Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 64 Second Meeting with Feng Kuzi

I saw Feng Xiaogang, wearing a vest and shorts, standing under the tree with a palm-leaf fan.

Zhang Yan quickly pulled the car over to the side of the road, tidied up the map on the passenger seat, then got out of the car and greeted Feng Xiaogang.

Driving in big cities these days is really not easy; just remembering the routes is a considerable challenge.

"Yo~"

When Feng Xiaogang saw that Zhang Yan had driven there, he said with a slightly exaggerated tone, "You guys who write novels have to be driving a Santana. What's that saying again? 'With four wheels turning, you wouldn't trade it for a county magistrate.' You're at least at the deputy director level."

"That's what they call a big truck that makes a fortune every day."

Zhang Yan waved his hand and said, "Besides, this car isn't mine. It's borrowed from a friend of mine. He's in a rock band and makes thousands of yuan a show. That's what they call 'legs can't beat pens, and pens can't beat words.'"

"That feeling!"

Feng Xiaogang nodded and said, "In the old days, beggars who could sing Lianhualuo were more sought after than those who held a bowl and begged, or those who knelt on the ground and wrote down their life stories."

As they walked inside, Zhang Yan glanced at the palm-leaf fan in Feng Xiaogang's hand and asked curiously, "Brother Feng, why do you carry around a broken fan? Are you planning to write a sequel to 'Ji Gong'?"

"Hey, it's close to home, so I just brought it along. That's what we call 'a touch of humble home air, a thousand miles of pleasant breeze'!"

Both of them were witty and sarcastic, which was one of the reasons why they were able to become friends so quickly.

Feng Xiaogang was clearly familiar with the restaurant owner. He asked for a small private room with a ceiling fan when he entered, and then easily took the menu from the counter.

After politely declining each other's offers, they ordered some common dishes such as shredded pork with sweet bean sauce and boiled sliced ​​pork. Feng Xiaogang then considerately suggested, "Since you drove here, why don't we skip the alcohol today and just have a couple of bottles of Beibingyang soda?"

Zhang Yan couldn't be happier, so he naturally agreed wholeheartedly.

After exchanging pleasantries, Zhang Yan casually mentioned wanting to buy a house in Beijing, asking Feng Xiaogang if he had any resources or recommendations for suitable locations.

"You've come to the right person!"

Feng Xiaogang sighed and said, "Actually, the year before last, because your sister-in-law got pregnant, I was thinking about buying a house. I searched around for a long time, but unfortunately... sigh, now I can't afford to buy one. The price of an old courtyard house has more than doubled."

Hearing him sigh repeatedly, Zhang Yan became increasingly convinced that there was some trouble at home.

However, their relationship hadn't reached that point yet, so Zhang Yan didn't pry too deeply into the details, but instead continued to ask for advice on buying a house.

"If I had to recommend something, I'd say buy it near the China World Trade Center."

Feng Xiaogang had indeed done his homework: "The first phase of the China World Trade Center was completed last year, and the roads there are now well-connected. Although the supporting facilities haven't caught up yet, I estimate they will be ready by next year."

The country is currently focused on economic development, and the International Trade Center is definitely a top priority. Buying a house nearby before property prices skyrocket is a sure way to make a profit.

Seeing that Feng Xiaogang spoke so logically, Zhang Yan was also tempted. This idea of ​​"looking towards money and making big profits" continued for thirty years, and the area around the commercial center was bound to be good in the future.

He asked for some more details and then decided to take Chen Hong to visit some places the next day to see if there were any suitable ones.

Feng Xiaogang further advised, "It's best to buy from people who are preparing to go abroad. These people who admire foreign things are leaving anyway, so they don't care about the cost of selling their assets and they're not afraid of offending anyone."

If you can coax them into charging ahead, the property rights issue will be relatively easy to resolve.

Furthermore, these people generally live a decent life; their houses are usually well-maintained, and some have even upgraded their plumbing and electrical systems.

Zhang Yan was recently thinking about making a living off patriotism, but he never expected to have another opportunity to take advantage of people who are "bananas" (Chinese people who are Westernized and Westernized) so soon.

After the conversation had reached a point where it was almost over, Feng Xiaogang suddenly changed the subject and asked with a smile, "Now that 'Tianjin Wei' has finished filming, have you been thinking about any other scripts lately?"

"Yes, it exists, but it's not part of the script."

Zhang Yan casually mentioned that Feng Gong had asked him to write an article, then shrugged and said, "I'm already overwhelmed with work at the magazine, and I haven't even written a single word for Feng Gong's article."

After hearing this, Feng Xiaogang lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, "I heard that the meat sauce packet for Bright Dairy instant noodles was your idea?"

Although this matter wasn't exactly a secret, the fact that Feng Xiaogang, who was far away in Beijing, knew about it meant he must have made an effort to find out.

"That's it."

Zhang Yan said modestly, "I was forced into this role, but who knew it would actually work out."

“Then why don’t you just write a book of ideas!” Feng Xiaogang gestured excitedly. “Let’s treat it as a sequel to ‘The Thief Company’ and call it ‘The Idea Company’. Let’s say that Niu Qun opened a company that gives people ideas, and Niu Qun and Feng Gong compete to give people crooked ideas—of course, there also have to be one or two that actually work.”

[PS: The skit "The Idea Company" for the 94 Spring Festival Gala was written by Feng Xiaogang.]

Feng Xiaogang also gave an example: Feng Gong asked Niu Qun for an idea to quickly increase everyone's wallets, but Niu Qun pretended to be mysterious and finally gave four words: "Change to small change".

Zhang Yan's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he immediately came up with an idea: "We can arrange for a female cleaner on site to complain that the unit's hygiene is too difficult to maintain, especially the men's restroom, where people always urinate outside the urinals, making it dirty, smelly, and difficult to clean."

Then they asked the two men to come up with an idea to improve the quality of the men—and Niu Qun and Feng Gong came up with the idea of ​​installing a row of electrical outlets on the ground so that whoever urinates gets shocked.

Upon seeing that their brainwaves matched, Feng Xiaogang immediately came up with another idea: "The counterfeit drug sellers are particularly rampant these days. Let's get them to come up with a plan to 'kill them as soon as they're caught.' The people will definitely love that idea!"

Zhang Yan retorted, "Weren't we just talking about big trucks? One truck driver said he's on long-distance trips every day and doesn't even have time to do laundry."

Then they got the two of them to come up with an idea: tie buckets of water to the wheels of the car, so it would be like a washing machine while driving—the bumpier the road, the better!

"besides……"

The two chatted back and forth, finding themselves increasingly compatible, and soon they had pieced together the core jokes for "The Idea Company".

So in the following days, Zhang Yan took Chen Hong to inspect the environment near the commercial center and worked with Feng Xiaogang to improve the crosstalk script.

During this period, Feng Xiaogang also made a special trip to Liang Zuo, the author of "The Thief Company," to ask for some writing tips—he and Liang Zuo's younger brother, Liang Tian, ​​were old comrades-in-arms, so it was not abrupt for him to come to Liang Zuo's door.

By July 2nd, the script for "Idea Company" was freshly completed.

Both of them felt good about it, but to know for sure how effective it would be, they would have to ask Feng Gong and Niu Qun to verify it.

So Zhang Yan called Feng Gong, who happened to be in Beijing with Niu Qun. They immediately arranged to meet and talk in detail.

Zhang Yan asked Feng Xiaogang to go with him, but Feng Xiaogang became coy and said, "Is this appropriate? I'm just helping out; it's mainly up to you..."

"Brother Feng, don't do that."

Zhang Yan interrupted him directly, saying, "You and Teacher Feng Gong were from the same family five hundred years ago. Going there would be a good opportunity to get closer to each other—it's agreed that we'll co-sign this. If I go alone, it won't be appropriate to negotiate the price."

"Hey, forget about the money! If this script can get on the Spring Festival Gala, it's worth it even if we don't get a penny!"

That's true. The Spring Festival Gala is currently at the peak of its influence. Anyone who can appear on the Gala can earn a lot of money, so this little bit of payment is nothing.

…………

When it was time to meet, Feng Xiaogang was even more enthusiastic than Zhang Yan. His hair was combed as if a dog had licked it, and he was dressed neatly and tidyly.

Unfortunately, his 'foundation' was really too poor, and following Zhang Yan, he was still just a handbag carrier.

Feng Gongnong and Niu Qun were actually casting a wide net this time, and asking Zhang Yan to write an article was just a side thing. They didn't expect Zhang Yan to finish so quickly and with such good quality.

The two were very happy after reading the manuscript.

Although the jokes in "The Thief Company" are sophisticated, they cannot be shown on the Spring Festival Gala because of their "subject matter"; "The Idea Company" is slightly inferior, but it does not have this problem.

[PS: "The Thieves Company" only appeared on the New Year's Eve Gala.]

That evening, Niu Qun and Feng Gong hosted a banquet for Zhang Yan and Feng Xiaogang. During the banquet, Feng Xiaogang got completely drunk and kept calling Feng Gong "Brother Feng," insisting on becoming sworn brothers with him.

After the banquet, Zhang Yan went through a lot of trouble to finally get Feng Xiaogang home.

It was during this visit to the Feng family that he learned that Feng Xiaogang's daughter was born with a cleft lip—commonly known as a harelip—and that his mother had been paralyzed for several years.

It's true that every family has its own problems.

"sister in law."

After sighing for a while, Zhang Yan said to Feng Xiaogang's wife, "Tell Brother Feng that if there are any revisions needed to the script we wrote, he can figure it out himself."

This was partly to give Feng Xiaogang more opportunities to shine, and partly because Zhang Fang was about to take the college entrance exam, and he was really worried about her.

(End of this chapter)