After finishing our discussion about Black Hole, Lu Pingan went home alone. He browsed through some portal websites and saw the news of his return to China splashed everywhere: "19-Year-Old Genius Director Lu Pingan Wins the Silver Bear." Reading it made Lu Pingan's face burn a little; they made it sound as if he had just returned from conquering the Olympic Games.
Photos of him were attached as well, some showing him accepting the award in Berlin, others during interviews.
Not bad at all. Aside from looking still rather skinny, his facial expression management was spot on—he looked handsome, pure, and very artistic.
After browsing for a little while, he closed the computer and headed straight to his shop.
He made a full inspection—everything was normal—and then went to the bank.
"Pingan is here! Oh my, you take one trip abroad and now the entire country knows who you are."
As soon as Liao Gensheng, the bank manager, caught sight of Lu Pingan, he came forward with a warm greeting.
Liao Gensheng was one of the late father's old friends. He had acted as a witness for the inheritance of the original owner's parents, and later on, he had helped organize many matters. One could truly say he was the father's best friend.
When Lu Pingan wanted to open his shops later, Liao Gensheng had lent a tremendous amount of help. Afterwards, the daily cash flow of both shops had been quite healthy, with the cashiers' accounts handled through the Industrial and Commercial Bank branch where he worked.
With him around, the cashiers at both shops could be monitored.
Doing business in this day and age meant that cashiers were crucially important. Usually, one had to use the people closest to them, but Lu Pingan didn't have anyone particularly close, so he could only find someone relatively honest. Even then, he couldn't completely trust them, so having Liao Gensheng as a safety net gave him much greater peace of mind. Whenever a cashier failed to arrive at the bank on time, Liao Gensheng would notify Lu Pingan. That way, the absolute worst-case scenario would only mean losing a single day's revenue.
Therefore, as things stood, Liao Gensheng understood Lu Pingan better than anyone else.
Everyone else thought he was just a student who had recently won an award, gained some fame, and possessed future potential. But Liao Gensheng knew that if Lu Pingan chose not to pursue directing, he could still achieve remarkable success in business. For this reason, he held Lu Pingan in extremely high regard.
"Uncle Liao, stop making fun of me. This was just a minor award; how could the whole country possibly know about it?"
Lu Pingan chuckled, his tone maintaining its habitual modesty.
"Before long, the whole country will know for sure..."
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the two men got down to business.
"The copyright sale this time brought in 500,000, which comes out to a bit over 300,000 US dollars after taxes. The agreed-upon transfer date is within the next couple of days, so I'd appreciate it if Uncle Liao could keep an eye out for it."
"It's all yours?"
"Yes."
"Not bad at all. One trip abroad and you're already a millionaire."
"Oh come on, compared to those big-name directors, this is just pocket change."
"Big-name directors couldn't pull off a thirtyfold profit."
Liao Gensheng sighed with a smile. Being well-traveled and deeply knowledgeable, he understood a great deal about the film industry. Immediately afterward, he asked, "What are your plans next? Are you going to focus on directing full-time?"
"I want to open a film and television company, and I'll definitely keep directing moving forward."
"And what about the restaurant business?"
"We'll see how things go. For now, shutting them down isn't necessary, but as for expanding—you know how it is. Burger King has limited potential."
Burger King could currently ride the wave of dividends provided by its "foreign brand" status, but that wouldn't last much longer.
It wasn't just a matter of the foreign label; the internal shortcomings in core competitiveness were the decisive factor.
Why KFC and McDonald's could stay in business indefinitely had a great deal to do with their management and supply chains.
In his past life, Lu Pingan had studied related knowledge about fried chicken restaurants, but the supply chain was something he could never replicate.
The single biggest bottleneck was the issue of ingredients.
For example, the sourcing of meats and vegetables, the purchasing of seasonings, and so on.
This wasn't a decade or two later, when you could find thousands of ketchup manufacturers nationwide, and a burger joint could buy small packets of ketchup seasoning for at most ten cents each.
Right now, the cost of ketchup was more than ten times higher than in his past life, and sometimes it even went out of stock.
Ketchup, however, was a minor issue; the meat supply was the real headache.
Take the white-feathered broiler chickens used by KFC alone—that single item could drive a wedge of at least thirty percent in costs between them and Burger King. If they chose other meat sources, the taste would be different, and the crucial point was that the prices still wouldn't be cheap, supply wouldn't be stable, and very little money could be saved.
Moreover, the breeding stock for white-feathered broilers wouldn't break domestic blockades until the year 2020 in the original timeline.
Therefore, running a fried chicken and burger shop on a small scale was fine, but trying to grow big—let alone nationwide, even expanding across a single province—would be extraordinarily difficult.
Without a core competitive advantage, the only fate waiting for it would be getting copied by trends and eventually squeezed to death.
Coupled with the fact that Lu Pingan's career in directing had already made significant progress...
He was already considering transferring or selling off Burger King sometime this year or next.
"Alright. Between directing and running a restaurant, your dad definitely would have preferred the former."
Uncle Liao let out a soft sigh and nodded in agreement. "If you need help, just say the word. Don't feel awkward with your Uncle Liao."
"I know."
Lu Pingan nodded with a slightly sheepish expression.
When he first opened Burger King and needed to handle the relevant permits, that was the first time he had turned to Uncle Liao for connections. At the time, things had been handled rather stiffly and formally, earning him a stern lecture.
Naturally, he wouldn't act like such an outsider now, so he went straight to the point: "Could Uncle Liao help me find some legal and financial talent? Tomorrow I'm meeting with China Film Group to discuss a project, and I might need them."
"No problem. I'll find someone experienced for you, and whoever handles your company setup can take care of that too."
"Thank you, Uncle Liao."
With matters settled, the two men drank a bit more tea in the office, and then Lu Pingan headed home once again.
Entering his study, Lu Pingan wrote down the plot synopsis for the feature film The Piano Tuner based on his memory.
True to form, the Golden Finger popped up with the original information without a hitch.
[Based on the story synopsis, the best-matching film retrieved is the 2018 film The Piano Tuner. Would you like to preview: Yes/No]
Lu Pingan clicked "Yes."
Almost immediately, the film from his memory appeared in his mind.
"This is the one!"
[Ding~ Lock in: Yes/No? Note: Host, please lock in the script according to actual conditions to avoid exceeding the mission time and forfeiting the reward.]
"You're saying that if this script is locked in, the mission time will probably also be one year, right?"
[That is correct.]
"I understand."
Lu Pingan acknowledged this.
The Golden Finger could lock in multiple scripts simultaneously, but the mission time frames were roughly the same. Therefore, if he failed to shoot the film within the stipulated time, the reward would naturally vanish.
This made complete sense.
Consequently, Lu Pingan did not click "Yes" just yet.
He had to wait until the project was completely finalized and entered the preparation stage before starting.
After all, a feature film like this would inevitably involve other companies, so it was best to leave himself some leeway.
Next, Lu Pingan used the preview function to reconstruct the script for The Piano Tuner.
After finishing the restoration and revisions, it was already afternoon when Hu Qingquan called to remind him not to miss the appreciation class. Lu Pingan then headed out for school.
...
At 2:30 PM, Zhang Songwen, Zhou Yiwei, Lin Jiachuan, and Han Wenwen arrived early at the appreciation class lecture hall and took their seats.
At this moment, apart from Zhang Songwen, everyone else wore expressions of distinct nervousness.
Because shortly, they would be viewing the short film The Piano Tuner.
This was the first public-nature screening of The Piano Tuner in China, and it was going to attract a lot of people.
Every single one of them had a role in it, and furthermore, it was their very first work in life.
Yet for them, even though the film had won the Short Film Silver Bear, their present state of mind was practically indistinguishable from facing a public execution.
The most nervous among them was Zhou Yiwei. His screen time wasn't the largest, but it was second only to Zhang Songwen's, so he was terrified that after the screening, people would say, "Everything's fine, except that supporting actor—what a piece of trash, total blemish!"
Second was Han Wenwen, because she had a "bed scene" in the film.
These days, her classmates kept asking her what kind of role she played in the film.
Whenever Han Wenwen recalled how the director had filmed her waking up and getting dressed beside Zhang Songwen during the shoot, she felt too embarrassed to answer. After all, she was a freshman with thin skin, yet at the same time, she couldn't bear not saying anything. While she hesitated, Zhou Yiwei blurted out: "It's a bed scene!"
And right then and there, the entire Class of 2000 Vocational Acting Class reached a collective climax.
Of course, there were others even more embarrassed than her, such as Che Xiao and Dong Xuan.
The Piano Tuner had won an award, and while the director Lu Pingan was the most famous, many newspapers had printed the names of the main cast as well: Zhang Songwen, Wu Yanshu, Zhou Yiwei, and Yan Danchen.
These four were the leads, and they had shared in the reflected glory of the Silver Bear along with The Piano Tuner, catching the attention of numerous people.
Among them, Zhang Songwen had already been approached by talent agencies as soon as he returned from Berlin, and Zhou Yiwei was in the exact same boat.
As for Yan Danchen, it was hard to say, since she was a senior and had already established her fame beforehand.
But had it been anyone else, they probably would have received the exact same treatment as Zhang Songwen and the rest by now.
That was why she and Dong Xuan were kicking themselves with regret over having missed out on the film all these days.
Especially Dong Xuan; Che Xiao didn't have to worry too much about such things given her background in a theatrical family, but Dong Xuan was different.
As a result, Dong Xuan had barely been able to stomach her meals lately.
Alas, missed opportunities were gone for good, with no way to turn back time.
As 8:00 PM drew closer, more and more people poured into the large appreciation class lecture hall.
Even many alumni who had already graduated and left campus showed up to join the excitement.
Aside from coming for the Silver Bear short film, a great many of them had their sights set firmly on Yan Danchen.
Word had already spread throughout the school that Yan Danchen had a strip scene in this film.
Consequently, tonight's appreciation class witnessed the rare spectacle of 100% attendance across the entire school.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm here for the premiere of The Piano Tuner. I think our little junior is quite talented—a Silver Bear award, no less. I simply must appreciate it."
Guo Xiaodong said with a straight face to his old classmate and former deskmate Zu Feng, whom he had run into earlier.
Zu Feng rolled his eyes straight at him.
Who didn't know that back in college, this guy had a secret crush on their classmate Yan Danchen?
The reason the two of them had come back for the school's art exam auditions was supposedly to check out the prospective new students, but once they arrived, the purpose instantly shifted to "attending an appreciation class, reminiscing about campus days, and checking out the junior's skills."
And that suggestion had come straight from Guo Xiaodong!
However, Zu Feng didn't expose him. Instead, he chimed in with agreement: "I heard Teacher Wu Yanshu also participated. I hold Teacher Wu in very high regard."
Hearing this, Chen Kun—who had bumped into them at school and entered the lecture hall with them—expressed that he felt the exact same way.
Still, he bluntly added, "I'm just curious. Doesn't Danchen usually refuse this kind of scene? How did she manage to open her mind so much this time?"
The other two men were equally puzzled; this really did seem to subvert the impression Yan Danchen had left in their hearts.
Yet once the film began playing, they understood everything.
They had all been tricked!
Soon, with the arrival of the appreciation class instructor and several school leaders, The Piano Tuner began to play.
And right then, the hundreds of students seated in the hall finally understood why this film deserved to win a Silver Bear and truly belonged in the curriculum.
Naturally, everyone also scoffed at the "bed scenes" and "strip scenes" that had been flying around like wildfire over the past few days, loudly cursing the power of gossip and the deadliness of rumors.
Well, mostly they were just disappointed.
Is that really it?
The camera shots were all blurred out; you could only vaguely make out a body—who could even tell that was Yan Danchen?
The bed scene was the same; they didn't even touch a bed at all!
Internal complaints echoed in everyone's minds, yet they still gave exceptionally high recognition to the film itself and the actors' performances.
Therefore, when the appreciation class instructor called Lu Pingan, Zhang Songwen, Yan Danchen, and the rest of the creative team up onto the stage, the applause from the crowd was thunderous.
At the same time, quite a few female students let out gasps of amazement:
"So handsome!"
"Is that Lu Pingan? How did he get so tall?"
"Duh, the guy just turned eighteen; he's still growing!"
"Incredible. Winning a Silver Bear right when he hits adulthood—tsk tsk!"
"He wouldn't be at the slightest disadvantage if he came to the Performance Department."
"He's a genius director, okay?"
"Talented and handsome too. Xiaoxiao, isn't this your old classmate? Have you got any ideas?"
Che Xiao once again buried her face in her notebook...