Chapter 169: Volunteering

Breaking the 10-point mark in just ten days—such an aggressive momentum.

*The Legend of the Condor Heroes* could proudly hold its head high and shout: "Who else but me!"

It was now the year 2004, and television ratings were no longer so easy to create miracles. To be precise, ever since *Sending the Pig Brother*, dramas had blossomed into a hundred flowers, and no single production could trigger such a massive sensation anymore.

In 1998, the viewership rating of *Sending the Pig Brother* was 47%; in 1999, *Sending the Pig Brother 2* reached 54%; in 2000, *The Bright Spring of Pig Bajie* hit 23%; in 2001, *Romance in the Rain* recorded 11.2%; in 2002, *Granary of the Realm* achieved 11.98%; and in 2003, *Sending the Pig Brother 3* hovered around 13%.

Basically, ever since the era of Pig Bajie, breaking a rating of 10 had become the dividing line between a phenomenal drama and an ordinary one.

Today, *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* had proudly forced its way into the ranks of phenomenal dramas.

It might seem miraculous, but in truth, it was not miraculous at all.

Because it inherently possessed that very charm.

In Zhang Tan's vague memories, he recalled that when the 1983 version of *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* broadcasted its first nineteen episodes featuring *The Iron-Blooded Danxin* on the mainland, what did the viewership reach? It reached a staggering 90%. Even *The Bund*, which swept across all of Asia, only garnered an 87% rating when it was broadcast on the mainland in 1980.

Meanwhile, although the 2003 adaptation of *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* received mixed reviews which prevented it from capturing the national champion title in average ratings, every single time it was broadcast across major television stations, it secured the number-one spot in provincial TV ratings. In some provincial stations, it even set a record with a 30% viewership rating.

Furthermore, it claimed the ratings championship in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan.

And this was merely a remake of a television series that had already been remade numerous times before.

Now, with Zhang Tan's rebirth, the world's save file had been reloaded into an entirely different landscape. A classic like *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* had missed its appointment with the audience. Dragging all the way into 2004, it finally surfaced and met the viewers with Zhang Tan's abrupt emergence into the world—late by nearly thirty years.

Yet, this could not diminish the charm of *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* in the slightest.

It broke the 10-point rating mark in ten days.

It broke the 13-point rating mark in fifteen days.

It broke the 15-point rating mark in twenty days.

By the twenty-first day, which was also the final day, the viewership rating for the grand finale set an even crazier new height at 19.564%.

One out of every five viewers nationwide had watched the grand finale of *The Legend of the Condor Heroes*.

"This is an unbelievable phenomenal television series. Following the Little Sparrow and Pig Bajie, China hasn't seen another television drama with such overwhelming strength!" — Sina Web Headline.

"The prosperous inauguration of mainland wuxia: *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* conquers the audience with the charm of true chivalry." — *Beijing Evening Entertainment News*.

"How to forge a phenomenal wuxia drama: Zhang Weishen reveals three major secrets." — *Chutian Metropolis Daily*.

"Guo Jing and Huang Rong ignite a wuxia storm." — *Beijing Youth Daily*.

"Observing the turning point in television production directions through the rating miracle of *The Legend of the Condor Heroes*." — *Southern Metropolis Daily*.

"A post-80s youth single-handedly creates the golden age of *The Legend of the Condor Heroes*." — *China Youth Daily*.

The undisputed number-one figure in mainland wuxia is none other than Tan Zhang. — *Hefei Evening News*.

*Southern Metropolis Entertainment Weekly*: "An exclusive interview with Tan Zhang, screenwriter and original author of *The Legend of the Condor Heroes*."

"Having embarked on his writing career with a 160,000-word wuxia novel, *The Four Great Constables Shaking Guandong*, and going on to write nearly four million words of work over the subsequent three years, selling close to twenty million physical copies, and ranking thirty-third on the Forbes China Celebrity List, mainland wuxia writer Tan Zhang has instantly created a ratings miracle after his work *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* was adapted into a television series."

"Born in 1986 and having just turned eighteen this year, how did this young man step-by-step create a miracle of his own? What kind of charm is hidden within his novels that can drive countless people wild with fanaticism? Regarding his own fame and his future path, what kind of plans does he hold? This issue of *Southern Metropolis Entertainment Weekly* takes you into the growth history of Tan Zhang."

"An ordinary origin."

"Growing into ordinariness."

"At the age of fifteen, a sword drawn from its sheath was extraordinary."

"After the age of eighteen, returning to simplicity and truth."

The interview between *Southern Metropolis Entertainment Weekly* and Zhang Tan began in late June, by which time *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* had stabilized at a 14% viewership rating. As the country's premier entertainment weekly, Zhang Tan did not turn down their exclusive interview. Since they held influence and centered the interview around him, Zhang Tan appreciated this style of interviewing.

The reporter asked many questions, and Zhang Tan answered many questions as well.

The final published interview was divided into the four paragraphs above for its main text.

His origins and growth had already been recounted numerous times in previous interviews.

"When I was fifteen, I was in my first year of high school, which was a major turning point in my life. My grades weren't very good; my academic bias was severe. My math, physics, and chemistry were practically unpresentable, and I had no confidence in passing the college entrance examination. I wanted to drop out of school to raise crayfish at home. Every summer I would go down to the river to catch crayfish and sell them; the people of Hefei love eating crayfish, and that was a business opportunity."

"My mom said, 'If you don't go to school, I'll beat you to death'—well, something roughly along those lines. Desperation breeds change, and poor grades also demand a change. The only subject I had confidence in was Chinese; in elementary school, my teacher praised my composition writing and even had me help classmates write love letters. So I thought, why not write novels instead?"

"The success of *The Four Great Constables* was probably expected. You know how it is—youthful and arrogant, self-confidence is always so overflowing, and after that, it was unstoppable. I first published the traditional Chinese edition of *The Four Great Constables Shaking Guandong* and made money. At the time, what I thought of was renting an apartment outside of school for myself, eating better, dressing better, helping my family open an internet cafe, and funding my older sister's university tuition."

"My older sister had great grades and studied medicine; she would be able to have a decent job in the future. Sometimes I joked with my sister, saying, 'You represent my side of walking an ordinary path. If I had studied hard, I might have been just like this, pursuing an ordinary life.' There is nothing wrong with being ordinary. As long as a person doesn't live a mediocre life and lives meaningfully, ordinariness is also a form of greatness."

"I hope to have endless money, luxury cars, mansions, and enjoy every enjoyment that can be enjoyed. Sometimes I go back to my hometown to fish, either with my eldest cousin or alone by the little river, staring blankly at the water's surface, far away from the glitz and glamour of the city. At times like that, I feel that what I actually want really isn't all that much."

"When I was in high school, right next door was a golf course, and I made a wish: to buy a villa by the golf course and go play golf whenever I had nothing to do. When I received the royalties for *The Legend of the Condor Heroes*, I planned to buy one, but my mother stopped me. My mother is a very strong-willed woman; I grew up being beaten by her from childhood until now."

"In the past, I might have sulked and opposed domestic violence, but as I grew older and wiser, I understood. When I brought my first physical book home, my mother took the book and went around visiting neighbors, telling them this was a book written by her son. Suddenly, I remembered when I received the Three-Good Student certificate in childhood, and my mother asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up."

"I said a scientist, and then my mother smiled... As for my dad, my father and I usually don't communicate much. In my memories, the most frequent thing was riding on his shoulders, walking several miles to visit relatives. When I went to school as a child, I also rode on his shoulders, and whenever we passed by small street stalls, I would cry and cry, and each time I would always get some 'Tang Monk Meat' or picture cards."

"Now whenever I go back to my hometown and pass by those small stalls, I really want to buy a pack of Tang Monk Meat to eat. But then I stop myself from walking on—not because I'm too embarrassed. When I was a child, thinking I could beg my dad to buy me a pack of Tang Monk Meat felt like such a wonderful thing. When I went to high school, I thought being able to buy a villa to play golf felt like such a wonderful thing."

"When I begged my dad to buy me Tang Monk Meat, I probably threw it away after taking less than two bites. Now that I feel villas and golf are no longer out of reach, I inexplicably lose interest. The best feeling is when you can't have something, yet feel that as long as you work just a little bit harder, you can get it. When I was fifteen, I felt that was the moment I was most determined to do things."

"After turning eighteen, I hope to return to simplicity and truth, to find the feeling I had when I was fifteen, and hold onto it..."

Everyone has a true side and a disguised side.

Accepting the interview with *Southern Metropolis Entertainment Weekly*, Zhang Tan brought out his disguised side.

He dutifully played the role of a genius who achieved fame at a young age, fabricating his shifting mentality and striving to fit the trajectory a genius ought to have.

In reality, however, he was living his own life very leisurely.

What confusion, what feeling of being fifteen—it was all utter nonsense.

An old man in his early thirties.

What on earth was there to be confused about? Work when it was time to work, enjoy when it was time to enjoy.

This life ought to be unbridled!

...

Zhang Tan had to admit.

He was genuinely a bit flattered, because the admissions officers from Peking University, Zhejiang University, and Fudan University had all successively come looking for him prior to the filling out of college entrance examination choices.

They hoped Zhang Tan would attend their respective universities as a specially recruited student, accompanied by all sorts of perks.

Faced with so many prestigious universities seeking him out, Zhang Tan's parents were grinning from ear to ear. Any one of those universities was top-tier—ordinarily, countless people broke their heads trying to get in, yet now they were coming to beg their son to come study.

"Why don't you just go to Peking University?" Tan Ming霞 and Zhang Quanshun deeply wanted to persuade Zhang Tan like this, because Peking University and Tsinghua University were China's absolute top universities.

Peking University's Department of Chinese Language and Literature was undoubtedly the finest literature department.

However, they were already accustomed to letting Zhang Tan choose his own path. They knew Zhang Tan wanted to go to the Beijing Film Academy and wanted to be a director.

Zhang Tan himself also felt deeply emotional, filled with a myriad of thoughts.

Once upon a time, he could only envy others for attending university while he had to settle for a junior college. Though he didn't say it aloud, his heart was endlessly envious of those who passed the college exams. Now, the tables had turned: not only had he successfully "passed" into the Beijing Film Academy, but even prestigious institutions like Peking University were coming to invite him over to study.

The opportunities of life—how exhilarating they were!

Yet Zhang Tan still resolutely declined and filled out his choice for the Directing Department of the Beijing Film Academy.

He understood his own study attitude. Going to prestigious schools like Peking University, Zhejiang University, or Fudan University would just mean coasting through the days for him, and he had already cooped himself up in high school for three years; he didn't want to trap himself for another four years in a university. Although the Beijing Film Academy was also a university, the teaching methods of the Directing Department were different from ordinary universities—the freedom in class was vast, and he would be studying content that actually interested him.

One could say that going to Peking University meant coasting for a diploma, while going to the Beijing Film Academy meant learning a skill.

Having thus declined the invitations from the prestigious universities,

and having filled out his college choices,

the college entrance examination scores were released soon after. Zhang Tan scored 407 points, even lower than his own estimated score.

Zhang Tan blushed a little: "Sigh, taking the college entrance exam all over again, and I actually ended up worse than back then." (To be continued.)