Huayu 2007: Starting with fleecing the "Fairy Sisters"

Wu Wei climbed up to the third floor in one breath and knocked on the door on the left.

"Here it comes!"

A familiar female voice came from inside the door.

Then the door was opened.

The person who opened the door was his mother, Li Yun, who was wearing a loose-fitting house dress, her hair tied back, and holding a rag in her hand, clearly having just been doing housework.

"Vivi?"

Seeing the person standing at the door, Li Yun's eyes widened suddenly: "Why are you back? Didn't you say you were working in Hengdian until the start of the semester?"

"I finished ahead of schedule and came back."

Wu Wei smiled and called out, "Mom!"

As he uttered the word "Mom," a surge of warmth welled up inside him.

His mother now looks so much younger than he remembers. Her face doesn't have the wrinkles and weariness that came with it, her hair isn't gray, and her eyes and brows still have the radiance of her youth.

"Hey! Come in, come in quickly!"

Li Yun quickly stepped aside to let him in, calling into the house, "Old Wu! Old Wu! Your son is back!"

Wu Wei changed into slippers and walked into the house, looking around at his new home.

The living room wasn't big, but it was clean and tidy.

A plate of washed grapes sat on the coffee table, and the TV was playing "Another Dream".

Wu Zhiwan poked his head out of the kitchen, still holding a spatula. When he saw Wu Wei, he paused for a moment, then laughed: "Wow, you've gotten so tanned!"

Wu Wei touched his face and smiled, "I got tanned from being out in the sun every day."

"He has definitely gotten much darker."

Li Yun looked him up and down: "But you look even more handsome now, and your body is much stronger than before, and you... how come you seem to have grown taller?"

"It has grown by three centimeters."

Wu Wei nodded, then casually made up a plausible reason: "I worked as a stuntman on the film set, running and jumping around all day, so I got a lot of exercise and grew taller."

"Martial arts?"

Wu Zhiwan asked with some doubt, "You don't know kung fu, so how can you work in the martial arts industry?"

"I learned some; the crew had a martial arts instructor who taught me."

As Wu Wei spoke, he struck a martial arts pose and said playfully, "I'm really good at kung fu now. I'll show you and Mom a few moves later."

Li Yun frowned upon hearing this, and stepped forward to touch his arm: "Is being a stunt double for celebrities or something? I heard it's really dangerous. Are you hurt?"

Wu Wei was deeply moved when he heard his mother's caring words.

"No, Mom, look how perfectly fine I am now!"

Wu Wei shook his head, concealing the injury on his back.

He didn't want his parents to worry.

"That's good."

Li Yun finally felt relieved and pulled Wu Wei to sit down on the sofa. "Are you hungry? Have some grapes to tide you over. What do you want to eat tonight? Mom will make it for you!"

"Anything is fine, I love anything Mom makes."

"When did my son become so talkative?"

Li Yun smiled and patted him lightly on the head: "Okay, Mom will go out to buy you groceries."

He then got up and went back to his bedroom to get his wallet.

Wu Zhiwan put down the spatula, sat down opposite Wu Wei, and asked with a hint of guilt and remorse, "You've been working in Hengdian for over a month, it must have been tiring, right?"

"It's alright. It was a little tiring at first, but I got used to it later."

As Wu Wei spoke, he pulled an envelope from his pocket, inside which was the money he had prepared in advance: "This is the money I've earned these past few days, a total of six thousand two hundred and eighty, it's all in here."

"Six thousand two hundred and eighty?!"

Wu Zhiwan's eyes widened in surprise.

He took the envelope and squeezed it, his expression a mixture of surprise and relief: "How did you earn so much?"

In 2007, an average worker's monthly salary was only a little over a thousand yuan.

Wu Wei worked for less than two months during the summer vacation and earned more than 6,000 yuan, which far exceeded his expectations.

"Martial arts workers earn relatively high salaries."

Wu Wei explained with a smile, "And I was lucky. I even appeared in a few scenes, the kind where my face is shown, and I even had scenes with the lead actor, Jackie Chan, so I was paid more."

"Really? We'll be able to see you in the movie when it's released?"

"Yes, but it will probably only be a few seconds of footage."

"That's not bad either!" Wu Zhiwan patted his thigh, his expression full of pride and satisfaction.

Li Yun came out of the bedroom with her wallet in her hand: "Really? Then Mom has to go see it!"

Wu Zhiwan laughed and said, "We'll both go together then, and see how our son performs in the movie!"

The family chatted and laughed, filling the house with warmth and happiness.

……

After finishing dinner, Wu Wei patted his round belly and returned to his room contentedly.

His room wasn't big; it contained a bed, a desk, and a wardrobe...

Everything was much as he remembered, yet it felt like a fresh leap across 19 years.

It's worth mentioning that on the wall next to his desk, there are many posters of various sizes that he has bought over the years.

There are NBA stars, anime characters, and of course, the most numerous are posters of celebrities, especially beautiful female celebrities.

Fan Bingbing, Jia Jingwen, Zhu Yin, Zhang Hanyun, S.H.E., Twins...

The most numerous of these were posters of Liu Yifei, including those of Wang Yuyan, Zhao Ling'er, and Xiaolongnu...

It's not that he's particularly obsessed with Liu Yifei; he simply likes the roles she plays and thinks she's pretty.

Looking at these posters of Liu Yifei and thinking about everything she had gone through these past few days, Wu Wei felt a mix of emotions.

He sighed, sat down at his desk, and opened the somewhat heavy laptop.

This laptop was a second-hand purchase by my father, Wu Zhiwan, from a relative.

Since he is studying computer science and needs to use a computer, new ones are too expensive, so he can only buy a second-hand one.

It took almost two minutes for the computer to finally boot up.

Wu Wei summoned the system, and with a thought, the complete script of "A Little Thing Called First Love" appeared as a document on his computer desktop.

He opened the document, reading it as he pondered how to modify it.

"First Love" is a film from Siam. To make a domestic version, simply copying the original is not an option; it must be adapted for the local audience.

For example, the female lead's name—Xiao Shui—is clearly not a name that Chinese girls would choose, and copying it would seem very out of place.

For example, in the original version, the heroine's highlight scene at the end was when she became the conductor of the school's marching band and amazed everyone during the parade.

However, middle schools in China do not have this kind of military band parade culture, so this section also needs to be significantly revised.

In addition, the original story is about the female lead having a crush on senior A-Liang for three whole years starting from the first year of junior high school. Filming this at that age in China would definitely not pass censorship, so the age limit had to be raised...

The name part is easy to solve.

Since it's said to be a birthday gift for Liu Yifei, why not just change the female lead's name to "Liu Yifei"? We can always change it again when filming starts.

But the other parts are not so simple.

As a science student, and not a professional screenwriter or writer, it was extremely difficult for him to revise the work to suit the local context while maintaining its quality as well as the original.

Wu Wei stared at the screen for a long time, typed a few words, deleted them, and then typed them again.

His fingers tapped and paused on the keyboard, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper.

And—Liu Yifei's birthday is in five days.

He had to send the script out the day before her birthday.

Although his relationship with her is a bit complicated now, he had told her before that he would show her the script on her birthday.

You must do what you say you will do.

time does not wait.

Wu Wei shook his head, clearing his mind of the jumbled thoughts, and focused on revising the document...