Literary Master 1983

Chapter 178 One Hundred Million Baht

Then, everyone in the audience applauded excitedly, and the sound completely drowned out the storm outside.

Yu Qie received the medal amid applause. It was difficult to establish a direct relationship between how the medal evaluated his achievements in writing novels, but Sirindhorn was already a little hoarse, and her lips trembled before she could translate into Chinese.

OK, OK!

She almost wanted to scream in her heart.

Sirindhorn is considered by Thai people to be the only truly compassionate member of the royal family because of her deep practice of Buddhism and her lack of extravagance. When she saw Yu Qie's novel, she had already thought of today.

Many wealthy Chinese businessmen, including Xie Guomin, Xu Shubiao, Zheng Wulou and others were also excited!
Although the Chinese are wealthy economically, they are a minority in the local literature, and in some places they are not even allowed to speak Chinese. Yu Qie won the award this time by overcoming many unfavorable conditions and going against the trend.

Zheng Wulou looked at Yu Qie and said, "On behalf of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, I have invested another 100,000 US dollars in the mainland. This money will not be invested in land in Pengcheng, nor in Buddhist statues in temples. It will be donated to the Writers Association of the mainland. Today I know the power of words!"

"If Mr Tan Kah Kee knew about this, he would probably cry so much that half of the Nanyang Siang Pau would be soaked with tears!"

Beverage tycoon Zheng Wulou said: "We should invest in the mainland, set up production lines, and do something practical."

Xie Guomin said: "I have already invested in setting up a feed company in the mainland! The last time I went back to the mainland, I saw that the programs on the mainland TV stations were empty and unattractive. I wanted to invest in a knowledge and entertainment program and invite friends from CCTV to cooperate with us. It is called Zhengda Variety Show..."

Zheng Wulou nodded immediately and said, "We really need to focus on cultural influence. If your program is successful, it can broaden the horizons of the mainland people."

The only one who was unhappy was probably Rama Jr. He was an outlier in the Rama royal family and was always unwilling to make any gestures. He once participated in the military parade of the three-service guard of honor holding a dog, and fled to Germany for refuge when the Krasnodar fever broke out in Thailand.

The palace room he was in was redecorated by him in Western Rococo style.

How could he like Chinese novels?
Little Rama said to Yu Che: "If I pay 10 million baht, can you stay in Thailand, learn Thai, and write Thai literature?"

"Then who am I?"

“Of course you became Thai.”

Ten million Thai baht is equivalent to 128 million RMB, which was a sky-high price at the time.

Yu Qie shook his head without hesitation.

"Fifty million baht?"

Yu Qie continued to shake his head. He didn't want to talk anymore this time.

Little Rama wanted to make an offer, but his mother saw this and scolded him harshly. Prince A Tie, who had met Yu Qie, sighed deeply. This man really did not look like a monarch.

Because of the heavy rain, the award ceremony was forced to move to a side hall. Everyone hurriedly completed the rest of the process, and reporters and media immediately swarmed in. Yu Qie was caught by Ji Xianlin and said, "It's a cross-ocean call from China! It's your boyfriend. After a long time, it finally got through."

He immediately made an excuse to go to the bathroom and answered Zhang Li's call: "Hello?"

When Zhang Li heard Yu Qie's voice, she immediately asked anxiously, "How was the heavy rain in Thailand? Did it get you wet?"

Yu Qie looked at the water curtain splashing in front of him and said, "Not big."

Zhang Li had no idea, and she felt relieved. Then she said, "I heard you were going to present an award today? When I arrived today, everyone in the crew congratulated me. I thought to myself, what are they so excited about? I just found out... Yu Qie, Chen Xiaoxu cares about you more than I do! I don't know where she read your novel, please ask the whole crew to criticize you!"

"After we finished reading it, we said that Yu Qie had written another good novel. But she said that Yu Qie's manuscript had been soaked by the rain in Thailand. You are finally going to lose a lot of money."

"Because you once said that writers' manuscripts can be sold for money. We have met a master who works at the Palace Museum. You don't have to worry... Last time, the master used three steaming and three drying to repair a Cheng Yi manuscript... If your manuscript is really wet by the rain, it will be repaired like new!" Yu Qie touched his head, a little embarrassed: "Zhang Li, why don't you ask me if I got the medal?"

Zhang Li immediately said: "You can definitely get it, I know you can definitely get it!" As soon as the words fell, there were several screams. It was obvious that there were probably a lot of people around Zhang Li who were listening.

Because Yu Qie played the role of the "non-existent emperor", he has now joined the crew of "Dream of Red Mansions" and become an insider.

The higher his literary achievements, the easier it will be for CCTV to use him to attract sponsorship.

Historically, the crew filmed the second half, but due to lack of funds, the quality of filming dropped sharply, and some characters were hastily finished with their plot lines. Now with Yu Qie as one of the consultants, the "Dream of Red Mansions" crew can go to Southeast Asia to fight the wealthy merchants.

"Brother Yu, when will you come back?"

"I'll be right back!"

Zhang Li said: "Thailand is not a good place, with wind and waves, so here is our harbor."

After hanging up the phone, Yu Che returned to the award ceremony. Little Mara appeared in front of Yu Che again from nowhere, and he asked, "What if it's 100 million baht? 100 million baht, will you do what I say? Stay here as a Thai, write in Thai - I won't treat you unfairly."

Yu Qie stretched out a finger and deliberately kept silent.

So little Mara asked first: "What does it mean?"

Yu Qie said: "I just received a call from my family, asking me how the manuscript of "A Way Out" is being preserved? It is well preserved! I am afraid that 100 million Thai baht may not be able to buy the manuscript of this novel in the future, how can it buy me as a person?"

"Do you want to buy it? I can sell you the manuscript right now. I swear, you'll make a profit."

After hearing this, little Mara was shocked: "You are such a greedy lunatic! Who would buy your manuscript for 100 million baht? This is so shameless and pathetic!"

Yu Qie burst into laughter instead.

Of course, it may take twenty years to verify this bet whether it is worth that much money.

The conversation between the two spread to other places and caused a lot of discussion on the spot.

Sirindhorn came out to apologize to Yu Che. King Rama IX had a blank expression on his face, but he was probably furious in his heart. Yu Che never saw the crown prince again at the subsequent banquet.

This became the most impressive memory of the delegation's last day in Thailand. The storm had stopped that night, and they flew out of Bangkok and arrived at the port.

Afterwards, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Thailand formally donated the US$100,000 it had raised to the Mainland Writers Association. The reason for the donation was a series of travel notes written by Yu Qie during his stay in Thailand. Since a lot of money had been donated before for the novel "A Way Out", the visiting delegation announced that it would no longer accept any donations related to "A Way Out".

The Chinese Chamber of Commerce had to find another reason. They thought hard and came up with the travel notes written by Yu Qie.

Of course, these travelogues are not very long, but the novel "A Way Out" has more than 100,000 words. Some people in the Hong Kong media calculated the difference in the number of words between the two, and magnified it to the novel "A Way Out". It was found that it was more than 400,000 US dollars, which was more than 100 million Thai baht at the exchange rate of that year.

A series of sensational headlines were written immediately.

"A nuclear bomb in the literary world? A record-breaking manuscript price? Taemin exclaimed: Even Cao Xueqin would kneel down in fear if he traveled through time!"

"Shocking price! A Chinese writer's manuscript sold for over 100 million Thai Baht! The literary world is shocked! The Thai royal palace's mysterious buyer is exposed!"

(End of this chapter)