Chapter 230
Jiang Ning was a little surprised that the senior executives of this well-known foreign film and television company could find her school to discuss the film rights of "Star Trek" with her, but she still met them.
The leader was about thirty years old, with a very typical blond and blue-eyed Opala appearance. He was handsome, tall, and had an imposing aura.
They met in a coffee shop outside Peking University. When Jiang Ning and Song Peifeng showed up, he was a little surprised by her youth, but at the same time, he wasn't that surprised.
Before coming here, they had already investigated the author and knew that she was a student at the University of Tokyo, majoring in mathematical finance. They were not very interested in her first few books, but they knew the sales data of her works and used various data to judge what kind of person she was.
Obviously, even in a country that is still a little backward, with so many high-selling works, this girl definitely cannot be short of money. So it is obviously impossible to simply use money to get the film and television rights of this work. First of all, the previous person who came to discuss the copyright did not investigate this information at all, and wanted to buy the film and television rights of this book at a price lower than their budget, which is obviously impossible.
He also read the English version of the first two volumes of this work, which described huge spaceships and very advanced technology. More importantly, many of the details made people feel that it was not just pure fantasy, but was based on a certain level of real technology.
It was hard for them to imagine that such an advanced science fiction work came from a college student from a flower-growing country.
But that's the fact.
This era is when science fiction movies are very popular, such as "Star Wars", "Killer", "The Ninth Element" and so on released in the past few years, as well as the long-planned big production "The Matrix" series which will be released soon this year.
When he read the first two volumes of "Star Mecha", he couldn't wait to ask someone to get all the content later. This work was so detailed and wonderful that it didn't seem like a science fiction work, but the real content that happened to the protagonists.
But the people below told him that this was a work from the Flower-Growing Country, and it was still being serialized and had not yet been completed.
Since he was reading a book that was completely translated into the language of the Beautiful Country, when he heard that this was a serialized work from the Flower Country? Your first reaction is a face full of question marks? ? ?
A science fiction novel with such a grand structure and such a high level of technology, do you think it comes from a flower-growing country?
But later facts told him that he was indeed from the Flower-Growing Country.
No matter which country she is from, her business acumen for the film industry made him make a decision immediately. He contacted the author from that flower-growing country and said, "I want to buy the film rights of her work and make it into a movie and put it on the big screen!"
He had a feeling that this would be a classic science fiction series because he already had images in his mind when he read the novel.
This is also the reason why Jiang Ning came in person after she rejected their company's offer to purchase the film and television copyright of her work.
After arriving in the country of flowers, he learned a little more about her works and knew that a movie adapted from her works was shortlisted for this year's Venice Film Festival.
Most of her works are long and exquisite, not only suitable for being made into movies, but also suitable for being made into series of movies, which also makes him value the film and television rights of this movie more.
Although the two are of different nationalities, they have no problem talking to each other.
Eventually, the film rights of this book were sold to this well-known American film and television company for 1.2 million U.S. dollars, setting a record for the highest film and television price ever paid for all of Jiang Ning's works.
This is the buyout price. No matter how many billions of box office revenue a movie makes in the future, it will have nothing to do with Jiang Ning.
The film rights to this book, which seem to be priced sky-high now, were later considered one of the wisest decisions in the game with several other leading film and television companies. It established the unshakable position of those who come to buy the film rights to Jiang Ning's book "Star Mecha" in this film and television company.
This is a story for later, so I won’t discuss it for now.
Both parties were very satisfied, the contract was signed quickly, and even the funds were deposited very smoothly.
However, Mr. Stankey, who had come to the Flower Country in person to sign the film and television copyright of "Star Trek" with her, unexpectedly brought her another surprise not long after. He was introduced to a publishing house in the United States by Mr. Stankey and obtained the distribution rights of "Star Trek" in the United States.
The distribution rights of this book were eventually sold to this publishing house for 120,000 beautiful currency, which was a pleasant surprise. Now, in addition to being serialized and published as a physical book in China, the book "Star Mecha" is also being distributed and published in Southeast Asian countries and the United States.
After the summer vacation, when the new semester started, Jiang Ning was able to move out of her original dormitory and live in a rental house outside the school.
Her house in Beijing has been renovated and can be moved in at any time. Although she invested all the publishing royalties, film and television copyright fees, and house mortgage fees in the stock market, and did not withdraw them after the 519 market boom, her serial royalties have always been there.
Originally, she had considered whether she should learn from a current variety show host. After making money, she would buy herself a house every month, or try to buy as many houses as possible. However, she ended up investing all her money in the stock market, leaving only the money from serialization. Now that the money from serialization has accumulated to a certain level, Jiang Ning simply bought another house on the Third Ring Road.
Money will only depreciate when it is in your hands, but if you buy a house with it, you can be flexible in terms of cashing it out or using it as a fixed asset in the future.
She did not hide these things from Song Peifeng, so Song Peifeng watched his partner study writing, make fortunes in the stock market, sell copyrights at sky-high prices, and promote his hometown to boost its economy.
Yes, after the broadcast of "Legend of the White Snake" on CCTV during the summer vacation this year, Jiang Guotai was inspired by Jiang Ning's video of rafting, surfing, picking lotus seeds and eating river food, and he also asked someone to shoot a short video of rafting, surfing, picking lotus seeds and eating river food, which was broadcast on the city and local TV stations in Wujiang City, neighboring cities, provincial capitals, and several other cities close to the Linhe Brigade.
Except for the provincial TV station, the other local TV stations' city TV stations' gg fees are very cheap. But for many local people who can only search for local provincial TV stations, city TV stations and central TV stations, this gg is undoubtedly very effective.
Especially in the first week before the start of the summer vacation, all tourist projects except meals, accommodation and travel expenses are free, and the subsequent fee is only 0.9 yuan per ticket. For a time, it attracted many groups of students from neighboring cities, Wujiang City, provincial capitals, etc. to come and play.
They first arrived in Wucheng, and then were impressed by its cleanliness.
In the summer, there are no longer trees of locust flowers in Wucheng, but the clear moat that has been managed, and the summer moat fishing competition and dragon boat race still attract many tourists.
As for why the dragon boat race is held during the summer vacation instead of the Dragon Boat Festival?
The publicity for the Dragon Boat Festival was not sufficient, and the dragon boats in many towns and villages were not even ready, let alone dragon boat racing.
Of course, we can't say that. Secretary Song said that this is to prepare for next year's dragon boat race. All dragon boat teams should start practicing first. In next year's dragon boat race, the first place will receive a prize of 5,000 yuan, the second place will receive a prize of 3,000 yuan, and the third place will receive a prize of 1,500 yuan!
Five thousand dollars!
This is now the annual savings for many families!
Upon hearing that there was so much prize money to be won, tourists from nearby counties and cities who came to Wucheng for tourism asked if they could also participate. The answer was yes.
Wucheng welcomes all friends to come to Wucheng to participate in next year's dragon boat race!
Once these tourists brought back this news, a dragon boat craze immediately broke out!
They live in the Jiangnan water area and are good at water battles. This is especially true with the popularity of "Water Margin" in recent years. There are several heroes who are very good at swimming, and they have nicknames such as "Zhang Shun, the white shark in the waves", "Li Jun, the dragon of the river", "Tong Wei, the dragon coming out of the cave, and Tong Meng, the mirage turning over the river". Who among the young people who grew up by the river doesn't know how to swim?
So they imitated the heroes in "Water Margin" and gave themselves nicknames that sounded very loud, preparing to become famous in next year's dragon boat race!
Some people who didn't know how to come up with nicknames simply used "Langli Baitiao" and "Hunjiang Long". All of a sudden, there were many "Langli Baitiao" and "Hunjiang Long" in the Wujiang area. One by one, they dug up the dragon boats from their village that had been buried in the river for who knows how many years, painted them with tung oil, refurbished them, and practiced rowing dragon boats, waiting to row the dragon boats to Wucheng next year and have a grand dragon boat race on the river outside Wucheng and Wujiang City!
When the Wujiang Municipal Party Committee heard that Wucheng was going to hold a dragon boat race next year, they also allocated funds. As a result, the prize money for the first place was increased from 5,000 to 8,000, the prize money for the second place was increased from 3,000 to 5,000, and the prize money for the third place was increased to 3,000. There were also some participation prizes left. These participation prizes were not prize money, but rice, rapeseed oil, tea and the like.
This news spread more and more widely as more and more tourists came to Wucheng and Linhe Brigade.
Most of the Mingqian tea produced in Jiangjia Village this year was given by Jiang Guotai to producer Li and his team, who took it back to Beijing. The remaining small portion was given to various leaders in the county and city after "Legend of the White Snake" was released on CCTV and caused a sensation.
When the leaders heard that this was tea that was being promoted on CCTV and that the central government was drinking, how could the local government not follow suit and pay attention to it?
As a result, the entire Linhe Brigade and Wugong Mountain became key support areas and key development zones of the local government. They were given many preferential policies and various supports were also tilted towards this area.
Although there is only a little tea left from the Qingming Festival in Linhe Brigade, the tea after Qingming Festival is picked and grown in batches.
These picked tea leaves are purchased, roasted and packaged according to the different light and appearance by Jiang Guotai at the tea processing factory that he is building at the foot of the mountain. They are marked with the Wugong Tea logo and emblem and then sold in Shuibu Town, Wucheng, neighboring cities, Linhe Brigade and other places.
The price of tea is also divided into several levels.
The locals love tea. Even someone as poor as Jiang's father, who was heavily in debt in the past, would drink more than ten kilograms of tea every year, not to mention those in towns with better economic conditions.
These Wugong teas have been on CCTV, and everyone at CCTV said they were good!
If you can afford good tea, buy more expensive ones and a few kilograms. If you can't afford good tea, buy cheaper ones and buy less to try.
And only after I actually came to the local area to buy tea, I realized that Wugong tea not only tastes good and has a bright color, but its nutritional content is also much higher than that of similar teas because the water and soil of Wugong Mountain nourish people. Long-term drinking can significantly increase the body's macrophages, and has a series of functions such as quenching thirst, promoting salivation, diuresis and improving eyesight, detoxification and health care.
These functions are not just what they say, but are backed by a series of testing certificates from authoritative organizations.
For a time, Wugong tea from Wugong Mountain was a hot seller! There is a constant flow of tourists in Linhe Brigade.
Yaoba Town where Mayor Jiang is located has no outbreaks, so naturally there are not many tourists.
But he is a special ghost. He has no money to go on TV and cheer for Yaoba Town. What should he do? We arranged people in advance to intercept people at Wucheng Bus Station, and take those who came to Linhe Brigade in Shuibu Town to Yaoba Town first. After they played in Yaoba Town for a few days, they were sent to Linhe Brigade in Shuibu Town.
Jiang Guotai soon found out about this matter, and was so angry that he went to find Mayor Jiang to ask for an explanation.
What can Mayor Jiang say? He can only play dirty with his brothers, saying, "Brother, there is nothing I can do. Look at my Yaoba Town. It has developed quite well now, but I have no money. I can only use your money. You see, I took them to play for a few days, and they immediately said that rafting and surfing were not here, so I sent them to you!"
Now is the initial stage of publicity. Both the Linhe Brigade in Shuibu Town and Yaoba Town are in the period of losing money to gain publicity.
Whether it is food or water transportation, the prices are extremely cheap, and many attractions are free to visit, just to spread the reputation and attract more tourists.
Jiang Guotai couldn't do anything about his elder brother, what could he do? They just don't have the money to play GG, but they want to promote and develop Yaoba Town, while Secretary Song is also promoting the other two of the "Three Hegemons of Wucheng", Liuba Town and Douba Town.
It's just that these two towns are geographically closer to Wujiang City, have superior geographical locations, are home to many factories, and have a good economic foundation. However, the factories have also damaged some of the ecological environment. In terms of becoming a tourist and leisure town, they are not as good as Yaoba Town, which has been preparing in advance for more than half a year.
Even though Yaoba Town has stopped so many people from the bus station to go to Yaoba Town, tricycle rides are free and water sightseeing is also free, but the pearl shops in the town, pearl bracelets, pearl necklaces, pearl earrings, barbecue stalls, beer crayfish, spicy crabs, grilled fish in the evening stalls, all these always cost money!
Some people also imitated Wucheng's square dance culture at night, and danced karaoke disco collectively in the town center square at night. Mayor Jiang specially gathered some of the young gangsters in the town who liked to go to the dance hall to dance and built a stage for them. Don't they like to dance? Just dance here to your heart's content, get paid to dance, and take tourists to dance and sing to their heart's content.
If there are young people who want to go on stage to sing and dance, or lead the dance, everyone can take dancing lessons on stage, for free!
The main feature is excitement!
Thus, the "square dance karaoke disco" culture spread from Wucheng to Yaoba Town, from Yaoba Town to Linhe Brigade, and from Linhe Brigade to Shuibu Town.
So the town without collective square dancing, karaoke and disco seemed to be backward and unfashionable. Every night, young people in the surrounding area no longer went to the dance halls that required money, but went to the free square.
The place with the most concentrated flow of people is Shuibu Town, a transportation fortress.
Shuibu Town is located in the most central position among counties, cities and towns, with well-developed water transportation, so young people from the surrounding areas all gather in Shuibu Town.
Shuibu Town was originally a famous ancient town in the surrounding area. It was a large and prosperous town. Once the flow of people concentrated, a night market was set up and the town became even more prosperous.
Jiang Guotai is also very wealthy.
It would be extremely difficult to have a square for square dancing in other places, but Jiang Guotai is rich.
The three sand factories earned him more than tens of millions in the first half of the year.
With tens of millions in 1999, he was one of the most powerful people not only in Wucheng but also in the neighboring cities.
It's not that no one is jealous of his three sand factories, but it's not easy to snatch them back now that they have been taken away by others. You have brains and can plan, but Jiang Guotai is smarter than you, more daring, more courageous, and more resolute. He also knows how to spend money.
The highway project in the neighboring city was finally completed and opened to traffic in 1999. The section of road contracted by Jiang Guotai was the best built, with the most solid materials and the most beautiful finish. Not to mention him, even the people behind him were beaming with joy at the sight of such a beautifully completed highway project. Other jealous people were even more speechless.
After Jiang Guotai made money, he did not keep it to himself, but immediately applied to the city leaders for permission to build a road.
This is the cement road that leads from the neighboring city to Linhe Brigade, and then from Linhe Brigade to "Wugong Mountain".
This is a huge project and it cannot be completed without two or three million dollars.
But Jiang Guotai said without hesitation that he would spend 20 million to build the road. Such courage is very rare in this area, let alone in neighboring cities.
Once this road is built, it will be a real political achievement for the city’s leaders.
If the leaders don’t like Jiang Guotai, who else would they like?
Jiang Guotai's plan to build this road not only brought tangible achievements to the city leaders, but also the villagers in the surrounding areas along this entire road section were the direct beneficiaries. In the future, when talking about the road in their hometown, everyone would have to thank Jiang Guotai. After that, when this road was opened, the two sand factories that were originally the most profitable were the two sand factories near the neighboring city and the Linhe Brigade. But once the road was built, the sand factory located in the middle section would be opened to land, and in the future, the transportation route for river sand in the area around the neighboring city that did not cross the river would also be opened. At the same time, it connected the neighboring city to Linhe Brigade and the "Wugong Mountain", allowing tourists from the neighboring city to come to Linhe Brigade and the "Wugong Mountain" more conveniently.
Once such a road is opened, it will be a major event for the local people in terms of economic development, and the local people will be grateful for it.
It can be said to be a win-win situation.
Obviously, it was a very good thing for him, but when Jiang Guotai told others about it, it seemed like he made money and gave it back to his hometown for free, building roads and bridges for his fellow villagers and delivering political achievements to the city leaders.
Look, he has been considered a good person and has done all the good things.
Jiang Guotai is a man who does what he says. After his own engineering team completed the highway project in the neighboring city, they started the construction of this road in his hometown.
On the side of the municipal party committee in the neighboring city, his road leads to Linhe Brigade. From the county party committee and municipal party committee on the Wucheng side, his road passes through the mountain stream bridge in Shijian Township and leads to Shijian Township, and then connects to the road to "Wugong Mountain".
For the Wucheng County Party Committee, it is also a political achievement.
To him, the money earned from the three sand factories was just like picked up money. Now that the expressway has been completed, he has received the remaining 40% of the balance, and has started to take on new projects in the neighboring city. Now the richest man in the neighboring city is Jiang Guotai, but he is not in a hurry to compete with others for projects and jobs. He first focused on building his hometown, and left the small projects to others. He directly took on the big projects that others could not take on.
How many people wanted to rob Jiang Guotai's three sand factories? As long as Jiang Guotai said a word, the villagers inside would come with hoes and smash your car before you even get inside. You can only arrest one person by relying on your connections, but can you arrest all the villagers in the surrounding area?
Jiang Guotai has already won the hearts of the people here, and his position here is unbreakable.
His road was built from the neighboring city to the inner city, because first the city leaders had to see the real investment.
Then the roads in the entire Jiangjia Village were all paved from muddy roads to concrete roads.
Jiang Guotai was in charge of the construction of the main roads, the roads leading to each village, and the dirt roads within each village. Each village and brigade had to be responsible for their own maintenance. It was impossible for him to repair the roads in every village along the way. Such an investment would be impossible to cover even with all the money he had. It would be a bottomless pit.
But Jiangjia Village is still okay, so Jiangjia Village became the first village in the surrounding area to bid farewell to dirt roads and have cement roads everywhere. Not only are there cement roads at the beginning and end of the village, but the cement roads even lead all the way to the mountain, making it convenient for tourists to climb Huolu Mountain to pick tea, but also for Uncle Jiang and Grandma Jiang to occasionally go down the mountain.
Those families who were once jealous of Jiang Guotai's money are now all benefiting from Jiang Guotai.
Grandpa Zhonghua is now in the village, he is so proud, he wants to call Grandpa Jiang back immediately to compete with him, who has a higher reputation in the village, who is more respected, and whose family is more powerful!
Grandpa Zhonghua smiles from ear to ear every day.
The square in the center of the village is huge.
This section was originally the parking lot and senior activity center of Jiangjia Village, right next to the cinema.
A few years later, several buildings were built nearby, occupying some space. Now this place is completely empty, so it was paved with cement roads. When tourists come, those who like to watch movies can spend fifty cents to go into the cinema to watch movies, and those who don’t like watching movies can dance and sing in the central square of the village. There is a huge bonfire burning in the middle, just like the bonfire parties in later generations.
The TV series "Legend of the White Snake" can be said to have been used to the utmost by the people of Jiangjia Village. There are tall stills of "Legend of the White Snake" everywhere in the village. For example, when tourists go to the river beach to see the lotus, the villagers who are rowing boats will introduce it by saying: "You have all seen "Legend of the White Snake"? All the scenes about lotus in this TV series were taken at the river beach of Jiangjia Village in Linhe Brigade!"
Then he pointed to the stills from the movie White Snake hanging on the bow of the ship to prove the truth of his words.
No tourist would doubt his words. After all, "The Legend of White Snake" clearly mentioned Wugong Mountain, Wugong Tea, Wugong Gorgon Cake, etc.
So the boatman took them to see the lotus flowers and then to pick water chestnuts.
The money he charged for rowing was very low, only fifty cents per person, but there were so many people. There were boats full of people every day. Although rowing was a bit tiring, how could it be tiring when it was about making money? He is already fifty years old and can still make money. Everyone will be envious if they hear about this!
No matter where you go, there are stills from "White Snake", allowing tourists to fully appreciate the beautiful scenery in the TV series.
Among them, the most popular hotel accommodation is Jiang Dad’s house, which is now temporarily seconded and turned into a B&B.
It can be said that it is a "check-in destination" that all tourists must visit and most want to stay in.
It’s not for any other reason, just because it is this family that produced two people who are famous throughout the province - Jiang Ning and Jiang Bai!
Two celebrities came from one family, one is studying at Peking University and the other is now a star. What a great feng shui this is!
As a result, the price of rooms in Jiang's father's house kept rising, but there was still a shortage of supply.
Jiang Guotai always called Jiang's father and said, "Your house is still a little small. You don't know how popular this room is!"
Dad Jiang never expected that he could rent out the house and earn money while working outside.
As for not renting it out, why not rent it out? By renting out the house and having people living in it, they are actually helping to maintain the house. They all work in other places, and if the house is left there and no one takes care of it, it will become abandoned in a few years.
Now there is someone to help take care of the house and make money, it would be stupid for Jiang's father not to make money.
As for Jiang Ma, as long as she can make money, not only the empty room, but even her own room and her son's room can be rented out!
Those who want to climb Huolu Mountain during the day can go hiking. Those who want to go rafting can take a tricycle and go rafting five miles away. When they are tired of rafting, they can sleep for a night and go surfing on the river the next day. Jiang Guotai has left several motorboats at his newly built dock, and they can go there to eat river food, eat crayfish, and dance square disco at night.
Aunt Jiang had been an ordinary housewife and a small farmer all her life. She never imagined that one day her home would be turned into a hotel. She would clear out all the rooms upstairs to accommodate tourists, and she and her son and daughter-in-law would live downstairs. Fortunately, the house was built quite big, otherwise it would not be big enough.
She is efficient and clean, and keeps her house tidy. The ordinary meals she cooks have become the favorite restaurant of tourists.
There are several small tables on the high platform in her house. The house was always full every day throughout the summer vacation, and there were customers all the time. Fortunately, she has two daughters-in-law to help her, otherwise she would be too busy to handle it.
She herself had never imagined that a village woman working in the fields like herself could earn more than 3,000 yuan in one summer vacation. Even if her two daughters-in-law each received 1,000 yuan, she would still have more than 1,000 yuan.
It's only been two months.
The teachers in the village primary school only earn 300 yuan a month. I heard that the girls and boys in the village who go out to work only earn 500 to 600 or 700 to 800 yuan a month. How could she have earned more than 3,000 yuan in just two months?
All the ingredients she used were fruits and vegetables that she grew herself in the fields and were not worth much.
After she told Jiang Guotai about this with some fear, Jiang Guotai smiled and held the short and fat shoulders of Aunt Jiang and said, "My dear sister, isn't it good to make money? I'm building bridges, paving roads, and spending money to plant lotus and build docks. Isn't it to make money with the villagers in our village?"
He always speaks for the good of others, making money with others, and tying everyone's interests to his own.
He said, "You should just keep the money you earned through your hard work. Now is the beginning, how can you start? There will be plenty of money to be made in the future. When you have nothing to do at home, you can tidy up the yard, plant more flowers and grass, and make the yard more beautiful. If your house can be expanded, it would be better to expand it like Guoping's house, with more rooms. There will be more tourists in the future, so you can build more bathrooms and toilets, make the rooms better and cleaner, and then you can just sit at home and earn money!"
He thought for a moment and said, "These wild roses are not good. They easily attract snakes. So, I'll ask Jiang Xin and Miaomiao to get some rose seedlings from the provincial capital's Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Agricultural University to plant. The flowers are beautiful!" The main reason is that the male protagonist always gives roses to the female protagonist in the movie. Jiang Guotai thinks this flower is popular. He has always been a pragmatist and thinks that this flower will be liked by tourists: "When the time comes, this entire platform will be planted with roses. When people walk into our village and look up from the road below, they will see flowers all the way. How can they not be attracted?"
The main reason is that Aunt Jiang's wife has never earned money in her life. All the money in the family is earned by Uncle Jiang and his three sons. Now she can suddenly earn money, and earns no less than Uncle Jiang and his sons. She feels a little uneasy and unreal.
Uncle Jiang originally wanted to buy a house in Xinjie of the town for his youngest son. But now, seeing that his hometown is developing so well, he no longer wants to buy a house in Xinjie. He just wants to quickly apply for a residential plot and build a house as big as Jiang's father's house next to it. The extra house will be used as a hotel for tourists in the future.
After this summer vacation, the reputation of Linhe Brigade in Wucheng, Yaoba Town and Shuibu Town has spread far and wide. Not to mention the surrounding area, even people in several nearby counties and cities know about it. There is also a very beautiful place suitable for tourism, with delicious food, fun and cheap prices. It is called Wucheng, Wugong Mountain and Linhe Brigade!
Yes, yes, it’s the Wucheng Linhe Brigade that produced Jiang Ning and Jiang Bai!
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