Chapter 302: *Aftershock* Ten Thousand People Premiere

December 23, 2005, Tangshan Sports Center, Hebei Province.

The Tangshan Sports Center Gymnasium, built in 1983, covers an area of about 200,000 square meters. It has hosted the 2nd World Men's Table Tennis Championships and the 7th Hebei Provincial Games, and can accommodate up to 30,000 people to watch the game at the same time.

Today, this is the scene of the *Aftershock* ten thousand people premiere.

On the lawn of the track and field, the setup of the premiere stage and the super-large movie screen began at the beginning of the month.

With the full cooperation of the Tangshan government, more than 100 professional engineers built a stage about 45 meters wide, and the giant movie screen reached a staggering 35x15 meters, which was quite shocking.

At the same time, in order to achieve the effect of this premiere, which invited more than 10,000 Tangshan citizens to watch on-site, the crew specially rented two of the latest DP-3000 devices from the Belgian company Barco.

The bulb power is 1.5kw-7kw xenon arc lamp, with a light output of 30,000 lumens. The brand-new optical path and lens design are said to be able to illuminate the night as bright as day, which is not an exaggeration.

This Barco is the company that provided technical support for the water intention creativity of the Athens Olympic Games, with strong strength.

At 5:30 in the evening, the shocking premiere was officially opened for entry.

Sister Jiang citizens lined up to check tickets, and the editorial team of Blog Network, Wenjie Video, and Travel Satellite TV broadcasted the whole process until the end of the movie.

After the premiere today, the crew is about to start the roadshow process in Japan, South Korea, and the United States.

In North America a week later, *Aftershock* will meet North American audiences on 1,400 screens of Miramax and Lionsgate.

Considering the theme, type, and cultural background, this opening number limited to B-movie level is mediocre, and it seems difficult to ask for more.

Overall, Boss Lu fulfilled his promise to Secretary Zhao at the beginning.

From the project approval of the film to the mid-term promotion and today's premiere, it can be considered that this city card has been completely played out through various methods.

At the entrance, a middle-aged man in a suit and leather shoes and a tall figure like a bodyguard were protecting a delicate and lovely girl and walking forward.

"Please let us through, we have tickets for the VIP area."

Lu Zheng looked helplessly at the bodyguard opening the way in front, and whispered a bitter smile to Ruan Jingtian beside him: "Tiantian, why are you bothering? It's so cold."

Ruan Jingtian didn't care about the crowding and disorder in front of her, turned back to smile at Lu Zheng, her eyes curved into two crescent springs.

"Uncle Lu, I think your strategy of inducement with profit won't work. Let's be sincere and open the gold and stone!"

Lu Zheng, who was slightly bald, didn't answer, took his hand and rubbed his head, which had been losing hair seriously recently, with the helplessness of "white hair scratching shorter."

For such a person, if you don't induce him with profit, do you still want to move him with emotion?

Does he look like a person with abundant emotions?

The three of them finally passed through the VIP area and walked toward the seats that were best for watching the movie and blocking the wind.

"Eh? Sister Zhou Xun?"

Ruan Jingtian's crisp voice called out to Zhou Xun, who had just changed her clothes and was ready to enter the venue.

She turned back in a trance, seeing that it was the Golden Rose who had spent a lot of money on the charity night.

Thinking of the speculation on the Internet about her background, and then glancing at Lu Zheng and the bodyguard behind her, she was obviously not an ordinary girl.

"Hello, Ruan Jingtian, here to watch the movie?"

"Yes! I'm here to support Teacher Lu!"

Perhaps feeling that the direction in her words was too obvious, Ruan Jingtian hurriedly added: "No, no, it's to support *Aftershock*, and of course to support you, Sister Zhou Xun. The roles you play are all so good!"

Zhou Xun pursed her lips and smiled, observing the authenticity of her expression just like Boss Lu before.

Zhou Xun naturally ate the melon about the Mandalas, Golden Roses, and the little girl who called herself Kapok on the Internet.

Looking at Ruan Jingtian's skin as white as snow and bright eyes and white teeth under the high-brightness lights of the stadium, Zhou Xun couldn't tell for a moment what level of player this was.

However, in her opinion, no matter how high the level, it couldn't deceive the eyes of that senior washing machine, right?

Zhou Xun, like Anita Mui, was a 24k pure Xixi party, feeling quite regretful about the tragic drama at the birthday party.

However, she didn't mind communicating and understanding Ruan Jingtian more; maybe she could provide some valuable information to Liu Yifei?

It was a coincidence, she had to guard the house.

"Tiantian, where are you from?"

"Xi'an."

"With such good conditions, why come to be an actor? Actors are still relatively bitter and tired."

Ruan Jingtian smiled: "I don't know, I just want to... try it!"

The two women walked side by side, and soon prepared to take their seats, the distance between the seats was not far.

Or rather, the best area in this area was all city leaders, crew members, and guests from all walks of life. Lu Zheng's ticket was obtained from Han Shanping.

Zhou Xun wanted to ask a few more questions, but when she looked up, she saw Lu Kuan, Han Shanping, and Secretary Zhao walking out from the backstage. The premiere was still more than ten minutes away from starting.

"Director Lu, don't leave tomorrow, okay? I want to represent the city to comfort you well!"

"Tomorrow is really not possible, I have to go to Japan for a roadshow."

Secretary Zhao held Boss Lu's hand tightly and wouldn't let go: "The situation tonight is special, and we didn't drink wine. We didn't treat you well."

Han Shanping laughed: "Fortunately, we didn't drink, Secretary Zhao, otherwise you should be fine, I must have fallen down now."

Several people chatted and laughed, but Secretary Zhao's words were not polite, they were indeed from the heart.

From the perspective of the Tangshan government, this film project expenditure of the finance was obviously super value.

Whether from the promotional effect, the successful creation of the city card, or the commercial street that has already been put into operation and has begun to recover funds, it can be seen.

From the perspective of his own parents, being able to receive so much praise and love from the common people and affirmation from superiors during his tenure can be considered as having both face and substance.

Secretary Zhao's secretary, Xiao Li, came over and whispered a few words, probably to prepare to go on stage to speak, and then greeted Lu Kuan and Han Shanping and walked away.

The small flat-top turned his head as if unintentionally: "Yo, Boss Lu, Ruan Jingtian is also here."

The clumsy acting made Boss Lu speechless.

But he couldn't hit the smiling person with his hand; this was to support his own scene, and he couldn't be cold and cold, just treat it as normal interpersonal communication.

"Welcome, both of you. It will be windy later, pay attention to keep warm."

"It's okay, Teacher Lu! I have this!"

Ruan Jingtian lifted the hem of her long down jacket, and her knees and other places were covered with warm babies.

This kind of sister artifact is far from popular now. Its predecessor, warm stickers, appeared in the 70s, and it has just begun to be used on a large scale in Japan.

Until next year, domestic daily chemical companies discovered this business opportunity, and warm babies began to enter the mainland market.

From these insignificant little things, it can be seen that Ruan Jingtian's superior background, and the one on the scene should be the only one who knows.

Ruan Jingtian just wanted to say something to the young director, but Zhou Xun seized the opportunity and suddenly spoke:

"Tiantian, what is this?"

Ruan Jingtian turned back: "Japanese warm baby, it can generate heat when pasted on the body."

"Oh yes! I still have two here, I'll paste it for you, Sister Zhou Xun!"

The human wealth and flower took out two identical things from the pocket of her down jacket very enthusiastically, and the Japanese packaging told the origin.

Boss Lu nodded to Lu Zheng and stepped toward the backstage. He would speak after Secretary Zhao.

The little girl who treated people with enthusiasm diligently pasted the warm baby on Zhou Xun's lower back, and when she turned back, that person had already gone far.

The excellent actress Huang Rong in Boss Lu's eyes naturally wouldn't reveal any flaws, praised Ruan Jingtian for her beauty and kindness, and soon diverted her attention.

The two chatted "speculatively," exchanged numbers, and agreed to contact often in the future.

Zhou Xun: Xixi, I have paid too much for your family.

At 7:30 in the evening, it was a bit exaggerated to say that it was attracting worldwide attention, but it was definitely the premiere of *Aftershock*, which was attracting national attention.

Deputy Director Zhang of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and leaders of the Art Bureau of the Ministry of Culture delivered speeches one after another, followed by Secretary Zhao's heroic speech.

Although the parents were excited today, they also knew the priority, and after a short three-minute speech, they invited Lu Kuan to the stage.

The young director held the microphone, his voice steady and penetrating: "Good evening, folks, welcome everyone!"

"At the end of February this year, the creative team of *Aftershock* made a military order to all our citizens and the 240,000 compatriots who died in the earthquake 30 years ago."

"After 4 months of filming, 4 months of post-production, and 1 month of intensive promotion."

"Today! We returned to Tangshan with incomparable confidence and pride. Please, all the folks present, and all the audiences across the country who are watching the movie at this moment, let's review this answer sheet together!"

"Here! On behalf of Wenjie Holdings, China Film Group, and other producers, and on behalf of all the crew members of *Aftershock*, I solemnly report to the 7.5 million Tangshan people!"

"And invite everyone to witness this historic moment today, witness the China tonight, sleepless for love!"

In an instant, applause thundered in the gymnasium, just like rolling winter thunder, stirring in the hearts of every Tangshan person.

The lights in the stadium gradually dimmed, and the big screen in the stadium suddenly lit up.

As if it were a black-edged stretching lens in an old movie, a black-and-white scroll of the era slowly unfolded before the eyes of more than 10,000 audiences at the scene.

An overlooking lens showed the unique architectural style of Tangshan in the 70s.

The iconic West Road Tangshan Coal Mine Medical College, the walls were either exposed or smeared with cement mortar;

The brick and tile houses with flat roofs and sloping roofs were arranged regularly, simple and practical.

The big rocker passed by, and the era style slogans of "grasp revolution, promote production," "industry learns from Great Qing, agriculture learns from Dazhai" came into view.

The scene substitution of just over ten seconds pulled all the audiences at the scene into that summer thirty years ago.

The picture quickly focused from the distant view of the overlooking, accompanied by a sudden burst of cicada chirping, and the big screen changed from black and white with a sense of the era to color.

The string of numbers 1976.7.28 appeared suddenly, and then gradually faded.

Just this fleeting time explanation began to sting the nerves of the Tangshan people watching the movie.

The space-time intersection of less than thirty seconds at the beginning started from a black-and-white 70s that seemed to have entered a vacuum, and ended with a sharp cicada chirping.

It seemed to break a mirror instantly, suddenly presenting the colorful, vivid, and real world before the audience.

Very few of the viewers at the scene were professional, and naturally they couldn't see this fleeting lens language and progressive narrative.

They only felt that they were like a drowning person, suddenly surfacing from the bottom of the water, and the muffled sound in their ears became the cicada chirping, water sound, and wind movement in the forest.

Instantly alive.

This is entering the play.

Their attention and five senses had been firmly grasped by the cross-montage of pictures and sounds.

But even if the most professional film directors and film critics were asked to comment on these thirty seconds of opening, few people in the world today could say why.

To understand it, maybe you need to understand Bergman's sentence first.

Masters do not narrate.

Immediately after, it was a long lens of Zhou Xun.

That is, the scene where the young director fell into a dilemma of self-examination, and no matter how he shot it, it didn't taste right.

The picture focused, first the cicada chirping, and then a lush locust tree.

A young young woman appeared in the lens, small and thin, far from being graceful.

Even wearing a light blue floral dress that could be called luxury in this era, she looked very withered and dry from the side and back.

Ruan Jingtian at the stage leaned into Zhou Xun's ear and whispered: "Sister Zhou Xun, you lost weight for the movie at that time, right?"

"Yes, people couldn't eat enough at that time, Director Lu let me lose weight to 85 jin."

Ruan Jingtian nodded and stopped talking, watching Zhou Xun on the silver screen move.

This long lens tailored for her began.

The beginning was a medium shot of the character from the side, followed by handheld photography following her into the boiler room in the flat building.

Up to this point, the audience's perspective changed from the side and back to the back.

Zhou Xun held an exquisite sandalwood folding fan in her hand, her skirt swayed gently with her elegant small steps, and her raven-colored hair was neatly coiled behind her head, with a moon-white pearl hairpin stuck in it.

The faintly black pearls were obviously fake, but the skin of the young woman with slightly sweating sweat was all real.

She held the folding fan in her left hand to fan herself, and scooped boiling water from the pot table into the enamel basin with her right hand.

This was to wipe the body for the sister-in-law who was sitting in the month.

Choked by the gray smoke of the boiler room, the funny black ash on her white wrists, and her thin back that tightened as soon as she coughed.

The long lens of the first two minutes of the movie didn't have a single word, and didn't show a face, but it had explained everything in detail.

To put it exaggeratedly, the audience seemed to be able to ignore whose face it was.

Or rather, even if the character covered her face, it would be fine.

It was Zhou Xun, it was Liu Yifei, it was Fan Bingbing, no matter who it was.

Not important.

The image of a petty-bourgeois young woman who was not familiar with worldly affairs, was out of place with such a dilapidated and ordinary courtyard, and whose dress and posture were far from ordinary farm women, had already jumped on the paper.

This character image was shaped by Zhou Xun relying only on clothing, makeup, and her own body language, and it was even more narrated by Boss Lu's master technique of not narrating.

The distance of seeing the mountain is not the mountain, seeing the water is not the water, can be said to be a step further.

The long lens ended, Zhou Xun turned around, but the audience's perspective didn't focus on her face at all.

The two minutes just now, this face seemed to have been fixed in everyone's heart.

Zhou Xun tucked the folding fan into her armpit and carried a basin of hot water into the room with difficulty.

The furnishings and props in the room were 100% restored to the scene of the 70s, without a single detail that would make the audience play, showing that real effort was made.

The tooth-sour creaking sound of opening the door woke up Song Jia who was sitting in the month. She raised her head with messy hair, saw that it was her sister-in-law, and fell asleep again.

"Get up and wipe your face."

The first line of the movie, the fatigue and strangeness in Zhou Xun's words were revealed.

Tired body and tired heart.

Zhou Xun and her father Li Xuejian were both from Beijing. Her father was originally a medical professor, but suffered persecution because of his devotion to Chinese medicine research.

Two years ago, in order to protect himself, and also because he was optimistic about his son-in-law's honesty and sincerity.

Introduced by someone, he, like the countless fathers of that era who combined with workers, peasants, and soldiers to seek a way out, married his daughter Zhou Xun, who was originally an English teacher, to a battalion commander of the 38th Army who was ten years older.

Zhou Xun was 24 years old this year, at the age of youth, she lost her wealthy and foreign life and came to a strange city.

Facing her husband Hu Jun, who had a selfless and extremely male-chauvinistic personality and had been separated for a long time, it was fake to say she was not depressed.

Sister-in-law Song Jia gave a "eh" sound, struggling to support her elbows and get up from the bed, turning to look at her sister-in-law.

In her eyes, everything about Zhou Xun was beautiful.

The lens gave a close-up of Zhou Xun's movements from Song Jia's shoulder.

She was extremely unskilled in soaking the old cloth in water, and twisted it dry with great difficulty. The blue veins that burst out because of being thin on her arms were especially obvious.

Zhou Xun, who was in a bad mood, muttered a few words, and then came over to gently wipe the sweaty face, neck, and body for her sister-in-law.

"Turn over."

Song Jia's personality was usually spicy—they were all farm children who grabbed food in the famine years, how could they not be spicy.

But facing this sister-in-law who seemed to have descended from heaven, even if the tone was stiff, she was willing to accept it.

In her heart, her own brother was not worthy of such a woman.

The edges and corners of the coarse cloth seemed to scratch Song Jia, and her exposed back twitched.

"It's okay! It's okay, sister-in-law!"

Song Jia comforted repeatedly, even before Zhou Xun carefully retracted her hand.

"Tomorrow... I'll go to Dad's place to see if there is any medical gauze."

"This cloth is indeed too hard."

A soft word from the sister-in-law was more comfortable than any soft cloth. Song Jia, who was lying on the bed, felt extremely comfortable in her heart.

It seemed that she had exhausted her efforts, Zhou Xun carried the water out to pour it, and closed the window gap tightly.

"Sister-in-law, it's too stuffy in the room."

Zhou Xun looked at her expressionlessly. In the past, she would just shake her head and not answer much.

Perhaps she felt that she had hurt Song Jia just now when wiping her body, and felt a bit sorry, so she said a few more words today: "You are sitting in the month, you can't see the wind."

"Open it for a while after a period of time."

"Oh!"

Song Jia didn't want to care about how deep the scientific truth was in her words, it seemed that as long as Zhou Xun was willing to talk to her a few more words, it would be very good.

The child suddenly cried out, Song Jia held her son in her arms to coax him, and smiled at Zhou Xun: "Sister-in-law, why don't you try?"

Zhou Xun waved her hand repeatedly: "No, no, my hands are clumsy, don't drop the child."

Finally finished everything, Zhou Xun sat at the table by the bed and flipped through an English novel, *Jane Eyre*.

She watched, mesmerized, and unconsciously raised her hand to tuck away the stray locks of hair disturbed by the wind at her ear.

Her fingers were fair and distinct, her nails were neatly trimmed, and even the two chilblain roots that Song Jia wished could grow on her own hands looked cute.

This was left by Zhou Xun during the New Year, and it was the trace of a petty-bourgeois girl trying to integrate into civilian life.

Song Jia, who didn't dare to disturb her sister-in-law reading, couldn't help but learn her appearance, and her right elbow accidentally hit the head of the bed.

She gave an "ouch" and retracted her hand to cover her mouth. Zhou Xun looked at her sister-in-law curiously: "What's wrong?"

"No... nothing."

Song Jia's embarrassed expression with a big white tooth amused the audience.

Up to this point in the movie, everyone's tense emotions relaxed a little. The number 7.26 at the beginning was like a giant wood lying on everyone's heart, but watching it, they were attracted by this series of life-like plots.

Disaster films that are good at special effects content do not have too much extra script space to depict characters that are three-dimensional.

But *Aftershock* showed the two characters Song Jia and Zhou Xun, who had great contrast, vividly in a very short space.

The personalities were completely different, but each was beautiful.

Waiting for the earthquake in the early morning, the different fates of these two characters, it is conceivable that the dramatic effect expanded rapidly.

The so-called tragedy is to tear up beautiful things for people to see.

Even if he didn't deliberately sentimentalize, the tragic bridge set by this movie is known to every viewer, which is unavoidable.

Night fell, Wang Baoqiang pushed the door back, and Zhou Xun finally felt relieved, showing a look of relief.

She was not that she didn't like to stay with her sister-in-law, and she didn't think it was troublesome to take care of her.

It was just that she felt that there was always a barrier between her and the brother and sister.

"Then I'll go back first."

Hu Jun was a battalion commander in the 38th Army and had the qualification to follow the army, but he had been separated from Zhou Xun for a long time.

Today was the day she went to the army to visit relatives, and there would be a unified military vehicle to pick her up later.

Wang Baoqiang sent her to the door honestly, in standard Tangshan dialect: "Sister-in-law, slow down."

Zhou Xun waved her hand without speaking and walked away in the sunset.

"Where is the baby, let me see!"

Baoqiang carefully washed his hands outside the door, worked for a day, and the warm home became a harbor for rest.

He teased the child for a while, put him to sleep in the bed, took out paper and pen from the cabinet, cut a long and thin strip of paper, and wrote and drew.

Song Jia was curious: "What are you doing?"

Baoqiang said honestly: "Calculate the work points, see if I can change some eggs to supplement your nutrition."

"If there is any surplus... change some milk for sister-in-law?"

Song Jia accompanied Zhou Xun to the street during the New Year and saw that she seemed to glance at the milk for sale a few more times.

That should be the living material she was used to before, right?

The simple and kind rural girl, because of the discord between her brother and sister-in-law, felt very sorry for Zhou Xun, and it seemed that she wanted to take out her heart to treat her well.

Baoqiang doubted for a moment that his wife had become silly after giving birth to a child: "We don't have that condition! Your own milk is almost insufficient!"

The appearance of the silly root opening his mouth and tongue was funny, and he was more mature and thin and black in the movie, a proper rough man.

The milk supply at this time was very tight, usually prioritized for special groups such as infants and patients, and ordinary families were difficult to order milk.

The city's food company did raise two cows, but the milk production was limited. The milk produced every day had to be guaranteed for the feeding of two calves first, and the rest could be sold.

Song Jia curled her lips helplessly, she was just a whim, and mentioned it a little more.

A spicy and active rural girl, it seemed that she had been imprisoned in the month for a long time, watching Baoqiang write and draw, and had a whim again.

"Eh, what do you think if I write a letter to sister-in-law?"

"I'm clumsy, I always want to persuade her to get along well with my brother and follow the army to live together."

Baoqiang looked at her helplessly: "Brother has a big temper, he told sister-in-law to take care of your month at home, you'd better not make these troubles."

"I don't need anyone to take care of! I'm very good!"

Song Jia seemed to prove that what she said was true, turned over and got out of bed and sat at the table, grabbing the paper and pen in his hand without saying a word.

"If you say write, write, you teach me!"

"I don't know a few either!" Baoqiang couldn't persuade the tiger-like Song Jia, so he could only let her act.

The sky was getting dark, Song Jia lit a kerosene lamp familiarly, even if there were electric lights, people in this era were saving as much as possible.

"Ya!"

Suddenly a dragonfly hit in from the window gap, and she picked up the dragonfly that was still flapping its wings.

As soon as she opened the window, Song Jia was surprised: "Why are there so many dragonflies outside?"

"Is it going to rain? The weather has been gloomy all afternoon."

Baoqiang didn't take it seriously either, the two small couples gathered in front of the kerosene lamp, piecing together the letter to Zhou Xun in one word and one word.

In their simple eyes, it seemed that this was the correct way to communicate with intellectuals?

A two-part lens was presented on the big screen, and the simplicity and warmth of occasional laughter and baby crying came from the house.

Through the window lintel, outside was the gloomy sky, the strange and enchanting sunset, and the gradually silent night sky.

The date at the beginning caused pressure on the audience's emotions, but the depiction of Song Jia and Zhou Xun relaxed their mood.

But this contrast narrative of the two parts pulled the audience's emotions into the hell of disaster bit by bit.

The Tangshan people under the stage all tightened their heartstrings, helplessly facing such a countdown to death.

How they didn't want to see the night getting deeper outside the window, how they longed for the picture to be fixed on this warm little home!

In the cold wind of the Sports Center Square, on the 35mx15m big screen, the lens pulled away fiercely, placing the night of Tangshan's thousands of lights in the middle of the screen, and then fixed on the big clock on the top of the train station.

Early morning, three forty.

The city was immersed in a dead silence.

The night was like a heavy lead plate, pressing the audience in front of the big screen almost breathless.

The heat of the day had not yet dissipated, the stuffy air seemed to be solidified, sticky and tight, without a trace of wind.

The whole city seemed to be locked in an airtight steamer, making people feel irritable and uneasy for no reason.

Without warning, the earth began to tremble violently, as if the giant beast that had slept for thousands of years was roaring in anger, and the quiet night sky was torn by strange blue lights, like a sign of the end of the world.

Ghostly blue lights flickered, reflecting the city that was about to fall into eternal doom.

The disaster scene carefully polished by the world's top special effects team shocked more than 10,000 audiences at the scene as soon as it appeared.

Ruan Jingtian couldn't help but grab Zhou Xun's arm beside her. The top projection equipment of Barco seemed to make her feel that the ground under her feet was shaking slightly.

At this time, the audiences in the Wenjie Golden Harvest giant screen theaters across the country who spent high ticket prices to experience 4k high-definition screens were even more excited, feeling that this collapse of heaven and earth happened before their eyes.

A loud noise of "Boom—".

The giant objects of reinforced concrete twisted and deformed, making a creepy "creak" sound, as if wailing in despair.

The walls became fragile eggshells, instantly shattered, and bricks and rubble poured down like raindrops.

Under the overlooking lens, the gray-white buildings lined up like crisp paper sheets collapsed, stacked into ruins of varying heights.

The streets and alleys were instantly shrouded in smoke and dust, covering the sky and the sun, like a surging black tide rushing and rolling, greedily swallowing everything.

"Xiao Jia! Xiao Jia!"

Wang Baoqiang heard the child's cry in a daze, and when he opened his eyes again, Song Jia had already hugged the child in her arms with unparalleled speed.

"Go! Go!"

The two of them rushed out in a panic, Song Jia passed by the table, subconsciously grabbed the letter in her hand, but before she had time to open the door...

A loud noise, the broken floor slab rolled down, the couple hugged the child and squatted down to hide, and the low cabinet in front of the door saved their lives.

Accompanied by the summer thunder in the background sound, the silver screen picture substituted the subjective perspective of Song Jia and Wang Baoqiang, falling into a darkness.

Only the crying of the child, *wu-wa*, was painful.

In the cold wind, countless identical wiping tears appeared, like the infection of the plague in an instant, no one was not moved by it.

From the macro initial appearance of the earthquake to Song Jia's small family, at this moment the lens was pulled fiercely from the ground to the sky by the big rocker.

In just a few minutes, the flat streets were buried tightly, leaving only a mess and desolation.

The streets and alleys were full of scars, and the broken walls and ruins were shadowy in the dark, like ferocious monsters, baring their fangs and claws to tell the cruelty of this disaster.

A little girl with bare feet suddenly appeared in the picture, running away helplessly.

On her dirty little face, mud mixed with tears kept flowing down.

She stood helplessly on the ruins, holding a piece of floral cloth torn from her mother tightly in her hand, crying desperately at the thundering and lightning sky: "Mom! Mom!"

The close-up picture here did a weakened sound collection process, coupled with the shrillness of the thunder and lightning in the background sound, which was equivalent to a simple version of multi-part montage.

The viewers could only vaguely hear the heart-piercing crying of the little girl, and more of the bird's chirping and sorrow would be drowned in the whistling wind and rain.

Looking at her clearly identifiable mouth shape, that "mama" that all mankind could understand, could hear, but couldn't hear, and couldn't hear clearly, destroyed the tear glands of all the audience.

Rainwater mixed with blood spread on the ground, dyeing this land that was once full of vitality red.

White bones exposed in the wild, no chicken crowing for thousands of miles.

The miserable situation is unbearable to look at.

Countless faces of survivors appeared in the lens, which were the running and self-rescue lenses of the survivors of that earthquake and the group performances later.

After a terrible aftershock, the survivors who returned to their souls were silent for a while, I don't know who shouted first: "Save people! Save people!"

It seemed to be awakened from stillness, and everyone started to act regardless of the increasing rain.

This is also the true plot created by screenwriter Liu Heng after visiting more than a hundred survivors.

After the real earthquake, except for children, very few people cried.

Most of them became numb because of the extreme impact of emotions, and people will also open the psychological self-protection mechanism under this extreme pain, temporarily suppressing the instinct to cry.

The scene was in a mess, people wearing pants and vests took tools if they had tools, and if they didn't have tools, they carried them by hand, helped the wounded, and dug out the survivors who were screaming in pain.

The lens pulled away, and the sound gradually faded.

Up to this point in the movie, the main line in the three lines of Lu Kuan's *Aftershock* was pressed for the time being, and the perspective was given to the perspective of another heroine, Zhou Xun.

Zhou Xun escaped a disaster.

After returning home in the evening, she missed the discomfort of her sister-in-law being scratched by the coarse cloth, went to the health center and explained to her father Li Xuejian, asking him to send two pieces of gauze to Song Jia when he had time.

About six o'clock, to avoid bad influence, she changed into a dacron dress, and like other local women, sat on a military vehicle to visit relatives in the army.

It was more than 300 kilometers from Tangshan city to the 38th Army station in Baoding, but in 1976, she could only walk on ordinary roads, and the road conditions were poor.

The air in the carriage was not very circulated, and it was full of family members visiting relatives. The sticky touch in the summer made her extremely uncomfortable.

The bumps in Zhou Xun's carriage, holding the armrests of the military vehicle tightly, fell asleep unconsciously.

I don't know how long it took, the marching vehicle stopped abruptly, and a burst of noisy cutting sounds came.

Zhou Xun sat in the carriage discussing, looking at the unique broadcast of the army and the high-lumen searchlight, knowing that she was close to the 38th Army station.

"What's wrong?"

"Ni lei! Do you feel the ground moving?"

An elder sister in the dark mentioned it, and the people who were drowsy in the early morning reacted.

The driver, Xiao Anhui, jumped out of the car, speaking in non-standard Mandarin: "Sisters-in-law, wait a minute, the army has pulled a cordon, I'll go and see."

Not long after, the lens explained everything that happened in the barracks.

The 38th Army was stationed in Rongcheng, Baoding. Hu Jun, battalion commander of the 339th Regiment of the 113th Division, received orders from his superiors:

At about 3:40 in the morning, an earthquake occurred in Tangshan, Hebei Province, and the situation was unknown.

According to the unified deployment of the army, you are ordered to set off immediately, rush to aid in the starry night, gather at Party Valley Town, Zunhua, 50 kilometers south of Tangshan, and accept the unified command of superiors!

Hu Jun's firm and dark face had no expression fluctuation, made several phone calls, and ordered the whole battalion to gather quickly.

The establishment of the 38th Army had nothing special, and also followed the principle of three-three, with three companies under the battalion, and the force directly commanded by Hu Jun was about 350 people.

Xiao Anhui got the news from the sentry, ran back to the car with a crying face, and the military families had already got off the car in shock.

Just now, it seemed to be the aftershock transmitted by the earthquake wave in the Tangshan direction, and everyone felt the shaking of the soles of their feet!

"Earthquake! Earthquake! Tangshan earthquake!"

"Sisters-in-law, get on the car quickly, I'll send you in, settle down in the army first."

"We have to rush to save disaster!"

Xiao Anhui's face was terrified, and he hadn't experienced too many things at the age of twenty.

But all the military families from Tangshan at the scene had already started crying and howling.

"Go home! We want to go home!"

"Yes! Go home, go back!"

Xiao Anhui was so anxious that he almost cried. This was the army's order!

But the sisters-in-law who cared about their relatives didn't care about this.

Must go home, even if you die, you must die together!

Go home, two words that are so easy to export, seem to have become a luxury at this time.

Zhou Xun bumped all the way, and her face was pale.

At this moment, the thin figure stood behind the crowd, thinking of her father and Song Jia's family, and felt a burst of pain in her heart.

She was not a rural woman without culture. There was such an obvious vibration 300 kilometers away, what about Tangshan?

The lens gave a close-up of Zhou Xun, her abrupt finger joints grabbed the side of the car tightly, and the whole person couldn't help but tremble slightly.

Her hair was messy, but clearly, she did not have the leisurely mood she had in the afternoon to tuck and arrange it.

Comparing the two, the impact on the character's inner heart can be seen.

Hu Jun sat in the passenger seat of the military vehicle, walked to the gate of the barracks, and jumped out of the car when he saw it.

"Xiao Anhui! How did you do it, why don't you drive the car in! Don't block the way!"

"Battalion commander! I!"

Xiao Anhui was young and inexperienced, and cried out: "They want to go back to Tangshan! I can't persuade them, *wu wu wu*!"

As soon as the crying started, the barracks instantly cried into a piece, and the fragile heart defenses of all the soldiers and families from Tangshan and the surrounding area were broken.

Hu Jun, as a battalion commander, couldn't watch the military heart collapse. He slapped the front engine cover of the military vehicle fiercely!

Everyone's eyes gathered on him.

There was a carefully designed lens and lighting picture here.

A tracking light from the barracks searchlight hit Hu Jun at a 45-degree angle, illuminating his face and upper body.

A slightly softer auxiliary light was also arranged on the side to enhance the character's three-dimensionality.

The ambient light around was very dark, creating a depressing and tense atmosphere, highlighting the arduous and severe rescue mission to the viewers.

The cold blue-gray light enhanced the tension and solemnity. Hu Jun was like a tall black tower, his voice steady to encourage everyone. This was his duty as a soldier and battalion commander!

"We are the steel guards of the Republic, the most solid reliance of the people!"

"From the moment we put on this military uniform, we made a life-and-death oath to go through fire and water for the peace of the people, and to overcome thorns for the dignity of the country!"

"Relatives are waiting for us! Family members are waiting for us! The people need us!"

His voice suddenly increased, and he didn't continue to use high-end words to boost morale, but instead pointed to the military families who were still sobbing in the corner.

"Look carefully! The sisters-in-law and younger sisters-in-law from Tangshan are watching us from the side."

"My sister, brother-in-law, and nephew who was born a month ago may also be buried in the ruins, life and death unknown!"

"Don't I want to cry! Don't I feel heartache!?"

Hu Jun said in a low voice: "All have!"

All 356 soldiers of the battalion, except for the stay-behind personnel, had gathered here.

Hearing the battalion commander's password, they quickly adjusted their state and looked at him solemnly.

"Our 38th Army is the Long Live Army personally sealed by the old general. Are there any cowards?"

"No! No! No!"

The soldiers responded to the commander's questioning neatly with high morale carrying fear, honor, and belief.

Hu Jun nodded: "Good! I order you now! Stop crying, put down fear, and rush to the disaster area immediately!"

"Yes!"

He walked to the military families, and a group of military families cried and howled and wanted to come forward.

The situation was critical, and the sooner they arrived, the sooner they could start disaster relief. Hu Jun had no time to appease them.

"Get on the car, go home!"

His sharp eyes glanced at Zhou Xun behind the crowd: "You come with me."

"I'm not going, I'll just sit in this car and go back."

Zhou Xun's face was like frost, and Hu Jun's words just now made her feel cold.

Your sister, brother-in-law, and nephew may have died, what about my father?

You comforted the military families and boosted morale, but you never cared about us father and daughter in your eyes and heart.

Since you look down on our background, why did you agree to combine?

Zhou Xun turned decisively and climbed onto the military vehicle that was higher than her with difficulty.

The noisy night wind after the great disaster, the whistling past her ears was like the horn of the ghost country, stabbing her heart incomparably cold.

The lens didn't explain Hu Jun's expression.

The audience just watched Zhou Xun sitting in the last row of the military vehicle, a cold tear flowing down her cheek, accompanied by the noisy engine sound, fading away with the twilight.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 303 =====