"I will not sell you the copyrights to these three works. Give up!" After enjoying a fine meal and wiping his mouth, Da Liu said with righteous indignation.
He had already decided that selling his works for a mere few hundred thousand yuan... while it was tempting, he'd rather not lock himself away in a hotel. After all, he wasn't short on money!
"Ten million!" To his shock, Mr. Huang calmly made his offer, hitting Da Liu like a ton of bricks. He had thought Mr. Huang would offer a few million at most, as that price was already quite extravagant. He never expected Huang He to offer ten million. This warranted serious consideration.
With this ten million, he could apparently resign and focus on writing, which would give him more leisure time!
"This ten million..." Da Liu was about to ask when the money would be paid, when he heard Mr. Huang continue, "This ten million is for The Wandering Earth. For Rural Teacher, I'll pay five million, and for China Sun, another five million. That makes twenty million for the copyrights of these three works!"
"Gulp!" Da Liu swallowed hard and nodded. "Since Mr. Huang extends his invitation with such sincerity, I cannot refuse!"
To hell with it, he'd stay in seclusion and write. After a few months of seclusion, he wouldn't have to work for years!
Thus, the two quickly finalized the copyright purchase of the three works. Mr. Huang immediately stated that preparations for filming The Wandering Earth would begin at the end of the year, with the aim of a global release in 2008 as a tribute to the Olympics. Da Liu expressed that Mr. Huang was absolutely correct.
"By the way, I heard you have another work in progress, Da Liu, about an alien invasion of Earth. Is that true?" Mr. Huang asked casually after the negotiations were concluded.
Based on Mr. Huang's memory, this work was scheduled to be serialized in early 2006, about half a year from now, so Mr. Huang was unsure if Da Liu had started writing it yet.
"Mr. Huang, how did you get the news? Besides my wife and daughter, no one else knows I've written such a work! And I've only just started it!" Da Liu said, surprised.
"Then I don't know. I just received some news!" Mr. Huang chuckled. "Do you have any drafts? Let me see!"
"No!" Da Liu shook his head vigorously. He had only written less than twenty to thirty thousand words of this work, and it was entirely a rough draft. There was no way he would show such a thing to anyone.
However, Huang He was very insistent. He retorted, "You must have seen the movie 'War of the Worlds,' right? What do you think of it!"
"Neither good nor bad, as expected!" Da Liu replied without hesitation. "The original work is actually quite mediocre, with many implausible plot points. To us sci-fi fans, it's an above-average work. It's just that the plot is quite exciting and very suitable for film adaptation."
"The fact is that the movie adapted from this work is quite good and its box office performance was also acceptable, but I still think this movie has too many flaws. It's just an industrialized cinematic product built with all sorts of special effects from the United States! And I remember its box office performance wasn't actually very good; it somewhat tarnished Spielberg's reputation!"
"That's the crux of the matter!" Mr. Huang slapped his thigh. "A movie that you consider to have 'not very good' box office performance actually grossed 510 million US dollars worldwide. It's just that compared to the box office performance of other directors' films, this one fell short, and it also didn't quite live up to its staggering 200 million dollar budget for special effects."
"But we, in China, haven't had a single science fiction film that achieved, let alone surpassed, a global box office of 500 million dollars, or even 50 million dollars, or even 5 million dollars..."
"Uh, actually there has, hasn't there? Aren't your "Misty Journey" trilogy, any one of them, capable of breaking 500 million globally?" Da Liu suddenly interrupted softly.
"Ahem!" Huang He coughed a few times. "That's fantasy genre, not science fiction!"
"The end of mythology is science!" Da Liu added.
"Let's not count that. In any case, we need a movie like this about an alien invasion to help our domestic science fiction films rise, and also to stop Americans from always saving the world. We Chinese should also save the world!" Huang He said.
"So you intend to film this work of mine, which I've only just started? Isn't that a bit too hasty? Aren't you afraid that this work I'm writing might be trash?" Da Liu asked helplessly.
"You might not know this, but I own Qidian Chinese Network, which has many writers and readers. One thing that readers generally agree on is that you can tell what kind of work it is from the first 30,000 characters!"
"For your works, Da Liu, the first 10,000 characters are enough!"
Seeing Huang He's persistence, Da Liu was resigned. He took out a manuscript from his bag and handed it to Huang He. "I was originally going to discuss this manuscript with the editor of Science Fiction World, but I'll let you see it now!"
"Thank you!" Mr. Huang snatched the manuscript from Da Liu's hand. The moment he glanced at it, he knew he wasn't mistaken. What he held was undoubtedly the future masterpiece "The Three-Body Problem," which would change the entire Chinese and even the world's science fiction landscape.
The overall structure of the beginning, although there were differences from the published version in the subsequent text, was normal. This manuscript was merely a draft, and it was still more than half a year away from formal publication, so many revisions were inevitable.
However, the main storyline was essentially unchanged, and Da Liu's manuscript was quite extensive, reaching Ye's part. This made Mr. Huang slightly relieved. Fortunately, it had reached this point; otherwise, he wouldn't have known how to begin. xxs壹贰
"How is it?" Da Liu asked cautiously, seeing Huang He engrossed in his manuscript.
This work was different from many of his other works. It was a story into which he had poured a great deal of his heart, a culmination of his many years of wild imagination and accumulation.
The moment he put down the first word, Da Liu felt that this might be the magnum opus of his life. Therefore, he was very concerned about its evaluation, especially from someone like Mr. Huang.
"I can't tell much from this yet!" Mr. Huang put down the manuscript, took a deep breath, and then said, "But I think this beginning is very interesting. I can buy the copyright to this novel right now!"
"Buy it now?" Da Liu was taken aback. Was this Huang He really China's richest man? Why was he doing such unreliable things, buying a novel based on just the beginning? Even if he had written "Dream of the Red Chamber," it wouldn't be like this!
"Yes!" Huang He nodded. "I have a feeling this work will be a huge hit, and I want to buy it in advance!"
"Ten million too?" Da Liu asked tentatively.
"It's hard to say. It depends on the actual writing, but it won't be less than ten million at the very least!" Huang He smiled. Well, even if it cost hundreds of millions of yuan to buy the copyright, Mr. Huang wouldn't find it too expensive.
However, such a thing would seem too strange, and who knew if Da Liu would slack off after receiving a large sum of money? So, it was still necessary to keep some constraints on him!
"Alright, let's talk after I've finished writing!" Da Liu grinned. Selling a work that was just beginning made him very happy.
"However, I have a suggestion, which I hope you'll consider!" Huang He suddenly said with a serious expression.
"What suggestion?" Da Liu was stunned and then asked curiously.
"It's about this character Ye... replace him!" Huang He tapped the last few chapters of the draft.
"What do you mean? I won't change the main plot of this book!" Da Liu's expression turned cold. Although Mr. Huang was wealthy, and although he liked money, it didn't mean that rich people could dictate terms or interfere with his writing!
"You misunderstand. I don't mean to change the story content involving Ye, but rather to change Ye's background and identity. To put it more precisely, to remove Ye's current background and replace it with another. The rest of the story can remain exactly the same, as it doesn't affect anything. This background is just to shape Ye's character!"
"Well, how about a survivor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident?"
"Or perhaps a victim of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States!"
"Or why not just make him American, a descendant of Native Americans, forcibly taken from his parents as a child, an Indian boarding school orphan, and so on!" Mr. Huang rattled off several backgrounds.
"Mr. Huang, are you planning to enter politics?" Da Liu couldn't help but ask after hearing Huang He's words.
"Of course not!" Huang He shook his head.
"Then why do you care about this background?"
"Have you ever considered a question: if, one day, your work is seen by readers all over the world, what will be the root cause of Earth's destruction in their minds?"
"I understand!" Da Liu nodded. He was silent for a moment and then said, "I can modify the background, but only this once. I hope you won't dictate my work any further. Otherwise, it's better if we don't cooperate!"
He wasn't someone who compromised easily. However, Ye's background was set casually, and because he thought it was a niche novel with little impact, he didn't give it much thought.
But if it were to be changed, there would indeed be problems, so it was reasonable for Huang He to request a modification!
"Good!" Huang He also nodded. As long as the most crucial issue of "The Three-Body Problem" was modified, otherwise, Huang He would not only prevent the adaptation of "The Three-Body Problem" in the future but would also use all his power to erase the work.
Don't think Mr. Huang is too much; this is just normal operating procedure. Otherwise, why would the turning point of World War II in history textbooks change from the victory at the Battle of Stalingrad to the damn surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, or even the Normandy landings?
Do you really think tens of thousands of American paratroopers directly turned the tide of World War II?
They were just the last straw that broke the camel's back.