Chapter 161: Zhu Lin: So Your Name Is Gong Xue (Guaranteed 1 update)

The next day, when Zhou Zhou Huimin went to school, she specifically passed by Queen Mary Hospital, wanting to tell Ghost Uncle about the move.

However, Ghost Uncle wasn't at work today; he had taken personal leave.

Zhou Zhou Huimin went to school feeling dejected and secretly wrote a letter to A-Ming during class, failing to finish it even after the whole period.

In the following music class, she asked the music teacher, with whom she had a good relationship, how to sing "Hometown Love."

By the afternoon, she continued to perfect her letter to Wei Ming, determined this time to uncover the mystery surrounding him.

While Zhou Zhou Huimin was writing to Wei Ming, Gong Xue, who was experiencing life in the great Northwest, was also writing to him.

Director Xie Jin had asked her to experience the character in her daily life and write down some insights and reflections for her own reference, so she wouldn't forget them when filming officially began.

Gong Xue thought that since she was writing them anyway, she might as well write them as a letter to communicate with the original author.

Although she knew the phone number for the South Gate post at Peking University, she felt that a letter allowed her to express herself more clearly.

When she went to the local post office to mail the letter after finishing it, she unexpectedly discovered the March issue of *Popular Cinema*. She quickly picked it up.

She bought *Popular Cinema* every month this year. The cover figures for this issue were Zhao Erkang and Sister Siqin Siqin Gaowa, the leads of last year's film *Heart-Returning Arrow*.

However, Gong Xue didn't look closely; she flipped directly to the photo on the back cover.

Seeing that back cover image, Gong Xue happily covered her cherry-red lips.

This was a set of makeup photos she, Zhu Zhu Shimao, and little Xizi had taken before the New Year—a scene of a family of three talking at home.

Director Xie had said this photo would appear in *Popular Cinema* in an issue after the New Year. There was no chance for the cover, as the film hadn't been released or even finished filming, but it might be on the back cover or inside pages.

After all, Xie Jin was a famous director, and the film was based on a well-known novel, so national attention was extremely high. Placing it on the back cover not only satisfied the audience's curiosity about the main cast but also served as a promotional tactic.

As the lead actress of *Sacrificial Red*, Gong Xue's film crew had also appeared on the inside pages of *Popular Cinema*, but the attention was certainly not as high as the back cover.

Gong Xue held the magazine, wondering when she would be able to appear on the cover herself.

She immediately tore open the letter and added a sentence at the end, reminding Wei Ming to be sure to check out this month's *Popular Cinema*.

The release of the first still from *The Herdsman* did indeed attract some attention, for instance, from Zhu Lin.

She had long since recovered from her illness, but she was still filming in the Mount Ailao Mountains, occasionally visiting Dr. Xu's home.

The fact that she and the writer Wei Ming were friends was already known to the entire crew. She felt her colleagues were more polite to her, as if in their eyes, she had also become someone with "connections." Na Na Renhua, a little gossip, wanted to find out every detail of how she and Wei Ming met.

And when the cast of *The Herdsman* was exposed, crew members who heard the news immediately told her and lent her their copy of *Popular Cinema*.

Zhu Lin looked at the three people on the back cover; they were all relatively unfamiliar, not well-known actors.

"The lead actress is quite pretty," the colleague who lent her the magazine instinctively remarked.

Zhu Lin nodded. Although the styling was quite plain, it couldn't hide her natural beauty; she looked like a very elegant beauty.

Suddenly, a scene flashed through Zhu Lin's mind. She felt she had seen this sister somewhere before.

The lead actress was introduced as "Gong Xue." Zhu Lin remembered that when she went to Peking University to find Wei Ming, she had passed a girl going the other way. Because the girl was pretty, she, riding her bike, had taken a few extra looks.

Yes, it was her!

Zhu Lin suddenly had a hunch: could this Gong Xue sister also have been looking for Wei Ming? She must have been leaving Peking University at that time!

Could her getting the opportunity to be the lead actress be related to Wei Ming?

The more Zhu Lin thought about it, the more she felt it was possible. And this girl looked a bit older than Wei Ming. Just how many "good sisters" does this kid have!

Zhu Lin wasn't particularly angry; he wasn't anyone special to her. She just felt a bit disappointed, having thought that she, as an older sister, was unique to him.

However, this disappointment was alleviated by the arrival of Wei Ming's letter.

Wei Ming mailed the letter directly to the village where they were temporarily staying, and the postman climbed over mountains to deliver it to her.

It wasn't just a letter; it was a package. Wei Ming kept his promise and mailed her the *Spring of the Herding Class* cassette tape. Because Zhu Lin said she hadn't read the novel, Wei Ming also mailed her a copy of the February issue of *People's Literature*, an autographed version at that. He indicated in the letter that he would soon be publishing a book and would mail her a copy then.

Seeing these things, Zhu Lin smiled again.

"Laughing, laughing my ass!" Wei Ming glared at Seeing Biaozi and Xiao Mei.

A chubby girl had just pestered Wei Ming for the whole journey, her eyes undisguisedly coveting him.

Fortunately, the chubby girl had already gotten off the train.

Wei Ming grumbled, "If it weren't for accompanying you two, wouldn't it be more comfortable for me to sleep in a sleeper berth!"

But sleeper berths were too expensive. These two were running a small business, so they certainly couldn't bear the cost.

Later, they reached a compromise, agreeing to get off at Wuhan to take a break before buying tickets to Guangzhou.

If they had taken the train directly from Peking to Guangzhou, it would have been over 40 hours, enough to sit their butts into three pieces.

Mei Mei Wenhua said cheekily, "Brother Ming, if you're sleepy, you can lean on my shoulder to sleep."

Seeing Biaozi laughed so hard he slapped his thigh; this was the line from the chubby girl just now.

"Get lost, get lost," Wei Ming adjusted his neck pillow and leaned against the window. "Luckily, I'm not on the same route as you guys on the way back. I'll enjoy myself then." Once they reached Guangzhou, they would part ways. The two of them planned to go to Shenzhen to import Hong Kong goods, while Wei Ming would retrace the Northern Expedition route.

This time, they followed Wei Ming's suggestion to only import electronic watches. The items were small, and relying on the thick winter clothes, they could hide them inside. A return trip would mean at least a 100% profit.

However, considering the hardship of their long-distance trek, Wei Ming felt they deserved to earn this money.

After a few more hours, Wuhan finally arrived. They would take a half-day break to move around before catching the afternoon train or continuing south.

During this rare half-day break, Wei Ming didn't want to go anywhere, just hanging around the train station area. The three of them grabbed some hot dry noodles.

Before getting back on the train, Wei Ming saw the newly released *Popular Cinema* at a newsstand and bought a copy. He hadn't missed a single issue of *Popular Cinema* this year.

With money now, he had finally achieved "magazine freedom." The same went for other major literary journals; it was just that the quantities available were relatively small.

He wondered if *Animal Ferocity* would sell out as soon as it hit the shelves. Regardless, he had already pre-ordered 200 copies from the People's Literature Publishing House, adding another 100 yuan to the cost.

"Oh, isn't that Xizi!"

As Wei Ming was looking at the cover, Seeing Biaozi saw the back cover and recognized little Xizi at a glance.

!

Mei Mei Wenhua's focus was on: "Gong, Comrade Gong Xue!"

Wei Ming quickly flipped the magazine over and saw the still of the family of three from *The Herdsman*.

"Who? Who is Gong Xue?" Seeing Biaozi asked.

Mei Mei Wenhua: "She's one of the two pretty sisters who came to find Brother Ming the day Mei Linda left!"

Seeing Biaozi looked carefully: "She really is pretty! Even though she's wearing coarse cloth, you can tell she's a very stylish person."

Wei Ming frowned. Even such a look couldn't suppress Sister Xue's temperament. It seemed she would have to put in some hard work for this experience of life.

He snatched the magazine away.

"Alright, hurry up and get on the train. We still have over 30 hours to go."

Once seated, Wei Ming began reading this issue of *Popular Cinema*.

He didn't miss an issue not only to follow the film industry but also for another important reason: the Hundred Flowers Awards, which had been suspended for 17 years, were being relaunched—the 3rd Hundred Flowers Awards.

The news was released at the beginning of the year, so starting from the first issue this year, there was a voting page at the back. After voting, one would mail it to the Hundred Flowers Awards Organizing Committee.

This was entirely voted on by magazine readers, so the sales of *Popular Cinema* had been climbing steadily this year, with each issue increasing by hundreds of thousands of copies. He believed a million copies in sales wasn't far off.

Wei Ming had already cast his votes for the previous two issues, so he decided to give his voting rights for this issue to Seeing Biaozi and Mei.

The two immediately flipped through the list of candidates at the back.

A list of 63 names meant that the country had produced 63 feature films last year.

And it was these 63 domestic films, plus a small number of imported dubbed films, that generated 27.9 billion admissions in 1979, with an average of 70 million people watching movies every day, and an average of 28 movies watched per person per year (official data from the *Film Yearbook*).

Many people in later generations often used this to conclude that the period around the 1980s was the golden age of cinema.

However, a little bit of thinking reveals the problem here.

There were only 63 domestic films, and even fewer dubbed films. Let's calculate with a total of 100 films. 27.9 billion admissions means an average of 279 million admissions per film. Even if the number of dubbed films was higher, each film would still need to have 200 million admissions.

This was obviously impossible. In those days, films had at most two or three hundred prints, and some had only dozens. How could they create hundreds of millions of admissions?

Even if entertainment was limited to movies, books, and radio, it still wouldn't be possible.

Most films just flopped silently like *Sacrificial Red*. The vast majority of the 63 films on the list were unheard of by people in later generations.

Last year, only a few films like *Little Flower*, *Secret Service Gunshots*, and *Look at This Family* became national topics of discussion, reaching over 100 million admissions.

So clearly, this 27.9 billion admissions figure was heavily inflated. It was likely that even counting mobile screenings wouldn't reach that number. It was probably the case that if a movie was shown in a village, the entire commune's population was counted.

Wei Ming was pondering this when Seeing Biaozi and Mei Mei Wenhua started arguing over who to vote for.

One said *Secret Service Gunshots* was better, the other said *Little Flower* was more moving.

One said Liu Liu Xiaoqing acted well, the other said Chen Chong's acting was superior.

One said Tang Tang Guoqiang deserved it, the other said Sun Sun Daolin was more skilled.

Their debate even attracted other passengers in the carriage, who joined in to argue about who acted better. The carriage was lively.

Wei Ming, finding peace amidst the noise, began reading the new March issue of *Contemporary*...

(End of chapter)