Writer 1978: I Need to Give the Literary World a Lesson

Chapter 128 Shanghai Film Studio Editing
Inside the Beijing People's Art Theatre, as the lights changed and three bells rang, the performance officially began. The nearly one thousand people in the theatre fell silent, intently watching the center of the stage.

The curtain rises, revealing a classroom in the center of the stage, where four teachers are having a meeting to discuss the problem of the school having only two students left.

As the actors delivered their lines, the audience was gradually drawn into the play.

When Zhu Lin came on stage, Cui Daoyi rubbed his eyes, looked at her for a while, and then whispered in Liu Yimin's ear, "Why does this girl look so familiar?"

"Senior brother, you've met him before!"

Cui Daoyi continued to stare at Zhu Lin, and after a while, he finally realized, "Hey, isn't this that girl with poor eyesight? Isn't she a medical student? What's she doing at the Beijing People's Art Theatre?"

Liu Yimin has written so many novels, yet he only publicly replied to one reader's letter, so Cui Daoyi must have had a pretty deep impression of Zhu Lin. The fact that he could still recognize her on stage after she was made up speaks volumes.

"She was spotted by director Lan Tianye of the Beijing People's Art Theatre, so she was temporarily transferred here to act in a play!" Cui Daoyi nodded and explained in a low voice to Zhang Guangnian beside him.

From offstage, Liu Yimin could tell that Zhu Lin was a little nervous; compared to rehearsals, her movements were much stiffer at the beginning. However, she gradually became much more fluid.

Pu Cunxi mispronounced his Mongolian lines due to nervousness, but fortunately, the people below didn't understand Mongolian and didn't realize it was a mistake, so it wasn't a big deal.

As the audience burst into laughter from time to time, Zhu Lin and the other actors completely immersed themselves in their roles, performing with increasing ease and confidence.

After the second act, there was a ten-minute intermission, during which the audience erupted in enthusiastic applause and cheers.

The actors quickly went offstage to rest and soothe their throats. Zhu Lin clutched a White Rabbit candy in her palm, and couldn't help but smile excitedly as she recalled her performance on stage.

While she was on stage, she took a break from the performance to glance at Liu Yimin in the audience. Liu Yimin was sitting close by, and she could clearly see him smiling.

Zhu Lin wondered whose performance he was laughing at, and clutched the White Rabbit candy in his hand even tighter.

"Ready to play!"

Lan Tianye's voice interrupted Zhu Lin's thoughts, and he quickly began preparing to go on stage.

At 9:40, the play ended on time. All the actors went to the front of the stage to take their bows, and the applause and cheers from the audience came one after another.

"These veteran actors from Beijing People's Art Theatre are all excellent. Yu Shizhi truly deserves to be called the master of acting skills among the actors of Beijing People's Art Theatre. His performance is very natural!" Yang Hui praised.

Jiao Juyin and Ouyang Shanzun were good directors, and Yu Shizhi was a good actor.

The audience members were talking loudly about the stage play "Mr. Donkey," and they were excited to discuss every character.

"Comrade Liu Yimin, we're leaving now. Thank you for the theater tickets!" Yu Jiajia said, shaking Liu Yimin's hand.

"You're welcome. Be careful on your way back!"

As more and more educated youth returned to the city from Yanjing, unemployed educated youth like Chen Qi, who could not find work, became a source of instability in society.

After everyone left, Liu Yimin went backstage to visit the stage actors. It was customary for the playwright to come and visit; if he left without coming, it would be seen as an expression of dissatisfaction.

Backstage, Lan Tianye was summarizing everyone's mistakes, with Pu Cunxi's mispronunciation of his lines being the main point of criticism. Pu Cunxi kept nodding, but if he dared to say something like, "It doesn't matter if I mispronounced it," Lan Tianye would have scolded him to death.

Liu Yimin walked over and said with a smile, "The performance was actually not bad!"

"Yimin, you still need to practice more! The younger ones lack experience on big stages and get nervous too easily. These are mistakes that shouldn't be made."

After Lan Tianye finished his summary, he didn't say anything more. Liu Yimin greeted everyone with a smile, rummaged through his bag, and joked, "The candy was originally for everyone to celebrate, but we ate it at the beginning, so there's none left!"

After saying goodbye to the actors, Lan Tianye smiled at Liu Yimin and said, "These young people are not bad. They haven't made any major mistakes. Tomorrow I need to talk to Jiabao about transferring them to the Beijing People's Art Theatre."

"So you were deliberately trying to teach them a lesson!"

"If we don't teach them a lesson, how will they learn from it? The show is more important than anything else; we can't afford to make even the slightest mistake!" Lan Tianye sighed.

Liu Yimin chatted with Lan Tianye for a while before leaving the Beijing People's Art Theatre. Zhu Lin was standing under the light at the entrance, pushing his bicycle and waiting for him.

"Comrade Liu Yimin, thank you for your White Rabbit milk candy!" Zhu Lin waved the last one left in his hand.

"You waited here just to say thank you?"

“You go back to Yenching University, and I’ll go home. We’re going the same way, so I’ll escort you for a while. It’s a bit chaotic at night,” Zhu Lin said.

Liu Yimin was about to thank him with a smile, but then he thought about it carefully and realized something was wrong. You escorted me?

"You'll escort me?"

"Yes, I've been to sports schools and the military, so of course I'll protect you!" Zhu Lin clenched his fist and waved it in the air.

"You're a cultural performance soldier!"

Zhu Lin stubbornly retorted, "Arts and cultural soldiers aren't soldiers!"

"Then you'd better protect me well, I'm afraid of the dark!" Liu Yimin stopped arguing and teased.

After June arrived, the weather in Yanjing became extremely hot. It was hotter in summer and colder in winter than Ruxian. Fortunately, the dormitory was next to Weiming Lake. Opening the window, the breeze blowing from the lake would enter the dormitory, adding a bit of coolness.

Liu Yimin bought a bamboo mat and laid it on the bed. Wiping it with water while sleeping made him feel much better. However, the bamboo mat pinched his skin and hurt a bit.

While Liu Yimin was taking a nap in his dormitory, someone knocked on the door and told him that someone was looking for him.

Wearing red hard rubber sandals, Liu Yimin rubbed his eyes and walked downstairs. A woman stood at the dormitory entrance, looked him up and down, and tentatively asked, "Hello, comrade, are you Comrade Liu Yimin?"

"I am, and you are?" Liu Yimin looked at the woman, who looked tired, with sweat on her neck and forehead, as if she had been on the move for a long time.

Upon hearing that he was Liu Yimin, the woman relaxed, wiped the sweat from her forehead, smiled, extended her hand to Liu Yimin, and began to introduce herself: "Comrade Liu Yimin, hello, my name is Zhang Mengzhao, I am an editor in the literature department of Shanghai Film Studio."

Liu Yimin squeezed the woman's hand; his palm was sweaty. Coming from Shanghai and then from the train station to Yenching University—such a long distance—it seemed she had endured quite a bit of hardship.

"Hello, Editor Zhang, have you eaten yet? Let me treat you to a meal!"

Hearing Zhang Mengzhao's stomach growling, Liu Yimin couldn't help but say, "It's so hot, and she hasn't eaten while traveling. I'm really worried her body won't be able to take it."

"It's nothing, it's nothing!" His stomach growled even louder. Zhang Mengzhao awkwardly rubbed his stomach and said, "I'll treat you to dinner."

On the way out, Zhang Mengzhao couldn't wait to explain her purpose. She had traveled all the way from Shanghai to discuss the adaptation of the film script for "Romance on Lushan Mountain".

(End of this chapter)