A widower's entertainment

Chapter 343 [Awards at the Film Festival] (Please Subscribe)
Xinghua Hutong, Beijing.

Newlyweds, no matter how diligently they study in bed, life goes on as usual, and they can't study in bed forever.

Even if Lin Youcheng takes good care of himself and exercises well, he is still a middle-aged man in his forties. In the end, he still needs to take it easy. It's not just young people who need to learn to be moderate; middle-aged people also need to learn to be moderate, after all, there are still many years to go.

The appearance of Xie Shuhua, the hostess, in the courtyard house in Xinghua Hutong was not too abrupt, since they were all acquaintances.

Now that there's a new member in the family, it doesn't seem to have changed much for the children. However, it has changed the life of Lin Youcheng, the father. There are many things that Lin Youcheng doesn't need to worry about because Xie Shuhua takes care of them.

Of course, with Song Ma as their nanny, Xie Shuhua and Lin Youcheng didn't really need to do anything special. Naturally, Xie Shuhua, the new mother, also wanted to treat the children well and hoped to be a good stepmother.

"Thanks--"

Lin Zhaoqing suddenly changed his address to Xie Shuhua as "Mom," but deep down he still felt a little uncomfortable and subconsciously wanted to call her "Teacher Xie."

Xie Shuhua was well aware of this, especially since older children like Lin Zhaoqing and Lin Zhaoxi didn't easily utter the word "Mom."

Of course, this does not mean that Lin Zhaoqing does not acknowledge the marriage between Lin Youcheng's father and Xie Shuhua.

"It's alright, Zhaoqing, it's fine to call Teacher Xie."

Xie Shuhua patted Lin Zhaoqing's head, knowing that it wouldn't be so easy for him to change his mind.

Lin Zhaoqing called out somewhat embarrassedly, "Mom!"

Xie Shuhua naturally heard this as well, smiled and responded, handing the English tapes she had prepared to Lin Zhaoqing, saying, "You can listen to these."

"I understand. Thanks, Mom."

Xie Shuhua's smile deepened; she knew that Lin Zhaoqing calling her "Mom" was proof that he had accepted her.

It wasn't just Lin Zhaoqing; Lin Zhaoxi was the same.

Xie Shuhua knew very well that Lin Zhaoxi would be taking the college entrance examination and going to university in the second half of next year. At that age, he was the same age as Lin Zhaoqing, and he wouldn't accept her as quickly as the younger children.

But Xie Shuhua believes things will get better and better.

Besides the change in address, another change was that Lin Youcheng paid more attention to exercising, because he didn't want to be constantly holding his aching back after just one night.

The children all have to go to school. Compared to Lin Youcheng, a full-time writer and the director of the novel group of the Beijing Writers Association, Lin Youcheng doesn't have as much work. Writing is more important to him.

As for Xie Shuhua, she studied in the creative writing graduate program at the Lu Xun Academy of Literature, so she was a graduate student. She also published some works in other literary magazines, so she was invited to work as a lecturer in the Department of Literature at Yenching Normal University.

Actually, Yenching Normal University had invited Lin Youcheng a long time ago, but Lin Youcheng declined directly.

Lin Youcheng naturally wouldn't stop Xie Shuhua from going to work, but rather let her stay home as a full-time housewife. Ultimately, it was up to Xie Shuhua to make the decision herself.

However, Lin Youcheng has also communicated with Xie Shuhua and plans to establish a film and television company in the future.

Clearly, Xie Shuhua was aware of Lin Youcheng's plans, but this did not contradict her decision to become a teacher at the School of Literature.

I knew that Xie Shuhua was originally a top student who graduated from Yenching University. Like Zha Haisheng and Wang Xiaobo, they all became lecturers at universities after graduation.

Today's college students are the pride of heaven, and Xie Shuhua is no exception.

After considering it, Xie Shuhua agreed to teach at Yenching Normal University and truly became a teacher.

Of course, Xie Shuhua also wanted to write her own representative work to make her famous. However, sometimes, just like in the Lu Xun Academy of Literature's creative graduate program, there are so many students, but in the end, only a few authors become famous nationwide.

Xie Shuhua knew this, and so did Cheng Hong.

This is why Xie Shuhua was willing to attend classes at Yenching Normal University; she ultimately loved literature.

Life went on as usual, but some things had changed imperceptibly. At least in the literary circles of Beijing, no one joked that Lin Youcheng was a widower writer anymore, since Lin Youcheng, the widower writer, was now married.

Of course, the saying "older man, younger woman" is another way of saying it, and everyone has to admit that Lin Youcheng is a lucky man, and the couple is absolutely perfect.

Even some in literary circles jokingly wondered whether Lin Youcheng, the widower writer known for his love stories, would become immersed in romance and lose his creative passion after getting married, or become even more passionate and fiery.

Lin Youcheng's friend, editor Zhang Wei, naturally paid attention to this matter. He knew that Lin Youcheng had not published any new novels since "The Reader," and that his previous work, "Every Day," was a screenplay.

Literary magazines also commissioned articles from Lin Youcheng, urging him to write one as soon as possible.

Not only People's Literature magazine, but also Harvest magazine sent a letter from Shanghai requesting manuscripts. The letter naturally congratulated Lin Youcheng on his marriage and then mentioned urging him to submit his manuscript.

These requests for manuscripts continue as always, and they come from more than one magazine.

After all, everyone knows that Lin Youcheng is full of creative passion and that his works are always of high quality, so naturally everyone wants to commission new manuscripts from Lin Youcheng after his marriage.

Everyone was eager to know what kind of literary works Lin Youcheng would produce after his marriage.

Clearly, this expectation is not only shared by literary editors, but also by young readers of literature.

There's no news yet about Lin Youcheng's new novel, but there's been a constant stream of good news regarding film adaptations of his novels. The film adaptation, "The Time Traveler's Wife," which was filmed in the United States, received rave reviews after its North American release at the end of last year, and is currently enjoying great box office success. Its global box office performance is also starting to attract attention.

In addition, Warner Bros.' film "The Lake House" seems to be riding on the coattails of the movie "The Time Traveler's Wife" and is about to be released.

Although these places are somewhat distant from Lin Youcheng's Xinghua Hutong, they are all definitely related to Lin Youcheng. After all, these are all movies adapted from Lin Youcheng's novels, which will naturally further promote Lin Youcheng, this author from the East.

Even the film "Atonement," for which Lin Youcheng served as screenwriter, has received good news. While Lin Youcheng was preparing for his wedding, the Cannes Film Festival in France announced its main competition lineup. Lin Youcheng hadn't paid much attention to this until Chen Aige informed him, asking if he wanted to attend the Cannes Film Festival. Only then did Lin Youcheng realize that "Atonement" had been nominated for the main competition.

The Cannes International Film Festival, also known as the Cannes Film Festival, was founded in 1946 and is held annually in mid-May in Cannes, France, for two weeks. It is the most influential and prestigious international film festival in the world and a founding member of the International Federation of Film Producers Associations' Festival Committee. Along with the Berlin International Film Festival and the Venice International Film Festival, it is considered one of the world's three major international film festivals, and its highest award is the Palme d'Or.

Actually, this was in 1951. In order to be held earlier than the Venice International Film Festival, it was moved to May. In 1956, the highest award was the Golden Duck Award, which complemented the Golden Rooster Award in China, but it was changed to the Palme d'Or in 1957.

When Lin Youcheng got married, Chen Aige also came to the wedding banquet and gave a red envelope. Now she is a regular at Xinghua Hutong.

The most important thing is the brilliance of Lin Youcheng's novel. The film adaptation, "Atonement," has actually been nominated for the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Although this was a film he directed, Chen Aige was well aware that this was also because Lin Youcheng's original script was quite solid.

In particular, many of the scenes and details described by Lin Youcheng in the script impressed him greatly when he was filming them on set.

The story of "Atonement" is already amazing and quite unique. Lin Youcheng's perspective is unique, using the life of a girl named Lin Xue to tell a story of repentance. In the film, he is more like an observer. The mistakes he made when he was young and ignorant are destined for him to spend his whole life making amends.

The script also adopts a dual-narrative structure with repeated cycles. One storyline is Lin Xue's painful life, while the other is Luo Yang and Lin Yu's difficult love journey. The two storylines intersect, and the narrative time and space of the script also rewind and jump from time to time, which will bring a strong visual impact.

This is why Chen Aige maintained communication with Lin Youcheng from time to time, even while filming on set.

This explains why, even though Lin Youcheng rejected Jiang Wen twice, Jiang Wen still maintained contact with Lin Youcheng.

There's no way around it; without the literary giant Lin Youcheng, even film and television companies from the United States would be eager to seek cooperation.

How could any domestic director not want to collaborate with Lin Youcheng? Not to mention adapting Lin Youcheng's novels, if you could get Lin Youcheng to write a movie script, that would be truly amazing.

Of course, the most outstanding scripts are those that can win awards, which is why many directors want to collaborate with Lin Youcheng. For example, the film "The Devotion of Suspect X" won Hou Xiaoxian the Palme d'Or.

"Youcheng, shall we go to the Cannes Film Festival together?"

Hearing Chen Aige's words, Lin Youcheng smiled and said, "I won't go. You guys go then."

Chen Aige heard that Lin Youcheng was not going to the Cannes Film Festival, but he didn't care much. After all, he knew that Lin Youcheng had never really wanted to go abroad, and film festivals are usually attended by directors, main creators, and the most important actors.

"Okay, we'll bring the trophy back to you then."

Chen Aige smiled and couldn't help but say something.

Lin Youcheng didn't say anything when he heard Chen Aige's words. He knew that the jury president for this year's competition was still the same Polanski, and that the Coen brothers' "Barton Fink" was also nominated for the main competition. So he had no intention of participating in the film festival.

Chen Aige, however, was full of confidence and had high hopes for his novel, "Atonement".

Lin Youcheng naturally didn't want to dampen Chen Aige's confidence.

Although he wasn't particularly optimistic, the awards hadn't been announced yet, so no one could say for sure.

"Our film, 'Atonement,' is the only film represented at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and everyone is counting on our movie."

Lin Youcheng couldn't help but laugh when he heard Chen Aige's words, and said, "Actually, besides the Cannes Film Festival, you can also watch other international film awards, such as the Golden Globes and the Oscars."

Lin Youcheng felt that it was hard to say whether the Cannes Film Festival would have Polanski as the jury president, but it was more likely to have the Golden Globes and the Oscars.

After all, the original film was nominated for and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama in another time and space, an absolute grand prize, and it was also nominated for five Academy Awards.

If I had known that it was back in 2008, now it's 1991. In Lin Youcheng's opinion, the story of "Atonement" will definitely touch foreign audiences and filmmakers, especially the love and humanity in it, and the final twist of the truth will surely shock many viewers.

After all, foreign audiences haven't read the novel yet and don't know that the real "Atonement" doesn't actually exist; it's just a fabricated lie created by a writer.

Upon hearing Lin Youcheng's words, Chen Aige nodded repeatedly and said, "You're absolutely right. We'll definitely submit our work to the Golden Globes and Oscars for consideration."

In fact, Chen Aige was also very concerned that Zhang Guoshi's "Ju Dou" was the first Chinese-language film from mainland China to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Although it did not win the award, it still bothered Chen Aige, who felt that Zhang Guoshi's film had beaten him to it.

Of course, in Chen Aige's view, it's alright that "Ju Dou" was shortlisted for the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival last year and was also shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but it didn't win any awards in the end.

"Of course, the most important thing right now is the Cannes Film Festival!"

Chen Aige looked at Lin Youcheng with a smile and said, "I have high hopes for our film, 'Atonement'."

Lin Youcheng just smiled and said, "I also hope we can win an award."

Of course, this is also Lin Youcheng's hope.

Regardless, he certainly hopes that "Atonement" can win an award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Lin Youcheng was unaware that although the jury chairman's bias remained, his play "Atonement," which he wrote, was also an undeniable force in the main competition.

After all, it's 1991 now, and this film, Atonement, a stunning work about love and humanity, will surely amaze countless foreigners.

In addition to the Palme d'Or, the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival also includes the Grand Jury Prize and the Best Screenplay Award…

These possibilities exist, because Atonement is moving enough that Chen Aige might actually come true and bring the trophy back for him.

That's right, get the award back for Lin Youcheng.

(End of this chapter)