Huayu: Starting from joining the mainstream entertainment industry in 96

Chapter 202: The Pursuit of Happines (Part 200)
Sitting in the darkness, Ma Guoqing felt as if something was blocking his throat.

On screen, Chen Jianguo pedals his tricycle wildly through the rainy night, chasing after a securities company manager who might offer him an internship opportunity. He slips and falls in the mud, losing a cheap plastic shoe. He struggles to his feet, barefoot, limping as he continues the chase, his face streaked with rain or tears...

This scene reminded Ma Guoqing of the days when he first came to Beijing, when he was injured on a construction site and had no money to go to the hospital, so he could only tough it out.

The last place Chen Jianguo and his son stayed was a "temporary relief station for laid-off workers" set up by the neighborhood committee.

This place is crowded with all sorts of people, just like him, who have been left behind by the times.

Despair, numbness, and arguments are the norm here.

Chen Jianguo seemed out of place here. He still maintained his habit of reading, and in the noisy environment, under the dim light, he was engrossed in his English-Chinese Dictionary and his hand-drawn stock market notes.

He helped the shelter administrators repair broken radios and fans in exchange for a little extra food or a relatively secure bed.

This was his only remaining dignity as a skilled worker and his way of exchanging it for meager resources.

Act Three: Turning Point (Autumn 1997)

A turning point has finally arrived.

Thanks to the financial knowledge he had accumulated through self-study while at the shelter, and his indomitable spirit, Chen Jianguo passed the initial test of a securities company and secured a six-month unpaid internship.

The manager (played by a veteran actor) told him expressionlessly, "Out of twenty people, only one will be kept."

No salary meant that he had to work hard at the securities company during the day, learning all sorts of tedious business, enduring the subtle disdain of his colleagues and the difficulties of old clients; after finishing get off work at five o'clock in the afternoon, he had to rush out immediately, get on his dilapidated tricycle, and shuttle through the streets and alleys of Beijing to earn money for his father and son's dinner that night and their basic expenses for the next day; at night, he also had to rush back to the shelter before it closed to grab a bed where he could sleep.

The film uses fast-paced montage to depict Chen Jianguo's daily life, spinning like a top: humbly and diligently working at the securities company in his only ill-fitting old suit; sweating profusely as he pedals a tricycle on the street, vying for customers with his fellow drivers and dodging traffic police; continuing to study by the light of the corridor lamp in front of the crowded beds at the shelter; gently waking his son in the darkness before dawn, entrusting him to a kind, equally destitute old woman next to the shelter…

As time went by, the number of interns continued to decrease.

Chen Jianguo managed to stay in the team thanks to his amazing perseverance and occasional flashes of intuitive judgment about market fluctuations.

But his weary figure and the dilapidated tricycle parked in the back alley of the securities company made him the object of gossip and ridicule behind the back of other glamorous interns.

The climax came on the day the decision of whether to stay or leave was made.

The night before, he missed the last bus while taking an elderly man who had suddenly fallen ill to the hospital in his tricycle. He practically ran back to the remote shelter and didn't sleep all night.

The next morning, after settling his son in, he rushed to the company, only to be late again due to traffic congestion.

When he rushed into the meeting room, drenched in sweat, with disheveled hair, wearing an old suit that had been torn while pedaling a tricycle, and one of his shoes still covered in mud, all the interns and the stern-looking manager were already seated.

The manager's face was so gloomy it could drip water.

"Chen Jianguo! Look at yourself! This is a securities company, not a labor market! Tell me, what makes you think you're qualified for this job? What makes you the only one chosen out of twenty people?"

The camera was focused on Ge You's face.

It was a face etched with weariness and embarrassment, yet a burning flame of defiance shone deep within its eyes.

He opened his mouth, wanting to explain, but found that any words seemed pale and powerless at this moment.

The theater was completely silent. Ma Guoqing, like the other audience members, held his breath, as if he could hear his own heartbeat. Then, they saw Chen Jianguo not offer any explanation. He simply trembled as he slowly and solemnly pulled two items from the inside pocket of his old suit.

It was the same English-Chinese Dictionary, its edges curled and worn, almost falling apart from being read so many times.

Another item is a hand-drawn "blueprint" made of various scraps of paper pasted and pieced together. It is filled with dense yet clearly organized drawings of the winding K-line charts of the early Chinese stock market, with detailed annotations and calculations next to it.

He placed the two items, as if they were priceless treasures, gently yet heavily on the table in front of the manager.

He raised his head, his eyes glistening with tears, but more than that, they conveyed a sense of honesty and desperation born from being driven to the brink.

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly throughout the entire theater and resonated in the hearts of every audience member:

"Boss, I...I don't know if I can do it."

He choked up, took a deep breath, and tried to make his voice more steady:
"But I only know one thing—for someone like me, there is no other way but to fight desperately."

……

The camera switches between the manager's scrutinizing gaze, the complex looks of the other interns, and Chen Jianguo's expression, a mixture of humility and pride.

The image gradually blurred, and Liu Huan's popular song "Starting Over" filled the theater, its melody both poignant and powerful.

"All the honors of yesterday have become distant memories..."

Having toiled and struggled through half a lifetime, tonight I once again step into the storm...

I cannot drift with the tide, for the sake of my beloved family…

No matter how bitter or difficult things get, we must stay strong, just for those expectant eyes...

As long as there is a dream in the heart, there is still true love in the world…

View success and failure with magnanimity; it's just starting over again...

As the song plays, the scene shifts to Chen Jianguo, wearing an old but clean and tidy Zhongshan suit with a securities company badge pinned to his chest, standing in the lobby of the stock exchange in 1997, a time filled with both opportunities and risks.

Amidst the bustling crowd, the flashing red and green screens reflected his face, no longer young but now radiant with renewed vitality.

He held his son Xiaoqiang tightly in his hand. The child looked up at him, his eyes filled with admiration and dependence.

The figures of the father and son slowly merged into the surging crowd that symbolized the vigorous pulse of China's economy and carried the dreams and struggles of countless people.

Happiness doesn't have a dramatic, grand announcement; it might just be a sliver of light that silently shines in after he has used his last bit of strength to finally push open that heavy door called "opportunity" or "survival."

On the screen, the subtitles slowly rose.

The lights in the theater also came on one by one.

(End of this chapter)