A good screenwriter, like a good director, is something you can only find by chance.
Lu Yinbing started looking for such scripts a few years ago, and even asked the company to tailor it for her, but she was never satisfied with the results. Three years ago, Ning Qing returned to China with her first best-selling script, which was given to a first-class domestic film and television company. After the drama became popular, Lu Yinbing's cousin wanted to find a place for his wife to be listed, so that no one would bother her and try to poach her.
Ning Qing didn't like socializing, and she was writing most of the time. She didn't care where she was, and was happy for her husband to arrange it. When her cousin and Lu Yinbing mentioned it, they hit it off immediately. Lu Yinbing thought that when she was sleepy, someone would bring her a pillow.
She talked with Ning Qing for an afternoon, and the other party was interested in her description. The next day, he gave her a rough outline of a script of more than 10,000 words. In this way, Ning Qing expanded the outline, divided the scenes and scenes, revised the manuscript several times, and after more than two years of creation, handed over the finished product.
"Take your time to read it. Ask me if you have any questions." Ning Qing raised her head, her eyes calm but with pride. Then she refocused her attention on the book in her hand.
…
Lu Yinbing was driving, and Xia Yitong was sitting in the passenger seat, holding the script and reading it with her eyes fixed on it.
The script has forty episodes, which is concise compared to the so-called major dramas that nowadays have seventy or eighty episodes, but it contains a lot of content, and each episode has more content than the average script. Xia Yitong placed most of it on her legs, and the occasional turns and slight bumps in the car did not stop her from concentrating her eyes.
It is impossible to finish reading it in the office. If you work day and night, it will conservatively take a day and a night.
Lu Yinbing looked forward and turned slightly towards her: "What do you think?"
"… "
Xia Yitong had no time to pay attention to her.
Lu Yinbing didn't ask any more questions. She looked pretty good.
"We're here." Lu Yinbing parked the car, helped Xia Yitong unbuckle her seat belt, picked up the heavy script with both hands, and called Xia Yitong to get out of the car. Xia Yitong said, "Wait until I finish watching this episode."
Lu Yinbing curled her lips, picked up the ones she had already watched, and started watching from the first episode.
She was planning to watch it with Xia Yitong, but when she opened the first episode, Xue Yao came over. They went to the office to chat for a while, talking about the schedule and the movie that would be filmed next month. Lu Yinbing had high expectations for this movie and had been preparing for it for a long time. The director was a famous French director, and the team was completely Western, mostly Chinese, but it was about something in another country. It might have been a weird movie, but after reading the script, Lu Yinbing was amazed by the boldness of the screenwriter's ideas, and after a long period of discussion and communication with the production team, she felt that it was worth the risk.
She is already 36 years old. It's not that she thinks she can't act if she gets older, but she still has too many things to do. If she fails again this time, her original plan will be postponed for a few years. People need to focus. She puts all her energy into filming. It's not fair to let Laiying bear all the burden. There is also Xia Yitong. She plans to return to the stage of drama to practice, but now there is no chance. There are two children at home. Lu Yinbing sometimes wants to break a minute into eight pieces.
Lu Yinbing was under a lot of pressure and began to suffer from insomnia at night. He often sat on a small sofa in the corner in the middle of the night and read over and over again the torn script, or went to visit his children next door, or sat by the bed and stared at Xia Yitong in a daze.
Going to the company today was a relaxation, and she couldn't help but want to extend this relaxation, longer and longer.
Lu Yinbing adjusted her seat back and leaned back, with the script on the steering wheel. Xia Yitong glanced at her and touched the back of her hand, and Lu Yinbing held her hand in return.
Time slipped away quietly in the underground garage. The already dark garage became even darker. Xia Yitong huddled in the narrow compartment, stretched, and said, "Shall we go up?"
"There are two children at home. Will you or I accompany them upstairs?" Lu Yinbing asked.
Xia Yitong paused, pretending that she had never said the above sentence: "Come back later, I'll watch another episode."
"Fortunately, I told them that I wouldn't be back for dinner, so I can delay it for a while." Lu Yinbing smiled.
No matter how much parents love their children, they sometimes want to hide away from their children and find some quiet time.
In the Lu family villa.
It was already eight o'clock in the evening. One of the two children was sitting on the sofa, and the other was squatting at the door playing. The one squatting at the door would get up from time to time and run to the aunt quickly with his legs twitching, "Is mom back?"
Aunt Liu remembered the message Lu Yinbing had just sent her and gently touched Xia Lu's head: "Mom is outside talking to someone about something important. She will be back later."
"Oh." Xia Lu went back dejectedly and continued to sit not far from the entrance, acting as a door god.
Lu Xia had a stern face, and she hadn't turned a page of the children's book in her hand for a long time. She looked outside and then at the door. She had just clearly heard the sound of the iron door opening outside. She had heard it.
Lu Yinbing could never have imagined that her eldest daughter was so smart. She and Xia Yitong walked into the house at a quarter before nine, with only fifteen minutes left before the children went to bed. She was holding two small cakes in her hands and showed them, "Dangdang, look what Mommy bought for you."
She bought this at the pastry shop when she came back from dinner as a surprise for her two little darlings. Now that she came back so late, she took it as an apology.
Xia Lu sat up and stood in front of her, with stars in his eyes.
Lu Yinbing handed Xia Lu her favorite chocolate cake and said, "Be good, let mom open it for you." She looked at her eldest daughter who was lying motionless in the distance, took the initiative to walk over, and said with a very gentle smile, "This strawberry one is for you."
"Why are you pouting so hard?" Lu Yinbing was still teasing her with a smile, and Xia Yitong was also smiling. The next moment, something unexpected happened. Lu Xia actually cried without any warning, the kind of crying that made her breathless and heart-wrenching.
Lu Yinbing panicked all of a sudden, threw the cake aside, hugged her to comfort her, and asked repeatedly: "What's wrong? What's wrong? Why are you crying here for no reason?"
Xia Yitong also left Xia Lu and rushed over. Xia Lu looked around, lingered on the cake that he had taken two bites of, wiped his mouth and walked away.
Lu Xia is undoubtedly the darling of the family.
Lu Xia basically hasn't cried since she could speak. When she's unhappy, she'll just put on a stern face and her mother will pat her head. She has never cried as hard as she did today. Her tears are like beads that have broken off the string, not even staying for a second, rolling down from her eyes.
The two tried to coax her left and right but it didn't help. They asked her but she wouldn't say anything. No matter how they kissed her face or patted her head, it was useless. Xia Lu held Lu Xia's hand tightly and patted her shoulder gently like a little adult: "Don't cry, don't cry."
Lu Xia's expression suddenly became complicated when she looked at Xia Lu. She felt that her crying scene was about to be interrupted. She struggled but failed. Xia Lu still held her tightly.
Xia Yitong realized that she couldn't get any result from asking, so she just gave up and adopted a roundabout strategy: "How about sleeping with mommy tonight?"
Lu Xia pursed her lips and stopped crying.
Xia Lu climbed onto Lu Yinbing's neck flexibly like a monkey. She didn't get along with Lu Yinbing when she was little, but now she's grown up, she's quite clingy. Lu Yinbing let her ride on his neck for a while, then let her go: "We have to take a shower first. Go find Aunt Liu and wipe your hands and feet, lie down in the bed, and wait for us to come out. Whoever doesn't lie down properly will have to go back to their room."
Xia Lu ran away. Lu Yinbing turned around and was about to speak, but Lu Xia was nowhere to be seen.
"Auntie, auntie, auntie." Aunt Liu was surrounded by the two children, who rushed to take her to wash her face, hands and feet.
Only at times like this would Lu Xia behave like Xia Lu, like a three-year-old child clinging to his parents and wanting to sleep with them. Lu Yinbing stared at the other person's back and couldn't help asking, "Who do you think this child looks like? He doesn't look like you. You weren't this mature when you were a child."
"Like you?" Xia Yitong glanced around her face.
Lu Yinbing scratched the back of his head, twisted his neck twice, made a sound, and yawned a little sleepily: "I don't know, I'll ask my mom tomorrow. I remember that when I was still young, I played with my brothers and sisters fiercely, but I don't know about when I was younger."
"Maybe she looks like no one but herself," said Xia Yitong.
"It's nothing. Anyway, as long as she doesn't break the law, no matter how she grows up, our child won't grow up crooked." Lu Yinbing smiled, "Let's go take a shower. They will both fall asleep soon. How can you ask her?"
"How do you know I want to ask her?" Xia Yitong asked curiously.
"Don't I know you?" Lu Yinbing snorted softly, breathing out through his nose, looking very proud.
"Take a shower." Xia Yiting pinched her proud nose.
When the two came out of the shower, the two children were already lying obediently on the bed, one on the left and the other on the right. Lu Yinbing and Xia Yitong then lay down on the bed and surrounded the two children in the middle.
Xia Lu threw herself into Lu Yinbing's arms, and Lu Yinbing hugged her. She tugged at the corner of her clothes. She was not used to wearing pajamas to sleep. Xia Lu put her little hand on Lu Yinbing's collarbone, and soon she began to breathe evenly. It was already half past nine, half an hour later than her usual bedtime. She had squinted her eyes and struggled hard before Lu Yinbing came out. Now she smelled her mother's familiar body fragrance, so she naturally fell asleep on the pillow.
Xia Lu is an easy child to take care of. She speaks her mind and is cheerful every day. The other one is much more complicated than her. Xia Yitong knows that her eldest daughter is pretending to sleep when she looks at her trembling eyelashes in her arms.
Xia Yitong sighed inwardly and touched Lu Xia's forehead gently.
Lu Xia opened his eyes and looked at her.
"Are you finally willing to pay attention to your mother?" Xia Yitong's expression was not serious at all. Instead, she was relaxed and gentle, trying not to give her a sense of oppression.
Lu Xia buried his face in her neck and hugged her tightly with both hands.
Xia Yitong patted her back gently and felt the tension in her spine slowly relax.
"I... heard you open the door." Lu Xia's voice sounded muffled, as if she was about to cry again, "Why didn't you come in?"
What
Lu Yinbing also heard it, and moved closer to Xia Yitong without disturbing Xia Lu.
"I heard it. Why didn't you come back? You lied to us."
Xia Yitong turned around and looked at Lu Yinbing. They both looked at a loss. Xia Yitong bit her lip, feeling guilty. But how could she explain this to her child
They said they wanted to take a break from their busy schedule and didn't want to come up to take care of the children? According to what happened just now, Lu Xia would cry her heart out.
But Xia Yitong really didn't expect this child to be so sensitive. The sound of the iron door opening? She could hear it from such a far distance across the house? Was she just talking nonsense or did she really hear it? If she said she heard it wrong, would Lu Xia believe it? No, she couldn't say that. Her every move now not only represented herself, but also had to have a positive impact on the child. What if she not only heard it, but also saw it through the window? With her sensitivity, what if she was psychologically traumatized by her lies
Worried. Xia Yitong became worried after hearing her explanation.
"let me."
Xia Yitong looked at Lu Yinbing who was speaking, and Lu Yinbing repeated in a low voice: "Let me do it."
Lu Yinbing handed Xia Lu, who was clinging to her, to Xia Yitong, and the two changed positions. Lu Yinbing and Xia Yitong lay side by side facing each other, with two children in the middle, one sleeping soundly and the other waiting for an answer with misty eyes open.
Lu Yinbing looked at her, not treating her as a child at all, but as an independent adult, and explained: "Mom and Mommy, we didn't mean to not come up today, we were reading the script in the car. You know the script? It's a lot of thick books in the study room, which are used for filming, ping-pong. This is our job."
Lu Xia's already big eyes widened into dumpling-shaped balls, and he looked at her with a half-understanding look.
"Working, going to work, making money requires a quiet environment. We were afraid that our sister would disturb us if we came up, so we finished our work in the car and then came up." Xia Yitong was amazed by Lu Yinbing's blame.
Lu Xia looked at her twin sister who was sleeping with her mouth open and drooling, and finally nodded.
Lu Yinbing said, "But can you tell me how you could hear the door opening so far away? Or did you see our car from the balcony?"
"I can hear it." Lu Xia pursed her lips, not very happy that she didn't believe him.
Lu Yinbing's eyes lit up, he looked at Xia Yitong and said with a smile: "I guess you inherited this ear."
You have to know that Xia Yitong is the kind of person who could even hear her talking to herself on the stage at the launch conference.
Xia Yitong stretched out her hand, rubbed Lu Xia's little head, and smiled: "Yes, yes, just like me. Go to sleep quickly, hug mommy's neck."
Lu Xia tightened her face again, and hugged Lu Yinbing's neck reluctantly, and then slowly let go when he fell asleep.
The two children were asleep, but the two parents did not let the matter go. They tiptoed to open the door and went downstairs to the guest room to ask Aunt Liu, who was taking care of the children at home, if there was anything wrong with Lu Xia all day, and what TV he watched or books he read.
Aunt Liu said, "I watched a cartoon called xxx. As for the book, she put it in the drawer of the coffee table, on the top. I read her two stories and also read a book with pictures on it, which was on the coffee table."
Xia Yitong and Lu Yinbing looked at each other and said, "What story did you tell? Can you tell us the details?"
Aunt Liu recalled for a moment and said, "I can't tell it if you ask me to repeat it. Let me find the book and turn to those two pages for you to see?"
"Okay, give us the book she read today."
Half an hour later, Lu Xia and his friend returned to the room and got into bed. The two children were already sleeping together. Lu Yinbing's eyes lingered on the two children's faces, he sighed softly, and turned off the lights.
Lu Xia cried so hard today, not because of the fairy tale Aunt Liu told her, but because of the comic book. The comic book is very famous, and has been famous for nearly a hundred years. It is called "Sanmao's Wanderings". The book was given by a godmother. It is a color comic book and is placed on the small bookshelf in the living room. Lu Yinbing has the black and white classic version herself. She sometimes sits on the sofa and flips through the color version, but today is the first day Lu Xia read this book.
Lu Yinbing still remembered what Aunt Liu had just said.
"She asked me what an orphan is, and I said an orphan is someone without a father or mother... She really liked watching this, but she seemed a little scared, and asked me a lot of questions. When I explained it to her, my tears welled up, especially when she talked about seeing the mother sheep with the lamb, Sanmao thought of her own mother, lowered her head sadly, and kept wiping away tears... She might be afraid that you two would not want her, so she cried so hard..."
This reason sounds outrageous, but it makes sense to the child. She had been reading "Sanmao's Wanderings" the whole day and was looking forward to her mother coming back. As a result, she heard the sound of the door opening but didn't see anyone coming in. She put herself in the shoes of the orphan Sanmao in her mind, and when she saw the two people coming in, she couldn't control her emotions anymore.
"Let's tell her this story again tomorrow," said Xia Yitong.
"Yeah." Lu Yinbing lowered his head and kissed Lu Xia's forehead, "Let's go to sleep."
The child in her arms whimpered, and a tear oozed from the corner of her eye: "Mom..."
Lu Yinbing and Xia Yitong took some time out in the morning and did not get busy with work. The three of them sat around Lu Yinbing. Lu Yinbing put the colorful "Sanmao Wanderings" on his lap and talked about modern Shanghai, Sanmao's experiences, his kindness, and his care for society and the world.
Xia Yitong discovered that Lu Yinbing's storytelling skills were almost as good as her acting skills. Her lines were very stable, and her words were eloquent and interesting, which was quite similar to the professional storytelling skills on the radio stations. Xia Yitong's lines were also good, but she secretly compared herself with Lu Yinbing in her heart and found that they were far behind.
The content was obviously a little obscure for three-year-old children, but it was easily explained with her simple language. The two children looked at her with their bright eyes blinking.
When talking about Sanmao being bullied, Lu Yinbing felt bitter on the back of his tongue, and the two children cried loudly, and even Xia Yitong had tears in her eyes. The children cried, but Lu Yinbing refused to stop crying. When talking about the street children like him who cared for him and warmed him, the two children burst into laughter.
After being pestered to tell stories for a whole morning, Lu Yinbing was so tired that she fell back and lay on the carpet. Two children sat beside her, one pinched her arm and the other massaged her leg. Lu Yinbing was flattered: "Why are you so well behaved today?"
Completely ignored by the two children, Xia Yitong said sourly: "Because you can tell stories." If she had known this, she would have let Lu Yinbing tell the stories before.
Lu Yinbing laughed: "I just realized how talented I am now."
Xia Yitong also smiled and said, "You'll tell me more later." But there was some ill intention hidden in her smile.
A three-year-old child is at an age with a strong desire for knowledge and always asks his parents to tell him stories. Lu Yinbing will be busy next.
"Did you rest well, Mommy?" Lu Xia stuffed the comic book in her hand into her hand again, "I want to listen more."
Xia Lu: “Yeah!”
Lu Yinbing felt a chill on his back as he looked at the two babies in front of him who were smiling like angels. It was clear that the little devil's sickle had been extended.