Chapter 158: Annual Popular Book

As an annual phenomenal wuxia novel, the total number of readers and fans of The Legend of the Condor Heroes was countless. And as the Chinese mainland's first television series adapted from a mainland wuxia novel following several remakes of Hong Kong and Taiwanese wuxia works, the blazing popularity of The Legend of the Condor Heroes went without saying.

Many people who did not read wuxia novels might not know what The Legend of the Condor Heroes was, but that did not prevent them from hearing about the novel from friends, colleagues, or family members.

It was much like J.K. Rowling writing Harry Potter; whether other people had read it or not was unimportant. What mattered was that the novel was famous, so when it was adapted into a movie, viewers gathered in clouds and the box office swept across the globe.

In terms of fame, The Legend of the Condor Heroes certainly fell far, far short of Harry Potter, but domestically, the renown of The Condor Heroes could truly be said to pierce the clouds and soar to the heavens.

Throughout the 2003 book market, it was basically the world of Zhang Tan. Although the legitimate sales of The Condor Heroes had concluded, the sales of the second installment in the trilogy, The Return of the Condor Heroes, were still ongoing, continuously dominating the top spot on the domestic book market sales charts. Although some voices claimed that The Return of the Condor Heroes fell somewhat short of The Condor Heroes, its bestselling popularity was actually even greater.

After all, by this time Zhang Tan's fame was no longer that of a newcomer when he first wrote The Condor Heroes, but rather that of a youthful literary master renowned across the nation.

As the first part of the trilogy, it was hard for the adaptation of The Condor Heroes not to attract attention. Moreover, while sales of The Condor Heroes had concluded that year, its word-of-mouth reputation continued to ferment and brew day by day with every genuine and pirated copy sold.

Domestically, you might not know what Zhang Tan did for a living, nor what he looked like, but you would more or less have heard the name "Tan Zhang."

In the past, people would say that Tan Zhang, Han Jingming, and Guo Han were all young writers, three very talented post-80s youths.

Now, people would say that Tan Zhang was a great post-80s literary giant and a grandmaster of wuxia, no longer lumping him together with Han Jingming and Guo Han.

Although Han Jingming and Guo Han were already famous throughout China at this time, becoming enviable young writers, they ultimately fell quite a bit short of Zhang Tan, and their works were incapable of drawing such immense social attention.

In this, Producer Zhang's adaptation of The Condor Heroes had also exerted a great deal of effort.

With an investment of tens of millions, who knew how much money The Condor Heroes spent on promotional and marketing tactics, which invisibly magnified Zhang Tan's fame.

Sina's segment "Condor Heroes Come to Visit" was just one link in that publicity.

After chatting about the details of creation on Sina, the production crew turned to an even grander promotional stroke. Zhejiang Television's Film and Culture Channel reached a live broadcast agreement with The Condor Heroes crew to live-stream the filming of The Legend of the Condor Heroes from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM on November 4th.

This was a precedent for live-broadcasting a television series shoot in the Chinese television industry.

Zhejiang Television's Film and Culture Channel had spent hundreds of thousands of yuan for this, mobilizing live broadcast equipment worth thirty-five million yuan and dozens of cameras. The Zhoushan government even dispatched a helicopter to film the Peach Blossom Island built in Taohuazhen from the air, preparing to vigorously promote Peach Blossom Island and boost local tourism for the future.

Unsurprisingly, Zhang Tan was once again invited to the live broadcast site.

This live broadcast was divided into three parts.

The first part was the filming of two scenes: one was a dialogue scene in the Eight Trigrams Pavilion on Peach Blossom Island, where Ouyang Ke asks Huang Yaoshi for his daughter's hand in marriage; the other was an action scene where Ouyang Feng and Hong Qigong engage in a life-or-death battle on a flower boat used for the proposal, culminating in the flower boat being blown up and sinking.

The second part was live interviews with the original author and screenwriter Zhang Tan, producer Producer Zhang, and executive producer Wang Zhijiang.

The third part consisted of aerial shots of Peach Blossom Island's scenery, interspersed with footage shot by the crew in Inner Mongolia featuring tens of thousands of galloping horses, yurts, and Guo Jing falling off a horse.

Because Peach Blossom Island was entirely sandy terrain, live broadcast vans easily got stuck. As early as October, the Zhoushan government had paved several roads specifically for the broadcast vehicles, making thorough preparations for the live broadcast.

However, once the live broadcast actually began, trouble arose continuously. The chief director was directing such a grand scene live for the very first time, and the site became completely chaotic. By one o'clock, the power even went out unexpectedly, forcing them to temporarily run on power generators.

As the live broadcast time drew closer, tourists who had long received notifications directly surrounded the entire live set.

Seeing that the time for shooting the action scene had arrived, the crowd still lingered without dispersing. Zhao Jian, who was directing the action scenes, hurriedly shouted, "Clear the area quickly, clear the area quickly!"

There were simply too many people, and none of them were willing to retreat, or those who did retreat saw that others hadn't, and crowded back in.

"It can't be cleared!" reported the assistant director on site.

The chief director of the live broadcast also decisively made a call: "Arrange for the host to interview Zhang Weisheng and the others first!"

Amidst the chaotic scene, the live broadcast camera cut to the outside of the crew's temporary studio, where Zhang Tan and the others had gathered.

The flustered host was also caught off guard, rushing into the interview without having anything properly arranged.

Fortunately, whatever needed to be asked had been rehearsed with the script beforehand, and the interview was considered a success.

Zhang Tan was also asked several questions, such as what his thoughts were upon seeing his creation realized bit by bit, whether he was satisfied with the actors' costumes, and whether he had envisioned the beautiful scenery of Peach Blossom Island when writing the novel.

Finally.

Busily running until 4:05 PM, when the flower boat was blown up and sank, the live broadcast finally concluded accordingly.

...

Writing.

Occasionally running around with the production crew.

The last two months of 2003 were spent by Zhang Tan in such a life, pleasant and relaxed.

New Year's Day was approaching, and a new year was about to begin.

Whenever this time arrived, it was a moment for people to summarize the previous year and look forward to the next. For Zhang Tan, at this time he was also inevitably interrupted from his leisure and had to begin dealing with the busy year-end summaries.

On December 28, 2003, China's pioneer in digital publishing—founded at Tsinghua University and strongly supported by cultural luminaries such as Ba Jin and Yu Qiuyu—released the list of "Top 20 Popular Books Nationwide in 2003" at 10:00 AM that day. The Return of the Condor Heroes claimed the top spot on the Top 20 list with indisputable popularity.

Five volumes published in five months, with sales approaching four to five million copies, continuously dominating the top spot on the domestic bestselling book charts for over four months, the achievements of The Return of the Condor Heroes were dazzling to the point of being unbelievable.

Among the other works in the top 20, Guo Han's Illusion and Dreams of Fallen Red Know How Many at second, third, and fourth places, combined with foreign author J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, still could not match the popularity of The Return of the Condor Heroes.

With such a strong momentum, on New Year's Day, the final volume of The Return of the Condor Heroes was grandly released on shelves.

And Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House also arranged a grand book-signing event for Zhang Tan in Beijing as promised. At the venue of the book signing, quite a few reporters arrived, pointing their long lenses and short cannons at Zhang Tan to interview him.

The reporters' interviews were still the same old tunes; most asked about The Condor Heroes, while a small portion asked whether the copyright for The Return of the Condor Heroes had been sold.

"It hasn't been sold yet. Many film and television companies have already wanted to buy the adaptation rights at high prices. However, I have handed all specific copyright operations over to Luzhou Studio. If you want to know more, you can go ask the studio's general manager, Li Yan."

Zhang Tan fended off the reporters.

Then he stepped into the SDX Joint Publishing Company, where the book signing was arranged.

"The name Joint Publishing doesn't sound great, always making me think of TFBOYS," Zhang Tan thought with malicious humor as he looked at the sign of SDX Joint Publishing.

Entering the bookstore, he was quickly led by staff to the basement floor.

The stairs between the basement and the first floor of SDX Joint Publishing were usually crowded with countless "readers" who only read books without buying them. The greatest advantage of this bookstore, located in the SDX Joint Publishing building, was its exceptionally pleasant reading atmosphere. Playing soft music, holding pictorials and novels, one could while away an entire afternoon just sitting there.

However, today the atmosphere of SDX Joint Publishing changed completely.

The book-loving readers suffered, because starting from the morning, numerous people had flooded into the bookstore. After purchasing the latest volume of The Return of the Condor Heroes, they gathered in every corner of the bookstore, whispering among themselves.

"Hey, are you also here to ask Big Brother Tan for an autograph?"

"Of course I am! I'm a hardcore fan of the Condor trilogy!"

"Is there a third part to Condor? Isn't it just The Condor Heroes and The Return of the Condor Heroes?"

"Of course there's a third part, it just hasn't been published yet. Once the Detective arrives, we can go ask and find out what the third part is."

"The romance between Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü is so torturous."

"After finishing The Condor Heroes, I kind of dislike Guo Jing. How about you guys?"

"I like him! Grandmaster Guo Jing guarding Xiangyang for years truly interpreted the meaning of 'a true hero of his people works for the country and the public'."

"I wonder what kind of adaptation The Condor Heroes turned out to be. I really want to see it."

"Will Producer Zhang direct The Return of the Condor Heroes after finishing The Condor Heroes?"

"That depends on the television ratings. We'll all just go support it when the time comes."

"Isn't that a given?"

These book fans coming for autographs gathered in increasing numbers, not only taking up the bookstore's space, but their whispering voices also disturbed the readers who had come to read. The readers who had been quietly reading books and newspapers glared angrily at these fans, but it was of no use as the crowd grew larger and the noise grew louder.

"Can't you people who are here for autographs be a little quieter! What kind of author brings what kind of readers—completely lacking in class!" a reader holding a fashion pictorial complained bitterly.

Several young girls whispering nearby heard this, and one of them immediately couldn't help but retort: "Did we disturb you? You can buy the magazine and read it at home. You read it right here in the bookstore without buying it, and you still have the nerve to lecture us."

"Who says I'm not buying it! I'm just checking to see if the content is good!"

"Then you've already read to the very last page; can't you tell whether it's good or not? You just can't bear to spend the money."

"Of course I can tell, this book is great! I'm going to pay for it right now." Provoked by the girl, the reader instantly felt the blood rush to her head, and holding the fashion pictorial, she marched straight to the cash register on the first floor.

However, just as she walked up to the register, she suddenly remembered that she hadn't brought any money when she went out today.

In an instant, the reader's face turned beet red. Feeling guilty, she looked back and saw that those girls hadn't followed her, which made her let out a long breath of relief. She stood aside to finish reading the fashion pictorial, and then tossed it into the magazine rack.

She strode out with her head held high.

Such minor episodes were not worth mentioning.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, amidst the eager anticipation of the book fans, Zhang Tan, wearing a well-fitted casual blazer and a brilliant smile on his face, was guided by the staff to the basement floor of the bookstore.

"Hello everyone."

"Wow, Detective!"

"Hello, Detective."

"You're so handsome, Detective."

"Detective, I want an autograph."

The excited book fans all chimed in at once to greet Zhang Tan.