Chapter 1011: Returning to the Capital

It is often said that a true hero serves the country and its people. Zhao Fusheng also deeply admires such people, but he is absolutely certain that he could never be one of them.

Killing one man every ten steps, leaving no trace for a thousand miles—that is a knight-errant. Someone like himself, whose mind is full of trivial household matters, is at best just a commoner.

Though somewhat petty, Zhao Fusheng finds joy in it.

Time passed quickly, and before they knew it, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month was over. Despite their reluctance, Zhao Fusheng and Fan Baobao had to leave home and return to the capital.

Fortunately, after the fifteenth, train tickets were not so hard to come by. Skipping the peak season of March when schools reopen, on February 23, 2004, Zhao Fusheng and Fan Baobao left home once again.

“In the blink of an eye, I’m already twenty-six.”

Sitting in the train carriage, Zhao Fusheng suddenly spoke with some emotion.

He had been reborn in 1999, and now it was already 2004. Five years had passed in a flash, and many people and events around him had changed. He himself had grown a lot.

“Isn’t that the truth? I feel old too,” Fan Baobao muttered in response to Zhao Fusheng’s words.

Zhao Fusheng blinked: “I didn’t mean that I’m old, just that time flies.”

“Cough, cough…”

Fan Baobao felt a wave of embarrassment. She hadn’t expected to misinterpret his meaning and be mocked by this guy Zhao Fusheng.

She shot Zhao Fusheng a fierce glare but didn’t lash out. There was no way she would—if she did, wouldn’t that be admitting she thought she was old, just as Zhao Fusheng had implied?

“By the way, Baobao, could you ask your superiors if there’s a chance to invite people from the People’s Art Theatre to participate in our Future Film and Television’s TV series?” Zhao Fusheng suddenly thought of something and said to Fan Baobao.

Fan Baobao was taken aback, then frowned slightly and shook her head: “No need to ask; I can tell you the answer now. Unless they’re veteran actors, newcomers like me basically won’t get approval from the theatre.”

Zhao Fusheng smiled: “I’m not so sure. How about this: give me your team leader’s contact information later, and I’ll talk to him myself.”

If he remembered correctly, the performance team leader at the People’s Art Theatre at this time should be Yang Lixin.

The reason he had set his sights on the People’s Art Theatre was that Zhao Fusheng felt it necessary to rally a group of people. Factions in the entertainment industry were inevitable. Previously, in the capital, he had more interactions with the Beijing circle.

But Zhao Fusheng was absolutely certain that this time, the small moves against Future Film and Television were largely instigated by people from the Beijing circle. After all, their stronghold was in the capital, and the emergence of Future Film and Television was like snatching food from their mouths. It would be strange if they didn’t secretly cause trouble.

Given that, Zhao Fusheng felt it was very necessary to win over another major faction in Beijing’s entertainment circle: the People’s Art Theatre.

Although these actors from the People’s Art Theatre are not particularly famous in the public’s mind, many who know the inside story of the entertainment industry are aware that those from the People’s Art Theatre, if nothing else, have absolutely solid acting skills.

The most obvious example is Teacher Wu Gang, who became famous for his role as Secretary Da Kang in *In the Name of the People*; he is from the People’s Art Theatre.

Zhao Fusheng’s idea was simple: the People’s Art Theatre has professional actors, but due to the institutional system, many good actors there spend most of their time on the stage.

Zhao Fusheng’s plan was very clear: he thought he could first rehearse a few plays from his memory as stage dramas, then adapt them into TV series.

As for the actors, naturally, they would come from the People’s Art Theatre.

He was looking forward to seeing the “Five Tigers of the People’s Art Theatre” perform a play and then star in a TV series.

Thinking of this, Zhao Fusheng turned to Zhang Qian: “By the way, contact Bai Jie later and have her send someone to the Comrade-in-Arms Drama Troupe to find a screenwriter named Lan Xiaolong and buy the rights to his play *Erna Assault*.”

“Got it,” Zhang Qian nodded.

Zhao Fusheng had even told him the name of the person, clearly after some investigation, so Zhang Qian didn’t find anything odd. He would just follow the clues and go directly to find him.

“Comrade-in-Arms Drama Troupe?” Fan Baobao was a bit surprised, looking at Zhao Fusheng with astonishment. “You want to buy the rights to a play?”

To be honest, under the current circumstances, the stage drama scene had very low attention, far less valued than film and television. Many drama troupes relied entirely on government funding to survive.

Even as public institutions, they were barely scraping by.

Many people think that life in public institutions must be easy, but that’s not the case. For example, both are police officers, but the life of a community police officer and someone reading newspapers in the municipal public security bureau office are completely different.

Fan Baobao was at the People’s Art Theatre, and if she hadn’t occasionally shot commercials to earn extra money, life would have been tough.

Of course, that was in the past. Now that she knew how much Zhao Fusheng was worth, Fan Baobao unabashedly declared that from now on, she would only take commercials for big brands; otherwise, she would let Zhao Fusheng support her.

“Yeah, I saw a story online earlier. It’s a play, but it felt really good and suitable for adaptation into a TV series,” Zhao Fusheng smiled and explained to Fan Baobao.

Actually, he had specifically looked it up and found that the play was currently being performed, which sparked the idea of adaptation.

After all, this play was Wang Qiang’s breakout work.

“Oh, can I act in it?” Fan Baobao blinked, her face full of hope. Clearly, a script that Zhao Fusheng valued must be a good work. If she had the chance to perform, she certainly wouldn’t miss it.

Zhao Fusheng shook his head: “It’s a military drama, mainly male roles. It seems there are only a few female roles, and they don’t even have many lines.”

He was telling the truth. In his previous life, the *Soldiers’ Sortie* he had seen seemed to have almost all male actors, with female actors having hardly any screen time.

Not to mention Fan Baobao; even any newcomer acting in this drama probably wouldn’t find it interesting.

Sure enough, upon hearing Zhao Fusheng’s answer, Fan Baobao let out a disappointed “oh” and didn’t bring it up again.

…

…

When the train arrived in the capital, feeling the rapid changes in the city, Zhao Fusheng smiled at the people around him: “Looks like even more people are coming here to develop this year.”

Zhang Qian remained silent as usual. Fan Baobao and Yang Panpan exchanged glances, and the latter shrugged: “It’s normal. After all, it’s the capital. People probably think the opportunities are greater here.”

“Maybe,” Zhao Fusheng said with a noncommittal smile, but didn’t say anything more.

No place in first-tier cities to settle, lonely souls in third-tier cities.

Probably many people nowadays don’t quite understand this saying.

“Come on, let’s go home.”

After exiting the train station and arriving at the parking lot, Zhao Fusheng smiled.

When they had left home earlier, they parked the car here. They just had to pay a bit of parking fee, and it was much more convenient when they returned.

But half an hour later, Zhao Fusheng’s face turned grim.

They were stuck in traffic.

Finally, as of today, the traffic congestion in the capital began to show itself bit by bit. It had been half an hour since they left the train station, and they had only advanced less than five kilometers.

Along the way, they were constantly stuck in traffic.

“So annoying! Why are there so many cars?” Fan Baobao said impatiently, looking at the endless line of cars ahead with anger.

Zhao Fusheng smiled and shook his head, soothing her: “Don’t worry. I think it won’t be long before regulations come out to solve this problem.”

“What regulations? Could it be that only cars with license plates ending in odd numbers are allowed on the road today, and even-numbered plates are banned?” Fan Baobao said irritably.

Zhao Fusheng was taken aback, then laughed but didn’t refute her.

It wasn’t just odd-even plate restrictions; later on, even buying a car would require a lottery for license plates.

Zhao Fusheng muttered to himself.

But that was a long time from now. For now, he, Fan Baobao, and the others would have to slowly get used to the increasingly crowded capital.

In fact, it wasn’t just the capital; as times developed, major first-tier cities in China would all face congestion problems. Zhao Fusheng even recalled that in his previous life, he once went to Guangzhou on business. From the airport to the hotel, the traffic jam lasted over three hours. Out of boredom, he even played poker with the people in the car.

…

…

After resting at home for two days, everything returned to normal.

Fan Baobao went to work, while Zhao Fusheng began to set up the comic company.

But reality was harsh; after careful inquiry, Zhao Fusheng learned that there wasn’t a single complete and systematic comic company in China.

In other words, the domestic comic industry hadn’t really developed yet.

“What do you think? Should we start a comic magazine?” Zhao Fusheng asked Zhang Qian, sitting on the sofa.

Zhang Qian didn’t say anything, just shook his head, clearly not agreeing with Zhao Fusheng’s idea.

“Alright, I was just talking,” Zhao Fusheng shrugged and answered himself.

Fang Minya and Sun Jun had to resign first before coming to Beijing. Zhao Fusheng had already instructed Zhang Qian to rent an apartment for them in a nearby neighborhood.

After all, they were a young couple; having them live across the hall like Zhang Qian and Yang Panpan didn’t seem quite appropriate.

Most importantly, Zhao Fusheng didn’t have any suitable artists on hand right now, so he could only have Sun Jun and Fang Minya fill in temporarily. When the opportunity was right, Zhao Fusheng planned to recruit from art academies.

After all, professionals do professional work; it’s relatively more efficient.

As for Sun Jun and Fang Minya, Zhao Fusheng hoped they could take on major roles and shoulder the management responsibilities.

As he always said, they were family. Even if their abilities were slightly lacking, it didn’t matter; their loyalty to him was what counted.

Of course, before that, there was another important matter to attend to…