Chapter 306: Pregnancy

Wu Yuchen patted the review feedback in his hand and said with a smile: "Actually, with so much feedback, it might make one's eyes glaze over. But you have to understand one principle: grasp it well and align with our domestic mainstream values."

Seeing that Li Xiaoran was still slightly confused, Wu Yuchen continued: "Applied to this film, it means villains cannot be the protagonists, and bad guys must receive their due punishment."

Then Wu Yuchen said to Li Xiaoran:

"Look, this script has been revised several times, but the settings for the two thieves haven't changed; they remain villains. You've given the main screen time in the film to villains, and you've filmed them looking incredibly cool. Do you think that after the film is released, it will lead teenagers to imitate them?"

Hearing this, Li Xiaoran felt that was indeed the case. Filming it according to the current script made the two thieves look too good.

Then Wu Yuchen continued:

"And from the starting point, the reason for the transformation is indeed insufficient. Just because you saw a stranger who looks like your younger brother, you're willing to risk your life to help him? Is your thief character that noble?"

"Even if there really were such a noble thief, this kind of chivalrous thief cannot be promoted here; it's easy to lead people astray."

Hearing this, Li Xiaoran asked curiously: "Then how should it be revised?"

Wu Yuchen put down the script in his hand and said with a smile: "It's very simple—just turn the two thieves into good people!"

"Turn them into good people? If it were possible to change, wouldn't Director Feng have changed it long ago? He definitely wouldn't be willing to change the character settings, right?" Li Xiaoran was very confused by this statement.

Wu Yuchen pulled Li Xiaoran over, had her sit on his lap, and then rubbed her little belly with one hand, saying: "No need to change the character settings; just add one more thing."

Li Xiaoran was still confused: "Add one more thing? What do you mean by adding one more thing?"

Wu Yuchen shook his head with a smile, then took out his mobile phone and dialed Feng Xiaogang's number directly.

It was the middle of the night for Feng Xiaogang, and he was very unhappy after being woken up. However, seeing that it was Wu Yuchen, he answered immediately: "Hello, Wu Dao~"

"Director Feng, I didn't disturb your rest, did I?"

Feng Xiaogang hurriedly replied: "No, no, I'm a night owl; I'm always up late. I only get inspiration at night! I'm full of energy right now!"

"Haha, that's good. I've read your script for *A World Without Thieves*, and I've also read the feedback provided above. It does indeed have some merit."

Upon hearing this, Feng Xiaogang felt a bit disappointed, but he still said: "Wu Dao, you're right; it was my lack of consideration. I actually just wanted to film a story about bad guys turning good. If it really won't work, then forget it..."

"Forget it? Why? I'm still waiting to see Sister Xiaoran as your female lead~"

Hearing this, Feng Xiaogang's spirits lifted immediately: "Eh, eh, Wu Dao, please tell me, I'm listening~"

"Actually, to put it bluntly, it's very simple: make the female thief pregnant."

Hearing these words from the phone, Feng Xiaogang felt a jolt. It was as if a bolt of lightning had flashed through his brain, and everything suddenly made sense.

Make the female thief pregnant? Make the female thief pregnant!

That's right! Why hadn't he thought of that?

Once the female thief becomes pregnant, the identities of the male and female leads change; they gain the identity of parents.

Children themselves represent purity and kindness. And the identity of a pregnant woman is equivalent to mother and child being one; the kindness represented by the child will be transmitted to the female thief.

In this way, not only does it free the couple of thieves from the identity of being purely evil, but their motivation for doing good deeds also makes perfect sense: accumulating virtue and doing good for the child! This setting not only makes the script work, but also brings more room for the entanglement of good and evil and the exploration of human nature to the entire script.

Then he heard Wu Yuchen say again:

"Add some things in there, like going to pray to Buddha or something, to brew a process of spiritual cleansing for the female lead, and layer on the Buddhist concept of good causes and good results."

"Also, deepen the connection between Foolish Gen and the female lead, for example, have him happen to have helped her or saved her. With this set of changes, I reckon it should work~"

Feng Xiaogang said excitedly: "Master Chen! That's brilliant! I'm truly impressed! My mind is suddenly enlightened; I'm completely convinced!"

Then Feng Xiaogang couldn't help but exclaim: "Oh my, I'm looking up right now, guess what?"

Wu Yuchen chuckled: "What, don't tell me you're seeing the Big Dipper?"

Feng Xiaogang's eyes darted, and he immediately waved his hand: "Hi, how could that Big Dipper compare to you! You're the bright moon in the sky! No, that's not right, you're like the great sun hanging high, not only illuminating me but also illuminating our Chinese film industry!"

Hearing this, Wu Yuchen couldn't help but burst into laughter. Feng Xiaogang was truly Feng Xiaogang; could an ordinary person flatter like this?

Wu Yuchen shook his head: "Alright, alright, Director Feng, it's a small matter. Don't flatter me. The script is still good. Film it well and bring a good movie to China and the audience—that's better than anything!"

Feng Xiaogang grinned and said: "You got it! With your words, I definitely won't let you down!"

After Wu Yuchen hung up the phone, he couldn't help but smile. This 'Feng Pants'!

But then he saw Li Xiaoran, who was sitting on his lap, looking at him with a face full of admiration.

Li Xiaoran wrapped her arms around Wu Yuchen's neck, her eyes filled with adoration, and she kept saying:

"How did you think of that?"

"Why are you so amazing?"

Wu Yuchen had just opened his mouth to speak, but the next moment, Li Xiaoran had already taken the initiative to hold his head and block his lips, making him unable to speak at all.

Tonight's moon was white, big, and round, spilling into the room through the window, making the night scene even more charming.

Although she was already tired, Li Xiaoran still clung tightly to Wu Yuchen, clearly quite infatuated with him, with a fascination that came from the bottom of her heart.

And Wu Yuchen also stroked Li Xiaoran's alluring body and said: "Sister Ranran, go back and prepare well for this role. This script is still quite good."

Li Xiaoran gave a soft 'mm' and then said: "I wonder who they will invite to be the male lead."

Hearing this, Wu Yuchen chuckled without speaking. He had already secured the female lead; he didn't plan to interfere with the other roles. However, he estimated that the Wang brothers would still want to invite Liu Dehua; after all, his box office appeal was still strong.

Then Li Xiaoran turned the conversation to Feng Xiaogang: "Director Feng's mouth is just too 'sweet (licking)'! I wouldn't be able to say those things even if I wanted to..."

Although Feng Xiaogang had made it now and could be considered a figure in society, this way of conducting himself had been practiced for decades and had become his survival philosophy; it was hard to change. When asking for help, especially from people with higher status than him, he would subconsciously perform this set of flattery.

Wu Yuchen had heard people mention before that last year, at a dinner party, Feng Xiaogang accompanied a leader: "What kind of person are you? Standing on the city tower, I feel like the lights in the entire Beijing city are too many and a waste of electricity! As long as you say the word, half the lights in Beijing will be extinguished for you!"

The current Feng Xiaogang hadn't become arrogant yet. In his past life, after the consecutive successes of *A World Without Thieves* and *Assembly*, he began to put on the airs of a great director and successful person, starting to vent the frustrations he had suffered from flattering his superiors by bullying his subordinates. People definitely need an outlet, otherwise, they might go crazy from holding it in.

For someone like him, just always stand above him.

Wu Yuchen gently patted her perky buttocks: "If he had your background, he wouldn't need to say that. One thing is one thing; Director Feng does have ability."

Li Xiaoran rubbed her face against Wu Yuchen's chin: "Still can't compare to you~"

Wu Yuchen chuckled and kissed her on the cheek: "Yes, yes, yes, but no matter how amazing I am, I still have to listen to you, Sister Ranran~ Be good, sleep!"

Only then did Li Xiaoran happily hug Wu Yuchen's arm and close her eyes.

Ukraine.

"Cut!"

Following Zhang Yimou's voice, the entire crew stopped, and everyone looked at Zhang Yimou in unison, waiting for the director's next command.

They saw Zhang Yimou stand up, wave his hand, and say loudly: "Stop filming!"

This statement stunned everyone. Jin Chengwu and Liu Dehua also looked at each other, ran over with some worry, and hurriedly asked: "Director Zhang, what's wrong? Is there a problem with our performance?"

The old master shook his head and said: "It's not your problem, it's my problem. This scenery is wrong; let's re-select the location!"

Jin Chengwu and Liu Dehua breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, but the others were sighing, which meant they had wasted their efforts again!

Since the filming of *House of Flying Daggers* began, it had been very unsmooth.

The film's start date was set for September 11th, but just one week before filming, on September 5th, Anita Mui publicly announced that she was suffering from cervical cancer, which cast a shadow over the entire crew.

Initially, letting Anita Mui play the role of the 'Big Sister' of the Flying Daggers Sect was a result that all parties were very satisfied with. After all, she was famous and had commercial appeal, and the old master also took a liking to the 'big sister' aura and chivalrous temperament Anita Mui possessed. Even the costumes and styling were all prepared.

But the news of Anita Mui's cancer disrupted the old master's plan. Although Anita Mui insisted on going to Sichuan for filming after her treatment, this was cancer!

However, the loyal old master still didn't reject Anita Mui, only telling her to rest and recover, and that this role would be kept for her and wouldn't be given to anyone else.

And when the crew arrived in Ukraine, they encountered a second setback before filming started.

Anyone who knows a little about the old master knows that he attaches great importance to visuals. For this *House of Flying Daggers*, he also wanted to construct the entire film more from visual angles such as imagery and color. Filming a romantic fight scene in a sea of flowers to create the beauty of nature and the human body was one of the old master's pursuits and starting points for this film.

Therefore, as early as a year ago, the old master took a liking to the renowned Ukrainian sunflowers. In order to render the artistic effect of a golden sea covering the sky, the crew spent two thousand dollars to buy high-quality flower seeds locally and hired more than 80 local farmers to sow the golden sunflowers.

The gardeners were hired, the money was paid, and the old master was full of anticipation. But half a year later, SARS hit, and the crew couldn't get to Ukraine in time to supervise the planting. Eventually, when the crew arrived in Ukraine this September, they found that the flowers on the entire hillside were blooming sparsely and couldn't meet the filming conditions at all.

This once again disrupted the old master's filming plan.

But the crew had already arrived in Ukraine, and the equipment had all been shipped over; they couldn't just return for nothing, right?

For this reason, the crew had no choice but to re-select the location, and eventually, they were forced to reluctantly choose a field of white wildflowers locally to start filming the scenes between Jin Chengwu and Zhang Ziyi.

And now, also in this sea of flowers, they were supposed to film the big battle scene, but the old master called a halt to Liu Dehua and Jin Chengwu because the flowering period had passed! He had just discovered that some of the flowers were already starting to wither. Filming like this, the visual effect and feeling wouldn't meet his requirements.

"Director Zhang, what should we do? It's already late autumn. I looked at the local weather report, and some places are already starting to snow. There's definitely no way to find another sea of flowers!"

The old master was silent for a moment, then asked his big brother producer, Zhang Weiping: "Can we re-select the location? It doesn't have to be in Ukraine; finding one back in China is fine too."

Zhang Weiping shook his head directly: "Mouzi, it's not that I don't want to find it for you, but you have to consider the crew's funding issues, and what about Liu Dehua's schedule? He only set aside this period of time specifically for us. If we don't film now, once we go back and his schedule passes, he'll run off to other places. How will we film?"

The old master also let out a long sigh. He had originally planned for the three leads to fight in the sea of flowers with three colors as the background, thereby expressing the allegory of fate.

But now, heaven really didn't follow human wishes!

Since arriving in Ukraine, everything had been unsmooth. During the filming process, Jin Chengwu fell and was injured, and action director Ching Siu-tung was almost blinded by an arrow.

The old master shook his head. Heaven didn't follow human wishes, so he could only follow heaven's will now.

Then he said to the crew: "Didn't you say it's already starting to snow? Let's find a place where it's snowing and change this scene to a fight in the snow!"

"Okay, Director Zhang, we'll go scout it right away!" Hearing the director's decision, the crew members also began to disperse and immediately started executing it.

After most people had left, the old master called his good brother: "Weiping, wait a moment, there's something... I want to tell you."

Zhang Weiping stopped his steps, looked back at the old master, and immediately revealed a simple and gentle smile. He knew that the old master didn't open his mouth easily.

He closed the door, then walked over and sat down beside the old master: "Mouzi, if you have anything to say, just say it. Between us brothers, what's there to be embarrassed about?"

The old master gave an 'mm', thought for a moment, and then said: "Weiping, Chen Ting called me yesterday and said..."

Seeing him stop again, Zhang Weiping asked: "Said what?"

"She's pregnant." ===== CHAPTER 307 =====