Huayu: A Commercial Director

Chapter 72 The Long-Awaited Crosstalk Stage

Getting angry is useless; just focus on making your own film.

Han Sanping specifically invited him for tea, probably with this in mind, and he will likely make arrangements for him then.

Although he has stepped down, he is still a person who has made contributions, and he can still exert his strength.

Chen Shouzhe was in a bad mood and didn't continue working on the post-production of the movie at Xiaoxiaomeng's place. Instead, he went to Deyun Club to listen to crosstalk.

"Hmm? You've changed the passwords?"

Chen Shou stood at the back door and pressed the password a few times, but found that the door could not be opened. In order to facilitate the actors' entry and exit, and also to prevent the audience from coming in, the back door that the actors used had been changed to a password lock a long time ago.

Chen Shouzhe would come over occasionally, but unexpectedly, the password had been changed again.

"Never mind, let's go see if there are any tickets."

Chen Shouzhe didn't know which team was performing inside. The current Deyun Society has four teams plus a youth team. Next year, they plan to split into a fifth team, and Shaobing will be the captain if nothing unexpected happens.

"Are there any tickets left?" Chen asked at the ticket counter.

"We're out of tickets for today," the ticket seller said.

Which team is performing today?

"Which team is it? Let me see. Oh, it's Team Four performing here today."

"Yan Hexiang."

Chen Shouzhe picked up his phone and called Yan Hexiang.

"Hey, senior brother?!" Yan Hexiang was clearly surprised that Chen Shouzhe would call him. Normally, Chen Shouzhe would only call him when he was telling stories.

"Hey, where are you right now?" Chen Shou asked, holding his phone as he walked towards the back door.

"I'm at the Tianqiao Theater. Are you going to perform at the bookstore?"

"No, I'm at the back door. Has the password been changed again?"

"Yes, it has been changed. Please wait a moment while I open the door for you."

Chen Shou walked to the back door, which opened just in time, and Yan Hexiang's big head popped out.

"Senior brother, you really came."

"Can I still lie to you?"

Walking backstage, there were several photo frames there. Many people were surprised to see Chen Shouzhe when he came in.

However, they all grew up with Chen Shou and were very familiar with each other, calling each other "senior brother".

Jiu Hua and Jiu Chun are a couple, Jiu Ling and He Jian are a couple, and if Yan Hexiang is not there, Guo Qilin will be paired with Jiu Chun. They are all members of the princeling party.

The characters with the character "鹤" (crane) are mostly from the same family, such as 鹤忍 (Crane-like), 鹤东 (Crane-like), 鹤涛 (Crane-like), 鹤擎 (Crane-like), 鹤文 (Crane-like), etc.

Chen Shouzhe is basically familiar with them all; they all worked together and struggled together in the early 2000s.

"Hey, Dong-ge's here too," Chen Shouzhe said with a smile when he saw Scarface.

"What brings such a big director to our little theater?" Dong Ge chuckled.

"Let's see who's the loser today?" Chen Shou asked curiously, looking at the people present.

"Guo Qilin's background... he hasn't arrived yet," Yan Hexiang said.

"The Crown Prince is indeed different; he's the last one to arrive," Chen Shou said with a smile.

“It’s normal to get stuck in traffic when we’re eating at home,” Yan Hexiang said.

"Give me a chair later, I'll find a seat to listen," Chen Shou said.

"So you're here for a performance review?" Jiu Chun said with a smile.

Jiu Chun is not yet Sister Chun. As one of the few college students in Deyun Society, Chen Shouzhe has high hopes for him.

“That’s right. If you don’t explain it well, I’ll have to go and talk to your master about it,” Chen Shou said with a smile.

"They've started tying the branches now."

The backstage atmosphere was a bit distant, with people chatting and laughing, but Chen Shou didn't mind. He found a stool near the entrance and sat down to watch their performance.

Guo Qilin arrived late. Team 1 was led by Luan Yunping, Team 2 by Sun Yue, Team 3 by Kong Laosan, and Team 4 by Yan Hexiang. Guo Qilin was not suitable to be the team leader; his father had already arranged his future path.

What father doesn't love his son? When they were young, they might have treated their children with the same standards that an adult would apply to them. Plus, Lao Guo is quite traditional, so he used the same rules his father set for him on his own son.

Like many parents today, he forced his child to learn a lot of knowledge. Later, he realized that he couldn't teach him like that. People's understanding of life is different at each age. He had already started paving the way for his son. Crosstalk was just one of the paths. His son's future path was definitely not in crosstalk.

"Senior brother."

Guo Qilin and he are both from the Yu family. Compared to others, the two of them are closer and are like brothers.

Facing his senior brother, Guo Qilin wasn't afraid at all. Chen Shouzhe was the person Guo Qilin was closest to when he was young, because they shared similar experiences. One was disciplined by Guo Qilin's father from a young age, while the other was disciplined by Yu Zheng. Therefore, Chen Shouzhe understood Guo Qilin and took care of him.

"I'll take you to a movie set sometime if there's a suitable one," Chen Shou said to Guo Qilin, looking at the stage.

"Great!" Guo Qilin said happily. Everyone else looked at Guo Qilin with envy. His senior brother's words were more effective than his father's.

"You should exercise more often; it's good for your health and your appearance." Chen Shou glanced at him; he had already become as round as a ball.

"Okay, I understand." Guo Qilin nodded.

At nine o'clock, Guo Qilin and Yan Hexiang performed a radio show. During the encore, the guy came up with a mischievous idea.

"We had prepared a few encore segments for today, but since a very important person has come backstage, we'll skip the encores and invite this person to come up and entertain everyone instead, how about that?"

The audience naturally thought it was good and cheered, with most of them being young people.

In 2005 and 2006, most of the audience members were middle-aged, and young people did not like to listen to crosstalk. However, starting in 2008, more and more young people began to come to the small theaters. By 2010, young people made up more than half of the audience, and they had begun to have their favorite performers.

When Guo Qilin said that a big shot had arrived, everyone assumed it was a member of another team, or Guo and Yu, the couple.

When Chen Shouzhe was invited onto the stage, he saw many audience members staring wide-eyed.

"Wow!!!"

"Chen Shouzhe!!"

"so hot."

"She's started neglecting her appearance again!!"

Guo Qilin said, "This is my senior brother. We are both Master Yu's disciples."

"Really? Are you sure you're Teacher Yu's apprentice?" Chen Shou asked mischievously.

"Xu~~~"

"Senior brother, don't talk nonsense. Teacher Yu and I are really master and disciple."

"So you learned your crosstalk from your dad?"

"I learned a lot from my dad."

"Let me explain. In our line of work, a father can't teach his son."

His few words amused the audience, but they were also Yan Hexiang's offensive punchline.

After chatting for a while, Chen Shouzhe, who hadn't sung in a long time, deliberately sang "Painting a Fan" in front of Guo Qilin, and even sang his incorrect version.

Many viewers knew about the fan painting depicting the car accident and joined in the commotion.

Guo Qilin hasn't yet developed a coquettish style, and his performance on stage wasn't quite there yet; he blushed. However, he managed to pick up where he left off, and did it quite well. It's clear he's been thoroughly disciplined since he got back.

After all, painting on a fan can be said to be a lifelong trauma for Guo Qilin. Chen Shou remembers that backstage, Guo Qilin didn't need to be said anything, he was already crying. Of course, Guo Qilin was furious backstage and scolded everyone except Tao Yang.

Guo Qilin finally left the stage after singing "The West Chamber," and Chen Shou treated everyone backstage to a mutton hot pot meal.

After finishing their meal, Chen Shou went to Guo Qilin's house to spend the night. Since he had been drinking, he couldn't drive back to the horse farm, so he went to Guo's house to sleep and didn't get up until noon the next day.

"When are you going to move into your house?" Old Guo asked while eating breakfast, holding a donkey roll in one hand and drinking soy milk in the other.

"It's already been inspected, and we can move in in a couple of days." Chen Shou was also eating.

"Alright, who did you invite?"

"We didn't invite anyone, just a few of us." Chen Shou didn't want to make a big fuss about it, so he only invited a few people he was close to.

"That works too, it saves outside reporters from making up stories."

Chen Shou smiled, because the matter of the villa land grab had been exposed by reporters, which even led to him assaulting a reporter.

There are several types of villas. Lao Guo's villa doesn't have a wall. When buying the house, the surrounding green areas are nominally public, but the developer will imply that they belong to them and that they can fence them off themselves during the renovation.

The villa owners all know that it's not just Lao Guo's family's property that's fenced off; almost the entire community has been fenced off. But because he's a public figure, the land he fenced off was accused by that unlicensed reporter of damaging the villas' public green space.

Because of this incident, all villa communities and high-end residential areas now prohibit outsiders from entering, and property management must verify their identities repeatedly before allowing entry.

In the afternoon, I went to the company to continue post-production. Also, news came from Jiang Wen's side: the cast has been finalized and will be announced later.

The remaining two are *Kung Fu Hustle* and *The Day After Tomorrow*.

The promotion for Kung Fu Hustle is about to begin. It will be released on December 23rd, and the promotion started in November.

The movie will be released the day after tomorrow, on Christmas Day. On such a joyous occasion, there's nothing better than a disaster movie. Chen Shouzhe didn't know how to even begin to criticize it. The good news was that he didn't need to go and promote it; he could just wait to get his share of the profits.

Time flew by, and it was time to put the house on fire. Only then did Chen Shou call to invite his friends.

(End of this chapter)