Chapter 6: Little Fresh Meat Huang Lei

Many people feel Jia Zhangke is a director who deliberately sells China's tragedies and dark sides to foreign countries, because his focus groups are all at the bottom of society and some marginalized groups, always feeling his film content smears and lowers China's image.

But Wu Yuchen feels that film should be a hundred flowers blooming; there should be popcorn commercial blockbusters that don't need brains, and there should also be directors like Old Jia who focus on the bottom and shoot social development problems.

He wouldn't say he liked Old Jia's films very much, but he wouldn't shout for him to get out of China either.

After all, the bottom-level people have always accounted for the majority of China's population, and it can accommodate such a director who shoots the problems of bottom-level people. Many things in the real world are far more magical than films.

Writing 4,000 yuan for Jia Zhangke in his notebook, feeling Jia Zhangke's enthusiasm for film, Wu Yuchen was also somewhat touched and promised him sonorously:

"Senior, don't worry; I will definitely lead everyone to shoot a decent film!"

Driven by Old Jia, basically everyone present donated generously, and even Chen Er and Fatty Wu took out their wallets.

A few hundred for the small ones, over a thousand for the big ones; in the end, the twenty-plus people in the room added up and actually scraped together 30,000 yuan!

Wu Yuchen made an agreement with everyone on the spot that everyone would gather after dinner tonight to scrape the money together and hand it to Old Jia, whom everyone trusted, for safekeeping.

He understood very well that everyone had exploded with numbers relying on a burst of enthusiasm; perhaps in two days when their brains cooled down, some people might regret it—after all, dreams sometimes couldn't compare to bread, although most students were thin-skinned and couldn't do things like going back on their word, it was still best to gather the money quickly to avoid complications and let everyone not think too much and spend their minds on film shooting.

And Wu Yuchen had already started exercising the director's power, starting to assign tasks to everyone, starting to carry out the crew's preparation work; the primary task at the moment was to let everyone exert their connections and get the shooting equipment for the crew first.

Walking on the campus path he came on, Wu Yuchen said to Wu Shixian and Chen Er beside him: "Thanks!"

These two were pulled over by him, and they even invested money in the crew.

"Haha, who let your script move me~"

"Right, brother treats the matter, not the person; if your script was trash, I wouldn't pay a cent even if you treated me to a meal!"

Wu Yuchen recorded the two's intentions and didn't say anything more.

Fatty Wu asked: "Wu Yuchen, what are you going to do now?"

"Find the male lead."

"Male lead? Aren't you going to find the camera?"

Wu Yuchen showed a smile upon hearing this: "Oh, the male lead and the camera will be solved together!"

Fatty Wu felt curious in his heart about who this male lead Wu Yuchen was looking for. According to his understanding, this male lead was a light in the whole bus, representing beautiful qualities, couldn't beat the robbers, so he didn't need to be tall and mighty, preferably fair and clean, the kind that made people feel good at first sight.

A "knock, knock, knock" sound of knocking on the door rang out in the office.

"Please come in."

A handsome young man with long hair parted in the middle looked up; his face was thin, his features exquisite, and an artistic and gentle temperament came over him.

Wu Yuchen immediately smiled and greeted:

"Senior, didn't disturb you, right~"

Wu Yuchen looked at Huang Lei's appearance at this moment, which could beat a group of little fresh meat in later generations, and remembered the round, chubby face of Chef Huang twenty years later, sighing in his heart that time was a butcher's knife, each cut urging one to grow fat.

From the image, Huang Lei at this time definitely met the requirements for the male lead, and his acting skills were even more beyond words; shooting a short film was more than enough, so he could be considered an excellent candidate.

And if he could invite Huang Lei to be the male lead, then the equipment problem wouldn't be a worry; they could all be borrowed from the school.

Huang Lei in 1995 was a teaching assistant for acting classes at the Tao Jingying Academy. Acting classes weren't just courses for the acting department; they were also compulsory courses for the directing class. Wu Yuchen was the class representative, so he was considered familiar with Huang Lei.

Huang Lei wasn't much older than them, so he didn't put on teacher airs, letting this group of students call him senior.

Huang Lei looked at this student whose handsomeness was no less than his own and couldn't help but smile and say:

"Come in; is there anything in the class?"

Wu Yuchen smiled and leaned toward Huang Lei, saying with a hint of flattery:

"Senior, it's not class business; I have something to ask of you!"

Huang Lei was slightly surprised in his heart, and seeing Wu Yuchen's attitude, he found it funny:

"What is it? Tell me first; I'll definitely help if I can."

"I wrote a script; please help me take a look first~" Wu Yuchen said and handed over the script.

"Whoa, you wrote a script yourself not long after entering school!"

Huang Lei smiled and took it, thinking he wanted him to appreciate the script. However, teachers were very appreciative of such students with ideas, so he was very happy to help him look at the script, offer suggestions, and help him improve.

Huang Lei read quite seriously, and the speed wasn't fast; from his initial relaxed expression to gradually becoming serious, until after reading the last sentence, he was still immersed in the story, his heart also shocked, only feeling the whole story was shocking yet thought-provoking.

Especially the smile of the male lead at the end made people have endless aftertastes.

A moment later, he raised his face, his expression not hiding his shock: "Did you really write this script?"

Wu Yuchen nodded: "Senior, what do you think?"

Huang Lei immediately wanted to praise it as great; let alone a student, even a professional screenwriter might not be able to write this story, and full inspiration rushed out from the script.

However, such an inspired story was really likely to be made by a newcomer student; old screenwriters had too many restrictions.

But the words reached his lips, and Huang Lei thought Wu Yuchen had just entered school, so he couldn't praise him too hard to avoid him becoming arrogant.

"Not bad; didn't see that, you kid still have this trick!"

Huang Lei also didn't expect Wu Yuchen to have so many ideas besides his handsome appearance, thinking that this year's Tao Jingying Academy directing class seemed to be producing a good seedling.

Wu Yuchen first smiled, then immediately followed the pole and said:

"Senior, you also think it's not bad; why not come and help out and be our male lead?"

Huang Lei was stunned for a moment, then smiled and pointed at Wu Yuchen with his finger, joking:

"Good kid, so you were playing this idea!

Can you afford my pay?"

Huang Lei starred in the great director Chen Kaige's *Life on a String* in 1990 and became famous; he acted in several TV dramas while in school, and last year he even participated in *The Phantom Lover* starring Zhang Guorong, which received great reviews after airing this year.

Therefore, don't look at Huang Lei just being a small teaching assistant at the Tao Jingying Academy now; his pay wasn't low, and there were brokerage companies in Hong Kong and Taiwan begging him to sign a contract to release records.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 7 =====