Chapter 657: Unprecedented Record
The rise and fall of the National Theatre of China witnessed the cultural wave of the 1980s in China, which makes people sigh.
After Shi Yizhi retired, he was only an actor, which was a good thing for him as he could concentrate on acting.
After the farewell party, many people drank too much. Mu Sen mingled with his colleagues, his body swaying but he was always conscious.
Several leaders of the hospital were seeing Teacher Lin off. Teacher Lin had drunk some wine, so they specially asked the dean's driver, Xiao He, to help drive.
The vice-president of the National People's Art Theatre is at the deputy bureau level, but Yi Shizhi enjoys the treatment of a bureau-level official, with a car and a driver.
Mu Sen watched the car go away with mixed feelings.
Just now during the meal, he went to toast Teacher Lin with a glass of wine, and received encouragement from Teacher Lin, but this could not eliminate the frustration in his heart and the depression that life brought him.
That year, he won the appreciation of Dean Shi Yizhi and Teacher Lin for his drama "Jiajing and Hai Rui" adapted from "The Ming Dynasty 1566". He was booked into the People's Art Theater before he graduated. He not only became the envy of his classmates, but also a key training target of the People's Art Theater.
Unfortunately, after so many years, he has written four drama scripts, each of which received good responses, but none of them reached the heights of "Jiajing and Hai Rui".
This involves issues related to one’s own abilities as well as issues related to the overall environment.
When he wrote "Jiajing and Hai Rui" he was standing on the shoulders of Teacher Lin, which was a trick.
In addition, the continuous decline of the domestic drama market in recent years has led to a continuous decline in the attention paid to drama in the art market. In particular, the rise of TV dramas has taken away a large number of audiences that originally belonged to movies and dramas. Many drama audiences have not been to the theater for a long time.
Seeing that his classmates and colleagues who were not as good as him back then have now entered the film and television industry and are doing very well, Mu Sen can't help feeling a little unbalanced.
In recent years, he got married and had children, and was under great financial pressure, but he had his own artistic persistence in his heart and disdained to write some shoddy TV scripts.
The contradictory mentality made Mu Sen feel torn and extremely depressed.
I wish I had the talent that Teacher Lin has!
As December approached, the weather became colder and colder. After the heavy snow, there was a real snowstorm in Yanjing City, making it difficult to drive.
Since Tao's father came to Beijing, Tao's father and mother lived in the house prepared for them by Lin Weimin, the second courtyard next to the Forbidden City.
There are two people, Sister Sun and Sister Qin, to help at home, but actually they are not needed much. However, the two old people could not help it. They went to the courtyard early in the morning and came back at night. No matter how Tao Huimin persuaded them, they would not listen.
As it was snowing heavily today, Lin Weimin drove the car to take the two elders home.
After sending Tao's father and mother off, Lin Weimin was about to drive home.
A black Tiger-head car drove past the gate of the courtyard and brushed past Lin Weimin's car. Lin Weimin was about to get in the car, but he didn't expect that the car that just passed by stopped by the roadside.
Black pointed leather shoes stepped on the snow. A wealthy man in a suit and coat got out of the car, looked at Lin Weimin, and said quickly: "Oh! Teacher Lin, it's really you!"
Lin Weimin thought the voice sounded familiar, and when the person came closer, he realized it was Li Chengru.
It’s different when you have money. You dress like a wealthy man.
"Chengru, I almost didn't recognize you. You've changed so much! You've made a fortune!" Lin Weimin teased.
Li Chengru can pretend in front of others, but he cannot pretend in front of Lin Weimin. Teacher Lin was a man who could donate 10 million yuan in the 1980s, while he has been struggling for so many years, and it was only in the past two years of foreign exchange speculation that the floating profit in his account was just barely over 10 million yuan.
"You're joking. It's been a long time since I last saw you. What's the matter with you today?"
"This house is for my father-in-law and mother-in-law. It's snowing today, so I'll send them home." Lin Weimin explained.
Li Chengru said: "No wonder I can't touch you. I can't even touch Zhuangzhuang."
"What about you, still living here?"
"No. I moved a long time ago. I now live in the Asian Games Village. I came here today to have dinner with my mother."
"I am filial."
After a few pleasantries, Li Chengru invited Lin Weimin to his home for dinner, but Lin Weimin declined the invitation on the grounds that he had already had dinner.
Li Chengru took out a box of cigars from the trunk of his Mercedes-Benz and said, "We haven't seen each other for several years. You don't want to eat, so I have to keep this. Cuban cigars have a very mellow taste. People around me say they are good. You should try them."
"No, no, I don't smoke cigars either."
"This is a small gift from me. You are Zhuangzhuang's elder, and you are my elder, so you have to keep this."
Li Chengru persuaded Lin Weimin to accept the gift, and then he showed a satisfied smile and said, "I didn't know your parents lived here before, but now I know. I will ask my parents to come over and spend some time with them."
That’s a good idea.
After thanking Li Chengru, the two got into their cars and left.
When Lin Weimin got home, he brought the box of cigars into the house. Tao Huimin asked, "You don't smoke, where did you get this?"
Lin Weimin then told Tao Huimin about his encounter with Li Chengru. Tao Huimin asked, "Is that the 'Three Lis'?"
"It's him. He opened Xidan Tebiete."
Xidan Tebiete Clothing Mall is Li Chengru's business. When it first opened, it became famous in Yanjing City because the shopping guides it recruited were all as beautiful as flight attendants.
At its peak, the daily turnover exceeded 500,000 RMB, earning Li Chengru the reputation of "One of the Three Lis of Yanjing".
"I remember he and Zhuangzhuang were classmates, right?"
"Yes, they are all from amateur acting classes."
"This person is quite polite."
Although Li Chengru's behavior may seem a bit like that of a nouveau riche, it is never a bad thing to be polite. He will definitely return the favor when he gets the chance.
A few days later, Lin Weimin took the initiative to sign a publishing contract with the publishing house for "Spirited Away".
"Spirited Away" has been serialized for seven issues since June, and the last issue will be next month.
After more than half a year of serialization, this novel has become completely famous in the field of domestic children's literature. It has been praised by many critics as "the most outstanding work in the field of domestic children's literature in the past thirty years". It has also caused a strong response among countless children across the country.
Because of the serialization of this novel, the sales of "Childhood" jumped from 400,000 copies per issue to 2.7 million copies.
The January 1993 issue was the last issue of Spirited Away and it was expected that it would not be difficult to break the sales mark of 3 million copies.
This number not only broke the sales record of "Childhood", but also broke the sales record of domestic children's literature magazines, creating a record that has never been seen before and is likely to never be surpassed.
In the second half of 1992, countless Chinese children had an incredibly beautiful dream. "Spirited Away" was destined to become an indelible part of their beautiful childhood memories.
It is already mid-December, and there is still more than half a month before the last issue of "Childhood", which serializes "Spirited Away", is released. Now is just the right time to prepare for the editing and review work of the "Spirited Away" volume.
By the time the single volume is released before the New Year, it will surely become a killer weapon to collect New Year's money from elementary school monks.
"Color printing, it must be color printing."
"The illustrations must be exquisite. Have someone draw the images of each character first, and then I'll give you some suggestions."
"It doesn't matter if the cost is high, can't we just set the price higher?"
"What's the big deal if it's a little expensive? Do children look at the price when buying books?"
In order to collect pocket money from the elementary school monks, Teacher Lin was so cruel and his methods were extremely brutal.
He didn't believe that these elementary school monks could refuse a color version of Spirited Away with illustrations.
It is not easy for Teacher Lin to achieve good performance at the end of the year.
It is not difficult to edit a fairy tale novel of more than 100,000 words. Guowen Publishing House can just find an editor to do it.
But when it comes to illustration design, Lin Weimin had very high requirements. It took half a month of communication and several versions of characters and scenes to reach a level that satisfied him, and it was completely based on the original.
In early January, "Childhood", which published the last issue of "Spirited Away", was released as scheduled, and the first print run of this issue was 2.8 million copies.
Because of the preview in the previous issue, all readers know that the story of "Spirited Away" will come to an end in this issue, and they are eagerly waiting for this day.
Therefore, as soon as the January 1993 issue of "Childhood" was released, it was snapped up by readers. Everyone wanted to get a sneak peek and see whether Chihiro managed to rescue her parents, as well as the endings of many characters in the story.
Along with the completion of the serialization of the finale of "Spirited Away", Kokubunsha's single volume "Spirited Away" also arrived as promised.
Some people at Guowenshe thought that it was an unwise move to publish a separate volume of "Spirited Away" when "Childhood" was a best-seller. After all, "Childhood" was still selling and it would definitely divert some readers.
But they still underestimated the magic of Spirited Away.
The first print run of 500,000 copies of "Spirited Away" was put on the shelves of bookstores and post offices across the country, and it faced an even greater buying frenzy than the January issue of "Childhood".
"Spirited Away" has been serialized for eight issues, spanning more than half a year. The potential of readers has been fully tapped. It can be said that it has swept the domestic readers under the age of sixteen, and it also has a certain market among readers over the age of sixteen.
Just one week after the single volume was released, 500,000 copies of "Spirited Away" were sold out.
This speed set a record for the fastest sales of Lin Weimin's works in the history of contemporary Chinese literature. Upon seeing this, Guowen Publishing House urgently printed another 1 million copies and sent them to all parts of the country.
As soon as this news came out, the domestic literary world was once again shocked by Lin Weimin's appeal to readers.
500,000 books a week, what does that mean?
Let me put it this way, the sales of Lin Weimin's "Farewell My Concubine" in China have now exceeded 6 million copies. In the contemporary literary world, works that can achieve such sales can be said to be rare. Only some classical literary masterpieces that have been published for decades can be compared with it.
But given the popularity of Farewell My Concubine, it took nearly three months for sales to exceed 500,000 copies.
However, "Spirited Away" actually brought this number forward to one week. Such popularity has exceeded the cognition of many people in the literary world, and they cannot even understand it with common sense.
It is difficult for people who have not experienced the fan era to understand this craze.
Of course, the popularity of "Spirited Away" is based on the work itself, so compared with the products of fan economy in later generations, its appeal is more lasting and its audience is larger.
Also because of the popularity of "Spirited Away", the name Lin Weimin has been completely imprinted in the minds of this generation of children.
In the past, Lin Weimin's works were all written for adults. Even though he was very famous, young people in China had only heard of his name.
The sudden appearance of "Spirited Away" has won Lin Weimin the love of countless children.
Not as the famous writer Lin Weimin, who is renowned both at home and abroad, but as the author of "Spirited Away".
This childhood filter cannot be erased from the hearts of these children even after decades, and becomes the most beautiful scenery in their lives.
Three more chapters with 10,000 words, please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)
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