The door of the courtyard house has been welded dead

"Yongxing Video Studio~?"

The young man who was being questioned looked up at Xu Damao, then pointed inside the alley and spoke.

"Go inside, turn left at the third alley, and walk further inside. You'll see a man wearing sunglasses sitting at the door. That's it!"

"Hey, thank you, thank you comrade~!"

"Qi, who is Comrade Zhong Yi now? He can't be called handsome, and he can't be called boss either...!"

The young man waved his hand, looked at Xu Damao with disgust, shook his head, said something in incomprehensible Cantonese, and walked away with an impatient look on his face.

He didn't feel so disgusted when he was asked just now. Xu Damao felt that there seemed to be something wrong with his calling of "comrade". It seemed that young people in the south nowadays are very disgusted with this kind of address.

"He asked you to call him handsome, or boss. The term comrade doesn't sound good now. If you cross the river in Bao'an and start calling him comrade, people on the other end will know where you are from and you will get scolded~!"

"Oh~oh, sorry~!"

The old man sitting next to him at the entrance of the alley understood more than Xu Damao at this time. After being reminded by others, he realized how he had offended others.

"I'm sorry to call you Saorui. You should say hello to young people nowadays..."

The complaints from the old man behind his back made Xu Damao sweat on his forehead. At the age of 40, he felt that it was not himself who had changed, but the society that had changed in some way.

This change seems to have already begun in the south, but the north seems to have not noticed it yet and is still immersed in the world of the past.

As the young generation with the fastest acceptance ability,
Walking on the bluestone slabs in this complex street, Xu Damao felt that this place was even more complicated than Nanluoguxiang in Beijing.

It's not just the streets that are complicated, but also the human heart.

What is a frog mirror?
Xu Damao was confused at first, but he walked along the alleys and came to the place the young man mentioned, and saw a man with black lenses on his eyes.

Then I realized that the description was indeed quite apt. When I put this thing on, I looked like a big toad.

The shirts worn by the young people were different from the ones seen in the train station square. They were colorful, bright and bold, and paired with the frog-eye glasses, they gave people an indescribable feeling.

He looked so unruly, just like those young men in Beijing who liked to pick fights back then.

"Um, handsome guy, is the Yongxing video studio over here?"

Xu Damao handed over a cigarette and looked around, only to see a double curtain.

"One dollar~!"

The young man looked at Xu Damao and saw that he looked silly and it was his first time here. He glanced behind him and said in an impatient tone.

"I'm here to watch a movie~!"

When Xu Damao saw him reaching out to him for money, he hurriedly whispered, acting even more timid than the young men.

"You idiot, everyone here is here to watch a movie, and it costs money to watch a movie, one dollar for a ticket, how long can you watch it~!"

“Oh~oh~!”

Seeing the young man lift a corner of the curtain and slightly push the door open, Xu Damao took a glance at the scene inside and then hurriedly took out the money.

A signboard of "Yongxing Video Studio" was prominently hung on the dilapidated wooden door.

The situation inside the room was completely different from that of a regular cinema. At least there was a ticket office and a ticket inspector. Here, the ticket seller and the ticket inspector were the same person, who also seemed to be a lookout, performing multiple duties.

The moment I pushed open the door, a wave of heat mixed with the smell of cheap cigarettes, sweat and mildew hit me in the face.

After Xu Damao's eyes adjusted to the darkness, the scene before him made him gasp.

Seven or eight rows of benches were tilted all over the place. Some people had their feet propped up on the backs of the chairs in the front row. There was black mud stuck between their toenails, and they would pick their toes from time to time.

A young man with strange clothes on the side pressed the butt of his cigarette directly on the back of the chair, and the rising smoke was filled with the burnt smell of low-quality tobacco.

On the cabinet in the middle of the front of the house, there was something playing a picture, which should be a color TV. Next to it was a man wearing a sweatshirt and shorts, with his arms leaning against the wall.

In an instant, Xu Damao's attention was attracted by the picture on the TV. The TV screen was not as big as a movie screen, but the movie playing on it looked clearer than any movie he had ever watched.

Like him, everyone in the room at this moment focused their attention on the movie screen, watching the characters moving around, each of them staring intently.

Xu Damao hurriedly groped forward, found an empty seat and sat down, watching the TV obsessively. It was not until the protagonist picked up the gun on the ground and shot the man that he felt that he had not seen enough. Although he could not understand what the people in the picture were saying, in his eyes, it was undoubtedly a wonderful movie.

"Boss, change the film~!"

"I know. No need to remind you~!"

The middle-aged man in flowered shorts, leaning against the wall, slowly walked to the TV. Xu Damao hurriedly stood up nervously, witnessing the actions of the boss mentioned by others.

There was a machine in the cabinet under the TV. As the boss pressed the button of the machine, a black box the size of a palm was spit out by the machine, and the TV screen turned into stars at the same time.

The boss carefully spit out the tape from the machine and put it into the drawer below. Then he took out a black box and stuffed it into the machine under the TV.

“Oh, Te~!”

The spitting sound next to me was disgusting and his quality was extremely low. Moreover, his sitting posture just now was very arrogant, with his arms on the back of the chair and his legs crossed, taking up almost the space of three people.

After witnessing with his own eyes how the boss changed the "disc" of the movie, Xu Damao sat back in his chair and subconsciously moved his butt toward the aisle, realizing how chaotic the place was.

Damao didn't mind what movie his boss played. He was like a dry sponge that could absorb any water. But the guy next to him was not happy. He stood on tiptoe and started to criticize his boss after watching the opening of the movie.

"Oh my, what kind of movie is this? Boss, can't you put in some new content and something filthy~!"

"Fuck you, old man. If you like watching it, watch it. If you don't watch it, you'll be busy and filthy. You're a loser. Do you want to kill me~!"

The boss' saliva splashed on Xu Damao's face. The young man, who had been so arrogant just now, was scolded by the boss, but he dared not complain anymore. Seeing this shocking scene, Xu Damao seemed to be thinking about something.

When the boss rushed towards him with such a fierce look on his face just now, he almost thought he would be beaten up.

As a result, the person next to him got scared. If this happened in Beijing, the atmosphere would be so tense. For the sake of face, he would at least make an appointment to go somewhere and have a walk.

The moment the screen lit up, the entire video room suddenly fell silent, as if the conflict just now had never happened.

After changing the film, the boss lifted the curtain at the back of the room and walked in. Xu Damao's eyes were fixed on the TV screen again.

The camera swept across the magnificent palace. Amidst the fluttering red silk, a swordsman in white leaped into the air, his long sword cutting through the twilight.

Xu Damao's fingers were tightly gripping the backs of the chairs in the front row, which was completely different from the model operas he had performed for more than ten years.

There is no fixed stage, no stylized singing, and the actors' expressions are so vivid that they seem to jump out of the screen.

When the swordsman's sword pierced the enemy's chest and blood splattered on the palace lantern, a woman in the back row screamed, but the young men in the front row clapped excitedly.

"It's so enjoyable! This is what we call Kung Fu!"

The young man in strange clothes picked up the beer bottle from beside the TV and knocked it against the leg of a chair. The foam splashed on Xu Damao's trouser legs. His eyes were fixed on the screen.

The swordsman and the villain were fighting in the bamboo forest, with cold light flashing in the flying bamboo leaves.

He suddenly thought of the yellowed films in his projector, "The White-Haired Girl" and "The Red Lantern". The actors' expressions were always frozen in excitement or grief, and even their movements seemed to be guided by invisible strings.

And in the movie before my eyes, every shot seemed to come alive, breaking away from the invisible lines and bringing with it a vitality that was overwhelming.

When the movie reached its climax, the air in the video room seemed to be boiling.

Someone unbuttoned his shirt, exposing his chest. A few young men imitated the moves on the screen, and the wind created by their fists and feet swept across the back of Xu Damao's neck.

The man in the corner began to hum the interlude in Cantonese. The off-tune singing mixed with coughing sounds lingered in the enclosed space.

At this time, Xu Damao finally understood why those old men in the Beijing film circle suddenly began to praise southern movies just for the fighting scenes, the clarity, and the exciting plots.

It is like blowing the horn of desolation of an old era, representing the opening of a new chapter in a new era.

And he, Xu Damao, holds the key to open the door and shoulders the important responsibility of spreading culture and art. Whether the people of Beijing can see these movies depends on the efforts of Xu Damao.

Damao's heart was roaring at this moment. This was the reason why people's spiritual and material needs were getting higher and higher. After watching these films shot in Hong Kong, who would turn around to watch White Haired Girl or Liu Sanjie?

"Take it back, you must take it back~!"

He now has only this one idea, to give the Beijing film industry another leg, and to satisfy people's material and cultural needs. (End of this chapter)