Auditions

Work on both Romance on Mount Lu and the tea stall proceeded in an orderly fashion.

Chen Qi rushed back and forth between Beijing Film Studio, Qianmen, and Menkuang Hutong. He only looked lazy; in fact, he thoroughly enjoyed the sense of fulfillment that came from striving for his career.

In June, summer finally arrived.

The temperature seemed to rise overnight. Long sleeves had become unbearable, and gray and white short-sleeved shirts filled the city. The women dressed much the same, except that some wore shirts printed with little flowers. Add a parasol and a pair of heeled sandals, and a girl was the height of fashion.

In those days, the way a person dressed was tied to their character. A good girl dressed simply and plainly; dress too flashily, and you could forget about being named a model student, an outstanding worker, or anything of the sort.

Qianmen Archery Tower.

On the west side, gloomy clouds hung heavy; on the east, everyone was jubilant.

Huang Zhanying had bought another fifty large bowls, several water jars, several pots, and a few large tables, which stretched for dozens of meters when laid out side by side. She had put the sandals out in plain sight, stocked ice pops and raincoats, and bought mung beans to make mung bean soup.

The ice pops were kept in boxes painted white on the outside to make them look clean, with thick cotton quilts inside for insulation.

The three-fen ones were fruit ice pops, in bayberry, tangerine, and sour plum flavors; the five-fen ones came in red bean, cream, and hawthorn; the most expensive were twin-stick ice cream bars, at fifteen fen apiece.

Those cream ice pops were the genuine article: every ten thousand bars used two hundred kilograms of fresh milk.

In later years, you had to inspect the ingredients list to see whether it contained fresh milk, vegetable cream, or cocoa butter substitute...

"I won't be coming tomorrow!"

"Are you off to the literary and artistic front again???"

"Yeah. The main thing is, matters here have been settled. Just do as I told you, and I hope that next time I come, I'll see a shop of our own."

Chen Qi sucked on a red bean ice pop, feeling no sadness. Huang Zhanying, on the other hand, was a little melancholy. She felt the distance between them growing ever greater, and that they could never return to their revolutionary friendship of old.

Perhaps, years from now, he would call her Runtu, while she could only address him as master...

Still, this also gave Huang Zhanying the resolve to strive for self-improvement. She had already started working her way through English 900.

"All right, I'm off!"

Chen Qi finished his red bean ice pop, rummaged through the box, and pulled out a twin-stick ice cream bar.

"Hey, hey, that one's expensive! Take a cheaper one!"

"Then give me the money!"

"I'm off!"

Chen Qi waved, got on his bicycle, and rode away.

His companions were used to it. They merely said things like "Teacher Chen's off again," "Female stars corrupt people," and "Sooner or later he'll go over to the bourgeoisie," until everyone grew melancholy.

They knew that Teacher Chen and they belonged to different worlds.

Beijing Film Studio, small conference room.

The production team for Romance on Mount Lu had been assembled. The director was Wang Haowei, and the cinematographer was Li Chensheng, who was also her husband. The couple were rather like Yang Jie and her husband on Journey to the West.

The production manager, assistant directors, art staff, lighting crew, and so on had also been settled.

Chen Qi sat in a corner, not drawing much attention. Wang Haowei had invited him to participate as a sign of respect, but he also had to know his place. At that moment, Wang Haowei sat at the head of the table as a matter of course, holding a stack of documents.

"First, one piece of news: Director Wang has approved 700,000 yuan for Romance on Mount Lu!"

"Seven hundred thousand! You all know what that means. The studio is treating this as a major production."

A buzz of excitement went through the group.

Chen Qi said nothing. Seven hundred thousand wasn't even enough to cover what he'd lost on his short drama...

"The reason we were given so much money is, first, that we'll be filming on location at Mount Lu, and second, that the female lead is an overseas Chinese from the United States. We want to emphasize her Western style, so we'll be buying her some beautiful clothes."

"Where will we buy the clothes? Shanghai? Guangzhou?"

"Those places aren't Western enough either. I'd like to buy them in Hong Kong and ask Comrades Fu Qi and Shi Hui for help."

"..."

Chen Qi blinked and asked quietly, "Who are those two?"

"Comrades from the Hong Kong Great Wall Film Company!"

The person beside him paused, then added, "Both of them are first-rate figures!"

His expression was full of admiration. Looking around, Chen Qi saw that the others, too, involuntarily showed respect at the mention of the pair.

"Once we've settled on our female lead, we'll get in touch with them... All right, everyone has been given a set of materials listing some of the prospective actors we've found recently. Some are from theater troupes, some from Beijing Film Academy, some from the Central Academy of Drama..."

Chen Qi looked at the list. They were all familiar names.

Central Academy of Drama, class of 1976: Xu Yajun;

Beijing Film Academy, class of 1978: Zhou Lijing, Wang Yue, Zhang Tielin, Fang Shu, Shen Danping, Liu Dong.

China Children's Art Theatre: Chen Baoguo.

Shanghai Foreign Languages Institute: Chen Chong.

August First Film Studio: Tang Guoqiang.

"..."

Seeing the list, he first crossed out Chen Chong.

Then he crossed out Chen Baoguo. Chen Baoguo had hard facial lines and a cool, austere bearing; he wasn't suitable.

After a little more consideration, he crossed out Wang Yue. Wang Yue was the first Tang Monk in Journey to the West. He had dark skin, thick eyebrows, big eyes, and an honest-looking face, and wasn't suitable either.

These were his own thoughts; no one else knew them. Everyone else looked over the list too, and someone raised a question: "Director, aren't there a few too few candidates for the female lead? They're all male actors."

"We've done our best to find them, but not many even meet the basic requirements. I've asked my friends to help look for candidates, so we'll see again in a while."

Wang Haowei tapped the table and said, "Starting tomorrow, they'll come to the studio one after another to audition. We're not afraid of the trouble; we're only afraid of choosing the wrong people. If you think several are suitable, that's fine too. We'll train several groups of candidates at once and see which group is best."

"Let's adjourn for now. Tomorrow we'll see what they're really made of!"

Beijing Film Academy and Beijing Film Studio stood right next to each other, very close together.

When admissions resumed in 1978, a group of youthful, attractive young people were accepted into the acting class. They went on to contribute a string of good works in the eighties and nineties, before some grew old and others retired.

But the acting class's achievements were seldom mentioned, because the class of 1978's directing and cinematography departments were even more illustrious. They formed a cultural phenomenon known as the Fifth Generation.

After breakfast.

The acting students all remained seated in the dining hall. They knew some of them would be auditioning today, but they didn't know who was on the list.

Zhang Fengyi, Xie Yuan, and Zhang Tielin were good friends and sat together whispering. "Do you know what kind of film it is?"

"I think it's a romance."

"Oh, then the two of us are done for!"

Xie Yuan looked dejected. "Do Zhang Fengyi and I look like we belong in a romance? A murder film would be more like it."

"Heh heh, I'm different. I should be able to get in!"

Zhang Tielin, the imperial father, was quite pleased with himself. He had yet to adopt his style of bristling his beard and glaring; in his youth, he had delicate, handsome features. Suddenly, he lowered his voice again. "Which girls do you think are on it?"

"Do you even need to ask?"

Xie Yuan looked incredulous. "I don't know about anyone else, but Fang Shu's definitely on it!"

"Right, Fang Shu's definitely on it!"

"Zhou Lijing must be on it too!"

They looked toward a girl sitting alone up ahead, and a boy also sitting alone. The two seemed a little apart from the group, but each had a very distinctive bearing. Even among this crowd, they stood out brilliantly, like cranes among chickens.

The girl was Fang Shu, and the boy was Zhou Lijing.

(End of chapter)