Director Wang was disappointed.
He had gotten carried away earlier, feeling as soon as he saw Xia Xiaolan that she should be acting – such a beautiful face not appearing on screen would be a disservice to viewers. Now Wang Linshu was slowly coming to his senses. “Dream of the Red Chamber” had started test filming in February last year, officially began production in September, and Qingwen’s actress had long been decided. The Grand View Garden set in Beijing was still under construction, and the production team was traveling around the country filming at various locations. How could he just change actors on a whim?
Moreover, Xia Xiaolan was a Tsinghua University architecture student. While Wang Linshu could borrow students from the Central Academy of Drama or Beijing Film Academy, he didn’t have that kind of pull at Tsinghua.
If he went to Tsinghua’s Architecture Department asking to borrow a student for filming, he’d surely be met with disdain.
Even if the student herself was strongly willing, the school wouldn’t make such an exception.
Wang Linshu suddenly had an idea – it was winter break now, so they could shoot a few scenes without the school’s interference!
When Director Wang made this suggestion, Xia Xiaolan could feel his sincerity, but she truly wasn’t interested in acting. She had returned to Beijing early to handle matters related to Luna and her family’s two stores – how could she travel with a film crew?
“Director Wang, I’m sorry…”
“Comrade Lin Shu, not everyone wants to be an artist. Don’t force Miss Xia.”
Chief Editor Cui had figured it out. An architecture student might steal work from the fashion industry, but Xia Xiaolan had no intention of stealing jobs from acting students. You can’t force things – people are diverse, and not everyone gets excited about filming television, even for classics like “Dream of the Red Chamber” – though it was quite strange in 1985, when society was very artistic, to suddenly meet a girl with an artistic temperament who wasn’t artistic herself. Chief Editor Cui found it quite rare.
With Chief Editor Cui smoothing things over, Director Wang couldn’t persist.
Remembering Xia Xiaolan was an architecture student, Director Wang added some polite words, “When the crew returns to Beijing for filming, you can come to visit Grand View Garden if you have time. It’s related to your field, you might find it interesting.”
When Director Wang mentioned that Beijing’s Grand View Garden was being converted from old houses, with many experts in Red Chamber studies and ancient architecture involved in the renovation, Xia Xiaolan became genuinely interested, her tone suddenly sincere:
“Thank you, Director Wang. I’ll come visit!”
Xia Xiaolan was eager – wasn’t Grand View Garden still under renovation? She wasn’t very interested in seeing it after completion, but she wanted to see how the experts were renovating and restoring the old houses – she could apply those insights to the courtyard house in Shichahai.
Director Wang completely gave up hope – he could judge from Xia Xiaolan’s tone whether she was interested or not. She was more interested in Grand View Garden’s architecture than in filming there.
Despite Director Wang’s interruption, the meeting with Chief Editor Cui went smoothly. After discussing how to write the soft advertisement, Xia Xiaolan and Chen Xiliang took their leave.
Watching them leave, Wang Linshu was still wistful:
“Old Cui, isn’t she a natural screen face? Why study architecture?”
Whether pulling all-nighters drawing plans or working at construction sites in all weather – neither choice seemed suitable for such a delicate young woman.
Chief Editor Cui said slowly:
“Maybe because… she gets good grades? Comrade Lin Shu, wake up – do you think a Tsinghua University student would go into acting?”
“Dream of the Red Chamber” had conducted nationwide auditions, receiving sackfuls of applications, yet none came from Tsinghua or Peking University students.
Chief Editor Cui’s honest words hit Director Wang hard, immediately souring his mood.
…
After leaving Chief Editor Cui’s home, Chen Xiliang was still distracted.
Chen Xiliang was a contradictory person. While you might call him purely a businessman, he harbored dreams of being a designer and had an artistic side. As a fashion magazine collector, he had naturally read the Four Great Classical Novels. If Wang Linshu had asked him to audition, even for a minor role as Baoyu’s servant, Chen Xiliang would have eagerly tried.
This had nothing to do with payment – it was purely the literary youth’s obsession with classics acting up.
Unfortunately, his appearance hadn’t immediately impressed Director Wang.
“Sister Xia, you’re level-headed.”
Xia Xiaolan glared at him, “If I went to act, you’d have to handle all the pre-opening work alone! By the way, have you found store clerks from Guangzhou? Get them to Beijing quickly – we need training before opening.”
This work should have been completed before the New Year, but the accident had changed Xia Xiaolan’s work plans.
Xia Xiaolan wasn’t exactly a workaholic, but delayed plans still irritated her.
“Found them – three people total. They’re already on the train and will arrive tomorrow.”
These were the clerks from Guangzhou, but they also needed to be hired in Beijing. Between Luna and Blue Phoenix’s two branch stores in Beijing, they needed at least ten clerks in total. Xia Xiaolan planned to train all these sheep together.
Since the women from Guangzhou were already on the train for training, Xia Xiaolan also needed to ask Manager Wu if he had found enough female clerks in Beijing.
Manager Wu was willing to help with this kind of favor even without government bonds involved.
Finding properties was about convenience for Xia Xiaolan, but helping her recruit people was something Manager Wu could use as social capital.
Jobs were hard to find, and even Manager Wu couldn’t arrange positions for all his relatives and friends’ children. Units weren’t hiring, or required degrees or examinations when they did. Those who couldn’t find work could only stay idle at home. As for setting up street stalls as individual businesses, Beijing locals couldn’t all bring themselves to do it.
If setting up stalls was embarrassing, working at Xia Xiaolan’s clothing store wasn’t? While Blue Phoenix could be called individually operated, Luna was a registered company – being a sales clerk there meant working for a private enterprise!
Moreover, the working environment was good. Manager Wu had found the locations and had seen the renovations on his commute. While most people opening stores would just paint the walls and change some lights, Xia Xiaolan had invested tens of thousands in her three stores, naturally making them high-end.
Without too much trouble, Manager Wu had gathered seven slim, decent-looking young women for Xia Xiaolan. Pretty girls weren’t everywhere, so Manager Wu had directly rejected those who weren’t attractive enough… Just for these seven positions, relatives and friends were bringing gifts to Manager Wu’s home!
They had originally talked about “training” before the New Year, even mentioning going to Shangdu, and these young women had all agreed.
But with no movement even through the New Year, they grew anxious, fearing they’d lost the job opportunity. Fortunately, on the sixth day of the New Year, Manager Wu told them to prepare, as training would start on the seventh.
“Go to this address in Nanluogu Alley. I won’t take you there. Don’t embarrass yourselves – study hard. If you get cut, don’t come crying to me.”