Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 256 All Green Tickets
On the second Sunday after New Year's Day, in order to celebrate Tao Yushu's successful graduation and joining the workforce, Tao's father invited the whole family to go into the city to have dinner at Donglaishun.

Yesterday, Tao's father said that he would invite Lin Erchun and his wife to go together, so Lin Chaoyang and Tao Yushu came to Mianhua Hutong early in the morning.

When they heard that Tao's father was going to treat them to a dinner, Lin Erchun and his wife refused repeatedly and were finally persuaded to leave by Tao Yushu.

For the people of Yanjing, late autumn is the best season to eat shabu-shabu mutton. When it comes to shabu-shabu mutton, the most famous one is of course Donglaishun Restaurant.

In the winter of the 1980s, there would always be long queues in front of Donglaishun during holidays.

The Tao family ate half full in the morning and went out. They went to the Dong'an Market on Wangfujing Street, which was almost equivalent to crossing half of the city of Yanjing. The little food in their stomachs had already been digested in the cold wind.

It was past nine o'clock and there was no line at the restaurant entrance yet, so everyone went in as soon as they arrived.

The Donglaishun restaurant uses round tables, each of which can seat six or seven people. There were eleven people from the Tao and Lin families, so they divided into two tables for dinner.

Lin Chaoyang originally wanted his parents to sit at the same table with him, but Tao's father pulled Lin Erchun and his wife to the same table. The elders from both families brought Tao Xiwen and Tao Xiwu to sit at one table, and the younger generations sat at another table.

Donglaishun only uses castrated ram meat, which is soft, tender and has little mutton smell. The meat-cutting chef has superb knife skills and cuts the mutton thinly. The meat is placed on a white plate with blue flowers and served to the table one by one.

After the soup in the copper pot boiled, Tao Yumo couldn't wait to stuff the two plates of meat into the pot, and after a few seconds he reached out with chopsticks to scoop them out.

The mutton, which was bright red when it was put into the pot just now, has turned white and curled after being boiled in boiling water for a few seconds. It is cooked to the point of being cooked to perfection, and its aroma is tempting.

Seeing that the meat was cooked, Lin Chaoyang hurriedly picked up his chopsticks. When eating with Tao Yucheng and Tao Yumo, the brother and sister, you can't be polite, otherwise you will be the only one who goes hungry.

When he was enjoying the delicious food, he suddenly saw that Tao Yushu was indifferent in front of the food and his eyes were on the parents at the next table.

"What are you looking at? If you don't eat the jade ink now, it will all be eaten up."

Tao Yushu came back to his senses and whispered to him, "Look at my parents and your parents, what are they whispering about?"

Lin Chaoyang didn't care much, "It's just a casual chat between relatives. Come on, come on, eat meat quickly."

As he spoke, he picked up a few slices of meat and put them in Tao Yushu's bowl. Tao Yushu picked up her chopsticks, but her eyes were still glancing at her parents' table. She had just clearly seen that those people's eyes were always on her, and it seemed that they had ulterior motives.

"They must be talking about me," said Tao Yushu.

"Today's dinner is to celebrate your graduation and your job. We have a new employee in our family, so shouldn't we talk about you?"

Seeing that she was still struggling, Lin Chaoyang picked up the meat and put it into her mouth.

Tao Yumo, who was standing by, immediately started to make a noise with excitement. Tao Yushu was embarrassed by Lin Chaoyang's abrupt behavior and had to open his mouth to eat the meat. He then scolded, "Don't make a fuss."

"I'm just worried that you'll be hungry. With so much meat, Yumo will be so fat after eating it all! As her elder sister, you have to share the burden with her."

Tao Yushu rolled his eyes and rolled his eyes at him. Tao Yumo was so angry that he shouted, "Brother-in-law~"

"You eat too, you eat too, eat more." Lin Chaoyang comforted his sister-in-law.

"Humph!"

Tao Yumo turned his grief and anger into appetite and ate the meat in big mouthfuls.

Even if I die of obesity, I will never let you eat your fill!

When people in later generations go out to treat others to a meal, what matters is not what is served but the joyful atmosphere of family and friends gathering together.

Nowadays, treating someone to a meal is really just a meal, a rare opportunity to improve the food. Except for those sour intellectuals, who would be willing to waste time on chatting and gossiping?

After eating for more than half an hour, Tao Yumo felt that the food was stuck in her throat and would come out if she tried harder, so she put down her chopsticks. After putting down her chopsticks, she stared at the steaming copper pot with some reluctance.

Compared to her impatience, the others were much more relaxed. They ate leisurely for more than half an hour and finished after 11 o'clock in the morning.

If you finish your meal at this time, you don’t need to eat lunch.

After paying the bill, a group of people came out from Donglaishun. Tao's mother wanted to take Zhang Guiqin to the department store for a shopping spree, so Tao's father and Lin's father naturally had to follow.

"You young people should go and do your own thing," said Tao's father.

Tao Yumo was a little excited, "Sister, let's go watch The Shepherd!"

Previously, "The Shepherd" was filmed in Yanjing, and after mid-October it moved to Shanghai. The filming ended in November and the post-production was completed in December. The efficiency can be said to be very high.

Before New Year's Day, Xie Jin even called Lin Chaoyang and told him that the movie would be released after New Year's Day.

The current domestic film production and screening process is that the government allocates funds to local film studios, which invest and produce films, and then hand them over to film distribution companies at all levels for distribution and screening.

The film studio only makes money from the buyout, while the distribution company makes money from the box office of the film.

These days, movie releases couldn’t be rolled out all at once like in later generations; it basically depended on the purchase of copies by distribution companies at the provincial and municipal levels.

"The Shepherd" was invested by the Shanghai Film Studio, so it was screened on a large scale in Shanghai on New Year's Day. It was a few days later in Yanjing, and was only released in the Yanjing area in the past two days.

Because Tao Yushu has been busy with final exams and graduation, the couple has not yet seen the movie written by him.

"Let's go watch it together. I heard from my classmates that this movie is very good!" Tao Yumo continued with anticipation.

After hearing her words, Zhang Guiqin no longer had time to go shopping in the department store.

"Is it the movie based on Chaoyang's novel? Has it been released?" Zhang Guiqin asked. "Yes! It was just released a few days ago. Didn't my brother-in-law tell you?"

"Then we have to go and take a look." Zhang Guiqin complained to Lin Chaoyang again, "Why didn't you tell me and your dad about such a big thing?"

She knew that her son's novel had been adapted into a movie, and she had been looking forward to this day.

"It's already been filmed. The movie is there, what else can it do?"

Lin Erchun criticized Zhang Guiqin for her panic, then calmly waved his hand, "Let's go! Let's go to the movies, I'll treat you!"

After saying that, he took the lead and walked in front, taking bold and vigorous steps.

"What a shame! Why didn't I see you treating us to the mutton hotpot?" Zhang Guiqin muttered softly, then followed him.

Tao's father had a warm smile on his face. He knew that his son-in-law was always a steady person, but Tao Yushu did not report the good news to his family this time, which really surprised him.

After all, I have graduated and matured, and I am not as rough in doing things as before.

Tao's father was pleased with his daughter's growth, but he didn't know that Tao Yushu had just forgotten about it because she was busy with final exams and graduation.

Tao Yushu held Lin Chaoyang's arm, feeling a little aggrieved that his sister had announced the good news of the release of the movie "The Shepherd" before their family.

"This girl talks so fast!"

Listening to his wife's complaints, Lin Chaoyang could probably guess what was going on in her mind. Given her usual personality, how uncomfortable it must have been for her to have missed such a rare opportunity to play the game!
The family took the bus to the Capital Cinema. Nowadays, there are cinemas in every district, and there are more than one, but the one with the best hardware conditions is still the Capital Cinema.

The Capital Cinema was first built in 1937. It was originally funded by the famous Peking Opera performing artist Mr. Ma Lianliang and his friends as the Xinxin Grand Theater. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was renamed the Capital Cinema.

In 1957, the Capital Cinema ordered a wide screen from France, becoming the first wide screen cinema in China.

After finally getting into the city to watch a movie, of course I have to choose a good place.

It was past noon when everyone arrived at the cinema. Today was the weekend, and there were already quite a few viewers queuing up to buy tickets at the ticket office in front of the cinema.

The main entrance of the cinema faces the Telegraph Building. Upon entering, there is an audience lounge of more than 500 square meters. The audience enters through two doors of the lounge.

There is also a screening schedule at the door. The Capital Cinema has only one screening hall, and most of the time there are two movies shown every day. Depending on the popularity of the movies, the screening schedule and time of the two films vary.

Sometimes when a popular movie is released, the cinema will give all the screenings and time to the popular movie. This is the same whether in the past or now, because it is so popular.

"Huh? Brother-in-law, look at the match schedule!" Tao Yumo exclaimed in surprise as he looked at the match schedule.

Lin Chaoyang took a look over there and saw only the screening schedule for "The Horse Wrangler", which was nothing unusual.

There are not many films released now, and "The Horseman" is directed by a famous director. It has been well received by the audience after its release, so it is normal for cinemas to add more screenings.

Seeing that Lin Chaoyang didn't take it seriously, Tao Yumo pointed at the upper and lower directions of the schedule and said, "Look here!"

Lin Chaoyang followed the direction of her finger and noticed the difference in the showtime schedule. It turned out that the earliest show on this schedule was at 5:50 in the morning, and the latest was at 10:30.

In Lin Chaoyang's impression, the screening hours of the Capital Cinema are generally from 9 am to 9 pm. According to the current show schedule, doesn't it mean that there will be three more shows every day?
The Capital Cinema has only one screening hall, divided into two floors, with more than 1000 seats in total. If three more shows are shown a day, the income can at least increase by an extra thousand yuan.

When Lin Chaoyang was daydreaming, Tao Yucheng reacted and said to him cheerfully: "Chaoyang, your movie is going to be a hit!"

Lin Chaoyang looked at his elder brother-in-law, and Tao Yucheng continued, "I remember when Love in Lushan was shown two years ago, the Capital Cinema also added extra screenings, but they only added one in the morning and one in the evening. You've added three screenings. The earliest one starts at 5:50, and many people are still in bed!"

Tao Yucheng was amazed as he spoke. He looked at the schedule and muttered to himself, "How popular must this be?"

As he spoke, he looked towards the door, then at the audience queuing up to buy tickets, "It seems there aren't many people here!"

While they were talking, Lin Erchun had already been waiting in line for quite a while.

He just said he wanted to treat everyone to a movie, so as soon as we arrived at the cinema, we rushed to the ticket office to buy tickets.

After waiting in line for more than ten minutes, it was finally his turn. He pointed to the movie schedule at the door and said, "Comrade, I want to buy eleven tickets for The Horse Herder."

The conductor looked behind him, "Just one person?"

Lin Erchun pointed at Lin Chaoyang and others who were waiting on the side and said, "Everyone is there."

Seeing this, the ticket seller said nothing more and asked again: "Do you want a green ticket or a black ticket? Are there any students? Do you want a student ticket?"

It was Lin Erchun’s first time to watch a movie at the Capital Cinema, and he was completely stunned by the questions asked by the ticket seller.

"What do you mean?"

The ticket seller let out a breath and explained impatiently, "Green tickets are 30 cents, black tickets are 20 cents, and student tickets are 10 cents. They are located in different places."

Lin Erchun finally understood. He thought that Yanjing was the capital after all, and it was so expensive to watch a movie.

Given his personality, he would definitely buy the cheapest movie ticket.

But when he thought about the dozens of dollars his in-laws had spent on treating them to mutton hotpot, it would be too rude to buy cheap tickets.

"Give me all green tickets!" Lin Erchun said gritting his teeth.

(End of this chapter)