Tai Chi 2

Main building, third floor. Jiang Huaiyan, head of the Literary Department, pushed open the door to an office. It was roughly twenty square meters. The previous contents had just been hauled away, leaving a few scattered newspapers on the floor and an abandoned potted flower on the windowsill. "We cleared this out for you. Have a look. If you're not satisfied, we don't have any other open space anyway." "Satisfied, completely satisfied! This room is great. It's right next to the Literary Department, so I can drop by to chat whenever," Chen Qi said with a smile. "Then it's settled?" "Yes, settled!" "Find some time to get a plaque made and nailed up outside. From now on, this will be Eastern Culture and Art Co., Ltd.!" Chen Qi had been made the grand supervisor of this Eastern Depot, but the higher-ups had only granted him favorable policies. They weren't about to coddle him like parents and handle every petty detail—what would they need him for then? Office space, staffing, and everything else were entirely up to him. He wasn't an employee of Beijing Film Studio, but he had long treated it as his home base, and setting up his office here was undeniably convenient. Of course, he and Beijing Film Studio were now equal partners, so he had to pay rent for the room. Future costs like production credits, hiring studio personnel, daily allowances, room and board, and post-production would all have to be paid out to the studio... This was also his way of giving back to Wang Yang: bringing the studio additional revenue as well as prestige. He was more than willing to pay this money. Now that he ran a company, he had to calculate every penny carefully. Filming in the Mainland carried two annual production quotas, but co-productions were exempt from restrictions. He intended to hire as many Mainland personnel as possible because they were cheap; Hong Kong labor was far too expensive. With reform and opening up underway, Guangdong's "three supplies and one compensation" enterprises were booming. What did that mean? It meant Hong Kong manufacturing was shifting to the Mainland, where local governments offered favorable policies, cheap land, and inexpensive labor. The film industry operated on the exact same logic. After inspecting the office, Chen Qi left the main building and headed over to the soundstage to check on *Justice Bao*. "The Imperial Sword was bestowed by the royal house, and the royal house can take it back!" "Empress Dowager, do you not know an emperor's word cannot be broken?!" They were currently filming the execution of Chen Shimei. After a period of rehearsal, the cast had settled deeper into their roles. Li Po and the actress playing the Empress Dowager were seasoned veterans, and their scene crackled with tension, drawing an enthusiastic table-slap of approval from Yang Jie. The princess, played by Zhou Jie, knelt on the floor weeping and shouting, first begging the Empress Dowager and then rounding on Bao Zheng. "Bao Zheng! If you execute the imperial son-in-law, the child in my womb will become a fatherless orphan!" "Princess! Were you not just demanding that Qin Xianglian's children be made orphans as well?!" Li Jianqun, playing Qin Xianglian, knelt on the floor in mourning garb, delicate and heartbreakingly pitiful. In some respects, she had the distinct aura of a Qiong Yao heroine—practically born to play tragic widows. *Oh, come on!* Chen Qi muttered under his breath from the sidelines. The princess had clearly lost her mind. In a situation like this, she shouldn't be crying and throwing a fit; she should offer to take in Qin Xianglian and the two children. That would spare Chen Shimei's worthless neck, showcase royal magnanimity, and keep the five of them living together in peace. What could be more important than that...? He rambled on to himself, as if he hadn't written the script in the first place. Looking at Li Jianqun, whose straightforward acting barely passed muster, he wondered how to keep her around once *Justice Bao* wrapped in three months. Invite her directly into the company as an art designer? His shabby little startup lacked prestige; it only had the reputation of earning foreign exchange, whereas people these days were all striving for secure, established work units. Or perhaps he could arrange another acting role for her, or have her design the costumes for the next film. Once they grew familiar and built up some mutual trust, bringing her into the company would be a breeze. "Xiao Chen?" "Xiao Chen!" As he was lost in thought, someone hurried in. Chen Qi looked up and saw Shi Dongming, the Film Bureau official assigned to liaise with him. Shi Dongming pulled Chen Qi outside to a secluded corner. "What's happened?" "The print order numbers for *Tai Chi* are in. Guess how many?" "Did it break four hundred?" "Whoa, how did you know? A full four hundred and eighty prints! A historic record like never before!" Shi Dongming was visibly thrilled. "A grand total of 4.32 million yuan! According to leadership's orders, that entire sum is being handed to you as startup capital. Boy, you've hit the jackpot—over four million in one go!" "Let's be precise here. That's the company's money. I'm just a humble screw serving the people." "Whatever you say, you're a big shot now. The funds will be transferred into the company account in installments, and then you can launch operations... Hey, have you found an office yet?" "Found one, right here at the studio." "Great, that'll make things convenient. If anything comes up, we'll talk. I've got to run." Shi Dongming took his leave. Chen Qi rubbed his nose. The leadership truly was shrewd: without spending a single cent of their own, they had conjured an entire company out of thin air. This startup capital had essentially been gifted to him through the combined contributions of China Film and the provincial film companies. 4.32 million was a substantial sum. He had to think carefully about how to put it to work. *** Some days later, Chen Qi finished the script for his next martial arts film. He went with a straightforward title: *Tai Chi 2*. With *Tai Chi* performing so phenomenally, it would be a complete waste not to make a sequel. He wasn't doing it just to cash in on a cheap follow-up; he had structured the narrative using the framework of the *Once Upon a Time in China* trilogy. He had considered adapting the story of Wong Fei-hung directly, but Li Lianjie was still too young and had yet to develop the weathered presence of a grandmaster. And asking Chen Qi to wait ten years before shooting? That was out of the question; who had that kind of time to waste? The character of Yang Yugan was based on Yang Luchan, but the historical timeline was already loose and had never strictly adhered to the real man's life. *Tai Chi 2* picked up where the first film left off. Yang Yugan, Chen Shaomei, and Chen Shaojie had established a firm foothold in the capital. They opened a martial arts school, built a wide network of friends, rose to fame, and taught martial arts to imperial officers and soldiers, crossing paths with a young Qing military officer named Nalan Yuanshu. At first, the two shared the same vision: strengthening the body through martial arts, and thereby strengthening the nation. Then came Western aggression and the rise of the Boxer Rebellion. The imperial court and the common folk, domestic affairs and foreign powers—the entire country fell into surreal turmoil as the land wept in misery. As Yang Yugan witnessed the suffering of the world, one particular friend exerted a profound influence on him. That man was Tan Sitong. Under Tan Sitong's influence, Yang Yugan seemed to glimpse a new path forward through the darkness: political reform! As a mere martial artist, he didn't fully comprehend the political intricacies, but he resonated with the cause in his heart. This inevitably drove a wedge between him and Nalan Yuanshu, an unyielding conservative. Following a series of escalating conflicts, Yang Yugan engaged Nalan Yuanshu in a climactic duel to protect Tan Sitong. Tan Sitong could have fled, but chose to stay behind: *"No nation has ever achieved reform without the shedding of blood. Today in China, we have not heard of anyone bleeding for reform, which is why our country does not prosper. If blood must be shed, let it begin with Sitong!"* Left with no other choice, Yang Yugan rescued Tan Sitong's group of students—preserving the spark of hope for the future. This was the exact narrative backbone of *Once Upon a Time in China II*, where Wong Fei-hung's encounter with Sun Yat-sen elevated his consciousness from a simple pugilist to a man of broader historical vision. Chen Qi had simply shifted the timeline earlier, replacing Sun Yat-sen with Tan Sitong. In fact, had he wished, he could have slipped in an extra flourish: Among Tan Sitong's group of students, one was named Cai E, and another was named Yang Changji. Cai E later took a student named Commander-in-Chief Zhu, and Yang Changji also had a student named... well. However, the current cultural climate was delicate, and writing that into the script might cross political lines. Chen Qi had no desire to court disaster. This ideological thread served merely as the supporting skeleton; it could not be painted with too heavy a brush. Kung fu was the flesh and blood that filled out the story. Audiences bought tickets for martial arts, not a lecture on history. Therefore, Chen Qi kept historical figures like Yuan Shikai, Liang Qichao, and Empress Dowager Cixi largely blurred and mentioned only in passing, focusing the primary conflict on Yang Yugan and Nalan Yuanshu. The fights still had to be spectacular; exceptional action was the film's safety net. "I'll still need to invite the Yuen Brothers north, and I have to deliver the script I promised them. Always calling on people when you need them and brushing them aside when you don't... tsk, tsk..." Chen Qi gave a self-deprecating chuckle. His workload had just expanded again. He scratched his head in mild frustration, but there was no helping it. He would just have to transform into a heartless writing machine and crank out the script for the Yuen Brothers. At the very least, it would earn him some decent cash.