Chapter 315: The Unhappy Author

"I heard the Principal is coming, hurry up and get out of bed to listen to his speech!"

"Let's go, let's go, let's go watch the Principal's speech."

"I hope the Principal will look at me one more time and remember me, then I can struggle a lot less for many years."

"What if you just let him climb into your bed, then you won't have to struggle at all."

"Hahaha."

A group of girls chatted and laughed on the road, bursting into silvery bell-like laughter that carried far.

Reserved in front of people, utterly wanton behind their backs.

"Yang Zi, why aren't you going?"

Zhang Yishan saw Yang Zi dawdling and patted her shoulder from behind.

"I'm not going, you go ahead!" Yang Zi only wanted to turn invisible now, to be a transparent person.

Zhang Yishan, with his monkey-like face, looked at her carefully: "Is it because of that thing from a few years ago? The Principal probably forgot about it long ago."

Quite a lot of people had heard about that incident; mainly, as soon as the Principal got up, there were already rumors spreading, which made Yang Zi quite embarrassed.

"You go, then I won't go." Yang Zi gave him a push.

"Don't take it to heart. The Principal isn't that petty. Over the years, plenty of artists have offended him—have you ever heard of him targeting anyone in particular?" Zhang Yishan pulled her along in return.

In another spot, a few girls were also chattering away. They were quite pretty: "Nazha, I heard you've met the Principal. What kind of person is he?"

"He's a good person, a true gentleman."

"Huh?! What I heard was that he's a scumbag, a cancer."

"That's all enemy demonization. Have you ever seen a star, or someone behind the scenes, or us ordinary people say bad things about him?"

Nazha now worshipped the Principal greatly, believing him to be a real man, so she would follow the Principal's news and information, looking up his background.

At 9 a. m., people were streaming into the Beijing Film Academy auditorium one after another—mostly young male and female students, walking in two or three at a time, chatting and laughing.

The auditorium could hold about seven hundred people, while Beijing Film Academy had nearly four thousand enrolled students across all departments.

In other words, if it were full, roughly one-fifth of the enrolled students would come to watch Fang Hong's speech.

This was mainly because the "Principal" had a famous reputation, known to everyone. Many came out of admiration, wanting to catch a glimpse of his style; they might enter Yutu in the future, or work at Yutu.

It would be even better if they could be favored by the Principal.

Weren't Cai Wenjing, Nazha, and Li Xian all enrolled students who were valued by the Principal? They either played leads or supporting roles, skipping the whole struggle process.

Those behind-the-scenes people—cinematographers, lighting crew, post-production, and the like—mostly also got into Yutu, some even starting hands-on without needing to be apprentices.

The students surged in; even reporters had set up equipment at the back of the auditorium, and people outside the industry also knew the Principal was giving a speech at Beijing Film Academy.

At this moment, Fang Hong was backstage, meeting with the school's leadership circle.

Principal Zhang Huijun, Vice Principal Sun Lijun, Vice Dean Xie Xiaojing, Secretary-General Yu Jianhong, Director Tong Qifu, Xu Jiandong, and a circle of school leaders were all present.

In the past, these leaders and professors—Fang Hong couldn't even catch a glimpse of them back in school. Now, as soon as they heard his name, they all came over to say hello, meet him, and get familiar.

This was the embodiment of Fang Hong's current status.

"Principal, professors, leaders, hello." Fang Hong shook hands with each of them one by one.

"We're all 'Principals.' People outside know a Principal like you, but they don't know a Principal like me." Zhang Huijun said.

"I'm a fake Principal, you're the real one. The fake Principal is lifted up by others, the real Principal is admired by people." Fang Hong laughed.

This flattered Zhang Huijun, and also acknowledged that his being called "Principal" was something others had bestowed upon him—a form of being lifted up.

Not at all like Zhang Huijun's, which was legitimate and proper.

The people around all laughed "hehehe," and Xie Xiaojing said: "You're too modest."

"It's a good thing for young people to be modest—not arrogant, not impetuous." Zhang Huijun praised.

After meeting here, everyone chatted casually for a while, and time quickly reached ten o'clock.

The auditorium was packed full, every seat taken by young male and female faces; the scene was still relatively quiet.

Only because on the zhang-tall stage ahead, a female professor from the Director Department, Yang Lin, was hosting the meeting.

"Please welcome the Chairman of Yutu, and also our Beijing Film Academy alumnus, former Director Department student Mr. Fang Hong, to the stage to share his story with us."

"Clap clap clap!"

Warm applause broke out on site; some of the students below sat up straighter, expressions expectant.

Yang Zi sat lower, trying her best to be a transparent person; Nazza straightened her back, clapping, her gaze clear as she looked toward the stage.

"Hello, hello students, hello professors." Fang Hong, wearing an earpiece microphone, walked up amid the applause and politely shook hands with Yang Lin.

"Look how enthusiastic the students are toward you now that you're here." Yang Lin laughed.

"It proves they're all people who love learning. Their teachers would be very gratified to see this." Fang Hong joked.

"Hahaha!" Laughter rose from below the stage.

Yang Lin smiled; this fellow was quite witty. She then gestured with her hand, handing the stage over to him.

Facing the students in the auditorium, Fang Hong said: "Before we begin, I want to do a quick survey—are there any freshmen here? Please raise your hands."

Hearing this, people raised their hands all around the auditorium—over a hundred or so.

"Are there any sophomores?" Fang Hong asked again.

Another hundred or so raised their hands.

Fang Hong looked, then said again: "Juniors?"

Another hundred or so raised their hands, Nazha among them. "What about seniors?"

Once again over a hundred raised their hands; Zhang Yishan raised his, Yang Zi did not.

"Any graduate students?"

"."

Fang Hong looked around roughly—basically every grade was represented, including those from non-degree programs.

Looks like I'm still very popular!

"I'm very glad to have this exchange with my fellow students. I also graduated from this school. 'When all the April blooms of the human world have faded, the peach blossoms on the mountain temple have only just begun to bloom.' Different places have different scenery, and so it is with life."

Fang Hong said, even throwing in a line of poetry.

The audience below fell silent — they hadn't expected the Principal to be so cultured, able to toss out a poem with just a casual remark.

Completely different from the "plagiarist," "uncouth," "literary thief" they had heard about before!

The man had culture, had substance.

Fang Hong had done his homework — coming up here without culture would be too embarrassing; that was the first impression.

"When I made my first film, it wasn't the smooth sailing people imagine. Back then I had no money, no people, no equipment — nothing at all. What could I do? I could only go look for investment.

How did I look? Every major film company, from Shanghai to Beijing — as long as it was a film company with any name to speak of, my partner and I went to all of them. Back then, not a single company was willing to invest.

And that wasn't all — people even called it: 'dog shit!'"

When Fang Hong said this, the room erupted in a collective "Whoa!" — surprise and astonishment mixed together.

They hadn't expected even the Principal to have gone through all that. They had assumed his path was smooth sailing, an unbroken march forward.

"Back then my partner, Chen Zhixi, had a mental breakdown. She was beaten down, felt the thing couldn't be done, wanted to give up. I couldn't help doubting myself too — was my project really dog shit?"

Fang Hong was half-true, half-fabricating. Being too smooth would be boring — what was the point of telling his own story if there were no twists?

The Beijing Film Academy students in the room listened intently. Although they knew the Principal's project wasn't "dog shit" and had actually made money, they were still utterly absorbed.

"Students, at this point I want to tell you: any voice from the outside world may change your mind, but a person must have inner steadiness — that is the factor that decides how far you can go, and it has little to do with being clever.

Often the clever person will calculate whether a thing is right or wrong, will calculate the input-output ratio. Once they see it can't be done, that the efficiency is low, they immediately pull out.

So you'll find that in a company, in an organization, once trouble comes, the first to run are the clever ones — and the ones who hold out to the end are usually not the clever ones.

Cleverness is, more often than not, the enemy of wisdom! Remember that."

"Clap clap clap!"

Thunderous applause erupted in the room. Some wore admiration on their faces, worship in their eyes — he spoke so well.

Later, even some teachers stood at the highest point to listen.

"So after I worked this out, I began to change my mindset. I encouraged my partner, gave her confidence, and at the same time sought help from all sides. Students, you must learn to be grateful — only when you learn gratitude will there be people willing to help you.

Let me give a very simple example. When someone helps you, it's not for the money — because a person who can pull out millions for you is not short of money. They help you because they value that you will be grateful to them in the future.

For instance, a big shot gives you money, introduces resources, introduces you to their network — is it because you're handsome, because you have talent? No. What this world is least short of is talented, handsome people. What's lacking is grateful people.

Besides, I'm not that handsome — just a little bit handsome."

"Hehehe!"

Fang Hong's last line made the room laugh, but the level at which he spoke was genuinely reasonable.

Those who can help you are usually not short of money, and they already have networks. What they want from you is a grateful heart.

For example, Lu Dabo is very grateful to Fang Hong, and Fang Hong is also very grateful to those who once struggled alongside him.

And the one he's most grateful for is Liu Tianxian, who, at such a difficult time, helped him without counting the cost.

People always say Fang Hong is a simp, simping to death!

But then again, without Liu Tianxian, his road to success would have been delayed by at least several years, because back then Those Years was supposed to start filming in the second half of 2010.

If he couldn't secure investment in the first half and couldn't shoot it, once they filmed it, would there still be a place for Fang Hong? Definitely not.

Not only that, the follow-up Lost in Love... 33 Days wouldn't be his either. His life would have changed because of it, and Chen Zhixi might have parted ways with him right there.

All these factors were decided by Liu Tianxian's three million.

Without Liu Tianxian, today's Fang Hong — in a best case would be the Fang Hong of one or two years ago; in a worst case, he'd still be in the arduous stage of starting a business, and climbing back up would be very slow.

This story Fang Hong tells is a true story — it's the story between Huang Zheng and Duan Yongping, Ding Lei.

Ding Lei had a technical problem he couldn't solve at the time, so he sought Huang Zheng's help. Huang Zheng solved it for him, and Ding Lei introduced Duan Yongping to him.

Duan Yongping saw that Huang Zheng was a decent person, so he took him as a disciple, and when he had dinner with Buffett, he brought him along.

He also advised him to work at Google, and after gaining work experience, helped him secure investment to start a business, introducing his own network to him.

Back then, Huang Zheng was just a student, from a rural background. What was Duan Yongping after? Wasn't it simply that he saw Huang Zheng as a grateful person?

If any one of them in this chain had not been a grateful person, Huang Zheng's life would have changed.

If Ding Lei hadn't introduced Duan Yongping, or if Duan Yongping had looked down on Huang Zheng, felt the man wasn't good enough — Huang Zheng's life would have changed.

"With someone giving me money, the next step was to make the film. That was when my pressure was greatest, because it was my first time directing a film, and the people helping me make it were also first-timers, so we had no experience.

Whether it would turn out well, whether it could win the audience's approval, whether it could make money after release — I had no idea about any of it. So every day I was in pain, very anxious.

Maybe directors on set, young people just starting their businesses, the top guns of web fiction — they've all had this experience: very painful, very anxious.

But what I want to tell you is: anxiety is right, and pain is right.

Pain comes from your dissatisfaction with the present; anxiety comes from your growing too slowly. Often, those who are unhappy are more likely to achieve themselves. Although you're still on the road, please believe me — unhappy poets will write verses sung for a thousand years.

Unhappy authors will write novels that earn everyone's praise."

(End of chapter)