1990My Entertainment System

Chapter 120 Research Institute for the Application of Human Special Abilities
May 1st is Labor Day, a holiday.

Summer gets up early in the morning for morning exercise, taking out a pair of newly made 50-kilogram iron locks from the steel factory to practice on.

After sweating a bit, I took a cold shower, then went to buy breakfast and took the newspaper from the mailbox.

When Zhang Li got up and washed up, Xia Tian was already watching TV.

He saw a news report on TV yesterday that CCTV would have an extra program this morning – Oriental Horizon.

This program pioneered the genre of news commentary on Chinese television. Following it, programs like "Focus Interview" and "News Investigation" were launched...

Time marches ever onward!
It was almost ten o'clock when Milan and Xiaoxu finally got up lazily. Having missed breakfast, they ate something quick and then waited for lunch.
Because it's a holiday today, and my period is coming soon, we had a three-on-one battle against Lü Bu!
Summer was also surprised yesterday: "Milan, why are you wearing Xiaoxu's underwear?"

This is way too tight!
Ready to come out!

Really, you should jump out while you're breathing!
……

It's a holiday, so we get a break.

All three of Milan's companies were closed for the holidays, with only a few unfortunate employees on duty—of course, they were paid triple overtime.

Summer was originally not a big deal. Now he basically only owns "The Same Song" and the rest, whether it's Weixidi or Lushu Walkman, he is the largest shareholder and doesn't care about the daily management.

So these three days are a pure holiday!
The three planned to stay home on the first day to rest and avoid the peak crowds.

The phenomenon of tourist attractions being overcrowded during holidays has already begun to appear.

Wherever there's a name, like the Great Wall or Fragrant Hills, there's bound to be a place with people.

I'm tired of seeing the same old sights over the years. When will I go visit some tourist attractions in other places?

In the summer, their morning entertainment consisted of board games, Monopoly, Dungeons & Dragons, and Three Kingdoms Kill!

This thing is finally finished!

A dozen or twenty people worked on six versions before they were finally satisfied in the summer.

A rulebook has also been specially published to accompany the game; it will be sold together with the cards.
Now we're just waiting for "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" to air!

Let's ride its wave of popularity!
However, according to director Wang Fulin, filming may not wrap up until the end of the year, and the broadcast date has not yet been determined; it will definitely be next year.

No rush, let's recruit some people first. The main focus is the Japanese market; we need to find a distributor there!

……

I ordered a table from Sihai Hotel for lunch, and it was delivered.

The afternoon was for watching movies – Vichy DVDs.

During a trip to Hong Kong in the summer, I negotiated the DVD rights to many movies and recorded a batch of new Hong Kong films from the past year or two.

Anyway, movies from that side can't be shown here. Usually, pirated videotape dealers make all the money and don't give them a single penny.

At least they pay money in the summer; even a mosquito bite is still money!
For example, the movie they're watching right now this summer is "The Eagle Shooting Heroes"!
This film was released in Hong Kong in early February this year.

The filming took a month to complete and featured a star-studded cast—mainly a project where Lau Chun-wai cleaned up Wong Kar-wai's mess.

At the time, "Ashes of Time" took several months to film, and all the money was spent, but there was no film at all!
But the film companies don't care about that!

I've given you the money, and time's almost up. Where's the film?
If you don't give them the film, believe me, they'll kill you!
In a moment of crisis, director John Lau stepped in to make a quick fix, using the cast of "Ashes of Time" to create a farcical film as a last resort.

Surprisingly, the box office was quite good, reaching over 23 million!
According to Ah Rong, Ah Hui, and Brigitte Lin, the filming wasn't particularly serious; they were mainly tortured by Wong Kar-wai, but everyone had a lot of fun making the film.
The film is absolutely absurd!

They even said they wanted to cast Summer to play the role that Kenny Bee played – Wang Chongyang, who was killed by a flying shoe right after leaving the pass! But at that time, Summer was on the island completing a "civilian exchange mission" and didn't have time to come.

This movie had Milan and Xiao Xu laughing so hard they were doubled over, and even complained of stomach aches.

Zhang Li, however, didn't laugh much; she doesn't really like this kind of nonsensical style. But the lead actors acted very relaxed, which was quite entertaining.

……

Just after the Labor Day holiday, a major sandstorm hit us as soon as we returned to work.

On May 5th, the "93.5.5 Extraordinary Black Storm" reportedly ravaged the entire Hexi Corridor, causing heavy casualties and enormous losses to industry and agriculture.

The sky is yellow here in Yanjing too!
Summer told Milan and the others, "For the next ten years or so, I guess the air quality in Yanjing won't be very good. Sandstorms, smog, and all that..."

"What is smog?" Milan asked.

These days, people still don't understand this term.

Xia Tian said, "It's just very dirty fog, an inevitable step in industrialization..."

This situation only gradually improved after 08. All thanks to the Olympics!

Just two days after the sandstorm passed, Xia Tian saw photos and news in the newspaper that were both funny and sad.

A large group of people were sitting cross-legged on the ground in the park, each with an aluminum pot on their head, meditating!
The news headline reads: "Advanced Qigong Training Course at Miaofeng Mountain: The Interaction Between Heaven and Man!"
Is this still a human being?
Many of the trainees in the photo have an "information dish" covering their heads—it's said that this dish can receive atmospheric energy from the universe, achieving a connection between humanity and the universe.
These days, besides Master Yan who can manipulate the periodic table with ease, there's also Master Zhang who can "telekinesis".

Stephen Chow has made many jokes about this in his movies.

The characters in the "God of Gamblers" series, such as Sing Jai, from the "Human Special Abilities Application Research Institute" and the "Five Masters," all share a common identity: special ability users from mainland China.

It is said that the scene involving supernatural abilities in the movie was inspired by news articles about supernatural abilities in inland China, which were published in newspapers by director Jeffrey Lau.

There's also the invincible "God of Gamblers Ko Chun" who said in "God of Gamblers 2": "No normal person in the world has ever beaten me, except for Zhang Baocheng from Yanjing who once swapped a card with me."

His apprentice, Sing, is also portrayed as "the disciple of the superpower master Zhang XX" in "God of Gamblers II" and "God of Gamblers III".

The masters who made great strides after entering the research institute were all quite business-minded.

When Professor Yan gives a lecture at the Capital Indoor Stadium, tickets can sell for 100 yuan.

Those who can't buy tickets can listen to his "powered cassette tapes".

Pirated copies won't work, because they haven't been certified; you can't use them even if you buy them.
It wasn't until 94, when the authorities announced a push to strengthen science popularization and dispel pseudoscience, that anti-fraud activists emerged, and the good days of qigong masters began to decline.

Master Yan went to the United States, Zhang Xiangyu was arrested and imprisoned, and Zhang XX's scam was exposed...

Oh, and it's worth mentioning Sima Jiatou.

When qigong was popular, he performed qigong; when debunking fake qigong was popular, he exposed fake qigong; when patriotism was popular, he was just an ordinary citizen, Sima X—but that didn't stop him from buying a house in the US, and even earned the nickname "~" after suffering a serious head injury in an elevator accident.
On May 10, Yanjing announced the abolition of grain coupons!
After that, you no longer need food coupons to buy grain or go to restaurants!
Actually, we haven't used it much for a long time, but it's been officially canceled now, so people won't accept it anymore if you want to use it in the future.

Cloth ration coupons were abolished many years ago. At that time, people were worried that they would not be able to buy cloth once the coupons were issued, leading to a wave of "revenge spending".

Even now, many of the fabrics that Xia's mother bought are still sitting in the closet.

Every year I sew so many TV covers, air conditioner covers, and all kinds of curtains, and I still can't use them all!

You mean making clothes? Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer people in Yanjing making their own clothes; everyone buys ready-made ones…

(End of this chapter)