The company has basically already made plans for what situations "The Da Vinci Code" will encounter after it is released.
A long time ago, Deep Space had already negotiated with the three authors of "Holy Blood and Holy Grail" and obtained the copyrights of several works under their names.
This time when public opinion arose, Deep Space was not in a hurry at all and took advantage of the situation to sell another batch of their books. After "Holy Blood and Holy Grail", "Legacy of the Savior" and other other novels will be put back on the shelves one after another.
Even some articles in the media criticizing "The Da Vinci Code" were arranged by Jimmy. Jimmy's idea is very simple. Since there will definitely be people who will protest and oppose, it is better to muddy the water first.
Although these articles written by Jimmy were to criticize "The Da Vinci Code" on the surface, they were actually excusing "The Da Vinci Code" and at the same time bringing "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" down.
…
As public opinion began to rise, Yu Dong quietly went to the Piedmont region of Italy.
Piedmont is located on the edge of Italy, close to the Mediterranean Sea, and is Italy's wine-making region.
Yu Dong went to attend the Grinzana Carver Literary Award Ceremony. He arrived at a small town in the Grinzana Carver area the afternoon before and was personally received by Salvatore, the chief executive of the Piedmont region.
Got Yudong.
Salvatore's personal reception of Yu Dong was unplanned.
Originally, when they heard that Yu Dong was going to attend the award ceremony, the awards committee took it very seriously and decided that Bertona, the vice chairman of the Italian Literature Foundation, and the person in charge of the sei publishing house would receive Yu Dong.
But after Salvatore heard the news, he offered to personally lead the team to greet Yu Dong.
Only when Yu Dong saw Salvatore did he know that the local chief executive had arrived.
Salvatore was very enthusiastic and gave Yu Dong a big hug as soon as they met, "YU, welcome to Piedmont. It is you who make the sunshine in Piedmont extremely bright."
After Yu Dong listened to the translation, he smiled and said, "Mr. Haleb, I heard when I came here that the sunshine in the Piedmont region this year is very good, and the grapes this year are a little sweeter than in previous years."
These words immediately reached Salvatore's heart. He took Yu Dong's arm and said excitedly, "YU, you must try our locally brewed wine. You will never be disappointed. Please."
Come get in the car with me, and we’ll talk while walking on the way to the hotel.”
In this way, Yu Dong was "hijacked" by Salvatore into a car, and then accepted Salvatore's "sales pitch" for nearly an hour.
When Salvatore came to receive Yu Dong, his purpose was very different from that of the vice chairman of the Literary Foundation and the people at the publishing house. His purpose was full of commercial nature.
Compared to other European countries, Italy seems to have a particular preference for the East.
Although it is well-known in most European countries, its reputation in Italy is very different. Many Italians' obsession with East Asia has reached a crazy level.
Last year, a well-known Italian publishing house conducted a questionnaire asking readers to list their ten favorite books. They collected more than 2,000 questionnaires in total, and 90% of the readers' lists included
There are even ten books listed by more than a hundred readers, all of which are by Yu Dong.
After final statistics, the novel "To the West" by Yu Dong received the most votes, the second place was "The Crowd", and the third place was "The Second World".
This result is somewhat unexpected.
In the world, Yu Dong's most famous novel should be "The Second World". Because of the bonus of the movie of the same name with a box office of one billion US dollars, many people who don't usually read books will know this book.
If we count the sales volume, it should be "Old Book". Although "Old Book" was released much later than "Second World", its sales volume has already surpassed that of "Second World", and it has firmly occupied the first place.
But the most popular ones in Italy are neither "Second World" nor "Old Books", but "Westward" and "The Crowd".
Last year, Italy's newly established Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities invited Tai Dong and Yu Hua to travel to Italy.
Their intention was obvious. Naturally, they hoped that Yu Dong and Yu Hua, two internationally renowned writers, could come to Italy to have a good time, write some essays, and say something nice to them.
This kind of thing happens all over the world, and Italy is no exception.
It's just that Yu Dong and the others are too busy and have no time to accept the invitation.
So when Yu Dong came this time, Salvatore was certainly not willing to let go of this opportunity. He kept telling Yu Dong how great Piedmont was, how beautiful the scenery was, and how the red wine had a pleasant aroma.
I have to say that Piedmont is indeed very beautiful. The pastoral scenery here is better than many places I have traveled east of, and buildings that have been preserved for hundreds of years can be seen everywhere on the road.
These antique buildings are half-hidden in the beautiful countryside. The interplay of light and shadow really makes people feel like they are in a Monet painting.
When he was approaching the hotel, Salvatore pointed to a castle in the distance and said, "That's the Grinzana Carver Castle. Tomorrow's award ceremony will be held there. Your hotel is only a few hundred meters away from the castle."
It’s far away. After dinner, we can go there and have a look. Follow the path and pass through the grape fields.”
Yu Dong looked along what Salvatore pointed and saw that there were vineyards all around the Grinzana Carver Castle.
These grapes have not yet reached the harvest period, but looking at the green grapes hanging on the branches, it can be predicted that this year will be a bumper harvest.
But Yu Dong didn't want to see grapes at the moment, because he had heard about grapes too many times along the way. Over and over again, from Salvatore's mouth, he could even understand the Italian word "grape".
"Yes.
The hotel where Yu Dong stayed was actually relatively simple. It was one of the few places nearby where he could stay.
Although the hotel facilities are simple, the dinner was very grand. The best wine, the best white truffles, and various local Piedmont delicacies were brought to the table for Yu Dong to taste.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Every time Yu Dong tastes one, Salvatore will expectantly ask him how he feels.
For those who didn’t know, they thought Yu Dong was a gourmet.
In fact, Yu Dong didn't study much about food. He thought black truffles were okay but white truffles tasted weird.
After the meal, Salvatore took Yu Dong and chatted for a long time. At one point, he wanted to take him out for a walk, but Yu Dong declined.
The scenery in the countryside is indeed beautiful, but going out at night is not a good choice. Who knows what strange mosquitoes are hidden in the holes in the vegetation.
In the end, Yu Dong couldn't stand it anymore. He smiled and said to Salvatore, "Perhaps Deep Space Company can cooperate with Piedmont to transport local...such as wine to other places.
go."
Upon hearing Yu Dong's words, Salvatore stroked his hands and said, "Is there any interest in deep space?"
Yu Dong secretly twitched his lips. It was no longer important whether he was interested in deep space. What was important was that he could no longer stand Salvatore's fatigue bombing.
He hinted to Salvatore more than once that he was tired from the journey and needed a rest, but Salvatore seemed not to hear him.
"Deep Space Company is involved in relatively few physical businesses, but the wine market is huge. We can try to cooperate. Mr. Haleb, you also know that the Amazon website of Deep Space Holdings has strong sales capabilities."
"That's right, we..."
Salvatore chatted with Yu Dong for another ten minutes before finally reluctantly leaving - he was not attending the Grinzana Carver Literary Award Ceremony, nor would he live here.
After Salvatore left, Yu Dong couldn't help but rub his brow, looking tired.
Rossi, who was following him, smiled and shook his head, "Although Mr. Haleb is very... talkative, he is one of the few chief executives who is very concerned about the people's livelihood in this region."
Yu Dong and Rossi were old acquaintances. Rossi was Giuseppe's official translator. Giuseppe would take Rossi with him every time he went to China.
This time when Yu Dong came to Italy, he called Rossi.
"I didn't expect that I was here to attend the Literature Award Ceremony, but I was dragged into a one-sided business meeting by Salvatore for a long time." Yu Dong smiled and shook his head, "They still don't care about Deep Space Company.
Understand it. If you understand it, you will know that I don’t actually care much about the company’s business.”
When Yu Dong said that he didn't care much about the company's business, Rossi was noncommittal and just smiled and said, "Even if there was no Deep Space Company, I wouldn't be surprised if Salvatore came to see you. After all, you are really in Italy now."
It’s so famous. Although he is the governor of Piedmont, he can meet you and take a photo with you, which can also become his bragging rights with others. If you can praise Piedmont in your article, then
Even better. Italy has attached great importance to tourism in recent years, and I believe that Piedmont must also have a mission, which is why Salvatore is so concerned."
Yu Dong shrugged his shoulders. He had been to many places, but he rarely wrote about a certain place. Apart from Jinling, Jincheng was the only one that Yu Dong seriously wrote about in his essays, and Yu Dong was still there.
Jincheng left behind a "calligraphy treasure".
It is said that the calligraphy that Yu Dong left at Lanshi Hotel at that time has been sold for several million yuan... Of course, the hype of calligraphy and painting is very illusory.
As for the painting "Luo Luo", someone indeed put out a bid saying that if Lanshi Hotel was willing to part with it, they would pay 4 million to take it.
But the problem is, these words come from some dinner table and cannot be taken seriously.
If Lanshi Hotel is really for sale, people will naturally not really buy it.
Knowing that these people are just having fun, Lanshi Hotel also shouted that no matter how much money was offered, they would not sell this painting, let alone 4 million, even if it was 40 million.
Will sell.
Just like that, with both sides bluffing, wouldn’t the price of this calligraphy go up?
But to be honest, if Lanshi is willing to pay three to five million, there are still people who are willing to buy it.
After all, Yu Dong's calligraphy works are very rare, and "Luoluo" is an original poem, so it will certainly attract the attention of collectors.
The most important thing is that "Luo Luo" still has a story.
For cultural products, stories are the most important. Only with stories can they be sold at a high price.
This story was spread by Lin Ruoqi, the manager of Lanshi Hotel. He said that this poem was written by Yu Dong under the pseudonym Cucumber Garden Sanren when he was pursuing his wife, the famous musician Cheng Yanqiu.
At that time, Yu Dong admired Cheng Yanqiu, but was too embarrassed to tell her face to face, so he secretly sent a letter to Cheng Yanqiu, which contained this letter.
Cheng Yanqiu liked this poem very much, but he didn't know that it was written by Yu Dong...
The story is purely fictional, but many people believed it at the time.
Not to mention the people who didn't know the truth, even Cheng Yanqiu's aunt specifically asked Tu Dong if they were true after seeing this rumor. She was quite disappointed to learn that it was not true.
Now Salvatore is looking for Yu Dong. On the one hand, he wants to cooperate with the Deep Space Company through Yu Dong. On the other hand, he may also want Yu Dong to help bring the goods. With Yu Dong's current reputation, as long as he is willing, he can naturally rely on it.
A few words to help sell Piedmont wines better.
"I'm afraid it's impossible to write an essay about Piedmont, but maybe I will write a novel set in Italy in the future?"
Yu Dong just said it casually, but Rossi said excitedly, "Really, is it really possible for you to write a novel with Italy as the background?"
Probably because he didn't expect Rossi's reaction to be so big, Yu Dong twitched his lips and said with a smile, "Everything is possible. Maybe I will get inspiration after a visit."
Rossi said with great expectation, "I hope you will be inspired. Italian readers like you very much. They will definitely be very happy if they can see you writing a novel set in Italy."
In fact, Yu Dong still doesn't know why Italians like him so much. He has tried to analyze the reasons, but he can't figure it out.
Italy is not even the main marketing place for Deep Space Company, but Yudong has more loyal readers here than those in Britain, France and Germany.
Previously, Deep Space Company wanted to promote Yu Dong with the upcoming movie "Beautiful Legend of Sicily", but later discovered that Yu Dong was more famous in Italy than Giuseppe, and later relied on "The Widow".
"Death" gave "Beautiful Legend of Sicily" a wave of publicity.
Of course, they not only like Yu Dong, but also like Yu Hua.
In addition to France, Italy is also Yu Hua's big "box of tickets". "To Live" has sold more than 600,000 copies in Italy.
It was precisely because he saw that Italian readers loved him so much that he took the time to come when the Grinzana Carver Literary Award invited him to come. His time was so tight that the new book signing was only held for
It’s really not easy to come here after a long time.
The Greenzana Carver Literary Award has awarded the International Novel Award to two Chinese writers, Yu Hua and Yu Dong, for two consecutive years. In addition to literary factors, there must also be this consideration - they also hope to award the award.
Give it to writers who are loved by the public and increase the visibility of this award.
This is what the Grinzana Kafer Literary Award has always done. In addition to regular awards, they have also set up other special awards, which are awarded all over the world, just to promote them around the world.
"Go to bed early. Salvatore gave me a headache today. I urgently need to cover my head and take a good nap."
Chapter completed!