Volume 4: The World of Great Conflict Chapter 0495 Confused Love
"Hey, why are you here?"
Nan Yi looked back and actually saw Gong Xue.
"The Beijing Film Studio is going to shoot a new movie, and I'm going to play a role in it."
Gong Xue and Nan Yi hadn't seen each other for nearly half a year. When she suddenly saw her nominal boyfriend, the shyness on her face slowly faded away.
"Oh, filming in the capital?"
"Um."
"Then why are you here?"
Nan Yi was not surprised that Gong Xue came to Beijing, as it was normal for an actor to run around with the crew. But when she ran to the Baihuashen Hutong, Nan Yi was a little surprised.
"I'm here." Gong Xue pointed to the gate of the courtyard and said, "I heard from the crew that there are often gatherings of actors here, and sometimes some teachers come here too. I want to come here to learn from them."
"Then you came at the wrong time. There's no one inside. Come back next time."
"What a pity. It's a rare day for the crew to take a break today. The crew will be working non-stop later on, so we won't be able to find the time to come again." Gong Xue said regretfully.
"I haven't seen you for half a year. You've changed a lot. You've become so concerned about your work skills?" Nan Yi asked in surprise.
Based on Nan Yi's observation of Gong Xue and the assessment made by the mind control team, Gong Xue should be a person who seeks comfort and does not have much ambition. For her, filming is just a job that can earn her a salary and allow her to maintain a relatively comfortable life. It has no special meaning and is not enough to make her so passionate.
Like the vast majority of people in the world, she also has a common great dream - to have endless money without having to work.
Hearing Nan Yi's words, Gong Xue's cheeks secreted more red pigments, and her cheeks turned from half red to crimson. In fact, she didn't come here to ask for advice from any senior teacher. She came here purely because she accidentally heard someone say that the owner of the house was called Nan Yi.
Half a year ago, Gong Xue thought that the man in front of her was very shameless for saying such obscene words to her. Now that she knew the man was leaving, she felt a sense of relief.
But as time went by, she discovered that there was a villain named Nan Yi who had moved into her mind at some point. This villain was also shameless and a stubborn person who refused to move out after living in her mind.
She desperately wanted to get close to Nan Yi and understand him. Once she knew him well enough, this man would either be thrown out of her mind or moved to another place, from her mind into her heart.
Seeing the blush on Gong Xue's cheeks, Nan Yi realized that he had asked a stupid question.
"Where do you live? I'll take you back."
"The dormitory of Beijing Film Studio."
"The crew treated you so badly that they arranged for you to live in a dormitory instead of a guest house?"
The early 1980s was the golden age of Chinese cinema. It had not yet been greatly impacted by television and video halls. The moviegoers were huge and cinemas were doing very well. For film studios, copies of their films were not difficult to sell. As long as the films were not too bad, cinemas everywhere would buy them. Life was still good.
In theory, it is easy for them to arrange accommodation in a guesthouse for actors from other places.
"The filming location is right next to the Beijing Film Studio, so it's very convenient to live in the dormitory."
"Oh, I was just wondering." Nan Yi nodded and asked, "Have you had lunch?"
"not yet."
Gong Xue lifted her drooping hair and spoke shyly.
"What do you want to eat? I'll treat you."
"You're treating me?" Gong Xue put her right index finger on her lips and bit it lightly, then said, "I want to eat Western food, is that ok?"
"Of course, then go to Weilan at the east gate of the Summer Palace. The owner of this restaurant, Zheng Weizhi, has worked as a chef in many embassies and has more than 30 years of experience in Western cuisine. This restaurant is good. Two big shots have patronized it and praised it highly."
"Which two big shots?"
"One is Nixon, and the other is Adam South."
"Aren't you Adam Nan?"
Nan Yi nodded and smiled: "Yes, it's me."
Gong Xue thought to herself: "This man is not only shameless, but also a bit shameless."
Nan Yi took Gong Xue out of Baihuashenchu Hutong and came to South Street in Xinjiekou. They waited at the intersection for nearly half an hour but no taxi came.
"How about we take the bus?" Gong Xue said after looking at her watch.
"Aren't you hungry? To get there, you have to change buses and walk about a kilometer."
"Fortunately, I'm not too hungry."
"Okay then, the bus stop is over there, let's go forward." Nan Yi turned his head and pointed to the left.
"good."
After waiting at the bus stop for a while, Nan Yi and Gong Xue boarded bus No. 111 to the zoo.
It was not rush hour, so there were very few people on the bus, only two or three kittens.
Walking to the side of the ticket seller, Nan Yi took out his monthly ticket and handed it to her. The ticket seller glanced at the timestamp in the lower left corner and then glanced at the photo in the upper right corner.
The monthly ticket is a piece of good quality cardboard with photos and timestamps pasted on it. You will receive a new timestamp when you pay the monthly fee every month. Just stick it on the monthly ticket and stamp it with a blue seal.
The dates of each month are intentionally printed in different colors to make it easier for ticket sellers to check tickets. As long as the colors match, there is no need to look at the date carefully.
The monthly bus pass is one of Nan Yi’s tools for escaping from danger. As long as he is in Beijing, the monthly pass for that month will be activated and he will always carry it with him.
"Comrade, where is your monthly ticket?" After looking at Nan Yi's, the ticket seller shouted at Gong Xue.
"She didn't, I bought the ticket."
As Nan Yi spoke, he reached into his pocket and fumbled for a while, and two coins came into his hand. He looked down and saw that the one-cent one was from 1981, and the two-cent one was from 1980. It seemed that these two kinds of coins would be speculated to be worth more than three thousand in the future.
With a curled mouth, Nan Yi thought maliciously: "I'll buy a large number of them from the market and hoard them. When the market gets heated up, I'll release them outside to cheat those speculators. Damn it, why can't I do anything else but hoard them. I'll have to go to the stamp market in a couple of days. I haven't paid attention to monkey stamps for a long time. I don't know what the market is like now."
Thinking about something, Nan Yi handed three cents to the ticket seller and took the ticket back from her.
"We can just stand at the back door, we'll get off in a bit." Holding the handrail on the roof, Nan Yi swiped his hand forward and stood next to Gong Xue. "Can you get your ticket reimbursed? If you can, take the ticket."
"No, it can only be reported for long distance."
"oh."
Nan Yi responded and put the ticket into his pocket.
In less than two minutes, the two got off the bus and changed to another one, then walked. It took them nearly forty minutes to arrive at the Weilan Western Restaurant.
The Weilan Western Restaurant is located in a small courtyard at the east gate of the Summer Palace. There are only six or seven tables in total. At the moment, only one table has guests. Nan Yi took a quick look, quickly selected a table, and sat down with Gong Xue.
"This is Russian food. The butter chicken rings, cream-baked mixed salad, and borscht all taste good." Before the waiter came over, Nan Yi recommended the dishes here to Gong Xue.
"I know a lot about Western food. I went to Deda University once when I was in Shanghai. It seemed to serve German-style Western food there," said Gong Xue.
"Oh, is it the one on Wuchuan Middle Road?"
"Yes."
"I've heard of it, but I've never been there. Is it delicious?"
"I think it's good."
"Oh, then you can try it next time you go to Shanghai." Seeing the waiter coming over, Nan Yi said again: "Since you haven't tried Russian food, then let me order the dishes?"
"Um."
The waiter came to the table. Nan Yi didn't take the menu from his hand, but directly reported several dishes for one person and asked for a double serving of borscht.
Gong Xue can’t just eat while Nan Yi Guang sits there doing nothing.
When eating, there is someone watching you, which makes everyone feel uncomfortable.
It would be even more embarrassing if the people watching swallowed a few times. If you invite them to eat with you, they will definitely refuse, but if you don't invite them, you will feel bad about it. It makes people feel caught in a dilemma and very embarrassed.
"Are you the main character in that new play you mentioned?"
"No, it's a women's play. I play the heroine's third sister-in-law."
"What's up with the family?"
"No, it's about a child bride in a rural area of northern Guizhou who broke through feudal shackles and bravely pursued love on the eve of liberation. The third sister-in-law I played was a villain, and the male protagonist was almost beaten to death because of her."
Nan Yi found it hard to imagine what Gong Xue would look like as a villain, as her face was simply not suitable for the role.
“Do you have a lot of scenes?”
“Not too many, but I follow the protagonist. If the protagonist appears on camera, I will basically appear on camera.”
“How long will it take?”
"It will take about three months."
"It takes so long, how much film will it take?" Nan Yi asked in surprise.
"No, before each formal shoot, we have to go through the scenes several times. Sometimes we only shoot one scene a day, but we have to go through the scenes dozens of times, over and over again, to find out all the problems, and discuss them together. Only when all the problems are solved will we officially start shooting."
"I think it will take so long. You can afford it, but the funds can't."
At that time, the budget for shooting a movie in the mainland was only a few hundred thousand, usually around three or five hundred thousand . Everything else was cheap. The biggest expense was the film. The photographer had to be very careful when shooting, trying to make every shot useable and cut as little as possible.
If a shot is NG several times, the person who caused the NG must take responsibility and should be criticized and punished. This is not something that can be let go.
At that time, domestic films were purchased and sold under a unified system, and film studios made money by selling copies. The more copies they sold, the more money they earned. However, the money earned had little to do with the film studio, and the money was also taken away by higher-level units. At most, a little was left for bonuses to employees.
If a movie is of good quality, there is a chance that it will be sold to all city-level cinemas. However, it can only be sold to the city level, not the county level. Therefore, the maximum amount of money a movie can make for a film studio is limited, and the ceiling is there.
The cinema belongs to the local government, and the money earned from ticket sales also belongs to the local government, so the cinema has autonomy and it is up to them to decide whether to buy a copy of a certain film.
Unless it is a labeled film, it is a political task and you have to buy the copy even if you don’t want to.
In big cities like Beijing, if a movie is popular, they might buy an extra copy. If the movie is good, they will schedule more screenings. With only one copy, the film runners won’t be able to keep up.
A film runner is someone who delivers copies between various cinemas. After a film is shown in one cinema, he will quickly pick up the copies and ride a motorcycle to deliver them to another cinema.
Therefore, at this time, it is impossible to show the same film in different cinemas in the same city at the same time.
"Actually, it's good to shoot longer. If there are no movies to shoot, I can only get the basic salary, and my basic salary is very low. If there are movies to shoot, I can get subsidies, and it adds up to a lot of miscellaneous subsidies." Gong Xue said.
“Will it be hard?”
"It's okay. I'm used to it." Gong Xue said, and then changed the subject, "Weren't you in Beijing some time ago?"
"I just got back two days ago. I was abroad before. I remember telling you that my job requires me to go abroad frequently, and I have very little time to stay in China."
"As I recall, you came back to rest this time?"
"It's considered a vacation, but actually I'm back to accompany my wife as she's about to give birth."
"Wife? Are you married?"
Gong Xue's eyes flickered. She remembered Nan Yi said that he had a fiancée, a girlfriend, and a lover, and that the three were not the same person. She just didn't expect that his fiancée had become his wife.
"Yes, I'm married and my child is about to be born."
"oh."
Gong Xue pursed her lips, her mood becoming complicated for a moment, with a mixture of loss and emptiness. She couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. The man in front of her had nothing to do with her, but why did she feel lost when she heard that he was getting married?
After Nan Yi finished speaking, he observed Gong Xue's expression. Seeing her face change, Nan Yi's mood also became a little complicated.
