Chapter 163: China Celebrity List

Bang!
Crack!
Bang bang!
Crack crack crack!
The fireworks were brilliant, and a year had passed; the firecrackers rang out, and a new year had arrived.

After a lively few days back in his hometown, Zhang Tan and his family headed to Beijing on the eighth day of the lunar new year. Because of Zhang Tan's art examination schedule, according to the arrangements made by the Beijing Film Academy (BFA), the first-round exams for the directing department would begin on the tenth day of the lunar new year. While Zhang Tan came for the exams, his parents and elder sister came along to sightsee in Beijing. Knowing that Zhang Tan had been granted special convenience, they were not nervous at all.

Zhang Tan himself, on the other hand, hadn't written a word for quite some time. He took the time to flip through a few books on directing and caught up on the news.

Calming his mind, he headed to the examination venue.

The first round was a written test. True to Zhang Tan's expectations, the questions spanned astronomy in the heavens and geography on the earth.

Out of ten questions, Zhang Tan couldn't answer nine of them.

He answered the ones he knew, guessed the ones he didn't, and handed in his paper early. Unsettled after the exam, Zhang Tan called Li Xiangshu, the deputy director of BFA and head of the directing department, to maintain friendly relations. Afterward, with his toes pointed outward as he walked, he strolled around the BFA campus, pulling his baseball cap down low to shade his face while darting his eyes everywhere.

Art examinations were a grand event—a grand event swarming with beauties.

Zhang Tan did indeed spot quite a few beauties; even their bulky down jackets could not conceal their inherent poise and elegance. However, bundled-up beauties were not Zhang Tan's ultimate goal. His target was to go backstage at the performance department's art exams to see the girls wearing bikinis. He had read reports previously claiming that during the art exams, female candidates all wore bikinis while undergoing physical examinations.

Yet, after searching carefully, he found it was complete nonsense.

The girls were bundled up tighter than one another.

Even when taking the body shape and flexibility tests, they wore thermal base layers and refused to strip down at all.

"Hugely disappointed!"

Shaking his head, Zhang Tan headed back home.

He waited at home as steady as a mountain for the second-round results.

A few days later, the list of candidates advancing to the second round was released, and Zhang Tan's name was on it. The second round tested theoretical knowledge and oral examination. Zhang Tan wrote as if guided by divine inspiration, churning out half-baked versions of the concepts he had memorized while reading. During the oral exam, he spoke eloquently and endlessly about his pursuit of art. Consequently, his name appeared once more on the third-round list.

When the third-round list was posted, a candidate saw that his name was missing and flew into a rage on the spot, cursing loudly about dark manipulation behind the scenes. He cursed the people on the list for lacking integrity, cursed the teachers for running tutoring classes and taking bribes as stepping stones, cursed BFA for being thoroughly corrupt, and was eventually carried out by security guards.

Zhang Tan stood before the notice board with his baseball cap pulled down tight on his head to avoid being recognized.

Hearing the candidate's furious curses, he slipped his hands into his trouser pockets and twitched his fingers.

Of course dark operations existed at BFA. To say everything was rigged would be an exaggeration; backroom deals happened, but they weren't the majority. Ultimately, they still needed to recruit genuine talent to uphold the reputation of the BFA directing department. As for Zhang Tan, doors had indeed been opened for him, but it was a mutually beneficial arrangement, so it hardly counted as a dirty scandal.

Given Zhang Tan's current fame, even getting admitted to Peking University to study literature wouldn't be a difficult task.

Seeing his own name, Zhang Tan turned and left.

Back home, he flipped through the calendar and realized it was already February 10th, the twentieth day of the first lunar month. There were still a few days left before the third round, and Zhang Tan already knew what subjects would be tested in the third round and the final interview. The third round tested thematic conception, creative composition, and film analysis, while the interview involved discussing creative issues with the professors.

These tests relied fundamentally on accumulated everyday theoretical knowledge rather than last-minute cramming before the exam.

Zhang Tan simply tossed his books aside and went back to tinkering with his novel, *The Four Great Constellations: Defiance*. This novel was planned for one million words. He had already written eight hundred thousand words. Having written very little during the New Year holiday, and now approaching the final climax and resolution, Zhang Tan wrote relatively slowly. He tried his best to wrap up every plot thread and foreshadowing element in the book in the finest possible way.

In this book, he had practically melted the elements of all *Four Great Constellations* stories into a single furnace, and he believed it was written far more excitingly and intricately than the original novels by Wen Ruian.

Furthermore, the profits and critical acclaim this book would bring Zhang Tan would definitely be no less than those of *The Legend of the Condor Heroes*.

Zhang Tan remembered a reporter once asking Wen Ruian whether his books could be worth a thousand words of gold. Wen Ruian had replied that he had practically written himself into bankruptcy while writing books, digging too many plot holes while managing his own publishing house, and had once been so poor he almost couldn't survive, so he couldn't claim a word was worth a thousand gold. Then, changing his tune, he said that he did possess four characters that could sustain him for a lifetime.

Those four characters were: *The Four Great Constellations*.

*The Four Great Constellations* could bring him an income of 18 million to 22 million yuan a year.

Had the film and television adaptations of *The Four Great Constellations* not been mostly unsuccessful, the income he could have reaped would have been even higher.

Perhaps many people were dissatisfied that Wen Ruian could be ranked alongside Louis Cha and Gu Long, and perhaps many people did not consider *The Four Great Constellations* his creative peak, arguing that his *Saying Hero* series was better. Yet, unquestionably, the achievement of *The Four Great Constellations* was indeed the brilliant apex of his life.

And now, Zhang Tan felt he could elevate the brilliance of *The Four Great Constellations* even further.

That was why he was writing *The Four Great Constellations: Defiance* with such earnest dedication, alongside *The Four Great Constellations: Fighting the General*, whose outline was already fully conceived.

Early the next morning, his cell phone rang. It was Li Yan calling: "Congratulations, Zhang Tan."

Zhang Tan had spent the entire previous night writing his novel and was still intoxicated by the world of martial arts. He spoke in a literary cadence: "What joy is there to speak of?"

"Check the news online. *Forbes* has released its 2004 China Celebrity List, and your name is on it."

"Forbes China Celebrity List?" Zhang Tan quickly went online, searched for the keywords, and hit enter, bringing up a screen full of search results.

It turned out that the Chinese edition of the American magazine *Forbes* had held a press conference at Beijing Oriental Plaza the previous evening, unveiling its inaugural China Celebrity List. The celebrity rankings were primarily calculated based on the celebrities' annual incomes. Of course, wealth did not equal fame, but it was a crucial metric.

Among them, Yao Ming, the basketball number-one draft pick who entered the American NBA, topped the China Celebrity List with an annual income of 120 million yuan. Zhang Ziyi, one of the Four Dan Actresses who always managed to collaborate with top-tier directors, ranked second with an annual income of 26 million yuan. Zhao Wei, another of the Four Dan Actresses who had turned down the starring role in *The Legend of the Condor Heroes*, ranked third with an annual income of 19 million yuan.

As for Zhang Tan, he ranked thirty-third. He was one of the seven writers on the list, ranked the highest among them, and his annual income was listed as 5.5 million yuan.

The reason given for his inclusion read: A seventeen-year-old boy, the new leader of Chinese martial arts fiction, with four novels selling nearly twenty million copies.

In addition, Guo Han also made the list, ranking ninety-fifth for selling one million copies of *Illusion*.

"You've seen the news, right? Several media outlets want to interview you for your thoughts on being selected for the celebrity list. What do you have to say?" Li Yan waited a moment and asked.

Zhang Tan smacked his lips and retorted, "How did other celebrities answer?"

"Yao Ming and Zhang Ziyi probably communicated with the *Forbes* Chinese team, sending thank-you video clips for the press conference, and Yao Ming's agent even attended the event. However, most of the other celebrities claimed that the Forbes Celebrity List was just a gimmick and insisted they hadn't earned that much money."

"Then let's do this: I won't show my face. Sister Li, please reply on my behalf. Let's keep a low profile too, saying we haven't earned that much, but next year we'll strive to earn more to meet the official threshold for the list."

"Alright, I'll relay that to the media."

And so, amidst a flurry of news articles expressing skepticism toward *Forbes*, Zhang Tan—who made the list as a writer—followed suit, stating that there was no way he had earned that much money. When reporters asked him precisely how much lower the actual figure was, Li Yan gave no direct answer, saying only that it was considerably lower, but he would work hard to make money next year and strive to meet the standard, and so on and so forth.

This was the exact same attitude adopted by the other celebrities.

They all adhered to the five-thousand-year Chinese tradition of keeping one's wealth hidden from view.

The Forbes China Celebrity List swept across China like a whirlwind, becoming, alongside the Rich List, a favorite topic of lively discussion for ordinary citizens over tea and snacks. The public was most interested in how much wealth tycoons and celebrities made, but opinions varied wildly. Aside from the figures provided by Forbes, neither the tycoons nor the celebrities admitted to any of them.

Therefore, after a few days, this whirlwind dissipated. Just as fiercely as it had arrived, it scattered completely and cleanly.

No one kept fixating on it anymore.

During these bustling few days, Zhang Tan successfully passed the third round and the interview.

He became a member of the BFA directing department, and his ranking wasn't low either, entering BFA in third place. This year, the BFA directing department admitted a total of fifteen students. Both the admission number and the acceptance rate were extremely low.

With the exams over, Zhang Tan left Beijing.

There was nothing left for him to do in Beijing anyway; returning to Hefei was much more carefree, with familiar faces and a livelier atmosphere.

"In a couple of months, I'll turn eighteen and can finally take the driver's license test. I can't suppress a little excitement inside," Zhang Tan had long been eyeing a driver's license covetously. "The royalties for *The Return of the Condor Heroes* have been settled, my pockets are bulging again, I can take the driving test, and I can buy a car. What kind of car should I buy? BMW? Mercedes-Benz? Cadillac? Porsche? Land Rover?"

"Sigh, I'd better wait and see. From now on, I'll mostly be living in Beijing, so I should buy the car in Beijing and get Beijing license plates... Let's not think about this anymore. Time to write, time to write! Let's finish writing *The Four Great Constellations: Defiance* first!"

Zhang Tan spent a month creating the final hundred thousand words or so.

Proofreading and editing took another half a month.

By the time *The Four Great Constellations: Defiance* was officially completed, April had arrived.

During these past two months:

Uncle Zhang's studio had long since contacted Zhang Tan: "Xiao Zhang, your *Iron-Blooded Loyal Heart* has been chosen as the theme song, *Who is the Hero* as the ending theme, and *Better Than Anyone in the World* as an insert song."

Li Yan had also represented the Luzhou Studio to negotiate a new royalty-sharing ratio with Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House, embarking on their third cooperation to publish *The Four Great Constellations: Defiance*. Over in Hong Kong, royalty splits were renegotiated as well, once again partnering with New Asia Culture.

As for the film and television adaptation rights, not a single one had been sold yet; they were still waiting for the broadcast of *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* to see the viewership ratings.

Post-production for *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* was already more than half completed and would be broadcast on CCTV in June.

Zhang Tan currently had no heart to bother with these commercial matters.

When April 13, 2004, arrived, Zhang Tan's ID card finally showed he was eighteen years old.

His very first task was to sign up for the driver's license test!

The new traffic regulations had not yet been introduced, so to Zhang Tan, taking the driving test was as simple as eating a meal, because none of the road tests posed the slightest difficulty for him. As for the written test, the driving school directly provided the answers to all the multiple-choice options, and he just had to memorize them by rote. Furthermore, the driving instructor even told Zhang Tan that by paying a little extra money, he could skip the road test entirely and be guaranteed to pass.

So Zhang Tan paid a little extra money.

He wasn't worried about failing anyway; with his current skill of practicing almost daily on his old man's Audi A6, he could pass the test with his eyes closed. However, he didn't want to waste time going to test sessions every day; saving effort where he could was best. Besides, the driving test process was in total chaos right now, nothing like the future when the new traffic regulations would be rolled out and taking a driver's license test would feel like taking college entrance examinations.

"Once I get my driver's license, I'll drive out to pick up girls and go for joyrides!"

"Ah, the height of life's bliss—I've truly reached the pinnacle!" (To be continued.)