The birth of an actor

Chapter 23 Half a Duck

At noon, when Anxin went to the restroom, he returned to find Fan Bing asleep, half-lying and half-leaning on her wooden bed.

He was taken aback, thinking to himself that this girl was too carefree.

But then I thought again, even if a fifteen-year-old girl is very mature, it seems... such behavior is reasonable.

He shook his head helplessly, turned the fan on oscillation, sat down in the chair, and continued watching the next scene of "Teahouse".

In July, at midday, the only sound in Yanjing City was the incessant chirping of cicadas.

He thought the story of "Teahouse" was indeed quite good.

Or perhaps... Mr. Lao Sha, this nationally renowned writer, truly has an undeniable talent.

Although her writing style isn't particularly romantic, there's a unique charm to it all.

After watching for a while, he glanced at the time. It was already 2:05.

So he got up and nudged Fan Bing's shoulder:

"Hey, get up, time to go to work."

Fan Bing was shaken awake and, still half-asleep, saw An Xin's face.

Yes, it looks really good.

Unfortunately, he looks even better with makeup on.
She quickly snapped out of her reverie, looked around, and then smiled sheepishly, saying:

"She suddenly fell asleep. I was going to teach you acting..."

"No rush, you probably got up too early. Shall we go? I'll take you home?"

"Um... Oh right, have you seen 'Days of Being Wild'? I returned it after I finished watching it."

"No, I haven't watched it yet. Why don't you return 'Comrades: Almost a Love Story' first?"

"Okay, but I won't come tonight. I'll go home and rest early tonight and come by bicycle tomorrow morning. We can rent videotapes again at noon, which will save us a day's money."

"Okay, I'll return it after I finish watching it this afternoon. Leave the deposit with the boss for now, and you can pick it up later."

"it is good."

As they talked, the girl got out of bed, stretched with a graceful yawn, and smacked her lips:

"I slept so soundly... Come on, take me to work."

"Ha, I hope you have something to do this afternoon."

"Hey hey hey..."

The two chatted and laughed as they left the house together.

After returning the copy of "Comrades: Almost a Love Story" amidst the sputtering of the motorcycle, Fan Bing got off the bike when they arrived at the entrance of the Beijing Film Studio.

"Give."

Anxin took a plastic water bottle out of the hanging plastic bag:
"The cooled boiled water was poured in this morning and put in the freezer."

"Thanks."

The girl raised her hand:

See you tomorrow morning, don't oversleep.

"understood."

Anxin nodded in agreement and turned to leave.

As soon as he returned to the shop, Sui Xi appeared at the entrance leading to the backyard of the specialty store:
"Don't worry, the boss is back. He said he'll come to see you in a bit."

"Okay, Sister Sui."

Upon hearing that it was Li Jun, he responded with relief and quickly went back inside to clean up again. Just as he finished cleaning, a gruff voice rang out from the yard:

"Peace of mind? Peace of mind?"

"Hey, here we come."

He quickly went outside and saw a slightly overweight middle-aged man wearing a shirt, a gold chain around his neck, a gold watch on his wrist, and a square gold ring on his finger, even though it was a hot day.

"Uncle Li."

"Hahaha...Good lad!"

Li Jun strode over, grabbed him, and patted his back forcefully.

"Goodness, you're taller than your dad."

Anxin smiled and nodded.

He hadn't seen Uncle Li for over a year; in fact, he was already taller than his father last year.

Or rather... the father in Uncle Li's memory.

But in any case, he must have been happy to reunite with his uncle who had visited him from time to time since he was a child.

"Uncle Li, the local specialties that Grandpa brought you are all here."

He invited Li Jun directly into the house.

"Oh?"

Li Jun's eyes lit up.

moment.

“Nephew…this chicken…”

"Ah."

Anxin smiled and nodded:
"Uncle Li, you can eat it. After you finish, I'll ask Grandpa to light some incense for the old fairy at home."

"Ha ha ha ha……"

Knowing An Xin's abilities, Li Jun laughed heartily, then looked at the various mountain products packed in plastic bags.

Well... to put it another way, he can actually get his hands on almost anything. He's in the business of selling local specialties, so he definitely has his own connections and channels.

But what my family from my hometown sent wasn't just gifts, it was a token of their affection.

Of course I'm happy.

"Have you been to the school? Has the acceptance letter arrived? Did you bring it?"

Not yet, probably around the middle of the month?

Hearing Anxin's words, Li Jun nodded again:
"Anyway, you can stay here. A friend in the Chamber of Commerce has a child who graduated from your school, and they said the accommodations aren't great. You can use it for commuting, and you can ride the motorcycle. I'll have Wenwen get you a license in a few days. If you want to drive, just give me a call, or you can drive your family car..."

"No need, no need for that, the motorcycle is enough."

"Well, let's go."

After An Xin agreed, Li Jun immediately stood up:
"I'll take you shopping for clothes. Tonight, Uncle will take you to Quanjude for dinner! Haha, we'll eat authentic Peking duck!"

"Hey, okay."

Like Batu, Li Jun was also a comrade-in-arms who had been with his father from basic training to his assigned unit. The depth of their bond needs no further explanation.

I watched Anxin grow up since she was a child, and Anxin is not pretentious at all.

Then he got into the Mercedes-Benz driven by Li Jun.

The uncle and nephew chatted along the way, mainly about things back in their hometown.

After chatting for a while, the Tiger Head Ben arrived at Yansha, the most famous shopping mall in Yanjing. After getting off the car, Li Jun, carrying a leather bag, walked inside with An Xin.

As we walked, they would introduce how amazing the mall was.

An Xin didn't think there was anything wrong with it, after all, in his mind, Yansha was already outdated by one or two decades.

But in that era, Yansha's decor could almost be described as opulent and glittering.

Li Jun also displayed his "nouveau riche" nature, leading An Xin directly towards Nike and Adidas after entering the mall. An Xin couldn't stop him.

It's important to understand that Adidas and Nike in this era weren't the ubiquitous brands they are today. One very obvious characteristic was... in the Nike store in Yansha, the sales assistants would even wear white gloves when helping you with shoes and clothes...

Anxin looked at him with a pained expression.

But it is true that in an era when the average wage of people in Beijing is less than a thousand yuan, the price of a pair of Nike sneakers at four or five hundred yuan is indeed enough to make many people hesitate.

It belongs to the absolute luxury brand category.

When Li Jun made a purchase, he would immediately buy a pair of Nikes, a pair of Adidas, along with a short-sleeved shirt and sweatpants. And none of them were flashy styles; all of them prominently displayed the brand logos, making it instantly recognizable as "designer brands."

A trip to Yansha cost two or three thousand yuan.

This is not over yet.

Li Jun also bought An Xin a Seagull watch for 1,100 yuan, as well as a schoolbag, notebooks, and so on.

The whole set cost a total of around five thousand yuan.

This is a huge sum of money in this day and age.

After shopping, he took Anxin to the Kempinski Hotel in the northwest corner, saying he was taking her for coffee. In this day and age, "drinking coffee" was definitely a luxury of capitalism to the extreme. Sitting in the restaurant, Anxin looked at the price of a cup of coffee at 40 yuan and the explanation of the 15% service charge below, and sighed helplessly.

There really is no comparison.

The more he compared, the more he felt that some things in this era were really too "absurd".

Of course, from another perspective, this is actually quite normal. After all, besides him, who else can judge these things from a hindsight perspective?
Especially when I saw Uncle Li add seven or eight sugar cubes to his black coffee.

It gave him a feeling of being like Uncle Nine taking his two apprentices for their first coffee.

As the uncle and nephew chatted, they started talking about the Beijing Film Studio.

"What? An actor?"

"Hmm, it seems quite interesting. And last time I went to Uncle Batu's place, Director He took a liking to me..."

After briefly recounting these events, Li Jun looked An Xin up and down, and unconsciously nodded:
"You know what, my nephew is really adorable. If he were to appear on TV and become a big star, wouldn't the line of people wanting to date him stretch from the front gate to his hip?"

The unique humor of Northeasterners brought out an emotional value that made An Xin burst out laughing:
"Haha, Uncle Li, stop joking. But I do think this is quite interesting, and I'd like to give it a try."

"Then give it a try. It's okay, just ask me if you don't understand anything. Although I don't understand either, I have people in the Chamber of Commerce who have connections with people in the film and television industry. I can ask them for you."

The "chamber of commerce" that Li Jun mentioned is the Jilin Provincial Chamber of Commerce.

It's a self-organized group of businessmen from Kyrgyzstan. While they don't exactly share resources, they can certainly look out for each other.

For people from other places to band together for mutual support, it is a very clever way to survive.

Taking advantage of this topic, Li Jun started talking about some hearsay. For example, some wealthy people's wives would spend hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan just to sit at the same table and have a meal with a certain Hong Kong or Taiwanese celebrity.

In his eyes, Anxin was still a "child," so he couldn't be too blunt about it.

At most, we'll just eat.

After having a coffee that cost around 100 yuan, it was almost time, so Li Jun took him to Quanjude.

As soon as he got on the bus, Anxin's pager went off. He took it out and glanced at it; it contained a message:
"Calling back, Ms. Fan, 020-XXXX"

"Uncle, can I borrow your phone for a moment?"

"Give."

Li Jun handed it over directly and carefully taught Anxin how to use it.

I didn't even ask him who he was calling.

An Xin answered the phone quickly, and Fan Bing's voice came through:
"Hey, Anxin?"

"Well, what happened?"

"Where are you? My bike's fixed now. Shall I come find you? Let's watch 'Days of Being Wild' together, otherwise we'll have to pay another 50 cents after today. And while we're at it, I'll teach you some footwork..."

Anxinxin: Nothing you say is reliable.

How can things change so suddenly?

He said speechlessly:
"No, I'm not home right now. I'm out having dinner with my uncle."

"Oh? What time will you be back?"

"I...I don't know."

"Alright then. Looks like I'll have to return it tomorrow. Hehe, what are you eating?"

"Now we're going to eat at Quanjude."

"Oh? Quanjude?... That's great. Hehe, I'll hang up now, bye-bye."

"Uh... ok."

After hanging up the phone, Li Jun, who had overheard the two children's conversation through the louder-than-usual speaker of his mobile phone, asked curiously:
"Who?"

"A friend I met through Uncle Batu, the one with Director He, was a girl..."

After briefly recounting his affair with Fan Bingbing, a hint of gossip appeared on the middle-aged man's face:
"You're interested in her?"

"..."

Anxin thought to herself, "Why are all these people like this..."

Putting aside whether Fan Bingbing is pretty or not, what interest could I possibly have in a fifteen-year-old kid like her?
But the "young man's" helpless shake of the head had a different meaning in the eyes of the middle-aged man.

Then I laughed out loud:
"Haha, then I'll have to meet you another day."

"..."

Anxin remained silent.

……

"Jingle Bell……"

"Hey, what's up? Why are you calling me so late?"

"Where are you?"

Inside the local specialty shop, Anxin looked at the lights outside the window with a helpless expression.

In front of him was a plastic bag with the Quanjude trademark.

There was half a roast duck inside.

This was brought to us by the waiter after the meal.

Clearly, Li Jun had specially packed half a duck, along with the fried duck carcass and the leftovers on the table.

As for who the half duck was for, it was self-evident from the phone call Anxin made.

"I'm in a phone booth. What's wrong?"

"have you eaten?"

"...No, I'm on a diet, I'm not hungry. Why are you asking? Do you need something?"

"My uncle packed half a duck for you, it's still warm. Why don't you skip your diet today, the duck won't taste good if it gets cold."

"Huh? Quanjude roast duck?"

Fan Bing's voice was full of surprise.

"Yes, do you want some? I'll bring it to you now."

"Oh dear, wouldn't that be too much trouble?"

Upon hearing this, An Xin rolled her eyes.

This is so obvious...

"Tell me, where should we meet?"

"Let's go to the photo studio. See you there."

"Row."

Anxin hung up the phone and rode off on her motorcycle.

Soon they arrived at the entrance of the Beijing Film Academy and saw the girl squatting on the curb.

Seeing Anxin, she happily waved her hand:

"Here, here...Quick, where are the ducks?"

"No, look."

An Xin pointed to the hanging plastic bag, and just as Fan Bing was about to take it, An Xin stopped her:

"You're not going to eat here, are you?"

"Uh……"

Before the girl could speak, a dump truck drove past them.

At this moment, under the KFC effect, light took shape.

Fan Bingbing's lips twitched, she thought for a moment, and then got into the car.

"Then come to my place. But let's make this clear... don't complain about how messy my room is. It's not messy, it's all that older sister's doing."

"Ah."

Anxin didn't think much of it and, following her directions, made a series of turns and ended up in a dark alley.

"That's it."

The motorcycle had just stopped, and the two of them got off when the narrow, old door opened. A woman stepped out, paused for a moment upon seeing them, then immediately locked onto Fan Bing's face:
"I'm looking for you, Xiao Fan. Why haven't you paid next month's rent yet? If this continues, you'd better move out right now, you hear me?"

Anxin was taken aback.

But Fan Bing's expression quickly turned awkward.

(End of this chapter)