Huayu: Reborn in 97, transferring to the Central Academy of Drama's star-studded class

As the banquet progressed into its second half, the crew members began toasting each other—their mentors, the producer, and the director.

Jiang Lai never gets involved in such things, but there's another person who doesn't get involved either: the foreigner James Schamus. The main reason he doesn't get involved is that he doesn't understand these Eastern ways of social interaction.

In fact, the practice of toasting is essentially the same in both the East and the West; it's about expanding and strengthening interpersonal relationships.

However, there are more rules for toasting in the East, such as who to toast first and who to toast next, whether to toast individually or as a group, and what auspicious words to say.

The West may be more casual, but it still tends to stick together in small groups.

Jiang Lai doesn't like it.

Zhang Ziyi also went to toast Li An, Jiang Zhiqiang, and Master Yuan. Although Jiang Lai thought it was unnecessary, she had her own ideas, and Jiang Lai couldn't stop her.

Seeing James Schamus sitting there drinking alone, Jiang Lai picked up his tea and went over to chat with him.

Old James had drunk quite a bit. Being a white man, his face was even redder, and he was slurring his words, "Jiang, your...your country's liquor! It's good, very good!"

As he spoke, Lao Zhan gave a thumbs up, his eyes still half-closed. Jiang Lai glanced at the bottle; it was Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor). Apparently, this foreigner had specifically requested this, saying it was strong enough.

"If you like, I'll send you some when you leave," Jiang Lai said.

Old Zhan waved his hand, "None of that matters, Jiang. You know what? This movie is the most difficult movie I've ever worked on."

Jiang Lai scratched his head, wondering how this guy had steered the conversation to this topic, and asked, "Is it harder than filming in the United States?"

"It's different." Old Zhan shook his head, poured himself another glass of wine, took a leisurely sip, and said, "Jiang, in our country, making a movie is easy, but making a name for yourself in film is incredibly difficult!"

"How difficult is it?"

"Big companies are everywhere; they control the entire market, and independent filmmakers have absolutely no chance."

Old Zhan sighed, "My friend and I started a company called 'Good Machine,' and it's been like this for years, barely surviving."

He then gave a bitter laugh, "Actually, those big companies make just as many bad movies! I've made just as many bad movies as those big studios, but they spend forty or fifty million promoting their bad movies everywhere, and they still make money! My bad movies only get a round of applause at film festivals!"

Jiang Lai held his teacup but didn't reply.

He had always heard the saying that foreign movies or TV series are better than those made in China, but that's a very one-sided view.

For example, the highest-grossing Hollywood film in my country is "Avengers: Endgame," which was released in my country in 2019. That year, nearly a thousand films were released in the United States, and only a few dozen of them were imported into China.

What about the rest? Most of them are bad movies. The foreign films we see are just selected ones, but we can see all the films from our own country, which leads to the perception that foreign films are always better.

This is a classic example of survivor bias.

Old Zhan glanced at Jiang Lai, seemingly wanting to say something, but ultimately held back and changed the subject, "What are your plans for the future?"

Jiang Lai swirled his teacup. "Back to school. I'll be graduating soon."

"I almost forgot you're still a student." Old Zhan nodded, raised his glass, and said, "Come on, let's toast to your academic success."

Jiang Lai smiled and clinked his teacups together. "I didn't expect you to know idioms."

LeBron James proudly pushed up his glasses.

As the two were chatting, Zhang Jingchu walked over with two wine glasses. She was wearing a light yellow sweater, with no makeup, and stood quietly to the side. After Jiang Lai and Lao Zhan finished talking, she spoke softly, "Senior, I'd like to toast you."

As he spoke, he handed another glass of wine to Jiang Lai. Just as Jiang Lai was about to refuse, a hand reached out from the side and took the glass away.

"He can't drink, I'll drink for him."

Zhang Ziyi smiled, tilted his head back, and downed the entire glass of baijiu in one gulp.

Zhang Jingchu paused for a moment, then smiled slightly, "Senior, you have a good capacity for alcohol."

Then she raised her glass and drank it all in one gulp as well.

The two looked at each other, neither of them saying a word.

James, watching from the side, muttered in English, "Oh, interesting."

Jiang Lai glanced at him speechlessly, while Lao Zhan smiled and leisurely walked away.

The wrap party lasted until late at night.

When the party ended, Zhang Ziyi had drunk quite a bit and was a little unsteady on her feet. Jiang Lai helped her out of the restaurant.

A gust of cold wind blew, and she shivered, snuggling closer into Jiang Lai's arms.

"Are you alright?" Jiang Lai put his arm around her shoulder.

"It's nothing." Zhang Ziyi shook her head, looked up at him, and asked, "How's Hong Kong?"

"That's great, there are big stars everywhere." Jiang Lai nodded.

During this period, Hong Kong stars were indeed more like celebrities than their mainland counterparts, and there were very few films of various genres in mainland China at that time.

"So what was that movie you filmed about?"

"It was just a view of his back; he didn't even show his face."

"So how did you act it out?"

Jiang Lai thought for a moment, then said, "Just sit down."

Zhang Ziyi chuckled. "Just sitting down?"

"Just sit down," Jiang Lai said with a smile.

The two hailed a taxi and drove away from the restaurant.

Streetlights swept past the car window one by one, casting flickering light and shadow on Zhang Ziyi's face.

She leaned on Jiang Lai's shoulder and closed her eyes.

The car drove along Chang'an Avenue, heading towards the hotel.

The night was thick, and the stars were sparse.

In December, Beijing is so cold that all you want to do is hug it.

The next day, Jiang Lai woke up in bed and squeezed his breast hard with his big hand.

Two lumps of soft flesh.

Zhang Ziyi was awakened by the pain and bent backward with all his might, almost breaking Jiang Laizhong's leg.

After the two wrestled on the bed for a while, Jiang Lai suddenly remembered something, and went to his suitcase naked to find a notebook.

Here, take this.

"What?" Zhang Ziyi asked.

"You'll see when you see it."

"Why are you being so mysterious about this?" Zhang Ziyi took it, and the next second she screamed, "Ah!!"

The notebook had several pages of signatures, including those of Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Andy Lau, Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui, and Carina Lau, with each person also writing a blessing.

"How about it? Not bad, right? I have several more copies. I'll give them to Liu Ye and the others when I get back to school," Jiang Lai said proudly.

Zhang Ziyi happily put away her notebook and asked, "Speaking of going back to school, have you thought about how to write your graduation thesis?"

Jiang Lai plopped back down on the bed, looking exasperated. "I haven't decided yet. What about you?"

"I might write something like the role of imagination for actors in performance."

Jiang Lai scratched his messy hair, looking even more worried. What should he write?

After checking out of the hotel at noon, the two went to school to register in the afternoon. The first thing they did after returning was to take a make-up exam. They didn't have time to meet with their classmates and quickly started looking for their teachers.

After working until evening, Jiang Lai received a phone call from Sister Ying, who had returned from the United States and had important news to report.

After having dinner with Zhang Ziyi, Jiang Lai leisurely went home. He had a rough idea of ​​what Yingjie wanted to say.