Chapter 9 A Troublesome Era

  A month later, Wang Wei's life returned to its usual calmness. The only difference was that there was an additional "nuisance" Lin Fengjiao by his side.

  "Ah, finally finished." Wang Wei stretched his waist. He looked at Lin Fengjiao who was washing clothes for him outside the house. The corner of Wang Wei's mouth slightly curled up, this superstar of the future who couldn't even imagine himself in such a role was now playing the part of his personal wife. Since that family meeting, Lin Fengjiao had been exempted from labor and was specially taking care of the only genius and mastermind between their two families.

  Looking at Lin Fengjiao's slender figure, Wang Wei's mind gradually fell into the time of memories. Today is April 10th, 1970. After a few months, patriots will go to Diaoyu Island to declare sovereignty, and then enter the tumultuous year of 1971. At the beginning of this year, the United States planned to illegally "hand over" Diaoyu Island to Japan, which stimulated Taiwanese students in the US, leading to strong opposition and demonstrations.

  On January 29 and 30, Chinese students, scholars, and overseas Chinese in the United States held demonstrations in front of the United Nations Headquarters, Japanese consulates in New York and Chicago, and the Japanese Embassy in Washington D.C., protesting against the U.S. and Japan's infringement on China's territorial sovereignty.

  Their parades and protests were strategic - such as writing "The Fishing Island War Song", rewriting the "Man Jiang Hong" "The shame of 1895 has not been avenged, when will it be eliminated? Drive a long chariot, trample on Mount Fuji's weakness"; also, no flags were carried during the parade, neither the Blue Sky White Sun flag nor the Five-star Red Flag, to avoid internal strife; as well as publishing advertisements in The New York Times, collecting signatures from numerous famous scholars, and writing an open letter to Chiang Kai-shek in the newspaper; etc. - thus causing a strong sensation in both the US and Japan, as well as on the mainland and Taiwan.

  At that time, Wang Wei was relatively supportive of the parades of these civilizations. As a patriotic young man of later generations, Wang Wei deeply felt the harm brought by those violent parades. Wherever the team passed, cars were smashed and fires were set. Things were damaged everywhere, it was simply a riot. Using the parade to vent one's private grievances.

  Under the influence of the "Protect Diaoyutai Movement" overseas, in April, Taiwan also started to make a big fuss. Young students on the island also took action. For a time, slogans such as "How much did you sell Diaoyutai for?" and "Don't buy Japanese or American goods" filled the campuses of universities across Taiwan.

  On June 11, the "Ministry of Foreign Affairs" of Taiwan issued a statement in accordance with Chiang's will: "The Diaoyu Islands are affiliated with Taiwan Province and constitute part of the Republic of China... The government and people of the Republic of China have the sacred duty to defend their national territory and will never abandon an inch of their territorial sovereignty under any circumstances."

  But just six days later, the United States signed the "Return of Okinawa Agreement", returning to Japan the islands that had been entrusted to the United States under Article 3 of the Treaty of San Francisco, and administrative rights over the Senkaku Islands were also returned to Japan.

  It got more and more intense until 1973 when the Taiwanese government started arresting people, which led to the NTU Philosophy Department Incident, after which it gradually subsided.

  Thinking of this, Wang Wei let out a sigh in his heart, not knowing what role he would play in these thrilling events. Alas, his current strength was still too weak. When the time came, he could only do his best.

  Also in October of this year, Taiwan withdrew from the United Nations and the People's Republic of China joined the United Nations.

  And so, the Taiwanese authorities began to use film as a weapon, on the one hand beautifying Chiang Kai-shek and on the other using scar literature to smear the mainland. Adopting a public-private partnership model, it was jointly produced by three parties: Central Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC) affiliated with the Government Information Office of the Executive Yuan, China Film Studio of the military, and Taiwan Film Studio of the Government Information Office. The cost was huge, so the output was not large, and the representative works include "A Thousand Springs".

  In this political environment, there are two types of films with relatively large development space. One is action movies (including martial arts), and the other is Qiong Yao's films.

  According to incomplete statistics, from 1971 to 1977, a total of 548 martial arts and ghost films were made, accounting for 42% of the total number of films. The reason is that these two types of films can avoid politics and are not linked to displays, so they have more space to survive.

  Let's get back on track.

  Just as Wang Wei was lost in thought, he was suddenly slapped on the back by Lin Fengjiao, who had finished hanging up her clothes. Wang Wei jumped more than three feet high in fright. "Feng Jie, can you please not sneak up on me every time you walk? It's really scary!" Wang Wei complained with a helpless expression.

  "I just called you a few times, but you didn't react at all." Lin Fengjiao pouted. "Did that really happen?" Wang Wei rolled his eyes and spaced out again? Seemed like it.

  Wang Wei handed over the manuscript in his hand to Lin Fengjiao, saying: "Feng Jie, this is the last chapter. You take care of the manuscript." "En" Lin Fengjiao took the manuscript and carefully tidied it up. To be sure, these are all money. If it were placed in the past, even if Lin Fengjiao knew that these manuscripts were valuable, she would not have been so careful. But what happened half a month ago made Lin Fengjiao understand the value of these manuscripts.

  That was more than half a month after the sale of Datang Shuanglongzhuan, Xue Bing came to Wang Wei again, and Lin Fengjiao was also present. "Mr. Wang, I've come to see you again, I won't disturb you."

  Xue Bing was even more polite this time. "Is Editor Xue here to collect the manuscript?" "Mr. Wang is indeed a god, guessing my intention with one guess." Wang Wei rolled his eyes and thought, do I need to guess? "Does Editor Xue still remember our agreement last time, shouldn't the remuneration be re-determined?"

  "This is what it should be, Mr. Wang doesn't know how much the manuscript fee is in your heart?" Xue Bing replied directly to Wang Wei's question about the manuscript fee without any entanglement.

  Seeing Xue Bing's response so succinctly, Wang Wei knew in his heart that the sales volume of Datang Shuanglong must be very good. Good things are certain, to know that Datang Shuanglong not only inherited the storytelling of new-school wuxia, as well as Jin Yong's chivalry, but also added some fantasy colors. To put it nicely, at that time, it should have been considered a pioneer.

  As for this type that people have never seen before, people must be very curious. Moreover, with some treasure hunting elements added in, it fits the trend of Taiwanese martial arts at that time, and it's strange if it doesn't catch on.

  At this point, Wang Wei smiled and said: "Editor Xue, I suppose the sales of 'The Legend of the Double Dragons' are very good?" "Yes, Mr. Wang, you know that now in the hearts of martial arts fans, Meng's name is already comparable to Jin Yong." Xue Bing did not hide anything because in his opinion, someone like Wang Wei who could create and sell well at a young age was a rare talent. Deception would only lead to the failure of their cooperation, so it was better to be honest and have a long-term collaboration.

  Wang Wei felt very satisfied with Xue Bing's candor. So he didn't entangle much and directly reported the price in his heart, "Editor Xue, since you are so candid, I won't beat around the bush either. I want the price of Gu Long."

  After hearing Wang Wei's offer, Xue Bing still didn't hesitate much and agreed immediately. "Alright, Mr. Wang, let's settle on this then. I don't know how many manuscripts you have in hand right now."

  Wang Wei did not expect Xue Bing to answer so bluntly. In fact, Wang Wei didn't know that because of the novel "Twin Dragons of Tang" having a unique and innovative plot, yet still following the trend at that time, with mature writing style and vivid story development.

  Once launched, the market reaction was extremely strong, and it was sold out several times in less than half a month, far exceeding the popularity of veteran martial arts writers such as Gu Long and Wo Long Sheng. Moreover, Wang Wei's age is a great advantage, knowing that Wang Wei is now only in his teens, with a long creative career ahead of him, and a huge room for growth. Therefore, when Xue Yang came to ask Wang Wei for a manuscript, the president of Zhen Shan Mei had instructed that at necessary times, the remuneration could even slightly exceed that of Gu Long and others.

  It's not just a matter of time, even the president of Zhen Shan Mei Publishing House wants to meet this unbelievable young 'chivalrous bandit'.

  So when Wang Wei mentioned the price for Gu Long, Xue Bing didn't think twice and agreed directly. Seeing Xue Bing's straightforward agreement, Wang Wei was taken aback for a moment, thinking to himself that if he had asked for more earlier, Xue Bing would have probably agreed as well. This thought flashed by, but Wang Wei didn't dwell on it. For him, a newcomer getting the same payment as Gu Long, an established figure, was already quite good.

  After the manuscript fee was discussed, Wang Wei took out a thick stack of manuscripts from Lin Fengjiao's bag and placed them on the table. "Editor Xue, here are nearly three million words of manuscripts. You can take them to publish first. It is estimated that there will be another one million words, and this book can be completed. Take a look."

  "Three million?" Xue Bing was somewhat taken aback, because this was the first time he had received so many manuscripts from a martial arts author at one time.

  "What's wrong?" Wang Wei saw Xue Bing stunned, knowing that he was shocked by his own 3 million-word manuscript. To know that at this time, Taiwanese martial arts authors generally have a maximum of over 100,000 words per draft, and it takes about a month or so to complete. But even with this, many martial arts authors can't finish it, trying to make up for the word count from the manuscript, and some famous authors even find people to ghostwrite for them, which is not uncommon. The most powerful representative of this is Gu Long, that lazy person.

  Often in character dialogue, many "ah"s appear to fill the word count. At that time, punctuation was included in the word count, so Gu Long would write drafts with excessive punctuation and liked to use ellipses. Moreover, he often had publishers rush him for manuscripts, but he himself was too lazy to write, so he would find someone else to ghostwrite, such as having Sima Ziyun ghostwrite "The Round Moon and the Curved Saber".

  So when Wang Wei saw Xue Bing stunned after he said three million words, he also felt it was reasonable. Xue Bing felt a bit embarrassed about his loss of composure and said: "Sorry, Mr. Wang." "No problem, Editor Xue, you can take a look at the manuscript first." Wang Wei smiled and said.

  Xue Bing picked up the manuscript and began to browse through it, as a result of this look, he forgot that he was still negotiating business with Wang Wei, the author of this manuscript.