Global Film Emperor

Chapter 344 Collapse
"Ze-ge, you guys should go to sleep. It's already 11 o'clock. You usually go to bed at 10:30. Once your sleep schedule is broken, it's hard to get back to it. You can wash the dishes tomorrow morning."

"Okay, pay attention to safety on the road."

"And one more thing! No more drinking! You've been drinking all day, you reek of alcohol, it's awful. Remember to take a shower before bed, and don't forget to use the new shower gel I bought you. If it's good, you can use this brand from now on. I'm going now, remember to go to sleep!"

"it is good……"

Seeing Gao Peiling leave, turning back every few steps, Lu Ze and Mickey both knew what she was thinking. She came once in the morning and again in the evening. This was the first time since they started dating. Wasn't she afraid that Lu Ze's will was not firm and that Mickey would seduce him and run away? Her little scheme was very obvious.

He dipped the last piece of beef on the wire mesh in some barbecue seasoning and ate it. He threw the disposable chopsticks into the trash can, took a sip of beer, and couldn't help but burp. Lu Ze glanced at Mickey next to him, whose eyes were a little dazed but whose spirits were still good, and sighed deeply.

He was completely won over by Mickey's drinking. From morning onwards, the two had lunch and another drink at 2 pm, and then on a whim in the evening, they set up a barbecue outside the bar and had another drink. The two of them didn't leave the bar all day long. Lu Ze probably only drank two-thirds of what Mickey drank. It wasn't that Lu Ze didn't want to keep him company, but he really couldn't resist Mickey's constant self-punishment, and he didn't even throw up!
Even so, he wasn't drunk yet. He was walking in circles, but no matter how much he was poured, he wouldn't completely pass out. For the first time in his life, Lu Ze was truly impressed by someone's drinking capacity.

After pouring water on the charcoal fire, throwing the stove into the shop, and cleaning up the dishes, the tavern closed. Seeing Mickey still energetically petting the cat, Lu Ze came out of the room carrying a blanket and pointed to the sofa.

"Are you sure you want to sleep here tonight? You can stay in my room, I'll stay outside."

Lu Ze's bed is a single bed, and it's impossible for two grown men to sleep in it. But when he thought about letting Mickey sleep on the sofa, he always felt a little guilty for not being hospitable enough. He thought he could just make do with it by sacrificing himself.

"It's not polite to take the homeowner's bed. I'll sleep here. Just give me the blanket. Go take a shower. Don't forget to call me when you're done. Go on, go on."

He proactively made the bed, then pushed Lu Ze away and waved his hand. Helpless, Lu Ze could only go into the bathroom. When he came out after taking a shower, he found that Mickey was already snoring loudly. He shook his head, gave up the idea of ​​calling him to take a shower, carried the cripple back to the room, and the moment he lay down, he entered the system space.

……

In the space, rows of semi-transparent mannequins were working on set. Taking advantage of this time, Lu Ze was still reviewing the script. After all, the passing score of 95 points put a lot of pressure on Lu Ze. Moreover, the system, as the audience, had very discerning tastes. What it considered a passing grade might be a perfect score in the minds of excellent filmmakers.

Lu Ze originally wanted to secretly learn some professional directing skills in the system space, since the previous tutorials had not taught him how to make movies, but only how to be an actor.

Unfortunately, the dummy director and dummy production assistant did not communicate with each other at all, and the camera control was solid but unoriginal, so Lu Ze could not learn anything from them. In addition, he was beaten twice for delaying filming because of his attempt to learn, so Lu Ze gave up the idea and dutifully did what an actor should do.

Today's script is... "The Pursuit of Happyness", and the next scene we're going to film is the male lead sleeping with his child in a subway restroom.

"Set setup complete, please prepare, host."

The scene instantly shifts to the bathroom, where newspapers are spread on the floor. Lu Ze sits on the floor, holding his semi-transparent fake son, his leather shoes pressed against the door frame, silently gathering his emotions.

"Ready to film, three... two... one, filming begins."

"Dong dong dong..."

The knocking on the door caused Lu Ze's emotions, which had been building up to the point of overflowing, to erupt instantly. His face was expressionless, but his breathing was a little heavy. The red blood vessels in his eyes, which had been holding back tears, appeared. He held the translucent fake son in his arms, pressed his legs against the door, and looked around the bathroom. Gradually, his expression began to show some unease. At this moment, tears slid down his cheeks, the timing was just right. Finally, he wiped away the tears that had soaked his beard with the back of his hand.

During this period, filming a movie every night was a huge burden for Lu Ze, because he could film for several months or even nearly a year in the system space, while he only had one day to rest.

Most importantly, this is completely different from the first stage of the tutorial in the system space. After all, the first stage was just passively accepting information, and the consciousness of the ego was reduced to zero. But now, this kind of cramming method of review, coupled with more than 150 consecutive nights of performance, sometimes really makes Lu Ze extremely tired.

Most actors... won't act in more than a hundred movies in their entire lives, but he did it in just over a hundred days, and every single one of them is a classic. The passing grade was so high, and the difficulty of his performance was absolutely hellish.

However, the benefits are also significant. Lu Ze's script comprehension and rapid acting abilities have been greatly enhanced, which is exactly what Lu Ze lacked. Just like in "The Boxer," because he was filming Mr. Tree, he was not well prepared, which made Liu Ying struggle with the choice between Lu Ze and another actor. Now, this situation will definitely not happen again.

The system only gave him two days to memorize the script, so starting the audition ten minutes after receiving the script... doesn't seem like a bad idea.

Furthermore, the system increased the difficulty. Lu Ze was acting with a group of semi-transparent glass figures, expressionless, with only lines. Can you imagine working with a giant glass ball? That's what Lu Ze was like. What kind of training is this?
Stablize!

Lu Ze's already outstanding stability has been greatly enhanced. To exaggerate a bit, he could make people cry even if he were to hug a dog and film Titanic.

Although the large glass balls were a bit distracting, they were robots after all, and their lines were remarkably consistent. They never made a mistake in their performances, which meant that Lu Ze had to keep up with their pace. If he couldn't keep up... he'd get beaten up.

What kind of monster did this high-pressure filming mode ultimately produce? Due to the strict passing standards and the system's more demanding flaw-finding than top filmmakers, his acting level rose to a new peak.

The robot, which is not human-like but frighteningly stable, has taken his emotional control and stability to a new level. The extreme pressure of script reading time has resulted in extremely fast script comprehension and lightning-fast mental scene creation, composition, and action construction speed, making it comparable to a 2080TI in the human brain!

This period of study did not transform Lu Ze to the point of complete metamorphosis. After all, he had already reached the pinnacle of an actor's performance level before this, and was on par with top performance masters at home and abroad.

But the deeper his understanding of acting became, the more difficult it was to improve. Fortunately, he was squeezed by the system and successfully broke through the bottleneck that plagues all top actors.

Perhaps, we can now call Lu Ze... the ultimate invincible experience master, the acting maniac, Super Saya Robot 2.0.

Let's not talk about the strong ones.

Back to the main point, during filming, the knocking on the door should have been steady and the sound should have traveled a long distance to create a strong sense of loneliness and loss. But now, the knocking is completely different from the script. The knocking has become more and more urgent, and the force of the knocking has also increased, making loud banging noises. Most importantly, the person outside the door has started banging on the door!

This was clearly different from the script, but there was no signal to end filming in mid-air. If he didn't continue filming now, he would be whipped! He had no choice but to grit his teeth and keep pushing against the door, continuing the performance while increasing the intensity of his expressions to maintain an emotion consistent with his current situation.

"dad……"

Lu Ze was startled and turned around abruptly, knowing that in this scene... his "son" had no lines!
But when he turned around, he didn't see a round, glass-like figure with a transparent body, but a little boy with short, choppy hair, fair skin, delicate features, and an adorable appearance. His big eyes were half-closed, and the corners of his mouth were upturned, revealing his white teeth. His smile was enough to make even older women's hearts flutter...

But this little boy is clearly Lu Ze himself when he was a child...

"How much longer are you planning to stay here...?"

"I……"

"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Bang!"

The person outside started banging on the door repeatedly. Lu Ze was startled by this "himself" and then questioned by him. His legs lost their support, and the door was finally forced open.

Standing outside the door was myself, dressed in a blue-gray cleaning uniform, carrying a mop and a bucket... in a dark hue!

"Are you out of your mind? With this much mental pressure, if you keep playing like this, you're not far from going crazy. You should go back to work... Lu Ze."

"Grass!!!!"

With a shout, Lu Ze instantly detached from the system space and sat up abruptly in bed. Sweat dripped from his forehead onto the bedding, forming rings of water. He shifted back a little, leaning against the headboard. He took a deep breath, picked up a glass of water from the bedside table, his hands still trembling slightly, causing ripples to spread across the water.

He downed his drink in one gulp, quenching his thirst. He lit a cigarette and kept thinking about what his childhood self and the gangster boss had said. In addition, his increasingly tired state of mind proved the gangster boss's words to be true. If things continued like this... it seemed like he was really going to have mental problems.

He pulled out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. The Zippo lighter sparked as it struck the flint, creating a dazzling display of light before the flames rose. For a moment, it was quite a sight to behold. As the cigarette burned, the tobacco made a soft crackling sound. He calmed down and began to think about how to solve the problem, but after much deliberation, he concluded that... there was no way.

unless……

"Ding...ding...ding-ling..."

The room was quiet enough that Lu Ze's ears twitched. He thought he heard someone rummaging through things inside the bar. Zhang Weiyu had drunk so much that he definitely wouldn't be awake now, so Lu Ze immediately ruled out that the person outside was Mickey. There were only two people in the house, so besides him, it could only be a thief!
"Meow~"

"Shh!"

The cripple let out a soft cry, which Lu Ze silenced by putting a finger to his lips. He quietly got out of bed, without wearing slippers, and pulled a metal baseball bat from under the bed. He shushed the cripple again, quietly opened the door, and slowly walked towards the entrance of the bar, gently pressing the light switch.

"Ok?"

"Damn..." Lu Ze was indeed overthinking things. This person wasn't a thief at all. It was Zhang Weiyu, who should have been dead drunk and fast asleep on the sofa. Right now, he was rummaging through the refrigerator, taking out a bottle of beer and opening it. When he saw the light come on, he stared at Lu Ze blankly and waved at him.

"Are you a midnight serial killer? The kind who lures people to their home, is all smiles and kindness during the day, and then transforms into a cold-blooded killer at night, murdering them and burying them in the basement?"

"Are you out of your mind? Why aren't you sleeping at night? Why aren't you turning on the lights? Why are you rummaging through beer in the dark? I thought a thief had broken in. I was worried you'd get stabbed to death in your sleep, so I came out to check. Besides, why are you still drinking? You've only slept for a little over three hours. Can your body handle this? Give it to me now and stop drinking. Even if you're feeling down, you can't ruin your health like this."

Lu Ze propped the baseball bat against the wall and walked over to try and snatch the bottle from Mickey's hand, but Mickey dodged him and pointed a finger at Lu Ze.

"Just one bottle, I'll go take a nap after I finish this. I need to drink some alcohol, otherwise... I won't be able to sleep."

“You finished drinking at 11 o’clock and were so drunk, and you still want to drink at 2 o’clock? No way, give it to me right now and go back to sleep. This time you have to listen to me. Drinking like this is doing too much damage to your body.”

"Hey, Lu Ze, wait, friend, I really need to have a drink. I wake up from nightmares every night at this time, and I need to drink to fall asleep. I'm really... going crazy."

He kept his head down, and Lu Ze took advantage of his momentary lapse in attention to snatch the bottle from him, put it aside, and then held Mickey's arms with both hands, looking at him intently.

"Mickey, tell me, how long has it been since you had a good night's sleep?"

"One year and eight months? Or even longer. I could only sleep four hours a night. I had nightmares every day, not the same kind of dream, but they were all terrifying. At first... I broke down and cried, but in the end I found that alcohol could relieve it. Give me this, I drank it and went to sleep. You should rest early too, remember to turn off the lights, goodnight."

Lu Ze watched as he dejectedly picked up the beer bottle and sat on the sofa, staring blankly at the occasional night cars passing by outside the glass wall. He would occasionally raise his beer for a sip, then light a cigarette, and sit there blankly with the cigarette between his fingers.

Persuasion was useless. Just as he said, he really needed to get himself drunk to sleep soundly. Lu Ze looked at him for a while without saying anything, then turned and left, thinking that he should take him to see a psychologist tomorrow. He turned off the lights, leaving only the flashing neon light on for him. Just as Lu Ze was about to return to his room, Mickey suddenly called out to him.

"Lu Ze, what do you think of my looks?"

"If you don't become depressed, you're really handsome."

“Yeah, I’m handsome, but prison…you know, there’s nowhere to vent. Those lustful bastards came up with weird ideas. I hate it there…I hate Lawrence, I hate him…”

Lu Ze licked his lips, leaned against the door frame, and quietly watched him take a puff of cigarette and a sip of wine. Under the flashing neon lights, he looked particularly lonely and weathered. Lu Ze thought for a while before finally answering him.

“But you were in there for drunk driving. Instead of hating Lawrence, you should hate alcohol more. Listen to me, you shouldn’t drink anymore. This is sincere advice from a friend.”

"What about cocaine? Huh? What about cocaine? Drunk driving only requires some compensation, a few months in jail, and I can get out, then find a new company to shoot a new movie, and my house and my car won't be seized by the bank. So tell me! Should I hate alcohol! Or should I hate Lawrence!"

"Hey, Mickey..."

"Look at me, look at me!"

Mickey lifted his shirt, revealing several short but bulging wounds on his chest, clearly indicating they were quite deep. However, the wound on his stomach was as long as an adult's forearm. Under the flashing neon lights, he pointed to his scars and stared at Lu Ze.

“Some son of a bitch wanted me to be his fucking mistress, screw him! I fought back and blinded him in one eye, that’s the real reason I’m in jail for a year and a half! Then he stabbed me with a toothbrush, almost stabbing me in the heart, I almost died, and there were prison guards too! Does a drunk driver in jail have to be put in solitary confinement? Does he have to eat spoiled food? I got dysentery, had diarrhea for a month, a whole month! So tell me! Should I hate alcohol! Or should I! Hate! That fucking Lawrence!”

His eyes were red, his index finger pointed downwards, and his words were firm and resounding. The veins on his forehead were throbbing. Lu Ze saw fire and hatred in his eyes. He truly hated Lawrence.

“I pray every day that I can survive and make it out alive. My spiritual support… is it!”

He pulled a thick stack of A4 paper from his bag, held it up in front of Lu Ze, and then threw it forcefully. The paper flew through the air and then fell all over the ground. He grabbed Lu Ze by the collar, and his expression suddenly turned fierce.

"I'm going to fight a comeback! I'll fight this battle with my life! This is my last straw! I'm going to get my house back! My car! I'm going to live a life of luxury again! I'm going to live the life of the elite again! Hong Kong movies! 'A Better Tomorrow'! Have you seen them?! I've waited a year and a half! Just for this one chance! I'm going to take back what's mine! Not to prove how great I am! But to tell everyone! What's mine! I will definitely get it back! I'm going to tell Lawrence! He can't kill me, but I'll kill him!"

"The first thing I thought of after I got out of prison was you. I need your help, but not a meal or a drink! I need you! Help me get back to where I was before! Or even better, not just the way I was before! And what I can give you can also make you different from who you were before! You lost something! You lost more than I did! Your dignity! Your integrity! Your honor! These are much more important than money, buddy! We've both been wronged! But that's no excuse for giving up! I'm fighting back! And you're enduring it! I absolutely cannot allow this to happen to you! I'll make those who wronged me pay a hundredfold! I'll make them pay with their blood! And you?"

"Your trophy is gone! It's gone! It wants you to find it! To return it to the person who truly deserves it, instead of it sitting on someone else's bookshelf as a display piece! Take it back! With me! Let's go get some better ones. You can do it, and so can I, how about it? Let's give it a shot! With me? How about it?"

He kept looking into Lu Ze's eyes, his gaze filled with anxiety and urgency. He was waiting for a definite answer, and also searching for a comrade-in-arms for revenge, but...

"It's really too late, let's go to sleep."

He gradually loosened his grip, smoothed Lu Ze's collar, looked into Lu Ze's eyes, and slowly... revealed a mocking smile. He quietly turned around, lay down on the sofa, and covered himself with the blanket.

"Okay, OK~ Go to sleep. I hope I can sleep so soundly that I never see the morning sun and then I won't have so many things to worry about. I might as well just die. Damn, it would be so good to die."

He quieted down. Lu Ze stared at him for a long time before carrying the baseball bat back to the room. He put the bat back under the bed and saw the cripple looking at him from the bed. He lay down, hugged the cripple in his arms, and murmured softly.

"If it were you, what would you do?"

The lights were off, and the room was quiet, but neither of the two drunk men would get a good night's sleep.

……

I woke up at 7:30 a.m. as usual, got up, drew back the curtains, lit a cigarette, smoked it quietly, and got up to wash up. As I passed the door of the bar, I saw Mickey tidying up his things. The papers that had been scattered all over the floor last night were now nowhere to be seen.

"Good morning~"

"morning."

Mickey seemed to have forgotten his breakdown and hysteria last night. He smiled and waved to Lu Ze. Clearly, Lu Ze hadn't succeeded, and it was time for him to leave as well.

"What are you planning to eat this morning? Like steamed dumplings, don't you like them?"

"Forget it, buddy, let's talk about it another time. I'm leaving now, I need to go back to England as soon as possible to prepare for my movie and see how much sponsorship I can get. If I succeed, I'll come back to you, and we'll drink until we're completely drunk, how about that?"

"Okay, then... good luck, buddy."

Mickey nodded, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and Lu Ze opened the roller shutter door for him, preparing to let him leave. One step, two steps... He reached the door, turned around, took off his baseball cap, and did a rather unconventional but very gentlemanly hat-removal salute, bowed slightly, and then put his hat back on.

"I wish you happiness for the rest of your life, and that you spend the rest of your life with Miss Gao. It's a pleasure to meet you, my friend."

"Me too."

Lu Ze forgot that he needed to wash up. He picked up a towel from the bar and gently wiped the table until the wind chimes rang. He stepped halfway out of the door, got up, and wiped his hands with the towel.

"Maybe I should have a contract or something."

"What...?"

Mickey whirled around, his hand still gripping the doorknob, stuck between the doorframes, his expression somewhat dazed.

"I mean, I should have some kind of employment contract. After all, I'm not going down into a black mine to dig coal. If you can't continue filming and run away, my salary won't be guaranteed. I need a one-third deposit. That's the rule, isn't it? Also, please close the door and come in to talk. Otherwise, a lot of the air conditioning will run out, and electricity is very expensive in commercial buildings."

His expression gradually changed from blank to surprised, and finally to ecstatic joy. He held his head in his hands and shouted in disbelief.

"Fuck Jesus Christ!!"

"..."

(End of this chapter)