Epiphanies of Rebirth Chapter 63 (Part 1)
Translated by Pure (ko-fi)
Edited by tingting
Chapter 63.1 <Legend of Jianghu> has finally aired!
Lin Jingzhe was resting in his chair behind the office desk, his heart was as stable as a boat moored in a harbor. In his hands was the string of mala beads bestowed by Grandma Xiao. The exquisite and clear color of the tourmaline reflected the sunlight, creating a series of sparkling light spots. He held another string of wooden beads in his other hand, the collision sounds of these beads were slightly distinct from the other. These buddhist beads were the ones that Xiao Chi hung over his neck a while back. After they got together, Lin Jingzhe placed these wooden buddhist beads in his office. From time to time, he would take these old, but well-cared for, beads out to fiddle with.
It was then that the landline rang on his desk. Lin Jingzhe connected the call and heard Gao Sheng's voice from the other end, "Jingzhe, I've already taken care of the commercial contract and the commercial actor. Now we just need to find people to prepare the script and find ourselves a suitable director!"
The advertisement of Haitang Bean Paste was imminent, the new TV series was going to be broadcasted soon.
Lin Jingzhe’s dazed-like thoughts quickly dissipated as he immediately sat up. "Okay, arrange it as soon as possible. Make sure to finish everything in the shortest possible time!"
As soon as he arranged the order and hung up the phone, another call came in immediately after. It was Shen Juanying.
When Shen Juanying received the news of Lin Jingzhe's relationship yesterday, she immediately told her husband about it. The couple were so excited that they had trouble sleeping; Lin Runsheng even ate two extra bowls for dinner. The latter was now currently sitting on the sofa. He was absent-mindedly reading the newspaper whilst listening in to his wife's phone call.
Shen Juanying's voice took on a rather playful and teasing tone, "Jingzhe, how was your date yesterday?"
Lin Jingzhe was taken aback by her question. He felt the butterflies coming back into his body again as his heart started to flutter. He hesitated for a while before answering softly, "It was pretty good."
"You child, you didn't tell your family earlier that you are in a relationship? Your father was so happy after he found out yesterday, even his fierce expression easied up quite a bit." Shen Juanying was elated. Her mentality was quite simple, as long as Lin Runsheng was happy, then so was she. What's more, at Lin Jingzhe's age, falling in love was indeed something worthy of the entire family's attention. As a thoughtful person, Shen Juanying couldn't help but probe for more answers, "How long have you been in a relationship? Do you two have any plans for the future? As a boy, you must take responsibility. Don’t play around okay?"
"I understand." Lin Jingzhe complied. He took a breath and added, "We… We plan to get married in the future."
"That's great!" Shen Juanying was overjoyed, the pre-existing situation was even better than she had expected. After encouraging Lin Jingzhe for a while, she reluctantly hung up the phone. When she placed down the receiver, Shen Juanying let out a long sigh of relief.
When the call came to an end, Shen Juanying smiled at the man sitting beside her. At some point, her husband had silently moved over to the edge of the coffee table. Although he was still pretending not to care while reading the newspaper, in fact, his eyes shone with the glint of a sneaky thief. "What do you think, are you satisfied?"
Lin Runsheng held onto his newspaper while his eyes were fixedly stared at the phone. His face was tense, but his heart was filled with a sense of strong, fatherly relief. He reminisced everything he had heard on the speaker phone just now. However, he did not know how to respond to his wife's teasing, so he just slightly pursed his lips.
His eyes turned red with excitement as tears gathered inside, making his fierce eyes look watery.
Son... His son was actually in a relationship. And he was even planning to get married.
That’s great.
That’s great.
********
Lin Jingzhe was fortunate to meet the later famous group of actors while they were still young.
The advertisement shooting location was a film studio in Yan City Film University. The domestic inland entertainment industry was currently underdeveloped, as most of the film and television resources were concentrated in Hong Kong Island. Although the entertainment circle was in full swing there, there were very few locations suitable for filming in Yan City. But with Gao Sheng working his magic, Yan City Film University gave them access without much hesitation, and the same went for the actors.
Gao Sheng signed contracts with several leading actors, but the total cost didn’t even exceed 50,000 yuan!
When Lin Jingzhe saw the number on the remuneration form, he felt it was inconceivable. When he visited the set, he felt the power of time more and more.
The huge studio was filled with an air of enthusiasm, Gao Sheng and a group of key members in his club were also very interested. Some time ago, with the help of Lin Jingzhe, his company was officially established. The name of the company was ‘Gao Sheng Advertising’, which mainly engaged in advertising creativity and marketing engineering. Lin Jingzhe personally knew nothing about this industry, and he hardly helped in its establishment. The first batch of employees were found by Gao Sheng himself. They were all the members from the club and they also completed the market research work by themselves. The only place where Lin Jingzhe could really contribute was the investment. Therefore, almost all of the 200,000 yuan registered capital of Gao Sheng Advertising was paid by him.
Of course, Gao Sheng didn’t feel right just taking the money. Although Lin Jingzhe refused in every possible way, he still allocated a considerable amount of shares in return. He learned a lot following Wu Wangfei and Liang Pi as they continued their business. Things such as investments, no matter how good their relationship was, brothers had to settle the accounts with clarity. Though this sounded philistine, only those who have the experience would know this was the truth. The more he cherished the friendship with Lin Jingzhe, the less Gao Sheng wanted to take advantage of him
Gao Sheng Advertising was obviously among the first batch of people in this unexplored industry. They had no precedents to follow and could only move forward while groping around in the darkness. It was not so easy to be a forerunner in developing a new market. Just a short while ago, he and his club’s backbones at school looked like children playing house in the eyes of outsiders. There were not many domestic companies and brands that had a clear concept of advertising. Therefore, other than the market consolidation of the Best Partner Search, Haitang Bean Paste was the first official project they have received since their establishment.
All participants were looking forward to this project. With all hands on deck, wishing that all the details could be done to perfection.
Lin Jingzhe looked at the focused zone, almost all the youths standing in that area looked to be about 20 years old. Gao Sheng showed him the script of the advertisement, and explained while accompanying him, "I entrusted a friend to help me find this director. The top student in the Directing Department of the Film University. Although he hasn't graduated yet, I heard that he’s very skilled, so it shouldn't be a big problem to shoot an advertisement."
After a pause, Gao Sheng continued to explain, for fear that Lin Jingzhe would be dissatisfied, "In our early planning, we also discussed whether or not to go to Hong Kong Island to find a relatively famous director to participate in the filming, we decided not to do it mainly because of the cost issue. The selection of a student director also had this particular factor in this decision. He’s about to graduate and wanted to use our advertisement as graduation work, so he charged us the minimum fee of two thousand yuan."
Lin Jingzhe didn't recognize the student from behind, but when he opened the script, he saw a shocking name– Liang Sun. Even a workaholic like him, who lacked a private life and avoided entertainment activities, had heard of him. Nine out of ten movies that his company organized to watch at the end of each year were the works of this person.
This well-known director, who would have quite a status in the world in the future, had not yet grown to his recognizable physique of 200 kilograms. He was often interviewed and asked about his thoughts about being a handsome youth in the past. Phrases such as ‘nothing gold can stay’ were often used to describe this man. Lin Jingzhe had long been accustomed to looking at the other party's wide-bodied and round face in interviews, so the literary youth in front of him, with a melancholy temperament, medium-length hair, and delicate features felt like a fake to him.
The actors present also looked different from his memory of the future. Although their change was not as great as Liang Sun, the changes brought by time could not be underestimated. Lin Jingzhe could almost name every member of the leading actors, especially the two men and two women in the middle. In the future, they will become some of the most influential figures domestically. With countless award winning works under their name, any small troubles these actors and actresses faced would cause an uproar among their fans, sometimes affecting even the whole society.
But at the moment, these superstars who will eventually become winners in life, without endless high-end endorsements, were expressing their joy as fledgling newcomers shooting commercials for the first time. Nervously holding the bean paste from their Haitang Food Factory as if holding a certain series of high-end watches.
Lin Jingzhe: "..."
He felt a strong euphemism as well as indescribable humor.
The domestic advertisements in the 1990s were actually all quite roughly done. The promotions were just done in an attempt to cram the brand into the audience's memory. Those like Gao Sheng and his team, who even wrote a detailed script on a special trip, were considered an outlier. It was said that this idea was proposed by a bright young girl from their team. She suggested that the actors should directly wear the costumes in their upcoming TV series during this advertisement filming.
Eight good-looking youths stood in a row. They were dressed in historical attire, staring at the camera with a solemn expression. In unison, they shouted, "Haitang Bean Paste! It’s unparallelled!"
Holy sh*t...
Lin Jingzhe closed his eyes and covered forehead with his hand. He turned to Gao Sheng and said, "...It's a little stuffy here. Let’s go out and get some fresh air."
Pure: The cringe LJ must have felt lmao
Translated by pure, hosted on puretl.com / do not repost!