1978: Female educated youth, don’t want an illiterate husband

not so good!
Cheng Xuemin silently cursed in his heart!
"Director Chen, this isn't a matter of replacing him or not." However, while still polite, his tone became more firm as he said, "The action scenes in 'Shaolin Temple' are closely integrated with the dramatic scenes. If the Yuan brothers come, we'll have to redesign the action sequences."

"If Li Lianjie isn't there, training can't proceed. Besides, he's only just started to gain fame; if he's filming two movies at the same time, he won't be able to keep up with the demands, which would actually damage his reputation."

Zhu Lin, who was standing next to him, couldn't help but interject: "Director Chen, we all know that you are good at directing dramatic scenes, but action films really require actors to train throughout the entire process, otherwise the movements will be stiff."

If you're looking for a martial arts coach at a sports school, I can help you get in touch; their skills are top-notch.

Chen Huaikai glanced at Zhu Lin, then at Cheng Xuemin, knowing that borrowing people was hopeless, and sighed, saying:
"Alright, I know you're having a hard time. You'll have to help me figure out the fight choreography, so I don't end up clueless."

"Don't worry, I'll help you with the action choreography. If the Yuan brothers come, I can also ask them to take a look at the action design," Cheng Xuemin said, softening his tone. "As for the sports school, Director Chen, you can go directly to the set and find the actors you like!"

Chen Huaikai nodded wryly, picked up the script and said, "Then I'll go back first. Thank you, Xuemin. If the sports school has a suitable coach, please recommend him to me. I'll treat you to dinner later."

After Chen Huaikai left, Zhu Lin whispered, "Director Chen is too hasty. He knows that our 'Shaolin Temple' is about to start filming, yet he still comes to borrow the core actors. Isn't that making things difficult for us?"

“He has never filmed a martial arts movie before, so he’s not confident and wants to find a reliable actor to put him on the right track.” Cheng Xuemin smiled, picked up the invitation, and said, “However, our actors cannot be changed. Shaolin Temple is related to our foreign exchange earnings target, so we can’t afford any mistakes.”

"Please send out the invitations for me. If Yu Chenghui and the others have any questions, have them call me directly."

Zhu Lin took the invitation, looked at what Cheng Xuemin had written inside, and burst out laughing. She said, "Xuemin, is it really necessary to be so formal and solemn when inviting Xiao Ji and the others? It's not like it's the first time."

"It's better to be formal, it shows our sincerity! Hurry up and send them out!" Cheng Xuemin nodded with a smile. Actually, Liu Xiaoli wrote all these invitations; he didn't have the time to bother with such things!

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear!
Not long after Zhu Lin was driven away, Liu Xiaoli, the "Fairy Mother," came in!

Liu Xiaoli, the "Fairy Mother," came in and handed over the newly compiled cast list, saying, "Factory Manager, I've finished Li Lianjie's training plan. She'll practice boxing every morning and body movements every afternoon. Coach Wu Bin has agreed to be her full-time coach."

“Okay, let’s proceed according to this plan.” Cheng Xuemin took the list, turned to the last page, and instructed, “By the way, after the Yuan brothers arrive, arrange for them to stay at the Yan Film Studio’s guesthouse. Don’t tell anyone.”

……

Two days after the Lantern Festival, Cheng Xuemin and Feng Jiayou saw off their aunt Gu Qiuna, who had an important mission.

Then Cheng Xuemin shifted his focus back to China and to the upcoming filming of "Shaolin Temple" at Yan Film Studio.

The invitations he sent out were like pebbles thrown into a lake, creating ripples throughout the martial arts community across the country.

Yu Chenghui, a member of the Qinghai Wushu Team, had just finished his morning training and hadn't even wiped the sweat off when he received a registered letter from Yanjing.

He opened the envelope and pulled out a letterhead bearing the red lettering of the Oriental Culture and Art Production Branch of the Yanjing Film Studio. Cheng Xuemin's familiar handwriting, filled with sincerity and respect, came into view:

"To Comrade Yu Hai: It has been a long time since we last met. I still vividly recall your skill with the double-handed sword. The collaboration on 'Tai Chi' was very pleasant. Now, there is a new film, 'Shaolin Temple,' a major production co-produced with Hong Kong Great Wall Film Company. You play an important role as 'Wang Renzhe,' a ruthless and powerful general with superb martial arts skills. Only your fierce and powerful style can handle the role."

The film aims to promote Chinese martial arts, which is of great significance. I hope you can take some time out of your busy schedule to travel north in early March to join us at Yanying Film Studio and celebrate this grand occasion together.

All expenses will be borne by the factory. Specific details can be discussed by phone. Best wishes, Cheng Xuemin.

Yu Chenghui read it twice, his fingers tracing the three characters "Wang Renzhe," a sharp glint in his eyes.

He was born with high brow bones, giving him an imposing presence even without anger. When playing villains, he exudes a menacing aura, which was a disadvantage in his previous stage performances, but unexpectedly became a treasure in the movie.

He recalled Cheng Xuemin's respect for martial arts and his precise grasp of cinematic language in the "Tai Chi" crew, and his heart was already moved.

Without much hesitation, he turned around, went back into the house, and began packing his bags, preparing to leave early so that he could familiarize himself with the environment in Yanjing and figure out his role.

Yu Hai, a martial artist from the Shandong Wushu Team, also received the letter.

In his letter, Cheng Xuemin asked him to play the role of the abbot of Shaolin Temple. Li Lianjie played Master Tanzong, Jueyuan's master, a highly respected monk with unfathomable martial arts skills.

The letter stated: "...Master Tanzong, with his kind and benevolent appearance, conceals thunderous methods, and only those with a profound foundation in martial arts and a calm demeanor can master him."

Master Yu Hai's Mantis Boxing and martial arts skills are widely admired in the industry, making him the perfect choice for this role..."

Yu Hai looked at the letter and a gentle smile appeared on his face.

Actually, Cheng Xuemin had already informed them about this when he returned from Hong Kong before the Lunar New Year.

So he was also waiting for the Eastern Depot's assembly order!

Seeing Cheng Xuemin's letter now, I feel even more respectful and polite than before, and I can't express how happy I am.

In fact, Yu Hai is more calm and composed than Yu Chenghui. He is quite satisfied with being able to showcase authentic Shaolin Kung Fu on the big screen, especially playing a high monk.

He immediately called Cheng Xuemin back, assuring him that he would arrive on time.

Ji Chunhua had also been eagerly awaiting this registered letter. At the same time, Hu Jianqiang, who lived in the same city as Ji Chunhua, also received a registered letter!

Cheng Xuemin gave Ji Chunhua the role of the villain "Bald Eagle," and Hu Jianqiang the role of the Shaolin monk "Se Kong."

Ji Chunguang looked at the character description of "Bald Eagle," which described him as fierce, cunning, and possessing strange martial arts skills.

Touching his face, which looked even fiercer after losing all his hair due to illness, he grinned and said, "Hey, this role seems tailor-made for me!"

Hu Jianqiang was very much looking forward to the role of "Sekong," a monk soldier with many action scenes. The two hit it off immediately and decided to travel north together.

Xiong Xinxin, who was far away in Guangxi, was still training hard in the martial arts team. When she received the invitation from the Capital Film Studio, she thought to herself that she had finally been looking forward to Teacher Xuemin's arrival.

In his letter, Cheng Xuemin expressed his appreciation for his skills and invited him to join the "Shaolin Temple" crew as a martial arts actor, with the opportunity to play an important supporting role.

This was undoubtedly great news for Xiong Xinxin, who longed for a bigger stage. He was so excited that he didn't sleep all night and reported to the team early the next morning to complete the relevant procedures.

These aspiring martial arts stars, filled with longing for film and trust in Cheng Xuemin, began to converge on Yanjing from all directions.

Meanwhile, Cheng Xuemin at Yan Film Studio also began to make intensive preparations for other matters related to the film crew.

Casting, location scouting, budgeting, equipment... he had to oversee every single detail.

Fortunately, although the Eastern Depot was newly established, its core members were all veterans who had followed him from the "Tai Chi" crew, such as director Huang Jianzhong, the director of photography, and the art director, all of whom were very experienced.

In addition, Liu Xiaoli, the newly appointed chief manager, was meticulous and thoughtful in her work, and the preparations went relatively smoothly.

During this period, director Chen Huaikai indeed came to Cheng Xuemin twice more. Once, he brought the revised storyboard script for "The Great Hero Huo Yuanjia" and asked Cheng Xuemin to help him check whether the design of the fight scenes was reasonable.
On another occasion, they actually used Cheng Xuemin's connections to select several skilled martial arts athletes from the Shichahai Sports School.

Cheng Xuemin also kept his promise and took the time to help Chen Huaikai analyze the design ideas of the martial arts movements, emphasizing the sense of realism and rhythm.

Chen Huaikai immediately benefited greatly from this and thanked them repeatedly, and the previous minor unpleasantness vanished.

Time flew by and it was already the end of February, with universities in Beijing starting their new semester one after another.

Feng Jiayou packed her schoolbag and returned to the Yenching University campus to begin her new semester of study.

The young couple bid each other a reluctant farewell, and Cheng Xuemin promised that as long as he wasn't busy at the factory, he would come home to spend more time with her.

While accompanying his wife to school, Cheng Xuemin also thought of his identity as a professor and student.

He is a specially appointed lecturer in the Chinese Department of Yenching University, and also holds the title of top student in the Electronic Computer Science major.

It was easy to talk to the Chinese department. The department head, Lao Yang, knew that his situation was special. The last time, the "Tai Chi" magazine successfully generated foreign exchange, which also brought a lot of face to Yenching University. Therefore, he had always turned a blind eye to his long-term "absence from class".

Cheng Xuemin went to the department office and found Director Yang, who was in charge of teaching. He once again sincerely submitted his application to postpone the course and suspend the course assessment. Old Yang looked at this nationally renowned fellow, smiled helplessly, took the application, and waved his hand, saying:

"I know, I know. You're a 'special talent' at our school now. The old principal has already spoken to you. Focus on completing the important task assigned by the country first! We'll talk about the school's work later!"

Cheng Xuemin quickly thanked him and said a few more words like "I will definitely live up to the school's expectations," which was enough to get by with the Chinese Department.

Next, that's the main point of his visit to school today.

He was to report to the Department of Electronic Computer Science and Technology, or rather, to "appease" his poor homeroom teacher, Professor Xu Zhuoqun.

Thinking of Professor Xu, Cheng Xuemin felt a little guilty.

Last year, he was admitted to Yenching University with an overwhelming score. The Computer Science Department was overjoyed and hoped that he would become a rising academic star.

Who knew that not long after he enrolled, he was "borrowed" by Yan Film Studio, and then he became unstoppable, making movies and generating foreign exchange, making a great success of himself, but forgetting his major.

Throughout the last semester, he appeared in computer classes only a handful of times, and he even missed the final exam.

Although the school wouldn't make things difficult for him because of his "special contributions," as his homeroom teacher, Professor Xu's frustration and regret at having such a talented but irresponsible student was unimaginable.

When Cheng Xuemin knocked on the door of Professor Xu Zhuoqun's office, Professor Xu was wearing reading glasses and staring blankly at a pile of thick circuit diagrams.

Hearing the knock, he looked up and saw Cheng Xuemin. His expression instantly became extremely complicated, a mixture of surprise, anger, helplessness, and even a hint of barely perceptible concern and pride.

"Oh! Isn't this our busy man, our great director, and our foreign exchange earner, Cheng Xuemin?" Professor Xu pushed up his glasses, his tone clearly sarcastic, and said:

"What wind blew you back to my little research office today? Did you come to the wrong room, or are you here to process your withdrawal from school?"

Cheng Xuemin forced an apologetic smile, quickly went into the house, and closed the door behind him: "Teacher Xu, please don't embarrass me. I've come to report to you, haven't I?"

Last semester... I'm so sorry, the factory was too busy, and I just couldn't get away."

"Can't get away? You're not really unable to get away, you're just having too much fun to remember home!" Professor Xu snorted irritably, pointed to the seat next to him, and said:
"Sit down! Tell me, how many days will you be staying this time? Are you about to fly to some country to discuss cooperation again?"

Cheng Xuemin sat down with an embarrassed smile: "Teacher, look at what you're saying. I've come here specifically to hand in my last semester's final assignments."

"Final assignment?" Professor Xu was taken aback for a moment, then said as if he had heard a joke, "You didn't even take the final exam, so what assignment are you handing in?"
The school has regulations that in your case, you'll automatically receive a grade and graduate smoothly; there's no need for you to submit any assignments now as a formality.

He thought Cheng Xuemin was just embarrassed and wanted to make amends.

Cheng Xuemin carefully took out a stack of neatly bound manuscripts from his military satchel. The manuscripts were nearly a hundred pages long and were filled with dense English symbols and logic diagrams.

He handed the manuscript to Professor Xu with both hands and said solemnly, "Professor Xu, I'm not just going through the motions. This is something I came up with in my spare time last semester in Hong Kong."

It might not be very mature, but I think it might be of some reference value to you... or rather, to a project that our department is currently working on.

Xu Zhuoqun took the heavy stack of manuscripts with some skepticism. His first impression was that the paper was of good quality and the handwriting was very neat, showing the author's serious attitude.

He opened the cover and was greeted by a complex algorithm logic flowchart and a large number of code instructions.

These instructions were written in a way that was somewhat similar to the assembly language he was familiar with, but they were also clearly different, with a clearer structure and more sophisticated logic.

"This is...?" Professor Xu frowned, quickly scanning the page.

He is an early expert in computer research in China and is currently leading a team to participate in the research and development of the national key project "Chinese character laser typesetting system".

This project aims to solve the challenges of information processing of Chinese characters, realize computer-based Chinese character typesetting and printing, break the foreign technological monopoly, and is of great significance.

However, it is also extremely difficult, especially in the storage and output of Chinese character fonts, where many technical bottlenecks have been encountered.

Cheng Xuemin explained, "When I was in Hong Kong, I had the opportunity to come into contact with some of their computers."

Although the model is different from ours, the basic principles are the same. I was thinking that the key to Chinese character information processing might lie in a more efficient character compression and restoration algorithm.

This is a method I envisioned for describing the shape of Chinese characters using a combination of dot matrix and vector, along with a corresponding set of control instructions.

I call it... well, a prototype scheme for 'compressing and restoring Chinese character glyph information'.

Since they don't have our system there, I can't actually debug it, so I can only write down the ideas and key algorithms.

"Teacher Xu, if you have some free time, could you have someone input the following instruction code into our computer and see if it works?"

As Xu Zhuoqun listened to Cheng Xuemin's nonchalant narration, his doubts deepened.

He was certainly aware of the difficulties in processing Chinese character information. The concepts Cheng Xuemin mentioned, such as "combining dot matrix and vector" and "character compression," are precisely the directions that his team is struggling to explore.

But how could a freshman who has hardly taken any professional courses write such a seemingly complete plan just by thinking about it in his spare time?

This sounds like a complete fantasy.

He carefully examined the manuscript, and the clarity of the ideas and the unique insights in the algorithm explanation section at the beginning had already secretly surprised him.

When he saw the specific instruction set design in the middle section and the subsequent code implementation logic, his expression gradually changed.

As an expert, he could tell that the code was not made up randomly; its internal logic was rigorous, and its utilization of the computer's underlying hardware was very ingenious. Many of its design ideas were even more advanced than the foreign materials he had come across!
"This...this really is what you wrote?" Professor Xu's voice was a little hoarse. He raised his head and stared sharply at Cheng Xuemin, as if trying to see if he was joking.

"I wrote it myself, just something I came up with during my free time in Hong Kong," Cheng Xuemin said frankly. "There may be many assumptions involved, and it may not be entirely accurate, so I'll have to ask an expert like Professor Xu to review it."

Xu Zhuoqun took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He couldn't believe this was just a freshman's wild speculation, yet the manuscript was undeniably right in front of him.

He thought of Cheng Xuemin's terrifying college entrance examination score and his amazing creativity in the film industry. Could there really be such a cross-disciplinary genius in this world?

"Alright, alright, I'll keep the manuscript for now." Professor Xu carefully placed the manuscript on the table, pressing it down with his hand as if afraid it would fly away, and said, "I'll take a close look. If... if it really works, Xuemin, you've done a tremendous service! It might even be more valuable than making ten movies and generating foreign exchange!"

His tone had changed from dismissive to unprecedentedly serious.

"Professor Xu, you flatter me. I'm just doing my duty as a student, hoping to contribute in some way to our country's scientific research," Cheng Xuemin said modestly.

Cheng Xuemin breathed a sigh of relief as he left the Computer Science Department.

In any case, this can be considered as giving Professor Xu an explanation.

He had no idea that his manuscript, which he had "worked out in his spare time," would cause such a huge uproar among Xu Zhuoqun and his team.

Over the next two days, Cheng Xuemin was busy with various affairs at Yan Film Studio, urging Liu Xiaoli to finalize the details of the crew's pre-production preparations.

They maintained communication with the Hong Kong Great Wall authorities to confirm the specific itinerary and reception arrangements for the Yuan brothers' trip north.

While he was extremely busy, Professor Xu Zhuoqun of the Computer Science Department at Yenching University was experiencing some of the most exciting days of his career.

……

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