The Younger Generation

Fang Shu was twenty-two this year.

Her father was a leader at the Ministry of Culture, and her mother worked at the Central Conservatory of Music.

At seven, she had played the boy Little Radish Head in Eternal Life in the Flames. Everyone knew Little Radish Head, right? They had learned about him in their textbooks. He had been only eight when he died, the youngest martyr in China.

In 1978, she had gotten into the Beijing Film Academy and had already acted in Look at This Family.

She was tall and beautiful, with a commanding presence and a good family background. In class, she was like a princess. She was wildly popular in the eighties, but unfortunately, she was a love-brain. She later married Tu Honggang, then divorced him and retired early.

Zhou Lijing was twenty-five this year.

He was handsome and dashing, and one of the hottest young leading men of the time. He had appeared in Life, New Star, the television adaptation of Wreaths at the Foot of the Mountain, and other works.

He was with the Gansu Drama Troupe, and his employment there continued, so he drew a salary while attending school. He was good-looking and capable, but aloof and proud, and he spoke bluntly. He looked down on the boys in his class and even looked down on the teachers a little.

But he really did have outstanding qualities, so the teachers indulged him too.

The two of them looked composed, sitting as steady as anglers on a fishing platform. Clearly, they knew where they stood.

Sure enough, a little later, a teacher came in and called out, "Fang Shu, Zhou Lijing, Wang Yue, Zhang Tielin, Shen Danping, Liu Dong, come with me!"

The room buzzed!

Zhang Fengyi and Xie Yuan were so envious that they pulled and tugged at Zhang Tielin, refusing to let him go. Zhang Tielin hurriedly pried them off. "Let go, let go! You're holding me back from becoming a big star. Come on, hands off!"

Wang Yue was a little surprised and stood up, delighted.

On the girls' side, Shen Danping and Liu Dong were even happier and scampered out.

Shen Danping had acted in quite a few productions. In one of her more recent roles, she played Aunt Cui in The Knockout. Liu Dong had done a little less well; she had played Ning Zhongze in China Central Television's version of The Smiling, Proud Wanderer.

The teacher led the six of them out of the academy. There was no need to take a bus; they could walk there. On the way, the teacher reminded them, "Today's session is just for us. Tomorrow's is for the Central Academy of Drama. I heard they only picked one person, so you have a good chance. Do us proud."

"Zhou Lijing, be polite in there. The Beijing Film Studio is full of great directors and senior figures. Don't leave them with a bad impression!"

As the teacher spoke, they entered the Beijing Film Studio and headed straight for the conference room in the main building.

Wang Haowei and the others had arrived early and were waiting.

As the screenwriter, Chen Qi had also secured a seat. Everyone else was his senior, so he took a seat at the very end of the table.

When casting actors in this era, the first requirement was that they looked the part. If the male lead was meant to be honest and upright, for example, they had to find someone with thick brows and big eyes. If the female lead was meant to be heartbreakingly fragile, they had to find someone delicate and soft.

First came the physical resemblance. Only after that did acting come into it: how to portray the character and so on. But this approach also restricted casting, leaving a narrow range of choices.

Things were different in later years. A physical resemblance was not essential; capturing the spirit was enough.

For example, Gu Yue's version of the Chairman belonged to the former category; Tang Guoqiang's belonged to the latter.

Of course, the premise was that the character presented in the end had to be convincing. They couldn't be like the broad-shouldered, thick-waisted Lin Daiyu in the new Dream of the Red Chamber, or the Cao Cao who seemed to be playing around in the new Three Kingdoms-both appearance and spirit ruined.

So, first and foremost, this batch of candidates had to be young and attractive: the men handsome, the women beautiful.

"Hello, director! Hello, teachers!"

"My name is Fang Shu!"

Fang Shu was the first to enter. She had worked with Wang Haowei on Look at This Family, so she introduced herself with easy confidence, then recited a passage of dialogue.

It was the passage Chen Qi had written.

"I still want to see the Yangtze River and the Great Wall, Mount Huang and the Yellow River!"

"Sister Ying, isn't all of that love?"

Chen Qi took his role as a judge very seriously, jotting down a few notes in his notebook. Once she had gone out, Wang Haowei asked everyone for their opinions, finally turning to him. "Little Chen, what did you think?"

"She's beautiful and has solid training, but her look isn't quite right. Her eyes and brows don't have the air of our traditional ideal of beauty. There's an aggressiveness to them. One look and you can tell she's a strong, dominant woman."

"Aggressiveness? That's a new way of putting it!"

"I thought she was pretty good. How about we put her through to the second round for now?"

"Mm, that works!"

One after another, young actors came in and auditioned.

Chen Qi remained quite composed, though he nearly cracked when he saw Imperial Father. Imperial Father had also been a popular young leading man in the eighties. Later, he had gone to the United Kingdom, picked up a master's degree, and gone to Hong Kong to pursue his career.

In The Magic Crane, he had played Cao Xiong, the Second Son of the Golden Ring, and had nearly had his way with Rosamund Kwan.

Then came My Fair Princess.

And a whole pile of romantic lawsuits.

"..."

He silently marked a big cross in his notebook. It was nothing personal, purely an objective judgment.

Zhou Lijing came last.

He was aloof, but that didn't mean he was stupid. The Beijing Film Studio was no place for him to act up, so he auditioned properly.

Chen Qi put down a check mark.

After the auditions, they held a brief discussion.

"Wang Yue's skin is too dark. It would be hard to make him look handsome. Let's rule him out for now!"

"Zhou Lijing and Zhang Tielin are both good. They can go through to the next round."

"Personally, I think Zhang Tielin has a frivolous air about him. He can't play a shy, bashful character. I think Zhou Lijing is all right. As for Fang Shu, my opinion is the same as before. I have reservations," Chen Qi said.

"What about Shen Danping and Liu Dong?" Wang Haowei asked.

"Do you want the truth?"

"Of course!"

"They're too ordinary."

Chen Qi shook his head.

"Ah, to be honest, I think they're ordinary too. They're beautiful compared to ordinary people, but for Romance on Mount Lu, they're not enough-not nearly enough! I expected it to be hard to find a leading lady, but I didn't think it would be this hard. Let's see who else comes along!"

Wang Haowei sighed.

Power supplies were poor throughout the country at the time, and the capital was no exception. An entire courtyard shared one electric meter, and every household kept candles on hand. The situation didn't improve until the nineties.

Chen Jianjun had listened to the single-cassette recorder for a few days, only to find he couldn't afford the batteries. He had reluctantly parted with it and let Chen Qi take it to the Beijing Film Studio. The studio had a special status, so its power supply was relatively stable. In other words, this was something else Chen Qi could freeload.

That evening, the doors and windows of room 302 were shut tight.

Liang Xiaosheng and Ge You slumped in their chairs with their eyes closed, listening as though it were music from heaven: "Seeing cooking smoke rise again, dusk covers the earth. I want to ask the drifting smoke, where are you going..."

They looked so blissful, so enraptured, that anyone who didn't know better would have thought they were high.

"..."

Chen Qi sat cross-legged on the bed, about to mend his pants, with a needle in one hand and thread in the other.

The older generation had said that when the end of the thread wouldn't go through the eye of the needle, you could lick it straight, and then it would go in.

"You've had enough. You've rewound the tape three times already. Get lost if you're going to!"

"Just a little longer, just a little longer!"

Ge You hurriedly said.

"I have to be a judge again tomorrow. I don't have time to hang around with you!"

"How's the casting going?" Liang Xiaosheng asked.

"There are plenty of men who can play the lead, but the women are hard to find."

"Then what exactly are you looking for?"

"It's a kind of, a kind of... goddess. Do you understand?"

"No!"

The two of them shook their heads in unison.

"She doesn't just have to be beautiful. She has to make people long for her. When all the men finish watching the movie, they should be fiercely envious of the male lead and say, 'Oh, if I met a girl like that, I'd die happy!'

"That's the feeling."

"..."

Ge You and Liang Xiaosheng looked at each other. It was too subtle.

(Thanks to Yishen Ping'an for reaching Silver Meng, and thanks to Slime Under the Ice for another Meng.

Thanks, everyone, for the monthly tickets!

There are only two chapters a day while the book is new. Once it goes premium, I'll post extra chapters. After all, my last book did earn the [Habitual Burst] badge.)

(End of chapter)