Chapter 20: Sing a Song?
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Martial arts novels are bound to fade into obscurity... Just like Tang poetry and Song lyrics, every era has its own artistic creations! In fact, Dian Niang has a book called The Dead Scripture... It’s quite good! But the book is too long, nearly four million words. How could it possibly be serialized?
By the way, Li Yuqiu was curious about the situation with The Supreme One, and Shen Yan said that book is close to 4.5 million words... so he just shut up. It’s not like there haven’t been super-long martial arts serials before—The Twin Dragons of the Tang Dynasty is 3.74 million words! But the Martial Arts Edition could never serialize something that long... Even Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils is only about 1.5 million words!
If I remember correctly, the longest novel serialized in the Martial Arts Edition of Contemporary and Ancient Legends was Cang Hai at 1.1 million words... Kunlun was under a million words... Actually, Huang Yi’s Legend of the Frontier Wilderness was also serialized in the Martial Arts Edition for a while... but it wasn’t completed because it was too long. The serialized version of Legend of the Frontier Wilderness totaled about 3.06 million words.
Expecting the Martial Arts Edition to serialize a novel over a million words is basically impossible! Actually... martial arts novels mixed with boys’ love have a lot of potential—Tianya Guest, Kill Wolf, Mo Dao Zu Shi, including Meng Xishi’s Qian Qiu...
Unfortunately, it seems the Martial Arts Edition doesn’t accept boys’ love novels. Well, Shen Yan isn’t very accepting of them either... Besides, there has to be some space for boys’ love writers to thrive... Copycats only need to plagiarize one or two works and that’s enough!
...
In the afternoon, Shen Yan continued making background plates, but there weren’t many opportunities to act today. The main filming was of Tian Han writing the script... Tian Han was not only the lyricist of the March of the Volunteers, but also a renowned playwright, nicknamed the “Little Guan Hanqing.” He created works like Suzhou Night Talks and The Death of a Star Performer. Besides the March of the Volunteers, he also wrote lyrics for the songs Four Seasons Song and Songstress of the Horizon in the film Street Angel, as well as the Graduation Song in Peach and Plum Calamity.
According to the on-site producer, filming for The National Anthem should wrap up in about twenty days! As for Wen Zhang’s scenes, there should be seven or eight days left... After all, he’s quite busy, and his scenes are mostly shot in concentrated blocks.
Honestly, Shen Yan always felt Wen Zhang’s portrayal of Nie Yuan was a bit off... Too irritable! Or maybe just not fitting the image... It should be noted that the male lead in the film version of The National Anthem was Chen Kun! But Wen Zhang is currently at the height of his popularity... After Struggle and Dwelling Narrowness, he’s considered a hot TV actor... Although not top-tier yet; only after Snow Leopard, The Fruit Marriage Era, and Love Is Not Blind did he truly rise to first-tier status.
Still, Wen Zhang treats Shen Yan quite well... Shen Yan roughly guessed who he’d meet tonight—it should be his agent! After all, some time ago, Wen Zhang mentioned he would introduce his agent to Shen Yan...
To be honest, over the past two months, Shen Yan has come to understand many things.
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Being an actor is pretty nice... You earn a lot, have fewer responsibilities, film maybe two projects a year, and the rest of the time is your own! The prime example is Xia Yu, who films one or two projects a year, sometimes just one, and spends the rest of the time cultivating a bunch of hobbies—yet he still makes plenty of money.
Of course, he was lucky, winning Best Actor at Venice at seventeen for In the Heat of the Sun... But after understanding the general trajectory of the film and TV industry for the next few years, Shen Yan realized that even without becoming wildly famous, at least you can reach second-tier status... Making several million a year wouldn’t be a problem!
That’s why signing with an agency is essential. In this way, Wen Zhang essentially became his mentor. He definitely needed to give a gift...
What Wen Zhang wanted most right now was Ocean Heaven—he had been researching autism patients extensively lately, doing a lot of groundwork... Unfortunately, Shen Yan couldn’t help with that! Ocean Heaven’s director and screenwriter was Xue Xiaolu, produced by Anle Films, but none of that compared to lead actor Li Lianjie...
Li Lianjie not only took a symbolic one yuan fee, but also pulled in Xi Zhongwen for art direction, Du Kefeng for cinematography, and Joe Hisaishi for the score... Many of the actors worked for almost nothing... But when it came to choosing the lead male role, he had the final say!
Still, Shen Yan vaguely remembered Wen Zhang had acted in Ocean Heaven...
At worst, Shen Yan couldn’t influence Li Lianjie’s choice anyway... He didn’t understand Buddhism and couldn’t perform miracles!
Thinking it over, Shen Yan went to a nearby market and bought a few calligraphy brushes and two sheets of rice paper, painting a rendition of the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival... Haha, of course, it wasn’t possible—just a simple landscape painting.
When he finished... he suddenly didn’t want to give it to Wen Zhang anymore! Better buy a couple of packs of cigarettes...
...
He took Wen Zhang’s chauffeured car directly to a bar!
Getting out, Shen Yan felt something was off... Nobody introduces people to each other in bars, right? Did he guess wrong? Was it not to introduce an agent?
Wen Zhang walked in expertly, sat down in a booth, and then said, “This is a bar owned by a friend of mine...”
“...Friend?”
“Fan Fan...”
Shen Yan nodded: “Oh, I know him.”
Fan Fan was a musician. The ending song of Dwelling Narrowness, I Want to Shout Out Loud, was composed by him... Fan Fan had a good relationship with Wen Zhang. The songs for the TV dramas Fruit Marriage Era and Little Daddy, both starring Wen Zhang, were sung by Fan Fan...
Snow Leopard’s songs were not by him, though; those were produced by Luan Shu...
Fan Fan’s voice was quite similar to Wen Zhang’s. However, after Wen Zhang’s decline, Fan Fan gradually lost his voice too...
Wen Zhang looked at the two packs of soft cigarettes Shen Yan handed him and asked curiously, “Why did you buy me cigarettes?”
Shen Yan replied casually, “...Thank you.”
“Has your manuscript fee arrived?”
“Not yet, it’ll come at the end of the month...”
“...Then why buy such expensive cigarettes?”
“Won’t you be paying me tomorrow?”
The door opened, and Fan Fan came in carrying several bottles of red wine. Seeing Wen Zhang, he greeted casually, “You’re here... Who’s this?”
“Shen Yan, a little brother of mine!”
Shen Yan hurriedly stood up: “...Brother Fan, I’m Shen Yan...”
Fan Fan smiled: “Brother Wen is my brother... Don’t be so formal...”
Then he looked at Wen Zhang: “Want a drink?”
“...Alright, but I can’t drink too much, I have to go home later...” Wen Zhang glanced at Shen Yan: “Can you drink?”
“My tolerance is average...”
Shen Yan took the glass, and Fan Fan filled it up: “Just drink a little...”
Then Wen Zhang started chatting with Fan Fan...
Shen Yan didn’t join in and instead focused on the girl singing in the middle of the bar... She was singing a Stefanie Sun song, but hardly anyone was paying attention.
Quite normal, at bars the resident band usually only stirs the atmosphere during rock songs; otherwise, it’s quite indifferent!
Fan Fan noticed Shen Yan’s gaze and invited, “Want to get up and sing a song?”
Shen Yan quickly waved his hand: “...Me? No way...”
Wen Zhang teased, “You play the violin so well, there’s no reason you can’t sing. Come on, sing!”
“You play violin? Then can you play guitar?”
Shen Yan: “I know a little...”
“Then you go up and perform...”
Shen Yan explained, “The songs I listen to... you guys might not like!”
“What kind of songs?”
“Zhao Lei’s Southern Girl...”
Wen Zhang rolled his eyes: “Go sing it once...”
Shen Yan scratched his head and then followed Fan Fan directly onto the stage...