Chapter 417: A Hundred Flowers Compete, Nan Gong Ying and Bei Zhu Lin Face Off for the First Time

"Later on, the Snake Spirit and Scorpion Spirit threw the Seventh Brother into the alchemy furnace, but they discovered the Seven-Star Pill hadn't been refined. Grandfather said it was because the Calabash Brothers were divided and lacked unity; even the pill couldn't be formed." Wei Pingan was currently telling Xizi and Lele the final part of the Calabash Brothers story.

"At this moment, Grandfather pretended to surrender, saying he had a way to make the Calabash Brothers of one mind, but the demons had to release him. The two demons, treating a dead horse like a live one, let Grandfather approach the alchemy furnace. Suddenly, Grandfather pulled out the Seven-Colored Lotus and threw it into the furnace. The Seven-Colored Lotus emitted a burst of colorful light, awakening the Seventh Brother's memories. He remembered the happy times on the vine and remembered that he had been captured here by the demons along with the vine and the gourd."

"Thus, the seven brothers worked together and broke the alchemy furnace. Unfortunately, Grandfather was also captured by the Scorpion Spirit. They used Grandfather to threaten the Calabash Brothers, and Grandfather, in order to subdue the demons..." At this point, Wei Pingan sighed, "In the end, so that the Calabash Brothers wouldn't be threatened, Grandfather died under the Scorpion Spirit's blade."

Lele's eyes were filled with tears: "So the Calabash Brothers won't have a grandfather anymore?"

Xizi also said sadly: "Just like us?"

Wei Pingan thought to himself, it wasn't necessarily just like them.

He said: "Birth, aging, sickness, and death are natural laws. Let's keep watching."

What followed was even more heartbreaking: to suppress the two demons for eternity, the seven Calabash Brothers transformed into a seven-colored mountain, pinning down the treasure gourd that had captured the two demons.

This seemed to be a somewhat tragic story, but Wei Shenme left a tail at the end, saying the Calabash Brothers hadn't died, just fallen into a deep sleep, and that the sleeping Calabash Brothers would one day awaken.

Wei Pingan muttered: "So there's a sequel?"

"A sequel? Of course there is, but Xiao Ming said he needs to slow down for a bit," Lu Xiaoyan told the group.

Lu Xiaoyan was currently hosting a banquet for all the members of *King of Fairy Tales* at a small restaurant.

This banquet was a celebration, held to mark the first time the sales of *King of Fairy Tales* had surpassed two similar publications, *Children's Literature* and *Youth Literature*, truly becoming the number one children's publication!

Of course, Wei Shenme's two novels were indispensable in achieving this milestone: the first was the conclusion of *Calabash Brothers*, and the second was the latest issue of *Black Cat Detective*, where One-Ear successfully escaped from prison.

Although One-Ear had been off-screen for a long time, the children hadn't forgotten this cunning fellow. Although the Detective had encountered many criminals since then, none were as clever and tenacious as One-Ear. Even when the Detective was working on cases, he would often mention this old rival, deepening the readers' obsession with One-Ear.

In this issue, One-Ear almost became the protagonist. Black Cat Detective only threw a criminal into prison at the beginning, caught a distant glimpse of One-Ear, and then the story began to focus on One-Ear's life in prison.

He not only learned many criminal techniques in prison but also behaved well, constantly looking for opportunities to escape.

On this day, the criminal Black Cat Detective had sent in at the beginning suddenly died. The prison guards prepared to remove the body, but One-Ear secretly reported that the other party wasn't actually dead; he was faking it.

"How could he not be dead? His body is stiff, his breathing and heartbeat have stopped, and there's even the stench of rotting flesh on him."

"I say he isn't dead, so he isn't dead. He's an opossum, a distant relative of mine. His greatest talent is faking death. If you don't believe me, call the coroner over to dissect him and see if he comes back to life."

This time, it was One-Ear who was responsible for popularizing knowledge about the animal kingdom, and he gave the children a fierce lesson on this special ability of the opossum.

Because the illustrator for *King of Fairy Tales* didn't know what an opossum living in the Americas looked like, Wei Ming had to find a popular science book to provide to the illustrator.

Later, the prison guard tested it, and the opossum was indeed playing dead in an attempt to escape; in terms of playing dead, it could be considered a master.

Because of his meritorious report, One-Ear became a prisoner trusted by the guards. Not only was his cell exempt from inspections, but he could also supervise other prisoners, leading them in labor and exercises.

However, one day, One-Ear suddenly vanished into thin air in the prison, and no matter how they looked, they couldn't find him.

Helpless, the prison guards invited Black Cat Detective back, asking him to help find One-Ear.

After arriving at One-Ear's cell, Black Cat Detective discovered a poster of himself stuck on the wall, wearing his police uniform and saluting, looking particularly spirited.

The prison guard said: "One-Ear said he was caught by you and admires you very much, so he hoped to hang your portrait in the room, hoping to look at you every day to remind himself not to commit crimes again."

Black Cat Detective walked up to his portrait, smiled lightly, and then peeled it off. Behind the wall, he saw a hole—a mouse hole!

One of the prison guards, who was also a tunneling expert, the Pangolin, immediately leaned over: "This hole has been here for a long time!"

This was an interaction with *Calabash Brothers*; the Pangolin, having wrapped up his role over there, had transformed into a prison guard here.

At this point, the perspective shifted to One-Ear. After gaining the guards' trust, he led other prisoners in labor and exercises every day, tucking some dirt into his pant legs to carry out and shake onto the ground. Over time, he finally dug a tunnel leading outside the prison.

When he escaped to freedom, it was raining heavily. One-Ear looked up and laughed, and the heavy rain washed away his tracks, leaving his destination a mystery.

For this plot, Wei Ming spoofed *The Shawshank Redemption*. However, Stephen King's novel might have been written by now, but it hadn't been published yet, so it could only be considered a coincidence of ideas, and he had been a bit faster.

Because of One-Ear's prison break, the popularity of *Black Cat Detective* reached a new level, and the young readers were incredibly expectant of the next cat-and-mouse game.

Zheng Yuanjie took a shallow sip, not drinking much. He was also looking forward to his own cat-and-mouse game, only his was the opposite of Wei Shenme's; in his stories, the mouse was righteous and the cat was evil.

Previously, he had tested the waters by writing a short story, *The Little Mouse Who Flies a Helicopter*, published in the neighboring *Children's Literature*. Next, *Rubik's Cube Mansion* was about to conclude, and he wanted to expand the story of Shuke into a medium-to-long novel.

Oh, Shuke was the name of that little mouse who flew a helicopter. In the story, there was also an evil tabby cat named Mili, absolutely no intention of implying Black Cat Detective Mimi.

At this moment, he only thought of giving Shuke a cat opponent; he hadn't thought about writing another mouse to be Shuke's companion.

When the celebration banquet ended and Lu Xiaoyan returned home, Wei Pingan had already lulled the two little ones to sleep. Aunt Xiaoyan shook the wine in her hand at Wei Pingan, and the two prepared to have a small drink, just to warm up.

"Wei Ting, why does it feel like you've been burdened with worries lately?" The two sat on the sofa, and Lu Xiaoyan pressed Wei Pingan's head against her chest.

Wei Pingan: "Nothing much, just worrying about the country and the people."

Lu Xiaoyan: "Why don't you accompany Xizi next time he goes out to film? Just consider it a way to relax."

Wei Pingan shook his head: "I'll accompany him when he goes to Hong Kong to film. Come, let's clink glasses again."

By this time, the Hong Kong Film Award trophy had already been mailed to Wei Ming's home via the Blue Bird Film Company. He had left the address of the Overseas Chinese Apartment. Wei Hong had helped him collect it once when she went to the post office to mail a letter. The postman was already very familiar with her, so the sister could stand in for the brother.

Seeing the Film Award trophy, Wei Hong felt a bit embarrassed because it was a naked woman, though fortunately, the film strip covered the key parts.

Seeing the Film Award trophy, Wei Hong remembered the Hundred Flowers Award voting. She hurriedly found the *Popular Cinema* magazine they subscribed to at home.

There were many hit movies last year, but *Heroes Born in Troubled Times* wasn't on the candidate list because it was a co-production. Among the dozens of domestic films in '81, leading the pack were *Joyous Reunion*, *Mom, Love Me Once Again*, as well as *Legend of the White Snake* and *The Mysterious Big Buddha*.

Voting had started last month. Wei Hong chose *Joyous Reunion* and Zhu Lin; this time, she chose *Mom, Love Me Once Again* and Gong Ying. Both were her brother's good friends and her own good sisters, so naturally, she had to treat them equally.

The results would be announced next month; the Hundred Flowers Award and the Golden Rooster Award would be presented simultaneously in May.

In terms of the explosive popularity of the films and characters, *Joyous Reunion* and Zhu Lin were actually not as popular as *Mom* and Gong Ying.

But it was a coincidence that the Changchun Er Yingchang provided an assist at this time: the costume drama *Du Shiniang* was released.

Half a month ago, the film version of *Teahouse* was released, with many reports and decent attendance, but once *Du Shiniang* was released, it completely crushed the somewhat oppressive *Teahouse*.

Zhu Lin's costume photos as Du Shiniang appeared in major newspapers and publications across the country, and for a time, the audience was completely captivated. Zhu Lin, you are the goddess of costume dramas! Fans flocked to the theaters to support it.

The Changchun Er Yingchang had great confidence in this film, directly creating the second-highest number of prints this year, second only to *Shaolin Temple*.

Crucially, the quality of the film was also very good, and the attendance rate was extremely high, successfully taking over the center-stage throne in theaters after *Shaolin Temple*. Finally, when Du Shiniang angrily sank the hundred-treasure chest, seeing the crazy look of the scumbag in the movie, the audience expressed that they felt satisfied.

Audiences are sometimes not that rational. At this time, *Du Shiniang* was at the peak of its popularity, so their feelings for Zhu Lin would be deeper. Many people would inevitably be influenced by the new film when voting, having a bias toward her.

When Wei Ming was in Yangzhou, he also saw a newspaper reporting on the grand occasion of the recent *Popular Cinema* Hundred Flowers Award voting, and finally threw out a question: in the end, would Gong Ying be a cut above, or would Zhu Lin take advantage of the momentum to rise?

The author who wrote this article was likely a fan of both, not even putting other actresses in their eyes.

Actually, Liu Xiaoqing had *The Mysterious Big Buddha*, Li Xiuming also had *Xu Mao and His Daughters*, oh, and Zhang Yu's *Bosom Friend*.

The Hundred Flowers Award voting these days could rival the later *Super Girl*. Although it couldn't reach full national participation, one or two million votes could still be gathered. Whenever the Hundred Flowers Award began, the sales of *Popular Cinema* in the mainland had no rivals. Even *Storytelling* at this time had to temporarily avoid its edge, and literary publications couldn't compare even if the four great beauties were added together.

The biggest motivation for the audience to vote was the competition for Best Actress. Even the *Journey to the West* crew was discussing this matter. Every time they saw someone holding a copy of *Popular Cinema*, they wanted to canvass votes for their favorite actress.

Among them, led by Chi Chongrui and Li Chengru, they were divided into two factions, supporting Gong Ying and Zhu Lin respectively.

Wei Ming now only wanted to watch *Du Shiniang* with Sister Xue and Sister Lin, but unfortunately, he still had to keep an eye on them filming.

"Liu'er, your movement is a bit exaggerated. Do it like this, like this..."

Today, they finally started filming the scenes of Tang Seng and his disciples. Wei Ming boldly put forward his own views on the Sixth Teacher's performance, which was actually using his own more mature Sun Wukong to correct the Sun Wukong he was exploring, letting him take fewer detours. ===== CHAPTER 418 =====