A Visitor from America

"Ding-dong!" "Ding-dong!" "Coming, coming!" Early that morning, the doorbell rang. Fu Mingxian scampered over to open the door, and before even getting a clear look at who was standing there, she threw herself forward. "Brother!" "Well now, full of energy today too, aren't you!" Chen Qi deliberately stepped back as if knocked off balance, rubbing her head. Fu Mingxian hummed and whined playfully, acting thoroughly spoiled. He came downstairs to eat almost every day, either for breakfast or dinner—at least one meal a day. As their rapport grew, she had dropped "Xiao Chen" and simply taken to calling him "Brother." "Xiao Chen's here! Come on, let's eat!" Shi Hui had already set the table. Fu Chi emerged from the study sighing over a copy of *Ta Kung Pao*, remarking, "Troubled times. The world is so unstable—feels like chaos could break out at any moment." "What's the news now?" "See for yourself!" Chen Qi took the paper. Getting information about the mainland in Hong Kong was difficult, so he relied primarily on left-wing newspapers. A glance revealed a massive front-page headline: *PLA North China Military Exercise to Proceed as Scheduled!* Without even reading the article, he already knew what it was about. He sighed as well. "Troubled times indeed." In this era, Poland was gripped by political turbulence, with pro-American factions growing louder by the day. To keep Poland from slipping from its orbit and to deter Europe and the United States, the Soviet Union had recently staged the earth-shattering Exercise Zapad-81. Ten combined-arms armies had been mobilized—some said five hundred thousand troops, others said a hundred and twenty thousand—an unstoppable torrent of steel. With the medal-loving Brezhnev in power, NATO officials had even been invited to observe on-site to maximize the shock value. It was the largest military exercise in human history! It lasted eight days, and the ultimate conclusion was that within eight days, Soviet tanks could roll right up beneath the Eiffel Tower and conquer all of Europe! NATO was terrified, and China was rattled as well. China subsequently conducted its own military exercise in Zhangjiakou, deploying 110,000 troops, 1,327 tanks and armored vehicles, 1,541 artillery pieces, 475 aircraft, and 10,606 motor vehicles... Later generations often spoke of China living through peacetime, but in truth, while there were no massive wars, localized conflicts never ceased, Western pressure loomed overhead without end, and critical moments were countless. Chen Qi knew everything would turn out fine, but the couple had no such reassurance. They were so anxious they had lost their appetite, forcing him to change the subject. "Uncle, aren't we heading to the airport soon to pick someone up?" "Oh, I almost forgot until you brought it up. Eat up quickly—we'll leave as soon as we're done." Fu Chi finally took a couple mouthfuls of congee. Having bolted down breakfast, the two headed out. Chen Qi was truly treated like Fu Chi's own nephew. Great Wall owned only two Skoda sedans in total, yet one had been specially assigned to him. The administrative officer who had accompanied him from the mainland had settled straight into Clear Water Bay Studio to share office space. Xiao Geng served as full-time driver, and Xiao Mo as dedicated bodyguard. The men piled into the car and set off for Kai Tak Airport. Chen Qi had arrived in August and had unwittingly spent a month here already. Hong Kong was still sweltering, with hot pants, long pale legs, and trendy, attractive girls visible on every street corner. They soon arrived at the airport. Before long, an international flight from the United States touched down, and the person they were waiting for finally appeared. She looked to be in her thirties, wearing sunglasses and carrying a large leather suitcase, her high heels clicking rhythmically on the floor. When they met, she introduced herself: "Mr. Fu, Mr. Chen, nice to meet you. Just call me Jessica!" Chen Qi naturally didn't mind, but Xiao Mo quietly rolled his eyes. *Clearly Chinese, yet insisting on 'Jessica'...* Once in the car, they had intended to let her rest at the hotel for the day and talk tomorrow, but she said, "No need to bother. I'm only staying one night and leaving tomorrow. Just hand over the relevant materials and come see me tonight. That'll be fine." "..." Fortunately, Chen Qi had the files ready. Jessica took them and started browsing right there in the car. He couldn't help rolling his eyes inwardly as well. *Please! It's not like we've never seen Americans before—you're laying it on way too thick.* Of course, he couldn't say that out loud, so he simply saw Jessica to her hotel. *** Chen Xiangmei was currently working for Reagan. She served as Vice Chair of the White House Export Council, National Chair of the Republican National Committee's Minorities Division, and Chair of the Republican Asian American Committee, enjoying considerable political standing. She was also an author with some forty books to her name, commanding a recognized presence in American literary and artistic circles. Dispatching Jessica to Hong Kong this time had been entirely out of courtesy to Liao Gong; she didn't actually care. Jessica, for her part, loathed the assignment. What a pointless errand! Mainlanders wanting Americans for a movie—what a waste of time. What could they possibly produce? All she wanted was to go through the motions and get out of there as fast as possible. Back at the hotel, Jessica took a shower, unpacked her luggage, and lay on the bed, casually flipping through the materials. "*Orphan*? What kind of ridiculous title is that!" "A married couple working in Hong Kong adopts a child from a British church orphanage. The premise is somewhat novel... What secret is this child hiding? The nun... God!" Jessica sat bolt upright. She had just reached the passage where the little girl stages a car accident and bludgeons the nun to death with hammer blow after hammer blow. "A horror film? Is she some psycho killer straight out of Camp Crystal Lake?!" This was a reference to the movie *Friday the 13th*, released the previous year, which featured the famous slasher Jason. The more Jessica read, the less she could sit still. Clenching the papers, she paced back and forth across the room. When the secret was revealed—that the little girl was actually an ethnic Japanese afflicted with a rare condition—her head snapped up. "An American couple adopts a Japanese child; the Japanese child bludgeons a British nun and the American adoptive father to death; with the help of a Chinese volunteer, the American mother kills the Japanese imposter and saves her own child..." "Hahaha!" She burst out laughing. "Who would've thought that tiny Hong Kong—no, who would've thought the mainland had someone so sharp? How interesting!" As Chen Xiangmei's assistant, she naturally possessed a keener political acumen than most. What's more, Chen Qi hadn't written it subtly; it was unabashedly direct, blatantly catering to American sensibilities. She flipped through the production preparations; everything was ready, waiting only for the east wind. "There's actually something to talk about. Not a wasted trip after all." *** In the blink of an eye, evening came, and the two visited again. Though Jessica was only staying one night, she had brought several outfits. Now wearing an impeccably tailored blazer, she sipped her coffee at an unhurried pace—the very picture of an elitist overseas Chinese, radiant enough to make any striver green with envy. "What kind of American actors are you looking for?" "An adult man and woman in their thirties, mature in demeanor—not too young, since they're parents of two children. Their acting needs to be decent, but fame doesn't matter; we can't afford big names anyway. Then there's a pair of children: the girl younger and the boy older, both under ten years old." "And what about the pay?" "I'm not too clear on current Hollywood salary scales," Chen Qi replied. "Two years ago, Jane Fonda pulled in a two-million-dollar paycheck, making her the highest-paid actress. This year, Barbra Streisand doubled that to four million. Hollywood salaries are rising fast. You can keep dividing by two all the way down, and that will give you the tiers of actors' pay. Are you looking for someone at five hundred thousand, or two hundred and fifty thousand?" "Do you have any for ten thousand dollars?" *Pfft!* Jessica choked on her coffee. "Even converted to Hong Kong dollars, ten thousand US dollars is barely over fifty thousand HKD! That's cheap even by Hong Kong standards—you can't possibly be that stingy, can you?"