Sister, I'm Back

"Teacher Li, Xiao Ji!" After the plaque was unveiled, Chen Qi called over the two from the film company for a word. "Well? Getting used to living here?" "Used to it, used to it. This place is pretty good!" Ji Chunhua nodded. "It really is quite nice. The rooms are big, the view is lovely, and the people are warm. Better than the guesthouse. It's just that the girls are young and full of energy, and they chatter a lot." Li Jianqun laughed. "I'll have a word with them later. You're all under the company name, but when you break it down you're two separate units. If there's anything awkward to say, tell me and I'll handle it." Chen Qi chatted a little longer, then got on his bicycle and headed for Beijing Film Studio. At the main building, in the Eastern Depot's shabby little office, he had an appointment with the administrative chief. He stepped inside and saw the old man already waiting. The old man was Li Mingfu. To show closeness, Chen Qi had always called him Uncle Li. "Uncle Li!" "Ah, Xiao Chen's here. This trip must have been hard on you. You've been gone nearly half a year." "Yes. Things in Hong Kong were a mess. Wore me out in body and in mind." After a little small talk, he said, "I've come today to ask your advice. Now that I'm back, I'll have to turn in a report. You'll need to look it over for me—what ought to be written, and what ought not. I don't have much experience." "Easily done. That's what I should do." "There's another matter. Next year I want to keep hiring, but there's nowhere for people to live. Can we write an application and ask the leadership to sort it out?" "Aiyo, housing is the hardest problem of all!" Li Mingfu shook his head and sighed. "Housing is tight all over the country. Every unit is a complete mess. People will beat each other's brains out over a single flat. How many rooms were you thinking of applying for?" "Not many. Ten square meters a person would do." "Ten square meters!!" The old man glared and raised his voice. "All of Beijing averages only 4.8 square meters a person, and you come straight out with ten? Five of us at home live in a place of just over twenty square meters! One trip to Hong Kong and you've been corrupted this fast!" "Don't get worked up, don't get worked up. What I mean is non-residential space would do too. Abandoned workshops, courtyards, buildings. We'd buy or rent, and renovate them ourselves. Would that work?" "..." Li Mingfu thought it over. "There might be some chance of that. Do you need it long-term?" "No. Just to tide us over. I'm thinking it would be best to apply for a plot of land. We'll have money next year, and we can put up a building. The kind with flush toilets, not a tongzilou!" Sss! Li Mingfu's enthusiasm stirred. He was part of the company too. When housing was handed out, he would have a share! A building with flush toilets. If he could really get a unit of his own, his children and grandchildren would be spared ten years of struggle! "Put in for the land first. That sort of thing is slow. Three or five years is nothing. Let's get the stopgap housing settled first. Don't worry. Leave it to me." "Sorry to trouble you!" Right then, Chen Qi told him something of what he had been through in Hong Kong, and Li Mingfu coached him on how to write the report. He had never worked inside the system, and he truly did not know how to write one of these. In the afternoon, on the soundstage. Mama, Love Me Once More was being shot. The set was a bedroom in a private home of the Republican era: a wooden bed against the wall, bed-curtains hung, Fang Chao lying under the quilt, Gong Xue seated beside him. She had always been thin. She had deliberately worn herself down until she was even more haggard and gaunt, her cheeks a little hollow, her hair a mess. The set was very quiet. People moved on tiptoe. Wang Haowei waited, patient and expectant. Gong Xue did not say a word either, only staring blankly at the child on the bed, working up the feeling. After Chen Qi's coaching and tempering, she already had ideas of her own. She was no longer the rookie who only took direction passively. She thought for herself, and even offered the director workable suggestions. She quietly made a gesture. Wang Haowei waved a hand, and they rolled at once, the camera on the two of them. This scene was about the child being snatched away by his father's side, then sneaking back, mother and son clinging together in tears. "Dongdong!" "Mama!" Gong Xue held Fang Chao tight. Tears fell like rain. "Good. That's a take!" "Next scene!" A heart-to-heart between mother and son. The child said he had been sent to a new-style school and given a modern education, including Western music, and that he had learned a song he wanted to sing for his mother. "Mama is the best in the world. A child with a mama is a treasure. Into Mama's arms I go, and the happiness never runs out..." The song came from the 1958 Hong Kong film A Poor Child's Wanderings. The lead was Xiao Fangfang, the one who played Fang Shiyu's mother. She had started as a child star and was originally an actress at Great Wall. The rightists poached her with high pay; her mother tore up the contract and jumped to a rightist company... Fang Chao sang and gestured as he went. Gong Xue listened, and watched, and the tears came again, unstoppable. She cried more and more beautifully now. Each tear was distinct, pattering down like little pearls. She was plainly crying, yet the corners of her mouth were smiling. This had already become her own special trick. "Xiao Gong is looking more and more the part. She has the air of a real actress." Wang Haowei praised her silently as well, then watched Fang Chao finish the song. Mother and son clung together and wept again. Gong Xue delivered her line. "Wuwu... Dongdong, my good child... wuwu—mm—pfft!" "Xiao Gong!" Wang Haowei smacked the table and shot to her feet. "What are you doing? You were crying perfectly well. How did you start laughing?" "Sorry, Director. It's my fault!" "What wire got crossed in you? How can you be crying and then laugh... laugh... hm?" Wang Haowei whipped her head around and cursed. "Xiao Chen, are you a ghost? Where did you spring from?" "Why are you spitting fire? I only just made it back." "What does it matter to me whether you're back or not? Don't interfere with our shoot. Keep back. Keep back." Wang Haowei drove him a good three meters off and went back to shooting. This time Gong Xue was done for. Her state was gone. Holding the child, her eyes kept drifting that way, whether she meant to or not. She cried quite happily, and the lifted corners of her mouth would not stay down even when they called action. "Cut!" Wang Haowei could bear it no longer. She turned, about to roar, only for her gaze to stretch suddenly far away. "What are you looking at me for? I've already backed all the way to the main door. Where else can I hide?" Chen Qi called. "Kid, you're doing this on purpose, aren't you? Don't you provoke me!" "As if I'd dare. All right, all right, I'm going, I'm going!" Chen Qi took to his heels. He came to the tongzilou, felt under a cabinet by the door for the spare key, opened the door, and went in. Inside it was still spotless and tidy, a faint clean fragrance in the air. The two pots of flowers on the windowsill had already withered, but the green leaves had been well looked after. Spread on the table was a picture only half finished. "Where my heart is at ease, that is home!" He dropped onto the bed, closed his eyes, and rested. A little over an hour later came the jangle of a key in the lock, and Gong Xue burst in. "Hm? Finished this early?" "Director Wang couldn't stand me anymore. I just couldn't cry." She stood by the bed, all smiles, looking at him, then tipped her head and looked again, as if she could not look her fill. "Is it really my little fool? Are you really back?" "Aiya, I've only been gone a few months, and you act as if it's been years." Chen Qi pulled her over in one move and gathered her into his arms. Gong Xue went with it and held him tight, her eyes reddening. "To me it's been like several lifetimes. You don't know how much I've missed you." "Don't cry, don't cry. It's all right. I'm back." "Mm..."