Chapter 112: Time Passes
Because Zha Lan still has other filming tasks to attend to, this cameo appearance is really a standard one.
“How about you and Bourne play father and son? I think you two look a bit alike.” Su Yun’s arrangement was to insert a brief scene of Zha Lan and Bourne playing musical instruments into the plot where the heroine’s two twin brothers were playing music: both are men discovered by the great director Visconti, and although they have very different personalities, they actually look a bit similar.
That kind of restless and naturally seductive beauty can still make people feel thrilling even if they do nothing.
Perhaps as one of the most handsome directors in the industry, Visconti's vision in selecting handsome men for his films is also top-notch and attentive.
"That's too much! I'm still young!" Zha Lan, who kindly came to help out with the guest appearance, almost collapsed in anger after hearing Su Yun's arrangement.
"Then how about you two playing uncle and nephew?" Su Yun quickly said, "It's not that I can't let you play brothers, but the main thing is that in the plot, the twin brother invites the protagonist to join in the fun when the protagonist's father mentions that he used to be a saxophone player, so there needs to be a relatively mature example..."
That plot also gave the protagonist's father, who has always been portrayed as a villain, a more three-dimensional turning point: as a "successful man" with a happy career and family, the protagonist's father had always been mocking the protagonist's family for playing music and painting, and that it was not doing their jobs that led to the family's poverty.
That kind of condescending attitude made the male protagonist's family quite resentful towards him.
However, on the night when the two families had dinner together, the protagonist's mother recalled the first time they met and said that he was playing saxophone in the band.
Next, the more the twin brothers talked about music, the silenter the protagonist's father became. He even tried to put on a fake smile - but his smile turned out to be uglier than crying.
All of a sudden, a pitiful and hateful middle-aged man who gave up his dreams for the sake of living jumped onto it.
The interpretation of this complex emotion was not a problem at all for De Niro, so Su Yun was very confident in him.
As for Zha Lan, she only needs to show her face and pretend to play music, and the requirement for her acting skills is basically unlimited or even zero, so Su Yun doesn’t have to worry about all kinds of troubles this time, like in the past cooperation, shooting multiple times of multi-angle footage for him to “edit” her acting skills…
The only thing that was worrying was Bourne. After seeing him wash all the remaining dishes from the crew, Su Yun couldn't help but come to him with concern and asked, "Did the troupe abuse you?"
How come you wash dishes so... skillfully?
"Huh?" Bourne put the dried plate aside, a little confused, "No."
"Then you..." Su Yun hesitated.
"Oh, it's a way for me to relax - I find it enjoyable to wash dirty dishes and make them clean by hand," Byrne explained.
Su Yun looked at him seriously for a while, and after confirming that he was not joking, she finally said, "You are really... Xianhui."
So Tom, who was passing by, couldn't help but glance at Su Yun, and then began to recall the fruits he picked for her, the pasta he made, and the cookies he baked for her in the past - so much effort, but not a single word of praise in return.
eccentric!
We are both golden retrievers, why do you praise him and not me? Because he is taller than me?!
He says we are good friends, but in fact he treats everyone better than me!
Once people get angry, their IQ tends to decline, to the point where they cannot tell what is a compliment and what is a mockery.
However, Tom was busy filming, so he hid his thoughts and waited until the film was finished to slowly settle accounts with Su Yun.
But this kind of comparison is very similar to the male protagonist's mentality of eating lemons anytime and anywhere after chasing his wife to the crematorium - so recently Tom was even praised by Su Yun and director Lucas for his improved acting skills...
The final scene is the grand scene of the Basket Boys auction. After the school auditorium was decorated, the crew invited all the teachers and students who were willing to participate to serve as the living background. They were asked to sit in their seats and basically perform freely, just like any other activities in the auditorium.
After finishing the scene smoothly, just when everyone was about to stand up and prepare for free activities, there was suddenly some movement on the small stage that was not included in the plan.
After asking someone to bring out the instruments borrowed from the music room, Su Yun walked onto the podium while Bowen, Ruifan, Chen Boyang and Zhang Querong were tuning their instruments.
After lowering the microphone to a level that suited her height, Su Yun cleared her throat and began to speak: "Please don't leave for now. I have something to announce."
"Today, July 3rd, is not only the official wrap-up of our production as scheduled, but it is also the birthday of my good friend Tom."
"Oh——" After hearing this, the people present basically understood the meaning of Su Yun's temporary extra performance. They sighed and then turned their eyes to Tom who was standing aside.
At this time, he was holding the prop basket blankly, his eyes wide open on his delicately made-up face, his mouth half open in surprise, revealing his little rabbit teeth that had been mocked so many times...
It looks like a younger version of the rabbit in a suit from a fairy tale.
Su Yun suppressed her inner laughter and continued, "I remember last year, someone said that I didn't pay enough attention to him and the birthday gift I gave him was not thoughtful enough..."
"So this year, taking advantage of this rare opportunity, I plan to invite everyone to celebrate his fourteenth birthday with me." Su Yun said, and then lowered her head to look in the direction of Tom, "Tom, happy birthday."
As Su Yun finished her words, everyone present began to bless her: "Happy birthday, Tom!"
At the same time, a three-layer birthday cake was launched in the backstage, with colorful fruit pieces and smooth and shiny cream piled up, which made people's mouths water at the sight.
Tom was even more stunned: even after so long in school, he had never received so many birthday wishes from so many people...
In the midst of the joyous atmosphere, Su Yun turned her head and blinked. Bourne and River behind her immediately understood and took a step forward with their guitars in their arms.
But the first sounds were the electronic piano played by Chen Boyang and the drums played by Zhang Querong.
In the melodious prelude, Su Yun spoke again: "During this period of time, I have been very happy here. I believe and hope that everyone feels the same way as I do. This old song was released in 1964, the year I was born. I hope that I can use this song to leave a mark in everyone's memory that will never be forgotten for our meeting and parting."
"Next, we present to you 'I'll Never Find Another You' by The Seekers."
Perhaps the Seekers are not as world-famous as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and they are still as popular today, but in the music scene of the 1960s, The Seekers were comparable to Peter, Paul & Mary in terms of their singing skills and popularity.
Back then, they were able to compete with the Beatles' pop songs and the Rock and Rolling Stones' rock songs with just folk songs like "I'll Never Find Another You", which was an astonishing piece of music history.
Because this old song was very popular at that time, and even the compilation album that included it once dethroned The Beatles' "the White Album" from the top of the list, so more than ten years later, it is still a classic that this generation has heard of.
Considering that this song requires male harmony in addition to the female lead vocal, Su Yun thought about it and thought of a few boys in the crew who can sing and play.
After proposing to work together to celebrate the birthday of her good friend, the male lead of the movie, Tom, and also to use it as a farewell party for the film, the four people she asked to be responsible for the accompaniment immediately tried it according to the music score and successfully practiced the coordination in a short time.
"Somewhere there is a brave new world/They call it the 'promised land'/One day, I will go there..." After the four people with the accompaniment began to sing, Su Yun's eyes slowly swept over the young actors in the front row and the temporary student actors in the back.
Among these people, many will become shining stars in the future, there may also be members of various industries and contented people who live in warm and cozy families... But no matter who they will become in the future, at this moment, they are all gathered here equally and harmoniously, listening to this old song that carries the sadness of parting and infinite hope.
When it came to the female solo part, Su Yun's gaze returned to the front row: "They say there will always be someone/who will come through all the obstacles/and you will belong to me/whether it is today or forever..."
Although it was a celebration-themed party, Su Yun's heart was not just on Tom.
The young bodies of the stars in the front row that she had collected with great difficulty had all been collected under the pretext of filling out a yearbook. They would all be her reserve resources in the future...
However, she would certainly not express such ambition so quickly, so in the eyes of everyone, this was Su Yun's farewell blessing to everyone present, and a birthday blessing to Tom.
Because there are so few people in this world who are worth loving and they are so rare, if you can find that person, everyone hopes that this person belongs to you, forever and ever.
"I am about to embark on a long journey/So please follow me/You will guide me through the wind and rain..." When she slowly walked down from the small stage and came in front of Tom, facing Su Yun who was looking up at him with a smile, Tom subconsciously reached out his hand.
"I believe it will guide you forward when I am not by your side." Su Yun handed over a beautifully wrapped gift.
The gift box was the size of an ordinary pencil case, and the color of the box was the same smoky purple as Su Yun's eyes, except that the ribbon flowers on it were blue-green like his eyes. One could tell at a glance that it was carefully prepared to the point where even the packaging was considered well.
"Thank you..." Those words spoken in anger were remembered carefully, and Tom's eyes, which originally reflected colorful lights, began to flow with a moist and sparkling mist.
"Don't you want to open it and take a look?" Su Yun asked with a smile.
Tom responded blankly, then hurriedly opened the package - all of a sudden, a dark green metal pen came into view.
It is wider and longer than an ordinary fountain pen, and heavier. The metal pen body is engraved with smooth dark gold cursive English, which together form his real name: Thomas Cruise Mapother IV.
"Thank you, I like it very much." Although he didn't like reading and writing very much because of his dyslexia, the celebration party that Su Yun specially organized for him was enough to offset everything, so Tom was still very moved and thanked Su Yun for the gift again.
Seeing that he was vaguely dissatisfied but still thanked her seriously, Su Yun sighed and stepped forward to hold down his hand holding the pen: "It's not what you think. This is not an ordinary custom metal pen..."
As he spoke, Su Yun casually took out his ID card and pressed the end of the metal pen, causing a faint blue light to flash across the silver border in the middle.
Then, Su Yun placed the tip of the pen on the name column on the ID card and lightly scribbled on it.
"Mary Sue." When the metal pen touched the characters, a synthesized electronic sound was immediately emitted. The sound vaguely carried some of Su Yun's timbre and the stiffness of electronic sound.
"This is..." Tom looked at the pen in Su Yun's hand in great surprise.
"Two years ago when we first worked together, after I learned about your reading difficulties, didn't I tell you about something called a reading pen?" Su Yun patiently explained to him, "I spent two years researching it, and with the technical support of Nintendo and Johnson & Johnson, I finally compiled its built-in program."
"But this pen is only the first version of a customized product. Due to the limitations of technology and memory, it only has about 3,000 commonly used words built in, which are synthesized by my recordings. When the technology is further improved, I will make you a new dot reading pen with larger memory, more battery, and the ability to recognize and record new words... Eh?!"
Su Yun was suddenly hugged tightly. She was stunned at first, and then she felt the heat of breath and a little wetness on her shoulders. She was a little at a loss: although she knew that hugging is an action that people will do when they are emotionally excited, but as a girl who has only hugged beautiful and soft sisters, this is the first time she has been hugged by a boy of similar age to vent her excited emotions...
Su Yun, who didn't feel that the hugging experience was a bit strange at all, breathed a sigh of relief, then raised her hand and gently patted Tom's back to comfort him.
"I'm sorry, I, I'm too excited!" Tom reacted suddenly, blushing and letting go of Su Yun, but his eyes were still shining with incomparable brilliance: once upon a time, everyone thought that his dyslexia was incurable, and they could only let him work hard to overcome it or treat him as a bad boy who didn't like to study. Only Su Yun would work so hard to come up with a solution for herself...
All those words that he saw before, which were of different sizes, flying all over the sky and in strange order, have turned into words with her voice that he can understand. He feels so bright and transparent, as if the world has finally opened its arms to him, allowing him to see the traces and marks recorded between the lead and ink.
"It's okay. I understand how you feel." I could feel it from the strength of the hug just now.
Su Yun pressed the painful shoulder lightly without leaving any trace, and then looked with interest at Tom who was holding a reading pen and desperately tapping on all the letters around him in an attempt to listen to what the reading pen was saying.
As she watched, she couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Tom glared at her angrily with a red face, but she laughed even more happily in return. He finally couldn't pretend anymore and laughed along with Su Yun, holding the pen.
When their eyes met, it seemed that many things were clear enough without needing to be stated, and they were all hidden in the silence.
Seeing the two protagonists smiling at each other without saying a word, the people around them also gave them knowing smiles with gentle eyes.
Amidst the laughter and joy, only Chen Boyang looked calmly in the direction of Su Yun.
"Hey, do you think these two youngsters can..." Zhang Querong's drum stand was right next to the electronic keyboard. In addition, he and Chen Boyan had collaborated in acting and singing for quite a while, so the two young men had a very good relationship.
Su Yun prepared a gift for Tom so carefully. Not only him, but probably many people present also thought of the hazy and throbbing aspect of youth.
What's more, they are a pair of puppy love in the movie, which inevitably makes people curious.
"I think not." Chen Boyang shook his head and answered softly.
No matter how excited he was, his moved eyes could not deceive anyone - he had experienced this kind of heart-pounding feeling before, so after knowing Su Yun's real age and temporarily letting go of the throbbing of misunderstanding, he still remembered the emptiness of that kind of love.
Not to mention that Su Yunya had no such intention at all, even Tom, who was a little older than her, had not figured it out yet.
Therefore, both of them are still at a step above Friends.
"That's true. It's none of our business whether it's true or not. Keep going!" Zhang Querong touched his chin and nodded, then called on Chen Boyang and the two golden retrievers next to him to continue playing. "So many people want to sing along, so we can't stop the accompaniment!"
Bourne and River responded and continued playing their guitars.
At this time when people have never tasted the possessiveness and jealousy brought about by love, it seems that no one thinks that what happened today will become an indelible thorn in their hearts in the future.
"Let's sing together!" Hearing the chorus around them getting louder and louder, Su Yun hurriedly pulled Tom's hand and joined the crowd.
Not only did she want to join the crowd, she also called the photographer who had already finished work to start filming and recording this scene - as an investment boss, Su Yun really "abused public resources for personal gain" to the extreme.
"Even if I might lose everything tomorrow/I wouldn't mind at all/But if I lost your love, my dear/Then I would be at a loss/Because I know that I will never be able to find another you..." They sang this melodious old song in unison until the end, when the photographer conscientiously recorded the laughter and starlight of this scene on film.
"I am about to embark on a long journey/So please follow me/You will guide me through the wind and rain..."
Gazing at the colorful lights around, at this moment, time seems to stop its ruthless pace because it cannot bear to destroy the touching warmth that only youth can possess.
But life and the future will eventually come with the passage of time.
However, the melodious rhythm and laughter of this day have been deeply engraved in the hearts of many people.
Moreover, this will be accompanied by the glittering starlight that gradually radiates from them. After the good times have gone by, it will become an unforgettable and irreplaceable mark that people in later generations will marvel at when they talk about this era.