Chapter 76 Still a Literary Youth

Discovering a rising star among the massive amount of letters and submissions made Lin Weimin feel that all his previous hard work was not in vain and that he had gained something after all.

After getting off work in the evening, Lin Weimin finished his dinner and rode his bike to the rehearsal hall of the People's Art Theatre.

The National Theatre of China has been short of scripts in the past two years, so it attaches great importance to the play "The Intouchables". In order to accommodate Lin Weimin's schedule, Ouyang Shanzun has been coordinating the actors' rehearsal time during this period, allowing everyone to rest in the afternoon and rehearse in the evening.

Lin Weimin had watched many plays before, but they were all plays that the actors had already rehearsed.

Now he sits directly next to the director's seat and watches the actors rehearse their scenes. It is a completely different feeling, more real and also more rough.

The scene being played out on the stage is that Qin Yun, played by Lan Tianye, and Lin Xiaoding, played by Li Guangfu, run to the rooftop of the hospital with a tape recorder and play music and dance, making such a noise that the entire hospital can hear it. The head nurse then brings people to the rooftop to arrest people.

The head nurse is played by Jin Yaqin, a veteran actress of the National Theatre of China, who has played supporting roles in the theatre all her life.

Lin Weimin didn’t recognize her at first. It was after rehearsing for several days that Lin Weimin suddenly remembered, isn’t this the old lady in the later movie “The Two of Us”?

She also won two awards for Best Actress at the Tokyo Film Festival and the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival for this film.

After recognizing the old lady, Lin Weimin couldn't help but sigh that the National Theatre of China is truly a place full of hidden talents.

Even if an actor has played supporting roles all his life, once he has a chance to shine, he will immediately rise to the top and become awe-inspiring.

On stage, the actors went through the play. Offstage, Lin Weimin and Lan Yinhai discussed the lines for this scene, sometimes tweaking a few words, sometimes just starting over from scratch.

The workload is not large, but it is extremely tedious.

This is a necessary process in drama rehearsal, and Lin Weimin has gradually become familiar with it.

When everyone was rehearsing seriously, Yi Shizhi walked in, supporting an old man, followed by the young actor Lin Zhaohua from the theater.

"Mr. Wan!"

Because they were facing away from each other, Ouyang Shanzun, Lin Weimin and others who were sitting below did not notice Yi Shizhi and others who came in. Instead, it was the actors on the stage who noticed them.

A young man who played the role of a patient couldn't help but scream out. Ouyang Shanzun frowned, rang the bell, and scolded, "Why are you screaming? This is a rehearsal, don't you know?"

The young man who had just screamed on the stage immediately fell silent. It was not unfair for him to be scolded by the director for making such a low-level mistake.

After Ouyang Shanzun finished training everyone, he waved his hand and said, "Let's take a break."

Lin Weimin stepped forward and greeted, "Dean Yu, teacher, why are you here?"

Mr. Wan had a kind smile on his face, "Shizhi said your play is being rehearsed, so I came to take a look."

Mr. Wan is now nominally the dean of the People's Art Theatre, but he no longer interferes in daily affairs and is more like a figurehead, so he does not come here very often on weekdays. This is why the young man on the stage shouted out excitedly when he saw him.

"How is the rehearsal going?" asked Mr. Wan.

Ouyang Shanzun said: "It went very smoothly. Teacher Lin's script was very good and everyone performed very smoothly."

"This notebook still has many shortcomings. You are all seniors in the institute, so please help to check it!" Mr. Wan said kindly.

"Sir, you are worrying too much. The quality of the book is indeed very high. Now we have not only Teacher Lan in the group, but also Teacher Lin. The effect of the arrangement will definitely not be bad."

Ouyang Shanzun was not flattering. The rehearsal progress has been very smooth these days. At this rate, the play "The Intouchables" will hopefully be shown to the audience early next year.

"Haha, I feel relieved with you guys here."

After Mr. Wan finished speaking, he went over to greet the actors. The old actors on the stage were fine, but the young actors had few opportunities to meet the master, Mr. Wan, and their faces were filled with excitement, as if they were on a pilgrimage.

"You guys act your part, I'll just watch."

After greeting everyone, Mr. Wan asked everyone to continue rehearsing. He and Yi Shizhi sat in the second row and watched everyone's performance quietly. The actors on the stage suddenly felt a lot of pressure.

After watching for about half an hour, Mr. Wan stood up and said, "Okay, an old man like me won't disturb everyone's rehearsal anymore, I'm leaving!"

After the old gentleman left, the rehearsal room finally regained its original atmosphere, and the actors on stage performed more naturally.

Everyone could see that Mr. Wan came today just to support his disciples, and many people looked at Lin Weimin with envy.

Look at him, he is only twenty years old, but not only has he written such an excellent script, he also has such a highly respected teacher who, even at this late hour, still comes to support his disciple's play.

The more you compare yourself to others, the more likely you are to die!

The rehearsal ended around 8:30.

Lin Weimin was about to leave when Li Guangfu stopped him and said that he had heard that there was a courtyard house for sale in Shichahai.

"The yard is not big, just one entrance, with seven rooms. The yard is bright, and the total area is more than 300 square meters. I tell you, you will definitely like it when you see it."

The Shichahai area belongs to Xicheng District and was a wealthy area in the early years.

The area alone was much larger than the one Lin Weimin had seen before, and the location was also good. Lin Weimin and Li Guangfu made an appointment to look at the house on the weekend.

On weekends, Lin Weimin would ride his bike to the gate of the People's Art Theatre after breakfast to meet Li Guangfu. Then the two of them would ride their bikes to Baimixie Street near Shichahai.

“You should have heard of this area. Many of the former residences of celebrities are protected by the state.

The house we are looking at today belongs to my elementary school classmate. They used to be in business, but that stopped after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. They lived in the yard until the 1960s.

Later, the situation became bad and the whole family was sent to Shaanxi. After the policy was implemented in 1978, the house was returned to them.

Fortunately, they used it as an office space, so they didn't need to vacate the tenants. Otherwise, it would be very troublesome, and I wouldn't even dare to introduce it to you.

Now that their family has contacted their relatives overseas, they plan to move the whole family overseas to join them, so they want to sell this house.

Let me tell you the truth, they are in a hurry to sell it, so the price is negotiable."

Li Guangfu introduced the situation of the quadrangle courtyard to Lin Weimin as they walked. After entering Baimixie Street, they soon arrived at the gate of an antique quadrangle courtyard.

Li Guangfu knocked on the door of the courtyard house, "Lidong, open the door!"

After waiting for more than ten seconds, the door of the courtyard was opened from the inside with a creaky sound. The person who opened the door was a man about the same age as Li Guangfu.

"Lidong, let me introduce you. This is the famous writer Mr. Lin Weimin."

"Teacher Lin, this Li Lidong is my elementary school classmate."

Li Lidong asked, "Is it Lin Weimin who wrote The Cliff?"

Lin Weimin nodded and said with a smile, "It's me."

Li Lidong's eyes lit up.

Wow, it turns out you are a literary young man.

(End of this chapter)