"Shut the door!"
"Sit down and let's talk!"
The room was small, holding only a single bed, a desk, and a chair. Chen Qi sat on the chair with his legs crossed, holding a thermos cup and leisurely sipping hot water. He asked unhurriedly, "Have you mentioned this to anyone else?"
"No!"
"Then why tell me?"
"I..."
Li Lianjie wore an awkward, conflicted look. A prodigy in his youth, he was reluctant to admit that anyone else was more exceptional than himself. Yet in his heart, he knew Chen Qi was truly formidable, which kept his attitude toward Chen Qi consistently conflicted.
"This matter is very complicated. Let me help you sort it out."
Chen Qi smiled and began, "Your goal is to make movies, which leaves you with two options. One is to stay in the martial arts team and make movies on the side, just like you're doing now. The other is to leave the martial arts team completely and switch careers to become an actor. Which one do you want?"
"The second one!"
"Then I don't understand. Why have you suddenly become so passionate about making movies that you want to sever ties with the martial arts team that raised and nurtured you?"
"..."
"You have to tell the truth. Otherwise, go find someone else to talk to."
Li Lianjie hesitated for a long while before finally saying, "Don't look down on me just because of my age. I've already won every honor there is to win. To be honest, as a martial arts athlete, I have nothing left to pursue. If I stay on the team, I'll just be doing the same things over and over. I'm seventeen this year, and I'd have to stay for at least another eight years. I... I can't take it."
"So you want to move on to a bigger stage?" Chen Qi asked.
"Right. I just love making movies."
"Then do you want to make movies on the mainland, or in Hong Kong? On the mainland, you'd need to find a film studio. With your skills, you'd definitely become a big star. If you go to Hong Kong, you'd also need to find a company, plus the right roles, the right director, and build your own connections. People over there are very prejudiced against us mainlanders. If you're lucky, you might gain both fame and fortune; if you're unlucky, that's the end of everything. And the prerequisite for all of this is that your work unit is willing to let you go. What makes you think the Sports Commission would let you leave?"
"I... I never thought about that."
Hearing this left Li Lianjie even more disheartened. He had plenty of ambitions, but having been nurtured by the system from a young age and raised within it, certain mindsets ran deep. He didn't believe he could survive on his own if he left the system, yet he had no idea what else to do.
"The Sports Commission definitely won't let you go, unless..."
"Unless what?"
"Unless an influential unit with real sway asks the Sports Commission to transfer you," Chen Qi said with a smile.
*Eh?*
Li Lianjie didn't catch his real meaning, assuming Chen Qi was hinting at Beijing Film Studio. His eyes lit up. *Right! Beijing Film Studio carries a lot of weight—maybe they could get me transferred there!*
"I get it! I'll perform my best!"
Delighted, Li Lianjie turned to leave, paused, and came back to say, "Brother... Brother Qi! Thanks for the advice!"
*You get crap!*
Chen Qi gave a scoff. It was too early to tell him certain things, so he didn't bother elaborating.
In history, after Li Lianjie finished filming *The Shaolin Temple*, he set his heart on entering the film industry, but his work unit adamantly refused. In principle, an athlete could only announce their retirement if they suffered a major injury.
According to what he himself said later: back then, he had thought, *If only I got injured.* Then, during a training session, while performing a leap, his mind wandered and his form slipped. When he landed, with a snap, his leg broke.
Whether it was "self-inflicted" was impossible to verify.
Either way, it was indeed a severe injury: three torn tendons, a removed meniscus, and he was even issued a Level 3 Disability Certificate. Thus, only the Li Lianjie in *The Shaolin Temple* was at his absolute peak; from then on, he was permanently impaired.
With that, the martial arts team had no choice but to agree—he could no longer compete.
Yet even then, the team didn't release him. Instead, they sent him out on "overseas labor dispatch" to a Hong Kong leftist company. Because *The Shaolin Temple* was a massive hit, the leftists wanted him, and the agreed condition was that for every film he made, the leftists would pay the martial arts team fifty thousand yuan.
The term was five years.
Yet the leftists lacked resources and produced films slowly, only making two or three movies with him. When the contract ended, Li Lianjie finally gained his freedom, but his career remained lukewarm. His prime years were squandered in vain, and he even went to the United States with Huang Qiuyan to open a martial arts school.
It wasn't until Tsui Hark approached him to film *Once Upon a Time in China*—by then already 1990—that he made a spectacular comeback, followed by a series of subsequent events.
Back then, Li Lianjie's desperate desire to leave was mainly because he felt the pay was poor and the stage was small.
His daily allowance was one yuan, while a Hong Kong extra made fifty a day. A Hong Kong producer offered three million to have him star in a movie, but the martial arts team ordered him to turn it down and come back to compete... It was as simple a contrast as that.
It came back to the same point: none of those actions of his were a big deal; it was the later stuff he got into—the Buddhist posturing, the foundations—that was truly rotten.
Chen Qi's plan for Li Lianjie was crystal clear:
He had to keep him pinned inside the system!
No matter the method, Li's official personnel affiliation had to remain within the system so he wouldn't run wild. As for other matters—projects, pay, fame—those were minor details.
***
Taking advantage of the final days of the year, Chen Qi made a trip down south, wrapped up his business, and immediately returned to the capital.
Gong Xue would stay for a few more days, returning only after New Year's Day. Since she wouldn't be able to go home for Spring Festival this year, she wanted to spend more time with her parents. Her degree of freedom at Beijing Film Studio was indeed vastly greater than in the army.
He had already mailed his screenplay for *An Amorous Woman of Tang Dynasty* to Li Han-hsiang. Li Han-hsiang wasn't stingy, but Shaw Brothers was, offering only 15,000 Hong Kong dollars in remuneration. Chen Qi didn't collect it for now, deciding to pick it up when he went to Hong Kong, which would conveniently provide him with spending money.
He had also withdrawn an extra 5,000 yuan, deposited it into a passbook, and visited home at year's end, slapping it onto the table with a smack.
"This is for you two. There's 5,000 yuan inside."
"How much?!"
Yu Xiuli shook her head repeatedly. "We don't need money day to day. You keep it and save up!"
"I've already saved quite a bit. Just take it as my filial gift to you. Besides, building the house will cost money anyway, so just draw from this. If it's not enough, I'll bring more."
Only after he framed it that way did his parents accept it.
Giving parents some money for the holidays had been his habit in his past life, and many people around him had done the same, though he wasn't sure about other places.
Since their son had finally come home, Yu Xiuli naturally went to cook, while Chen Jianjun kept him company and chatted inside. Father and son were quite polite with each other. Chen Qi avoided talking about films and only brought up books, asking, "Dad, what kind of magazines sell well these days?"
"Literary magazines. There aren't really any others."
"No popular pulp magazines?"
"Those are just like local tabloids—nothing respectable. They might sell well locally, but they can't make it out of the province. The only one that made it out of the province is *Story Session*. Who knows where they dug up two third-rate writers calling themselves Ah Qi and Ah Guai. All they write are those fighting and killing stories, but their circulation keeps climbing—it's already surpassed 500,000 copies."
"Fighting and killing really won't do. Far too lowbrow!"
Chen Qi criticized it mercilessly, then added, "Dad, if I want to start a lowbrow magazine, could you guys help me distribute it?"
"..."
Caught off guard by such contradictory, self-serving logic, Chen Jianjun stared blankly for a moment before saying, "You want to run a magazine?"
"Once I wrap up what needs doing next year, I want to make time to put together a popular fiction magazine featuring martial arts, romance, detective, and thriller stories. It fits right into your line of work, but I'm just afraid you're too incorruptible."
"Listen to you! Even if I'm impartial, I wouldn't be impartial against my own son! As long as you launch it, I'll risk my old face to help you distribute it!" Chen Jianjun matched his shamelessness.
While father and son chatted, Yu Xiuli was stir-frying dishes outside. It was cold out; leaving a dish out for even a minute would let it go cold, so as soon as each was done, she had to rush it inside.
She bustled back and forth, remarkably swift and deft. Entering once more, she suddenly remembered something and said, "Oh, right, son. An auntie at my work unit offered to introduce a match for you. Do you want to meet her?"
"How old is she?"
"Same age as you!"
"What about looks? Job? Personality? Salary?"
"She works in a factory, quite pretty, decent personality, and makes about thirty-some yuan."
"Oh~ my dearest mother!"
Chen Qi switched into the operatic cadence of a dubbed foreign film. "Do you truly believe your son is not successful enough? Do you really think I am suited to meet such a prospective match? Oh, my heart is utterly broken!"
"Straighten your tongue and talk properly!"
Upon further thought, Yu Xiuli felt he had a point. "True enough. You can't just settle for anyone now. I'll turn her down tomorrow and tell them to stop pushing matches on me. As if just anyone could match with my son!"
"Exactly! Finding a daughter of a senior cadre would be more like it!" Chen Jianjun agreed.
*Heh!*
Chen Qi curled his lip. Plenty of senior cadres' children had ended up facing firing squads.
Especially for someone as young and handsome as himself—if he ran into some starved, overly forward cadre daughter who dragged him into cheek-to-cheek dancing or even into bed, good grief, would he have to write "Tears Behind Bars" from a prison cell?
Besides, who knew whether a cadre's daughter would even look good? Huh? Chang'e wasn't bad, though...
The family ate dinner.
Come evening, the neighbors gathered as was their habit to watch the 12-inch black-and-white television.
Chen Qi had never liked coming home much in the first place, and seeing this made him dislike it even more. Yet, out of consideration for his parents' face, he still had to play host with a cheerful smile. In those days, watching television was very trendy, and because domestic dramas were scarce, foreign shows were imported.
For instance, *Garrison's Gorillas* had been pulled before finishing its broadcast due to violent content.
At the moment, everyone was watching *Man from Atlantis*, an American sci-fi series about a man who comes from an undersea world into human society. The digital watches and oversized sunglasses featured in the show had become wildly popular.
"This show is really good! How do you suppose those Americans come up with this stuff?"
"America just copied us! An underwater world? We've had the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas for hundreds of years!"
"Tch! Then why haven't we made one? What do they call this again?"
"Sci-fi drama!"
"Oh right, sci-fi drama! Xiao Chen, when are you going to write a sci-fi show to bring honor to us all?"
"Sure thing! When the chance comes, I'll write one!"
Chen Qi agreed readily, though everyone took it as polite banter.
Late at night, the neighbors reluctantly departed, and peace finally returned. Lying on the small cot in the outer room, he thought about how he didn't really want his parents to live in the Lechunfang courtyard house. It lacked privacy, and he planned to get them an apartment in a residential building in a few years.
From the inner room came the sound of the radio countdown. In the blink of an eye, the new year had arrived. He let out a sigh:
"Time really is like a wild donkey—only a hundred and forty-some chapters, and two years have already passed!"
Chapter 141