Computer
Came to fix your computer.
Lu Zhenqiu accompanied her for more than two hours of browsing. After coming out of the art exhibition, the two of them also browsed a nearby shopping mall. He Jinmei said: “Qiuqiu, then are you still going back for the New Year?”
“Me?” Lu Zhenqiu shook her head: “I probably won’t be going back.”
Ever since she came out, she hadn’t gone back for the New Year. It’s just that during festivals and holidays, she would still give her mother a call to report that she’s safe. He Jinmei nodded: “Then come to Auntie’s house for the New Year. We don’t have many people in our family, the New Year spirit is really faint.”
Lu Zhenqiu smiled: “Nowadays, the New Year spirit is very faint everywhere.”
“Yes, nowadays the New Year spirit is very faint everywhere.” He Jinmei said: “Back when Auntie was little, I loved the New Year the most. At that time, there were new clothes to wear and lucky money1. Now it seems almost the same as ordinary days. Especially for your generation, there’s no New Year spirit at all.”
The increasingly faint New Year spirit. Lu Zhenqiu suddenly remembered her own childhood. She also really liked the New Year. Her mother would stay home with her for several days. Although they didn’t have many relatives, their relationship with the neighbors was very good, so when the New Year came, it was still a bit lively.
He Jinmei said: “If you’re not going home this year, then come to Auntie’s house. More people means more liveliness.”
Lu Zhenqiu nodded: “En.”
After the two finished talking, they walked to the garage. Lu Zhenqiu put everything in the trunk. Just as she was about to get in the car, she received a call from Jin Shuilan, asking if they were finished. Lu Zhenqiu stood outside the car to answer the phone: “Just finished.”
Jin Shuilan said: “Then are you bringing my mom back?”
“En.” Lu Zhenqiu’s voice was calm: “I’ll bring her back in a little while.”
Jin Shuilan agreed, reminding her to be careful on the road. Then someone behind her called her. Jin Shuilan hung up the phone and entered the meeting room again. Two rows of people were sitting in the meeting room. The assistant director frowned: “What did they say, is there any news?”
The person who had just entered the door shook his head: “Waiting for notification.”
They had already been waiting for a notification all morning, still sitting in the meeting room waiting. It was said that next year’s policy would change, with adjustments made to film and television dramas adapted from same-sex works. Only one would be allowed to air per year. In the first two years, the conditions had clearly been relaxed, and they had even begun to develop towards broadcast on satellite television2. Who knew that a policy would suddenly be pressed down. Fortunately, danmei3 and baihe4 were separated, so one of each could be aired. Even so, it was enough to cause a bloody fight5.
Ever since Jin Shuilan had driven the development of baihe film and television, capital6 had already taken notice of this area, preparing to carve up and eat this piece of meat with a great axe7. They had hoarded the copyrights to several works. Now, no one was willing to yield.
Jin Shuilan sat in her seat, listening to them chat: “If it’s really like this, it probably won’t be our turn next year. So are we still filming or not?”
“Don’t know. I heard from Ah Wu that the production team next door has already stopped.”
“They’ve been stopped for over a week. As soon as the investors heard this news, they called a halt.”
“I heard that Tang Yingxia’s drama will be on in April next year. The promotions are already out.”
“Then she’s really lucky, caught a good opportunity.”
It just happened to be cut off at this final juncture. Among the baihe dramas set for next year, apart from Tang Yingxia’s, there was no news about any others. Even if there were news now, it would be too late. The time needed to report up through the layers of bureaucracy couldn’t be met.
“Yeah, becoming famous depends on fate. A few years ago, I even had a meal with Tang Yingxia. At that time, she wasn’t famous at all.”
In the past two years, baihe has seen an explosive development, not only in the number of works, but also in the number of fans, which has increased significantly. Jin Shuilan’s fan count was the most obvious. Generally, a popular author’s fan count is around three million. She was just about to reach that. Below her was Tang Yingxia’s group, whose fan counts also exceeded two million. Although a lot of it was padded followers from Weibo8, it could already be foreseen from this that baihe was no longer a niche, and was gradually occupying a place in the mainstream, especially with the baihe publications in recent years, whose sales were not low.
Even Bai Mao had said to Jin Shuilan: “I never thought that one day baihe would be like this.”
She had never thought it, but Jin Shuilan had. But after thinking about it came the problem she would face. The policy couldn’t possibly continue to be lenient; they would definitely be made to restrain themselves somewhat. It’s just that she hadn’t expected it to be so fast, that the restriction order would come down.
One work released per year.
At that time, just for this one spot, the internal struggles alone would be tough enough.
Tang Yingxia’s luck was indeed good enough. The very first time, she caught a good opportunity. Jin Shuilan sat at the table, spinning a pen, listening to the people in the meeting room discussing animatedly9. The whole room was noisy. She tapped the end of the pen. Someone beside her called out: “Teacher Jin, have you heard any rumors?”
Jin Shuilan shook her head: “No.”
However, she could have predicted it.
The girl beside her said: “It’s really quite sudden. I thought baihe was about to hit the big screen.”
Hearing her naive words, Jin Shuilan chuckled, and continued to spin the pen. About an hour later, the door was pushed open. The director walked in, his face slightly grim. The originally noisy meeting room quieted down. Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, waiting for the director to speak.
“You’ve all heard the news?” The director walked to the very front, sat down, drank a cup of tea, and said: “Starting next year, there will be a restriction order.”
This indicated that they didn’t know if the work they filmed would be suppressed, or for how long it would be suppressed. Everyone had a dejected look. The director said: “But President Fang said, our drama will be filmed as usual.”
Everyone looked up, looking at the director in disbelief. The director put down his cup: “Shuilan, there might have to be some changes to the script. I’ll send you the parts to be changed later. It would be best if they can be changed in the next few days. Then, everyone else, be prepared for meetings at any time. During this period, except for when you’re sleeping, keep your phones on for me.”
Jin Shuilan nodded: “Got it.”
The director spoke a few more sentences with the others. The meeting didn’t end until noon. A large group of people went to eat lunch. After lunch, Jin Shuilan was busy revising the script. There were quite a lot of changes, and they were very tedious. It was estimated that they wanted to refine the content, reduce the number of episodes filmed, and lower the cost.
She buried her head in her work. At a little past one, she received a message from her mom, saying she had arrived home. Jin Shuilan glanced at the time and frowned: “Only arriving now?”
“Had lunch with Qiuqiu outside.” He Jinmei smiled: “That hot pot place we ate at was pretty good. We should go together next time.”
Jin Shuilan said: “Okay, I got it.”
After she finished speaking, she put down her pen. He Jinmei asked: “Are you coming over to our place tonight?”
The company where the meeting was held was right near He Jinmei’s place. Jin Shuilan was planning to stay at home for these few nights. She pinched the bridge of her nose: “En, I’m coming back.”
“Then I’ll make you something good. What time will you be back tonight?”
Jin Shuilan said: “Tonight? I probably won’t be back for dinner tonight, I have to work overtime.”
He Jinmei said “oh”: “Alright then.”
Jin Shuilan hung up the phone, holding the phone and looking at the screen. After a while, she sent to Lu Zhenqiu: 【Are you home?】
A few minutes later, Lu Zhenqiu replied to her: 【Just got home.】
Unlike her previous replies, this time Lu Zhenqiu also sent her a picture of her home, with Maomao’s simple-minded look as it approached the screen. Jin Shuilan smiled, easing her exhaustion.
She sent: 【It’s good that you’re home.】
Lu Zhenqiu looked at this message, turned her head to look at the painting scroll on the sofa. It was that picture of maple leaves. He Jinmei had bought it for her. Lu Zhenqiu touched the painting, her finger tapped on the screen, and after biting her lip for a long time, she asked: 【Have you been very busy recently?】
Jin Shuilan: 【En? I’m revising a script recently, what’s up?】
Lu Zhenqiu: 【Nothing, I ate at a nice hot pot restaurant with Auntie today. I’ll treat you next time.】
Was it that delicious? Both of them recommended it. Jin Shuilan subconsciously replied: 【Okay.】
After sending it, she paused, looked at her phone, scrolled up a few messages, slowly put down her pen, and the corners of her lips lifted in a smile. The girl opposite her looked up and asked curiously: “Teacher Jin, what are you smiling about?”
Jin Shuilan glanced at her, wiped the smile away, and resumed a serious expression: “Nothing.”
She lowered her head and continued to revise the script. As expected, she didn’t have a chance to go back for dinner. She only ate takeout at the company. Because she had to have meetings from time to time and coordinate the script with the director, she couldn’t go home to revise it either. At past nine o’clock, when there weren’t many people in the office, she opened her phone for a live stream, put on her headphones, and listened to Lu Zhenqiu’s voice slowly coming through. The feeling of fatigue was swept away.
“Tomorrow? What do you guys want to see tomorrow? Dancing? That won’t do, my dancing is unwatchable.” Lu Zhenqiu’s voice was gentle and carried a smile. Jin Shuilan watched the person on the screen, her brows and eyes curved up. Lu Zhenqiu was replying to the bullet comments. The fans’ questions were all kinds of strange, chatting about everything under the sun10. Sometimes she could answer one, sometimes she couldn’t answer at all. While choosing questions to answer, she was also looking at private messages and group chats in the background. She also had many questions in her private messages. Someone had voted for her11 to get a spot and could become a moderator. Lu Zhenqiu made her a moderator and replied with a sticker. The other person sent a “thank you” followed by a link. Lu Zhenqiu didn’t pay attention and clicked the link. Then the screen went black.
“En?” she wondered, “Why did the screen go black?”
Jin Shuilan was also watching the live stream. The live stream picture was gone. The bullet comments were a field of question marks, and there was also Lu Zhenqiu’s muttering voice: “It’s over, it’s over, it’s over… I still have recordings…”
The bullet comments changed from question marks to expressions of sympathy.
Jin Shuilan listened for a few seconds and then called Lu Zhenqiu, saying: “Qiuqiu, your mic isn’t off.”
“Oh.” Lu Zhenqiu replied briefly, but her face instantly started to burn, a dry heat rising. Lu Zhenqiu quickly shut down the computer. Jin Shuilan said: “Try restarting it.”
Lu Zhenqiu restarted it once, but it was still a black screen. She fiddled with it for a while, a little dejected: “I’ll take it to be repaired tomorrow. It probably got a virus.”
Jin Shuilan stood up, took her coat from the chair, and casually put it on as she walked to her car.
After hanging up on Jin Shuilan, Lu Zhenqiu received a call from Xiao Yu, asking what was wrong with her computer. She said: “I accidentally clicked a link.”
“There aren’t any large-scale12 photos on the computer, right?” Xiao Yu asked worriedly. Lu Zhenqiu was stunned for a few seconds and immediately replied to her: “Of course not.”
Xiao Yu was relieved: “It’s good that there aren’t any. I really don’t want to see you in the news.”
Lu Zhenqiu: ……
After talking nonsense with Xiao Yu for a couple of sentences, Lu Zhenqiu wasn’t so anxious anymore. She restarted the computer again. The screen flickered twice, then went directly to black. Lu Zhenqiu clearly knew it wasn’t the computer’s fault at all, but she still slapped the computer tower, then took a deep breath and looked at the time on her phone: nine-thirty. She wondered if the computer repair shops were closed yet.
Lu Zhenqiu was searching for nearby computer repair centers on her phone. Several shops were already closed. There was one that was open. She asked the shop owner what time they closed. Several minutes later, the owner replied to her: 【Ten o’clock at the latest. House·call·service is from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.】
To get it repaired now, she could only go in person. Lu Zhenqiu looked at the computer and the tower, her fingers hooking a stray strand of hair. Just as she was preparing to dismantle the computer, the doorbell rang. She was startled and hurried out. A voice came from outside the door: “Qiuqiu?”
It was Jin Shuilan.
Lu Zhenqiu felt inexplicably at ease. She opened the door, and she and Maomao both poked their heads out: “Why did you come?”
Her tone had a bit of elation after a pleasant surprise. Jin Shuilan stood at the door, lost in thought for a few seconds at the light that suddenly lit up in her eyes, then she chuckled lightly: “Came to fix your computer.”
The author has something to say:
Thirty red envelopes me me da.
Teacher Jin is finally going to have a wife, so happy!
Jin Shuilan: Qiuqiu, come to my house for the New Year this year?
Lu Zhenqiu: What’s up?
Jin Shuilan: Wanted to ask what color curtains you like.
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