A grand feast for the Chinese entertainment industry

Chapter 113 Blind Date
Just as the dumplings were being cooked and the braised sea bass was ready, Xu Qing suddenly came to knock on the door again.

They finished what they needed to do, figured your meal should be ready by now, so they came over to freeload.

Lin Jianlu opened the door for her, and as soon as he saw her, he understood. "Hey... you're so clever!"

Xu Qing laughed heartily, extremely proud of herself, "That's right!"

Dumplings dipped in vinegar, sea bass served with drinks.

Under the early winter sun in the capital city, in a small courtyard, people casually boasted and had a great time.

Jiang Wen put together a script. He had the outline, but the details were still "quite rough." While the two brothers were cooking, Jiang Wen showed it to Lin Jianlu—well, let's just say it was "The Japanese Invaders."

Lin Jianlu has always considered himself to be ignorant about art.

The script is still a bit unclear, with quite a few contradictory plot points, but the general idea is definitely taking shape—oh my, is this art? How should I know!

"We'll talk about it after you've finished working on it! If Forbidden City Film Studio is officially established, and my word is law, then I'll invest in you. If not, don't blame me!"

"Hey buddy, haven't you figured it out yet? No one but you can make the decisions! There are so many state-owned enterprises, why would they insist on having you as a joint venture? Think about it, those few companies, do they really need your few million? Even if they're poor, they can scrape together that! To put it bluntly, they just want you to be a shareholder and use your name! If they're using your name, they have to listen to you and respect your wishes, otherwise it would be too disrespectful!"

"Come on, don't flatter me! I don't know anything about movies! If you listen to me, you'll lose everything sooner or later!"

"Hahaha! It's alright, our cassette tapes are selling well! We'll be back after selling a few more tapes!"

"Go to hell! It's not enough that we've already paid off all this money; you still want me to keep throwing money at it?!"

"Hahaha... Let's have a drink!"

…………

After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, Xu Qing got up and left.

I have to go out and run some errands!
"Hey...you really know how to freeload off me!"

The girl was very smug. "If I don't leave, will I stay and wash your dishes?" she said. She hugged Lin Jianlu, kissed her, dangled her car keys, and left.

Jiang Wen chuckled again, and after she left, he suddenly asked, "Hey, bro, aren't you going to mess around with me?"

Lin Jianlu turned to look at him, "What's going on?"

Jiang Wen inhaled sharply, hissing. "Your two 'sex lovers'! There are more than one or two people in the industry who know about them. I don't think you've ever hidden it from them. They definitely know! Aren't you going to make a scene?"

"That's why I didn't make a fuss!"

"Hey...that makes sense!"

…………

When I got back that afternoon, I found out that they seemed to have started testing the heating.

Ah, the room suddenly felt warm and cozy—Lin Jianlu thought for a moment, then called her mother again, “Mom, why don’t you move into my rented apartment here? The heating has started, it’s so comfortable!”

In the past, they would never come no matter what, not even to chat. The two rooms in the tenement only cost twelve yuan and fifty cents a month, and the couple were quite content! But now, they know very well that their son is not short of money, at least not short of food and clothing, including money to buy a house.

So I hesitated, but agreed to come and take a look after I got off work.

After all, they knew very well that their son would run away from home for months at a time, and the house would just sit empty anyway—they had paid for it themselves, so why let it sit empty while this place froze!

But he immediately pressed on, "Son, have you called that girl yet?"

"I'm calling, I'm calling, I'm calling right away! I'll definitely see you, don't worry!"

Sigh, let's fight, before Xu Qing comes back.

The phone rang a few times before being answered. Lin Jianlu, unusually serious, said, "Hello, this is Lin Jianlu. Um... my mom said she arranged a blind date for me. Um... your name is Yu Feihong, right?"

The first voice on the other end of the phone said, "Yes. Hello, Lin Jianlu."

His voice was a little hoarse, just like the one I remembered from my past life, so I said, "When is it convenient for you? Maybe we can meet up or something."

The girl immediately replied, "I'm available anytime, it's up to you."

Lin Jianlu scratched his head, "How about... we meet later?"

"Sure! You decide on the location, uh, it's just... could you try not to be too far from the film academy? I'm currently living inside the film academy, and if it's too far, I just came back from abroad not long ago and haven't had time to buy a bicycle yet."

"Oh, it's alright then... how about this, the Beijing Film Studio is right next to you, isn't it? How about we meet at the entrance of the Beijing Film Studio? I have a car, I'll give you a ride!"

"to make!"

In just a few words, everything went smoothly and a meeting was arranged.

Just as he was about to leave, he called his mother again, "Don't come today, I have to go on a blind date!" — His mother exclaimed "Oh!" with undisguised joy, "Okay! Blind date is important, go ahead!"

So she went downstairs, and when she got to the bottom, Lin Jianlu suddenly realized something was wrong. "Wait a minute, I haven't paid the heating bill!" she thought. "How can you expect to get heating if I don't pay?"
He quickly called Xu Qing, "Huh? The heating's on? I didn't know! I've been so busy lately, I haven't paid any attention to this! I haven't been there since you weren't home! Is it... Hey, your Mr. Xue, who always helps you out, is he the one who gave it to you? Or maybe you actually reminded him, but you forgot!"

It's definitely not Lao Xue.

After thinking for a moment, I called my sweetheart, "Brother Lu, you're back? Oh, you've tested the heating? Oh, you test it before the official heating comes on? ... It was the weekend before last. I went over there and overheard two old ladies talking about the heating bill outside the building. I asked them how and where to pay it, and then I went to pay it for you. I was thinking that when you come back next time, the house will be nice and warm, which would be great!"

Hey... Zuo Xiaoqian is such a sweet girl. "Okay! I won't thank you! I'll call you later!"

After hanging up the phone, I started my bike and headed to the Beijing Film Studio. As I pedaled, I felt a warmth in my heart—wow, I never expected that this girl would be so thoughtful, even though I hadn't even thought about heating.

Ugh……

The Beijing Film Studio and the Beijing Film Academy are right next to each other, both on the North Third Ring Road. It's not too far, only about four or five kilometers. You can get there in no time by riding a bicycle. When he arrived at the entrance of the Beijing Film Studio, he could already see a girl waiting by the gate from afar. She looked graceful and elegant from a distance, and as he got closer, she became even more beautiful and poised.

My mom has a sharp eye.

She quickly noticed the bicycle heading straight for her. When she saw the man on the bicycle, she was stunned for a moment. She looked at the bicycle, then at the man, and smiled slightly.

Yes, Mom is right, she looks at least one level better in person than in photos.

The key difference is that real people move, while photographs are static.

As for this girl, every smile, every gesture, has an indescribable beauty, especially her eyes, which are particularly captivating, instantly elevating her score from 88 to 98!

I got out of the car a few steps away from her, took two steps closer, and looked into her eyes.

"Yu Feihong?"

She nodded, a smile playing on her lips. "No wonder you said you'd bring me along."

Lin Jianlu smiled and patted the car seat. "A luxury car! No one below a certain level can sit in the back seat of mine." — Her smile was even more beautiful, mainly because her eyes were so gorgeous. "I believe that."

Although I just returned to China, my relatives, friends, and classmates back home immediately gave me a rundown of the facts.

Lin Jianlu, an Asian superstar, was the first Chinese male singer to grace the cover of Time magazine—but he truly never expected that he would arrive on a bicycle to meet him for a blind date.

That's quite a character!

He patted the back seat again, "Get in!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Yu Feihong took two steps around, pressed his hand on the bike, and sat down—Lin Jianlu simply pushed it up, took a few steps with one leg, and leaped onto it.

"You've eaten Western food before and you like coffee, right? Shall we head to a coffee shop or go straight to a Western restaurant?"

"Western food is just so-so, not very tasty. I ate it abroad for two years and got tired of it."

"Hey...that makes sense. How about I treat you to hot pot?"

"Okay!"

Ride south, as far away from the Beijing Film Studio and Beijing Film Academy as possible.

Why? Of course! They're a couple in that tiny film academy! Why not just meet at the entrance of the film academy instead of making them walk all the way to the entrance of the Beijing Film Studio?

I found a lamb spine hot pot restaurant, but judging from the storefront, it didn't look particularly high-end.

And this time they were smarter and asked for a small private room.

It was only a little past five o'clock, and Lin Jianlu wasn't very hungry yet. But the hot pot was on, so she decided to take her time cooking and eating, chatting as she ate. The girl had just returned to China last month. She went to the California Institute of the Arts in Oakland to study film theory. She had spent a little over two and a half years in America, finishing her studies in the summer, but hadn't returned. There, through a teacher's introduction, she joined a production crew as a production assistant, but her family didn't approve. So, the crew disbanded after filming, and she came back.

Her family background was indeed illustrious. To put it simply, her father graduated from Tsinghua University and was a water conservancy engineer. He now holds a minor administrative rank, not too high, but not too low either. Her mother graduated from Zhejiang Chemical Engineering Institute. She has an older sister and a younger brother, who is two years older than Lin Jianlu. She was born in 1971, so it's conceivable that her parents were both born in the 1940s, before the liberation. In that era, vocational school graduates were highly sought-after government officials. Her parents were both university graduates, so what more could one say?

If Lin Jianlu hadn't suddenly become a sensation, and hadn't become famous across Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China, and hadn't been known not just as a singer but as a musical prodigy, and also as handsome... to be honest, he wouldn't even be qualified to go on a blind date with her!

What kind of family is that? What kind of family is the Lin family?
If it weren't for her family background, they wouldn't have been able to afford to send her out to see the world right after graduating from university—two years, tuition of $48,000. She received a second-class scholarship, which reduced her tuition by half. In addition, she worked part-time while studying there, and her family also provided some support, so she wasn't exactly struggling financially. Over those two years, she spent another $20,000 on living expenses there—her family had provided a total of about $30,000 to $40,000!
That's quite a lot, around 300,000 RMB, that's a huge sum of money!
Even their family has been almost completely drained of money in the past two years.

So after returning home, she only stayed for seven or eight days before rushing back to the capital. She stayed at her teacher's house, the "older sister" that Lin's mother mentioned, a professor at the Beijing Film Academy and the director of the acting department, Ms. Li Ranran. She retired last year, and around October, Zhang Heping decided to rehire her at the Forbidden City Film Studio, planning to invite her to serve as the director of the production department.

On the other hand, while she is preparing to return to the Beijing Film Academy to continue teaching, she is also trying to contact her teachers and classmates in the hope of getting some acting roles. She has been beautiful since she was a child and had already acted in her first movie when she was nine years old. As the old saying goes, she was an artistic prodigy from a young age.

In 1993, she was facing graduation and had already been offered a position at the university. However, on the recommendation of her teacher, she was cast in an American film, which was said to be adapted from a novel by a Chinese-American writer called "The Joy Luck Club." This led to her being favored by the director, who strongly recommended her to study abroad. As an alumnus of the California College of the Arts in Oakland, he wrote her a letter of recommendation, which helped her gain admission. The director was Wayne Wong, who was born in Hong Kong and later immigrated to America. However, his most famous work was the TV series "Below the Lion Rock," which he directed for TVB in 1974 when he returned to Hong Kong and still has a great influence on the Hong Kong public.

Now that you mention it, the news is clear—I remember accompanying Xu Qing to a gathering where she had a falling out with Chen Kaige and even gave him a piece of her mind. Gong Li mentioned that she had accepted an invitation from an American-Chinese director to film a movie in Hong Kong next year. The movie is about a British journalist with a terminal illness who falls in love with a woman from mainland China after arriving in Hong Kong.

The film's funding reportedly came from Japan, and the female leads were Gong Li and Maggie Cheung. The director's name was Wang Ying, I think.

Wow... she's so close to this industry!
So many of my scandals...

My two best friends in the capital's social circle... are both students at the Beijing Film Academy...

"Oh, Jia Jingwen, you know her? Yes, I was her teacher, her homeroom teacher! She dropped out after I left, I didn't even know. I taught them until the end of November 1993, then I got my recommendation letter and took a leave of absence without pay, teaching them for about three months. How is she now? I heard from Liu Lin and Xu Jinglei that she dropped out before the end of that semester! What a pity!"

Yes, there's also Xu Jinglei, who is also her student!

I hadn't thought much about it at first, but who would have thought that she had been a class teacher at the Beijing Film Academy before? Moreover, she graduated in the summer of 93 and started teaching classes that autumn, so she happened to be teaching Jia Jingwen and Xu Jinglei...

Being able to stay on as a teacher directly after graduating from university is probably the highest recognition a school and teachers can give to a student, regardless of the industry or school. No wonder this person is so composed in speech and behavior. This is the absolute confidence that has been accumulated and refined over the years, thanks to family background, academic achievements, and the fact that he has always been the most promising one in every step of the way.
Thinking about it again, Xu Qing was in the 88 class of the Performance Department at Beijing Film Academy, only one year ahead of her. Back then, Xu Qing and her sister-in-law Jiang Wenli were known as the two beauties of '88, and they were very famous at school. The woman in front of her was recognized as the school beauty after entering the school, so... the two of them studied at Beijing Film Academy together for three years.

Is it possible that they don't know each other?
Fuck!
It's impossible to escape!

“I originally planned to go back to the Film Academy. When I left, I took a leave of absence without pay. Of course, I could go back, but if I wanted to start teaching, it would have to be at least next semester. The teaching direction assigned to me by the leaders is acting theory, and I’m preparing my lessons in advance! But recently, my teacher Li has been advising me not to go back to teaching. She wants me to join Forbidden City Film Studio, saying that the company has a promising future… By the way, I heard it’s your company, right?”

"Hey...it's all from the country, it all belongs to the country!"

If she joins Forbidden City Film Studio... Damn it, just before returning to the capital, I asked Brigitte Lin to come to the capital often to take care of Forbidden City Film Studio. After I repeatedly declined, Zhang Heping was also very keen for her to serve as general manager and carry the company's reputation!
It's a complete mess!
This relationship is just too much to continue!
(End of this chapter)