Against the Current Hong Kong 1979

The living conditions in Zhao Zhenqiang's place were neither good nor bad.

This is a village with many self-built houses.

Zhao Zhenqiang bought a farmer's house in the village and moved in with his whole family after making some minor repairs.

The advantage of such houses is that they are detached and have a small yard. The disadvantage is that village houses inevitably have problems with dampness and mosquitoes.

"Brother Qiang, we've arrived!"

After parking his car, Fatty Wang leaned out of the window and shouted something inside.

A voice responded from inside: "Stop dawdling, come in quickly."

Wang Pangzi said to Du Qifeng and Zhang Shuai'an, "Let's go in."

Zhang Shuai'an got out of the car first, waited for Wang Pangzi for a while, and then followed him into the Zhao family's house.

Fatty Wang led the two directly to Zhao Zhenqiang's study. The space was not large, with three bookshelves nailed to the wall, a table in the middle, and various books and manuscripts piled up around it.

There were already three people in the room.

Sitting in the main seat was a young man with a square face, who was quite handsome; he was most likely Zhao Zhenqiang.

The other two were a simple-minded man and a slick-haired man; Zhang Shuai'an had no recollection of them and had no idea who they were.

"Brother Qiang, Brother Yu, Brother Liang!"

When Fatty Wang saw the three of them, he immediately greeted them one by one.

Du Qifeng was obviously familiar with them as well, and immediately greeted them: "Recruitment officer, Mr. Liu, Mr. Huo."

"Is this newcomer the genius the boss was talking about?" Zhao Zhenqiang turned to look at Zhang Shuai'an: "He really has a face that makes people jealous, so handsome it's devastating, how can anyone live without him?"

Fatty Wang pointed at Zhang Shuai'an and quickly introduced him: "Yes, this is Zhang Shuai'an. He's the author of the original novel for this project and the male lead handpicked by the boss."

"Truly, the younger generation is formidable!" The lovable-looking young man next to him muttered to himself, "I also wanted to write a novel, but I only managed to squeeze out eight words in three days, and then I gave up."

"This is Liu Shiyu, Brother Yu." Fatty Wang immediately introduced him to Zhang Shuai'an: "He was a student in the fourth class of TVB's acting training program in 75, and he was a classmate of Ah Feng. He served as the assistant director for the 76 TVB series 'The Book and the Sword'."

This person is still in the growth stage and will become one of the pillars of TVB's directors and editors in the future. His most famous works should be Zhang Weijian's version of "Journey to the West", "Tea is the hometown", and Chen Haoming's version of "Investiture of the Gods". After going north to the mainland, he produced the "source of all evil" "Anti-Japanese Heroes", which created the famous scene of "tearing apart Japanese devils with bare hands" that has been circulating on the Internet for many years. It can be said that he pioneered the anti-Japanese war drama.

Du Qifeng smiled faintly.

"This is Huo Yaoliang, Brother Liang." Fatty Wang pointed to the slightly greasy young man and said, "Brother Liang used to be an assistant director at RTV, and he only transferred to TVB last year. He participated in the filming of 'The Sword of the Three Young Masters' and 'Superstar' starring Wan Ziliang. He's a very capable screenwriter."

Huo Yaoliang smiled at Zhang Shuai'an: "No matter how talented you are, you can't write a novel that will catch Boss Shao's eye at first glance."

Zhang Shuai'an did have some impression of this director, because before his time travel, he had seen a movie called "Naked Weapon," which was directed by this person. Later, he searched on Baidu and found out that he also directed the TV series "Seven Swordsmen of Mount Tian," as well as the one with the famous line "Am I even human?", "Special Identity."

Zhang Shuai'an said modestly, "It was just luck. If Brother Jing hadn't handed the manuscript to Boss Shao, even if I were a genius, I wouldn't have had the chance to meet these people."

Hearing this, Fatty Wang felt extremely pleased and pointed to the square-faced man, saying, "That's Zhao Zhenqiang, Brother Qiang. Mr. Shao likes him very much."

"Hello, Brother Qiang." Zhang Shuai'an nodded.

"Hello to you too." Zhao Zhenqiang laughed and patted the table. "Sit down, everyone, and let's talk about how to film this drama. The boss has only given us a month, so we have to hurry."

Huo Yaoliang shrugged and said helplessly, "We haven't even seen the script yet, how are we supposed to prepare?"

Fatty Wang immediately distributed the manuscript in his arms to the three of them: "The script hasn't been written yet. This is a copy of the original novel manuscript. Take a look at it first."

Zhang Shuai'an then began to explain the general outline of the story, saying, "This story tells of how the young Bao Qingtian solved numerous strange cases, upheld justice, and became famous throughout the land. There are seven units in total, comprising forty episodes."

"Seven units, how come there are only forty episodes?" Liu Shiyu was stunned for a moment. Following TVB's usual practice, he thought for a moment: "It should be at least sixty episodes."

Zhang Shuai'an explained, "Each episode doesn't have a fixed plot; some are long, some are short. You'll see when you watch it."

After hearing his words, Zhao Zhenqiang immediately said, "Everyone, please read through this novel first, then let's brainstorm ideas and see if we can finish the script as soon as possible. We'll finalize the cast tomorrow and start filming the day after."

The others naturally had no objections; they were already used to this fast-paced work intensity at TVB.

Seeing that they were engrossed in reading the novel, Zhang Shuai'an said, "Then I'll first show you the main characters of this story, and the character relationship diagram for the first unit..."

"You're quite knowledgeable, kid," Huo Yaoliang said with a hint of surprise. "Looks like you can do more than just write novels."

Zhang Shuai'an said calmly, "When writing a novel, sometimes you need to write an outline, a detailed outline, and the relationships between the characters in advance."

"Is that so?" Huo Yaoliang replied casually, then continued reading his novel.

Zhao Zhenqiang read very quickly, finishing the first volume in no time. He slammed his hand on the table and exclaimed, "Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! This novel is full of twists and turns, suspense, and intricate plot points. After reading it, I really want to drink a lot of wine!"

Liu Shiyu noticed something: "It's really well written and very vivid. The pacing is perfect for making it into a TV series."

Zhang Shuai'an chimed in, "I originally thought that one day it could be adapted into a TV series, so I consciously wrote it in that direction. I was planning to wait for the novel to become popular before waiting for investors to buy it, but I didn't expect Boss Shao to take a liking to it right away."

Soon, everyone finished reading the second story, "The Blood Altar."

Du Qifeng loosened his collar and wiped his forehead. "This story is a bit scary. It gave me chills."

The third story, the mystery of the secluded village, especially the trickery of assembling "Gundams," left them all in awe.

Huo Yaoliang was also stunned, muttering, "Genius, truly a genius! This plot design is absolutely brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Anzai, from now on you are my god! Even the god of screenwriting can't compare to this."

"Brother Liang, you're too kind!" Zhang Shuai'an said modestly.

Next came the stories "Triumphant Performance Before the Palace" and "The Five Rats Make Trouble in the Prime Minister's Palace," which also thrilled them. Even a good screenwriter can't help but tremble when faced with a great story.

Zhao Zhenqiang finished reading first, somewhat wanting more, but also pointing out its shortcomings: "The story of this magic illusion is quite ordinary. And the main character didn't even appear, why is that?"

Zhang Shuai'an couldn't really say that the original character "Gongsun Ce" was too popular, so the screenwriter arranged a special highlight scene for him.

He could only make up a story on the spot: "It was purely during the writing process that I came to like the character Gongsun Ce. His intelligence is no less than Bao Zheng's, but he has never had a suitable opportunity to demonstrate it, so I wrote a section specifically for him."

"Oh." Zhao Zhenqiang didn't ask any further questions. That's how it is with writing; sometimes characters are beyond the author's control, which is quite common.