Exciting 1979!

Chapter 168 Grandpa is unreliable, I can only rely on Amin (guaranteed 1 update)
Seal carving is also a skill that Liu Rulong has mastered since he was a child. Wei Ming commissioned him to carve a seal for him, "Gouzi Wei Ming".

Place name + person's name, this seal expresses the author's homesickness.

In addition to the message, Wei Ming will also engrave his first coin on the book. In addition, if the leader of the alliance sends too much money, Wei Ming will write the envelope himself.

Since Aaron was here, he also wanted to stay and help. Seven people worked for more than two hours. In addition, Wei Ming had already written many signatures the day before, so they finally finished the work before the Changzheng Canteen closed at nine o'clock.

They ordered a table full of delicious dishes, beer and drinks. There were no other guests at that time, so everyone had a great meal and talked a lot. They were very happy.

Liang Zuo finally felt that the trip was worthwhile. He heard that Wei Ming usually liked to treat people to dinner. He felt that he could acknowledge him as a brother, but forget about calling him an uncle.

In the end, they all got a copy of "Animals Are Dangerous" signed by Wei Ming. Liang Zuo got two copies and said he would give one to his mother.

Because it was already too late, Aaron stayed in Wei Ming's dormitory today. Anyway, there was an empty bed, but there were some letters on it.

Taking advantage of this evening, Aaron also showed Wei Ming several styles of martial arts comics that he had recently drawn.

After a month of trial and error, Aaron finally got the hang of it.

Wei Ming chose one from them, then called Biaozi and Xiaomei over and asked them which one they liked.

In the end, everyone was surprisingly unanimous and chose the one that Wei Ming liked. In this cartoon, the character is more likable. When he is serious, he looks mighty and strong, and when he is funny, he becomes a Q version, just like in "Slam Dunk".

Aaron also used some techniques to make the characters’ fights more powerful, as if they were distorting the space with every punch and every sword. It was very exciting to watch and it suits the minds of boys very much.

Since it is a fighting action comic, it can be a little more exaggerated than the original. The most important thing is to capture the boys' market.

Biaozi was very excited: "Along, please hurry up and draw. I will definitely buy a set when it is published!"

Aaron was even more excited: "Then I will draw in this style and draw the content of one chapter first."

Wei Ming suggested, "There must be students in your class who are short of money, right?"

"Let me put it this way, I used to be the richest man in the class, and now my family has fallen on hard times, but I'm still the richest man in the class." Aaron said self-deprecatingly, few people are not short of money nowadays.

Wei Ming smiled: "That's good. It's too inefficient to draw a comic book by yourself. Aaron, you can start training your team and give them those tedious tasks that take time but are not that important. This way, they can also earn some living expenses."

"Team?" Liu Rulong murmured these two words and felt that he knew what he should do.

The next day, when the postman came to the South Gate to deliver mail, he was dumbfounded when he saw the mail parcels piled up like a mountain. Not to mention that he came by bicycle, he wouldn't be able to move them even if he came by motorcycle!

Wei Ming smiled and said, "It's okay, Brother Wang, you can make more trips. I'll settle the bill first, and I still have to go to work."

Originally, this needed to be done at the post office, but Wei Ming was a special case.

The postman, Brother Wang, said, "Okay, let me count. Oh, yes, there is a letter for you, from Hong Kong."

Wei Ming took it quickly and touched the bulging bag. He was delighted. The old man was so kind. Was he sending all the royalties back to him?

He did not open it on the spot, but kept it in his pocket. He did not open it until he got off work and returned to the dormitory at noon, then he quietly opened it.

However, after the envelope was opened, no Hong Kong dollars poured out. Instead, a thick stack of newspaper turned out to be "New Evening News"!
Wei Ming saw the serialized version of "Heroes Have Always Emerged Young" in the newspaper, but it was only three or four thousand words long, which was probably only one-tenth of the length.

Then he opened the letter from the old man again.

In the letter, Lao Gui stated that he received a reply from the New Evening News soon after submitting his manuscript, stating that the manuscript had been accepted and the standard fee was 50 yuan per thousand words.

In other words, this 40,000-word novella received a royalty of 2,000 Hong Kong dollars in Hong Kong!

If converted into RMB, it would be around 700, which is slightly better than "Story Club", but not much better.

But if these 2000 Hong Kong dollars were remitted to Yanjing, and if Wei Ming did not redeem the remittance vouchers, he could probably exchange them for three to four thousand RMB on the black market!

However, his dear grandfather, out of consideration for his filial piety, kept the royalties for himself.

When Wei Ming saw the old man praising his eldest grandson in the letter, he was stunned. He said, "Please at least leave some for me. I want to buy a house, a car and get married!"

And I don't know how many to marry.
It seems that this old man is unreliable. I still have to rely on Amin. Her letter should arrive soon.

And now that "Heroes Have Always Been Young" has been published in Hong Kong, Wei Ming feels that he can also go to Beijing Film Academy to discuss the filming.

The next day, Wei Ming asked for leave and prepared to go out, and then he met old man Wu Zuxiang, who threw a small red notebook to Wei Ming.

"This is?"

"The membership card of the Writers Association has been issued."

Wei Ming was immediately delighted: "With this thing, will I have higher authority to borrow books from Yenching Library?" Wu Zuxiang was stunned: "Why, have you already read all the books in Peking University Library?"

"That's not the case," Wei Ming explained, "Because I'm going to write a new novel, I need to borrow some books from the Republic of China period, and I'm afraid our school doesn't have them."

"Books from the Republic of China period," Mr. Wu thought for a moment, "There is a library room at Peking University Library, which contains some old books from the Republic of China period, but they are not open to the public. I can write you a note, and you can go there to look through the books if you want to read them."

"That's great, thank you Mr. Wu!" Wei Ming was overjoyed.

Wu Zuxiang added, "There is one more thing. The selection of excellent short stories across the country last year has ended. Your work, 'The Duck Knows the River Is Warm in Spring', was selected. I guess People's Literature will announce the list next month."

Wei Ming said embarrassedly: "I just wrote it casually, and I didn't expect it to be selected. It's all thanks to the judges for their kindness."

After being selected, a collection will be published and Wei Ming will be able to earn a small amount of royalties.

But it's just a small amount of money. Wei Ming should go and see how much the Beijing Film Studio can pay for his script.

Wei Ming rode his motorcycle to the not-too-distant Beijing Film Studio.

He went straight to Director Wang Yang, and instead of taking out the script first, he put the New Evening News on the table.

"This is?"

Wei Ming smiled and said, "My novel was published in the New Evening News in Hong Kong, and it has received good reviews. Hong Kong readers like it very much."

The second half of the sentence was purely Wei Ming's free expression, but it really made Director Wang stunned for a moment. He immediately picked it up and took a look. It was indeed the "New Evening News".

After he put down the newspaper, Wei Ming suggested, "Director Wang, what do you think about us cooperating with the Hong Kong Leftist Film Company to make a co-production? I think the film will be better, and maybe its influence can penetrate into neighboring countries and regions."

Wei Ming tempted the old man with his political achievements, but Mr. Wang was also an old revolutionary. He smiled and said, "Have you thought about it a long time ago? Where is the script?"

Wei Ming then handed over the script respectfully: "I heard that Ms. Xia Meng has just established a film company, and it is financially strong. Why not cooperate with her."

This incident was also reported by domestic media. When the three left-wing parties began to decline, Xia Meng's Blue Bird was indeed a suitable choice.

Wang Yang said: "Let me take a look at the script first."

"You watch it first," Wei Ming said, "Can I watch the documentary about the Republic of China period that the Beijing Film Studio shot earlier?"

"Documentary?"

"Well, I'm writing a novel about the Anti-Japanese War. I'm too young to grasp the cultural landscape of that era, so I've been frantically searching for old documentaries to watch. I just finished watching the collection from Shanghai Film Studio."

The Shanghai Film Studio let Wei Ming see it, and Wang Yang, not wanting to be left behind, called the director of the copy warehouse and asked him to take Wei Ming to see it.

Wei Ming thanked him quickly and said that he would come back to talk about the movie after watching it.

As soon as Wei Ming left, Director Wang Yang called over a deputy director and the head of the literature department, Jiang Huaiyan, and they all discussed whether the film could be shot and whether co-production was appropriate.

Originally, he actually preferred to shoot it himself, but something happened recently that made him think that co-production might be more appropriate.

Years ago, Zhang Xunhua from Shanghai Film Studio fled to Beijing Film Studio with his literary script "The Mysterious Big Buddha".

Because the Shanghai Film Studio originally promised to let him be the director, but later changed its mind, so he approached the Beijing Film Studio, hoping that he could be the director of this entertaining martial arts film.

But unfortunately, "Heroes Have Always Been Young" came earlier, and the theme of "Since Ancient Times" is more correct.

In addition, the current environment does not allow the Beijing Film Studio to release two entertainment films at once. The indicators given by the state are fixed. If there are more entertainment films, the number of serious films with depth will have to decrease. Those old directors who want to explore art will have opinions.

So Beijing Film Studio recommended Zhang Xunhua and the script to Emei Film Studio. After all, it was about the story of Leshan, so there was nothing wrong with Emei Film Studio shooting it.

As a result, Emei Film Studio readily accepted Zhang Xunhua and his "The Mysterious Big Buddha", and the director even went to Beijing in person to pester and borrow Liu Xiaoqing, one of the three golden flowers of the Beijing Film Studio, and Ge Cunzhuang.

In this way, "The Mysterious Big Buddha" looks more and more like the real deal. Beijing Film Studio does not want its "Heroes Emerge From Young Ages" to lose to this abandoned project.

So either don’t shoot it, or shoot it well, and it must be better than “The Mysterious Big Buddha” and become a benchmark for this genre.

Wei Ming arrived in the morning and had a working lunch in the cafeteria of Beijing Film Studio with the help of the warehouse manager.

There were quite a few people in the cafeteria, including those behind the scenes, actors, and their families.

Hey, isn't that Cai Ming? So young!
That eldest sister seems to be Zhang Jinling, who plays Chen Peisi’s sister in “Look at This Family”.

Wow, this kid looks like Jiang Shan, she is only 13 years old now, but already looks like a little beauty. Wait, what she is holding in her hand is "Children's Literature", and it seems to be the March issue that was just published!

(End of this chapter)