As soon as he returned from Xiangjiang, Lin Chaoyang fell into a busy schedule. He finally finished writing the script of "The Chess Master" that he had delayed for a long time during his visit.

I spent five yuan and asked Tao Yumo to make a copy and prepare to send it to Chen Huaikai in two days.

He himself was busy writing a creative talk for "Flower City". During his trip to Xiangjiang, "Flower City" sent a letter saying that the response to "Crossing the Boat" was extremely enthusiastic, and many readers hoped that Lin Chaoyang could write a creative talk.

It took him two days to write a creative statement and sent it to "Flower City". Then he took the script of "The Chess" to Yan Film Studio located at No. 77, North Third Ring Road Middle Road.

After entering Yan Film Studio, he went straight to the third floor of the main building, where the director's department and the literary department were located.

It's a pity that the old directors and screenwriters here only come to chat during meetings every week. The office is full of middle-aged people and new recruits.

Ma Bingyu, the director of the director's office, is the eldest disciple of Director Shui Hua. Although he is now the director, he is actually a general manager who supports both families. He has to come to the office on duty every day.

Hearing that Lin Chaoyang was here to deliver a script to Chen Huaikai, he immediately became energetic, ran to the Literature Department and called someone to be on duty in the Director's Department, and then led Lin Chaoyang towards Chen Huaikai's house.

When Ma Bingyu brought Lin Chaoyang to Chen Huaikai's house, he was listening to the radio leisurely on the recliner. When he saw Lin Chaoyang, he got up from the recliner with an "ouch".

"Is the script finished?"

He stared at the booklet in Lin Chaoyang's hand with some excitement, his eyes full of expectation.

Lin Chaoyang slapped the script on the table, "Wait a little slower, are you in a hurry?"

Chen Huaikai was indeed a little anxious while waiting, but Lin Chaoyang's efficiency could not be said to be slow. It was normal for editors at Yan Film Studio to write a book for one or two years.

Lin Chaoyang finished it in just a few months, which is considered fast.

Chen Huaikai held the script and was reluctant to let it go, "No hurry, I'll take a look first."

He is very accomplished in film creation and is even known as the underground director of Yan Film Studio.

Gein, almost all directors like to ask him to see the samples and provide guidance after they have finished filming. Many screenwriters will also show them to him after they have finished writing the scripts.

He often hits the key points of the film and script in just a few words.

Moreover, he had already read the novel many times for the filming of "The Chess Master", and he had discussed the direction of the script adaptation with Lin Chaoyang more than once, so he read the script very quickly.

It only took more than an hour to read the 30,000-word script. Of course, this was just a rough reading. The subsequent interpretation of the script was his most important job as a director.

"Well, the scripts are better than those written by many people in our factory. As a director, I can't fault it."

Chen Huaikai was all smiles after reading the script and praised it without hesitation.

"Then you tell the finance manager and the royalties will be paid to me."

"Our Yan Film Studio is such a big unit, how can we still pay less for your manuscript?"

Chen Huaikai did not mention the royalties, so he pulled Lin Chaoyang to discuss the handling of the split shots. Lin Chaoyang wanted to say: This is another price.

But when you think about it, you can't be too fussy after receiving a royalties of 10,000 yuan, and not all literati are as stingy as Lao Cha.

When the two were preparing to discuss, Chen Huaikai realized that there was someone next to him.

"Bingyu, why don't you stay here for lunch?"

The old guy said this very implicitly. Ma Bingyu stared at Lin Chaoyang's script eagerly and said reluctantly: "It can't be done, I have to go back to work."

"Then I won't send it to you."

When Ma Bingyu was kicked out, Lin Chaoyang complained: "It's really unscrupulous, at least I'm leaving someone to eat!"

"The food at our house is not as good as the one in the cafeteria." Chen Huaikai defended and then said, "Come on, let's read the script."

After finally waiting for the script, Chen Huaikai's energy saving during this period came in handy, and he wanted to squeeze out all Lin Chaoyang's thoughts and ideas.

It wasn't until Chen Kaige came back from wandering outside in the afternoon that the two stopped discussing.

"Uncle Lin!" Chen Kaige greeted Lin Chaoyang.

"Kego is back!"

Lin Chaoyang said to Chen Huaikai again: "Come on, you can talk about the script with your son. I have to go home. If you have any ideas, please make an appointment to talk about it together."

After he finished speaking, he did not forget to say, "I want to pay the royalties."

"Can't forget."

After he left, Chen Kaige was extremely excited.

"Dad, is the script finished?"

Seeing his son's eagerness to give it a try, Chen Huaikai handed him the script and said, "Read it first and talk to me if you have any ideas."

"good."

A few days later, Lin Chaoyang received a fee bill from Yan Film Studio - 10,000 yuan.

This is the largest single manuscript fee Lin Chaoyang has received this year, followed by the publication fee for "The Crossing Boat", which costs 20 yuan per thousand words, totaling 5,040 yuan.

Another relatively large income is the settlement of royalties for the printings of the three works "The Death of Van Gogh", "The Chess Master" and "Shutter Island" after they were published. These three works were published relatively late, so the royalties for the printings are very

considerable.

After the beginning of the new year, each of them received a payment for printing, totaling 16,000.

As for the royalties for the number of prints of other works after they are published, because the publication time is longer and the sales are getting lower and lower, the settled royalties are also getting smaller and smaller.

The only exception is "Wreaths Under the Mountains". This novel has been published for more than three years, and its total sales have exceeded 7 million copies. Even though the original contract was only a 1% remuneration for 10,000 copies, the settlement fee was still considerable.

.

Unfortunately, at the beginning of the year, Lin Chaoyang did not renew his contract with Warrior Publishing House. They insisted on paying only 1% of the royalties for each print run of 10,000 copies, so Lin Chaoyang had no choice but to terminate the cooperation.

For most writers in China, the basic royalties are the final royalties they can get, but Lin Chaoyang is different. His works have always been best-selling, and the royalties for the number of print runs are often even several times the basic royalties.

Therefore, he planned to save the publishing rights of a few books and find a publisher willing to bid for them.

There are also sporadic incomes from the reprinting of some works, which add up to 1,800 yuan.

After careful calculation, my income in the first half of the year was about 33,000 yuan.

That night, Tao Yushu came to Lin Chaoyang with a manuscript and said it was from Zhong Acheng.

"He is very efficient!" Lin Chaoyang said with a smile.

Before going to Xiangjiang, Zhong Acheng told a story at a party, and everyone encouraged him to write it. It only took more than half a month for the novel to be published, which was very efficient.

"Yes, the key point is also very good. He really has creative talent."

Tao Yushu praised it and asked Lin Chaoyang to read the novel and make comments.

Lin Chaoyang flipped through the novel, and it turned out to be Zhong Acheng's famous work "The King of Chess", but the novel was slightly different from what he had in mind.

"This ending..."

His tone was deep, and Tao Yushu asked: "What happened at the end?"

"Wang Yisheng went to the chess academy to become a professional chess player. His face was shiny, he had enough to eat every day, and he no longer had any desire to play chess. Isn't this ending too cruel?"

Lin Chaoyang clearly remembers that the ending of "The King of Chess" in his impression was that Wang Yisheng played against nine masters at the same time, defeated eight of them, and finally exhausted his energy and ended up in a draw with the national champion.

The novel ends with the emotion of "I", the bystander and friend.

He didn't know why Chung Acheng changed the ending. The current ending was certainly not bad. On the contrary, it was very good, but too cruel and gloomy.

Listening to Lin Chaoyang's statement, Tao Yushu thought for a moment and said: "Grey is gray, but it's also very thought-provoking, isn't it? And I think Acheng may have written it that way on purpose."

"What do you mean?" Lin Chaoyang asked.

""Chess King" and "Chess Saint" do have similarities in some places, especially the final scene of one versus nine.

In your novel, Jiang Nansheng finally fell on the way to defeat his opponent. If "The King of Chess" ended abruptly at the peak moment when Wang Yisheng defeated nine chess players, it would be too similar to Jiang Nansheng's ending.

Now this ending is different from "The Master of Chess" and has its own style and charm, so it can be regarded as a good ending."

Lin Chaoyang didn't know that the earliest version of "The King of Chess" did have two endings.

The first thing Zhong Acheng wrote was the ending of eating meat. However, after the manuscript was sent to "Shanghai Literature", the editor thought that this ending was too gloomy, so he changed it to the ending that Lin Chaoyang saw.

The Chung Acheng of this world was influenced by "The Master of Chess", but wanted to be different from "The Master of Chess", so he still wrote such an ending.

After hearing what Tao Yushu said, Lin Chaoyang didn't insist anymore. Anyway, both endings were good, so let him go.

He asked with a smile: "Congratulations to Comrade Yushu, for getting another wonderful piece of work."

Hearing this, Tao Yushu smiled proudly. Probably the greatest sense of accomplishment as an editor is to be able to discover influential writers and works.

"Ah Cheng's novel should have some influence, right? Will some people say it is too similar to "The Master of Chess"?" she asked.

"The two novels have only a few similarities, so it would be too far-fetched to say they are similar. The novels are well written and will definitely receive a good response after being published."

Lin Chaoyang's vow made Tao Yushu extremely happy.

Time passed by half a month, during which Chen Huaikai came to Lin Chaoyang's house twice to discuss many issues such as the script, filming and actors.

Most of the rest of the time, Lin Chaoyang was concentrating on sorting out information and preparing for the novel he agreed to "Flower City".

On May 25, Teng Hongsheng from the co-production company suddenly arrived and said that he was inviting Lin Chaoyang to attend the press conferences of "Burning the Old Summer Palace" and "Behind the Curtain".

"Is the movie going to be released?" Lin Chaoyang asked in surprise.

The filming of the movie only started in August last year, and it has been nine months now. It shouldn't be so fast, right?

"No. It's a final press conference, it's promotional in nature..."
To be continued...