Huayu: This director is pretty strong.

Chapter 37 Dark Lights Script

The artificial rainstorm abruptly stopped mid-air.

The high color temperature light array, the same type used in the De Biao West Hall, flickered violently twice before going out completely.

"Chen'er, the power's out!"

Zhang Yuan shouted from the scaffolding.

The surrounding old factory streets were deathly silent, while the residential areas in the distance were brightly lit, but this construction site was as black as iron.

Chen Yan stood up from behind the monitor, his boots making a squeaking sound as they stepped into the mud.

"Lu Haiming even cut the cables."

Wu Gang walked to Chen Yan's side, holding a piece of the severed head that he had just pulled out of the electrical box, the cut clean.

Chen Yan didn't look at that section of cable.

"Where is Su Wan?"

"She took some people out of the city. The cement factory wouldn't let them transport goods, so she went to block the convoy."

Chen Yan nodded and took a lighter out of his pocket.

"Start the fire, and bring out all the backup diesel engines."

"Turning on the machine now? The noise will be heard throughout half of Tianjin. Wang the comprador will definitely bring the police to investigate the noise."

Wu Gang reminded him in a low voice.

"We just need to make him hear it."

Chen Yan lit the lighter, the flame reflecting the outline of his nose.

"He cut off my power, so I lit a fire in the wilderness. Go do it."

Two minutes later.

The three Soviet-made diesel generators were vibrating violently behind the base of the clock tower.

Thick black smoke billowed into the sky from the exhaust pipe, and a tremendous roar shattered the dullness of the winter night.

The lights came on again, even more dazzling than before.

Chen Yan stood in the center of the aperture, looking at the camera that was running at high speed.

"Old Zhang, keep filming."

"Where's the water? The water in the sprinkler truck is almost gone!"

"Then shoot the smoke. Bring the diesel engine's exhaust fumes into the lens; I want that burnt smell."

An open-air donkey meat restaurant located on a national highway in the northern suburbs of Tianjin.

The room reeked of cheap tobacco and strong liquor.

Su Wan took off her exquisite wool coat, revealing that she was only wearing a black turtleneck sweater underneath.

Sitting in front of her were six burly men with ruddy complexions, each wearing greasy down jackets.

"Miss Su, it's not that we're unwilling to deliver it. Lu's Film Industry has given the word that anyone who dares to deliver even a ton of cement to Laochang Street will have their car wheeled around Tianjin."

The leader of the convoy, surnamed Liu, was holding a glass and his eyes were darting around Su Wan.

Su Wan took out two bundles of 100-yuan bills from the black bag at her feet.

The money slammed heavily onto the greasy wooden table, getting a few drops of soup on it.

"This is the deposit. You'll get three times that amount upon delivery to the construction site."

Boss Liu glanced at the banknotes but didn't reach for them.

Money is a good thing, but you have to be alive to spend it.

Su Wan picked up an unopened bottle of Hengshui Laobaigan from the table.

She bit open the bottle cap and filled the empty glass.

"Boss Liu, Lu Haiming can give you a year's work, Chen Yan can give you a lifetime of fame. This cement is for an internationally acclaimed film; do you want your fleet to be in the newspapers?"

"Can you eat newspapers?"

"What about this one?"

Su Wan pulled out a copy of an authorization letter stamped with the official seal of the French legal counsel from her bag.

"As long as the cement arrives, you'll be the official logistics partner for the feature film 'Thunder.' Your name will be on the sponsor list for next year's Cannes Film Festival. With that kind of recognition, you can practically walk around Tianjin with your head held high!"

Boss Liu was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing.

"Miss Su, you're really bragging. But now, you have to finish this bottle of wine with us first."

Su Wan didn't waste any words.

She picked up the cup and swallowed repeatedly.

The spicy liquid burned her esophagus, and her face quickly changed from pale to a sickly flush.

"Smack."

An empty cup is placed upside down on the table.

Su Wan stared at Boss Liu, her voice hoarse.

"The wine's finished. When's the truck leaving?"

Looking at Su Wan's bloodshot but unwavering eyes, Boss Liu scratched the back of his head.

"Damn it, this woman is even more ruthless than Lu Haiming. Second brother, tell the brothers to get up and take the side road into town!"

Back gate of the construction site on Laochang Street.

A black Volkswagen Santana turned off its lights and slid into the shadows.

Two dark figures climbed over the wall and bent over as they moved toward the makeshift house where the mother tape was stored.

Zhang Yuan squatted on the wooden frame on the second floor of the clock tower, replacing the Seagull camera in his hand with a heavy pipe wrench.

"Chen'er, two people have come in. Should we stop them?"

Chen Yan's calm voice came through the walkie-talkie.

"Let them in. The tapes in the warehouse are scrap; the good ones are with Liang Qinian."

"So we'll just watch?"

"Watch. Make them feel like they've accomplished something."

The shadowy figure skillfully pried open the padlock and slipped into the warehouse.

Chen Yan sat in front of the monitor, watching this set of "realistic" images.

Ten minutes later.

A short, sharp scream suddenly came from inside the warehouse.

This was followed by a dull thud of metal colliding and the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground.

Wu Gang emerged from the shadows, holding a man upside down in his right hand.

The man's left hand was tightly gripped by a rusty, giant steel mousetrap, and blood trickled down between his fingers.

Another accomplice was pinned to the back by Wu Gang's knee, his face buried in the black mud.

Chen Yan pushed the monitor aside, stood up, and walked into the courtyard.

The roar of the diesel generator continued, drowning out the screams from the crowd.

"Search it."

Wu Gang searched the man's pocket and found a stack of photos and a cell phone that had just been turned off.

The photos show close-ups of Su Wan entering and leaving the bank, as well as images of her clinking glasses with the car fleet owner at the bar.

"Did Lu Haiming send you here to collect the master tapes, or to ruin someone's reputation?"

Chen Yan took the photos and looked through them one by one.

The man caught in the mousetrap was convulsing in pain and couldn't utter a single word.

"Director Chen, what should we do?"

Wu Gang asked.

Chen Yan threw the photo into the muddy water on the ground and crushed it with his foot.

"Return the photos to Comprador Wang. Tell him that for every drop of alcohol Su Wan drinks, I'll make his master vomit blood."

"Should these two be taken to the police station?"

"No need. Chief Liang needs to appear in his police uniform tomorrow, so don't let him get involved in any scandals now. Take him to the back mountain and find out who Wang the comprador will send next."

Chen Yan looked up at the night sky.

In the distance, the first heavy truck fully loaded with cement had already turned on its high beams.

Two beams of white light tore through the thick fog on Old Factory Street.

The low growl of the truck engine and the roar of the generator mingled together, vibrating every inch of the ground beneath their feet.

Su Wan sat in the passenger seat of the first car.

She rolled down the car window and shivered as the cold wind blew in.

Chen Yan watched as the car stopped in front of him.

Su Wan jumped out of the car, staggered for a moment, and then steadied herself.

"Twenty tons of special cement, grade 500. Is that enough?"

Her voice was soft and carried a strong smell of alcohol.

Chen Yan took off his coat and draped it over her shoulders.

That's enough.

"What about Lu Haiming..."

"He's out of luck."

Chen Yan pointed to the clock tower that was being restored.

The cement truck began unloading, and the gray slurry flowed into the foundation through the pipes.

The black smoke from the diesel generator mingled with the dust from the cement under the searchlight.

"Director Chen! Director Liang is here!"

Zhang Yuan pointed to the entrance of the alley.

Liang Qinian was wearing a faded police uniform with a pistol holster hanging at his waist.

He didn't look at the bloodstains on the ground, nor at the traitor lying in the mud.

He walked to the clock tower and reached out to touch the damp cement surface.

"The formalities are complete. This land will now serve as a temporary film and television base."

Liang Qinian looked at Chen Yan.

"Can we film that collapse now?"

Chen Yan took the viewfinder from Zhang Yuan and aimed it at Liang Qinian's face.

"Wait until dawn. Lu Haiming will bring the demolition team over."

"I want to blow this building up right in front of him at that moment."

The generator is still roaring.

Su Wan leaned on Chen Yan's shoulder, closed her eyes, and her breathing gradually became steady.

At the entrance of the construction site.

Wang, the comprador, sat in the Santana, looking at the three generators that spewed fire.

He dialed Lu Haiming's number, his hands trembling.

"President Lu, they... they've taken root at the construction site. Cement trucks have arrived, and Liang Qinian and his men are guarding the entrance."

There was a deathly silence on the other end of the phone.

"The ministry's review team will arrive at Beijing Film Academy at 10 a.m. tomorrow. If Chen Yan doesn't come back, he'll never get the dragon seal again."

"Go and saw off the load-bearing pillars of that clock tower. I want them to actually crush and kill a few people when they're filming."

Lu Haiming's voice was as cold and venomous as a snake's through the microphone.

Wang, the comprador, swallowed hard as he looked at the barbed wire fence erected on the construction site wall.

He didn't dare tell Lu Haiming that the two brothers he had just sent in still hadn't come out.

in the dark.

Chen Yan stood atop the clock tower.

He looked down at the altar of vengeance at his feet.

Every brick, every bucket of cement, is etched with a curse from a past life.

He crumpled the slip of paper with the secret accounts written on it into a ball and stuffed it into the crack in the still-wet cement.

"Old Zhang, turn the lights off. Give the foundation a close-up."

Chen Yan stared at the viewfinder and slowly pressed the record button.

In the picture.

The blue brick engraved with the words "repay debts" was completely swallowed up by the sticky gray cement.

Freeze.