126: Ning Hao's Big Diamond has broken records.

By their Junior Year, the school had already begun encouraging students to vie for roles and try to join film crews for shooting.

The school's management had become relatively much more relaxed.

After attending a few acting classes, Liu Yifei went to the Directing Department; she seemed to have truly developed a bit of a liking for directing.

“Are you really going to become a director?” The two of them walked hand-in-hand through the campus; at this time, there were quite a few couples around.

There were even freshmen coming over to ask for autographs.

“It’s quite interesting.” Liu Yifei didn't give a definitive answer.

She had plenty of energy right now and was very keen on learning; after finishing her acting courses, honing her acting skills still required life experience and the passage of time.

She used this time to study cinematography, lighting, and directing to understand the meaning of acting from a different perspective.

“Junior.” Someone ran up from behind them.

Li Xiuwu turned his head to look back. Seeing someone approaching, Liu Yifei shook off Li Xiuwu's hand.

“Junior, I’m Ning Hao.” Ning Hao introduced himself as he reached Li Xiuwu's side. He was afraid it would be awkward if Li Xiuwu had already forgotten who he was.

“I remember Senior Ning Hao. Is your movie finished filming?”

“It's finished. I also have to thank you for your timely help, Junior.” His expression was excited, his eyes filled with gratitude.

When he had looked for Li Xiuwu back then, he had been at the end of his rope. He wasn't even planning to finish the movie anymore; he just wanted to save the person first.

“No need to be so polite. Just consider it an investment from our company; if it makes money, our company will collect the returns.” Li Xiuwu didn't take the matter to heart.

“I understand. In any case, thank you, Junior.” Ning Hao felt that Li Xiuwu was saying this to lighten his psychological burden.

Because Li Xiuwu had explicitly stated that he wasn't optimistic about that script.

“This is Liu Yifei, my girlfriend.” Li Xiuwu introduced Liu Yifei at this time.

“Hello, Junior.” Ning Hao had been so focused on thanking Li Xiuwu that he only noticed Liu Yifei now.

He noticed the directing books in Liu Yifei's hands: “Is Junior from the Directing Department?”

“I’m from the Acting Department, but I'm quite interested in directing.” Liu Yifei had been sizing up Ning Hao, listening to his conversation with Li Xiuwu and guessing the relationship between the two.

“I’m quite familiar with the Acting Department. If there's anything you don't understand, Junior, you can come find me.”

“Thank you, Senior.” Liu Yifei nodded but kept her distance; from the chat between Li Xiuwu and him, she could tell they weren't very familiar with each other.

Ning Hao sensed Liu Yifei's distance and didn't say more. He turned to Li Xiuwu and said, “My girlfriend Nana has always wanted to treat you to a meal to thank you in person. Do you two have time today?”

Li Xiuwu looked at Liu Yifei, and she didn't object.

“Sure, we happen to not know what to eat for dinner anyway.”

“Wait a moment.” Ning Hao took out his phone and called Xing Na.

“It’s right near the school. Let's head over together.” Ning Hao put away his phone.

He and Xing Na rented a house nearby.

Li Xiuwu and the others didn't drive; they walked out of the school gates with Ning Hao.

Led by Ning Hao, they arrived at a restaurant.

Xing Na was already standing at the entrance of the restaurant waiting for them. Seeing the young and handsome man and woman beside Ning Hao, she immediately came forward to greet them.

“Hello, I'm Xing Na. You must be Junior Li Xiuwu. I thank you for your helping hand on Ning Hao's behalf.” She introduced herself very graciously and expressed her thanks to Ning Hao once again.

“Sister-in-law, no need for such politeness. Senior Ning Hao's persistence is something I admire very much.”

Xing Na looked at Liu Yifei: “You are the Fairy Sister, Liu Yifei. You're even prettier than on TV. No wonder you could enchant Duan Yu.”

“Oh, not at all.” Liu Yifei felt a bit embarrassed by Xing Na's words.

“Let's go to the private room.” Ning Hao took a look around; this was the entrance to the Beijing Film Academy, and there would be paparazzi lurking here.

“Right, right, right, let's go in first.” Xing Na took Liu Yifei's hand and they walked toward the private room together.

“Junior, a toast to you.” After the dishes were served, Ning Hao first picked up his wine glass to toast Li Xiuwu and downed it in one go.

“Senior, no need to be so formal.” Li Xiuwu was startled; Ning Hao had drained a glass of liquor without eating a single bite of food.

“Junior, don't mind him. Let him vent the frustration in his heart,” Xing Na spoke up.

Ning Hao spoke about the troubles encountered during the filming of Green Grassland, especially that accident, which nearly drove him to a dead end—he was just short of selling his own blood.

After Green Grassland was finished, the subsequent release was also a problem.

Ning Hao was planning to try his luck at the Berlin International Film Festival.

To win awards at the three major international film festivals in Europe, the requirement for Chinese-language films was to criticize one's own country; although Green Grassland depicted the backwardness of remote areas and the ignorance of the locals, it revealed a simple sense of patriotism.

Therefore, it was impossible for this movie to win awards internationally; Ning Hao was essentially different from other sixth-generation directors.

Xing Na shook her head. “Ning Hao doesn't like filming these kinds of stories either, but the current market is just like this.”

The domestic market couldn't support new directors; fifth and sixth-generation directors relied on making an impact with overseas awards to gain fame and make money so they could continue filming movies.

“This is a script Ning Hao started writing in '01.” Xing Na took out a script and handed it to Li Xiuwu.

She had always recognized Ning Hao's talent, but for a script like this, the market didn't allow it and no one was willing to invest; however, she liked this script very much.

Li Xiuwu took it and glanced at it; on the cover, the words 'Big Diamond' were handwritten.

His eyes lit up as he opened the script and saw the content.

The script had a distinct flavor of 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,' with several parallel plotlines, though the line surrounding the diamond wasn't complete enough yet.

He finished reading the general plot and closed the script: “This script is more interesting than the previous one, but the plotlines aren't rich enough, the characters in the various threads aren't full enough, and the diamond, as the core item, doesn't quite justify itself yet.”

Curious, Liu Yifei took the script to flip through it. The entire plot revolved around several groups of people fighting over a diamond, with various situations intertwined.

Hearing Li Xiuwu's words, Ning Hao was very happy; this was originally his favorite script, and he couldn't help but start chatting about it.

Discussing the plot, when they reached a highlight, he even took out a pen to jot down a few notes.

“I first became interested in being a director after seeing 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.' I started writing this script as soon as I got into the Cinematography Department,” Ning Hao said of the script.

He also lamented that it was truly difficult for new domestic directors to make a name for themselves.

Winning awards abroad was a shortcut for newcomers; otherwise, he wouldn't be filming arthouse movies.

“There's someone in our company who dreamed of filming sci-fi movies after seeing 'The Terminator.' He prepared to apply for the Beijing Film Academy in 1999, but unfortunately, that year the academy didn't recruit students from Shandong. He could only go to a Political Science and Law College. Last year, he came to our company to apply for a director position with his degree from that college,” Li Xiuwu said, referring to Guo Fan.

“I also applied for the Beijing Film Academy in '99. That year, the academy didn't want candidates from Shanxi either, so I went to a Normal University,” Ning Hao said suddenly.

“That really is a coincidence. You two from Shanxi and Shandong are like brothers in misfortune.” Li Xiuwu hadn't expected Ning Hao and Guo Fan to have such a similar experience.

“Now that you mention it, I really want to meet this brother,” Ning Hao also became interested.

“Does your company still need directors?”

Li Xiuwu was somewhat surprised. He tapped the 'Big Diamond' script: “If your next film is this one, our company will invest.”

“Fine, I'll film this one,” Ning Hao said decisively.

This was a script he had written himself; it was naturally his favorite story.