If we say that Liu Ye's performance in "The Devil" is very good, as his transitional work, it has aroused a lot of discussion.
Then Jiang Se's performance in "A Glimmer of Hope" can be said to be on par with his.
Those who came to attend the first eye ceremony could all see Zhang Jingan's preference for her. Several shots focused on her, and her characterization was much more full-bodied than that of 'Cheng Jianguo'.
The focus of the play was originally supposed to be on Cheng Jianguo's "repentance after straying into the right path", but in the end it fulfilled the role of Tang Jing.
The reason why she can achieve this is not only because Zhang Jing'an's love and respect for Jiang Se has been shown in the film, but more importantly, it is Jiang Se's personal grasp of the role, which is why she and Liu Ye have their own merits in the film.
After the movie was over, many people were deeply moved, and the rumors that Jiang Se had snatched the role of "A Glimmer of Hope" from Tao Cen were naturally dispelled.
From any perspective, people who have watched "A Glimmer of Hope" feel the same as Shu Peien, who first watched it at the French Film Festival. Apart from Jiang Se, no one can restore Tang Jing in Zhang Jing'an's script to such a high degree.
After the broadcast, there will be an interview session later. Jiang Se is the well-deserved protagonist of the night.
Pei Yi watched her surrounded by cameras from the audience. Her youthful features were different from the impression he had of her, but his girl was still outstanding.
After the activity, Pei Yi said he had something to do and had to leave first.
Jiang Se thought about what Mo Anqi had told her, Xiao Liu, and after removing her makeup and changing her clothes, she went down to the garage and waited.
It was around eleven o'clock when she finished the activity. The garage was quiet. Pei Yi was not around, and Mo Anqi and others had been sent away by her.
Tonight is the day when "A Silver Lining" is released. Many people who have grabbed tickets for the midnight premiere have already gone upstairs and are waiting in the hall.
The garage was unusually quiet. Occasionally, when a security guard on patrol walked by, the noise could be heard from far away.
Jiang Se maintained the same posture and sat in the car for a long time. She kept wondering why her grandfather chose this time to keep her and let her send him back alone.
He refused to accompany her to the premiere ceremony, but booked a theater by himself to watch "A Silver Lining". Ayi said that sometimes Feng Zhongliang also needed to be alone.
She waited for a long time and thought for a long time. When Feng Zhongliang came down, it was already past twelve o'clock.
At this time, many of her fans in the capital were in the cinema, watching her performance and sharing her joys and sorrows in the movie.
"grandfather… "
Feng Zhongliang came down on crutches. As soon as he got in the car, Jiang Se smelled the cigarette smoke on him. Just as he was about to speak, he turned his head:
"Let's go through the Beijing North Gate Bridge."
The road he was talking about was not the fastest shortcut from the cinema back to the Feng family, but rather a riverside road along the moat that almost surrounded the imperial capital.
It was built in the early Qing Dynasty and was renovated by the state after the revolutionary war. It is quite quiet.
Jiang Se nodded. Feng Zhongliang was a very restrained person. He never smoked and rarely drank.
He smells of cigarettes tonight. I wonder if he broke his vow for some reason.
She wanted to ask, but Feng Zhongliang was obviously unwilling to say.
Jiang Se started the car and drove out of the IMAX cinema building.
The further we drove towards Binjiang Road, the fewer people there were.
There are a lot of people here in the summer. Couples on dates and night runners coming and going can all become embellishments of this riverside road.
But it was late spring and early summer, and the nights in the imperial capital were as cold as water. It was almost one in the morning, and the population was very sparse.
The car was very quiet. Jiang Se was driving seriously. She knew that her grandfather was not asleep, he was just silent.
"Park the car at the corner ahead."
He stretched out his hand and pointed to the sign of a temporary parking lane on Binjiang Road ahead, "Get out of the car and walk with me."
Jiang Se nodded, and parked the car in the temporary parking lane as Feng Zhongliang suggested. She opened the door and got out first. The wind blew up her long hair and covered her delicate face.
She lifted her hair, walked around to the other side, opened the car door, and helped Feng Zhongliang get out of the car.
On a night like this, Feng Zhongliang shouldn't be so willful after watching the movie. Instead, he should go home, take a shower, sleep, and get enough rest.
"Look there..."
Feng Zhongliang was leaning on a crutch with one hand and letting Jiang Se support him with the other.
The other side of the moat is the other side of the lower half of the imperial capital, with lights on both sides of the river facing each other from afar:
"I remember that when I brought you back here, the facilities opposite were still under construction." But now it has become a high-rise building and is extremely prosperous.
"It's been more than 20 years." Feng Zhongliang sighed, "What a big change."
Jiang Se listened to his sigh with a smile and helped him walk forward:
"Grandpa, why did you suddenly sigh about this?"
Feng Zhongliang didn't say anything. For a moment, the only sounds around him were the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the willow trees on the river bank, the unhurried footsteps of the two people, and the crisp sound of Feng Zhongliang's crutches on the ground. After walking for a while, Feng Zhongliang seemed a little tired. Seeing a bench on the river bank, he patted Jiang Se's hand, motioning for her to help him sit over there.
The water on the river surface is illuminated by the neon lights on both sides of the river, showing magnificent colors, with a touch of tranquility and gentleness compared to daytime.
The boats moored on the shore were lit with twinkling lights, and Jiang Se felt that in such an environment, his restless heart was much calmer.
"Tonight, I'm also going to watch Silver Linings."
Feng Zhongliang put his crutches aside and suddenly spoke.
Jiang Se turned to look at him. He had his head lowered and his back straight. This was a habit he had developed during his years in the army, and he still maintained it even though he was old.
"Yeah, I know." She nodded, "Uncle Liu said so."
"I watched the movie twice." He stretched out his hand and made a number, his tone gradually becoming a little serious:
"The more I look at it, the more I remember what happened back then."
As he spoke, the smile on Jiang Se's face gradually froze.
"grandfather… "
"I remember that time, I had just returned home from a social event."
"Grandpa." She seemed to have guessed what Feng Zhongliang was going to say, and her lips trembled, but Feng Zhongliang showed no intention of stopping:
"Your uncle Liu was worried at the time and asked the kitchen to make me some sweet soup."
"Grandpa!" She was a little anxious. She clenched her hands into fists and placed them tightly on her legs, as if she wanted to stand up.
Feng Zhongliang ignored her:
"The servant who delivered the tea told me that a package had been received." It was then that he discovered that Feng Nan was missing.
At this point, Feng Zhongliang finally raised his head:
"After I found out you were missing, I took action immediately, but I know it's still a little too late."
It was because of the negligence of Feng's family that she was harmed at the hands of the bandits and remained in the hands of the kidnappers for a long time, suffering from mental torture.
"For many years, including your uncle Liu, including your parents and uncle, they all thought that I should hate Jiang Zhiyuan and his gang, and hated them for hurting you. Sometimes I think so too. When it's late at night, I also want to comfort myself in this way. But sometimes I always think about when I found you from the wooden house in the forest where you were imprisoned. What you were most afraid of was those vicious desperadoes, or were you afraid of other things?"
Feng Zhongliang's eyes fell on her face. She lowered her head in panic, as if she didn't want him to discover her true feelings deep in her heart:
"There are some things I have never dared to say. I find them ridiculous when I think about them myself." He muttered to himself:
"We are obviously the closest relatives, and I raised you. You have been by my side for more than ten years and we ate at the same table, but we have become more and more distant."
If it weren't for the opportunity of rebirth, which changed the way grandparents and grandchildren get along, Feng Zhongliang might have died with regrets in his life.
"Grandpa is old now. If I don't say some things, I may not have the chance to say them again in the future."
At this moment, Feng Zhongliang was no longer as cold and serious as usual, his eyes were gentle:
"Anan, grandpa was wrong. He was too self-centered and focused on his work, neglecting the people around him."
He reached out and held Jiang Se's hand, recalling the name he had called Feng Nan when he was a child:
"So we didn't find out Anan was missing in time, and you fell into the hands of the kidnappers, and you suffered a lot."
With every word he spoke, Jiang Se's hands became colder and his whole body began to tremble.
"I am not a qualified grandfather. Perhaps since your father and uncles were born, I have not learned how to be a competent head of the family."
It was not until problems occurred that he repented.
"But in grandpa's heart, grandpa has never given up on my Anan. It's just that he is too careless sometimes. Some people are not born to be qualified parents or elders." He paused, and looked at Jiang Se's eyes, which were quickly covered with tears. She pursed her lips, frowned slightly, as if she was about to cry, but forced herself to hold it back.
"Children need guidance to grow up. Grandpa has lived for so many years, but he also needs to learn things. It's only in recent years that I understand what a 'grandfather' should do."
"I have never given up on my granddaughter. If time could go back, I would have let go earlier and accompanied my granddaughter every day, discovered her disappearance earlier, and walked out of the wooden house holding her hand when she was panicking."
He held Jiang Se's hand. That hand was delicate and smooth, with fingertips as white as scallions and flawless white jade. But what he saw was her tightly clenched fist after he rescued her.
She was still shaking, tears flowing silently.
"In my grandfather's heart, you are not a granddaughter of the Feng family, not a socialite decoration, and not a bargaining chip to add glory to Zhongnan Industry. Whether you are well-behaved, sensible, obedient, or not, you are still my granddaughter."
He held Jiang Se's hand tightly:
"Now that you've grown up, Grandpa knows that you're no longer the Anan of the past, and you have Ayi by your side." He coughed twice when he said this, "Grandpa couldn't correct the mistakes of the past, but Grandpa can make amends. I'm here, and as long as my granddaughter needs me, Grandpa will be there for her at any time."
Jiang Se took small sips of air, trying to hold back the tears in her eyes.
She is no longer a child, and in fact she has long known that tears are sometimes useless.
But at this moment, no matter how hard she tried to hold back, the tears kept pouring out. She saw this frail old man, who was so stubborn and unkind in the eyes of the Feng family, straightening his back and saying loudly:
"As long as Grandpa's little Anan doesn't get scared anymore."
He is obviously so old, with gray hair, had a cold some time ago, and was coughing just now. He needs someone to support him when walking, but in Jiang Se's heart, Feng Zhongliang is extremely powerful at this moment.
His words came many years late, but they miraculously filled the missing corner of her heart all these years.
"The elders are also slowly learning how to be good elders." It was the first time he saw this well-behaved granddaughter crying uncontrollably. She bit her lips, trying hard to hold back her tears, but couldn't help sobbing.
She bit the back of her hand and her face turned red.
After being rescued from being kidnapped that year, Feng Qinlun and his wife and the rest of the Feng family reacted the most exaggeratedly. They cried and screamed loudly, as if they were even more distressed than the frightened Feng Nan at that time. However, she was quiet and very well behaved.
All the tears that had been held back for so many years finally came out at this moment.
"Can you forgive Grandpa?"
Feng Zhongliang also felt his eyes sore. Seeing that she was crying uncontrollably, he raised his hand to touch her head.
She nodded desperately and hiccuped from crying.
On Riverside Road, a pair of grandparents and grandchildren finally removed the barriers in their hearts after many years.
Jiang Se had never felt so relaxed before. Feng Zhongliang's words were very important to her. It turned out that she was not so unimportant in the Feng family. Even if she disappeared, there would still be people who would miss her.
The two grandparents and grandchildren walked along the river bank and chatted a lot.
She now tried to open up and talk to her grandfather about things she had not been able to say before.
"In fact, when I was little, I used to envy my classmates. When they were sick and uncomfortable, their parents would ask for leave to let them go to school." Her parents have always been strict with her, hoping that she can work harder and become an outstanding lady from the Feng family's eldest family. Even if she has a minor illness, she will persevere.
"I remember when I was in elementary school, there was a girl in my class who had a beautiful bun on her hair. She said that she played the piano very well the day before, so her mother got up early to comb her hair for her. She also praised her for a long time and rewarded her with snacks."
She wrinkled her nose:
"But I play better than she does."
But no matter how well she performed, in her mother's eyes, she should be able to do better, not to mention the rewards. It was impossible for Feng's mother to spare the time for socializing and entertaining to coax her.
She mentioned that one day Ou Miaosheng's paintings were exhibited in Hong Kong and she wanted to attend, but her mother asked her to attend a social cocktail party a few days later and gave her a bunch of lists to memorize, which caused her to miss the exhibition.
"Ou Miaosheng's posthumous works have rarely been exhibited on such a large scale." In the end, she watched other people's works many times and felt regretful for a long time.
"Actually I didn't want to have dinner with Zhao Junhan because I didn't know him well at all at the time."
But because Zhongnan Industry had a cooperation with Jianghua Group, she obediently agreed to her parents' request.
She talked a lot, and Feng Zhongliang nodded:
"You are the best, much better than the other little girls! You can't see Ou Miaosheng's art exhibition, so grandpa will buy you a few more paintings and hang them at home. You can treat every day as visiting an art exhibition!"
"I won't eat with that sly-looking kid from the Zhao family. He's cunning, unlike Ayi who's calm..."
He coaxed Jiang Se into laughing like he was coaxing a child:
"Of course I won't eat with him anymore..."
In the future, it will be another person who will be controlled by Feng Nan's parents, have Feng Nan's body and identity, and have to eat with Zhao Junhan. (To be continued)