It’s quite troublesome to show a movie, and you have to bring a lot of things.
The township where Sihe Village is located has had electricity for a long time, but it only experiences power outages every now and then. Therefore, when projectionists go to the village to show movies, they have to bring a generator, otherwise it's easy for the screen to go dark.
There are also movie screens, projectors, speakers, and large speakers to amplify the sound.
The villages here are not too remote and the roads are wide, so the cinema has a small truck specially equipped for the projectionist to pull the machine. I heard that in some mountainous areas, trucks cannot be driven, so donkey carts have to be driven, which is so bumpy that it hurts people's buttocks.
In the early years, before the opening up, not many people went to the movies. In a year, people could only watch a movie twice during the slack season, and the expenses were paid by the production team.
Now every village has a village-run enterprise and is rich. They all want to ask the cinema to show movies. But they have to queue up, and it is their turn once every month or so, and they can only show two movies at a time.
When the projectionist got off the car, the children rushed around the car, shouting "Hello, uncle" in a mixed voice. The old men and women also greeted him happily.
"Xiao Li, you're here~ Have you eaten~"
"I've eaten, Uncle Chen!" Projectionist Xiao Li was new. Before him, there was an Old Zhou, and he was Old Zhou's apprentice. The young man was very friendly and everyone liked him.
"Xiao Li, my family made some rice dumplings. I brought some for you. You can eat them while watching the movie later."
"Aunt Jinhua, thank you! I'll hang up the curtain first..."
Xiao Li finally squeezed out from the crowd of old men and women, took the curtain, and set it up with the driver.
The curtain is very large, about five or six meters long and two or three meters wide. It is placed high enough so that people sitting several miles away can see it.
Those who had not yet come to the threshing ground looked out from afar and saw the big screen. They knew that the projectionist had arrived, and they hurriedly took their own bamboo chairs and benches, and rushed over with their children who could not walk.
Liang Shengdi walked over slowly, because the three children at home had already reserved a seat for her. The old lady never had much love for children, so she sat directly on the bamboo chair in the front with Lin Guoqing's name written on it, and when she looked up, she saw the curtain.
There were only two bamboo chairs with backrests, one for Liang Shengdi and one for Lin Shumei. The remaining two small stools without backrests belonged to the brothers. They had never thought about sitting with backrests and squatted on the small stools, waiting for the movie to start.
In front of the curtain, the children were in the front, followed by the elderly (except Liang Shengdi), and then the young and middle-aged people, who were standing, squatting or sitting on the ground in the back, chatting and smoking.
Since Lin Guoqing started working in sales, he has also learned to smoke and drink. There is no other way. When men go out and share a cigarette together, it really can promote feelings.
You can’t smoke when you get home, unless you want to be forced by Chen Chunhua to sleep in the yard.
Chen Chuanguo handed a cigarette to Lin Guoqing. After Lin Guoqing took it, he waved to Chen Chunhua, meaning that he was outside now and it was given by someone else, so he had already said hello.
Chen Chunhua rolled her eyes at him and didn't bother to pay attention to him. Anyway, if he didn't wash off the smell of cigarettes on his body when he got home, he would not be allowed to go to bed.
Then Lin Guoqing was teased by the men.
"Guoqing, you're really embarrassing us men. Why do you have to report to your wife before smoking a cigarette?" Xu Youqing smiled smugly. "Look at me! When I ask for a cigarette, my wife has to give me a light! That's what a man should do!"
Lin Guoqing held a cigarette between his fingers and looked around the threshing ground. He didn't see Xu Youqing's wife, so he asked Wang Jingui's husband, Sun Defa, who was squatting nearby and had already started smoking.
"Where is Youqing's wife?"
"Ah? How would I know about his wife... Oh, Jingui mentioned it yesterday. Youqing, your wife has returned to her parents' home, right?"
"I was wondering, how dare you be so arrogant today!" Lin Guoqing sneered and nodded at Xu Youqing, "Just wait, when your wife comes back, I'll tell her exactly what you just said. Let's see if she hands you a fire or a knife!"
"Hey, hey, hey, Guoqing! Buddy! Come on! We're not friends anymore!" When Xu Youqing heard that he was going to complain, he quickly took out a matchbox from his pocket and scratched it, "Come on, let me give Chief Lin a light!"
…
The women did not move forward, but basically found a circle around the telephone poles at the back. Each of them had a small bamboo basket on their knees, which was mostly filled with needlework.
There are big light bulbs hanging on the telephone poles. If they are too far away, there will not be much light, and it will not affect the movie. It is just right to do needlework and chat under the lights.
Sanni, Sini and Lin Yulan also came over with baskets of chairs, as well as Wuni and Liuni. Although they came late, the sisters helped them get stools and they just had to go forward.
Chen Chunhua, her elder sister-in-law, two nieces, and some of their close friends from the village, such as Wang Jingui and Cai Yinling, occupied one electric pole. If others wanted to sit there, they had to move a little further away. The lighting was not good, so they might as well find another pole.
It was getting dark and the screen had already been hung. Projectionist Xiao Li stepped on the generator and pulled a rope on the machine hard. The generator started to turn and began to generate electricity.
The projector sent out a strong beam of light, just enough to cover the entire screen. As the two turntables turned, the image on the film was projected onto the screen. As the blue screen appeared, the children below were excited.
"It's not black and white! It's color!"
"Wow! Blue! Green!"
"Zhongyuan Movie...what's that word?"
"The production company! You redneck!"
"Ahhhh! Jiang Huahua, you are the country bumpkin!"
"Hey! Stop arguing, both of you! Let's start!"
[The origin of all Kung Fu is Shaolin...]
The sound of the film was transmitted through speakers and loudspeakers, which was absolutely deafening. Several children who were gathered near the speakers immediately covered their ears and were then driven away by their parents.
"Sit further away! Be careful of getting deaf!"
The volume was so loud that the entire Sihe Village could probably hear it. I wonder if the people in the neighboring village could hear it.
At the beginning of the movie, whether they were sitting on the threshing ground or on the benches, under the eaves or on the roof, on the haystacks, on the tree branches, or even the young lovers squatting secretly on the ridges of the fields, they all raised their heads high and looked at the huge screen.
Only the roar of the generator, the sound of the speakers, and the occasional strange cries of children remained.
"Wow! Wow! Wow!"
"Hehehehe!"
"Take my stick!"
"Watch this!"
"Shaolin~Shaolin~"
Liang Shengdi slapped Xiao Lao San on the back.
"Sit still! Stay away from me with that branch of yours! If you swing at me again, I'll have your father teach you what real Shaolin stick techniques are!"
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Ah ba Ah ba Ah, I’m stuck. I didn’t write a single word today. I relied entirely on my saved drafts (；′д｀)ゞ
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