The days were long in June, and it was only four o'clock in the morning, and the sky was already showing the whiteness of the fish's belly.

A pampas-green Mitsubishi Pajero pulled over at the entrance of a newly built community on Taiyanggong South Street, where a young girl with a backpack and a huge suitcase was already waiting at the door.

As soon as the car stopped, the girl was about to open the trunk door in the back.

"Put it in the back seat, and throw the box directly on the back seat, and there is film behind it. ”

He Xin stepped down from the driver's seat, opened the back seat door, and helped the girl carry the heavy suitcase to the back seat seat.

"With so much luggage, are you going to stay there and not come back?"

"No, I'm going to have to come back with you. The box is full of food, for Sister Hu and Xiao Wang. ”

He Lirong, who is usually a studio front desk and handyman with heavy makeup, is rarely plain-faced, and she is usually used to seeing her wearing high heels, but today she seems to be a little shorter in sneakers.

I saw her pick up the skewers that I was going to put up on her when I saw her, and said, "Boss, I'll hold it in front!"

He Xin said with a black line on his face: "Put the dog down, you come to drive!"

But then he still asked with some anxiety: "How are your driving skills?"

He Lirong had to put the dog back in the back seat, patted its little head and comforted it, then straightened up and grinned: "Don't worry, boss, I can drive a pickup truck to the fish market to deliver goods when I am in high school, and the technology is absolutely fine." ”

In fact, whether to visit the class or not, He Xin was still a little hesitant before, after all, the location chosen by Ning Hao was far away, and it was about to reach the border between China and Mongolia.

Originally, the green grassland, in fact, the Ulan Butong grassland not far from the capital is also good, and many film and television dramas about the grassland are generally filmed there.

But Ning Haofei said that the Mongolians over there are not like the Mongolians in the traditional sense, and that they have been close to the Han settlements since ancient times, and their bloodlines and living habits are no longer very pure, and they do not have the kind of taste he wants.

He read a newly published book called "East Wumuqin", near the Sino-Mongolian border, where the last piece of primeval grassland in Inner Mongolia is preserved, and the Mongolian herders there still retain the ecological characteristics of traditional nomads. For this reason, he also excitedly took the photographer Du Jie to drive more than 1,000 kilometers, went there for half a month, and came back and said that it was the green grassland in his mind.

This time, he took the early staff to select the actors and prepare for the scene in late March. None of the actors are professional, they are all local herdsmen, and the three main actors are selected from thousands of students from dozens of local primary schools.

The shooting started in late May, and now it is almost half of the shooting, but the consumption of film is a bit large, and when he learned that He Xin intended to go to visit the class, he asked him to buy some film in the capital and bring it over.

Kodak 35mm motion picture film is really hard to buy except in big cities.

He Xin, who was originally a little hesitant to think that the road was far away, could only go now, and he had to go if he didn't go.

He Lirong, who had been staying at the front desk of the studio during this time, heard that He Xin was going to visit the class, so she clamored to go with her. One of the most important reasons why He Xinneng took her was that this girl could drive.

After all, it is more than 600 kilometers from the capital to Xilin Gol, more than 200 kilometers from Xilin Gol to East Wumuqin Banner, and 200 kilometers from East Wumuqin Banner to the remote Mandu Sumu Town.

When Ning Hao was filming in the original time and space, he was withdrawn by the investor before the camera was started, and the original investment of 1.4 million yuan was only 200,000 yuan. had no choice but to change from film to DV shooting again, and at the same time, in order to stabilize the crew, his girlfriend Xing Nana took out all the more than 100,000 savings that the family was going to decorate the house and get married, and also asked a buddy to borrow 100,000 yuan, so he could barely make up the money.

For this reason, he also forgot about the prop master who set up a yurt on the grassland 200 kilometers away from the station. This guy can only guard the yurt in the deserted prairie with no mobile phone signal within a radius of dozens of kilometers. Luckily, he was carrying a box of instant noodles, and luckily a shepherd was passing by. The shepherd did not speak Chinese, but he gestured to the painting, and he understood that he had to bring some water to this strange Han man every day, and usually the two could only squat a few meters apart and look at each other.

When the crew remembered this prop master and hurriedly drove to find him, seven or eight days had passed. When I found the prop master, I saw him standing on an oil drum and looking forward to it, he could barely speak, but the first sentence was: "Director, I want to go back to the capital." ”

Because there was no money, the crew only had four broken cars rented, and there were breakdowns every day, and in the end, it was the photographer Du Jie who returned to the capital to drive his Cherokee and became the main force of the crew.

At the same time, because of the remote location, there is no mobile phone signal, and later they found that there is a place about two square meters on the top of a mountain next to it, and the station is a little higher, and there can be an occasional mobile phone signal, so they put an oil drum there, and far away, there are often people standing on the top of the mountain. But looking at the mountain bag right next to it, it takes 40 minutes to walk up from the filming location.

Then it turned on, and this bad luck also followed. On the third day of filming, the van transporting the actors overturned into a deep ditch, and a child suffered a fractured hip bone with six stitches on his head, and an actress suffered a fractured collarbone.

Fortunately, the local kind Mongolian herdsmen also comforted them: "It's nothing, children on the grassland, it is common for them to fall while riding horses." ”

One sentence made Ning Hao, who was originally desperately pressed, burst into tears.

followed the arduous and troubled shooting, which made many people unable to persevere, and batch after batch of people left one after another. Ning Hao only gritted his teeth, and in order to allow the film to continue filming, he carried out an institutional reorganization: canceling the scene notes, and the local teacher with the children became the assistant director, one driver became the production director, the other driver was the life producer, and a sound engineer and an on-site producer.

That's how the film was completed.

Now Ning Hao is obviously much happier, there are 1.5 million lying in the account for him to make, and there is a fierce little bean Ding in the rear who can control the whole crew to ensure logistics, he no longer has to distract himself, as long as he makes a good movie wholeheartedly.

Of course, even so, filming on the barren grassland is far more difficult than filming in the city, for example, there is almost no mobile phone signal on the set, and I usually want to contact him for something, but I can't find anyone at all, so I can only wait for him to call. For this reason, He Xin also specially helped him bring a satellite phone.

"Boss, is this car yours?" He Lirong asked as she sat in the driver's seat and observed the interior of the car.

"No, I borrowed it from a friend. ”

During this time, Li Mengnan went to film in other places, and the car was idle and just lent it to him.

"I said, how can a star like our boss drive such an old car. ”

He Lirong said and started the car, and when she started, she looked at He Xin, who was sitting next to her and still looked sleepy, and said with a smile: "Boss, you can rest assured, my skills are absolutely reliable." ”

"It's better to drive slower, we're not in a hurry, you put on your seat belts. He Xin still reminded him.

I got together with Yu Dong last night, although he said in advance that he would drive to Inner Mongolia to visit the class early this morning, but he was still poured a lot by Boss Yu, who was interested, and he was still a little dizzy.

But he didn't dare to fall asleep immediately, so he sat next to He Lirong and watched for a while, until he got on the Beijing-Tibet Expressway and saw that this girl's driving skills were really good, so he put down the backrest with confidence and lay down and slept for a while.

When he woke up in a daze, he felt that the sun outside was dazzling, and when he looked up, he had already gotten off the highway at this time, and as far as the eye could see, the straight highway and the boundless prairie.

He quickly raised his wrist to look at the time, it was almost nine o'clock at this time, and he didn't realize that he had slept for four hours.

At this time, He Lirong, who was concentrating on driving, didn't know when she had put on a pair of sunglasses, and when she saw him wake up, she smiled and said, "Boss, you're awake!"

"Uh, sorry, I drank too much yesterday. ”

As he spoke, he looked out of the car and couldn't help asking, "Where is this?"

"Just past Zhangbei County, now this road is 207 National Highway. When I got out of the toll booth before, I asked, and when I got to Xilin Gol, I walked along the national highway until the end. ”

"It's pretty fast!" He Xin couldn't help but look at her in surprise.

"It's okay. ”

He Lirong glanced at the odometer and said with a smile: "I have only driven more than 300 kilometers, and 400 kilometers is less than that." ”

"Okay, you've worked hard after driving for so long, pull over, I'll drive. He Xin was a little embarrassed, he fell asleep and let a girl drive for so long.

"It's okay, boss, I'm not tired at all! You see that the road is empty, there is not a car for more than ten minutes, and there is a prairie next to it, the scenery is so beautiful, it is like a drive." He Lirong said with a smile.

He Xin saw that she really looked like she was enjoying it, but he didn't force it, pulled up the backrest, and chatted with her.

After all, it's easy to get sleepy when driving long distances.

In fact, when Xiaodouding first recruited He Lirong in, He Xin was a little uninterested in the girls with heavy makeup here, and felt quite sassy, as if it was not suitable for the style of Xinhao Studio.

But after I learned about it, I found out that makeup is just a hobby, in fact, this girl is very good, she hasn't even talked about a boyfriend, and the family conditions are very good, and she wants to pursue her dream by staying in the capital.

Without saying anything all the way, the car drove into the hinterland of the Mongolian Plateau, and the biggest feature here is probably that the land is vast and sparsely populated, and there are few cars on the road. With the development of the economy in the past two years, the entire National Highway 207 is basically a black asphalt road, and the road condition is very good.

Less than twelve o'clock at noon to Xilin Gol city, a simple lunch, fill the car with fuel and continue to move forward, but the road conditions are slightly worse after changing the provincial road, because June to September is the grazing season, and there are often cattle and sheep crossing the road, stop and go, until the night is about to fall, only to come to the border town of Mandu Sumu.

When the car was about to arrive, it drove to a small figure standing at the door of the gas station at the entrance of the town, looking forward to it, and desperately beckoning when it saw the dusty off-road vehicle driving over.

"Ah-Sister Hu, you miss me!"

As soon as the car stopped, I saw He Lirong jump out of the car with an arrow step, rushed over and hugged the little figure, maybe she was too excited, and she actually hugged the other party at once.

Hu Linyu kicked her two little short legs, and also said excitedly: "Did you bring everything you eat?"

“......”

Xiao Douding and Ning Hao went here to make preliminary preparations until now, and it has been almost three months in a blink of an eye, although she has returned to the capital twice for other reasons, but He Xin still sees her for the first time since the last separation.

Well, it's a lot darker, and I've lost a lot of weight. However, his gaze is a lot sharper, and it feels a bit like being reborn, and his small body can burst out with a strong aura.

"Xiaohu, hard work!" He Xin walked over and greeted her with a smile.

Xiao Douding picked up the skewers that couldn't wait to jump off the car early in the morning, only cared about his own dog, and glanced at him by the way, and said quietly: "I'm not hard, the boss is still hard for you, and you have come all the way to visit the class." ”

Not to mention that it was really a long journey, He Xin just looked at the odometer, and drove for nearly 16 hours all the way, a full 1,100 kilometers.

He doesn't mind Xiaodouding's unkind attitude, he is such a person, and filming on the grassland during this time is really hard.

"Hey, where's Xiao Wang?"

"She's helping to prepare dinner, and the crew should call it a day and come back, and boss, you came over to visit the class, and we can't help but express that you will be picked up, right?"

"Well, I know you've had a hard time. In this way, these things brought by Xiao He today will be reimbursed to you!" He Xin could only smile bitterly.

"Really?"

As soon as he heard that he could be reimbursed, Xiao Douding immediately smiled, and sure enough, he was still the one who still saw money in his bones.

However, she was also very shrewd, and said busily: "Then I will directly let Xiaoqin directly pay this fee to the production cost." ”

Just thought about it, and couldn't help wailing: "If I knew this, then I must have asked Rong Rong to bring more over!"

The town of Mandu Sumu is very small, distributed on both sides of Provincial Highway 303, and the total length is no more than 200 meters. Sumu is a Mongolian transliteration, which translates to the meaning of town.

Listen to Xiaodouding's introduction, Mandu Sumu is the most remote town in East Wumuqin Banner, the jurisdiction is larger than the entire capital, but the population is only a little more than 3,000, mainly animal husbandry, the economy is very backward, many people have been grazing on the grassland all their lives, not only can not speak Chinese, many are illiterate, the town's central primary school has a total of less than 50 students.

In his spare time, Xiaodouding also helps in the school, starting from the most basic ABCD, to teach English to students. The textbooks were brought from her own pocket last time she returned to the capital.

The meal was arranged in the only restaurant in the town, and the original customers of this restaurant were truck drivers passing by in addition to the residents of the town, because the flow of people and vehicles was scarce, and the business was very deserted. But since the crew came, the business of the small restaurant has boomed all of a sudden.

The Mongolian boss greeted them warmly in stiff Chinese, and the kitchen was steaming, and the pot was boiling large pieces of mutton, which smelled so fragrant that He Xin was salivating.

Wang Qin, the little accountant, was picking up all kinds of unknown wild vegetables that had just been dug up from the grassland with a bloated woman with a typical Mongolian face.

Xiao Douding secretly told him that the wild vegetables here were delicious, but she thought that the proprietress here couldn't get them clean, so she asked Wang Qin to come over to help every time.

When Wang Qin saw them come in, she couldn't hide her excitement, she was still shy and said hello to He Xin, and then she took He Lirong's hand and chattered non-stop.

After a while, I heard the car outside, followed by a lot of people, among which Ning Hao's broken gong and drum voice was the loudest:

"Everyone, hurry up, the boss is coming to visit the class today, let's follow the dipping and rubbing it well. Don't forget to put the film away first...... Hey, Geng Hao, your idol is here, remember, you must toast him for a while!"

Hey, He Xin, who was about to go out to greet him, couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this familiar name, who is Geng Hao?