Chapter 84

The phone got through.

As soon as they heard it was a novella of about 40,000 characters, they immediately indicated that they had no plans to shoot a feature film for the time being, mainly because the funds were tight and there was no budget.

The person on the other end of the phone was Jin Jin's old friend, Director He Yumen, who collaborated with him on *Little Carp Jumps Over the Dragon Gate*.

Editor-in-chief Jin was a bit embarrassed, and hurriedly recommended the two short fairy tales *Toothless Tiger* and *If I Were Wu Song* to his old friend. This time, Director He didn't refuse, saying that he would find the magazine to see if it was suitable for adaptation.

Lu Lu Xiaoyan was satisfied, and walked out of the editor-in-chief's office with high spirits, but a few colleagues looked at her even more unpleasantly.

In the security guard dormitory.

Work title: *Herdsman*

Protagonist name:??

Wei Ming first wrote down the names Wei Wei Jiefang and Xu Xu Shufen in his notebook, and then swapped their surnames, Xu Wei Jiefang and Wei Xu Shufen.

After that, he made slight changes, becoming Xu Shengfang and Wei Wei Fenfang. Flowers bloom, fragrance everywhere.

Using his parents' real names would definitely be awkward, but the names Xu Xu Lingjun and Li Li Xiuzhi in the original *Soul and Flesh* couldn't be used either.

Wei Ming had some understanding of the creative process of this novel. Although Zhang Zhang Xianliang only started creating it after March next year, he had already written a story outline many years ago. The male and female protagonists were a couple named Xu Xu Lingjun and Li Li Xiuzhi. Later, when he wrote *Soul and Flesh*, he used these two names directly.

Afterwards, Wei Ming also shaped several key characters based on villagers like Old Branch Secretary Zhou Zhou Xingbang.

Although he was still writing the story of *Herdsman*, many characters and details were reflections of Wei Ming's rural life.

Including the character settings of the two protagonists, although the man was still older than the woman, there was no such big gap as in the original version. One was in his early twenties, and the other was nearly thirty. One was gentle, virtuous, and beautiful, and the other was optimistic, free, and had responsibility and commitment.

The heroine was basically written according to his mother, and the hero had to be beautified several times on the basis of his father.

Between the two works, Wei Ming almost had no rest.

He counted his cash reserves. Including those reprint manuscript fees and reader letters, it was a total of 595 yuan. It accumulated very quickly, mainly relying on the reprint manuscript fees of *Duck Prophet*.

This money was enough for a family of four to go to Sichuan and Chongqing, but Wei Ming had higher material and spiritual pursuits.

And all of these required money to realize.

He was writing when a colleague at the gate post called him to answer the phone. It was Liu Liu Rulong's.

A Long came to Peking University this morning and learned from Wei Ming that the novel and illustrations had passed the manuscript, so he could rest assured to continue the subsequent illustration creation.

And Wei Ming asked him to find Zhang Zhang Yimou after returning to school to ask if he was willing to help him look at second-hand cameras.

If Liu Liu Rulong had to say, why buy second-hand? Isn't it better to go to the Overseas Chinese Store to buy a new one? I have so many overseas Chinese remittance coupons, if I don't give them to you, who do I give them to.

Wei Ming thought it was okay, but he had to make up the price difference to A Long according to the market price.

In addition, Zhang Zhang Yimou had to be invited.

This phone call from Liu Liu Rulong was about this matter.

"At first he was unwilling. I said you were the model who took photos, and he didn't agree. Finally, I said your identity as the writer of *Two Oxen* and *Ideal*, and he agreed."

"Oh, he has also read my work?"

"Well, he is particularly respectful of *Two Oxen*. When he heard it was written by you, he felt it was incredible."

So the two agreed on the time and place. Wei Ming would be off work tomorrow. By then, Liu Liu Rulong and Zhang Zhang Yimou would come to Peking University to find him, and then go to the city together.

Just after hanging up the phone, the gate post colleague said: "Oh, there is one more thing, here is an invitation letter for you."

Wei Ming remembered. Tomorrow is the day agreed with the Li family to eat together. They even sent an invitation letter specially. It was so formal, it must be impossible to refuse.

Fortunately, it was dinner, and the time didn't conflict. By the way, Gong Xue should also go this time. The two hadn't been in touch for a while.

The next day, at 8:30, Wei Ming waited for Liu Liu Rulong and Zhang Zhang Yimou. Because Seeing Biaozi was on the day shift, he could only regret missing the city.

Zhang Zhang Yimou's bicycle was as old as the one Wei Ming had, just like him.

"Hello Comrade Wei Ming, I always thought you were studying acting, I didn't expect you to be a writer!" Old Zhang Yimou held Wei Ming's hand tightly, shy and active.

"I didn't expect you to have read my novel either. Go, let's talk while riding."

"Hey, you two slow down~" The slightly fat Liu Liu Rulong followed these two with some effort. The key was that his car was the best.

Wei Ming and Zhang Zhang Yimou in front first chatted about the novel *Two Oxen* for a while, and then talked about photography.

Zhang Zhang Yimou: "You're right to want to learn photography. Photography can make your writing more visual and make readers more immersive. Actually, the visual sense of *Two Oxen* is already very sufficient, but it can be done better."

He spoke very directly. Wei Ming just treated it as what he said to Guan Hu: Young man, the picture is not enough, you still have to practice!

Afterwards, Zhang Zhang Yimou also introduced his first camera, which was also his first camera and a good partner who changed his destiny.

"Seagull 4 twin-lens reflex camera. At that time, my salary was 40 yuan a month, and I had to support my family. In order to buy this camera, I quit meat and ate dry steamed buns and pickles every day. I saved for three years and spent more than 180 yuan to take it down."

As for the rumor that Old Zhang Yimou sold blood to buy a camera, it was actually donating blood, but donating blood had subsidies, and he was aiming for the subsidy fee.

Now Peking University will also mobilize college students to donate blood, and there are also subsidies, and the subsidy fee is quite considerable, ranging from a few yuan to more than 20 yuan depending on the amount of blood. ~

After entering the city and arriving at the Overseas Chinese Store, Zhang Zhang Yimou was fascinated by the dazzling array of goods.

He was the first time to come to this kind of place. A Long had been here two or three times, and still had freshness. Wei Ming was used to the big scenes of later generations, but he was calm.

A Long also said to Wei Ming: "If you know foreigners and let them take us into the Friendship Store, there will be more and more complete things there."

Wei Ming nodded. In this year, foreigners can be used as tools. He knows quite a few.

It was already late, and they went straight to the camera area. There were domestic and imported ones here.

The domestic ones were mainly the two birds, Seagull and Phoenix.

As for the imported ones, there were Leica, Sony, Nikon, etc., as well as Polaroid. There were many styles, and the price was quite expensive.

Zhang Zhang Yimou was willing to come over to help pick a camera, and also had the idea of trying high-end imported cameras.

So he pointed to a Nikon EL series and said: "Can I look at this?"

The salesperson said expressionlessly: "Two thousand."

!

Zhang Zhang Yimou "hissed."

Wei Ming smiled: "Bring it over and look at it."

Finally, Zhang Zhang Yimou was allowed to try it, but after knowing the price, he lost his initial casualness. He didn't try the more expensive Leica, nor Sony. If this fell to the ground, he would have to let the school redeem him.

Afterwards, they moved from the European, American, and Japanese area to the domestic area.

A Long, who was holding his wallet, also breathed a sigh of relief. He couldn't afford those foreign cameras. Not to mention that his dad hadn't transferred money to him this month, even if he did, it wouldn't be enough.

Between the twin-lens reflex camera and the single-lens reflex camera, Wei Ming chose the cheaper twin-lens, which was the kind Old Zhang Yimou used. Previously, Uncle Ping'an and Professor Qu also used this kind, and the price was relatively friendly.

It's just that the picture seen in the viewfinder of the twin-lens reflex camera will have a large parallax with the picture imaged by the film, and both lenses need to be replaced at the same time to maintain consistency.

Wei Ming definitely wants to change to a single-lens reflex camera when he has endless money in the future. After all, only a single-lens reflex camera can burn money. Now using a twin-lens reflex camera is just a transition.

Finally, under Zhang Zhang Yimou's suggestion, Wei Ming took down a Seagull 4A twin-lens reflex camera, which was considered an advanced version of Zhang Zhang Yimou's model. The price was 200 yuan. If it was a Seagull single-lens reflex camera of the same level, it would be about 400 or 500 yuan.

Besides the camera, Wei Ming also bought some film. Since he came to the Overseas Chinese Store, he naturally bought imported Kodak, mainly black and white film. There was only one box of color, which was too expensive.

"Old Zhang, do you want to buy some film? Put it on my account."

Zhang Zhang Yimou waved his hand and refused. He usually used domestic Lucky civil film, and each roll only cost a few yuan.

Although he refused the film, he couldn't refuse the lunch.

"Oh, just eat some noodles, no need to come to this big restaurant. I actually didn't help much."

Zhang Zhang Yimou was speaking from the heart; because the equipment was all brand new, there were no quality issues. He felt the contribution he made was worth at most a bowl of oil-splashed noodles, and coming to Quanjude was truly just tagging along for a free meal.

Wei Ming smiled: "Old Zhang is humble, and the camera is bought, but the photography technology still needs to be asked from you, so don't be polite."

The restaurant chosen was the Quanjude at Hepingmen. Last time, Wei Ming hadn't tried a few dishes. With his current net worth, eating ten or so yuan a meal was not a big deal. He should also improve his food occasionally.

At first, Zhang Zhang Yimou was a bit cramped, but when he talked about his major, he talked endlessly. Besides photography, their topics naturally couldn't be without movies.

"What movies do you watch at the Film Academy, internal reference films?"

"Yes!" Both said in unison.

However, listening to the few names they listed, they were basically European art films, very few American ones, and even if they were American-produced, they were basically award-winning films, such as last year's Oscar Best Picture *Annie Hall*. After all, their training direction was that.

Wei Ming also talked about the situation of American movies he learned from international students and *Time* weekly.

Science fiction, monsters, spy wars—although Zhang Zhang Yimou knew that it was far away from him, he still listened with relish.

"Old Zhang, have you ever thought about being a director?" Wei Ming suddenly said this while talking.

Zhang Zhang Yimou wiped his mouth: "Why wouldn't I? A photographer who doesn't want to be a director is not a good worker. As long as there is a chance, I want to take the director department's classes. I am very familiar with people in the director department."

Speaking of the director department, Zhang Zhang Yimou also added: "By the way, there is a classmate in the director department who likes your poem very much."

Wei Ming's mouth twitched. It wouldn't be Chen Chen Kaige, right?

"I think he is the most talented among the group in the director department. His name is Chen Chen Kaige. By the way, have you written any poems recently? I can talk to him later."

Wei Ming: It really is!

"Uh, you let him buy a copy of *Yanjing Literature and Art* next month~"

Because Wei Ming had another show in the evening, he let the two go back after eating. He went to punch in and take photos in some areas of Yanjing city that would be demolished later, consuming a roll of black and white film.

It wasn't until six o'clock that he rushed to Fengzeyuan on Meishi Street and saw Sister Gong Xue looking around at the entrance...

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 85 =====