Hong, however, didn't bother with flirting. Instead, she asked worriedly, "Teacher Zhang, do you still remember Li Bingbing?"

"That girl from Northeast China?" "Yes, that's her."

Tao Hong said, "She just called me crying, saying that her mother has a heart condition and needs surgery, and she wants to borrow 10,000 yuan from me to help her in an emergency."

"You want to lend it to her?"

"Ah."

Tao Hong said, "But I don't have that much money on hand right now, Teacher Zhang, could you lend me some first? I'll pay you back once I get my salary for 'Ferocious Animals'..."

“It’s just ten thousand yuan. I’ve donated hundreds of thousands this year.” Zhang Yan interrupted her, “But can you be sure it’s true? Did she get into the Central Academy of Drama?”

Zhang Yan didn't care about the money; his main concern was that Tao Hong's kindness wouldn't be taken advantage of.

"Well... I just finished the exam the day before yesterday, and the scores haven't come out yet."

1993年的高考时间是7月7日至9日，现在才7月11号，距离出分还有好长时间呢。

Zhang Yan cautioned, "Since the scores haven't been released yet, there's a possibility that she actually failed the exam and is trying to scam money out of despair..."

Tao Hong on the other end of the phone was silent for a while before finally saying firmly, "I'm willing to believe her. I don't think she's a liar."

"That's fine."

Since Tao Hong is willing to trust the other party, ten or twenty thousand is nothing to Zhang Yan now. He can just consider it money to buy peace of mind.

When did you agree to contact her again?

"Tomorrow morning at eight o'clock."

"I'll pick you up from school now, and we'll transfer the money together tomorrow morning."

…………

northeast.

Wuchang, which was just upgraded to a county-level city in June, has not changed much, especially in the outskirts of the city. Under the gloomy sky, the hustle and bustle is limited to a few restaurants and food stalls.

Li Bingbing and her sister Li Xue rode a Flying Pigeon bicycle, weaving through the streets where streetlights had not yet been installed. They had to use the lights of the restaurants as stepping stones while trying to keep a sufficient distance from the drunkards.

The two sisters only breathed a sigh of relief when they reached the brightly lit main road.

The two sisters rarely went out late at night, after all, the security conditions now are incomparable to those 20 years later—but Li Bingbing couldn't care less about that for the moment in order to find the contact information left by Tao Hong.

At this moment, Li Xue, sitting in the back seat, hugged her sister's waist and asked, "Sis, will your senior classmate lend us money? It's ten thousand yuan! And from what you're saying, you're not very close to her..."

"I do not know either."

Li Bingbing, who was pedaling his bicycle, shook his head and said, "But we have to try. You've seen how hard it was for our dad to borrow money from all over the place these past few days."

Actually, she was just grasping at straws in her desperation. She thought that with such a capable boyfriend, ten thousand yuan wouldn't be much to Tao Hong, so she set her sights on Tao Hong.

After a pause, Li Bingbing couldn't help but blame herself, saying, "If I hadn't gone to Beijing and Shanghai twice to take the art exams, our family wouldn't be in such dire straits."

These days, the cost of traveling is not low, especially when going to the two most expensive cities, Beijing and Shanghai. Even though Li Bingbing tried to be frugal, these two trips still cost his family a lot of money.

"sister!"

Li Xue interrupted her self-pity: "If you hadn't gone to the capital, how would you have met that senior student?"

Li Bingbing remained silent for a long time before finally sighing, "I hope Senior Tao Hong will really transfer the money to us. As long as she's willing to help us this time, I'll definitely repay her by doing anything for her!"

Li Xue chimed in, "Count me in too—once I get into Beijing United University, I'll go out and work to pay off my debts."

In the original timeline, because Li Bingbing went to the Shanghai Theatre Academy, Li Xue applied to schools in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Now that her sister has passed the re-examination of the Central Academy of Drama, Li Xue has naturally changed her application to a university in Beijing.

[PS: See author's note for details.]

(End of this chapter)