Elevate It! Elevate It!

"This move is called the wild goose takes flight and brings good fortune!"

"Spread both arms and imitate a wild goose flapping its wings, up and down, up and down like this..."

That afternoon, Ge You, the newest member of the little sperm-boosting, kidney-strengthening group, was learning the Longevity Exercise from Chen Qi.

He followed every movement by the book, his body completely stiff. Chen Qi said, "Stop, stop, stop! Don't do it like you're doing broadcast calisthenics. This is a Daoist exercise for strengthening the body. What matters is a peaceful state of mind and natural movement. Don't stick to set moves; let your mind follow your intent. It's like a child playing a game-just do whatever feels comfortable."

"And you said you didn't know any cultivation techniques. Now you're even talking about Daoism!" Ge You whispered.

"Cultivation techniques, my ass. Keep your mouth shut and don't go blabbing nonsense, or you could stir up trouble."

"I understand! I understand! The art must not be passed on lightly."

Ge You seemed to have gotten the wrong idea. Ever since Chen Qi had talked at length about martial arts stories on the day they watched Drunken Master, Ge You had thought he really knew some secret art hidden from the world. Chen Qi could only chuckle. This was the real world, not even a low-magic setting. Even Chang Wei hadn't been born with supernatural strength!

"Do the Vajra Exercise in the morning and the Longevity Exercise at night. Keep it up and it'll be good for your health. You're far too frail."

"I'll do my best!"

Ge You agreed. He seemed to have been born with a weak constitution and had been frail since childhood. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been assigned to feed pigs when he was sent down to the countryside. He grew even weaker as he got older and spoke at a sluggish pace.

When Chen Qi transmigrated, Ge You had been nearly seventy and had never had children.

Some said the couple didn't want any, some said his wife couldn't have children, and others said he couldn't... In any case, his poor health was certain.

"Little Chen!"

While they were practicing, Liang Xiaosheng pushed the door open and came in. "Director Jiang wants to see you!"

"About the script?"

"Mm!"

"All right, I should be going too. I'll come back another day."

Seeing this, Ge You tactfully took his leave.

Chen Qi followed Liang Xiaosheng downstairs and asked on the way, "Did the script get approved?"

"How should I put it? It was approved in principle!"

"What do you mean, approved in principle?"

"It's a little complicated. Director Jiang will explain."

Completely baffled, Chen Qi arrived at the literary department's office in the main building. All the editors were there, and Jiang Huaiyan, as director, had a small room inside. Chen Qi knocked three times and pushed the door open.

"Little Chen, you're here. Sit, sit!"

Jiang Huaiyan motioned for him to sit, made him a cup of tea, and said with a smile, "First of all, congratulations. Everyone approved your script, and the deputy studio director signed off on it too.

"We're positioning it as a romantic scenic film, using Mount Lu's beautiful scenery as a foundation to tell the love story of a young man and woman, with some political themes and ideas of the times woven in.

"In principle, Beijing Film Studio has already decided to take your script..."

But!

Chen Qi silently supplied the word, and sure enough, Jiang Huaiyan's next sentence was, "But we'd still like to make it a little better."

"Could you be more specific?"

"It's something we're hoping for. You might think our standards are too high, but for those of us who make films, perfection is always out of reach.

"Of course, this isn't a mandatory requirement.

"We can finalize the project right now, but if you also want to make it a little better, could you give the plot a few more twists and turns, elevate the theme a little further, and make the emotions a little more moving?"

Emmmm!

Chen Qi cursed under his breath. Fuck, how is this any different from voluntary overtime?

His finalized script already had the story from the historical version of Romance on Mount Lu. He hadn't expected Beijing Film Studio to be dissatisfied. Then again, it made sense: different people had different standards. Shanghai Film Studio thought it was OK, but Beijing Film Studio didn't.

"..."

Looking at the expectant gaze directed at him, he rolled his eyes inwardly. I just wanted to freeload, and now you're making me put in actual work!

"Since you've put it that way, I'll give it a try."

"Good, I knew I wasn't wrong about you!"

Jiang Huaiyan immediately brightened, patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile, "Our editors were saying earlier that they all thought you'd take it on. Don't think we're deliberately making things difficult for you. Just do as much as you can; we're definitely taking this script."

Put that way, Chen Qi felt a little better.

They valued me, after all!

Then he sighed. Damn it, am I getting CPU'd in 1979 too?

He returned to the guesthouse.

On the third floor, he ran into Chen Huaikai again. The old man was preparing an opera film called Zhuge Liang Pays His Condolences. He held meetings in his room every day, and the people coming and going were all opera performers. Chen Qi didn't know a single one of them.

Seeing the script in Chen Qi's hand, he asked, "Did it pass review?"

"More or less."

"More or less?"

"It passed in principle, but they want me to revise it some more, so more or less."

"Hahaha!"

Chen Huaikai laughed heartily. With his deep grounding in classical aesthetics, he naturally understood the joke. "You're an amusing kid. By our rules, when a script passes review, we have to give a shout. Keep at it!"

"A shout?"

"You'll find out when the time comes!"

Chen Qi shrugged, went into his room, and slapped the script, thicker than a Xianghe meat pie, onto the table, venting his resentment as a working stiff.

But after washing his face, he calmed down. He sat at the table, filled his fountain pen with ink, and for the first time began to write in earnest-the butterfly had flapped its wings, and things had gone off course, making him get serious too.

Romance on Mount Lu had originally been a rather uneventful story. Aside from the extras, the entire film had only seven actors.

The heroine was named Zhou Yun, and the hero was Geng Hua.

He went over the plot, thought for a while, and decided to add a new character: the hero's older sister, Geng Ying.

Geng Ying was twenty-seven or twenty-eight, outwardly delicate but inwardly strong. Her mother was bedridden, and she had a younger brother, leaving her to support the whole family alone.

Zhou Yun had American status, and her father was a Nationalist officer. Because she spent time with Geng Hua, the organization investigated him and placed him in temporary detention. He asked his sister to pass a message to Zhou Yun, telling her how he felt and so on.

But for her brother's sake, Geng Ying instead persuaded Zhou Yun to leave.

Heartbroken, Zhou Yun returned to the United States, leading to the five-year separation between the hero and heroine.

Five years later, after reform and opening up, the two met again on Mount Lu and officially became a couple. Zhou Yun then sought out Geng Ying, and they had a conversation... With these changes, the plot was much richer than the original, and the so-called elevation would come from that conversation.

"Elevate it, elevate it. You want elevation? I'll give you elevation!"

"I'll give you the Mount Lu Rising Dragon!"

Chen Qi grumbled as he wrote, as though he had returned to the nights he'd stayed up writing in his previous life. He really did write through the night, because he no longer dared slack off, afraid something else might go wrong.

In practice, it wasn't all that difficult. He worked in this field to begin with, and having been swept up in countless torrents of information from the information age, he had almost an entire treasure trove stored in his head.

He knew what audiences in 1979 wanted to see.

Politics wrapped in romance, with an extremely correct political stance!

"Knock, knock, knock!"

"Teacher Shi!"

Early the next morning, Chen Qi knocked on the literary department's door. Shi Wenxin was startled when she saw him. "Little Chen, are you ill? Why do you look so worn out?"

"No, no, I stayed up revising the script."

"Honestly, it didn't have to be done in a day or two. What were you in such a hurry for?"

"It's fine. I'm young. Why should I be afraid of staying up late?"

The worst that could happen is sudden death!

He handed her the manuscript and deliberately swayed a couple of times as though there wasn't enough blood getting to his brain, then left. Shi Wenxin felt a little guilty. "We shouldn't put so much pressure on a promising young talent. Isn't that like pulling up seedlings to make them grow?"

"Who would've thought he'd be so enthusiastic? He was always so laid-back before," Liang Xiaosheng said, equally surprised.

"I'll take a look first..."