Huayu: King of Kung Fu

As soon as the company was established, all sorts of influential figures came knocking on the door.

The tax bureau comes to provide tax guidance, the neighborhood committee comes to promote ethical and cultural progress, the fire department comes to inspect fire safety...

The Cultural Bureau, the police station... and all sorts of random associations, GG companies, equipment rental companies...

Lin Hu greeted everyone with a smile all day long, and he consumed quite a bit of tobacco and alcohol.

It took almost half a month for things to finally calm down.

"Ugh, starting a small, run company is so damn hard!"

After seeing off a shady organization that claimed to be a direct route to the Golden Rooster Awards, Lin Hu couldn't help but sigh.

This is Beijing, for crying out loud! If this were back in my hometown, it would be a disaster!

The single-film shooting permit has been approved, but Lin Hu has not yet started work because he has to deal with all sorts of different units.

When people come to his door, he has to come back to greet them and can't do anything else.

Fortunately, all the major organizations have now visited.

After that, you can basically ignore those fly-by-night agencies that come to freeload; just hire a receptionist to deal with them.

Finally, we can get down to business.

Lin Hu returned to the house and left a message on Ning Hao's pager.

"Hello, this is the 127 automated paging service. Would you like to leave a message for the pager owner?"

"Yes, please call 12******, Lin Hu is looking for you, urgent reply, phone number 010******, just this, thank you!"

A short while later, Ning Hao called back.

"Boss Lin, are we ready to start work?"

"Well, you don't have anything else to say, right?"

"No, I'm always ready!"

"Then come to my company at six o'clock tomorrow morning..."

After finishing his phone call with Ning Hao, Lin Hu went to an equipment rental company, rented a Betacam SP tape recorder, and bought a few tapes.

He shot sample footage first, rather than the actual filming, and using a tape camera was more convenient.

This thing not only allows for instant playback, making it easy to test and make mistakes, but it also integrates recording and video recording, eliminating the need for a separate sound engineer, saving money and making it convenient, although the picture quality is a bit poor.

But it doesn't matter, it's not like we're filming a feature film.

He took the camera home, where Zhou Xun was putting on makeup, preparing for her evening performance.

"Xun-ge, look at the camera!"

Zhou Xun had only applied makeup to half of her face when she turned around and made a series of exaggerated gestures at the camera.

Lin Hu was amused by her funny antics: "Haha, how can you be so cute!"

Zhou Xun was surprised to find that Lin Hu used the camera very skillfully.

"So you know how to use a camera?"

"I learned many skills for making movies!"

In the original timeline, Lin Hu was a short video shooter, and he knew a bit about photography and such.

Although the equipment is an old model and he had never used it before, he figured it out after a little trial and error.

Zhou Xun admired Lin Hu's dedication to his dream and asked, "Is it starting tomorrow?"

"Yes, let's shoot a few sample clips first."

"You mean... you want to use the sample footage you shot to find investors for your film?"

Although Zhou Xun said she supported Lin Hu, she was always puzzled about where Lin Hu got the funds to make movies.

Relying on novels? Not to mention that publication is a long way off, even if it were published, the royalties wouldn't make much of a difference.

"If we can find investment, that would be great, but if not, it's okay. I'll raise the money, don't worry!"

Lin Hu didn't actually consider publishing the novel as a hope; he had other plans.

However, he couldn't reveal his method, not even to Zhou Xu.

"All right!"

Zhou Xun actually wanted to introduce Lin Hu to the people she knew, hoping they could help her, but Lin Hu seemed confident, so she didn't ask any further questions.

"Come with me to the performance tonight. Huang Bo is in Beijing, and we're having a welcome-back dinner for him. Didn't you want to see him?"

"OK!"

After Zhou Xun finished her makeup, she led Lin Hu to a restaurant converted from a traditional courtyard house near Sanlitun and went inside.

Several tables were set up in the courtyard, and they were full of people.

At one of the tables, the guests were all dressed in flamboyant attire, drinking, playing drinking games, and boasting—it was a lively scene.

One of them saw Zhou Xun and waved, "Little Zhou, over here!"

Zhou Xun took Lin Hu's hand and went over to the group, introducing him like a precious treasure: "This is my boyfriend, Lin Hu!"

"Wow, he's pretty handsome!"

"Where can you find such a handsome guy? I'm so jealous!"

"When did this start? You've been keeping it a secret for a while now!"

"Hey handsome, hello there!"

"Hello everyone!" Lin Hu greeted everyone calmly.

Zhou Xun happily introduced her friends to Lin Hu.

Lin Hu recognized about half of the dozen or so people at the table.

There was Sha Baoliang, who later became famous throughout the country with his song "Dark Fragrance".

Man Wenjun was once very popular with songs like "Understanding You" and "Looking Homeward," but he later became a drug addict and his career faded away.

There's also Huang Jue, who's a model now. He was a backup dancer when Zhou Xun sang in bars.

After Zhou Xun became famous, she helped him get into the industry and he became a semi-famous actor.

Of course, there were also Huang Bo and his girlfriend Xiao Ou, who had just returned to Beijing.

It's hard to imagine that these people were all hanging out together before they became successful.

Lin Hu and Zhou Xun sat down and ate and drank with everyone.

The table was covered with barbecue, boiled edamame, smashed cucumber, various stir-fries, and a huge pile of Yanjing beer.

Among this group, Man Wenjun has already become famous with "Understanding You," and he's treating everyone to dinner today.

While eating edamame, this guy asked Lin Hu in a pretentious manner, "Hey buddy, what do you do for a living?"

"I'm an athlete, and I just retired!"

"So you're now... a PE teacher?"

Lin Hu found it somewhat amusing that, in people's stereotypes, athletes seem to only have two options after retirement: becoming a coach or a physical education teacher.

Zhou Xun felt that Man Wenjun spoke to Lin Hu with a hint of disdain, which made her very unhappy.

Before Lin Hu could speak, she stepped forward to defend her husband: "My Lin Hu is a national martial arts champion; he won three gold medals at the National Games!"

Wow, that's amazing!

Everyone was stunned!

"Great job, Lao Zhou, you've found a martial arts master!"

"Dude, next time we get into a fight, can we call you for backup?"

The atmosphere at the banquet was very lively, but Lin Hu wasn't really interested in the group. He was just being polite to Zhou Xun.

After everyone had finished chatting, they went back to their respective work.

Lin Hu then kept Huang Bo and Xiao Ou behind and carefully examined them.

Huang Bo looks like a total loser, and his girlfriend Xiao Ou isn't much to look at either.

However, he did not come from a humble background; he was the son of officials, both of whom were division-level cadres in Qingdao.

Huang Bo noticed Lin Hu staring at him, and touched his face, puzzled. "Dude, you need something?"

"Yes, I'd like to invite you to make a movie!"

Huang Bo was quite surprised: "You want me to make a movie? I've never done that before!"

……

PS: Ning Hao's sudden appearance in this chapter is rather abrupt because I added his first appearance to the previous chapter.