1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 271: Maotai Again
Jiang Xian and Moutai don't have any deep hatred, and "Moutai is so mad at me" was just a spur of the moment sentence that he added to Jin Kailai's story. This sentence fits the character of Jin Kailai perfectly.

As a writer, Jiang Xian is not like some writers who feel as if it is their life to modify a single word in their article.

He is like a certain writer: As long as you can publish it for me, I can give you light from beginning to end.

That being said, there aren't many people who can actually ask Jiang Xian to revise their articles.

Even in this incident, the four words "Moutai is so angry that it's killing itself" made Moutai Distillery very anxious, but Jiang Xian didn't really take it too seriously.

I made this decision just because I thought that if I could delete these four insignificant words in exchange for a glass of Moutai for the soldiers in southern Xinjiang, I felt that the exchange was worth it.

He did delete that sentence as promised.

In the manuscript of the single volume, there is no mention of "Maotai is so angry that it's dying".

However, a letter of protest was still received, and this letter came from Pan Haiqing, the production section chief of Moutai.

The content of the letter was full of anger, and it roughly said:
"We have reached a very good agreement, and I have reported it to my superiors, who are very satisfied. I have also written a note to my superiors, and 12 tons of Moutai have been loaded and are ready to be shipped.

However, you, a great writer, actually broke your word and went back on your word. In the article “Wreaths under the Mountains” published in Guangxi Literature, you continued to make remarks that “Moutai will be pissed off!”

Break your promise?
Jiang Xian himself was completely confused.

I have no hatred or grudge against you, so why should I keep bullying you?
Because you are kind?
After thinking about it for a long time without any clue, I simply found the editorial department of "October" and asked Zhang Shouren, and then I learned that "Guangxi Literature" had reprinted "The Wreath under the Mountain" some time ago, and the reprinted manuscript came from the fourth issue of "October" in 81, which had been published before.

At this time, the third edition of the fourth issue of "October" in 81 and the single volume of "The Wreath under the Mountain" issued by the editorial department of "October" to Jiang Xian had not yet been released.

In other words, by accident, "The Garland under the Mountain" once again "angered" the "Moutai Distillery" thousands of miles away.

"Oh, you have caused me so much trouble, making me be wronged by Maotai Distillery once again." Jiang Xian complained innocently to the editor of Guangxi Literature on the phone.

He doesn't even understand the situation, let alone Pan Haiqing and Maotai Distillery.

When Pan Haiqing saw the words "Maotai is so angry" in "Guangxi Literature", he would of course think that Jiang Xian was making fun of them.

He immediately called the Moutai Distillery, explained the whole thing to them, and promised to say a few good words for Moutai in his next novel as compensation. He even wrote the sentence.

"Moutai is the most famous liquor in the world and is well-known throughout the world. It is a great pride of China. Its unique brewing technology can be described as a fine carving of rough jade. Its texture is mellow and full, and its aroma is rich and long-lasting. This is beyond words.

The decoration is also extraordinary, with a solid clay bottle, no slender neck, and a small mouth. It looks so crude and simple, and has its own style. When placed together with various famous wines from all over the world, you can recognize our Moutai at a glance.

What a great advertisement, and it doesn't cost a penny.

As for Moutai Distillery, whether they were happy or not, they had to accept his compensation.

They are really like dumb people eating bitter herbs at this moment, unable to express their pain.

They just didn't want the matter to escalate further, so they agreed to Jiang Xian's request to transfer 12 tons of Moutai liquor to the south.

As a result, now that the wine has been adjusted, the popularity of the four words "Maotai is so angry that it dies" has increased again due to the reprint of "Guangxi Literature".

But they couldn't withdraw their decision to drink.

After all, many superiors attach great importance to this matter.

Moreover, their Moutai factory also publicized this incident widely, and even alarmed several national print media.

First, Guangming X Newspaper published a long report titled "The Character Under the "Wreath" - Jiang Xian", which reported on Jiang Xian, the most eye-catching star in the current literary world. It mainly promoted and praised him and Moutai for jointly facilitating the transfer of 12 tons of Moutai to the front line, and commented:
"The success of The Wreath shows that the author must never lose the spirit of patriotism and heroism. Comrade Jiang Xian has a heart that is concerned about the country and the people, so The Wreath has not lost the charm of military literature, and the article shines with the colors of patriotism and heroism."

The Jiexijun Newspaper took a clear stand and immediately reprinted the article together with the People's Newspaper.

The big brothers above took the lead, and tabloids everywhere immediately followed suit.

With such repeated bombardments, Jiang Xian's reputation was pushed to the peak for a time.

This also resulted in the youngest Jiang Xian being successfully evaluated as a professional writer by the Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles without any objection from anyone when the Federation of Literary and Art Circles was discussing and deciding on the qualifications for the new batch of "professional writers".

There is a staff position and the Federation of Literary and Art Circles also pays me a salary.

For a time, Jiang Xian was riding high, but a series of troubles also came one after another, including newspaper interviews, requests for manuscripts from publications, invitations to lectures from university literary societies, and negotiations with drama troupes on adaptations.

He was disturbed so much that he kept making excuses and was fed up with it. He hid everywhere, and finally he just took the letter of introduction and boarded the green train to visit his wife in the south.

After being away for a while, Jiang Xian looked at the endless plain outside the window and began to miss Zhu Lin.

The train was running quite fast, but it slowed down once it reached Shandong.

That’s right, Shandong.

Although "Shaolin Temple" was filmed in the Shaolin Temple in Songshan, most of the filming locations were not in the real Shaolin Temple in Songshan, Henan.

Why? Zhang Xinyan had of course been to Shaolin Temple, and when he got there, he was shocked to find that there was not even a single path to walk on in the temple.

The weeds were waist-high and it was very desolate, with only a mountain gate left.

Forget about the Shaolin monks. There are only a dozen or so old monks in their 70s in the entire Shaolin.

Therefore, many scenes in "Shaolin Temple" were not shot in Shaolin Temple, but were shot on location in many scenic spots across the country, and were finally composed of several landscapes.

Lingyan Temple in Jinan, Shandong is one of the main filming locations.

After Jiang Xian arrived, he took a car to the crew's location. Before he even put down his luggage, he heard that there was a show on the set, so he went straight over.

The set was quite lively, with curious people gathering outside and cameras running inside the tomb towers.

Jiang Xian stood nearby and watched for a while. He saw a very handsome actor, a man with a beautiful beard, strong muscles and a full beard. He was holding a sword and leading a group of younger brothers.

"Chase!"

Jiang Xian pondered for a long time and finally remembered.

This drama is about the villain Wang Renze in the Tomb Tower Forest, who leads people to hunt down Xiaohu and Li Shimin.

As for this Wang Renze.

Yes, Yu Chenghui.

There were two people nearby who were chattering: "Can this actor use a sword? Look at the way he holds the sword, he doesn't look like a martial artist at all."

"He's just an actor. How can he compare to our master? He has practiced the Nine Transformations Vajra Technique to the seventh level."

When Jiang Xian heard this, he was shocked. Oh, there are two more people practicing qigong.

He also really wanted to complain to Zhang Xinyan: You were asked to find an old man to play the sword master, but you found a real sword master to play the old man?

I won’t introduce Yu Chenghui in detail, as I’m sure everyone has heard of the title “The Last Sword Saint”.

The actors in "Shaolin Temple" are all real martial artists.

Originally, the actors of this movie were martial artists selected from the Peking Opera Troupe, but after Zhang Xinyan took over, he put forward a rather "excessive" request, which was to replace all the previous Peking Opera martial artists with professional martial arts elites as actors.

This move was quite bold, even crazy. After all, this was a movie, and they were looking for a group of martial arts elites who had no acting experience.

But Zhang Xinyan did just that.

This is also how martial arts elites like Yu Chenghui came about.

Jiang Xian watched for a while, and soon saw a little bald man, shirtless, wearing a white monk's robe, running around stealthily in front of the camera. He immediately attracted his attention, and even the attention of many onlookers on the set.

"So young." Jiang Xian couldn't help but sigh as he looked at Li Lianjie.

Some people are born with a destiny of becoming famous. After he became famous, any movie he starred in in Hong Kong with his name on it would earn an extra 10 million yuan in box office revenue. All movies he starred in were hits.

"Ok, click!"

Zhang Xinyan shouted to stop.

Jiang Xian went over to say hello to him.

Zhang Xinyan had heard that Jiang Xian was coming over.

He smiled and asked him how he felt about the scene just now, and Jiang Xian talked about it briefly.

The two exchanged a few pleasantries, and Jiang Xian looked at his wife who was reading the script reservedly in the corner.

Zhang Xinyan went to do other things, and Jiang Xian went to her side.

"Why are you all tanned?"

"It's dark? Is it?" Zhu Lin became nervous.

Jiang Xian moved his face closer, almost touching hers, "Oh no, it's the light that's blocking it."

"Virtue."

"I told you, it was so tiring to shoot, even my flawless skin was tanned to black."

Jiang Xian smiled and said, "But you have really lost weight."

Zhu Lin sighed and said in a nonchalant manner, "It's just filming, it's like this, there are so many actors who can't ask for a movie."

"Drink some water." She handed Jiang Xian a kettle. "How did you get here?"

"By train."

"It must be hard on the road."

"It's OK. Seeing my wife, it's not that hard."

The two were so affectionate and the sour smell of love was so stinking that even Li Lianjie, who was filming in front of the camera, was distracted and was scolded by Zhang Xinyan.

"Li Lianjie, what are you thinking about? Wang Renze's sword is almost against your waist!"

Jiang Xian heard from Zhu Lin that the movie "Shaolin Temple" had mostly male actors and basically no need for female actors, so she was treated quite well. She stayed in a double room in the guesthouse, unlike the male actors who had to share a room with four others.

"This is my lover." Zhu Lin introduced Jiang Xian's identity to the female comrade in her room.

"Hello, comrade."

Jiang Xian took out a bag of preserved fruits bought from the Overseas Chinese Store from his bag, "A little token of my appreciation."

The other party was also very sensible. He declined a few times, then said, "Don't talk for too long," and went out for a walk. Before leaving, he considerately closed the door for the two of them.

Zhu Lin's face turned red.

"Look at you, everyone misunderstood you."

"It's just a misunderstanding, we are a legal couple."

Jiang Xian put his arms around her slender waist in an unruly manner, gently embraced her, and held her in his arms.

He bit Zhu Lin's cheek and sniffed her hair.

Zhu Lin also quickly became fascinated, her eyelashes fluttered, her eyes were blurred, she raised her white neck, breathed softly on Jiang Xian's cheek, and took the initiative to ask for a kiss.

After a long drought, there comes dew.

"It's time for dinner, it's time for dinner." Zhu Lin wiped the traces, put on her pants and Uesugi, and then put on her socks.

She didn't understand either. It wasn't like they were going to sleep at night, so it would be fine for Jiang Xian to take off her clothes, but why did he take off her socks?

She put on her shoes, tidied her messy hair, and seeing that there was nothing unusual about her, she went out to make dinner.

Jiang Xian, with his upper body naked, lay on Zhu Lin's bed, smoked a cigarette, and opened the window to ventilate the air.

Zhu Lin came back soon. Jiang Xian took a look at the meal she got. It was two steamed buns and a piece of black pickled vegetable in a plastic bag.

"You just eat this?" He frowned and immediately realized something, "Is there a difference in the food between actors in the mainland and actors in Hong Kong?"

"Yes." Zhu Lin handed the steamed bun to him. "Actors in Hong Kong eat meat and rice. There is also a special dining car with chicken, duck, fish and meat. Come on, eat quickly."

"Eat? What to eat?"

Jiang Xian threw the steamed bun away.

Zhu Lin gave him a reproachful look, "You're wasting food!"

Jiang Xian picked it up again, dusted it off, stuffed a few mouthfuls into his mouth, and said indignantly: "I'm going to go find Zhang Xinyan to argue with him, don't worry about this matter."

After saying that, he put on his clothes and went out, finding Zhang Xinyan's room.

I knocked on the door and saw Zhang Xinyan eating. The smell of meat wafted through the room.

Seeing that it was Jiang Xian outside the door, he smiled at him and said, "I was looking for you. Come, let's have a drink together. I have some wine here."

Jiang Xian sat down silently, lit a cigarette, and waited quietly for Zhang Xinyan to pour him a glass of red wine.

"Director Zhang, how is the quality of these actors from the mainland compared to Hong Kong movie actors?"

Zhang Xinyan thought he was worried about the elites in the martial arts industry.

"Although these martial arts masters are still young, they all have great acting talent. After all, martial arts nowadays are largely performed for the audience to see. Their acting is not much worse than that of Hong Kong actors."

"Okay, if it's not bad, then why do actors from the mainland eat steamed buns and pickles, while actors from Hong Kong eat meat and rice?" Jiang Xian questioned.

Zhang Xinyan was stunned. He didn't expect Jiang Xian to come to him to argue about this matter.

He sighed and explained helplessly:
"Mr. Jiang, I don't want this to happen either. Think about it, it's easier for me to prepare the same meal, why should I prepare an extra portion?"

According to Zhang Xinyan, this was not his decision, but he did it to comply with mainland regulations. After all, the mainland is a planned economy, which is different from the situation in Hong Kong, so they did not dare to do anything wrong while filming.

"It's better to have less trouble than more, don't you think?"

Jiang Xian didn't answer.

In his opinion, what Zhang Xinyan said was indeed true. Let alone the food, just take the pay. The mainland actors, including Zhu Lin, did not receive any pay for the filming of "Shaolin Temple". They only received wages and a little subsidy for the filming.

For Hong Kong actors, this is something that is simply unbelievable.

Zhang Xinyan was innocent. "Mr. Jiang, didn't your wife tell you? I mentioned before that I would take care of her food privately, but she refused. She said she would wait until all the mainland actors had meat and rice before she would eat."

"This is not just my love's problem."

Jiang Xian said, "I didn't come to you because my lover is an actor.

Since I came to you, I have to make sure all the mainland actors have meat and rice to eat."

(End of this chapter)