Against the Current Hong Kong 1979

"You must be my uncle-in-law, Li Shuisheng."

Zhang Shuai'an said very politely, "My name is Zhang Shuai'an, and his name is He Jiatong. We just came from the mainland to stay with Aunt He."

He Jiatong woke up at this moment and greeted Li Shuisheng, "Uncle, hello! I'm He Weibing. I sent photos to my aunt when I was little."

"That tall kid from Brother A-Lian's family, right?"

Li Shuisheng grinned, his previous serious expression immediately dissipating, revealing himself to be an honest man: "I'm sorry, my house is small, so I made you sleep in the living room. I'm sorry you had to suffer."

"Uncle Li, you're too kind. It's already a great fortune to have a place to stay," Zhang Shuai'an replied immediately.

He Jiatong added, "Several fellow villagers were swept away by the big waves."

Li Shuisheng nodded and said softly, "Okay, then you should get some rest. Your aunt will take you to get your ID cards tomorrow. I'm too busy here and really can't spare the time to take care of you."

After a few pleasantries, everyone went about their own business.

Zhang Shuai'an wrote a chapter titled "Shattered Void" and then started copying "Young Justice Bao".

Of course, he wasn't writing a script, but rather adapting the play into a novel. Since it was 1979 anyway, the plot twists would simply become original. As for the historical and geographical inaccuracies, he didn't intend to change a single one. Hong Kong people's history and geography were already a mess, and readers didn't care about that anyway; as long as the story was entertaining, that was enough.

As he wrote late into the night, the lights in Li Shuisheng's room were all turned off. Zhang Shuai'an couldn't continue writing either, so he turned off the lights, drew the curtains in the living room, covered himself with the blanket, and quickly fell asleep.

The next day.

Aunt He took Zhang Shuai'an and He Jiatong to the household registration office on Queensway to register. There were locals in charge, and the process went very smoothly. However, it will take another week or two to get their ID cards.

Zhang Shuai'an also learned that the current policy is still "resistance policy," but the situation will change in October next year. The Hong Kong government will order all undocumented immigrants to renew their identity cards within three days, with no exceptions. Instead, a "policy of immediate arrest and deportation" will be implemented for illegal immigrants. It was from that time that smugglers began to run rampant, and the movie "Snake Fighting" was filmed around that time.

Aunt He also took them on a tour around Kowloon to familiarize them with the surroundings.

Zhang Shuai'an also knew what Aunt He's small business was; it turned out to be a fortune-telling stall, which is why she had the nickname "He Xiangu" (He the Fairy).

He Jiatong was clearly not of much help at this stall; she could only help move things around and act as a bodyguard for her aunt.

Half a month later, Zhang Shuai'an and He Jiatong finally received their ID cards.

He Jiatong was so excited that he danced around and insisted on treating his aunt's whole family to a big meal to celebrate. However, his joy almost turned into tragedy when a truck passed by him.

Zhang Shuai'an also tried to get Li Shuisheng and Aunt He to inquire about his cousin, but he only remembered that he lived in Lei Yue Mun, and unsurprisingly, there was no information at all.

During this time, Zhang Shuai'an continued writing novels, accumulating quite a few manuscripts. At least "Shattered Void" was already... finished. At the same time, he was also writing "Young Detective Bao Qingtian" and a smutty novel under the pen name "Rainy Night with Umbrella but No Knife".

Xiao Huangwen wrote the fastest, copying over 60,000 words from "Teacher Bai," adapting it for local audiences, adding extra material, and sending it directly to the magazine "Spring on Spring." This was indeed a quick way to make money; less than a day later, they called, inviting him to the editorial office for a detailed discussion. Zhang Shuai'an declined the meeting, only communicating with the editor over the phone, agreeing on a fee of fifty yuan per thousand words—a rare price for a newcomer in the industry.

Zhang Shuai'an just wanted to make a quick buck and rent a room to move out of Aunt He's house as soon as possible. He sent all 100,000 words of the first chapter to a magazine and received 5,000 yuan in royalties.

He Jiatong is someone's nephew, so he can stay there permanently. It's inconvenient for him, an outsider. The other party doesn't mention it out of consideration for face or friendship. If he's so tactless, he'll be ungrateful.

In the past two weeks, Zhang Shuai'an has also become familiar with Luo Zhaohui. Last time he stood him up, he made up for it by treating him to two extra morning teas. Don't let his young age fool you, this kid is a real know-it-all and has a lot of clever ideas.

It was under his guidance that Zhang Shuai'an found an opportunity to play the hero and save the damsel in distress, and finally got to know Cherie Chung.

Early September.

Around five o'clock that morning, Li Shuisheng got up early because he had to rush to the Shaw Brothers film studio to work.

"At your age, why are you doing this so early?"

Aunt He also prepared breakfast for him early in the morning.

"What's this?" Li Shuisheng asked as he turned his head and saw a stack of manuscript papers on the table while eating.

Aunt He said softly, "Anzai is a university student on the mainland. He wants to write novels to earn some money before finding a job. He's been writing and drawing for the past two weeks. I heard that a few of his works have already been picked up by magazines, earning him over a thousand dollars."

"Really?" Li Shuisheng freed one hand and casually flipped it over: "Shattered Void? What's that?"

He flipped through a few more pages and read again, "The Young Detective Bao Qingtian?"

This piqued his interest, so he pulled out those pages and started reading them while eating.

He became so engrossed in watching it that when he came to his senses he was almost at the film set, still holding the stack of manuscripts in his hand.

"I've lost. I took someone else's manuscript and delayed their submission."

Li Shuisheng patted his forehead and said with a troubled expression, "I can only wait until I get off work tonight to take it back to him."

In the distance, someone called out to him loudly: "Hey, Uncle Li, Director Liu is looking for you. There's a problem with the bamboo shed we set up yesterday. You should go over there quickly."

"Hey, here it comes."

Li Shuisheng could only put the manuscript on his workstation, weigh it down with a brick, and then run towards the film set.

A short while later, a chubby screenwriter from another film crew passed by, saw the stack of manuscripts, and immediately became interested, picking them up to read.

……

the other side.

When Zhang Shuai'an woke up, he was somewhat taken aback to find that a stack of the manuscripts he had been frantically working on the night before were missing. He hadn't even finished copying the manuscripts yet, and hadn't even had time to sign them.

However, Aunt He and her husband had obviously gone to work, and the two children had gone to school. When he asked He Pengjia, the other party only gave him a blank look.

"Forget it, I'll just submit the one I have first."

Zhang Shuai'an took the manuscript and said to He Jiatong, "I'm going out to submit a manuscript. I might not be back for lunch. Remember to let Aunt He know when I do."

He Jiatong wasn't fully awake yet, and only responded with a soft hum.

Zhang Shuai'an went out and took the elevator downstairs. He was quite lucky this time, as he happened to run into Chung Chu-hung, who was also going out.

He held the elevator door shut and smiled at Cherie Chung, "Cherie, what a coincidence! Are you going to work?"

"No, I'm going to help my dad watch the shop."

Chung Chu-hung now had a very good impression of Cheung Sau-on, and asked, "Sau-on, what about you? Where are you going?"

"I'm going to submit my work." Zhang Shuai'an waved the manuscript in his hand and explained, "I just arrived here and haven't found a formal job yet. I figured I couldn't just sit around waiting, so I'm going to use my skills to write novels and see if any newspapers or magazines want them."

"You can also write novels? That's amazing!" Chung Chu-hung exclaimed in amazement.

Zhang Shuai'an said with a smile, "It's not well written, do you want to take a look?"

Chung Chu-hung nodded, picked up the manuscript, but after reading only a few lines, she felt dizzy and lightheaded: "Never mind, I don't really understand martial arts novels, but it seems very well written. Where do you plan to submit it?"

"Jin Yong's Ming Pao," Zhang Shuai'an replied.

Chung Chu-hung said in surprise, "Then you are really confident. I heard that Jin Yong has very high standards and doesn't accept ordinary manuscripts."

"This isn't your average manuscript," Zhang Shuai'an said with a smile. "It's a groundbreaking, groundbreaking blockbuster novel."