novelraw Chapter 128: Script – “The Lurker”
Chapter 128: Script – “The Lurker”
The entourage van smoothly drove into a villa area in the Beijing suburbs.
Finally, it came to a gradual stop in front of a modern-style detached villa.
Sun Zhou didn't get out of the car, he just leaned over.
"Brother Ci, I'll wait for you right here in the car."
Jiang Ci walked alone towards the entrance.
Before he could even raise his hand to knock, the heavy door silently opened from the inside.
Lin Wan's housekeeper had been waiting; she gave Jiang Ci a gentle smile and stepped aside to let him pass.
Jiang Ci entered the living room.
A wave of dry, warm air rushed to meet him.
The living room was designed with minimalist openness, and beyond the massive floor-to-ceiling windows lay a silent, soundless courtyard.Lin Wan was sitting on the sofa.
She wasn't wearing her usual sharp professional attire, just a loose-fitting grey loungewear set, with a pair of black-framed glasses perched on the bridge of her nose.
That queenly, decisive aura she usually projected was considerably toned down, revealing a hint of the creator's languor.
On the coffee table in front of her sat an open laptop.
Next to the laptop was a stack of A4 papers secured with a black binder clip.
Seeing Jiang Ci, Lin Wan didn't get up; she merely lifted her chin, gesturing towards the sofa opposite her.
Jiang Ci sat down as instructed.
His gaze went straight past the water glasses and fruit platter on the table, firmly locking onto that stack of A4 papers.
Jiang Ci got straight to the point.
"Sister Wan, is the script finished?"
Lin Wan didn't answer immediately.
She reached out and pushed the thick stack of manuscript pages towards Jiang Ci, neither lightly nor heavily.
"Film script, The Lurker."
Jiang Ci extended his hand and picked up the script.
As the manuscript pages landed in his hand, a weighty, substantial texture transmitted through his fingertips.
On the cover, there were only the two large characters "The Lurker" printed in a Song typeface, simple and direct.
Below that was the screenwriter's name: Lin Wan.
Nothing else.
He opened to the first page.
What met his eyes was the character profiles.
[Protagonist: Shen Qingyuan.]
[Background: The only son of the renowned Shanghai silk merchant "Shen's Cloth Shop," his family is immensely wealthy.]
[Personality: Studied abroad since childhood, loves poetry and piano. Influenced by Western education, he is naive, romantic, and not very concerned with major national affairs.]
[Relationships: Has a well-matched, childhood sweetheart fiancée, Gu Wanbai. The two are deeply in love and about to be married.]
Jiang Ci read every single word.
A young master from a wealthy family, naive and romantic, with a mutually devoted fiancée.
This opening...
It seemed somewhat different from the "earth-shattering, moving heaven and earth" death he had imagined.
This felt more like the perfect opening for a sweet, pampering romance drama set in the Republican era.
Suppressing the confusion in his heart, he continued flipping through.
The next page was the plot synopsis.
Just the first line of text caused Jiang Ci's pupils to contract sharply.
[War breaks out, Shanghai falls. Shen Qingyuan, because of his proficiency in multiple languages and near-photographic memory, is unexpectedly noticed by an underground organization at a cocktail party and forcibly recruited as an intelligence agent, codename "Abyss."]
Jiang Ci's back instantly stiffened.
He kept reading.
[To infiltrate the enemy and obtain the highest-level intelligence, the organization demands Shen Qingyuan completely sever all ties to his past.]
[He must pretend to be a cowardly, greedy, self-serving traitor who sides with the enemy for wealth and glory.]
He could almost immediately imagine the kind of scorn and contempt such a favored son of heaven would provoke when he appeared before the world in such a disgraceful guise.
Jiang Ci felt his blood flow quickening.
He forced himself to stay calm, his gaze continuing downward.
[He must personally push away his beloved fiancée, using the most hurtful words to slowly, inch by inch, crush all her pure love for him.]
[He must watch helplessly as she misunderstands him, as she comes to hate him.]
[Finally, to protect her teetering family and to completely sever ties with him, the "traitor," Gu Wanbai, under her family's arrangements, marries someone else.]
Reading this, the edges of the manuscript paper crumpled under the clear pressure of his grip.
Personally pushing away one's beloved.
Being misunderstood and hated by that beloved.
Watching her marry another.
His already pale face, from excessively immersing himself in the character's tragedy, actually revealed a trace of genuine pain.
Lin Wan, sitting across from him, took in every subtle change in his expression.
She didn't interrupt, just crossed her arms, quietly observing.
She knew it.
In this world, only Jiang Ci
could, the moment he saw the script, resonate so deeply, so tremulously, with the soul of the character.
Jiang Ci was completely unaware of Lin Wan's gaze.
His consciousness had utterly sunk into the pages.
He flipped to the last page of the script.
There, it was the synopsis of the final scene.
[On the eve of victory, the final piece of intelligence that would decide the war has been sent.]
[Shen Qingyuan, his cover blown, is escorted by the enemy to the Paramount Ballroom, the place where he and Gu Wanbai once pledged their love.]
[The head of the secret police reads out his "crimes" before everyone and executes him.]
[Upon receiving the news, Gu Wanbai is in disbelief. It turns out all the past events were Shen Qingyuan's disguise! He was shouldering the great cause of his nation!]
[Under the swaying lights of the ballroom, he calmly straightens his suit and tie, smiles, and walks towards the enemy's gun.]
[A gunshot rings out.]
[The next day, Shanghai is liberated.]
...
The script synopsis ended there.
Jiang Ci closed the script, his mind emerging from its pages.
He gently placed the stack of manuscript paper, which carried the entirety of a man's tragedy, back onto the coffee table.
Perfect.
This was practically a textbook-level masterpiece of "Bad Ending Aesthetics"!
Dying just before the dawn.
"How is it?"
Lin Wan's voice finally broke the silence in the living room.
Jiang Ci looked up, meeting Lin Wan's probing eyes.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.
Like, "Boss, you're amazing! I love this way to die, it's intense!"
Or, "What's the next way to die? Are there more scripts like this?"
But when he saw Lin Wan's serious, almost reverent attitude towards the work as if it were a piece of art, he forcibly suppressed those silly thoughts.
He adjusted his emotions and, in the tone of a professional actor, asked the most crucial question.
"This script..."
"Has the director... been decided?"
Lin Wan didn't answer directly.
Instead, she pulled out another document from under the coffee table and handed it to him.
"This is a supplementary agreement I had the legal department draft."
"The salary split in your previous contract is too low."
"For this film, if it gets made, I'll raise it to fifteen percent after tax for you."
Jiang Ci was stunned.
He didn't take the document.
Fifteen percent after tax.
For a newcomer actor who had only released one supporting role film, this was practically treatment reserved for top-tier stars.
Lin Wan seemed to see through his thoughts.
"Don't misunderstand, I'm not running a charity."
She leaned forward slightly, her gaze sharp.
"I've already used my connections to send this script to Director Hou Hsiao-hsien's team."
"If he agrees to take it on..."
Lin Wan's voice paused briefly before she gave her promise.
"For the male lead role, I will only recommend you."