Chapter 485: The Mother of All Losers

Anyone who has slept next to a pile of trash for a night will certainly not smell good.

Zhang Jiaqi seemed to know this too; as she walked past Chen Nuo, she lowered her head, covered her face with her long hair, and whispered in Cantonese, "Sorry."

Clearly, she did not know that it was the man standing beside her, wearing a mask and walking a bit strangely, who had covered her with a layer of old cardboard last night.

Chen Nuo stood where he was and shifted his body to let the woman pass first.

His gaze inadvertently drifted downward, catching a small piece of unknown debris stuck to the top of the girl's head, her high-bridged nose, the slightly upturned corner of her chin, and the snow-white cleavage below her neck.

He immediately looked away and said, "It's nothing."

In the dark and cramped stairwell, the air was filled with a strange mixture of sweat, perfume, alcohol, and the musty smell of decay.

A broken corridor light flickered on and off as a sexy woman, drunk until dawn, stumbled up the stairs in front of a man wearing a white shirt and jeans.

All of this, pieced together like a scene from a 90s Hong Kong film, was deeply etched into Chen Nuo's mind.

Come to think of it, he didn't feel there was anything particularly beautiful about it at the time.

But later, when he described this scene to Ann Hui, this art-house film master renowned in the Hong Kong film industry—hailed as "the only female director in Hong Kong capable of rivaling male directors"—immediately wore a look of deep regret:

"It's such a pity I wasn't there. If it had been filmed, that scene would surely have been beautiful."

Once these words were spoken, Chen Nuo actually began to reminisce about that moment, and he even felt as if there really had been a touch of beauty to it.

However, he knew in his heart that this was largely psychological—the result of being subtly influenced after this art-house female director had chatted with him for over an hour.

Chen Nuo had worked with many directors, but Ann Hui was the first one he had met who would chat with him about trivial, irrelevant matters before officially starting to shoot.

"Besides the scene this morning? During the days you lived in public housing, was there anything else that left a particularly deep impression on you?" Ann Hui asked.

Her Mandarin was quite standard among Hong Kong directors.

When they first met, Chen Nuo was slightly surprised, but later, after they started talking, he learned that she was actually born in Anshan, Liaoning, in 1947, and moved to Hong Kong with her parents at the age of five; her parents had always spoken Northeast Mandarin at home. That was why her name was Xu Anhua (Ann Hui).

She was a woman of gentle speech and great learning, who knew very well how to guide a conversation with patient persuasion and was extremely skilled at using details to evoke people's emotions and memories. In short, before he knew it, Chen Nuo had let down his guard, opened his heart, and was conversing with her like an old friend.

In the time that followed, Chen Nuo chatted with her about the old man in the public housing block who always said he wanted to introduce him to a girlfriend, though it was clear he was just joking. A widower in his 70s with no children, where would he meet any young girls? Besides that, there was Uncle Liang who sold fish; once, when he had helped him open the door downstairs, he had given him an eel to eat. And there was that tireless middle-aged couple next door.

Ann Hui listened very attentively, interjecting a word or two from time to time, and would burst into laughter at the interesting parts, looking quite spirited. Even regarding the middle-aged couple who were at it every night, Director Ann showed no shyness or avoidance, laughing particularly happily.

She was indeed the tough female director who, for the sake of filming, had once been willing to cut her hair short, wear loose shirts and jeans, and spend all day on set cracking dirty jokes with a group of men.

But once they finished talking about these things, although Chen Nuo roughly understood Ann Hui's intention, he checked the time and still asked, "Director Ann, when do we start filming?"

Ann Hui smiled, her eyes squinting into slits, "Don't be in a hurry."

She paused, then smiled and continued, "It's like this. Before accepting your invitation, I hesitated for a long time. At first, I didn't want to come because I've been afraid for forty years of filmmaking; it's always one good film followed by one bad one."

"You know, I just finished filming 'A Simple Life', and Deanie Ip won Best Actress in Venice. I think it's quite successful, and I'm afraid the next one will be the bad one, ruining your project. But later, Director Johnnie To persuaded me, saying this is a TV series, not a film. Only then did I feel I could come."

"Then I wondered, how should I collaborate with you?"

"I have actually watched every one of your films, and I've watched each one several times. From your first, 'The Mute's House', to your latest, 'Inception', I have always felt that you are an actor with great versatility and many ideas, with a talent I have never seen before. Today, your acting has already received much acclaim. If I were to direct you, I wouldn't know where to begin."

"This made me hesitate for a long time."

"Finally, I realized that although you are young, you are already a very mature actor. Even though I am 40 years older than you, I don't actually need to teach you how to act."

"In the past, I filmed many works that were dramatic and had strong impact. After reaching middle age, influenced by directors Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang, I began to lean more toward telling stories about life. The fact that you invited me to be the director for the second episode must be because you saw this in me."

"I watched some clips from the first episode filmed by Director Pang, and I particularly liked the mother-son bond between you and Ah Hong. However, I feel that, based on your past level, it could be deeper, more settled, and more grounded in life."

"Since you've been to Tin Shui Wai and are now living in a coffin cubicle in Sham Shui Po, you should understand what I mean."

"And in this process, I won't teach you; I will only tell you my feelings."

This is the benefit of a TV series adopting a multi-director system.

Unlike when filming 'The Return of the Condor Heroes', where Chen Nuo often had to wait for the director's crew to film other people's parts after finishing his own scenes, which invisibly lengthened the shooting cycle.

Now, after he finished his scenes for the first episode, Pang Ho-cheung and Zhang Yimou were busy reshooting the panoramic shots and other perspectives for the first episode.

But Chen Nuo no longer needed to wait; he started filming the second episode directly.

The end of the first episode shows the 201 survivors of the Red Light, Green Light game returning to the dormitory warehouse, still shaken.

Facing a group of masked NPCs, the crowd, terrified by the blood, was agitated and demanded to quit this killing game.

But the masked men threw out a special bait.

That was: money.

When thousand-dollar bills began to drift down from the pipes into the glass sphere above the warehouse, eventually gathering into a small red mountain, the whole place went quiet.

Everyone's eyes were fixed on that pile of cash, with an indescribable desire flickering in their eyes.

The masked men informed everyone that for every player who died in the game, 1 million HKD would be added to the glass sphere. Since 245 people died in the Red Light, Green Light game, the prize money in the glass sphere had accumulated to 245 million HKD. If one could pass all the games in the end, the winner would receive all the prize money in the glass sphere.

This news instantly sparked a division among the survivors.

Some wanted to continue the game for the money, while others hoped to save their lives and quit.

In the end, everyone decided to vote, following the principle of the majority, to decide whether to continue the game.

No. 456 Xie Jiajun voted first. He voted to quit again.

After intense discussion and nervous waiting, the voting result reached 100:100.

At this moment, No. 001—the old man with a brain tumor and little time left—stepped up last and, like Xie Jiajun, voted to "quit."

The story of the second episode under Ann Hui's direction begins here.

On a mountain road in the dead of night, a van sped over and stopped with a screech.

A man and a woman, stripped of their clothes and left only in their underwear, were rolled out of the van onto the roadside. Then, the people inside threw out a few pieces of clothing and drove away quickly.

The man and woman were lying on their sides on the ground, their hands tied behind their backs and their eyes blindfolded.

The woman's body, clad in a bra and panties, writhed on the ground, shouting, "Is anyone there? Is anyone there?"

Chen Nuo hunched his body and said in a very nervous tone, "Miss, I, I am here."

"Who are you?"

"I was thrown out by them with you."

"Then hurry up and untie me!"

"Oh, oh, okay... but, Miss, could you help me untie the rope on my hands first?"

"Me? How am I supposed to help you!"

"Miss, please, just bite it."

In the shot, Guli Nazha's face was right at the level of Chen Nuo's buttocks; Chen Nuo moved his hands behind his back a bit more, just enough to feed the rope to the woman's mouth.

How she bit it open was not performed on camera, because there was really no way to act it out.

The female assistant, acting for the first time, could not withstand the test of a close-up shot; Chen Nuo's only requirement for her was to speak normally.

As for why Guli Nazha was chosen as the female lead, besides the fact that the original female lead was a thief, the female lead in "Eagle Catches Chicken" was a young lady from a family on the verge of bankruptcy, requiring a sweet-looking beauty to play the role so that people would immediately see her as a wealthy, naive girl; other reasons are a long story and will not be mentioned for now.

In the script, the contestants who had their competition uniforms taken off were all sent out of the venue wearing only their underwear.

If Pang Ho-cheung were to film this part, the young lady would definitely be wearing lace.

But Ann Hui had never had the slightest interest in fan service, so Nazha wore a sports bra. However, the good figure she had developed from daily morning swimming still looked curvaceous on camera.

After biting the rope open, Chen Nuo struggled to turn over and get up.

This scene was actually the main reason for his weight loss. He was seen wearing only boxer briefs, his clothes removed, revealing his ribs, giving off a sense of malnutrition and skin-and-bones fragility.

After regaining his freedom, he tore off his mask, and without bothering to put on clothes, he immediately helped Guli Nazha untie her ropes and remove her blindfold.

But the moment Guli Nazha's hands regained mobility, with a "slap," she gave him a hard slap across the face.

This was a real slap.

Under Chen Nuo's encouragement, they filmed it seven or eight times before they got this solid, resounding slap.

"Pervert!" Guli Nazha cursed.

Then, without even looking at him, she turned around to find her clothes.

Chen Nuo stood stunned for two seconds, then a hint of obscure grievance flashed in his eyes, but it was ultimately covered by a numb expression; he lowered his head and began to look for his own clothes as well.

"Cut, that's a wrap!"

"Nazha, that's it, be more confident. You're doing fine."

That was how Xie Jiajun returned to the real world.

However, it was already riddled with holes and was no place to stay.

First was his mother's collapse.

In Ann Hui's lens, that foot, swollen and bleeding from diabetic complications, was like a rag eroded by time and pain, having lost its original shape and luster.

The hospital's color palette also exuded a cold, pale tone.

The old equipment, the dim lighting, the shadows cast through the blinds—it was as if everything around Xie Jiajun was slowly collapsing along with his mother's decline. The pale white walls and the cold metal equipment intertwined with the gray sky outside, forming an oppressive and hopeless atmosphere.

And Chen Nuo blended into it perfectly.

He was like a house dog suddenly abandoned, every part of him from head to toe revealing panic and unease.

Michael Wong, wearing a white coat and black-rimmed glasses, explained, "Your mother's condition is mainly because it was dragged on for too long without treatment... She must be in a lot of pain like this. Did you notice anything unnatural about her walking before?"

"No."

The moment this word left his lips, Chen Nuo's tears fell, like a helpless and pitiful dog.

Michael Wong glanced at him, his gaze returning to that rotting left foot, and muttered, "Didn't notice? That doesn't make sense."

Chen Nuo blinked hard, trying to suppress the sob in his throat, and asked, "Doctor, can it be cured with treatment? Right?"

Michael Wong said, "In the worst case, we might have to amputate... In any case, let your mother be hospitalized first, and we'll see how it goes while treating her."

Chen Nuo's dull, vacant gaze moved bit by bit to Kara Wai's face. His lips trembled, his face full of despair.

The camera cuts.

Hui Yinghong limps out of the hospital, with Chen Nuo chasing after her.

He blinks his eyes forcefully, "Mom, where are you going? The doctor wants you to stay in the hospital!"

Hui Yinghong says indifferently, "It doesn't matter."

Chen Nuo looks both anxious and helpless: "How does it not matter? You can barely walk, Mom."

Hui Yinghong turns her head abruptly, glaring at him: "You haven't been home for days, where have you been messing around?"

Chen Nuo is startled and says, "I..."

"Enough, let's go home." Hui Yinghong doesn't ask further, turns around, and continues to limp forward.

Chen Nuo takes a few quick steps and stammers: "Mom, if you don't listen to the doctor, the doctor said you might, might..."

Hui Yinghong says expressionlessly, "Might need an amputation, I heard it."

Chen Nuo blinks his eyes in pain, his head trembling, his fingers twitching unconsciously in the frame, and says: "Mom, why, Mom?"

Hui Yinghong says indifferently, "Because of money. If I don't work, who will pay back your debts? Besides, there's no insurance, and staying in the hospital is very expensive."

Chen Nuo stops in his tracks.

Hui Yinghong stops, turns back, and says, "What are you doing? Let's go. Come over and help me, my foot hurts."

Chen Nuo walks over step by step and asks in a soft voice: "Mom, what about your insurance?"

"I stopped paying it a long time ago."

Hui Yinghong's eyes are also a bit red; she stands on tiptoe, reaches out to touch his head, and says: "You're already this tall, yet you're still crying. Don't worry, Mom is fine. Once your debts are paid off, Mom will get her foot looked at."

"Cut, that's a wrap!"

"Brilliant. Chen Sheng, Ah Hong, I feel like giving you both an award right now."

The problem arises.

A debt of five million, an annual interest rate of one and a half percent, a woman working two part-time jobs in Hong Kong for fifteen hours a day—how long would it take to pay it off?

The answer is, at the fastest, 40 years.

Xie Jiajun feels he cannot wait 4 years, 4 months, and 4 days, let alone 40 years.

"Uncle. Can you lend me some money? I'll run longer routes every day from now on, and I'll pay you back slowly."

"It's not that, Ah Jun, I lost a lot on horse racing last time too. When I got home, your aunt made me kneel on a washboard for three days. I don't have a single cent of pocket money this month, so what do you want your uncle to lend you?"

"Uncle, I beg you."

"Don't talk about begging. If I had it, I would definitely lend it to you. But I don't. Even if you knelt down and kowtowed to me three times, I still wouldn't have it. Think of another way, Ah Jun."

The final shot of this scene is the short, stout back of Lin Xue as he pushes the door and enters.

Chen Nuo, dressed in slovenly clothes, stands below the steps with a silent, pale face.

"Cut, that's a wrap!"

"I like this scene, it has a feel to it."

The rain begins to fall.

Xu Anhua is very skilled at using rain to set the mood.