Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 52 Versailles

As they were chatting, Wang Shuo arrived.

He was accompanied by two people: one was Ma Weidu, whom he had met before, and the other was a middle-aged man he didn't recognize. The man's features resembled Wang Shuo's, so it was hard to tell if they were relatives or just a coincidence.

Upon arriving at the restaurant entrance, Wang Shuo did not join the others but instead headed straight for Li Chengru's Mercedes-Benz.

When he got to the car, he rubbed the sole of his shoe against the bumper before swaying as he stepped onto the stairs. He said to Li Chengru, "Seeing you wicked capitalists makes my feet itch."

At the peak of his life, Li Chengru wasn't going to let him get away with it. He chuckled and said, "This isn't enough, is it? How about you step on the gas again when I do?"

Wang Shuo glanced at him and said, "That won't do, I'm afraid I'll step on your water tank and cause it to leak."

Seeing the two bickering as soon as they arrived, Shi Tiesheng stepped in to interrupt, saying, "Is everyone here? If everyone is here, let's not just stand here. Let's take our seats and order our food."

As he spoke, he released the handbrake and gestured for Zhang Yan to push him inside.

Wang Shuo, Li Chengru, and others also hurriedly followed behind.

Wang Shuo glanced at Zhang Yan pushing the stroller and asked jokingly, knowing the answer already, "What's wrong, Tie Sheng? You've finally decided to spend money to hire a caregiver?"

Remembering Shi Tiesheng's earlier instructions, Zhang Yan immediately rolled up his sleeves and glared at him.

Wang Shuo thought he was really angry, so he subconsciously took a half step back and was on guard.

Zhang Yan then showed off the muscles in his arms and said in a serious tone, "I'm actually a bodyguard hired by Teacher Tie Sheng—look at these muscles, I've been training them since I was a kid."

Upon seeing this, Li Chengru burst into laughter, and the others behind him also couldn't help but chuckle.

"屮~"

Wang Shuo cursed, then laughed at himself, shaking his head and saying, "Putting on bulk is useless. Did you see the stance I took just now? It was genuine military boxing. Let me tell you, back in the army..."

"Master Shuo~"

Then Li Chengru interrupted, "Let's not talk about your old man's affairs. Can we talk about things after the founding of the People's Republic of China?"

In fact, Wang Shuo had also served in the army, but he was a medic. What Li Chengru meant was: Your father is the only one in your family who has actually served in the army.

Wang Shuo immediately retorted: "After the founding of the People's Republic of China, they started confiscating land from landlords and distributing it to farmers. I'm afraid you won't be able to sleep if you hear too much about it!"

Amidst laughter and chatter, the group bustled into the private room.

Wang Shuo took the seat of honor without hesitation, with Shi Tiesheng to his left and Zhang Yan to his right. Opposite them were Li Chengru and Ma Weidu.

Further down the list are the people I don't recognize, as well as Hou Yaohua, Feng Xiaogang, Ge You, and others.

Before "Stories from the Editorial Department" officially aired, Ge You was an unknown actor, and Feng Xiaogang was just a crossover art designer.

Although Zhang Yan is young and writes popular novels, he is still a bestselling author with 200,000 copies sold, so he is not the best, but not the worst, at this table.

After taking their seats, Wang Shuo said to Zhang Yan, "I won't introduce myself. This guy with the small eyes is Ma Weidu. He used to be an editor, and now he's a screenwriter. He even worked as a 'little boss' for a while..."

"Cut this part out and don't broadcast it!"

Ma Wei quickly interrupted him, and said to Zhang Yan with a smile, "I've read your article 'Little Mischief's Dreamy Internet Adventure,' it's quite interesting."

"It's quite interesting."

Feng Xiaogang, who sat at the end of the table opposite him, nodded in agreement—he had read the book before coming, so it left a deep impression on him.

At this moment, Wang Shuo pointed to the unfamiliar person and introduced, "That's Zhu Xiaoping from Beijing Film Studio. He's also a screenwriter and is currently working for CCTV."

Ma Wei quickly added, "Old Zhu is going to be a screenwriter for 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms,' a job that not just anyone can do!"

These words made Zhang Yan deeply respect Zhu Xiaoping. Although it was an adaptation rather than an original work, anyone who could write screenplays for the Four Great Classical Novels these days was definitely not someone to be trifled with.

"Teacher Zhu."

Unable to contain his curiosity, Zhang Yan pressed on, "When will the filming of 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' be finished?"

"Hard to say."

Zhu Xiaoping shook his head and said, "This is CCTV's biggest project to date. If everything goes smoothly, it should be completed in two or three years. If not, it might take four or five years to finish filming."

Zhang Yan was not surprised by this.

Both "Journey to the West" and "Dream of the Red Chamber" took several years to film, so "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," with its even larger investment, will certainly be a slow and meticulous production.

Who will play Guan Yu?

Li Chengru followed up with further questions.

"The tentative choice is Lu Shuming from the Xi'an Drama Theatre."

"And what about Cao Cao?"

"Yes……"

Seeing that the conversation had veered all the way to the Three Kingdoms, Wang Shuo tapped his fingers on the table and shouted, "Brothers, brothers, can we talk about serious matters first?!" Then he looked at Zhang Yan and said, "I heard you wrote a book that has stunned everyone in Tianjin. What's the story behind it? Tell us about it."

Now everyone looked at Zhang Yan.

Apart from Shi Tiesheng, everyone present had a connection to "Stories from the Editorial Department." Wang Shuo, Ma Weidu, Zhu Xiaoping, and Feng Xiaogang were the screenwriters of the show, while Li Chengru, Hou Yaohua, and Ge You were the actors.

So when they heard that Tianjin was going to pit Zhang Yan's "Tianjin Wei" against "Stories from the Editorial Department," they were both indignant and curious.

"It's just a crime drama."

Zhang Yan didn't mention the "unconventional approach," but instead said, seemingly modestly but actually boastfully, "It's actually the same formula as the novel that sold 200,000 copies in two months; there's nothing new about it."

Versailles' words silenced the private room for three seconds, then Ma Wei slammed his hand on the table and laughed loudly, "Brother Shuo, what's this? You've met your match this time, haven't you?"

"屮~"

Wang Shuo shook his head speechlessly: "This guy can brag even more than I did when I was young."

Zhu Xiaoping also burst into laughter.

Only Feng Xiaogang remained undeterred and continued to probe, "An excellent plot alone shouldn't be enough, right? There must be other tricks up your sleeve!"

"It's not exactly a secret weapon."

Zhang Yan smiled and said, "The main purpose is to offer suggestions for the future development of the TV station and Tianjin."

"Is it related to the internet?"

Upon hearing "future development" and "suggestions and advice," Feng Xiaogang clearly misunderstood something, frowning and saying, "Can anything you wrote really be realized? That's too..."

"What internet?"

Most of the people at the table were puzzled. Apart from Shi Tiesheng, only Ma Weidu and Feng Xiaogang had read that children's science fiction story.

So the two of them took turns describing the novel's plot briefly, with Feng Xiaogang highlighting two aspects that everyone was most interested in: watching TV series and reading novels online.

“I can understand reading novels.”

Li Chengru frowned and said, "If movies and TV series are all put on this website, what's the point of having television in the future?"

Wang Shuo also asked in confusion, "What about the movie theaters? Are they all going to close down?"

"What about the TV station? What's the TV station doing there?"

Faced with a barrage of questions from the crowd, Zhang Yan remained completely calm. After all, he was working backward from the result to deduce the process, which significantly reduced the difficulty of the task.

He cleared his throat and explained as simply as possible: "Two years ago, the United States invented a technology that allows people to send messages to each other via the internet—just like telegrams and signal broadcasts, but it can send more information and has a broader prospect."

And computers are clearly geared towards miniaturization and personalization; they will only become smaller and easier to use in the future.

At this point, he put his two index fingers together: "When these two are combined, one day people will be able to easily and simply pass on movies and TV shows to others through the Internet."

I estimate that by then, online piracy will overwhelm real-world piracy, because it will be more convenient to watch pirated content online.

Since there's no need to compress videotapes, all you need to do is broadcast the signal; the cost of distribution is very low—once a lot of people watch, you can easily make money by running a few ads.

If even pirated versions can't compete with the originals, then there's no need to say anything about legitimate versions.

Moreover, television stations only broadcast content unilaterally, while the internet allows people to watch whatever they want.

If it were you, what would you choose?

After hearing Zhang Yan's words, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.

Finally, Zhu Xiaoping spoke first: "Young people are the ones who dare to think and speak."

Wang Shuo sneered, "Regardless of whether it's true or not, this boast is certainly fresh and unique."

Ma Weidu also laughed and said, "That's why I said his novel is quite interesting."

Apart from Shi Tiesheng, who had a deep conversation with Zhang Yan, most people thought this was just Zhang Yan's fantasy. After all, even the Americans were just starting out, so who could say what the future held?
Anyway, making movies and TV series now is all about losing money to gain publicity. Even if piracy becomes rampant on the internet in the future, it will be about the same as it is now, so it doesn't seem to have much of an impact.

So everyone just listened to it as a story, at most thinking that Zhang Yan's thinking was unique.

…………

Overall, the meal was a lively and enjoyable one.

However, when the group broke up, only Ma Weidu, Feng Xiaogang, and Ge You exchanged contact information with Zhang Yan.

Ge You's connection to Ge You was due to their shared hometown.

To put it bluntly, what Wang Shuo and the others were really curious about was why Tianjin dared to challenge them; they weren't that interested in Zhang Yan himself.

When they discovered that Zhang Yan remained tight-lipped, unwilling to reveal his underhanded tactics or readily submit to their pleas, their interest in him waned even further.

(End of this chapter)