This is what Lin Chaoyang is concerned about. Although Baige Wu only has three skills, he is very good-looking. He is indeed better than Xu Ke when shooting this kind of subject.

"This hasn't been determined yet..."

Tsui Hark put his hand on the script and told Lin Chaoyang about the earliest origin of his idea to make an adaptation of "A Better Tomorrow". It turned out that the idea for this movie came from chatting with John Woo while on a business trip to Bay Island last year.

He and John Woo met at a filmmaker's party in 1979. At that time, John Woo was already a well-known new director in the Hong Kong film industry.

But Tsui Hark is still unknown and has just filmed a martial arts TV series "The Lover of the Golden Sword" on Jiayi TV.

John Woo had watched "The Golden Sword" and was particularly impressed by a scene in the TV series. A knight, after striking a sword, threw the sword onto the snow. The bright red blood on the sword's edge was thrown onto the white snow.

When he learned that Tsui Hark was the director, he immediately fell in love with him, and the two formed a friendship.

In 1980, New Arts City was established. Mai Jia, one of the founders, roped in John Woo to make films. However, by that time, Woo was already tied to Golden Harvest and it was difficult to escape, so he recommended his friend Tsui Hark to go to New Arts City.

Tsui Hark's departure was like a dragon entering the sea. In just a few years, he became a hot young director in the Hong Kong film industry.

On the other hand, John Woo, who originally recommended him to New Art City, was tired of Golden Harvest always asking him to make comedies, so he went to tinker with gun fight films. He made two gun fight films in a row, which were a box office hit.

While filming his second gunfight film "Tenderness", another accident occurred on the set, resulting in an actor being shot in the thigh.

After this work, Golden Harvest officially terminated its contract with John Woo.

At this time, Tsui Hark brought John Woo to New Arts City, but because of the failure of the first two movies, New Arts City did not dare to reuse John Woo, but sent him to Wandao to work as a supervisor in a branch company.

"The character Xiao Ma in your script reminds me of Asen. The temperament of this script is very consistent with his experiences in recent years.

If you take a picture of him, you might create unexpected sparks."

After Tsui Hark finished speaking about his thoughts, he said to Lin Chaoyang: "These are still my own thoughts at the moment. Asen will return to Hong Kong next month. I will discuss it with him then. He has no filming now, so I will definitely agree.

, mainly because Xinyi City is a bit difficult to deal with."

Lin Chaoyang nodded, understanding what he meant.

Behind the film studio are Boss Lei and New Art City. Boss Lei doesn’t care about specific matters, so New Art City has a great influence on the film studio.

John Woo now has a reputation as a "box office poison", which has been declining for several years. There is no shortage of directors in New Art City, so it is difficult for them to take risks and hire such a bad director as John Woo.

"It all depends on people. I believe in your vision." Lin Chaoyang said this.

He didn't have a good impression of Wu Baige. This guy was very close to Wandao Film Capital, and he often suppressed mainland actors during the filming of "Red Cliff".

But he also understands that Wu Baige is indeed an awesome director. The most important thing is that he can help make money, and he can't ruin things because of others.

His words made Tsui Hark excited again. Feeling his deep trust, Tsui Hark drank a glass of wine with him and almost shouted "good brothers forever"!

Early the next morning, Tao Yushu went to the film studio on behalf of Lin Chaoyang to initial an agreement, and the script matter was temporarily over.

Time flew by and it was mid-September, and two letters came to my home in succession, both of which were concerned about Tao Yushu's belly.

She is now more than eight months pregnant, and the months are getting older and older. During this time in Xiangjiang, Tao Yushu's pregnancy check-ups have not been delayed, and the child's development indicators are all normal, but the elderly are still inevitably worried.

The couple discussed it and planned to return to Yanjing before National Day.

That night, the two called Tao Yumo to the living room, told them their arrangements, and asked Tao Yumo what he thought.

"Do you want to stay in Xiangjiang or go back to Yanjing?"

Tao Yumo's eyes flashed with joy when she heard this, and her wandering thoughts were undoubtedly revealed, but she was now more wealthy than before.

Pretending to be calm, he said: "What's the point of being alone in Xiangjiang? I'll go back to Yanjing with you."

Tao Yushu immediately said: "You can actually stay in Xiangjiang. You also need someone to take care of you here."

"Ah? Then when can I go home?"

Tao Yumo's acting is difficult, and her acting skills are on par with Sister Ka's.

Tao Yushu dismissed her whims with just one sentence, "No one will give you pocket money when you go home!"

"Sister, brother-in-law, the company here in Xiangjiang still has so many things to do, and it really cannot do without people. I will stay here during this period."

Tao Yumo immediately expressed his stance, like a soldier who was ready to go to the battlefield at any time.

Tao Yushu was very satisfied with her attitude and said: "Okay. It's settled then. You will take care of the company's affairs in Xiangjiang during this period."

Seeing what she said, Comrade Yumo couldn't help but protest against this bureaucracy and formalism, muttering: "You have already decided, why do you ask me?"

Lin Chaoyang warned again: "I'll have time to learn a driver's license later."

"Study again?"

Before, Lin Chaoyang asked her to familiarize herself with the laws of Hong Kong, and now he asked her to learn to drive. Tao Yumo felt a lot of pressure.

It’s really hard to get this little pocket money!

"What are you afraid of if I reimburse you? Others will ask for this opportunity."

"All right."

Tao Yumo thought for a while, once Lin Chaoyang and his wife left, Xiao Dongzi would definitely leave too. Then there would be no one in the mountain... Bah, bah, bah, she was the one in charge. She had plenty of time, so there was no need to learn how to drive.

After talking about these business matters, Tao Yushu couldn't help but tell Tao Yumo a few words, just to pay attention to safety when going out, don't go to dangerous places, and don't make shady friends.

Tao Yumo asked: "Is Maggie Cheung considered unreasonable? She wanted to ask me to go shopping two days ago!"

Tao Yushu's face was serious, "Ignore her. If you have time to go shopping, why not think about how to act."

Her tone sounded like a teacher asking the top student to isolate the bad students in the class.

Lin Chaoyang watched on the sidelines, thinking that at least they treated you as their close sister when they were on the set. This is so unreasonable of you!

The next day, Lin Chaoyang and his wife went out together to buy gifts for their family.

While shopping in Cityplaza, Tao Yushu saw the bookstore on the first floor and said, "I only remembered when I saw the bookstore that "The Truman Show" was released in Hong Kong, right?"

"Counting the time, I should be on my way." Lin Chaoyang said.

The publication of "The Truman Show" in Hong Kong is far less popular than in the mainland. Pure literature has never been mainstream in the cultural atmosphere of Hong Kong.

Before publication, Ming Pao Publishing House placed advertisements in its own newspapers and some literary magazines, but the audience for these advertisements was mainly limited to literary readers.

As for the book signing that Dong Qiao mentioned before, Ming Pao Publishing House has a different idea from Huacheng Publishing House. They plan to wait until there is some buzz and response after the novel is released for a few days before holding it.

The couple walked into the bookstore while talking. The bookstore in Cityplaza is very stylish and sells original English books. This is certainly not because Taikoo is a heroic developer.

It's because the customer base of Cityplaza is mostly middle class, and these people have always been proud of reading English books.

However, this does not mean that there are no Chinese books in the bookstore. Lin Chaoyang and the others searched the bookstore and found that "The Truman Show" was placed on the bookshelf dedicated to new books.

"It seems like the sales are pretty good," Tao Yushu said happily.

It looks like there should have been several copies of "The Truman Show" placed there, but now only one is left there.

As she spoke, she took down the remaining book and flipped through it.

The vertical version, traditional Chinese characters, fonts and page turning are from right to left, which is definitely a "retrograde" reading experience for mainland readers.

But Tao Yushu didn't care. She happily read the book for a while, and then asked the bookstore salesperson, "Are there any more copies of "The Truman Show"?"

"Wait a minute ma'am, we need to check the inventory."

The two waited for a short while, and the salesperson came with a trolley to hand over the book, which made Lin Chaoyang feel familiar. He had been doing this job for several years.

"Just buy two books. It's troublesome to carry the books through customs and they're so heavy." Lin Chaoyang persuaded Tao Yushu when he saw that Tao Yushu was making a big purchase.

In the end, Tao Yushu only took three copies, "We will keep one for ourselves and the remaining two can be used to give to friends."

The two of them were talking and paying the bill. Tao Yushu chuckled when he saw that another reader who entered the store picked up the "The Truman Show" that had just been restocked.

"I don't know how much this book can sell in Xiangjiang." Tao Yushu said to Lin Chaoyang after walking out of the bookstore.

"It doesn't matter how much he sells it, the money is collected anyway." Lin Chaoyang said easily.

"The Truman Show" was published in Hong Kong, with an initial printing of 15,000 copies. Ming Pao Publishing House has paid a royalties of HK$150,000 in advance.

This number is certainly not large compared to the domestic royalty base, but after all, Xiangjiang is only a small place.

And if it sells well, there will still be a lot of royalties in the future.

Lin Chaoyang has successively received royalties from the publication of several previous books. Now the couple's bank account in Hong Kong has more than 1.5 million Hong Kong dollars.

A few days later, the Wan Chai branch of Hong Kong Joint Publishing Bookstore was very busy from early morning, with many enthusiastic readers gathered inside and outside the bookstore.

Today is the day of Lin Chaoyang's new book signing event. These readers are all here for the signing event.

The first time Lin Chaoyang's works came to Hong Kong was four years ago. It was completely by chance that "The Death of Van Gogh" was brought here by the Chinese University of Hong Kong Press.

From being unknown at the beginning, he later opened up the market through word of mouth. In addition, in the past two years, Lin Chaoyang has become more and more famous in Hong Kong due to the Academy Awards and various news.

"The Death of Van Gogh", "Enter Guandong", and "The Master of Chess", these works have gradually become best-sellers. The sales of these novels in Hong Kong are worthy of pride in Hong Kong's literary circles.

Leaving aside the increase in fame, if we just talk about the popularity of the work, the publication of "Enter Guandong" in Xiangjiang must be regarded as a watershed.

Before "Into Guandong", Lin Chaoyang had gained some fame in the cultural circles of Hong Kong with "The Death of Van Gogh", and because he won the Academy Award, he was in the newspapers for a few days, so he did gain some fame in Hong Kong.

But this kind of popularity was actually mixed with some entertainment attributes and was not pure. At that time, some people in the cultural circles in Hong Kong believed that Lin Chaoyang's speeches to reporters were more like sensationalism and they did not think highly of him.

After "Crossing Guandong" was published in Xiangjiang, Lin Chaoyang's reputation in the cultural circles of Xiangjiang increased rapidly.

The reason is also very simple, it is that the novel is written so well that one cannot help but admire it.

In the past year or so, almost all newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong that have anything to do with literature have published reviews or promotional articles about "Crossing the Guandong", with rave reviews and praise. Otherwise, "Flower City" would not be the same.
To be continued...