Chapter 1 It's over before it even startedBeijing in 1995. On the street, Chen An was walking and looking at the city on the side. He still couldn't get used to it after more than a year. It is still three years since I was born in my previous life, but the capital city now already has many tall buildings, which is no worse than the small county town where I will be decades later. "No wonder I was nicknamed a Celestial Dragon on the Internet in my previous life. I'm really far ahead." Chen An, who had just shaved his head at a street stall, sighed as he walked. It has been more than a year since I came to Chen An's world, but I still feel a little uncomfortable. It was as if I had suddenly come to this world as soon as I closed my eyes in my previous life. Then he received an admission letter from the Photography Department of Beijing Film Academy. Through the memory in his mind and the movie posters in the earthen house, Chen An knew that the original owner was a movie lover. There are both foreign and domestic movie posters in the room. The one posted on the head of the bed is "To Live", the masterpiece for which Ge You won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. So the original owner was determined to enter the photography department of Beijing Film Academy. His biggest wish was to be a photographer for Zhang Yimou and to ask Ge You to make a movie for him. After all, a photographer who doesn’t want to be a director is not a good Beijing Film Academy graduate! Chen An was also impressed by this. A person who was born in a rural area of a small county in southern Hunan and was a recent graduate was actually able to pass the exam. He must have put in a lot of effort and was really lucky.
It was just a minor cold, and when I opened my eyes it turned into me again. How unlucky and ridiculous. For Chen An, who was a second-tier university student in his previous life, the Photography Department of Beijing Film Academy was a really good prospect. He packed his luggage in a sack and came alone to the capital city, which he had only visited once in his previous life. "I didn't go back to my hometown last year, so I should go back this year. However, it's hard to take long-distance buses and trains these days. The last time I came to Beijing, I almost lost my life." Chen An thought of the letter sent to him from his hometown. Safety is not very good these days and transportation development has not kept up. To go back to my hometown, I have to take a train and then a bus, and then walk a long way to get there. My family was poor and we didn't have a landline. There was only one in the village store, so I could only call the school, and I might not even get the call, so I just mailed the letter to him. During the Chinese New Year last year, Chen An had no money but he stayed in school. The teacher allowed him to stay because of the poor conditions, and he could just check out the dormitory. So Chen An spent the New Year alone in the dormitory. It was bustling outside and the fireworks were bright at night, but Chen An must have felt uncomfortable. Fortunately, I borrowed a radio from my roommate in advance and listened to the Spring Festival Gala broadcast. The Spring Festival Gala this year is not like the one in the previous life. No one wants to watch it, but Chen Anle is so bored just listening to the broadcast. While listening, he drinks the rice wine that he bought at the market at a high price, which can help alleviate the loneliness in his heart a little. So, taking advantage of the basics he learned in the first half of the semester, Chen An attended classes in the directing department while asking around for crew members to see if he could go in and do some odd jobs or help carry the camera. I can find it occasionally and learn some practical skills from some film crews. He didn't ask for much, just a dozen yuan, and occasionally he could get a few dozen. He could save some money by collecting broken bottles from some film crews, but anything of value would never come into his hands. Although life was a bit hard, Chen An was not really a rookie and he felt that he still had a chance to turn things around. Although I wasn't rich in my previous life, I had enough food and drink. When I had nothing to do, I liked to watch movies. I watched all kinds of movies and I watched quite a few. I feel a little more confident. In fact, Chen An sometimes feels helpless. It has been more than a year, but he has not thought of any way to make money. I don't understand stocks, I just know a few awesome companies, but I haven't seen any NetEase or Tencent yet, and I don't have the money to buy them. I can't sing and can't remember many songs. I can only hum a few lines, but I can't do anything more. I haven’t read many books, nor do I really like watching TV series. I just watch a few movies when I have time.
Chen An touched his newly cut hair, which was a little prickly. He looked at the people in a hurry and said, "Chang'an is big and it's not easy to live here. The same is true for Beijing. One day I will be able to shoot the movie I saw!" I turned around and looked at the glass of the store next door. The glass was wiped clean and transparent, reflecting a slightly blurry image of myself, with a neat crew cut, a clean short-sleeved shirt, and a pair of relatively new jeans. He looks quite handsome and heroic, and he seems to be quite energetic! "Work starts today, and it looks like Boss Lin will be here. If I dress smartly, I'll probably make a better impression." Looking at his youthful appearance in the mirror, Chen An was quite satisfied. This was a job introduced to Chen An by a senior brother he knew, a boss from Shanghai named Lin who was in the clothing business. The business is quite big so I plan to create a brand directly and use movies to promote it. My senior brother’s surname is Liu. He is a graduate of the Directing Department. He has a girlfriend who is a senior in the Acting Department and this senior girl also helped him get admitted to the school. Carrying a sack on his back when he entered school did attract some attention. Later, when Chen An spent a large sum of money to treat his senior sister to a meal at a restaurant at the school gate, he and his senior sister came together, and that was how the two met. Later, whenever his senior brother gave him something, Chen An would go and help get it, and they could chat with each other from time to time. But Chen An had no impression of either of them and guessed that they had never made it in their previous lives. Originally, Chen An was planning to continue looking for the crew to see if he could get in and try his hand, but this senior brother suddenly came to him. He said he had attracted an investment. A boss from Shanghai named Lin wanted to promote his clothing store and was planning to make a movie. He wanted me to help him as a photographer for 2,000 yuan. Although he was not given a script or anything and didn't even know the name, Chen An agreed without thinking. It's such a good opportunity, and there's also two thousand dollars to pay. I can make even a bad movie myself, any kind of movie rating is fine, and at most I just won't put my name on it. The other party was also straightforward. The two of them signed the contract and gave me the money directly. I also took the contract to report to my teacher and asked for leave. He immediately tidied his clothes, went to the street to get a haircut, and then rushed to the crew. When signing the contract, Brother Liu said that the crew was almost ready, all the actors had been found, and other personnel had almost been found, and that Boss Lin would also come. The capital city is very big, and Chen An was reluctant to take a taxi, so he walked all the way here. After walking for a while, Chen An saw that they were almost at the destination: "Fortunately, this crew is not far from the school, otherwise my legs would be in trouble~" This movie was able to attract investment from Boss Lin, and it would be impossible for him to go to remote places to promote his clothing brand. After walking for a few more minutes, Chen An finally arrived at the place. As soon as he entered the door, Chen An saw a man standing in front of everyone shouting and cursing loudly. "You were all signed by him, and now he and the leading actress are gone, and you didn't even know about it!" "All the money in the account is gone. He was quite righteous, wasn't he? He paid all of your salaries in advance. Now he's gone. You guys say you don't know anything. Do you think I don't believe you?" Chen An only felt his scalp tingling, as if struck by lightning, and his head felt like it was going to explode! People are missing? This is my first fucking movie, and the director ran away before I even started?! Now the contract has been signed and the money has been received, but the director has run away, taking all the money with him and running away with his girlfriend. Chen An didn't quite understand either. It would be fine if the money was returned, but if there were legal consequences, he would simply not be able to bear it! After the man finished speaking, he turned around with a dark face and looked at Chen An who had just come in and asked, "Are you also the person he is looking for? What do you do? What is your relationship with him?" He started with a series of three questions, so Chen An had no choice but to answer honestly: "I was the photographer he hired, and I don't know where he went. How about I return the money to you?"
"What's the use of your little money?!" It would have been better if he didn't say it. Once he said it, the man's face turned even darker. "He found a bunch of people, pretended to set up a crew, rented these cameras, bought film, and I transferred the remaining money to him, and he ran away with it!" "The money you have is not even as valuable as the film for these cameras. What's the point of me asking you for your money?" "Now I want to find his people!" To be honest, the time period is a bit long, so there may be some deviations. Just treat it as a parallel world.
(End of this chapter)