Chapter 153: Who is the True Hero (Bonus Chapter for 2,000 Initial Subscriptions)

Leaving the high school campus behind was, truth be told, a bit difficult to bear.

People are dual-natured. On one side, Zhang Tan harbored a heart yearning for a free and unrestrained life; on the other, he possessed the delicate sentimentality of lamenting spring and autumn.

He made a very dashing exit. He went to ask for leave at noon, shared a few drinks with Cao Yuquan and the others in the afternoon, and left by nightfall.

Yet what he took away with him were numerous emotions, alongside the fountain pen gifted by Liu Luyao.

To be honest, Zhang Tan had never expected Liu Luyao to give him a gift. Back in their first year of high school, after this pretty young girl confessed her feelings to him and faced rejection, they could no longer be considered strangers. Exchanging greetings and chatting when they crossed paths had become a common occurrence.

It was just that a certain distance had inevitably grown between them.

Without a reminder, he wouldn't have thought of it at all for a moment.

Yet now, this fountain pen brought a flood of deep feelings to Zhang Tan. Perhaps years later, he might no longer remember which of his high school classmates had achieved what, but he would surely remember that back in high school, a girl had once given him a fountain pen, and she had even confessed her feelings to him. This was the extraordinary within ordinary years.

An airplane roared as it flew toward Beijing.

Traveling with him were Li Yan and Ma Weiwei. Li Yan was heading to Beijing to discuss business; a gaming company in Beijing had taken a liking to *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* and wanted to adapt it into a stand-alone computer game. Ma Weiwei was Zhang Tan's assistant, responsible for taking care of his daily life. Compared to Li Yan, who had previously only helped negotiate contracts, intern Ma Weiwei held a lower status, functioning somewhat like an entourage.

Upon arriving in Beijing, Zhang Tan first rented an apartment in a residential complex near the Beijing Film Academy and settled in.

Next, he headed to the production crew.

"Xiao Zhang, your script is exceptionally well-written. Our directorial team unanimously agrees that your version of the script is the most faithful to the original work, and relatively speaking, every character is much richer and more rounded. Xiao Zhang, you truly have a talent for screenwriting, haha." Producer Zhang Jizhong greeted Zhang Tan with a smile.

Without showing false modesty, Zhang Tan replied, "I suppose I'm not entirely adept at shot cutting and transitions, but when it comes to the plot of the script, I still have a lot of confidence. Coming to the crew this time is also out of a desire to learn from Directors Yu Min and Zhao Jian and accumulate some experience."

"Splendid. With you, the author, personally stepping in, much of our work will become that much easier."

Thus, Zhang Tan entered the film crew.

Over the next few days, he accompanied the directorial team, the art department, and the prop department. They attended meetings together and studied the costume and set design for every single scene.

He also silently observed how the two directors, Yu Min and Zhao Jian, managed the crew.

In truth, within this production, the two of them functioned more like executive directors, while the true head director was Zhang Jizhong. Zhang Jizhong's word was absolute law within the crew; essentially, Yu Min and Zhao Jian simply carried out tasks according to Zhang Jizhong's instructions.

Furthermore, Zhang Tan could sense that while Zhang Jizhong was quite polite to him, when it came to decision-making—aside from the script—Zhang Tan had very little say in other matters.

To this, Zhang Tan could only shrug.

After all, he was merely the original author and concurrently a screenwriter.

Although Zhang Jizhong had adopted Zhang Tan's version of the script, he had still hired several on-set screenwriters, standing by to modify the script on the fly during filming.

Within the crew, Zhang Tan found himself somewhat marginalized.

Fortunately, Zhang Tan did not mind. He had never intended to heavily involve himself in the crew's operations; he had simply come to learn.

The indoor soundstages for the production were located at the Huairou Film and Television Base in Beijing, while the outdoor location bases were at the Zhenbeibao Film and Television Base in Yinchuan, Taohua Town in Zhoushan, and the Kerqin Grasslands in Inner Mongolia. The crew had also been divided into three groups: one group was making preparations in Mongolia, another was outfitting Peach Blossom Island in Taohua Town, and the remaining group was constructing the indoor sets in Beijing.

During the few days since Zhang Tan joined the crew, all the staff members were still intensely preparing props, and no actors had been scheduled yet.

There were, however, a few occasions when actors came in for auditions and costume fittings.

One time was the male lead, Li Jixiong. Li Jixiong possessed a tall and sturdy build. In terms of his appearance, he looked acceptable for portraying Guo Jing, though he lacked a bit of honest simplicity and carried a bit too much foolish earnestness. He differed quite a bit from Felix Wong and Julian Cheung whom Zhang Tan remembered from his past life, bearing a closer resemblance to Li Yapeng instead. Overall, he remained very true to the original novel.

Besides, Li Jixiong was indeed remarkably handsome.

"He's slightly more handsome than I am," Zhang Tan had to admit this much.

Only by being handsome could one attract female fans.

As for Li Jixiong, Zhang Tan was satisfied.

Another time, Li Meiping came to audition for the role of Mei Chaofeng. Li Meiping was a renowned national dance artist. She was also extremely beautiful and alluring. Zhang Tan didn't particularly care for an overly pretty Mei Chaofeng; the charm of the Iron Corpse should not be overshadowed by mere physical attractiveness. However, Zhang Jizhong felt that since Li Meiping was trained in the peacock dance, her graceful figure could vividly and thoroughly showcase Mei Chaofeng's Nine-Yin White Bone Claw.

Li Meiping was cast.

Yet a problem arose: after reading the script, Li Meiping stated that she did not want to play Mei Chaofeng because the character was a villain.

Zhang Jizhong tried every possible way to persuade her to stay, but up to that point, the other party had yet to give a definitive reply.

During the final round of auditions, Zhang Tan also met Song Yingying, the actress slated to play Mu Nianci. Song Yingying was a great beauty, and she was exceptionally well-suited to portray Mu Nianci.

Aside from the auditions for these three relatively important roles, Zhang Tan did not encounter anyone else.

Zhao Yanzi, the much-hyped female lead, had never once appeared on the crew's set.

Meanwhile, Liu Jian, a popular young idol in the mainland who was cast as the second male lead Yang Kang, had also failed to show his face.

On the contrary, rumors had surfaced in the news regarding Zhao Jun, an actor with an art-house film background and artistic training, who was reportedly eyeing the role of Yang Kang with eager anticipation, hoping to secure the part. Zhang Tan had inquired about this with Zhang Jizhong, who replied with two words: "hype." Although Zhao Jun had previously acted in art-house films, within the mainland television industry, he had always been relegated to playing supporting roles.

And so, it was a case of a willing buyer and a willing seller, mutually hyping each other's popularity.

Zhang Tan nodded. "That makes sense."

...

Having spent a few days drifting through the crew,

Zhang Tan wore the title of screenwriter while strolling around the set, all the while clutching his laptop to flesh out the outline for *The Four Constables: Rushing Water*.

The outline had already been dragged out for over a month and still remained unorganized.

And it was very likely that it would be delayed even further.

Because Zhang Tan had discovered yet another task that needed to be done.

Over the past few days, Zhang Jizhong had been scouring everywhere for lyricists and composers to craft the theme song and insert songs for *The Legend of the Condor Heroes*. As someone who also enjoyed dabbling in music, Zhang Tan had already thought about adaptation matters back when he was writing martial arts novels, and naturally, he had tinkered with theme songs and the like as well.

In his past life, many of the theme songs for Jin Yong's martial arts dramas came from the hands of the "Two Masters of Hui-Huang"—Joseph Koo and James Wong. These two figures practically represented the film and television music of Hong Kong in that era.

As for the theme song of *The Legend of the Condor Heroes*, the most representative one was the theme from the 1983 version, also crafted by the Two Masters: *The Valiant Dan Xin* (with lyrics by Deng Weixiong), *A Lifetime of Meaning*, and *The World Only Knows You're the Best*.

However, all three of these were in Cantonese. Zhang Tan couldn't quite understand Cantonese lyrics; he was merely familiar with the melody and couldn't manage to reproduce them. What he chose instead was another work by the Two Masters—the theme song *Who is the Greatest Hero?*, which they had created for the 1976 version of *The Condor*.

This song enjoyed widespread popularity, being adopted as the theme song for *The Return of the Condor Heroes* filmed the same year, and was even used as the theme song for the film *The Eagle Shooting Heroes*.

Jacky Cheung had sung the Mandarin version of this song, but Zhang Tan disliked the two sections of satirical lyrics within it—nonsense like "My father is a big playful boy, and my mother married this husband of hers, even more majestic than Jackie Chan"—feeling that they did not fit a martial arts drama at all. Consequently, he looked up the Cantonese version and discovered that the official Cantonese lyrics were genuinely wonderful.

"Supreme technique, formidable martial arts; once the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms are unleashed, dragons can be subdued."

"Displaying majestic might, if a man reaches this point, is he a hero? Who is the greatest hero?"

"Shooting condors, bending iron bows; legendary renown shakes the north, south, east, and west."

"Boundless great achievements; if a man reaches this point, is he a hero? Who is the greatest hero?"

"The One-Finger Zen, Toad Style; Eastern Heretic, Western Venom, Southern Emperor, Northern Beggar, Central Divinity."

"Good Guo Jing, pretty Huang Rong; who on earth is truly the greatest hero?"

"Training in perseverance, supreme courage halts warfare and never claims personal glory."

"Righteousness piercing the heavens; standing tall between heaven and earth makes one the greatest hero."

"That is truly the greatest hero."

With such lyrics and such vocal delivery—whether sung by Jacky Cheung or originally by Lin Mu—they were deeply moving and fit the imposing momentum of *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* to perfection.

When recreating the musical score from memory, even after years had passed, Zhang Tan still couldn't help but admire that the Two Masters were truly god-tier musicians to the utmost degree.

Picking up the completed musical score, Zhang Tan intended to go find Zhang Jizhong.

Yet he hesitated for a moment. "If I just walk over to Zhang Jizhong with this score like this, the other party might feel a sense of aversion, thinking I'm meddling too much. He already yielded to me on the script; he certainly won't agree to the theme song so easily. If he reacts with emotional annoyance, throwing it straight into the trash is entirely possible. I might as well go to a recording studio and record a demo myself, letting Zhang Jizhong experience it firsthand. Then we'll see whether he uses it or not!"

Thought must be followed by action.

This was a mindset Zhang Tan had cultivated in this lifetime.

He hurried off to a recording studio, spending half a day's effort to record the musical demo of *Who is the Greatest Hero?*. Zhang Tan sang it himself, and it felt remarkably well-executed.

The following day, he tracked down Zhang Jizhong and Yu Min. "Director Zhang, Director Yu, I'll borrow a few minutes of your time. Listen to a song."

"Xiao Zhang, what good music could you possibly have? Let Xiao Min listen to it, I have matters to attend to." Zhang Jizhong made to leave.

Zhang Tan quickly pulled him back. "Director Zhang, Director Zhang, it'll only take two minutes."

Helplessly shaking his head, Zhang Jizhong sat back down.

The music began to play.

Amidst the stirring melody, Zhang Tan's vocals rang out.

"Supreme technique, formidable martial arts..."

At first, Zhang Jizhong wore a slightly impatient expression, but after listening carefully to a few lines of the lyrics, he immediately shifted his posture and began to display a serious demeanor.

Yu Min reacted in the exact same manner.

One minute later, the demo concluded.

Because this was merely a semi-finished product of the song, Zhang Tan had only sung the lyrics through once, making it quite brief.

Yet it left a lingering aftertaste.

With a look of sheer disbelief, Zhang Jizhong turned to Zhang Tan. "Xiao Zhang, did you sing this?"

Zhang Tan smiled faintly. "I did."

"Did you write the lyrics and compose the music as well?" Yu Min asked in astonishment.

"Naturally."

"Incredible." Zhang Jizhong raised his thumb in genuine admiration. "A genius, Xiao Zhang, you are truly a genius. Novels, lyric writing, and composition—is there anything you can't do? Oh my, your talent makes even me jealous."

"Director Zhang flatters me," Zhang Tan humbly replied before pivoting, "So, how about letting me sing the theme song?"

Zhang Jizhong pondered for a moment. "As for that... let's listen to the music director's opinion first."

Right then and there, the three of them went to see a musician invited by Zhang Jizhong to handle composition. After listening to Zhang Tan's demo and having Zhang Tan sing a bit of it on the spot, the music director shook his head quite resolutely. "No, your vocal range is too flat, and your singing lacks dynamic variation. Although your voice is relatively clean, I still recommend handing it over to a professional singer."

Zhang Tan was displeased.

Extremely displeased.