"Jingnian, your sixth uncle just likes to pretend to be a big-tailed wolf. Your parents and I have worked together for so many years, how can I not take care of you!"
Director Sun waved his hands and said.
"Thank you, Uncle Sun. When my parents were alive, they always mentioned you, saying that you had outstanding literary talent and were good at writing with chalk. You didn't even need to underline when writing a blackboard newspaper. Your manuscripts were praised by the leaders of the ministry many times.
"
Chen Jingnian nodded in agreement, and the good words came out without hesitation: "I have just graduated, and I will be your soldier from now on. If I do something wrong, you can criticize me more."
"What's right and wrong doesn't matter in our relationship."
Director Sun straightened his clothes, picked up the hat hanging on the hook, put it on and waved his hand, "Let's go, I will take you to the projection team. You follow the old Liu from our department's projection team to learn to play movies. Don't worry about how old Liu is.
I have old stomach problems and rheumatism, but my movie-playing skills are not trendy at all."
Chen Jinnian turned sideways to let Director Sun go first, then closed the door behind him and followed him out of the office building.
The screening team is not far from the Publicity Department, in the wing behind the office building.
Before the two of them entered the building, they heard someone inside humming a ditty: "...there are countless kinds of boats at Sanjiangkou, and the good spring has arrived on both sides of the Yangtze River early..."
Chen Jingnian is very familiar with this libretto. He has always listened to his godfather Zhao Changshun singing it a few years ago. It is a classic excerpt from a Hebei Bangzi opera called "Butterfly Cup".
"When Liu is not playing with the projector, he likes to sing a few lines. Don't tell me, it's so delicious!"
Director Sun paused in the corridor for a moment, waiting for the people inside to finish singing a short verse before opening the door and walking in.
"Director, you are here!"
"Old Sun."
Two sentences came out from the room, and Chen Jinnian recognized that the first sentence was said by Xu Damao.
"Xiao Chen, come on, come in."
"Why."
Chen Jinnian hurriedly walked in under Director Sun's greeting.
"This is Xiao Chen who is new to our publicity office. Chen Jingnian graduated from high school. His parents are also from our factory. The factory arranged him to be in our projection team. Old Liu, please take care of Xiao Chen and let him help you."
Director Sun patted Chen Jingnian on the shoulder and introduced him loudly.
"Director, don't worry, we are all from the same hospital."
Xu Damao's pig-kidney face turned into a flower when he smiled. He turned around and said to Chen Jingnian: "Axe, I saw you before, why didn't you tell your brother Xu?"
"Uncle Liu."
Chen Jinnian had just saluted Old Liu, turned around and said with a wry smile: "I followed the leadership's arrangements, and that's why I found out that I was assigned to our Publicity Department, Brother Xu."
"Okay, you guys can talk, I'm going back."
"I'll see you off, Director!"
Xu Damao maintained his eight-toothed smile, stepped forward, opened the door wide, and made an invitation gesture with both hands.
Chen Jingnian slowed down for half a step, followed Lao Liu to the corridor, and sent Director Sun away.
"I'll go to the back warehouse and ask if the wires have arrived!"
Xu Damao watched Director Sun go out, turned his head and said something, and then stopped.
"Master, see what I can do."
Chen Jingnian hit the snake with a stick, took half a step back, and asked.
Old Liu was stunned for a moment, then returned to normal and said, "We all work closely with showing movies. Xiao Chen, you graduated from high school and have never been exposed to these things.
"No."
"Then let's start by drying the films. The weather is nice today. You can help me dry the old films."
"good."
Chen Jinnian walked into the room while talking to Old Liu. Under the command of Old Liu, he took out a stack of iron boxes from the cabinet, opened them and handed them to Old Liu.
Old Liu took the film copy, found the title and pulled out a section, then hung the copy on an arm with a disc on an old-fashioned projector, then passed the film through a series of parts and locked it on several gears.
.
"This is a scrapped Lao Wusi produced by SL. Our Yangtze River 200 produced in Nanjing is based on it. This is the film transmission board, and that is the film receiving board. Some people call it different, but they are all the same.
mean……"
When Lao Liu speaks, his voice is softer than when he sings, and his movements are very light, as if every step has been practiced thousands of times.
While talking, he introduced the two arms of the projector and some parts.
Chen Jinnian did not speak, but nodded repeatedly.
"Now it's time to dry the film. I'll go over the film to see if the potion and glue have stuck together, and then rewind it. Remember to hold the film holder in your left hand and the film header in your right hand when loading the copy, with the image facing down.
, the film holes are close to the frame, so the film will be correct..."
As Old Liu spoke, he shook a handle with his hand, and the copy on the film transfer board slowly rotated. Through Old Liu's calloused hands, the film inside was also transferred out bit by bit.
Chen Jingnian stood bent over for a long time and found that Lao Liu's hands with slightly deformed joints would shake slightly unconsciously, but the film did not move at all.
He turned in one direction and saw clearly that the seams between Lao Liu's fingers were closed, always keeping a slight distance from the film.
"This is my own habit. Half of the time I see it with my eyes. If I do this, I can't hold the film with my hands, otherwise the film will be worn.
But you can't open it too wide, it should be closed but not closed, so that you can detect some damage. When you actually play a movie, you can also sense the temperature of the film by doing this. If the temperature is high, be careful not to burn the film. "
A smile appeared on Lao Liu's ginger face, and he continued: "Copies are the lifeblood of our projectionists. I remember during the training, my teacher said that copies are more valuable than our lives. We work three or four times a month.
For a salary of ten yuan, this new film costs thousands of yuan, so we are required to hold an umbrella and wear a raincoat for the copy when it rains, and protect the copy if it falls, so that the copy does not fall on us."
"I understand, master."
Chen Jinnian can understand that people in this era regard work as extremely important and have a sense of mission, but it is difficult for them to have empathy.
Perhaps this is the biggest generation gap between people who lie flat and the current generation.
After a while, Lao Liu felt a little tired and stopped.
Chen Jingnian took out his cigarette case and gave Lao Liu a cigarette.
Then he put the cigarette case back into his pocket, tied the flap, and strangled the thoughts that were about to move.
After taking a cigarette break, the two of them continued to dry the films. They spent the whole morning talking and asking questions, and only finished four copies.
There are still nearly thirty copies in the cabinet that have not been dried.
According to Old Liu, these are just five copies of old movies. A movie requires about ten copies, and each copy can be screened for about ten minutes.
The bell rang for getting off work at noon. Chen Jinnian followed Lao Liu to get the lunch box back from the boiler room, and the two of them ate without saying a word.
When Li Mancang came to see Chen Jingnian, Chen Jingnian was enjoying the meal with steaming rice cakes and steaming cabbage soup in his mouth.
"A tough guy, just like your dad."
Li Mancang glared at Chen Jingnian, turned away with the lunch box in hand.
Chen Jinnian smiled and said to Lao Liu while eating: "Master, my sister is coming home today. I would like to take an hour's leave in the afternoon and go home early to prepare."
"Why are you asking for leave? You can go back after dinner. When the director asked, I told you to go to the issuing station to get glue."
Old Liu picked his teeth with his little finger and long nails, and said nonchalantly.
"It's okay if you go back too early. You can still learn skills here."
After Chen Jinnian finished speaking, he picked up his lunch box and drank two mouthfuls of vegetable soup.
"It's done!"
After Lao Liu finished his meal, he poured some boiling water to rinse the lunch box. After drinking the water, he put the lunch box in his pocket and lay down on the bench indoors to take a nap.
Chen Jinnian finished his meal slowly and cleaned up his lunch box.
Drying his hands, he stood in front of Lao Wusi and imitated Lao Liu, practicing installing the copy on the projector, silently reciting the operating instructions: "Hold the film holder in your left hand, hold the film title in your right hand, the image is facing down, and the film hole is against your chest..."
"Axe, stop practicing, it's useless!"
Xu Damao walked in furiously and shouted regardless.
Chen Jingnian smelled the faint smell of quicklime coming from this guy, so he just said "hmm" with his nose, but did not stop his hands.
"Brother Xu, I still don't believe it. This machine has been scrapped. One day, I will teach you how to operate that imported projector. The built-in speaker is more than half lighter than this one..."
Xu Damao kept talking and gesticulating, getting closer to Chen Jinnian.
"Brother Xu, my master is asleep, please keep your voice down."
Chen Jingnian turned to the windward position without missing a beat and whispered.
"This is called Master, I still want to teach you!"
Xu Damao gnashed his teeth and said in a pretended goodbye.
"hey-hey!"
Chen Jinnian did not answer, but pursed his lips and smiled.
"Well, I still have to go to the issuing station, so I have to go first!"
After Xu Damao finished speaking, he glanced at Lao Liu, picked up the canvas bag, turned around and went out.
Chen Jingnian practiced a few more times. When he sat down to rest, he found that there was no water in the thermos. He took the thermos to the boiler room and filled two pots of boiling water.
When the work bell rang in the afternoon, Old Liu sat up from the bench.
I went out to wash my face. When I came back, I saw Chen Jinnian cleaning the house and said, "You are just a rough man, there is no need to clean it up."
Chen Jingnian swept the garbage into the bin, raised his head and said with a smile: "I am also idle when I am idle, master."
"Um."
Old Liu responded, walked to the table, picked up the enamel jar, poured a cup of boiling water, blew on it twice, pointed to the cabinet in the corner and said: "There is a discarded copy in that drawer, you can practice with it if you have nothing to do."
"
"Thank you, master! I'm going to take out the garbage first, and I'll practice when I get back."
After Chen Jingnian finished speaking, he walked out with the handful in hand. This chapter has been completed!