Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 126 New York is truly miserable
After all, they were old partners who had worked together before.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Zhang Yan and Feng Xiaogang quickly got to work.

The two first reached a consensus that the plot had to be drastically changed, that the male protagonist had to go through more hardships, and that their lingering marriage had to generate more and bigger conflicts.

First, there must be a third party, preferably a rival of the male protagonist on his path to success, who can be set up as the female protagonist's boss.

Even after the female protagonist cheats on her husband with a foreigner, she cannot be happy and fulfilled; she must encounter hardships and fall to the bottom.

Otherwise, if domestic female viewers saw that going abroad meant marrying a foreigner and living a happy life, wouldn't they flock to it?
This kind of value guidance is just not right.

Although this TV series is trying to capitalize on the popularity of studying abroad, it cannot have major problems with its values ​​and moral guidance, otherwise how can it pass censorship?
Up to this point, Zhang Yan and Feng Xiaogang's thinking was similar.

However, the two disagreed on how to arrange the male lead's subsequent romantic relationships.

According to Feng Xiaogang's idea, Ah Chun, the Chinese restaurant owner who serves as the male protagonist's mentor in the book, could have gotten together with the male protagonist later on and become an asset on his path to success.

This gives the female protagonist a reason to have an affair—the ardent pursuit of the white mistress is one aspect, and the husband's ambiguous relationship with other women is another.

The combination of these two factors ultimately led to the female protagonist having an affair with her white-skinned boss.

Zhang Yan's idea is that it's okay for the male protagonist to get together with someone, but there's no need to get married. Ideally, the male protagonist should only discover that Ah Chun actually has several lovers when he thinks he can be with her.

Ah Chun said that she had been hurt in a previous relationship with Bai Pi and had lost faith in marriage and love, but if the male protagonist was willing, he could also become one of her 'boyfriends'.

It also implied that female immigrants' physiological needs were easy to solve—yellow, white, black—there would always be someone who wanted them, but male immigrants usually couldn't reach white women and didn't like black women, so they could only look for yellow women.

Over generations, the situation of too many monks and too little porridge has become extremely serious. Having something to share is better than having nothing at all.

After all, this is America, a country that values ​​openness and freedom!

The male protagonist was greatly affected by this. While drinking alone, he was dragged home by the black woman next door and ended up having sex with her without even realizing it.

After regaining his senses, the male protagonist is unable to accept reality and lashes out at the black woman, only to have the woman's son point a gun at his forehead.

So much for that.

Zhang Yan made a gun gesture with his hand and asked fiercely, "Do you know who my father is?!"

Feng Xiaogang pretended to tremble and asked, "Who is it?"

"If I knew, would I need to ask you?!"

Zhang Yan continued viciously, "Now I'm giving you two choices: become my father, or I'll send you to hell!"

"屮~"

Feng Xiaogang couldn't hold back and complained, "I thought you wanted to have the black guy blackmail him, how come... can the audience accept this?"

Zhang Yan shrugged and said, "I'm only responsible for coming up with ideas. Whether you listen or not is up to you—Isn't America a melting pot of the world? If you go there, you'll definitely have to come into contact with all sorts of people."

The following plot could involve the gangster's black son helping the protagonist set up an "immigrant meat and blood factory," with the protagonist responsible for deceiving newly arrived Chinese immigrants, the black son overseeing the operation, and the black aunt in charge of the food.

Didn't that earn you your first pot of gold?

"you……"

Feng Xiaogang was increasingly speechless, but upon closer examination, he realized that the part about the male protagonist opening a factory in the book was definitely a embellished version. How could a new immigrant with nothing to his name possibly establish a textile factory in a foreign land without resorting to some underhanded means?

But Zhang Yan's dark story wasn't over yet: "Then, Black's son, who was involved in a gang, made money from the slave factory and got targeted, so the two sides started a shootout at the factory."

During the gunfight, the only person who genuinely cared for the protagonist, and whom he truly wanted to repay, was killed by a stray bullet.

As the male protagonist hugged his benefactor and wept bitterly, his black son pulled him up and said, "Welcome to the real America."

The black son's henchman was shouting "Free America, gunfights every day"—but as soon as he finished shouting, the henchman was shot in the head.

The black son cursed and swore as he shoved his underling's gun into the protagonist's hands, forcing him to charge out with him and shoot the son of a bitch on the other side.

The protagonist was so scared he wet his pants, but under the coercion of his black son, he still gritted his teeth and joined the gunfight, and even killed a Mexican.

This foreshadowed his later falling out with his black son over profit, ultimately leading him to personally kill the black son…

“Wait, wait!”

Feng Xiaogang finally couldn't take it anymore: "If you keep doing this, won't the male lead completely degenerate into a bad guy?"

Zhang Yan scoffed: "Anyway, it happens abroad. Wouldn't it be interesting to have a villain as the male lead? Tell me, is the dramatic conflict enough?"

"That won't do either. At most, it can only go up to the part where he's forced to become a father. Everything after that has to be changed!"

"That's fine."

Zhang Yan shrugged regretfully: "You're the director, you call the shots." So Feng Xiaogang continued down the "becoming a father" path, changing it to Ah Chun learning about the protagonist's plight, feeling somewhat ashamed, and thus sponsoring the protagonist with a sum of money.

The protagonist used the money to subdue the black son and took the opportunity to set up a family-run textile factory. After gradually growing and becoming stronger, he defeated the white man and won the order with the secret help of the female protagonist.

"correct."

As he deduced this, Feng Xiaogang suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "Just emotional setbacks aren't enough. We need to target another pain point for middle-aged men. We can write that his daughter can't stand him being with the black woman, and she can't accept having a black brother."

So, in a fit of pique, the daughter slept with her boyfriend's father, and then, when the male protagonist's business improved, she insisted on marrying the older white man.

[PS: The original version already had the plot where the daughter marries an older white man.]

"Sigh~"

Zhang Yan gasped, "Brother Feng, how dare you criticize me like this?"

The two continued their discussion and both felt that the plot point of the only good person being killed could be kept.

The final version was changed to when the male protagonist got along well with the Black woman and her Black son and began to accept the family.

One night, the Black son, after drinking, beat up a Chinese worker in the factory for no reason. The only kind-hearted person who had been invited to be the deputy manager intervened and was shot and killed by the drunken Black son.

The black son was imprisoned as a result, and the protagonist's 'new home' fell apart.

Meanwhile, because the female protagonist secretly leaked information, her ex-husband's factory defeated her white husband's factory, causing the white husband to become depressed and addicted to drugs.

The female protagonist tried to dissuade them but was beaten and almost sold into prostitution.

The two eventually met by chance at the grave of the only virtuous man, and looked at each other blankly.

…………

Zhang Yan and Feng Xiaogang quickly pieced together the general outline of the story—although the main focus was on adding hardships to the male and female protagonists, changing "Beijingers in New York" to "The Real Tragedy of New York."

After reviewing the general outline, Zhang Yan added some minor details.

For example, the idea that the protagonist wins over Ah Chun purely through hard work and diligence feels a bit far-fetched—especially after adding the promiscuous aspect to her character.

"so."

Zhang Yan picked up a pair of chopsticks and asked Xu Fan and Wu Yujuan, "Does anyone have a handkerchief or scarf?"

"I have!"

"I brought it!"

Xu Fan and Wu Yujuan handed over handkerchiefs at the same time.

Zhang Yan took Wu Yujuan's chopsticks, then arranged the two chopsticks in a straight line and rolled up the middle with a handkerchief: "Let's set up a little plot. Ah Chun fired a kitchen helper, and that helper held a grudge and stole all the knives and forks."

When the Chinese restaurant was discovered, several tables of customers had already been served. When the white and black people saw that the Chinese had already started eating, but they hadn't received their knives and forks, they started making a fuss.

Ah Chun, besides urging the kitchen to buy new chopsticks quickly, was at a loss for what to do. At this moment, the male protagonist, Wang Ming, stepped forward and announced to the foreign guests that today was a chopsticks experience day, the purpose of which was to let everyone experience the joy of using chopsticks.

As he spoke, he folded the wrapped chopsticks in half again. Because the handkerchief was attached to the ends, the two chopsticks formed a simple pair of tweezers.

Zhang Yanchong and the other two demonstrated, then laughed and said, "Even if white people can't use chopsticks, they can at least use tweezers, right?"

"This is good, this is good!"

Feng Xiaogang exclaimed in admiration: "This perfectly showcases Wang Ming's intelligence—it would be best to arrange this at the end of the second episode, letting him be bullied first, then helped, and finally seize the opportunity to turn the tide and gain the favor of the boss's wife, Ah Chun!"

Xu Fan and Wu Yujuan were also full of admiration.

This was the first time they had ever witnessed such a fast-paced exchange of ideas, and they were deeply impressed, gaining a completely new understanding of the screenwriting profession.

However, the two had different ideas.

Xu Fan just felt that both of them were very talented, but if she could choose, she would still prefer to stand on Zhang Yan's side.

Seeing Zhang Yan take Wu Yujuan's handkerchief but ignore his own, he knew he had no chance.

But she was really unwilling to side with Feng Xiaogang—after all, Zhang Yan was better in every way, and far superior in appearance.

Wu Yujuan's idea was that although the two of them deduced a more sensory-stimulating storyline, it completely changed the original meaning of the work.

Indeed, to carry out one's own ideas, one must have a say in the production crew.

(End of this chapter)