Chapter 146

The broadcast of "Bao San" during the winter vacation brought a wave of traffic to "Da Song" from those who didn't lack lucky money for the winter vacation. The publishing house reprinted it again and again, and Jiang Ning's wallet became fatter again and again.

Jiang Ning sometimes felt that she could probably eat her fill for several years just by relying on this book.

Because her previous work "The Song Dynasty" brought huge profits to the TV station in Province Z, even though the copyright fees for movies and TV series are generally not high now, Jiang Ning still offered a high price of 28,000 for the copyright of "White Snake".

Considering the current salary, 28,000 yuan is equivalent to hundreds of thousands of yuan in more than 20 years.

She remembered that around 2010, she met an author on the Internet, and the film and television rights to a book were only $100,000.

After agreeing on the price, the two men haggled over the details of the contract.

Jiang Ning had a ready-made contract template in her email. She found a printing shop near the school, modified the contract template slightly, and showed it to the director.

The director did not come alone, he brought an assistant director and assistant with him. They also brought their own contracts, but the contracts were not as detailed as Jiang Ning's. Under Jiang Ning's insistence, the director and his team finally chose to use the contract provided by Jiang Ning, and both parties signed the contract.

After all this was signed, the director strongly invited her to audition for the role of "White Snake". The "White Snake" written by Jiang Ning is very different from the White Snake and the Green Snake in the movie "Green Snake". It does not have the female charm of "Green Snake" and "White Snake".

In the text, the little white snake is a modern person who traveled back in time, so it has some human qualities of a dog. But when it comes to the part where the white snake transforms into a dragon, the little white snake has more "divinity".

What the director wants is the transformation of the little white snake from humanity to divinity.

The director felt that the author of "White Snake" herself fit the temperament of the little white snake, and as she was the author of "White Snake Cultivation", she understood the characters and the plot better, and her age also fit the role of "little white snake" as he understood it.

In "White Snake's Cultivation of Immortality", there is always a "small" in front of the white snake. This is because readers have watched it grow from an egg to its current dragon form, and although the white snake has cultivated for a thousand years, the cultivation for the previous 1,700 years was actually the essence of the moonlight from the "Emperor's Flowing Water", not its own cultivation for a thousand years. So even if it was a great demon with a thousand years of cultivation in the early stage, in the eyes of readers, it was still a "little white snake".

It does not have the mature charm of White Snake, nor does it have a hint of charm like the White Snake in "Green Snake".

The little white snake is cunning and simple.

In this regard, the director thinks that the girl in front of him is very suitable, both in terms of age and appearance.

Because the contract had been signed, the director began to express to Jiang Ning what kind of "little white snake" he wanted to portray. Jiang Ning nodded repeatedly and even gave the director a lot of suggestions.

After all, a movie pursues not only artistic value but also commercial value.

Even though Jiang Ning was a passionate writer in her past life, her thinking was still deeply influenced by the idea of ​​"looking at benefits". For example, how much actual benefit could this matter bring to the people, to the government, and to herself or the leaders behind her?

Everything she considered was about "interests".

Her advice to the director was to consider the commercial value and see how much practical benefit it could bring.

For example, the overall tone of the movie cannot be too rigid, too red or too professional. In the early stage, the little white snake can be ignorant, practicing and playing in the mountains, and can be brought out with humorous and funny plots. This section can not only reflect the little white snake's powerful martial arts, but also use short sentences and fragments to show the little white snake's character and temperament. Then the little white snake failed to ascend, and went down the mountain to repay her gratitude with feelings.

As a commercial movie, you can even create a villain for it at this time, such as a big demon who laughs at her failure to ascend and is jealous of her talent. Knowing that she is going down the mountain to repay her gratitude, he follows her all the way down the mountain and makes trouble, but every time it is the villain and funny character herself who gets unlucky.

In the early stages, this villain can exist as a villain, as a funny character, or as a friend.

Originally, the director only had a vague idea of ​​what he wanted to shoot, but after listening to Jiang Ning, he felt that his whole idea became clear, and even the picture came out. This made him want Jiang Ning to play the "Little White Snake" even more. Even if he couldn't participate in the movie, he could just become a screenwriter in his screenwriter team.

He even felt that if Jiang Ning herself were to adapt the script, she might be able to write it very well. After all, Jiang Ning herself understood the business rules so well that she knew how to present the movie in a way that the audience would like.

Even the climax of the movie was the one that inspired him, when the little white snake transformed into its original form to save people, the monk thought it was a demon and wanted to catch it. It was saving people, but the monk, who was a human, didn't want to save people at that time, but only wanted to get rid of the demon.

Then, the little white snake sacrificed itself to save the people of the world in the flood. When it was beaten to death by the big monk, the heaven finally gave it the most fair treatment, bestowed merits from heaven, and transformed into a dragon.

The tone that Jiang Ning set for the film was cheerful and funny. Even the plot that elevates the entire film to a glorious and righteous state at the end was a plot that started with a downbeat and ended with a positive attitude.

This part of the plot happens to correspond to the plot of the flooding of Jinshan Mountain in "The Legend of White Snake".

Both were floods, but the former was a flood that overwhelmed Jinshan Mountain, causing countless sufferings to the people; the latter was also water, but it ignored the suppression of the great monk and tried its best to rescue the people and sort out the veins of mountains and rivers.

The director wished he had a tape recorder at hand so that he could record everything Jiang Ning said to him, but he also wished he didn't have a pen at hand so that he couldn't write it all down.

Before this, all of this was still in the initial stage of the director's inspiration, and he and the screenwriter had to discuss how to adapt the script in detail.

Now, after listening to Jiang Ning's story, he felt that the main structure of the script was almost complete.

By the time he finished talking to Jiang Ning, it was already dark. He was still not satisfied and wanted to treat Jiang Ning to a meal to hear her continue.

Jiang Ning hadn't expected that the two would have such a pleasant conversation. There were a lot of food on this street near the school. Although school hadn't started yet, many snack bars had already opened early after the eighth day of the Lunar New Year.

Jiang Ning herself didn't have the idea that she was still an underage girl and couldn't have dinner alone with a man at night. She took the director and the assistant director to a small restaurant next to her store and ordered a few dishes.

The director and his friends naturally couldn't let a little girl pay for the meal, so in the end the meal was paid for by the director and his friends. The food at the restaurant near the school was cheap, and the four of them only spent 20 or 30 yuan.

Before they left, they left their phone number for Jiang Ning. Jiang Ning didn't have a landline now, so she gave her email address to the director and asked them to send her emails again. She would check the emails every few days.

The director was born in the 1950s. He doesn't usually go online, let alone have an email address. When he heard that Jiang Ning gave him an email address, he went back to learn how to go online and apply for an email address.

At this time, as the school was about to start, Grandpa Jiang was reluctant to leave Wucheng's good business and was unwilling to leave now. He wanted to wait until after the Qingming Festival to come to Shanghai. Anyway, Jiang Ning had ordered meals for him at the small restaurant opposite, which could be delivered to him at a fixed time every day. He was not afraid that his grandchildren would not be in No. 1 Middle School and no one would deliver meals to him.

It is true that no one gave him hot water.

Jiang Ning entrusted this matter to the proprietress of a small restaurant next to Wu Zhong. As they were in the restaurant business, they had to boil many kettles of water every day. It was not difficult for her to boil a kettle for Grandpa Jiang as well.

At school, one had to pay one or two grain coupons for a jug of water, and Jiang Ning gave the proprietress two cents for each jug.

At two cents a pot of boiling water, the boss lady really doesn't make much. Her main income comes from the meals she delivers to Grandpa Jiang for lunch and dinner.

It’s not much for one or two meals, but if you deliver it for a long time, it will cost a lot of money.

Grandpa Jiang and Jiang Bai have been in Wucheng for some time, and their business is booming. Jiang Bai was reluctant to leave even before school started, so he went back to Shanghai with Tong Jingang to report.

Jiang's father had already transferred the tuition money into his savings account.

Maybe it was because both Jiang Bai and Jiang Ning were admitted to university in this life, and Jiang Ning was admitted ahead of schedule. Jiang's father also earned money outside and was not stingy with his two children. Jiang Bai not only had tuition, but also received 500 yuan for living expenses.

As for Jiang Ning, when he went to her store to visit her and Grandpa Jiang, he stuffed all his private money into her, which was three thousand yuan. He did not continue to give her money afterwards because he knew that she had money. In addition to the three thousand yuan he gave her, there was also her own scholarship of five thousand yuan, and red envelopes and gifts from relatives and friends, which added up to five or six hundred yuan. This amount of money was enough to cover her tuition and living expenses for next year, not to mention the whole school year.

Jiang Bai and Tong Jingang brought two large bags of clothes back to Shanghai. Jiang Bai came to the store at the school gate early the next morning, preparing to set up the new store before school started.

The director and his team were about to go back the next day, but after thinking it over, he decided to come over and invite Jiang Ning to audition.

I didn't see Jiang Ning, but I saw a tall and thin guy who looked like a celebrity.

The young man was a bit shy, and when he saw him he pursed his lips and smiled: "The store has just opened, if you like anything, try it out."

The director looked at him in surprise.

Jiang Bai has now gotten used to dressing himself up as if he were the store's living signboard, and he dresses himself up to look cool and handsome every day.

The director couldn't help but look him up and down and said, "I'm here to look for Jiang Ning, you are..."

After signing the contract yesterday, the director already knew Ning Meng’s real name, so he called her by her real name Jiang Ning at this time.

Jiang Bai suddenly became alert, the shy smile on his face disappeared, and he returned to the cold and vigilant expression he had in No. 1 Middle School, and asked who they were.

The director introduced himself and said that he came to invite Jiang Ning to become a member of his screenwriter team.

Jiang Bai also said that he was Jiang Ning's brother.

Even though it was expected, the director still marveled at the good looks of the brother and sister.

As he looked at Jiang Bai, he was already thinking about what kind of characters to add to his movie.

He immediately thought of Zhao Wenzhuo's version of Fahai.

If this young man were to play the role of a great monk who is dedicated to exorcising demons... No, at best he can only play the role of the monk's little disciple.

Jiang Bai was unaware of the brainstorming of the middle-aged man in front of him. Knowing that he was not here to buy clothes, he started to sort out the clothes in the store and hung them one by one on the shop poles. The director watched Jiang Bai working so attentively, and after hanging up all the clothes, he very virtuously took out an electric iron and ironed the clothes.

Until Jiang Ning came over.

Jiang Ning was not surprised to see Jiang Bo in the store, but she was surprised to see the famous director.

She thought he had left Shanghai.

Jiang Ning still refused the invitation from the big director to join his screenwriting team. It was not for any other reason but because after finishing her work here, she would go to participate in the IMO competition with Song Peifeng.

Even Jiang Ning herself was surprised that she was selected to participate in IMO.

But it is normal to think about it. After all, she had completed four years of advanced mathematics in college in her previous life. People in the Mathematical Olympiad competition class had basically finished learning college mathematics in advance. She had the experience of learning one more life than others. Even if those experiences should have been returned as early as when she graduated, she has learned it. When she learns again, she will show a higher level of understanding and react faster. Sometimes, as she studies, she will have a feeling that I have seen this question before, and this feeling is not an illusion.

The director thought she was afraid of delaying her studies at school. After all, college students of this generation do place more emphasis on studying. But he still didn't want to give up and said, "The crew is still in the preparation stage. We still need to raise investment and find actors to play other roles. It will probably be summer vacation before the official filming starts. Two months is enough time to finish filming your scenes and it won't delay your studies at school."

Jiang Ning pointed at herself and said, "High school, second year of high school." She didn't mention that she had been admitted to a university in advance.

After hearing what she said, the director gave up regretfully and hurried back to the capital.

They have to polish the script first.

After everything was ready, Jiang Ning also called Wang Yong's uncle and told him that all his clothes and shoes would have to be shipped to the new address.

At the same time, he also called Wang Yong to tell him that "White Snake's Cultivation of Immortality", which had been serialized for such a long time, was about to be completed.

When Jiang Ning wrote about the white snake transforming into a dragon, Wang Yong, who had read the manuscript, had already anticipated this. Now there are still some drafts of "White Snake" in reserve, but Jiang Ning has no new manuscripts yet.

Jiang Ning had been writing for a year and a half without a break. Even though "White Snake's Cultivation" was a vacation article and did not require much brainpower to write, the long period of high-intensity typing and learning still made her feel very tired, especially since she might have to undergo closed-door training again and would have no time to write. So she decided not to start writing for the time being and wanted to take a break first.

If you have a new topic you want to write about later, tell him.

In fact, Jiang Ning already had an idea about the idea of ​​her next article. She wanted to write an article about officialdom.

Twenty years later, officialdom writing is not easy to do. Many excellent officialdom writings have all been censored on the Internet.

But in this era, it is a relatively open era. Except for the "cults" that are promoted in the news every day, official documents can be written and published.

Of course, as a senior official, Jiang Ning does not intend to write about darkness or anything. What she wants to write is based on her leader in her previous life, describing how a female cadre from a family of second-generation officials, after being demoted to the grassroots level, develops the economy step by step, fights wits and courage with officials, fights wits and courage with foreign companies, grasps economic construction, uses the power of the government to protect state-owned brands, prevents state-owned brands that have already grown in the country from being swallowed up by foreign companies, supports domestic car companies, and finally climbs up step by step.

This story can only be written in this era. It cannot be written in a few years.

Jiang Ning was also thinking, through this story, could she shed some light on the current economic development, the wrong paths that later generations have taken, and the bloody lessons they have experienced? If she wrote these down in advance, could she let some people see them and thus avoid some problems, or even just give some people some inspiration.

But such a modern officialdom article is not suitable for serialization in "Wuxia".

The core positioning of the magazine "Wuxia" is "wuxia".

"The Great Song Dynasty" has elements of martial arts, and "White Snake's Cultivation of Immortality" is also about fighting and killing. These two works can barely be related to "martial arts", but the new work she conceived really has no martial arts elements at all, and is a pure official promotion flow.

She had to find a suitable serial publication.

This is not an easy task either.

This article, just like "White Snake's Cultivation of Immortality", was not very brain-intensive for her to write. After all, many of it were about her leaders' experiences in their previous lives, some were her own experiences, and many were related to national policies, as well as the government's collaboration with enterprises to battle wits and courage with foreign companies, and the use of national policies to make advance arrangements, helping local companies to defeat foreign companies in battles one after another, while also adapting to local conditions and carrying out economic development.

Jiang Ning might really be talented in writing. Her inspiration rarely runs out. Once her mind starts working, all kinds of inspiration come to her like a tide, endlessly.

She wished she had a computer at hand so that she could draw out the general framework of her story in one go.

After all this was arranged, Jiang Ning did not return to Wucheng, so she called Song Peifeng and told him that she would not return to Wucheng and would fly to Beijing from Shanghai by herself.

There were no flights to Wucheng. After Song Peifeng received Jiang Ning's call, he took a bus from Wucheng to the provincial capital, and then took a flight from the provincial capital to Beijing.

Jiang Ning had not been to Beijing many times in his previous life, but he had accompanied his leader to meet his leader's father, a vice-state-level leader, several times.

Jiang Ning's impression of Beijing was still that of a modern international metropolis that was almost built to the seventh ring road in her previous life, with all kinds of high-rise buildings on the outer ring road and the world's largest airport.

But the overall color tone of Beijing today is a bit like the taxi at this moment, red and yellow tones. Even the warm sunlight seems to have covered the city with a layer of slow-paced tone.

At this time, the starting price for a taxi is ten yuan, which means one yuan per kilometer, which is really not cheap.

Jiang Ning went there and asked about the bus fare. If the distance was short, it would of course be cheaper to take the bus, but if the distance was far, Jiang Ning calculated that it would be better to take a taxi. She was also carrying a large backpack, so she took a taxi. Sitting in the taxi, she opened the window and looked out.

There were still some posters on the street that commemorated great men some time ago. The whole city was not excited because it was the beginning of spring. Instead, the overall tone was silent and sad because of the passing of a great man.

Even the young couple pushing a tricycle selling tea eggs on the roadside looked a little heavy, with no smiles on their faces.

Wucheng might be far away, but at this time in Jiang Ning's previous life, she was still living in fear, weighed down by the heavy burden of life every day, as if there was no end in sight. She was worried about not being able to raise the tuition fees, and about the few ounces of rice. When she knew about this, her feelings were not as deep as they are now.

She couldn't help but be infected by the sad atmosphere of mourning the great man. Her heart calmed down and she looked at the current capital city silently.

When the taxi arrived at a place, she looked up and saw a large plaque hanging high. Above the plaque were five shining red stars. Below the red stars were written [Government of the People's Republic of China - Resuming the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong - Countdown - Until July 1, 1997]. Below were three large boxes with electronic numbers in them, indicating how many days were left.

When you see this, you will truly feel that you are actually back in 1997.

1997 was the beginning of China's rapid economic development and also a period of transformation for the real estate industry. Jiang Ning came to Beijing and would be studying and living here for a long time in the future. He happened to have some money, so he thought about whether he could buy an apartment in Beijing.

Even though Jiang Ning had anticipated this, he still didn't expect that housing prices in Beijing in 1997 would already be ridiculously high.

Fortunately, she didn't plan to buy a house within the Third Ring Road, but she could consider the Third or Fourth Ring Road.