Chapter 33 Hard Work

July 20, LL City, Jinxi Province,
Fenyang County Bus Station.

Liu Zhou rushed down from the bus filled with the smell of engine oil and sweat, and immediately raised his head and took a few deep breaths.

Liu Zhou felt that the slightly dusty air was sweet.

After a long pause, I looked around the bus station.

The bus station is small, but it looks like it has quite a long history.

As soon as Liu Zhouyi came out of the bus station, he saw Yu Liwei and Jia Zhangke sitting on the steps smoking in an untidy manner.

"Senior Brother, Brother Yu, I'm here."

When the two heard the voice, they stood up quickly. Jia Zhangke said with a smile:

"Junior brother, it's not easy to come here, right?"

"It's not easy. Yesterday I flew from Yangcheng to Taiyuan, then took a bus to downtown LL, and then took a bus from downtown to here. I'm almost numb.

The most unpleasant thing is the smell inside the car, it is so bad that I feel like I am going to vomit if I sit there any longer.”

"Haha, I'm just like you. It's really a torture to come to this small county town." Yu Liwei laughed.

"Alas, we are all people from big cities. When we went to other places before, we often had to walk." Jia Zhangke said with a nostalgic tone.

"Go away, don't think I don't know that your family situation was not bad when you were a child. I heard from Hongwei that it was a dual-income family."

"Haha, even if they are from a dual-income family, they can't compare to the kids like you who grew up in big cities."

"Don't worry about it. Our country will surely get better and better. By then, children in small counties won't necessarily be worse off than those in big cities." Liu Zhou interrupted them.

"Yes, Liu Zhou is right." Yu Liwei also agreed.

"You guys aren't just coming over to pick me up, are you?"

"Don't worry, the hotel is not far from the bus station. We can take a taxi there later."

The three of them came to the roadside and hailed two taxi motorcycles. Jia Zhangke bargained with them in his native dialect and then motioned for the two to get in.

This county town looks relatively old. There are many cars on the road, but very few four-wheeled ones.

After a while, the motorcycle dropped the three off at the door of a small hotel. Jia Zhangke paid the bill and walked in with Liu Zhou.

"Junior brother, we have already booked a room for you. It's right next to ours. You can have a room by yourself. You can rest for a while. We will take you to dinner later."

"no problem."

When he arrived at the room, Liu Zhou had already prepared himself for the possibility that the conditions might not be very good, but he still didn't expect the room conditions to be so bad.

The room is not big, with a single bed, but the sheets are a little yellow, so I don't dare to sleep on it.

But there is no need to worry about this. Liu Zhou has prepared for this in advance and brought bed sheets and quilt covers.

The walls around were black and some had already fallen off, and the cups provided were clearly covered in a layer of dirt.

What Liu Zhou couldn't stand the most was the toilet, which was covered with a layer of yellow dirt and had flies buzzing around in it.

Liu Zhou sighed, wondering if coming here was a mistake.

But now that I'm here, I have to endure it no matter how hard it is.

After simply packing up his things, Liu Zhou went to find Jia Zhangke, only to find out that his conditions were the best.

There were eleven of them in total, plus the filming equipment, but they only booked three rooms.

Three or four people had to squeeze into one room in such a hot day. Liu Zhou never expected that their conditions were so difficult.

Liu Zhou felt embarrassed to see others squeezed together while he lived alone in a room, so he simply paid for three more rooms.

It’s not expensive anyway, a room is less than fifty yuan a day. Even if you stay for two months, it’s a drop in the bucket for Liu Zhou at that time.

During these three book signing sessions, the sales volume driven by the three Xinhua Bookstores alone reached over 9,000 copies, nearly 10,000 copies.

So Liu Zhou was very confident at this time.

Of course, the other crew members were very happy about Liu Zhou's magnanimity.

Although the conditions of the crew were very difficult, Liu Zhou could see the light in their eyes during dinner. Everyone was looking forward to the start of filming the movie tomorrow.

The next day, Liu Zhou got up late, which was unusual for him.

Because I changed the bed last night, there were still a lot of mosquitoes at night, and I didn’t fall asleep until three or four o’clock.

If Yu Liwei hadn't come to call him, he would still be sleeping.

The filming started today, and Jia Zhangke did not hold any ceremony to worship the gods. He did not believe in this and did not have the money to do it. He just took everyone to the filming location and started filming directly.

However, although his team members were all familiar people, the filming was not smooth because the heroine and several other actors were amateurs.

By the afternoon, Jia Zhangke was a little irritated.

"Wang Hongwei, I told you to get some mud under your nails, but don't get your clothes dirty. I borrowed them from my fellow villager."

"Don't worry, I'll pay attention."

Only then did Liu Zhou realize that the loose suit jacket Wang Hongwei was wearing was borrowed.

The filming lasted for three days, and the crew, which had been stumbling a bit, finally managed to run more smoothly.

The actors, the scenes, the photography, the scheduling, everything started to go smoothly.

Liu Zhou has been following Gu Zheng these two days. He is the script supervisor and assistant director of the crew, which is a nice way of saying it, but in fact he just does odd jobs.

Since Liu Zhou came to learn something, of course he wouldn't just stand there and watch, so he kept following Gu Zheng and running around.

Jia Zhangke was a little surprised to see Liu Zhou so focused. He thought he was here to look after the money, but he didn't expect he was really here for an internship.

He knew that Liu Zhou also wanted to be a director. Seeing how serious he was, during the following filming, in addition to letting Liu Zhou continue to follow Gu Zheng, Jia Zhangke would occasionally call Liu Zhou over to exchange some ideas about filming.

When the shooting time came to the eighth day, in the evening, Jia Zhangke said he would take Liu Zhou to inspect the shooting location for tomorrow's shooting.

Liu Zhou followed without giving it much thought, but when he arrived at the place, he couldn't help but twitch his lips.

"You would never have thought that our small county town also has such a busy street. This is a new economic growth point for our county."

"You won't also contribute to GDP, will you?" Liu Zhou was looking at a small street a few hundred meters long, with two-story buildings on both sides. Hanging on the doors were various names that had nothing to do with this county town, such as "Vienna", "Night Demon City"...

There were also some girls dressed fashionably and beautifully, speaking with accents from other places, walking around the streets.

"Of course not, but isn't that what the heroine is supposed to be? So I went in to investigate and do some research."

"understand!"

"I'm really just going there to investigate!"

"I know. I didn't say I didn't believe you."

"I see you just don't believe me."

"Does it matter?"

"..."

"So why did you bring me here tonight?"

"Tomorrow's play is very important, so come and watch it in advance."

“Which store did you rent for the shoot?”

"It's the Tuberose shop in front. The landlord of that shop is a friend of mine."

"Okay, I think you can explore this place by yourself. I'm going back first."

"You're not a virgin, are you?"

"roll!"

"It seems that he is angry out of shame, haha!"

Liu Zhou was too lazy to pay attention to him and went straight back to the hotel.

The next day, Liu Zhou got up early, and when he was getting ready to leave, he heard Gu Zheng say that the heroine would not go.

At the end of the narrow corridor, Jia Zhangke and Yu Liwei were talking about something.

Liu Zhou had never seen Jia Zhangke so angry before. His facial features were distorted and he shouted:

"Just let her go! We can find a real escort to act here! She's no worse than her!"

Yu Liwei advised:
"Old Jia, don't say such angry words. There must be other reasons."

"What other reason could there be! She's about to start filming her drama, and now she's telling me she's quitting. Is there anyone like that?!"

Yu Liwei saw that he was in a very unstable mood and knew that he could no longer communicate with him, so he said:

"Go back to your room and calm down. I'll go negotiate."

Jia Zhangke wanted to say something, but Gu Zheng forcibly dragged him back to his room.

"Old Yu, what's going on?"

"The leading actress said she didn't want to film anymore."

"Do you know why?"

"It's all because of money." Yu Liwei sighed.

The heroine Zuo Wenlu lived upstairs in the best room in the entire inn. Jia Zhangke and other main creators were all crowded together, but she lived in a single room.

I came to Zuo Wenlu's room and saw her packing clothes.

Yu Liwei restrained his tone and asked:
"Wen Lu, I heard from Lao Jia that you are going back to Beijing, what's going on?"

"Oh, my boyfriend is cheating on me, and I have to go back and catch him."

Zuo Wenlu repeated the reasons she had given to Jia Zhangke.

"Wen Lu, we're about to start filming your scene. You're the leading actress. It would be rude of you to leave now."

"Brother Yu, I know, but I really am not in the mood to shoot now. I'm very sorry." Zuo Wenlu's attitude was firm.

"you!"

Yu Liwei couldn't help but wanted to lose his temper, but was held back by Liu Zhouyi.

"Miss Zuo, do you mind if I say a few words?"

Zuo Wenlu was still very polite to this somewhat handsome film investor.

"You say."

"Miss Zuo, we are all adults, we can speak frankly without losing our temper like a child. You can just say what you really think."

Zuo Wenlu stopped what he was doing, was silent for a while and said:
"I feel that my role, to put it nicely, is the heroine, but I have too few scenes and nothing special. I don't think it's worth playing."

Yu Liwei immediately said:
"Wen Lu, although Hu Meimei's role doesn't have many scenes, her importance is, to some extent, even greater than Xiao Wu's..."

Then came a whole bunch of talk about play structure and feminism, but Zuo Wenlu listened as if she was listening to a mystery.

He was spitting saliva wildly, but Zuo Wenlu's expression remained disapproving.

"Miss Zuo, there's no need to beat around the bush."

"Okay! I can stay, but you have to give me the ten thousand yuan first." Zuo Wenlu finally got to the point.

Although she is a student, she has seen the world. Look at this group of people, can they be called a film crew?

The director wasn't even proficient in using the monitor, and the photographer had to carry the only camera and shoot whatever he saw all day long. There was no lighting, and he even had to do his own makeup.

She was simply afraid that this makeshift troupe might fail at any time, and wanted to get her own pay first.

"Ms. Zuo, you also know that this is against the rules and it makes things very difficult for us," said Yu Liwei.

But Zuo Wenlu’s attitude was very clear: no talk unless you pay first!

"Then I'll go discuss it with the director first." Yu Liwei was a little discouraged.

Liu Zhou did not rashly agree, because this was Jia Zhangke's crew, not his.

(End of this chapter)