Against the Current Hong Kong 1979

Zhang Shuai'an went back and had a good night's sleep.

However, his biological clock kept him awake at six o'clock.

As soon as I woke up, I heard snoring.

Zhang Shuai'an turned his head and saw He Jiatong lying on another bed, sleeping soundly in an extremely unsightly position.

I wonder if he did anything fancy when he went to the nightclub last night.

After washing up, Zhang Shuai'an had nothing else to do, so he thought he would go for a run.

After we finish the run, I'll discuss future plans with He Jiatong.

He had just come downstairs when Aunt Wang called out to him, "Hey, Anzai, don't go yet."

"Mrs. Wang, what's the matter?" Zhang Shuai'an stopped and waited for Wang Qing to come running over.

Aunt Wang, the dormitory supervisor, said breathlessly, "Recently, quite a few letters addressed to you have been sent to me. Please pick them up when you have time."

"My letter?" Zhang Shuai'an was taken aback. Who would write to him from the outskirts of Hong Kong?

Seeing Zhang Shuai'an's expression, Aunt Wang couldn't help but explain, "Most of them are love letters from fans, some are interview requests from newspapers and magazines, and the rest are from GG Company..."

They couldn't be contacted; they were all stuck at TVB. Every few days, TVB would send these letters to me. I didn't want to bother you while you were filming, but now you can pick them up sometime.

"Okay, thank you, Mrs. Wang." Zhang Shuai'an said, "I'll go run a couple of laps first, then I'll come back to get it."

It has to be said that Shaw Brothers Studio is indeed quite large. He ran a few laps to stretch his body.

On the way, he saw that many film crews had already started work, including Wang Tianlin and Zheng Shaoqiu. Without a doubt, they were filming "The Legend of Chu Liuxiang".

Zhang Shuai'an looked around for a while, then saw Zhao Yazhi.

Zhao Yazhi also noticed his gaze, but after meeting his eyes for a moment, her face flushed slightly, and she turned away.

If he remembers correctly, Zhao Yazi played Su Rongrong, Chu Liuxiang's lover, making her the female lead.

However, he vaguely remembered that this version of Su Rongrong seemed to have been changed too much, and it had caused some controversy.

This version of "Chu Liuxiang" is indeed a classic. It seems that in order to compete with TVB, RTV also rushed to film a version of "Chu Liuxiang" at the same time, called "The Romantic Swordsman", with RTV's leading man, Poon Chi-man, as the male lead.

However, in terms of both popularity and viewership, Pan Zhiwen's version of "The Romantic Swordsman" is far inferior to Zheng Shaoqiu's version of "Chu Liuxiang".

Furthermore, "The Romantic Thief" did not obtain authorization from Gu Long, so the characters' names were all changed during filming. Chu Liuxiang was called "The Thief King" throughout the entire story, Hu Tiehua was renamed Gu Tiehua, Wuhua was renamed Wuchen, Li Hongxiu was renamed Ye Xiaoxian, Su Rongrong was renamed Du Hongjuan, and so on.

Zhang Shuai'an originally wanted to go over and say hello, but seeing Zhao Yazhi avoid his gaze, he knew that she didn't want to meet him again so soon.

He turned and went to the restaurant, where he got two breakfasts.

I went to Building 2 again and got a sack of letters from Aunt Wang, the dormitory manager.

"So many?" Zhang Shuai'an was somewhat surprised.

Aunt Wang chuckled and said, "That's because you're so popular. When the show first started airing, we only received two or three letters a day. But when it was halfway through, the letters started pouring in like snowflakes. I bet there will be even more letters after the show ends."

"Thank you, Mrs. Wang. I'll treat you to a meal sometime."

Zhang Shuai'an made a casual, polite remark, then carried the sack of letters upstairs.

After walking a few steps, Aunt Wang hesitated and reminded him, "Anzai, although I'd like you to stay a few more days, the rule here at Shaw Brothers is that people who aren't working can only stay in the temporary dormitory for a maximum of three more days. Even if you become famous, that's the arrangement. Unless you get a note from Manager Fang, then you can stay here indefinitely."

"No need, we'll move out tomorrow."

Zhang Shuai'an knew that Boss Shao was a stingy person; regardless of whether you were famous or not, everything was done according to the rules.

Back in his room, he casually tossed a sack of letters onto the floor.

"Bang!"

A soft sound startled He Jiatong awake: "What happened?"

Zhang Shuai'an said, "It's nothing. I'll wash up and get ready for breakfast."

He Jiatong yawned and shook her head: "I'm so sleepy, I'll skip breakfast and sleep a little longer."

"Did you have a blast at the nightclub with Fatty Wang and the others last night?"

Zhang Shuai'an asked with a smile.

"No, no." He Jiatong immediately sat up and shook her head in denial.

Zhang Shuai'an rolled his eyes: "I'm not your father. I don't care what you ask about your private life. What are you afraid of?"

"Hehehehe." He Jiatong chuckled twice, then said, "Brother An, weren't you afraid that you'd be disloyal and wouldn't take me along?"

As he spoke, he seemed to remember something and asked softly, "Brother An, what about you? Did anything happen last night?"

"What do you think will happen?" Zhang Shuai'an looked up at him.

He Jiatong immediately knew that Zhang Shuai'an didn't want to talk about this topic, so she didn't press him. Instead, she looked at the sack and asked, "What's in this?"

"Some of the letters were said to be from fans."

Zhang Shuai'an ate his breakfast slowly and deliberately. "There are still some invitations from GG merchants. Later, could you help me pick out the ones from the GG merchants? Don't worry about the other emails."

"Okay." He Jiatong was no longer sleepy. Too lazy to wash up, she picked up her chopsticks and started eating rice noodle rolls.

The two finished eating quickly, then emptied the contents of the sack onto the ground and began to inspect each item one by one.

Private letters are almost instantly recognizable; they almost always have cute designs drawn on the envelopes, trying to attract the attention of their idols.

In fact, Zhang Shuai'an didn't have time to tell whether the letter writer was male or female; he would just glance at them and throw them on the bed.

He Jiatong's method was even simpler; he only focused on the letters with special addresses and skipped the rest.

A dozen minutes later, He Jiatong felt her back was a little numb and handed the selected envelopes to Zhang Shuai'an: "I've finished picking them out. There are seven envelopes from GG Merchants and more than a dozen from various banks."

Zhang Shuai'an also picked out five or six letters himself, and he opened them one by one to read them.

He opened two or three of the bank letters and figured out what was going on—they were all trying to get him to apply for a credit card. He threw them all in the trash.

GG, the business owner, took a closer look and found that the offerings were also quite diverse. There were traditional businesses selling shampoo and shower gel, as well as businesses selling beverages and health products... The most outrageous ones were two pig slaughterhouses that wanted him to help with advertising, claiming that eating their pigs would make you as smart as Bao Zheng (a famous Chinese judge known for his wisdom and integrity).

"These are the only three that are worthwhile."

Zhang Shuai'an held up the three letters in his hand and handed them to He Jiatong, saying, "Keep these for now. We'll contact them once we've rented a place."

"Brother An, it's good to be famous! You've already got guys coming to your door so quickly." He Jiatong took the package and saw that one company was a facial cleanser vendor, another was a beverage vendor, and the third was an insecticide vendor.

"These guys are all small fry," Zhang Shuai'an said calmly, quite soberly. "The real big shots are the TV guys. We need a fixed address and a landline so that people can contact us."

"A fixed address?" He Jiatong asked doubtfully, "Can't we use my aunt's address?"

Zhang Shuai'an turned to look at him: "We're already out here earning money, do we still need to trouble our aunt?"

"That's true." He Jiatong nodded. "Then what should we do?"

Zhang Shuai'an said, "After breakfast, we'll tidy up and then go out to rent a place."

"Isn't the money enough?" He Jiatong said hesitantly. "I've done some minor roles lately, but I've only earned less than a thousand yuan. And you're filming this for free..."

Zhang Shuai'an pointed to the three letters: "So I picked these three guys first. They can all go offline, take some promotional photos, and get paid. I also need to go to Ming Pao today to settle the remaining royalties for the novel. All of these should be enough to rent a decent place."

He Jiatong clapped her hands excitedly: "Brother An, you're really good! It's all thanks to you that we've managed to lead them so well."

Zhang Shuai'an said, "Don't be so happy yet. You'll have to help me with these trivial matters from now on. I'll just focus on filming."

He Jiatong nodded. "I know. I've already been learning from Brother Jian and Brother Jing."

"Knock, knock, knock—"

Just then, there was a knock on the door.