Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 396 Falling out
That morning, Cao Sheng skipped class again.

He stayed in his dormitory, revising the script for "Crazy Stone." As expected, he didn't change the script's format; the entire script, from beginning to end, looked like a short story.

It wasn't written in the script format as before.

There are two reasons:

Firstly, he wanted to finish the script as soon as possible so as not to delay his focus on writing his new book. He wanted to finish the script completely this morning, so he didn't want to waste time adjusting the script's format.

This is also related to his personal writing habits. He doesn't like to write in a rigid, traditional format. He always felt that no matter what he wrote, the most important thing was to express the meaning clearly, and the format was rigid and secondary.

Secondly, he has proven the value of his scripts time and time again, and therefore feels that he is entitled to be more casual about the format.

Around 10 a.m., he received a call from Feng Xiaogang, who said that Wang Zhongjun had agreed to his investment conditions and invited Cao Sheng to lunch to discuss the specifics of the cooperation.

Cao Sheng thought it would be good to show the script to Feng Xiaogang at noon, so he agreed to have lunch with him.

The luncheon that day was much more casual than the one last night.

Feng Xiaogang booked a farmhouse restaurant specializing in Huizhou cuisine. When Cao Sheng arrived, he was surprised to find that Fan Jinshuo was not there.

Where is Miss Fan?

As they sat down in the private room, Cao Sheng asked with some curiosity.

Feng Xiaogang waved his hand and laughed, "Since you're not interested in her, why let her interfere in our brothers' dinner? Quickly tell the waiter to bring the food!"

He said the last sentence by turning to instruct his assistant.

Before long, one after another, farm-style dishes were served.

The presentation of each dish is not as good as that of a big hotel, but the ingredients are fresh and the cooking methods are closer to home cooking. In fact, the taste of the dishes is better than that of the dishes in big hotels.

Cao Sheng took a couple of sips. Feng Xiaogang got up to pour him more wine, but Cao Sheng blocked the glass in front of him with his hand. "Director Feng! Let's not drink at noon, okay? I have class this afternoon!"

Feng Xiaogang: "Well... no feast is complete without wine, shall we have a drink? A little bit is fine too!"

Cao Sheng smiled and shook his head, reached for the briefcase he had just placed on the chair next to him, took out the script he had printed on the way there, and handed it to Feng Xiaogang.

"Let's postpone the wine for another time! I've finished the script, would you like to take a look?"

Feng Xiaogang's eyes lit up, both surprised and delighted. "This...it's finished already? As expected of you! It has to be you! This speed, this efficiency...tsk tsk, amazing!"

While praising him, Feng Xiaogang subconsciously put down the wine bottle in his hand, reached out to take the script, sat back down, and immediately began to read the script.

Cao Sheng smiled, didn't disturb him, and continued eating by himself.

When Feng Xiaogang saw that the script's format didn't resemble a script at all, but rather a novel, he frowned.

The smile on his face faded a bit.

If someone else gave him a script like that, he would probably get angry, and might even throw the script in the other person's face.

He would feel that such a script was a waste of his time.

But because the script was written by Cao Sheng, he patiently read on, thinking as he read: I'll have to find someone to change the format of this script later.

only……

As time passed, his brows furrowed more and more, and his face grew increasingly grim.

He patiently read half of the script, but then he couldn't take it anymore. He looked up at Cao Sheng, casually threw the script on the dining table in front of him, and stared at Cao Sheng with a grim expression.

Cao Sheng was a little surprised by his reaction. "What's wrong? You finished reading it so quickly?"

Feng Xiaogang remained silent.

However, his complexion remained unpleasant.

Cao Sheng sensed that something was wrong with him, frowned slightly, thought for a moment, put down his chopsticks, reached for a tissue to wipe his mouth, leaned back in his chair, and asked indifferently, "Director Feng, are you dissatisfied with this script?"

Feng Xiaogang pursed his lips and finally spoke: "Brother Cao! I've always considered you my brother and respected you a lot. You should be able to feel that, right?"

Cao Sheng narrowed his eyes slightly. "What are you trying to say?"

Feng Xiaogang glanced at the script on the table, tapped it with his hand, and said in a deep voice, "If you really don't want to write a script for me, I will be disappointed, but I won't say anything. After all, I have no right to force you to cooperate with me, right?"

Cao Sheng stared at him coldly, waiting for his next words.

Seeing that Cao Sheng remained silent, Feng Xiaogang continued, "But isn't it a bit unfair of you to try and fool me with something like this? I was wondering why you were so fast this time! You finished the script in half a day? I really thought you were a genius, haha, but I didn't expect it to be like this. Ask yourself honestly, is this something you wrote seriously?"

Cao Sheng met his gaze coldly.

This was an outcome he hadn't anticipated.

The script for "Crazy Stone" received such high praise. The original timeline of the film was a typical box office dark horse, making director Ning Hao famous overnight and Huang Bo a star.

He originally thought that Feng Xiaogang would like this script very much, but he didn't expect that the other party would look down on it at all and think that it was just something Cao Sheng had put together to fool people.

Have you finished reading the script?

Cao Sheng asked in a deep voice.

Feng Xiaogang curled his lip, "Do I really need to finish reading something like this? Although it seems to have some funny moments and looks like a comedy script, didn't you realize when you wrote it that the plot is completely disjointed? The plot is all over the place, it's just a bunch of fragmented things. Is it really necessary to finish reading something like this?"

Cao Sheng: "..."

At this moment, Cao Sheng's expression also turned rather unpleasant.

When he was writing this script, he thought that if he hadn't been involved in the investment this time, he probably wouldn't have been willing to give such a script to Feng Xiaogang.

After all, this is a good script where you can achieve great results with a small investment.

With an investment of just a few million, you can rake in tens of millions at the box office.

He vaguely remembered that the original timeline movie had a budget of only 300 million RMB, but after its release, it grossed more than 2000 million RMB in mainland China alone.

At the time, many people said that if this movie hadn't had such a low budget, poor picture quality, and lack of a decent cast of stars, and if director Ning Hao hadn't been completely unknown before, resulting in very few screenings in theaters and inadequate promotion, its box office performance in the first half of the month would not have been so low, and its final box office would definitely not have been only over 2000 million.

Cao Sheng felt that such an evaluation was fair.

A strong piece of evidence is that three years later, Ning Hao directed a sister film, "Crazy Racer," which received far less critical acclaim than "Crazy Stone," but "Crazy Racer" still grossed over 1 million yuan at the box office.

Keep in mind that this was a box office of 100 million yuan in the early 2000s.

At that time, looking at the entire mainland film industry, there were only a handful of directors whose single films had grossed over 100 million yuan. There was a "100 Million Yuan Box Office Club" in mainland China, which listed the few directors in mainland China whose single films had grossed over 100 million yuan. Ning Hao thus became a member of this club.

This shows what an achievement it was when the box office in mainland China exceeded 100 million yuan at that time.

However, even with such a script, Feng Xiaogang couldn't finish reading more than half of it.

Cao Sheng nodded, picked up his briefcase, stood up, walked over, took the script from the table, and turned to leave.

Feng Xiaogang did not try to stop him. He was very disappointed at this point, thinking that Cao Sheng was fooling him and that he no longer expected to get any good scripts from Cao Sheng.

Cao Sheng didn't stop or look back; he just walked away with the script.

As he went downstairs, he stopped at the cashier, took out his wallet, and paid for his meal.

Since Feng Xiaogang doesn't like his script, he won't freeload off the meal.

Sun Liang and Lei Zhen, who were following behind him, exchanged a glance and both sensed that Cao Sheng was in a bad mood. They both subconsciously fell silent and followed behind Cao Sheng quietly.

After leaving the restaurant, I got into the car.

Cao Sheng looked down at the script in his hand and suddenly realized something: this was probably not entirely Feng Xiaogang's fault. If someone else had read this script, they probably wouldn't have been able to appreciate it either.

Last night, in a semi-drunk state, he chose to write this script without much thought. Only now does he realize that after the movie "Original Timeline" became a hit, a lot of news about the movie has been circulating.

For example, Ning Hao had the idea for this movie a long time ago, but he couldn't find investors willing to invest in it until Andy Lau's Asian New Director Project listed Ning Hao as a support target. Only then did Ning Hao get investment and have the opportunity to make the movie.

Therefore, it is clear that the script for this movie is probably not something that most people can appreciate.

In particular, the film's multi-narrative style, if it hadn't been made into a movie and had only been presented in text form, would probably have made viewers dizzy and unable to keep up with the plot's rapid leaps.

So, Feng Xiaogang can't be entirely blamed?

After this thought flashed through Cao Sheng's mind, Cao Sheng sneered, still feeling displeased.

He couldn't feel good just thinking about what Feng Xiaogang had just said.

The car was heading towards Huizhou Teachers College.

Cao Sheng sat in the back seat, squinting, already considering whether or not to ask Ning Hao to direct the script.

The original timeline, this movie was probably released in 06.

If it could be released a few years earlier, it would be a good thing for movie fans.

But has Ning Hao entered the film and television industry yet? Without a few years of experience, can he make a good film?

For some reason, Cao Sheng thought of Guo Xiaosi and Han Er, who had infiltrated the film and television industry in the original timeline.

Both of them are famous for writing novels.

However, none of them were content to stay put, and one or two of them crossed over to make movies, with each one achieving higher box office returns, though the reviews were mixed.

For a fleeting moment, Cao Sheng also had the idea of ​​directing it himself.

But it was just a fleeting thought.

He doesn't like doing things he's not good at. Even writing screenplays is just because screenplays are also written works, similar to writing novels, and he remembers some movie plots and is confident he can write the screenplay.

He doesn't want to be the best screenwriter among novelists, the best director among screenwriters, or the most handsome director...

He had wanted to specialize in one profession for a long time.

After thinking for a while, he picked up his phone and dialed Cui Xinyu's number.

"Find out for me if there's a man in the film and television industry named Ning Hao. Hmm, not an actor! He should be a director! Yes, that's right! Just find out if there's a director named Ning Hao. Okay, okay."

As he talked to Cui Xinyu, he slightly changed his mind.

Before calling Cui Xinyu, he wanted to find out what Ning Hao was doing now. Had he started filming a movie yet?

But as they talked, he realized there was no need to ask so much. If Ning Hao hadn't started filming yet, Cui Xinyu probably wouldn't be able to find out where Ning Hao was.

So he changed his mind at the last minute and asked her to inquire in the mainland director circle if there was a director named Ning Hao.
If Ning Hao hasn't become a director yet, there's no point in going to him now.

It's been found, but Ning Hao probably won't be able to adapt this script well.

Even so, this task was still too difficult for Cui Xinyu.

She is neither in the film and television industry nor a graduate of a film school, so her understanding of the industry is no more than Cao Sheng's.

And what about Ning Hao?

He won the Best Director Award at the Beijing College Student Film Festival this year for his student film "Thursday, Wednesday".

Attention! He made a student film. What is a student film? It generally refers to short films made by graduates of directing programs.

Moreover, although he won the Best Director award, it was presented to him by the Beijing College Student Film Festival. You can tell how influential this film festival is just by looking at its name.

Therefore, Cui Xinyu spent the whole afternoon inquiring but still couldn't find out who Ning Hao was.

She has almost exhausted all the connections she has in the mainland film and television industry.

……

in the afternoon.

On his way to the classroom, Cao Sheng was stopped by Fang Changqing and Ouyang Yiyi from the Beijing Pillow Book Publishing House.

They came to the school this morning to look for Cao Sheng and found out which classroom he was in, but they couldn't find him. Cao Sheng didn't come to class at all this morning.

At noon, they found out about the school cafeteria and went there to wait for Cao Sheng, because they knew that Cao Sheng ate at the cafeteria every day at noon.

But they found nothing.

Cao Sheng didn't go to the cafeteria at noon today either.

Just as they were about to contact the school teachers and ask them to help contact Cao Sheng, they changed their minds at the last minute. Before the afternoon classes started, the two of them went to the door of Cao Sheng's classroom again to see if Cao Sheng would come to the classroom that afternoon.

They actually managed to corner us.

"Mr. Cao! Mr. Cao! Wait! Wait, Mr. Cao!"

Fang Changqing ran excitedly toward Cao Sheng, calling out to him as he went.

Upon hearing this, Cao Sheng stopped and looked in the direction of the sound. Fang Changqing and Ouyang Yiyi excitedly ran up to Cao Sheng and blocked his way.

This attracted the attention of many students in the vicinity.

"Who are you two?"

Before Cao Sheng could finish speaking, Fang Changqing quickly introduced himself and, incidentally, introduced Ouyang Yiyi beside him.

Cao Sheng couldn't help but glance at the beautiful woman a few more times, feeling that her looks and figure were even more outstanding than Fan Jinsuo, whom he had seen last night.

(End of this chapter)