Xu Wangqiu was woken up, opened his eyes, and found himself in a bathroom, lying on a bamboo recliner.

The man who woke him up was twenty-five or sixteen years old, thin and thin, with very old clothes, with several patches, and a faint melancholy under his bright eyes, and under the melancholy there was a quiet alertness, like a leopard ready to attack at any moment.

Seeing Xu Wangqiu looking at him with a puzzled gaze, the man smiled and said, "Are you sleepy?"

Memories float out of the void like a scoop pressed on water. Xu Wangqiu remembered that it was June 2, 1978, and this was a bath in Qinchuan Gaoguan'an City, and the man who woke him up was called Wu Zhiliu. A few years later, Wu Zhiliuhui became famous with the movie "Bloody Black Valley", and won the Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival with "Evening Bell", he and Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige are classmates, and they are also one of the representatives of the fifth generation of directors.

Xu Wangqiu knows what will happen in the future because he originally lived in the 21st century. According to the normal trajectory, he was born in the Northeast ten years later, and his parents were employees of the Northeast Film Studio. At the age of eighteen, Xu Wangqiu was admitted to the directing department of Peking Film Academy. After graduation, Xu Wangqiu worked as an assistant director, filmed commercials, filmed online dramas, and won awards at the Berlin Film Festival for his low-budget art films.

At the age of thirty-four, Xu Wangqiu finally had the opportunity to put the script that had been polished for many years on the screen. It was a war film, with a cost of 200 million, and the pressure to return to the cost was very high, so he was extremely strict with the crew, and he would personally inquire about every link.

Before filming a war scene, Xu Wangqiu asked the pyrotechnic master to show the effect. The pyrotechnic maker mashes the cake, puts it in a tin can, and then lights the cake. Normally, the cigarette cake would burn and smoke, creating a smoky effect, but this time there was a problem with the quality of the cigarette cake and an explosion occurred. With a bang, the tin can was blown open. A piece of crumbling iron was like a flying knife thrown by cruel fate, and it was embedded in Xu Wangqiu's chest with a "click". The pyrotechnician and two other assistants were also seriously injured by the tremendous impact of the scene. Xu Wangqiu and the others were sent to the hospital for rescue, but in the end, Xu Wangqiu was too seriously injured and was not rescued.

The strong anger and unwillingness to let Xu Wangqiu's soul not dissipate, with a bloody chest through time and space, came to Rongcheng in 1967, and occupied the body of a child with the same name and surname who was hit in the chest by a stray bullet in Wudou.

In the next 11 years, Xu Wangqiu's mind would be blank every time he woke up, and then slowly recovered his memory, the whole process was like installing a system on a blank computer. However, as time goes by, the blank state is gradually shortening, and it takes tens of seconds at first, but now it only takes a second or two to return to normal.

In these 11 years, Xu Wangqiu has discovered that it is good to have future memories, but it can also cause big trouble if it is not used properly. The manuscript "Bai Jie", which is now popular all over the country, is Xu Wangqiu's masterpiece, and it is a big poisonous weed that was named by Yao Wenyuan. On the list of tracing manuscripts released by the state, the first place is "Bai Jie", and then there are books such as "Return" and "The Heart of a Girl".

Xu Wangqiu's "Bai Jie" has nothing to do with the little yellow book of later generations, but is a story similar to "The Beautiful Legend of Sicily", about a boy's infatuation with the sexy female teacher next door, named "Bai Jie". Soon after the novel was written, it was taken away by his brother Xu Wangchuan and copied by Xu Wangchuan's classmates. Like all manuscripts, Bai Jie spread like wildfire across the country for more than two years.

……

Xu Wangqiu is young, no one would have thought that he was the author of "Bai Jie", and naturally he would not have found out about him. However, it still made him very nervous for a while, and he always dreamed of being dragged out to shoot at night in his dreams. This incident reminded him that he can't take too big a step, and if he takes too big a step, it is not easy to pull the egg, but it is completely finished.

On October 20, 1977, the state issued a notice to resume the unified examination of colleges and universities. This new regulation abolished the "recommended admission system" that had been introduced in the movement and reverted to merit-based admissions. This news was like a spring thunder in the land of a long drought, which shook the entire land of China. For the tens of millions of young intellectuals who are still in the countryside and other test takers in the cities, this is not only an entrance exam, but also a turning point in life.

In May 1978, the Beiping Film Academy officially resumed enrollment, and set up three examination areas in the country: Beiping, Modu, and Chang'an. The content of the examination is divided into preliminary examination, re-examination, and cultural course examination, and the best are selected.

Xu Wangqiu, who had waited for 11 years, persuaded his family to board a train to Chang'an, where he met Wu Zhiliu. Wu Zhiliu is a native of Jiazhou, and after taking the Chinese opera exam in Rongcheng, he went to Chang'an to take the Nortel exam.

In 1978, there was no identity card system in China, and cadres and employees of government agencies and enterprises who went on business trips to other places had to hold a letter of introduction before they could stay in hotels or guest houses. Xu Wangqiu's parents' unit gave him a letter of introduction, but he lost it in the car. Wu Zhiliu didn't bring a letter of introduction and a work permit, so he brought an admission ticket. Therefore, they can only sleep in the bathroom for two cents a night.

Coming out of the bath, Xu Wangqiu and Wu Zhiliu each bought a scallion oil baked cake at a state-run snack bar on the side of the road and ate it while walking. In 1978, prices were surprisingly cheap, and a scallion pancake cost only 8 cents and a tael of food stamps. But if you think about it carefully, it's not cheap, after all, Xu Wangqiu's mother's salary is 36 yuan a month, and his father's salary is only 42 yuan.

The examination room was not far from the bath where Xu Wangqiu and the others lived, and they arrived soon. The Nortel exam room in 1978 was not as crowded as it was forty years later, with no blackened crowds and no parents with anxious faces burning on their faces. Peking Film Academy is unfamiliar to many people, and there are even candidates who don't know what this school does. After entering the examination room, Xu Wangqiu heard a student ask the person next to him, this school is dedicated to showing movies, right?

For most of the young people in the examination room, college is an opportunity to change their fate, no matter what the university, as long as they can enter the university, as long as they can leave the countryside, they will change their fate. As many people say, whether or not you can go to college determines whether you wear straw sandals or leather shoes in the future.

Among the students who applied for the examination were many children of film studios, including Xiuying Studio, Western Film Studio, and some other film studios. These people grew up in film studios, have been exposed to movies, and know a lot of movie terms. In the waiting area, several candidates talked about film theory, opened their mouths for long shots, closed their mouths for montages, and said that they would test these things.

The sound of the discussion was like a whip on the tip of Wu Zhiliu's heart, and his somewhat sensitive heart was stabbing and painful. These things, he didn't want to say that he had come into contact with them, he hadn't even heard of them, and he thought in his heart, maybe he shouldn't have come to Nortel, he really didn't know anything about movies, and after a while, the teacher asked, he couldn't say anything, how should he face them?

Xu Wangqiu saw a layer of earthy gray floating on Wu Zhiliu's face, and knew what he was worried about. When he took the Nortel exam, he also encountered this kind of person whose mouth was full of professional terms, which made other candidates stunned. This kind of person seems to be very awesome, but in fact he is just talking nonsense. He patted Wu Zhiliu on the shoulder and comforted: "Don't listen to those people's nonsense, Nortel won't test these things at all." You think, if you know what montage is and what long shots are, then what are you going to do in school? These teachers will teach you when you enter the school, and you won't take the exam at all!"

Xu Wangqiu's voice was not loud, but the surrounding candidates heard it and nodded thoughtfully. The few candidates who put montage in their mouths were naturally unconvinced: "You said that you don't take montage or long shots, so what are you testing?"

The other candidates listened attentively, wondering if Xu Wangqiu could really say something useful.

Xu Wangqiu glanced at the questioner and said with a chuckle: "Just take the high school knowledge, as well as the basic literary and artistic knowledge, mainly to see whether you have talent and potential." ”

The questioning candidate's contemptuous gaze was like a knife, and he stabbed at Xu Wangqiu viciously: "I thought you could say something, it turned out to be bragging." Who wouldn't say that? Pig's nose sticks onions - pretend to be an elephant!"

Xu Wangqiu frowned, thinking that scolding people but you are not right! His contemptuous tone was like an outstretched slap, slapping the other party's face: "What is the most important ability as a director? It is the ability to observe and refine life. Only when we have enough observation and experience of life can we extract moving details from life. What is it to make a movie? It's to shoot all kinds of details. If there is not enough detail to support it, the story is good-looking, and it is also empty. We will test sketches, do you think it is to test whether we are good at acting? No, it is to test our ability to conceive characters and events suitable for this situation, and to express them with appropriate behaviors and actions, in fact, it is the ability to observe life and extract materials from life. Now you get the idea!"

The candidate was beaten speechless by Xu Wangqiu's words, and his face was hot, as if he was swollen by Xu Wangqiu. He wanted to refute, but he didn't know how to put his mouth down, stretched his neck, and opened his mouth like a goose that couldn't make a sound.

The other candidates were also shocked by Xu Wangqiu's words, and nodded thoughtfully.

Teacher Wang Xinyu, who was standing not far away, looked at Xu Wangqiu in surprise like an iron hoop, this young man is not simple, he knows the director like this, which film studio is it, right? He coughed and shouted: "Wu Zhiliu, does Wu Zhiliu have it?"

"Yes!" Wu Zhiliu responded, turned his head to Xu Wangqiu and said, "I'm in." ”

Xu Wangqiu knew that Wu Zhiliu would definitely be fine, but he still reminded: "Don't make up stories, tell the truth." ”

Wu Zhiliu followed Wang Xinyu into the examination room of the directing department and was inspected by several examiners. As Xu Wangqiu said, the examiner did not ask about things that he had not been exposed to, such as montage and new wave, and all the tests were basic literary and artistic knowledge.

In the proposition storytelling session, Wu Zhiliu originally wanted to make up a story, but he remembered Xu Wangqiu's words just now, so he told an ordinary story he had experienced, and how he helped and protected a middle school teacher in those dark days. The proposition storytelling test time is 7 minutes, and when it comes to the 7th minute, Wu Niuzi stops.

The examiner looked at Wu Zhiliu with approving eyes and encouraged: "Go on, go on." ”

Ecstasy was like a flooding river rushing in Wu Zhiliu's heart, and he knew that he had hope and had the opportunity to go to university! At this moment, Wu Zhiliu was particularly grateful to Xu Wangqiu, if he hadn't listened to Xu Wangqiu's suggestion and told a true story, this might not have been the result.

When Wu Zhiliu came out of the examination room, Xu Wangqiu was still waiting. He walked up to Xu Wangqiu, patted Xu Wangqiu on the shoulder, and said gratefully, "Thank you, Wangqiu!"

Xu Wangqiu knew that Wu Zhiliu should behave well, and chuckled: "If you say this, you will see the outside." At this moment, he heard Teacher Wang Xinyu shouting: "Xu Wangqiu! Does Xu Wangqiu have it?" Xu Wangqiu immediately stood up and said loudly: "Yes!"