Chapter 88 Extra B-1
Country A, LA city.
Sabri was in a daze behind the counter.
"Oh, dear," the shop owner came over, "you are not very nice, be happy, we are a country of smiles, you know?"
"Understood."
Sabri pulled himself together and stood up straight.
The owner is a white woman in her forties who lives in an upscale neighborhood not far away. She opened an art gallery and flower shop here when she had nothing else to do. In fact, Sabry couldn't figure out the positioning of this shop. It seemed that people usually only came to appreciate it, and she couldn't sell either paintings or flowers.
But the owner doesn't care.
Anyway, they hired a group of students to work part-time. So-called part-time jobs just meant standing here and waiting to accompany some artists when they came to visit.
Although the work is extremely boring, at least the owner pays a very generous hourly wage.
Even if she was incompatible with this environment, she could still endure it.
"You guys go have lunch," the owner said, "I'll keep an eye on it for a while."
"Okay." Sabri took his lunch out of the refrigerator and walked to the back alley.
The girls from other counters also gathered here to eat.
Sabri poked at the salad in front of him boredly, without any interest.
"Look, my new manicure has hundreds of likes on Instagram."
"It's so pretty. It matches your eyes very well."
"I plan to go to a school in NY for exchange this year, but my GPA is not high enough."
"Why don't you just find someone to take the test for you? Many international students do this, especially (whispering) Asians."
“But I think it’s hard for them to communicate…”
A group of college girls gathered together and chatted about the same topics.
Sabri, however, sat a few meters away from them.
She was the only minority in the group and an international student. Although these white girls didn't have any racial discrimination, she was unable to fit in.
There is a huge difference in both life and educational experience.
She was chewing the vegetable leaves in front of her, feeling very irritable.
Kale is really unpalatable and has a weird smell. She almost retches when she occasionally wants to be healthy and eats white food. She might as well just buy a hamburger.
Hamburgers are also a delicacy for the poor.
Suitable for her.
As she was eating, she remembered
The days in China that year.
Eating in the cafeteria with those people every day, living in the dormitory, going to the set during the day, and occasionally staying up all night...it's really a good life.
After dinner, it’s time to go back to work.
As usual, they stood for the entire afternoon and didn't serve a single customer, but the owner still paid them a daily wage.
Sabri went out and walked alone on the streets of LA, preparing to return to the dormitory.
It was called a dormitory, but it was just a shabby house far away from the school. She had to share this dormitory with two other girls, both of whom were blond-haired and blue-eyed European girls. They went to parties all day and seldom went home.
The house is empty and there's no point in going back.
Sabri began to wander around the city.
People say that LA might be the best city in the world, and Sabri thinks it is indeed a good place, with sunshine, middle-aged men, handsome men and beautiful women, people of all shapes and sizes, beaches and palm trees everywhere.
It is much better than the village where she was born. At least here, no one will judge you no matter whether you are married or not, what gender you marry, or what object you marry.
But Sabri was not afforded the luxury of such cultural things; going to school was hard enough for her.
The short film script assignment she submitted last week only received a C. If she can't keep her GPA above 3 this semester, she will lose her scholarship.
She thought that her debut work would be able to enter the main competition unit of the Rotterdam Film Festival, and her short film would be among the top 50 in the fledgling program, which would be enough to prove that she had some talent in the film and television field.
But she was attending the best film school in Country A, and even in the world, after all. To be frank, most of the students here had obtained exams that were just as easy as hers, and they were also younger than her.
What's more, script writing and short film shooting are not something you can get high scores just by working hard enough.
She seems unable to write anything good anymore.
"Oh, what a coincidence."
A male voice suddenly came from behind her.
Sabri didn't turn his head or answer, and continued walking forward.
The man ran up to her and said, "Sabri, what are you doing? Why are you ignoring me?"
As he spoke, he circled around Sabri like a puppy wagging its tail.
Sabry could no longer bear it: "Mike Lee, can you please stop bothering me and stop waiting for me on my way home from get off work?"
Mike Lee looked aggrieved: "But you don't let me go to the store
You won't let me go to school to find you, so what can I do?"
"I mean, don't look for me again!"
"I'm sorry, but I really can't do it."
Sabri shook his head, said nothing more, and continued walking forward.
When Mike Lee came to Country A with her, she was actually very grateful in her heart.
In the entire Yi Zheng campus, the person she is most familiar with is Qiao Yi Qiao, and the second most familiar is Mike Lee.
At that time, Mike Lee told her a lot of things about Hollywood, which made Sabri yearn for it and she became familiar with it.
But when the two arrived in Country A, that utopian friendship seemed to have dissipated.
Every day, Sabri is either busy with moving and purchasing, studying, or working. He is almost overwhelmed. During the weeks of shooting short films every semester, he almost goes to bed at four or five in the morning.
These things drained all her energy and threw her into an abyss of self-doubt.
After Mike Lee came back, he received constant invitations to various parties.
Sabri went there a few times, but later stopped going because he didn't have the time or it was not suitable.
Deep down, she is still a country girl from the third world who can't stand those powerful drum beats.
Moreover, at those parties, Mike Lee always met some "ex-girlfriends", all of whom were beautiful girls with slender waists, which were really unbearable - although Sabri didn't know why he couldn't stand them.
In short, the two of them drifted apart.
Although Mike Lee later stopped going to those parties and no longer contacted his ex-girlfriends, the relationship between the two did not ease.
Sabri couldn't stand the other party's behavior of harassing her in the area where she lived from time to time.
Fortunately, Mike Lee is a busy man after all, with various projects constantly underway, so the two of them actually only see each other very rarely.
"I don't have any projects on hand right now, so I plan to take a break for half a year to experience life," Mike Lee said. "Do you have any suggestions?"
Sabri shook his head, "Really not, Mike. I envy you for having the time to experience life."
Mike Lee smiled: "It's mainly to quickly finalize the important things in life."
"Then... I wish you success."
Mike Lee saw that Sabri was not interested and stopped in front of her: "Sabri, I really like you, let's go out."
Sabri said indifferently, "If you are not in love, please do not disturb me."
Mike Lee made an exaggerated gesture as if his heart was throbbing: "I really don't know what to do. I gave you something but you didn't want it. I invited you to live in a luxury house but you didn't move in. We had such a good chat before, don't you feel excited at all? Can you give me a chance to pursue you?"
Sabry forced a polite smile and said, "We are all adults, don't be so childish."
Mike Lee sighed and said, "You are really a rock."
"No," Sabri said coldly, "I am a woman. Please treat me as a normal woman. Do you have other female friends besides your girlfriend? No, do you have normal friends?"
Mike Lee shook his head: "No."
"Boy," Sabri patted his shoulder, "please don't treat normal interactions between adults, especially work-related interactions, as love. Please."
Mike Lee wanted to say something, but Sabri pinched his mouth and said, "Okay, I'm here. Bye."
After saying that, he left Mike Lee behind and went into the dormitory alone.
Only Mike Lee was left, disheveled in the wind.
Not only does he have no job, he also has no love, and he has just been identified as having no friends.
He had absolutely nothing except money, lots of money.
I feel sad and want to cry.
…
After returning to the dormitory, Sabri continued to study the script.
But she seemed not to be suited to this way of learning. She could never write anything good. She felt as if she was restricted by the structure of the play and the words, and could never express herself directly.
Professional study - this was clearly what she wanted most, but now it brought her 100% confusion.
Sabry wrote two more pages of the script, but still felt that what he had written was a piece of shit, so he simply threw the computer on the table and lay down.
Ding Dong——
The cell phone rang.
Sabri picked up the phone and saw that it was a message from Qiao Yiqiao.
Qiao Yiqiao: Hello, Sabri, how are you doing recently? I heard that the flu is very prevalent in your area, so I sent you some Chinese herbal tea. It is a recipe made by Li Wei, and it has been adjusted according to your constitution. It is not bad except that it tastes bad. We in the Xicui Gang have tasted this bitterness, and you are no exception. Remember to check it.
Qiao Yiqiao: I saw a micro-film competition across the country, which was jointly organized by several film colleges and universities, and several masters from Sri Lanka, Britain, etc. were judges.
, are you attending?
Sabri felt a lump in his throat.
Even though they were halfway across the world, Qiao Yi Qiao still thought about her and would even forward the messages to her when he saw them.
Sabri: Thanks Joe! I’m fine! Hope your movie goes well too!
Sabri: I have never heard of this film competition. I will look up the relevant information. Thank you!
Then she looked at the micro-film competition.
In fact, there are many such competitions in Country A, and Sabri can often see them, but the scale of this competition seems to be particularly large, and there are really many masters serving as judges.
Among them was one of her favorite horror film masters, David Wen!
Sabri was very tempted.
But her excitement soon passed, replaced by panic and nervousness.
Can she really make a short film? Her script assignments all got C's.
She used to feel excited whenever she picked up a camera, but now she feels terrified when she thinks about making a film.
But the phone rang again.
This time it was a video popped up by Qiao Yiqiao.
Sabry quickly gathered himself together and picked up his phone: "Hey, Joe! What's up? Why are you video calling me?"
"I feel like something's wrong with you," Qiao Yiqiao's expression could hardly hide his fatigue, "You rarely use exclamation marks like this, what's wrong?"
Sabri gave a wry smile.
Ah, Qiao Yiqiao was really too smart and too considerate. She couldn't lie to such a friend.
So Sabri simply spoke out all his troubles and self-doubts.
Qiao Yi Qiao listened patiently and nodded.
"Go ahead and shoot," Qiao Yiqiao said. "The worst that can happen is that your film won't make the finals. What's so scary about that?"
Sabri's heart skipped a beat.
"You don't have to think about whether you have talent or not, or whether you are suitable for this line of work," Qiao Yiqiao added, "Passion itself is a kind of talent. If you can't be a good director, can you be a bad director?"
This statement hit Sabri directly.
Yes, if she can’t be a good director, can she not be a bad director?
She wants to be the worst director, so what? What's wrong with that? !
"Okay, I won't talk to you anymore," Qiao Yiqiao smiled, "I have something else to do, you can think about it yourself. I will always believe in you unconditionally!"
After saying that, Qiao Yi Qiao hung up the video.
In the last few seconds, the camera flashed by, and Sabry realized that the background of Qiao Yi Bridge seemed to be a film set.
He... was able to notice my abnormality on such a busy set and even send me a video...
Then, her cell phone dinged again.
It is a transfer reminder.
A remittance of $50,000 was deposited into her account.
Transfer note: "This is your share of the box office revenue from When the Walls Collapse as executive director. Please use it well! QYQ"
ah.
Sabri almost cried.
She clearly did not sign any box office sharing contract at that time.
This man...
It's fucking terrible.
…
A few days later, the semester ended and Sabri's GPA was 3.1, just barely meeting the standard.
The school was on a long vacation, and after much thought, Sabris finally found the store owner and quit his job.
She's going to film.
But Sabri had no idea what to shoot or how to shoot it.
There is still more than a month left before the deadline for submitting the film, which is actually very tight.
But Sabri continued his "citywalk" for another four or five days and still had no idea.
She always felt like something was wrong.
But she didn't know what went wrong.
At this time, she received another message.
It was a strange yet familiar number...from the village where she lived as a child.
The message was brief and to the point.
"Sabri, your father is dead. No one will force you to get married. Come home and have a look, okay?"
The sender was her mother.
Sabri hadn't contacted his family for a long time. When he received this news, he had only one thought in his mind... This is really great.
All the sufferings she had suffered came from her father.
That horrible man, violent and bigoted, made the entire family, including her and her mother, almost unable to breathe.
Now he is dead.
There was no sadness in Sabri's heart, and he even wanted to set off some fireworks to celebrate.
Moreover, since he couldn't feel any inspiration in the city of LA, he might as well go home after a long absence.
Of course, she was still cautious and asked a friend who had attended the film festival with her to go to her village to confirm her
She booked the plane ticket only after her father and the uncles and aunts who had forced her to get married had passed away tragically.
I didn't sleep all night on the flight.
After getting off the plane, Sabri took a bus, and finally even a bullock cart, before she successfully returned to the place where she was born.
I feel nervous when I am close to home.
She originally thought that she would not miss this place, but she found that every tree and blade of grass here was surprisingly pleasing to the eye.
My mother looked much older.
Fortunately, my father was hit and killed by someone, and the other party paid a considerable sum of money as compensation, allowing my mother to live a normal life.
The mother didn't look very sad either.
Still living life as usual.
The funeral was over when Sabri returned, and she didn't even go to the grave to take a look.
She thought to herself that it would be good enough if she didn't step on it a few times, but going to worship...it was impossible.
Her mother knew what she was thinking and didn't force her.
Sabri stayed at home for two days, mainly to spend time with his mother.
But she didn't expect to hear a story.
That day, the mother called Sabri to her side and said to her: "Do you know how I got here?"
Sabri shook his head: "I don't know."
The mother sighed deeply and began to speak.
This is her story of becoming a mother.
My mother actually originally lived in the city. She loved painting since she was a child and often painted until late at night.
When she was fourteen years old, she went out to collect folk songs, and before she knew it, it was getting late.
Just when she was about to run home, she suddenly met a team of construction workers.
Among them was their father.
Something that shouldn't have happened happened.
She ran home crying and almost collapsed, but her parents felt so ashamed that they wanted to kick her out of the house.
But what she didn't expect was that the next day, the man who had taken away everything good in her life against her will came to their house and proposed to marry her.
She was extremely reluctant and almost wanted to die, but she cut her wrists and took pills but still failed.
She felt that maybe God wanted her to live.
After that, she cut off all contact with her parents and was forced to marry into this remote mountain villa.
She still likes to draw, but unfortunately her father never lets her draw and even beats her for holding a pen.
Then, she became pregnant
Pregnant.
That's how Sabri came into the world, and then her sister.
After hearing this story, Sabri couldn't calm down for a long time.
She seemed to have forgotten that her mother was actually very young; and she seemed to understand why she had run away from home so easily.
Her mother helped her.
She couldn't imagine what her mother went through after that.
Sabry hugged her mother tightly, but her mother just smiled and said, "I went to town yesterday to buy a paintbrush. The man died and I can finally paint again."
Her mother showed her the first painting she had ever made.
It was her sister, the one who was beaten to death by her husband.
"There's not a day that I stop thinking about her," the mother said. "Here, a woman's fate is determined by a man, but not you, Sabri. You are not."
…
Sabri found her story.
Despite escaping from here countless times, she had to admit that the stories of this land were what she could always resonate with the most.
The ten-minute script was written quickly and was titled "Homeless Woman".
Genre: Thriller
Such stories have happened thousands of times in different regions and even different countries.
Realistic, but nothing unusual.
What Sabri wants to write about is herself.
and her mother.
The whole film is about two people holding a funeral, the night before the funeral.
But it was a happy event, because the man who had destroyed the lives of several women, the husband and father, was finally dead.
But his ghost seems to still be there.
The mother and daughter fled from the ghost together, and eventually burned down the entire house, embarking on a new journey in the fire.
From beginning to end, the father will not appear.
But Sabri hopes to use very rich camera language to imply the existence of this ghost, just like the ubiquitous patriarchal oppression in their lives - although his father cannot cook, the height of the kitchen is designed according to his height, and his mother has to stand on a chair to cook every day.
Such absurdity is everywhere. Even though my father is dead, every inch of the house is like this.
Sabri found a studio in the town, set up the scenery according to her life, found some old friends, and formed a crew.
She also found a girl who looked like her mother.
The loved ones come to be actors.
And the other protagonist is herself.
The storyboards and other things were designed quickly.
The shooting will start tomorrow.
The night before, she held a script meeting with everyone just like Qiao Yiqiao did, studying every shot and every line over and over again.
Everyone was very involved, except the cameraman.
This cameraman was found by Sabri on short notice, introduced by a friend of a friend of a friend.
Judging from his facial features, Sabri didn't like this man very much, but after all, time was limited and there was nothing he could do.
We chatted until two in the morning before everyone dispersed.
Sabri was still very excited and couldn't sleep.
She hadn't experienced this kind of excitement in a long time.
She lived near the film set and couldn't fall asleep after tossing and turning, so she just got up and planned to stay in the studio.
But unexpectedly, as soon as I reached the door, I heard a rustling sound.
She hurried over, but saw only a truck parked at the back door of the studio, and the studio was almost empty.
The cameraman was actually installing scenery and equipment on the truck with a few strange men!
Sabri was enraged and rushed over to confront those men.
Unexpectedly, those people did not run away after being discovered. Instead, they became more aggressive and forced Sabri into a corner.
Sabri was surrounded by several people who were much bigger than her and was terrified.
She suddenly thought of the scene where her mother was surrounded by those workers, that kind of despair...
But Sabri was not her mother.
She didn't give up, but scratched and hit the men in front of her. When her nails were split, she used her fists. When her fists hurt, she used her teeth. When her teeth were loose, she used her head...
She was covered in blood, but she never backed down, never gave up, and never showed any weakness to these men.
Several men's faces changed, not knowing how they had gotten into trouble with such a crazy woman.
But Sabri didn't care, she just fought with all her strength.
Just like her efforts to leave the village, she must fight to the last moment.
Bang--
There was a loud bang.
The man in front of Sabri staggered and fell.
She looked forward in surprise and saw a thin, hunched figure.
"Don't touch my daughter," said the mother, "I won't let her get hurt again, never!"
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