As the television series "Legend of the White Snake" gained immense popularity, and "Lotus Lantern" amassed over a million collections in three days, the film adaptation of "Legend of the White Snake" officially premiered in major cinemas on the first day of the Lunar New Year.
It achieved an impressive box office revenue of over one hundred million on its opening day.
Overall, "Legend of the White Snake" was undoubtedly a dominant force in this year's Lunar New Year film season, and its author, Ding Yun, was deservedly recognized as an uncrowned queen.
While not yet a household name, at least seven or eight out of ten people who had watched "Legend of the White Snake" knew her name; the remaining two or three were simply unaware.
After all, not everyone who finishes a television series.
Takes the time to find out who the author is.
Some people watch a TV show and don't even know who plays the main characters, only remembering their in-show names. Such things are perfectly normal; there's no way to force it.
And this was only one aspect of the influence.
With the widespread popularity of "Legend of the White Snake," the film grossed ten billion at the box office within half a month. Many entertainment companies and film production companies couldn't help but set their sights on Ding Yun's other work, "Lotus Lantern," extending olive branches in hopes of acquiring the film and television production rights.
Of course, those with such aspirations and actions were primarily large companies. Smaller companies dared not even dream of the rights to "Lotus Lantern"; they primarily focused their attention on other novels serialized on Zhutian Literature Network.
If one of Zhutian Literature Network's works, "Legend of the White Snake," could become a hit, why couldn't other novels?
It could be said that the popularity and theatrical release of "Legend of the White Snake" directly paved the way for Zhutian Literature Network to sell the film and television rights to its works. Apart from a few that Ding Yun wanted to keep for herself to produce, the rest were sold to anyone who was willing to buy.
And at a good price.
Ding Yun acted as an intermediary for the film and television rights, agreeing to a three-seven split with the original authors, selling them off in packages. Da Feng Fiction.
The author received seventy percent, and the intermediary took thirty percent.
For a time, the continuously high prices at which various novel film and television rights were sold once again boosted the reputation of Zhutian Literature Network, attracting more excellent authors. In short, one "Legend of the White Snake" made Ding Yun incredibly successful.
It was fortunate that she had artificial intelligence assistance.
Otherwise, where would she find the time to attend classes and write novels?
She would be too busy with company affairs, wouldn't she?
...
In her sophomore year, Ding Yun released two "Lotus Lantern" works. The first told the story of Yao Ji, the eldest princess of the Heavenly Court, and her son, Yang Jian, saving his mother by splitting a mountain. The second told the story of the Third Holy Mother, Yang Chan, and her son, Chen Xiang, saving his mother by splitting a mountain. Through these, the Chan and Jie sects, along with Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and the Daoist and Buddhist schools, were formally introduced.
In her junior year, she released "The Legend of Miaoshan" and "Daoist Cihang," which fully explained the background of Guanyin's story, including how she transformed from Daoist Cihang into Guanyin Bodhisattva and how her female form came to be.
"The Legend of Miaoshan" was the story after her reincarnation into a female body.
In the first semester of her senior year, she published "Journey to the East," completely filling in the background stories of Lu Dongbin and the other Eight Immortals of the Quanzhen School.
In the second semester of her senior year, "Journey to the West" made its grand appearance.
At this point, the mythical universe had begun to take shape. Many mythical figures had become well-developed, possessing complete life stories, complete narratives, and complete spiritual cores. Most importantly, while writing these stories, Ding Yun was simultaneously advancing their respective film and television adaptations. Therefore, the influence of these works and mythical stories was not confined to the written page.
Instead, they began to slowly seep into people's hearts.
For instance, people in various places began to worship Guanyin, saying, "Great Merciful and Compassionate Bodhisattva, protect us!" Some temples with little incense even directly installed Guanyin statues.
Or they would sell pictures of the child-giving Guanyin.
Some places, in order to increase tourism revenue, vied to publicize themselves as the hometown of Erlang Shen. Truth intertwined with falsehood, and falsehood with truth, it was natural for people to believe it.
Some even forced connections between vaguely related folk tales and Ding Yun's novels. But regardless, Ding Yun's goal was achieved. She originally intended to make these myths deeply ingrained in people's minds, so having people cooperate was even better.
As "Journey to the West" serialized up to "Havoc in Heaven."
Many people couldn't help but clap their hands in admiration, leaving book reviews and even analyzing the author.
"The chapter 'Havoc in Heaven' is truly extraordinary!
I've been following Ding Yun's novels since 'Legend of the White Snake.' Back then, I just thought her stories were interesting, and the romance between humans and demons was also quite engaging, a kind of story that breaks worldly conventions, an alternative, underdog tale.
Many of her later stories also seemed to lean towards this kind of core, such as immortal-mortal romance. But I never really thought much of it until I read 'Havoc in Heaven.'
Sun Wukong's Golden Cudgel not only shattered the Heavenly Palace.
It also awakened me.
The core of Ding Yun's stories has never been about love at all; it has always been about resisting the mundane, resisting authority, resisting all established rules. 'Legend of the White Snake' breaks the boundary between humans and demons, which is also a breaking of class boundaries and prejudice.
'Lotus Lantern' breaks the boundary between immortals and mortals.
The subsequent revision of heavenly laws further breaks the inherent old society, the inherent old rules, and old regulations.
This is clearly disguised as true love conquering all, telling stories of breaking worldly conventions, condemning the notion that the rules of this world are always correct, and loudly proclaiming that there are no eternal injustices in this world.
Nor are there immutable ways of the world.
Guanyin's story should be about the merger of Buddhism and Daoism, but I haven't grasped the deeper core. The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea in 'Journey to the East' probably also symbolizes that no matter how difficult, as long as they work together, even if the difficulties are as vast as the sea, they can be overcome through effort. The immortal artifacts likely represent human wisdom and technological creations.
The above can only be considered allegories.
And this 'Journey to the West,' this Sun Wukong, is directly and openly writing about rebellion. 'Emperors take turns to rule, and this year it's my family' is even more straightforward.
It's just that I don't know if Sun Wukong ultimately succeeded, and what happened afterward, whether he succeeded or not, which led to him becoming the Victorious Fighting Buddha mentioned in 'Lotus Lantern.' Becoming a Buddha seems quite good.
But it's probably not as good as being the Heavenly Emperor.
For some reason, I have a sense of being co-opted, similar to the ancient concept of rebellion followed by amnesty."
"I'm so sorry, I'm too superficial. I didn't see such obvious undertones of rebellion, but I have to say, I don't really have high hopes for some of the romances mentioned in the novels. Unequal status and background, and too large a gap in family circumstances, doom the marriage to continuous hardship.
The reason Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian's courtship and marriage process had so many obstacles wasn't precisely because of their mismatched information and Bai Suzhen's lack of understanding of human affairs and her failure to adhere to human rules?
This is essentially a disharmony in their core values.
It's only in novels that they can have a happy ending. In reality, if there's such a big difference in status and core values.
They'd probably be divorced by now!"
...