Chapter 1: Intercepting an International Director

It was October, and the "Autumn Tiger" heat in Beijing was in its final throes; a breeze blew through the leaves, which had already turned slightly yellow, making them rustle.

On the campus of the Tao Jingying Academy, three young men walking side-by-side were still wearing short sleeves, showcasing the vitality of youth.

On the left was a stout, chubby fellow whose round belly stretched his T-shirt; although he had black hair and black eyes, a careful observation would reveal he was a foreigner.

On the right was a skinny guy with a figure like a hemp stalk, wearing a crew cut and glasses, with an ordinary appearance.

The young man in the middle, with a very striking appearance, was named Wu Yuchen. He was a freshman who had just enrolled in the Directing Department this year, and his face was currently beaming with a smile.

As a director who had only managed an average career in his past life, how could he not be happy to be reborn back to the time he first enrolled in 1995?!

"Hurry up, we're going to be late!" the skinny hemp stalk checked his watch and urged.

"Chen Er, don't be so anxious!" the foreign fatty wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Old Wu, looking at your burly build, can't you do as the locals do now that we're in Beijing and talk a bit more like a man?"

Wu Yuchen laughed and patted the fatty's belly.

"Wu Yuchen, you're really annoying!" the fatty complained with a Taiwan accent.

"Why do I feel like you two are the Fat and Thin Monks escorting me back to Dragon Island?" Wu Yuchen joked.

"If we two are the Fat and Thin Monks, wouldn't you be Wei Xiaobao?"

In this day and age, boys still admired protagonists with heroic spirit like Qiao Feng and Guo Jing more; by comparison, Wei Xiaobao was much more sleazy.

"What's wrong with Wei Xiaobao? Having seven wives is awesome!

Besides, I'm much more handsome than Wei Xiaobao!" Wu Yuchen said with a hint of smugness.

The skinny hemp stalk sized Wu Yuchen up; he had sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, his gaze like stars, and at over 1.8 meters tall, he was a head taller than both of them.

Although he knew Wu Yuchen was very handsome—even instantly crushing all the boys in this year's acting class—he still wouldn't let him off the hook: "Old Wu, how do you say 'narcissistic'?"

"Stinky fart!" the foreign fatty replied in a tacit understanding with his Taiwan accent.

Wu Yuchen laughed out loud, then sized up the Fat and Thin Monk duo beside him. He hadn't expected that after being reborn, these two, who were famous in the industry in his past life, would actually become his roommates.

The Fat Monk was of American mixed heritage, born in Taiwan, with the Chinese name Wu Shixian, claiming to be a descendant of the Warring States period general Wu Zixu.

He had previously studied Film Arts at the University of Washington in the United States and transferred to the Tao Jingying Academy's Directing Department as a junior this year. After enrolling, he voluntarily moved out of the international student dormitory to join them, the freshmen, in one room, just for the fun of it!

By the way, in his past life, he had directed a fairly famous film, *Waiting Alone*, starring Xia Yu and Li Lianhua, which was quite popular among young people at the time.

Wu Yuchen remembered that when this guy gave interviews later, he spoke Beijing dialect so fluently, so he hadn't expected him to be full of a Taiwan accent now.

As for the Thin Monk on Wu Yuchen's right, his name was Chen Er. His representative works in his past life were *The Wasted Times* and *Frontier*. He might not have been as successful commercially, but he was a director with an extremely strong personal style and his own ideas.

Although Wu Yuchen was a reborn person, he didn't feel he was much better than them.

On the contrary, having spent half a lifetime in the industry in his past life, he had long since been clear about his own worth.

In terms of filming techniques and methods, he was definitely a qualified, skilled worker, but when it came to talent and inspiration, he likely couldn't compare to the Fat and Thin Monk duo beside him.

For a director, lacking inspiration and personal ideas meant you were destined to be mediocre.

So, in his past life, he had long since extinguished his dream of becoming a famous great director, relying on his craft to scrape by in the industry.

He hadn't expected that heaven would actually give him a chance to start over!

If he couldn't be Zhou Jielun, couldn't he at least be Xia Luo?

Now that he had decades of future memories and so many film and television works that hadn't yet been born, if he still couldn't fulfill his past life's wishes in this lifetime, he would have lived in vain.

This trip, Wu Yuchen was taking the Fat and Thin Monk duo not to Dragon Island, but to intercept someone.

To intercept the first pot of gold of an international great director!

……

In this 1995 where the hustle and bustle was still very slow, unlike the internet era of later generations where you could download any movie you wanted to watch, search for any movie information you wanted to know, and log into various movie forums and websites to understand others' insights and views.

In this day and age, everyone shared what they had; when there were new movies, they would watch them together, then gather to discuss them.

The Tao Jingying Academy had a film interest group called the Youth Film Experimental Group.

The initial purpose of its establishment was to exchange videotapes, then they simply organized to watch them together, then discussed them with each other, and finally, it simply became a fixed interest group.

And just last month, after this group finished watching a domestic film, everyone was filled with righteous indignation.

Rotten, too rotten!

After venting their frustrations, the group came up with an idea: they should try to shoot a short film themselves!

Among these 20-plus people, there were those from the Literature Department, Photography Department, Art Department, and Sound Recording Department; in reality, they already possessed a complete crew for shooting a film.

Thus, the more they talked, the more excited they became, and they finally decided that within one month, anyone with an idea could write a script, and whoever's script was excellent would be the one to shoot!

And today was the day the Youth Film Experimental Group would evaluate the scripts.

Twenty-plus people sat in the classroom, quietly listening to the person on stage reading.

On stage, a man with simple attire and an honest appearance was reading his script in Mandarin with a Jinxi accent.

Wu Yuchen, sitting below, was secretly sighing that directors who could become famous really all had some skills.

The person before his eyes was the later famous Jia Zhangke, nicknamed "Section Chief Jia" by the industry!

Many people thought his first film was *Xiao Wu*, but in reality, that could only be called his first feature-length film.

Old Jia's true first short film was exactly the *Xiao Shan Going Home* he was currently reading.

As far as Wu Yuchen could hear, the script for *Xiao Shan Going Home* was very flat and lacked dramatic conflict, but under Jia Zhangke's pen, as he narrated it, it just made people feel it had a unique flavor.

A migrant worker in a big city who wanted to go home but couldn't, a stranger lost in the city—it seemed to leap out in your mind; that kind of down-and-out, bewildered, and yet suppressed indignation that could only be held in the chest could be clearly felt.

He was indeed Section Chief Jia, who could publish novels in *Jinxi Literature* while in middle school and now earn two thousand a month relying on his pen!

This was Jia Zhangke's place of rise; relying on this Youth Film Experimental Group, Old Jia built his own crew and, using the twenty-plus thousand yuan crowdfunded by everyone, shot a 57-minute short film, *Xiao Shan Going Home*.

Then, Jia Zhangke relied on *Xiao Shan Going Home* to win the Gold Award for Story Film at the Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Competition, received 50,000 yuan in prize money, and got to know the investor for *Xiao Wu*. From then on, he soared!

It could be said that without this experimental group, without this crowdfunded twenty-plus thousand yuan, there would be no later Section Chief Jia!

But now, this money belonged to Wu! ===== CHAPTER 2 =====