“Did you agree?”
The moment Chen Fusheng walked out of Deputy Director Shi’s office, Han Sanping hurried over to ask.
“Guess.”
“In your own words: only kids play guessing games. Spit it out.”
Hearing that, Chen Fusheng stopped stalling and nodded: “Since you agreed, of course I want to come along and join too.”
“Haha, nice! Very ‘legal’!”
Next, Deputy Director Shi took the two around the bureau to meet the staff and pay their respects to the higher-ups. The morning flew by.
Over lunch, Han Sanping and Chen Fusheng were still discussing buying some gifts in the afternoon to visit Principal Cheng Ying and thank him. After all, without his introduction, Cowherd wouldn’t have gone abroad so smoothly. They could also sort out the details of the lecture.
But just as they finished eating, Deputy Director Shi’s secretary came to inform them that reporters would be coming that afternoon for an interview, specifically to interview them, and they should prepare themselves.
The planned visit had to be canceled. Or rather, postponed.
“Let’s go. We have no idea when the reporters will arrive. Might as well go back to the guesthouse and rest a bit.”
“Good idea.” Han Sanping nodded and walked toward the guesthouse with Chen Fusheng, asking curiously: “I saw Director Shi pulled you aside this morning for about half an hour. What did you talk about?”
“Really want to know?”
“Can’t say?”
“It’s not that. I just don’t want to demoralize you.”
That only made Han Sanping more curious.
“Stop dragging it out. Tell me.”
“Fine, you asked for it. The higher-ups converted the ten thousand dollars I earned from David into RMB and foreign exchange certificates as a reward for me.” Chen Fusheng said.
Even if he hadn’t said anything, Han Sanping would find out sooner or later.
“Holy crap, they gave you ALL that money?” Han Sanping was green with envy.
“Yeah, it’s kind of a reward. You must have gotten one too, right?” Chen Fusheng changed the subject.
“My reward is nothing compared to yours.” As envious as Han Sanping was, he knew Chen Fusheng’s generous reward was because the ten thousand dollars was earned through his own ability. So there wasn’t much resentment or imbalance in his heart.
“‘Nothing to speak of,’ and yet you won’t tell me?” Chen Fusheng couldn’t believe that if his reward was this generous, Han Sanping’s could be anything short.
“Ahem, my reward was mainly a promotion in professional rank.”
“Promoted? You were at section chief level, weren’t you? So now should we call you Division Chief Han?” This time it was Chen Fusheng’s turn to be stunned.
“Deputy division chief. Deputy division chief.” Han Sanping corrected modestly, though he was clearly very satisfied with the reward. More satisfied than if they’d just handed him cash.
“Damn it, suddenly my fifteen thousand RMB doesn’t feel as good anymore.”
“Stop gloating. You transferred in from a university teaching assistant position. I’m guessing at least deputy section chief level to start, right?” Han Sanping guessed boldly.
“Were you eavesdropping on us?” Chen Fusheng hadn’t expected Han Sanping to nail it.
“Looks like I guessed right.” Han Sanping ignored Chen Fusheng’s remark and continued his analysis: “For someone like you who’s caught the attention of senior leadership, as long as you don’t make mistakes and keep producing results, trust me, in two years you’ll be bumped to full section chief. For me, going full division chief will be much harder.”
“Not necessarily. I know myself. My personality isn’t really suited for a political career.” Although Chen Fusheng was happy about joining the Film Bureau and admittedly envied Han Sanping’s two-rank head start, he knew his own heart clearly. He knew he’d never be a high-ranking official in this life; it simply wasn’t his fate. So when the market eventually opened up, rather than wasting years in bureaucracy, he’d rather dive into business early.
Riding the winds and waves of commerce, soaring to the top, and building his own entertainment empire, that was the ultimate dream of Chen Fusheng’s life!
Just thinking about it kept him awake with excitement.
Of course, Han Sanping couldn’t comprehend this ambition yet and assumed Chen Fusheng was just being modest.
“Personality can be honed. And I don’t think you’re unsuited for it either.” Then Han Sanping changed the subject: “By the way, did Director Shi mention that our film has a chance of screening in Hong Kong?”
“No.” Chen Fusheng looked at him curiously.
“He must have forgotten then. Director Shi said he met with Elder Liao last night and, remembering the question I asked in Hong Kong, brought it up with him.”
“Elder Liao agreed?”
“He said he’d have the comrades stationed in Hong Kong contact us. But whether our film can actually screen there still needs to go through their review process.”
Chen Fusheng nodded, feeling Cowherd would likely pass Hong Kong’s review without issue.
The box office, though, was anyone’s guess.
In the afternoon, two newspapers sent reporters: People’s Daily and Popular Cinema.
Interviews in this era were typically conducted one-on-one.
Unlike the future, where you could take multiple outlets at once.
So Chen Fusheng and Han Sanping each took one outlet.
Han Sanping was interviewed by the People’s Daily reporter, which left Chen Fusheng with the Popular Cinema reporter.
“Hello, Comrade Fusheng. I’m Li Beining from Popular Cinema.” Reporter Li first introduced himself, then his partner: “This is my partner, Dong Hui.”
“Hello, Reporter Li. Hello, Comrade Dong Hui.” Chen Fusheng shook hands with both.
Then the interview officially began.
Li Beining: “First of all, congratulations to Comrade Fusheng for winning the Best Screenplay Award at the 37th Venice International Film Festival with Cowherd.”
“Thank you.”
“Do you have the trophy and certificate? I imagine our readers would be curious to see what they look like.”
“Yes.” In fact, Li Beining had asked Chen Fusheng to bring them in advance. This was just going through the motions for the interview flow.
Chen Fusheng held up the trophy and certificate and posed for two photos.
Then the interview continued.
“I hear you sold the overseas rights to Cowherd for one million dollars. Is that true?”
“Why did you decide to submit Cowherd to the Venice International Film Festival in the first place?”
“Do you have any interesting stories to share from your time at the festival?”
“According to the novel Cowherd, the description of Niu Er doesn’t seem to match your image. So how did you end up as the male lead?”
“When will Cowherd be released?”
“……”
