Huayu 1999: Starting with nothing but getting something for nothing

Yang Che felt that his encounter with Jia Jingwen in the evening had no impact on his current duties.

Wang Fei felt fine until forty-three minutes later, when she keenly sensed something was wrong.

"Paper..."

Yang Che habitually drew one card first, and then quickly drew three more.

"Give."

There was a moment of silence.

Wang Fei asked softly, "Hey, where did you go today?"

Yang Che was surprised and touched that this person had been so concerned about his affairs in the past: "Giving a speech at Beijing Normal University in the morning and filming in Wangfujing in the afternoon."

Wang Fei glanced down, then reached for two more sheets of paper, before looking at him and saying, "It's too little."

Yang Che looked puzzled: "What?"

Wang Fei gave a signal with his eyes.

Yang Che was stunned for a moment: "Holy crap, are you Detective Conan?"

Wang Fei didn't say anything, just quietly looked at him.

"Yuanyuan..."

"Isn't she in class?"

Yang Che raised an eyebrow, his back slightly sweaty: "I didn't go. I came with you to Beijing Normal University. What do you mean by that?!"

Wang Fei looked at him for three or four seconds, then got up to go to the bathroom to wash up.

Yang Che felt a sense of relief for no apparent reason, but then became furious and embarrassed: "Old Wang, that's going too far! I just finished putting in all my effort."

Wang Fei turned around: "I admit I wasn't qualified to say what I said before, but you should be content."

Yang Che followed, wanting to try his luck too.

"Old Wang, can you tell it's less?"

"Nonsense, you've been jumping less often."

"I didn't feel anything unusual at all; on the contrary, I felt that today was pretty good."

"You're young now, so you can do whatever you want. But if you keep going like this, in five years you'll be too old to keep up, and don't blame me for dumping you then."

Yang Che's heart skipped a beat, and he raised his hand.

"Snapped!"

"Yang Che, you son of a bitch."

Wang Fei started cursing and then began to greet them.

"Don't touch me, I'm focused on health."

Yang Che said something in Sichuan dialect and then ran out.

They just played around and laughed like that.

Before going to sleep, Wang Fei said very seriously, "You've served so many women already, please don't do this anymore, just bear with it. You're the only one for me in this life, don't make me live like a widow."

"Starting tomorrow, I'll do squats, 200 a day."

"Just be a little more restrained, you donkey."

"......"

the next day.

Yang Che does train, and today it was Wang Fei who supervised him.

Ever since Wang Fei got together with him, she has done yoga almost every day except during her period. She is incredibly skilled at doing the splits, and her flexibility is truly amazing.

"Mr. Yang, this is the newspaper about your speech yesterday. I heard people discussing it when I was buying fried dough sticks this morning. They said you gave a really good speech."

"Really? Let me see. Thank you, Sister Wang."

"hehe."

Yang Che took the newspaper and sat down at the dining table. The article was on the inside front cover, with the headline: "Yang Che: The Biggest Problem with Chinese Cinema is the Lack of Entertainment Films!"

It also included a picture of him giving a speech, wearing a shirt, holding a microphone in one hand and putting the other in his pocket—he looked incredibly handsome.

Yang Che glanced at the content; 60% of it was analyzing the commercial genre films he mentioned, citing examples of corresponding films from home and abroad. However, the editor did not comment on whether his view that "the problem with Chinese films is that there are too few entertainment films" was correct. Instead, the editor suggested that relevant departments conduct a focused analysis, support young directors to innovate, diversify Chinese film genres, and meet the growing spiritual needs of the people.

He also said, "Filmmaking is a creative endeavor, and its shackles should be loosened so that private film companies have the ability to make films, while the authorities can simply conduct the review process."

Then, nearly 30% of the article is spent analyzing the sentences "The livelihoods of millions of canal workers depend on this; abandoning the canal and converting it to the sea is absolutely not allowed" and "If I stand up, and you are afraid of falling, then aren't you stepping on my back?"

He said, "Factory workers in all walks of life across the country can find new jobs after being laid off, so why can't film companies, which are practically defunct, do the same?"

Yang Che put down the newspaper and said, "Damn Han Sanping, he's using me as a pawn."

Wang Fei clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction.

Yang Che smiled and asked, "Sister Tong, did you have any dreams yesterday?"

"Hmm... I don't think so."

"Did you take a bath?"

"Go ahead and wash! Uncle, I'm not a two-year-old anymore. Don't be so childish."

"......."

Watching her boyfriend feed their daughter, Wang Fei couldn't help but smirk as she picked up the newspaper and put it aside to read. While admiring his talent, she couldn't help but scoff, "He really loves showing off. Can't he just live his own life?"

Yang Che smiled at her and said, "Sister Tong, let me teach you an English phrase: 'With great power comes great responsibility!'"

Wang Fei wanted nothing more than to bite him to death.

Tongtong asked curiously, "What does that mean?"

"With great power comes great responsibility. That's what Spider-Man's uncle told him."

Who is Spider-Man?

"......"

While Yang Che was explaining Spider-Man to Tongtong, his speech had already begun to gain traction both online and offline.

When Zhang Yimou heard the phrase "ignoring them is the real betrayal," he slammed his hand on the sofa armrest, startling Chen Ting who was standing next to him.

Well, that's what Zhang Yimou encountered when he was interviewing (just going through the motions) applicants for "Happy Times" in Beijing. He asked one of them out to dinner that day, and by the third day, he had slept with the pretty young girl.

You ask Chen Ting why she likes Zhang Yimou? Of course it's because of his talent! Is it because he's old, ugly, pretty, or short?

Meanwhile, the phrase "step on my spine" was being circulated on various university forums. Because of this phrase, someone on Tsinghua University's forum said, "Yang Che should be our spiritual leader." This message spread along with the quote, and as a result, he, a guy with a background in art education at a teachers' college, was hailed as a youth leader.

Regardless of the era, most young people who do not engage in productive activities often lack a clear value anchor. In their daily lives, they are very likely to fall into a state of nihilism that negates everything, and then begin to seek enemies in the void, that is, to concretize their incompetence or structural contradictions as "someone is hindering me".

So when they saw that sentence, they had a mental orgasm and resonated with it.

As for the practical information Yang Che mentioned about the selling points, promotional steps, and key aspects of various commercial film genres, not many people discussed it.

The owners of private film and television companies are an exception; they are overjoyed. Of course, what makes them happy is not the practical stuff, but that the system is finally going to be reformed. The fact that this kind of content can be published in the newspaper speaks volumes; this is a common procedure before taking action.

Of course, this was not a happy thing for everyone. Employees of local companies all over the country wished they could tear Yang Che to pieces. For example, Deputy Factory Director Peng, who had sold the factory logo to Yang Che, slammed his fist on the table and cursed Yang Che for being ungrateful and a scoundrel.