Returning to the 82 Mountain Village: An Encounter with the Journey to the West Film Crew at the Beg

Zhou Fangyuan was helping Ma's wife bring in the bedding that had been drying all day when the sound of a bicycle bell and a familiar gruff voice came from outside the courtyard gate.

"I have good news today!"

Ma Dehua pushed the cart into the yard, with groceries hanging on the handlebars.

Despite the long day's work and the sweltering heat, he was panting heavily when he got out of the car, but his eyes were bright.

"Fang Yuan, there's something I need to tell you."

He parked the car, took the cool boiled water handed to him by Ma's wife, gulped down a few mouthfuls, and wiped his mouth.

"I just got back from the station and ran into Lao Zeng. Guess what? Your application for a hospital bed was approved! And you're even in the same courtyard as Jin Lai and Lao Wang!"

Haha, he got promoted! Now he's the temporary production manager for our team.

"It's really approved? That's great news!" Ma's wife ignored Lao Zeng and was genuinely happy for Zhou Fangyuan.

"You colleagues live together, so you can look after each other. Isn't that convenient!"

Zhou Fangyuan was also quite happy, finally he didn't have to trouble everyone in the hospital anymore, and he quickly thanked them.

"Don't thank me yet."

Ma Dehua handed the net bag to Ma's wife, instructing her to prepare something delicious for dinner, and then lowered her voice.

"The bed has been approved, but the original guy hasn't left yet, so we have to wait two days."

Old Zeng meant that you should go and greet Jin Lai and the others when you have time, and get familiar with the environment.

"Okay, I'll go tomorrow morning," Zhou Fangyuan readily agreed.

In the evening, everyone in the courtyard would come out to enjoy the cool air.

They were all talking at once, genuinely happy for the young man.

The next morning, it was almost 9:30 when Zhou Fangyuan finally came out of Ma Dehua's house.

The delay was because the Ma family's precious machine had a problem.

An old Universal 722 model appliance, which was an important household appliance back in the day.

In the morning, Ma's mother wanted to listen to the weather forecast and news. She turned on the switch and heard only a crackling sound of electricity.

No matter how much she patted, there was no response, and Mrs. Ma was getting very anxious.

In his previous life, Zhou Fangyuan worked behind the scenes and had a lot of contact with various machines and circuits. Although radios are more sophisticated, the basic principles are the same.

He told the two not to rush, borrowed a screwdriver, and carefully removed the back cover.

There was a lot of dust inside, and the pins of several electron tubes seemed to be oxidized and had poor contact.

He carefully wiped the area with a cotton swab and then tightened the loose wires again.

After fiddling with it for almost an hour, I put in the battery and turned on the switch.

"...It's radio time, now it's news and newspaper summary time..."

A clear and loud voice came through, and Ma's wife was overjoyed.

"Oh, thank goodness! You're really something, Zhou! If it had broken, sending it out to be repaired would have cost money and taken a long time!"

She insisted on giving Zhou Fangyuan two freshly steamed cornbreads from that morning, and also cut some pickled mustard greens from her own garden, wrapping them in oil paper.

"Take this with you. We're going to a new place and don't know if they'll provide meals. We can eat whenever we're hungry."

With all that fuss, it was already late when we left home.

Zhou Fangyuan carried the simple dry rations and felt truly content.

He bid farewell to the two smiling men and then strolled leisurely towards the guesthouse courtyard.

Upon arriving at the guesthouse, one could hear arguments about the plot and the sounds of hammering as props were being made.

The guesthouse was converted from an old-style work unit compound, with two red brick buildings built next to a big locust tree.

Even though it's September, you can still occasionally hear a cicada chirping from the trees.

I didn't go to see my own room, since every room is the same and the previous owner hadn't cleaned it yet, so it wouldn't be appropriate to go in.

Zhou Fangyuan chose to go directly to his two colleagues.

Their house wasn't hard to find; the door was ajar.

After knocking on the door, Wang Yue's voice came from inside: "Come in."

Pushing open the door, I saw Wang Yue sitting on the edge of the bed, a pile of things spread out in front of her, her eyebrows furrowed.

Zhang Jinlai stood in the corner of the room, facing the old mirror on the wall, silently making several extremely slow movements.

His eyes were fixed on me, as if he were trying to find some hidden code within me.

He was completely absorbed in his own world and didn't react at all when someone came in.

"Teacher Wang, Teacher Zhang," Zhou Fangyuan greeted them.

"Little Zhou is here? Come in quickly."

Wang Yue looked up, greeted him, and pointed to the area in front of her with a slightly helpless smile.

"I was just having trouble with this hat, you've come at the perfect time, can you take a look?"

Zhou Fangyuan walked over, and what was laid out in front of Wang Yue was the Tang Monk's hat, the "Five Buddha Crown".

However, there is a problem with the shape; the crown leaves are in the shape of fully opened lotus petals, spreading outwards significantly.

Each leaf is very wide and long, visually resembling a blooming lotus flower, appearing large and expansive.

"I think this hat looks awkward, so I want to modify it myself. Now it looks a bit like one of those lotus crowns sold at the market."

It feels too flamboyant and extravagant; it doesn't reflect the image of a holy monk.

Wang Yue gestured, indicating she was a little undecided.

He's an actor, and he's studying the Journey to the West, but he's a bit stumped when it comes to the specific modifications to props, especially these small adjustments that involve aesthetics and the character's temperament.

Zhou Fangyuan looked at the pile of Buddhist crown design drawings.

He picked up the hat, compared it to Wang Yue's head shape, and then looked at the movable Buddhist crown decorations.

He said carefully:

"Teacher Wang, you see, it's currently the top plane that looks large, so it doesn't reflect the majesty of the holy monk..."

Let's make it slightly tapered at the top, making the overall shape more compact and symmetrical.

By shifting the visual focus from horizontal expansion to the entire three-dimensional form, it appears as a complete and unified "Five Buddha Crown" from any angle—dignified yet not too rigid.

As Wang Yue listened, her worried expression gradually eased.

He took the hat, and after thinking about what Zhou Fangyuan had said, inspiration struck him.

"That's great! Xiao Zhou, you're so clever!"

He immediately perked up. Now that he had a good idea of ​​what to wear, the two started talking about accessories.

How to strike a balance between being neither too extravagant nor too frugal?

After discussing hats, they moved on to acting, and time flew by. Then, a loud voice echoed from the courtyard.

"Dinner's ready! Today we have minced meat stir-fried with pickled vegetables! One box per person, come and get yours!"

People came out of the rooms one after another. Wang Yue pulled Zhou Fangyuan, who had been assigned to this courtyard and should take a box.

In this compound, besides them, there were other people from the Journey to the West film crew, including Xiao Zhang, a woodcarver known as "Monkey Spirit" whom Zhou Fangyuan knew.

Upon arriving at the meal distribution point, the person who had called out earlier checked each name, and sure enough, Zhou Fangyuan's name was on the list.

This is meat, why not take it? Wang Yue, as usual, bought a box for Jin Lai.

Upon seeing the unfamiliar faces that suddenly appeared, people from other projects in the institute had their own thoughts.

One of them recognized Zhou Fangyuan's appearance. This person had been watching from a distance when Zhou Fangyuan had an argument with the stranger that day.

He didn't make a fuss, and continued as usual, greeting everyone in the courtyard.

After chatting with Wang Yue, he nodded to the new face and left with his boxed lunch.

Zhou Fangyuan and his companion returned to the house with their boxed lunches. The moment they opened the boxes, the aroma of meat filled the air.

These days, even film crews don't often eat meat, and he happened to get some on his very first day. How wonderful!

After thanking him, Zhang Jinlai didn't eat and continued practicing on his own.

While we were eating, another loud voice came from the courtyard: "Zhou Fangyuan from the CCTV Journey to the West production team! There's a phone call!"