Chapter 592: The Level of "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber"
In mid-July, early in the morning, as soon as the Wangfujing Bookstore opened, readers who had been waiting at the door swarmed into the bookstore.
The universities and primary and secondary schools have just had their holidays, and it is also the hottest time of the year in Yanjing. Wangfujing Bookstore has air conditioning, which keeps it warm in winter and cool in summer all year round. So every time this time comes, this becomes the place where these students spend the most time every day during the summer vacation.
This situation happens not only in Wangfujing Bookstore, but also in Xinhua Bookstores in many big cities.
The readers who come into the bookstore are mainly students, and some elementary school students are accompanied by their parents.
As soon as you enter the bookstore, the most eye-catching thing is the newspaper rack at the door, which is filled with all kinds of magazines and periodicals.
There were many magazines on the newsstand today as usual. One of the magazines had a red label underneath that said "New Issue on the Market."
Almost no primary school students who came into the store paid attention to the bookshelf. As soon as they came in, they swarmed towards the children's book and popular science book areas.
Only a small number of college and high school students stopped by the newspaper rack, and many of them were attracted by the words "New Issue on the Market" on the newspaper rack.
The launch of new publications does not refer to the launch and sale of publications every month, but the inaugural issue of newly established publications. There are many magazines and publications established in China every year, but not many of them can be placed in Xinhua Bookstores, and even fewer for students to catch up with.
"Heroes of Kyushu", the name is very eye-catching, and what is even more eye-catching is the cover of the magazine.
Under the yellow sand, the knight wore a straw hat, a long robe, a long sword on his waist, and rode a green-maned horse. The breath of the martial arts world that came to his face made the students who saw the cover unable to take their eyes away.
The name "Jiuzhou Heroes", coupled with a cover full of gangster style, made a high school student with a 3:7 hairstyle couldn't help but pick up the magazine.
There is a line of small words in the lower right corner of the magazine cover: "The Best in the World" Xiao Zuanfeng.
Anyone who has read the magazine knows that this should be the headline article of this issue.
Turning over the table of contents and coming to the main text, the first page is the headline work on the cover, "The Best in the World".
"In the 23rd year of Chenghua, Emperor Xianzong Zhu Jianshen passed away, and his third son Zhu Youtang succeeded to the throne, with the reign title Hongzhi.
Zhu Youtang was kind and generous, frugal, aloof from women, expelled treacherous officials, opened the way for people to express their opinions, worked hard on government affairs, and worked hard to govern the country. He was known in history as the "Hongzhi Restoration". The historian said: "After the Three Dynasties, the only rulers who were called virtuous were Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty, and Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty."
In the 18th year of Hongzhi, Zhu Youtang died in the Palace of Heavenly Purity. He was posthumously named "Emperor Jiantian Mingdao Chengchun Zhongzheng Shengwen Shenwu Zhiren Dadejing", and was known as Emperor Xiaozong of Ming Dynasty. His son Zhu Houzhao ascended the throne, and the reign was named Zhengde. Emperor Zhengde favored eunuchs, was close to flatterers, and indulged in pleasure, which led to more and more fierce struggles in the court and the people were living in misery.
At that time, Emperor Xianzong had a son, Zhu Wusi. As he was born out of wedlock and had an unruly temperament, he was not liked by the previous emperor. Since he was young, he gave up his wealth and fame and wandered around the world. Because of his extraordinary martial arts, he was known as the 'Iron-hearted Divine Marquis'..."
In the 21st century, many famous martial arts novelists have died or grown old, and talented people are dwindling. In addition, readers have become aesthetically fatigued with martial arts novels, so martial arts novels have long been in decline.
Since Liang Yusheng and Jin Yong, it has become common to adapt martial arts novels into film and television works, whether in the mainland, Hong Kong or Taiwan. Many martial arts novels have become household names because of film and television adaptations.
But after 2000, film and television adaptations of martial arts novels have reached a dead end. Everything that can be filmed has been filmed, and everything that can be adapted has been adapted. The audience has long been tired of film and television adaptations of martial arts novels.
At this time, a martial arts TV series came out of nowhere and brought the theme of martial arts back into the audience's attention.
This TV series is "The World's Number One".
"The Number One Under Heaven" is a purely original script, so its freshness naturally far surpasses those martial arts works by Jin Yong and Gu Long that have been adapted countless times, but its success is not just because of its freshness.
The story structure of "The World's Number One" is grand, with the mid-Ming Dynasty as the background, and the various forces of the court and the underworld are intertwined.
The characters in the group are portrayed vividly and fully, including the treacherous but seemingly loyal Zhu Wusi, the loyal and righteous Duan Tianya, the silent and unruly Gui Hai Yidao, the woman dressed as a man Shangguan Haitang, the quirky Cheng Shifei... Each character's story line is extremely brilliant.
The plot design is substantial and compact, with eradication of evil, brotherhood, love between men and women, conspiracy and betrayal... various plot elements come together to overwhelm the audience.
Someone once said that "The Number One Under Heaven" was a watershed in domestic martial arts TV dramas. After "The Number One Under Heaven", it is difficult to find another work that can compare with it. It can even be said that this TV drama is a swan song.
Lin Weimin mostly agrees with this statement. After watching the TV series that year, his biggest feeling was that this TV series should be called a weakened version of "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils".
"The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" is the pinnacle of Jin Yong's creative career. In the novel, Jin Yong depicts a magnificent and gorgeous world of martial arts for readers, especially the group portrait writing is extremely brilliant. This novel is also an insurmountable peak of Chinese martial arts novels.
"Number One Under Heaven" can be regarded as excellent in many aspects such as world view structure, plot design, character creation, etc., but after all, it is a TV series put together by the king of bad movies, Wang Jing. He is a talented person, but he really does not regard making movies and TV series as art.
This is reflected in "The World's Number One", which lacks the spirit of striving for perfection and seems a bit rough.
In order to launch the publication of "Jiuzhou Heroes", Lin Weimin decided to open a small account to write a martial arts novel, and his first choice was "The World's Number One".
Because he is familiar with the TV series, he naturally knows its advantages and disadvantages. He tries his best to avoid some of the shortcomings in the work during the creation, and then polishes it carefully. The quality of the finished product is even higher than the TV series.
The martial arts novel readers of this era are basically influenced by pirated martial arts novels from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Although there have been an endless stream of domestic martial arts novels in recent years, there are very few that can make readers applaud and compete with writers from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
It is also because the market is flooded with a large number of shoddy works that many martial arts novel readers look down on mainland martial arts novels.
If I have to describe it in one word, it would probably be "finding gold in shit."
But these readers also enjoy reading it, and their motivation all comes from their love for martial arts novels.
"Hongbing! Li Hongbing!" The high school student with a 3:7 split hairstyle was so absorbed in reading "Heroes of Kyushu" that his classmates called him several times but he didn't respond. His classmates pushed him helplessly, and he came to his senses and looked at his classmates.
"What are you doing? Why are you interested in magazines? Aren't you going to buy the collection of Jin Yong's works?"
The collection of Jin Yong's works has been on the market for two or three months, and it has caused a great craze among domestic martial arts novel fans, many of whom have flocked to bookstores to buy them.
But this time, what is published is the collection of Jin Yong's works. The complete set of 36 volumes includes all the martial arts novels written by Jin Yong, and the paperback version alone is priced at 49.8 yuan.
To be honest, this price is indeed not expensive. On average, a novel costs about 1.5 yuan, which is much cheaper than some single-volume works.
But the problem is that Li Hongbing and his classmates are high school students with no income. Unlike those college students, they do not have disposable living expenses every month. So the price of 49.8 yuan is indeed too expensive for them.
Several people have saved for more than a month, and each of them saved more than ten yuan. Today they got together specially and planned to pool their money to buy a set of Jin Yong's works. They can read Jin Yong's works to their heart's content this summer vacation. Just thinking about it makes them happy.
As soon as they entered the bookstore, the others rushed to the bookshelf where the collection of Jin Yong's works was placed. After looking at the books for a while, they were ready to pay, but they found that one person was missing.
"Heping, look! I found a martial arts novel magazine!" Li Hongbing said excitedly to his classmates.
Lou Heping was not interested in the magazines. "They are all shoddy stuff. Can they have any Jin Yong novels? Hurry up and give me the money. I'll go and pay the bill."
"I think it's no worse than The Return of the Condor Heroes," said Li Hongbing.
Lou Heping looked at Li Hongbing in surprise, "Do you know what you are talking about?"
"If you don't believe me, look for yourself!" Li Hongbing handed the magazine to Lou Heping.
Lou Heping glanced at Li Hongbing and said, "I just don't believe it..."
"What is Heping doing? Why are you asking the Red Soldiers to raise money? Why are you still eyeing it?"
After a long while, the other two students didn't see Lou Heping coming back, and found that he was standing in front of the newspaper rack, reading a magazine attentively, just like Li Hongbing, so they walked over impatiently.
"What's wrong with you two? Are you going to buy books?"
When the four of them got together, the classmates couldn't help but blame Li Hongbing and Lou Heping.
But the two of them acted as if they didn't hear anything. Each of them was holding a magazine in their hands, reading it intently and not hearing their classmates' voices at all.
Since they couldn't hear anything, they had to fight. The two men came to their senses. Li Hongbing ignored the students who called them, and asked Lou Heping first, "How is it? Did I say anything right?"
Lou Heping opened his mouth and said, "It's a little bit worse than The Return of the Condor Heroes, and it's about the same level as The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber."
"Just keep talking tough!"
"What do you mean I'm being stubborn..."
The two of them actually started arguing, and the two classmates who came to call them had no choice but to interrupt them.
"That's enough, both of you! Are you still going to buy books?" A classmate interrupted their argument.
Li Hongbing hesitated for a moment and said, "Buy it."
He then said to Lou Heping: "Don't you have seventeen dollars in your pocket? Lend me two dollars first."
"Lend you two dollars? What for?" Lou Heping asked.
"I want to buy a magazine." said Li Hongbing.
Lou Heping immediately realized that what Li Hongbing wanted to buy was the book The Heroes of Kyushu that they had just read. He hesitated for a moment and said, "No."
"Why?"
“I’m going to buy some myself!”
"Then you can lend me one dollar and fifty cents. That will be enough."
"No, I'll lend you $1.50. After I buy all the books and magazines, I don't have any money left for food or bus fare."
"What do you mean? We've been brothers for so many years, why don't you lend me one dollar and fifty cents?"
"Brother, can you let me starve?"
The two of them were arguing and quarreling. The other two were angry and helpless, but at the same time a little curious. One of them picked up the "Nine Provinces Heroes" that Li Hongbing had just put down.
More than an hour later, four people walked out of Wangfujing Bookstore, each holding a copy of "Nine Provinces Heroes".
In the end, we didn't manage to buy the collection of Jin Yong's works. The four of us had a total of fifty-four or fifty-five yuan in our pockets. After reading "The World's Number One", everyone was so addicted that they all wanted to buy "Heroes of Kyushu".
And while they were arguing, many people also discovered the first issue that had just been released. Seeing that each issue was sold out, they finally unanimously decided to buy "Jiuzhou Heroes" first. This thing is a magazine, and it will be difficult to buy after this issue.
As for the collection of Jin Yong's works, they are always on sale in bookstores, so it won't be too late to buy them next month when I have saved enough money.
It was noon when the group came out of Wangfujing. Li Hongbing asked, "What are you doing now?"
"Let's eat fried tripe!"
Lou Heping's suggestion was unanimously approved by several people. Anyway, everyone had money in their pockets, so they didn't need to buy Jin Yong's collection of works and could spend it however they wanted!
(End of this chapter)
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