Huayu: This director is pretty strong.

Chapter 68 Su Wan Accepts Public Opinion

The moment the red light on the corridor safety sign went out completely, Su Wan was still clutching the rubbing of the bronze badge in her hand.

Gu Changhe parked his car in the alley behind the dance theater.

Wu Gang pushed the two bound men to the side of the street and patted the duct tape residue off his hands.

Su Wan unfolded the fax sent by Lin Shufen in the car.

A preview of the layout of a local Shanghai tabloid, with lead type and the title box already reserved, the body text left blank—to be filled in tomorrow.

The announcement consisted of only one line: "Venice nominee for Best Actress, unbearable old news, to be published tomorrow."

Lin Shufen's handwriting was written in the lower right corner of the fax paper: "The price for the manuscript is 30,000. Do you want me to pay?"

Su Wan drew a line on the 30,000 with a pen.

She called Lin Shufen.

"The manuscript can't be suppressed."

Su Wan spoke up, "As long as Shen switches to another newspaper, it will still be published."

"So what do you mean?"

Lin Shufen was fiddling with a lighter over there.

"Buy their top spot on tomorrow's page. The entire page next to the main article."

Lin Shufen remained silent for two seconds.

"What do you want to do with the GG forum?"

"Print out Lin Qingqiu's overseas interview press release. They're releasing old news, and ours is right next to it. Readers can decide for themselves which one they see first."

The sound of the lighter stopped.

"That's a bad idea."

Lin Shufen asked, "How much?"

"It's cheaper than delaying the publication of a manuscript. I'll go talk to them."

Su Wan hung up and immediately dialed a number in Paris.

International long-distance calls take more than ten seconds to connect.

Vincent's voice sounded sleepy.

"Su, what time is it now—"

"Local media in Shanghai will publish negative articles about Lin Qingqiu tomorrow."

Su Wan interrupted him, "I need you to send out the overseas press release tonight."

"What press release?"

"A retired dancer transitioning to acting. Her back injury, training regimen, and the entire process of joining a production team. This narrative has been nailed to the front pages of major European entertainment news outlets."

Vincent paused for a moment.

"Su, releasing this at this time will make European film distributors suspect we're doing crisis management. Releasing a positive article before the negative one has even been published is problematic in itself."

Su Wan folded the fax paper into four pieces and placed them on her lap.

"Vincent, do you remember the date on the contract for thirty screens in France?"

"Remember."

What does Article 3 of the contract appendix say?

There was no immediate response.

"European publishers need to coordinate with the project's promotional pace and assist in establishing and maintaining positive public opinion overseas."

Su Wan finished reading it for him, "If you don't cooperate, I'll have the lawyer review the contract again tomorrow."

Are you threatening me?

"I'm reminding you of the contract terms."

Vincent whispered half a sentence in French, which Su Wan didn't understand and didn't ask.

"it is good."

He said, "Give me the materials, I'll process them tonight."

Su Wan hung up the phone and turned to look at the back seat.

Zhang Yuan leaned back in his chair, clutching the DV camera, his eyes still reeling from the chaos at the dance theater.

"Zhang Yuan, cut out all the footage of Lin Qingqiu's appearance tonight, leaving only the part where she's sitting and talking."

Which section?

"Before entering the rehearsal hall, in the alley, you filmed the scene where she changed her crutches."

Zhang Yuan opened the equipment bag, inserted the battery, and checked the time code.

"Less than two minutes."

"That's enough. Send it to me first."

The newspaper office was located in an old building on Nanjing West Road.

Su Wan pushed open the door to the GG department, where only a middle-aged man wearing glasses was sitting under a desk lamp, checking the layout sheets.

She slammed the price list on the table.

"I want the full right-hand side of tomorrow's front page, the 'GG' slot."

The man took off his glasses, looked at the price list, and then looked at Su Wan.

"This location already has a customer—"

I'll pay double.

Su Wan placed a stack of cash on top of the quotation. "Make the payment tonight. Give me a fax number, and the materials will arrive within three hours."

The man gripped the temple of his glasses and counted out the cash.

He pushed a business card towards him; the fax number was on the back.

Yan Huaizhong's fax arrived in Yanjing at 2 a.m.

Su Wan spread out on the folding table.

A copy from the Beijing Film Academy archives.

The document bears the red seal of the SH Municipal Bureau of Culture, with an even smaller seal next to it: Archives Sealed, dated 1992.

On the attached letter, Yan Huaizhong wrote four lines in pen:

In 1991, the vice president was internally disciplined and dismissed from his administrative post in 1992 for misappropriating performance funds and related financial issues.

The archives have been sealed by the Shanghai authorities and have not been made public.

This person was later transferred to the local cultural system, and his current position is unknown.

Su Wan placed the paper next to the fax machine without moving it immediately.

What Wei Cheng had in his hands were just photos of the dinner party and a forged medical record.

The fact that the vice president's file was sealed meant that he did not want anyone to dig up the whole story of 1991.

Wei Cheng threatened Lin Qingqiu with the photos, but he never mentioned the vice president's name or the misappropriated funds.

He couldn't bring himself to say it, because if he did, the vice dean's troubles would fall on his head.

The knife that Shen Congzhou gave to Wei Cheng had barbs on the hilt.

Lin Qingqiu sat in the spare recording booth of the film studio.

The camera was mounted on a tripod and aimed at her.

Zhang Yuan squatted next to the machine, adjusting the aperture.

Su Wan stood at the door and handed over a few sheets of paper.

"According to this, we don't need to read from the book; we should use our own words."

Lin Qingqiu looked down and glanced at it.

Training volume, physical fitness assessment before joining the crew, action design for the clock tower scenes, and control of breathing rhythm during underwater filming.

It was all technical language; not a single word mentioned the old injury, not a single word mentioned Wei Cheng, not a single word mentioned 1991.

"Who is this for?"

Lin Qingqiu asked.

"To the Venice organizing committee, to European film distributors, to the entertainment editors at AFP."

Su Wan leaned against the doorframe. "You're not a victim; you're the lead actor in this movie. Let's talk from that perspective."

Lin Qingqiu folded the paper and placed it on her lap.

"No manuscript is needed."

Zhang Yuan hovered his finger over the power button and glanced at Su Wan.

Su Wan nodded.

The red light is on.

Lin Qingqiu looked up and aimed at the camera.

"I retired because of a herniated lumbar disc, in the third and fourth lumbar vertebrae."

Speaking slowly and unhurriedly in Mandarin, she said, "Before joining the crew, I did three months of core muscle recovery training. For the underwater part of the clock tower scene, Director Chen and I studied six action plans, and the one that was ultimately chosen by myself."

She paused, her fingers pressing against the edge of the paper on her knee.

"That scene was filmed eleven times. When I came out of the water after the seventh take, I had a stress reaction in my lower back, so the crew immediately stopped filming and called a doctor that day. This incident is recorded in the filming log."

pause.

"I am very clear about what my body is doing."

Zhang Yuan didn't interrupt, and the camera quietly rotated.

Su Wan left the recording room, sat down on a wooden chair in the corridor, opened the editing software, and began editing the footage from the alley.

In the footage, Lin Qingqiu switches her cane from her right hand to her left.

She didn't look at the camera; her face was turned to the side, and her wrist movements were clean.

Su Wan extracted these three seconds and placed them at the beginning of the interview segment.

After cutting it, she imported the document into fax software, sent it to Vincent's Paris email address, and also sent a separate text message:

The materials are in the email.

This is from the AFP entertainment section; it will be published before tomorrow's deadline.

Su Wan placed her phone face down on the table and reopened the interview clip sent from the video recording room, playing it from the beginning.

She zoomed in to the fifth-to-last second, showing a still shot after Lin Qingqiu finished speaking his last words.

The camera focused on Lin Qingqiu's face.

The background is an old mirror with a black lacquered wooden frame from the 1980s, and a piece of lacquer has peeled off in the lower left corner.

The mirror reflected a half-open door in the corridor and a person standing by the door frame.

The man turned to the side, revealing only half of his face, chin, and the way his shirt collar was folded up.

Su Wan froze the image, took a screenshot, and dragged it into the zoom-in software.

She forwarded the screenshot to Yan Huaizhong and typed: "Is there a file photo of the vice president in the personnel file?"

I waited for four minutes.

Yan Huaizhong returned a black and white photo, a cadre ID photo from the late 1980s.

Su Wan placed the two pictures side by side on the screen.

The way the shirt collar is folded up is the same.

The jawline is the same.

She took a picture of her phone screen, uploaded the photo to the comparison software, and waited for the results to load.

The progress bar slowly crawls across the screen.