Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 352 Completing the Play

The next morning.

After Chen Hong finished washing up, she was chatting with Sun Xiaohong downstairs when she heard the alarm clock upstairs ringing incessantly, but Zhang Yan didn't react for a long time.

Sun Xiaohong was about to go upstairs to take a look, but Chen Hong stopped her: "Mom, let me go instead."

"Then don't stand too close to the bed, or he might accidentally bump into you."

"Don't worry, I'll turn off the alarm and come down."

Chen Hong slowly went upstairs, turned on the door lock, turned off the alarm clock on the desk, and glanced at the bed. As expected, she saw Zhang Yan lying on his back with an erection.

He's still as energetic as ever.

Just as she was about to leave and close the door, she suddenly heard Zhang Yan ask indistinctly, "What time is it?"

"It's almost seven o'clock, just 15 minutes away."

"Oh~"

Zhang Yan immediately sat up, rubbing his temples, and asked, "How did the ad shoot go? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?"

"You asked about this last night."

Chen Hong sat down on the edge of the bed with a smile, and casually placed one hand on it.

"I just have a bit of memory loss."

Provoked by her words, Zhang Yan subconsciously grabbed the child's rice bowl, but quickly withdrew his hand, continuing the previous topic: "I remember you told me last night that Li Xue did a good job?"

"She's a very intelligent girl."

Chen Hong nodded and said, "He's more driven than the average person, observant, and willing to use his brain. I feel that with proper training, he shouldn't be much worse than Li Songqiang."

Besides all that, the girl's ambition was no less than her sister's, but her acting talent was too poor, and she couldn't stand on stage like her sister.

After giving it a few more rubs, Chen Hong smiled and withdrew her hand, then stood up and urged, "Alright, hurry up and go downstairs for dinner, or Mom will come up to urge you to come soon."

"No, you've put me in an awkward position..."

Zhang Yan silently pointed to the branch growing across his waist, his gaze towards Chen Hong filled with anticipation.

Chen Hong chuckled and said, "If I smell any pungent odors, I'll start having morning sickness again."

After saying that, he added meaningfully, "Just bear with it for a little longer."

Zhang Yan thought she meant that things would get better when the month was over, and said helplessly, "Yes, yes, it's because you can't stand the smell of meat now. I'm going to take a shower to calm down."

He spent more than ten minutes washing up. When he came downstairs, breakfast was already laid out. It was mostly bland food, and even the boiled eggs had the egg whites and yolks separated.

Zhang Yan didn't think there was anything wrong with it. After all, he ate big meals outside at least two out of the three meals a day, so a lighter breakfast was a good change of pace.

But he wasn't used to eating vegetarian food in bed.

Pulling out a chair and sitting down next to Chen Hong, Zhang Yan looked around the yard and asked curiously, "Where's my dad?"

"I went to see off those people back home."

Sun Xiaohong explained, "Isn't it because the labor export contract has been finalized? They're getting ready to take the bus back to Hengjiang today."

Yesterday, your dad wanted to wait until you got home to talk about this, but then you started drinking again—thankfully, your dad and I were both there, otherwise what if you had drunkenly bumped into Xiao Chen?!

Halfway through her sentence, she couldn't help but start rambling again.

Zhang Yan raised his hands in a gesture of surrender: "Is it possible that I knew you were here, which is why I drank so freely?"

"You shouldn't have gotten so drunk!"

Seeing that her son still dared to argue, Sun Xiaohong immediately glared at him. Although she usually doted on her son, her grandchildren were clearly the most important to her now.

At this moment, Chen Hong reminded him with a smile, "When you see Gong Li later, don't forget to ask our dad for his autograph."

Don't give it to him!

Sun Xiaohong's attention immediately shifted, and she began to criticize Zhang Xingguo for being so old and still chasing after celebrities, not caring about making himself a laughing stock.

After finishing a breakfast filled with the warmth of everyday life but devoid of any real warmth, Zhang Yan wiped his mouth and got up to leave. He casually remarked to his mother, "Before Dad goes to his new job at the newspaper, why don't we enroll him in driving school? Then he can drive you around, you'll feel so proud." "Well… I'll ask your dad about it later."

…………

Since it was agreed that his assistant would pick up Chen Hong by car, Zhang Yan went directly to the company.

Upon entering the compound, he discovered that most of the temporary workers from the Central Academy of Drama's 90 class were there. Gai Lili, Deng Jie, and Cao Ying had also formed a small group and were whispering in a corner.

In addition, Gao Feng, Sun Yue, and Ren Xianqi were also peeking into the karaoke room.

These people were clearly all there for Gong Li.

There's no way around it; Gong Li, born in 94, is simply that dazzling in the industry. With the support of two international awards, she's practically at the pinnacle of mainland Chinese actors.

Zhang Yan ignored them and went straight into his office.

Not long after I sat down in the office, Wang Zhongqi came over with two documents.

One document outlines the detailed plan for the relocation to the Dream Building on June 6th—at that time, the compound will continue to be leased and used as a training ground for artists, with the addition of some professional facilities.

The other document is a feasibility report on adapting medium-length and long novels selected from the Popular Fiction Newspaper into martial arts dramas.

After Zhang Yan withdrew from the literary scene, Popular Fiction Newspaper experienced a period of declining sales. However, thanks to its popularity as a hub for time-travel novels, it eventually stabilized at around 800,000 copies sold per month.

Occasionally, one or two outstanding titles may briefly surpass 100 million copies sold, but they are no longer enough to threaten the leading position of "Legend of Today and Yesterday" in the industry.

Zhang Yan first glanced through the relocation plan, then picked up the feasibility report and began to read it carefully.

Overall, the best works in "Popular Fiction Newspaper" have some merit, but there are many instances of mutual borrowing and similarities.

Especially between 91 and 93, almost every book had a plot involving copying poems or showing off through arithmetic, and nearly half of them involved modern firearms demonstrating their power in ancient times.

It wasn't until the latter half of 93, probably because both authors and readers were experiencing some aesthetic fatigue, that some variations and little tricks gradually emerged.

Yuanmeng's assessment of these novels is that they have adaptation value, but not much.

Besides the problem of high similarity, there is another major issue: under Zhang Yan's influence, Popular Fiction Newspaper focused more on the thrill of the story, and its logic was generally weaker than that of Legends Today.

And these days, screenplay adaptations are usually quite rigorous...

"How about we try buying one together?"

Zhang Yan placed the documents on the table and instructed Wang Zhongqi: "The similar plot settings mean that these books have more in common. If we pile up the classic scenes and then reorganize them into a main storyline, can we create a good script?"

"This……"

Wang Zhongqi frowned and asked, "How do we resolve the copyright issue?"

"Let's try it first."

Zhang Yan said, "Anyway, there's no need to pay copyright fees during the script adaptation stage. We can deal with the copyright issue after the script has passed internal review at the company."

Wang Zhongqi was seen off.

Zhang Yan checked the time and called the Economic Development Zone Public Security Bureau again. After a day and a night of interrogation, the total value of the recovered property is over 120 million yuan.

The amount Xu Wei lent out was roughly estimated at around 170 million yuan, so surprisingly, the loss wasn't that significant.

The reason why so many people still have money left is mainly because two of them invested the majority of their money in real estate. This year, due to housing reforms, the sharp depreciation of the RMB, and hyperinflation in building materials, housing prices have soared by at least half.

These two were also the most vocal in protesting their innocence, claiming that they could return the money to Xu Wei once they sold the house.

As for why he kept avoiding Xu Wei recently, it was because the housing market was booming and he didn't want to sell at that time.

"That's how scams are; they can always come up with all sorts of excuses!"

The person on the other end of the phone assured him confidently, "Mr. Zhang, don't worry, we will definitely be able to collect more evidence to prove that they are lying—but you have to let the relevant departments know, after all, the final conviction is not up to us."

"That's easy to say."

Zhang Yan said, "I believe that as long as the evidence is conclusive, they will definitely receive a fair trial!"

After hanging up the phone with the Economic Development Zone branch, Zhang Yan contacted the Economic Development Zone branch hospital. Everything was almost ready when he heard a growing commotion outside, indicating that Gong Li had arrived.

(End of this chapter)