On an autumn night in 1985, the sound of broken wine bottles was heard in an old house in Taiwan, followed by the sound of books falling to the ground. Overnight, the streets and alleys of Taiwan were covered with overwhelming newspapers, reporting the same thing - Gu Long, one of the four great masters of martial arts, died last night, and only the book "The Moon Knife at the End of the World" accompanied him.
What is even more surprising is that after Gu Long's death, when his estate is counted, it is discovered that he is destitute, and his life is as simple as his empty room.
Gu Long, a martial arts ** family with equal writings, why did he live in poverty in his later years? Perhaps, his childhood experiences can provide us with some clues. In 1938, Gu Long was born into a wealthy family in Hong Kong, his father was the secretary of the mayor of Taipei, and his mother was a teacher in a well-known middle school.
He had a carefree childhood and enjoyed the privileged conditions created by his parents. However, this happy life came to an abrupt end on his 5th birthday in 1943, and his father disappeared from their lives.
This sudden change had a profound impact on Gu Long's childhood life.
Late at night, Gu Long's mother comforted her son to go to bed, while sitting alone at the door waiting for his father to return. The stubborn Gu Long insisted on sitting at the door, looked at his mother expectantly and said, "I'll wait here, Dad said he would buy me a big cake." ”
Looking at her son's expectant appearance, Gu Long's mother turned her head away and wiped her tears. She couldn't bear to tell the truth to such a young child. Just now, she found a love letter while tidying up her husband's study.
The love letter was not written by her, but by another female colleague of her husband's in the secretariat. The words of this love letter are lingering and compassionate, and even she is ashamed of herself as a teacher of Mandarin.
The signature of the love letter, which she is familiar with, is another female colleague of her husband in the secretariat, who has only turned 20 this year and has just returned from studying in the United States. Who can resist having such a young and beautiful woman around them?
What's more, Gu Long's mother has always been plain-faced.
The mayor's secretary is tired of the yellow-faced woman at home, and the two plan to leave for a new life in a place where no one knows them. But Gu Long's father forgot that June 7 was not only payday, but also his son's birthday.
On Gu Long's 5th birthday, the father of the mayor's secretary suddenly disappeared, and from then on, Gu Long only remembered his mother. He thought his life was hard enough, but in 1948, Gu Long, who was in elementary school, received urgent news from his neighbor that his mother had suddenly become seriously ill and was about to die.
Gu Long rushed home, but he was still a step too late.
The moment he stepped into the yard, his mother left him forever. The only relative in this world left him like this, which made Gu Long unacceptable. Although he was withdrawn and unspeakable due to the lack of parental affection at a young age, he was not distressed by this.
Instead, he spends most of his time reading, especially Xianxia Fantasy**. He loves to read, and he gets inspiration from it, and even wants to create his own Xianxia world to escape this world without warmth.
For Gu Long, as long as it is literature, he is willing to try.
Since high school in 1954, he has been contributing to major newspapers in Hong Kong. The passage of time gave Gu Long the idea of dropping out of school, and he hoped to find a full-time writing job to focus on his creation.
Just as he was hesitating, the editor of Taiwan's Chenguang magazine threw an olive branch to him, as if it was the arrangement of fate. In September of the same year, Gu Long traveled to Taiwan alone, marking the real beginning of his creative career.
On September 15, he devoted himself to creation, and by the end of 1955, he had completed his first work, "From the North to the South". This **is not martial arts**, but a literary ** with the theme of "Southern Country".
Surprisingly, this **Since the first day of Chenguang Magazine**, it has aroused enthusiastic responses and popularity among young readers in Taiwan.
Gu Long gained a firm foothold in Chenguang Magazine with the hot sales of this **. Just when he was a smash hit in Chenguang magazine, the appearance of a girl broke his peaceful life, she was Gu Feng.
Interestingly, the origin of the name Gu Long is precisely because of her. It turned out that Gu Long's real name was Xiong Yaohua, and it was only after he met Gu Feng that he decided to use the pen name Gu Long.
Because he was deeply attracted by the girl at first sight, he was willing to give up his original name so that the names of the two people could match. Gu Feng understood his intentions, and the two started a tacit relationship at the Chenguang Magazine Newspaper.
However, as he got deeper, Gu Long discovered that Gu Feng was the daughter of a wealthy Taiwanese businessman, and the gap between the rich and the poor between them was too wide, and after knowing this, Gu Long's heart was full of bitterness.
When Gu Feng quit his job at the magazine according to his family's arrangement and married a well-connected son, Gu Long was deeply devastated. He never expected his first love to end so quickly.
However, despite Gu Feng's departure, Gu Long's pen name has not disappeared. Perhaps, this is also a unique way for Xiong Yaohua to commemorate his first love. Gu Long's life also had ups and downs because of this, and he had been depressed for the time since Gu Feng got married, and even quit his job at Chenguang Magazine and locked himself in his room for several months.
However, it was this meditation that became another turning point in Gu Long's creative career. In the past few months, he poured his inner doubts and anger into his pen, and created works such as "The History of Martial Arts" and "The Peerless Double Pride".
From this moment on, Gu Long bid farewell to his literary and artistic creation career, devoted himself to the creation of the martial arts world, began a life as heroic as the protagonist, and finally became one of the four kings of Taiwan.
With the continuous accumulation of works, Gu Long seems to be completely immersed in his Xianxia world, he has made many friends with the righteousness of the rivers and lakes, shuttling between the flower streets and willow alleys every day, enjoying life to the fullest, as if returning to his father's era.
However, he forgets that this is not a perfect world and that everything he does has a price to pay. In 1960, a dancer named Zheng Yuexia became pregnant with Gu Long's child and came to the door.
Despite this, Gu Long still can't shake off his fun-loving nature.
In 1961, he fell into an uncontrollable romance with a young dancer. History always seems strikingly similar, and just when the dancer was pregnant, he met the daughter of a wealthy Taiwanese businessman.
Perhaps because Mei Baozhu's age and background were similar to his, he invested a lot of emotion and energy in her. They entered the palace of marriage in deep affection and jointly conceived their son Xiong Zhengda.
However, as time went on, his manuscript money was almost squandered, and he began to recreate new works. However, now he is no longer the happy revenge of his youth, and the protagonists of his works begin to end in tragedy and bleakness.
Although Gu Long's ** plot is no longer as popular as before, it causes his career to begin to decline. In April 1974, he started the fourth part of the Xiao Li Flying Knife series in the "China Times", called "The Moon Knife at the End of the World".
Although he thought that this ** would be a bestseller like the first three, unfortunately, this ** was rejected by the press in June due to its novel style. Therefore, he could only transfer ** to Hong Kong's "Wuxia Spring and Autumn" and began publishing it in January 1975.
This work has experienced a lot of difficulties, which has made Gu Long's career even more declining, and it has also taken a big hit to his mood. After years of heavy drinking, he unfortunately contracted liver disease and left us on September 21, 1985.
After Gu Long's death, the copyright of "Tianya Moon Knife" became a dispute, and there were conflicts between sons. They were originally brothers with their mother's surname who didn't know each other, but now they are together because of their father's inheritance, but they have become enemies because of money, which is emotional.
Zheng Xiaolong believes that he is the heir to the property as the eldest son, and Ye Yikuan, as the second son, is not to be outdone. Only Xiong Zhengda is still young and does not know life and death, but Mei Baozhu, as his mother, is determined to fight for his rights.
In court, Mui Baozhu refused to assign the copyright of "Tianya Moon Knife" with her two sons on the grounds that she was Gu Long's current wife.
Mui Baozhu is not only sharp-tongued, but also a very persuasive debater. In court, she pointed out that Zheng Xiaolong and Ye Yikuan were actually illegitimate children, and asked them what kind of face they had to fight for the inheritance.
On the contrary, Xiong Zhengda is the child of Gu Long after he officially got married, so they have no right to fight for this inheritance. Finally, Mei Baozhu also used Xiong Zhengda's underage situation as a banner for herself, emphasizing that this book should be Gu Long's custody of her son.
Under Mei Baozhu's witty argument, the court finally ruled to return the copyright of ** to Gu Long's youngest son Xiong Zhengda. However, in the process of competing for the inheritance, did the sons of Gu Long ever think that their father would only leave this precious relic?
He used to be a dashing martial arts writer, and he grew old alone in his later years, as if it was the world's last satire on him.