Chapter 372: A Call from a Hong Kong Bigwig!

Huaguang Society, the most mysterious society organization in the world!

No one knows how many years it has existed; some say it is as old as human civilization, while others say it formally took shape during the Renaissance.

Its members are few, but every one of them is a genius with exceptional talent and extraordinary achievements in their respective fields.

Einstein, Tesla, Galileo, Musk, Satoshi Nakamoto, Bruce Lee, Bolt.

And there are also some individuals with special abilities and heads of financial groups.

The operation of this world has the shadow of the Huaguang Society in every corner.

Behind the scientific revolution, the industrial revolution, and the information revolution, there is their assistance.

Some say they created the modern order, while others say they are the hand hidden behind all the chaos.

"The Priest says he has already watched all four of your performances. He hopes you can join the Huaguang Society and become one of us."

"Why should I join you?" Chu Chen asked in return.

"By joining us, you can come into contact with the most elite group of people on this planet and enjoy the most secret resources."

"I am not interested in what you are saying," Chu Chen answered without even thinking.

The woman's brows twitched.

She maintained her smile throughout.

"Can you tell me the reason?"

"It's very simple, because I don't need it. Joining an organization means having to follow rules, having to obey arrangements, and having to answer for every step of my actions to someone I cannot see. I don't like that. I do what I want to do, at the time I want to do it, in the way I want to do it. An organization, even the Huaguang Society, would only slow my speed down."

The woman looked at Chu Chen, and Chu Chen also looked at her.

"The Priest was not wrong; you really would refuse."

She took a small object out of her pocket and tossed it toward Chu Chen.

Chu Chen caught it in one hand.

In his palm, a dark gray metal badge gleamed with a bright luster in the light.

The badge was not large, not much bigger than a one-yuan coin, and a complex geometric pattern was engraved on its surface.

From a distance, it looked like a bird spreading its wings.

But its wings were not realistic feathers, but rather composed of countless intersecting straight lines.

The bird's head was also a special pattern composed of circles and triangles.

A line of tiny text was engraved on the back of the badge; the font was very ancient, as if printed using some kind of lost printing technique: LUXINTENEBRIS.

Light in the darkness.

"Keep it," the woman said. "Believe me, no matter how great your ability is, one day you will use it. The Priest says that when you truly need the Huaguang Society, you won't need anyone to come find you. Take this badge, go to any place you trust, and place it on the table; someone will naturally come to see you."

After she finished this sentence, she walked toward the door.

"Oh, right. The Priest also asked me to pass on a message to you—he likes your magic very much, but he does not like people who violate the rules."

The woman pushed the door open and walked out.

The door closed slowly behind her, and the latch of the door lock slid into the groove of the door frame, emitting a light and crisp click.

Chu Chen stood in the living room, holding the badge in his hand, his fingertips feeling the subtle raised textures on the metal surface.

He had long expected that people from the Huaguang Society would come knocking.

But he did not expect that all of this would come so quickly.

Apart from the invitation from the Huaxia military, he did not want to join any foreign organization, because he no longer needed any resources or support other than himself.

The Huaguang Society was no exception.

The sphere of influence of the Huaguang Society was indeed large.

But on this planet, there was no longer anyone who could force Chu Chen to do anything he himself did not like.

The night passed without incident.

The next morning, Chu Chen was woken up by the sound of a phone ringing.

When he opened his eyes, the curtains had not yet been automatically opened by the smart butler, and the morning light squeezed in through the gap, drawing a long, thin strip of golden light on the bedsheets.

The mobile phone was vibrating on the bedside table, the screen lit up, displaying an unfamiliar number.

The origin was Hong Kong.

Chu Chen looked at it for two seconds and hung it up directly.

But after a while, the ringtone actually sounded again.

Picking it up to look, it was still the same number.

Chu Chen still did not answer.

Finally, the phone rang five times and cut off.

When it rang the third time, Chu Chen could not stand it anymore and decisively connected.

He held the phone to his ear without speaking, waiting for the other side to speak first.

"Hello? Is this Mr. Chu Chen?"

The voice on the other side was that of a middle-aged man with a heavy Cantonese accent, but every word was articulated clearly, like someone speaking in a language they were not familiar with, deliberately slowing down the speed to ensure accuracy: "Hello, hello, Mr. Chu, my surname is Fu! I am a producer at the Hejia Film Company in Hong Kong. You might not have heard of me, but my father, Fu Zijian, you should have heard of him!"

"Fu Zijian?" Chu Chen replied with sleepy eyes: Is there something you need?

"Haha, Mr. Chu, I am not Fu Zijian, Fu Zijian is my father, my name is Fu Weizhao, you can just call me A-Zhao!"

"Mr. Fu, hello, is there something you need?" Chu Chen repeated the question he had just asked.

"It's like this, Mr. Chu. We are currently filming a new movie in Hengdian, 'Fireline Rescue', a crime action film. There is a character in the script, a mysterious figure who returned from overseas, and there is a parkour scene in the climax of the film—the kind where one shuttles between buildings, chases, and shakes off pursuers—I watched your previous parkour video, and our crew watched that video dozens of times. I want to invite you to guest star in this role, you don't need many lines, mainly just that parkour sequence. I know you are not a professional actor, but you don't need to act for that scene, you just need to be yourself, and leave the rest to us!"

Chu Chen leaned against the head of the bed, digesting the lingering sleepiness.

"Mr. Fu, I am truly sorry, I am really very busy lately..."

"I know, I know, you just finished that program and must have a lot of things to handle. But we won't take up too much of your time, three days at most. Rest assured, we won't treat you poorly regarding the pay; we'll go by the highest standard—"

"I'm truly sorry, it's not a matter of money, so I'm sorry..." Chu Chen interrupted him, busy and about to hang up the phone.

"Mr. Chu, I know you aren't short on money, and that money might not mean much to you. But this film, I really want to invite you to join. It's not because I lack a Parkour actor, but because for that role, I feel only you can play it. I really admire your skills and the kind of temperament you possess."

"Mr. Chu, you don't have to agree right now. Please consider it some more, this is my number, please save it, I—"

"Mr. Fu, I have other matters to attend to, I will give you an answer in a couple of days." After Chu Chen finished this sentence, he hung up the phone.

He placed his phone on the nightstand, then closed his eyes and lay there for a while in the morning light.

His Spatial Perception had unconsciously covered the entire villa; every wall, every window, and every pipe was clearly laid out in his consciousness.

That dark gray badge was still sitting on the coffee table in the living room, glowing with a dull luster under the morning light.

Just then, the phone rang again.

It wasn't the number from before, it was a new number.

The area code was also for Hong Kong.

Chu Chen took a glance and didn't answer.

But after it hung up, it rang again immediately.

Chu Chen had no choice, and in the end, he could only answer.

"Chu Chen, hello, do you know who I am?" The voice on the other end was loud and cordial: "Ah Wei told me you wouldn't come. He said he wanted to invite you to perform a bit of that Parkour, and you said you were busy lately. I told him, for a young person like you, talking about being busy or not is just an excuse. You aren't coming, not because you're busy, but because you have no interest, right?"

Chu Chen always felt this person's Hong Kong-accented Mandarin was somewhat familiar, but for a moment, he couldn't recall who it was, so he asked:

"Who are you?"

"I'm Cheng Long, you're so amazing, you can't recognize my voice?" Cheng Long on the other end of the phone replied with a laugh.

"Long Shu?"

"That's right."

"Hello, I've especially loved watching your movies since I was a child."

Chu Chen wasn't lying; he truly had loved Cheng Long's movies since he was very young.

"Thank you for liking them, so, about Ah Wei's matter, I still want to ask you to do us a favor, because they really need your Parkour; I've read the script, that role is meant for no one but you!"

"Alright, then I will consider it some more."

"What else is there to consider, just come over! I'll send someone to pick you up, I know you aren't short on money." Cheng Long interrupted him, "But you are missing one thing. You are missing an opportunity for others to see that besides stealing things, performing magic, and disappearing on stage, Chu Chen can do other things. This is that opportunity. Have you ever thought that one day you will appear on the silver screen, playing a role—this is also a different kind of experience, right?"

Chu Chen was silent for two seconds.

"Alright, I will seriously consider it."

When he hung up the phone, the screen already showed three missed calls—not the two from before, but two more added.

Chu Chen took a glance and didn't answer.

He flipped the phone over onto the bed, then got up and went to the bathroom.

Hot water poured down from the showerhead, and his Spatial Perception was still operating clearly within the mist of the hot water, like a machine that would never shut down.

In the following three days, Chu Chen's phone was like a lit signal fire tower.

"Mr. Chu, I am Xu Ke. I know you don't know me, but you must have seen the movies I've directed. I watched your Parkour on the program; that isn't something that can be designed by action choreography, that is human instinct. I've spent a lifetime making action movies, and I can tell at a glance what has been rehearsed and what is improvised. The script for Fireline Rescue can be changed, that Parkour segment can have more scenes added; however you want to film it, I can film it that way."

"Ah Chen, I am Hong Bao. Ah Wei called me and said you wouldn't come. I told him, a person like you isn't someone who can be persuaded by a phone call. But I still have to make this call, because that role is truly suitable for you..."

"Mr. Chu, I am Xiang Huashen..."

Fu Weizhao, Long Shu, Xu Ke, Hong Bao, Xiang Huashen... every single name here is a heavyweight presence in the Hong Kong film circle.

They mobilized collectively just to get Chu Chen to play a cameo role of less than three minutes!

None of these people are short on money; the reason they are doing Fu Weizhao this favor is more because they hope Chu Chen's participation can bring a new turning point for the resurgence of Hong Kong cinema!

Because recently, his popularity was truly explosive!

Looking globally, there is no one who doesn't know him!

If Chu Chen could join this film, it would absolutely be able to recreate the glory of Hong Kong films!

Hong Kong cinema was once the Hollywood of the East.

In the seventies, kung fu films were like a heavy punch that smashed through screens all over the world. Bruce Lee's one-inch punch shattered all the stereotypes about the weakness of Easterners.

In the eighties, comedies and gangster films took turns appearing; Chow Yun-fat walking through the streets of Causeway Bay with a toothpick in his mouth and a trench coat draped over his shoulders, and Lam Ching-ying's peach wood sword cutting through a patch of golden light in a midnight funeral hall.

In the golden age of Hong Kong cinema, over three hundred films were produced annually, supporting dozens of streets of cinema chains and video shops, and supporting the dreams of several generations.

In the nineties, Hong Kong cinema began to go downhill. It wasn't because Hong Kong's directors and actors weren't good enough; it was because people from the outside came in. Hollywood used their hundreds of millions of dollars in budgets and distribution networks in dozens of countries to pull Hong Kong cinema's audience away from the theaters.

Pirated discs swept through every night market and video store like locusts, and legitimate box office revenue shrank by seventy percent under the shadow of piracy.

Talent also began to drain away.

The best actors in Hong Kong went to Hollywood, the best directors went to the mainland, and the best action directors went to the film crews that needed them.

What remained in Hong Kong turned into an empty studio and rows of dust-covered film canisters.

After entering the two-thousands, Hong Kong cinema tried to revive several times.

Co-productions arrived, big productions arrived, and those stars would film several new movies every year, with box office earnings reaching over a hundred million.

But for those movies, after the audience walked out of the theater, they would say it was not bad, but they wouldn't be like in the eighties, refusing to leave their seats after the show ended, wanting to watch the replay again.

Because those movies had no soul.

Action scenes relied on stunt doubles and wires, gunfights relied on editing and slow motion, and lines relied on voice actors in recording studios dubbing over and over until their vocal cords smoked.

The core of Hong Kong cinema—that kind of unadorned, blade-like, realistic sense of stimulation completed on set—was flowing out of every frame of the picture.

The film Fireline Rescue that Fu Weizhao invested in was originally just another co-production.

But Chu Chen gave them a rekindled hope!

If it weren't for encountering Chu Chen, they really wouldn't know where this film should go!

This group of people, added together, have been in the Hong Kong film circle for so many years.

They have seen the peak of Hong Kong cinema, and they are currently watching its trough.

They have seen every kind of scene and withstood every kind of battle, but they cannot withstand an era that is sliding downward.

They hope Chu Chen can be this savior!