Chapter 00209: Mom, Hit Me One More Time (Bonus Chapter for Alliance Leader Chen Jinyan)
# Mom, Hit Me One More Time (Bonus Chapter for Alliance Leader Chen Jinyan)
Chapter 209
Novel: 1979 Golden Age
Chapter 209: Mom, Hit Me One More Time (Bonus Chapter for Alliance Leader Chen Jinyan)
The night was deep.
The window of Room 302 was open, letting in the sounds of workers taking their evening strolls.
A mosquito coil sat on the table, its thin wisps of smoke curling upward.
Chen Qi felt stuffy from writing and went to wash his face in the water room, wiping down his body before lying on the bed for a short rest.
This year, he had already finished "Tai Chi 2" and "Human Scare Human," with at least two more scripts left to go.
Four movie scripts in one year—damn, that’s insane!
What? I’m just copying them? Well, that’s fine then...
"The startup phase is like this. All I have to do is line up the scripts and copy them properly. My tendonitis has more important things to worry about."
Chen Qi muttered with his eyes closed, full of resentment.
His hand groped around the bed but found nothing.
In these times, sitting idle really meant sitting idle.
It wasn’t like later years, where idling was practically synonymous with scrolling through Douyin, playing games, reading novels, flirting, snacking, eating skewers, getting manicures, foot massages...
If in the future you were still just sitting around doing nothing, you were basically useless.
"Ah, the days without phones... Who knows how they transport soybean oil in tanker trucks now?"
After resting for a bit, Chen Qi got up, stretched, and returned to his desk.
In 1988, a movie called "Mom, Hit Me One More Time"—no, wait! "Mom, Love Me One More Time"—was released in Taiwan.
It was adapted from a true story called "Eighteen Years of a Madwoman," though "adapted" was a stretch since the content barely matched.
But that meant he didn’t have to worry about inconsistencies.
At the time, this kind of tearjerker was already out of fashion.
It was pulled from theaters after just three days, earning less than 10,000 New Taiwan Dollars.
Later, when it was introduced to the mainland, it became unimaginably popular.
The theme song, "Only Mom Is Good in the World," spread across the land...
Of course, all aesthetics are products of their time.
In later years, this song was criticized as worthless—had anyone considered the feelings of children from single-parent families? Why ignore a father’s love? Not all mothers are good...
Well, opinions vary, so no comment.
The story was simple: The female lead was abandoned by a scumbag after having his child.
The scumbag then married a rich girl, but she couldn’t bear children, so the man came back to snatch the kid.
After all the back-and-forth, the female lead went insane...
Looking at it now, it was practically worthless, full of the toxic remnants of feudal society.
There was even a scene where the child fell sick, and the mother kowtowed to Buddha for help—something that would’ve gotten it banned in the mainland.
So Chen Qi took his pen and boldly set the story before the founding of the nation, cutting out all the steamy scenes.
The plot remained the same, but the nature of the female lead changed—she became a pitiful woman oppressed and poisoned by the old society!
The man was a businessman who fled to Hong Kong after the nation’s founding.
More than twenty years later, the child grew up, studied in America, and returned during the mainland’s reform and opening-up, when overseas Chinese were welcomed back.
He wanted to contribute to his hometown but ended up finding his birth mother.
The mother still suffered from bouts of madness, worsening with age.
In the hospital, the child sang that song again, awakening her maternal love...
In the end, mother and son reunited, bathed in the glorious light of the new era, marching toward a bright future together.
Criticism of the old society? Check.
Deep emotional manipulation? Check.
A celebration of reform and opening-up? Check.
A touch of Sino-American friendship? Check.
All the elements were there.
Chen Qi piled on all these buffs just to hide his real intention: making the audience cry!
If he went straight for the emotional jugular, he’d be called uncultured.
But with all these elements layered in, it was different.
Back when this movie was shown, schools and workplaces organized group viewings.
People brought their own handkerchiefs, and the theaters were filled with sobs—as if not crying meant you had no conscience.
And after watching it, kids would be extra filial to their parents... for about two days before going back to raising hell.
…………
"Wahhh... wahhh..."
"Stop crying!"
"Wahhh..."
"You’ve been crying for an hour!"
"I can’t stop!"
In the apartment building, Chen Qi looked helplessly at Gong Xue, her eyes swollen like peaches, and the three soaked handkerchiefs beside her.
From the moment she started reading the script—about a quarter of the way in—she began crying.
It started with soft sniffles, then turned into full-blown wailing, and finally exhausted, breathless sobs.
Truly, women were made of water.
"Why did you write such a sad story? My heart hurts so much now."
"But the ending is happy, isn’t it?"
"The process was painful! Just thinking about it—wahhh... it’s like I became a mother myself..."
Gong Xue finally managed to stop, clutching his hand with absolute certainty.
"I want to act in this. I have to!"
"It was always meant for you. Remember what I said? About making you the most beautiful crying actress in China?"
"Mhm!"
"This is your chance. In this movie, you’ll get to cry in every way possible—and make the audience cry in every way possible. Once you master this, your legacy will be set in stone. You’ll never fade from the audience’s hearts."
Gong Xue had gotten used to his strange way of talking.
She understood he meant establishing her status.
"Who do you want as director?"
"Director Wang, of course. We know her well."
"That’s what I thought too. Should we go see her now?"
"Huh?"
"Come on, let’s go!"
Gong Xue seemed energized by the script, pulling him along to Wang Haowei’s house.
Wang Haowei was in the middle of dinner when they arrived.
She put down her chopsticks to read the script... and promptly started crying too.
"Wahhh... Xiao Chen, you monster... How could you write something like this? You want all the women in the world to suffer... I don’t even have children, and I’m crying for this mother..."
"Uh..."
Chen Qi scratched his head, exchanging awkward glances with Wang’s husband.
This kind of movie wouldn’t make foreign currency—it was aimed at the Hundred Flowers Awards.
So he handed it off to Beijing Film Studio, and Wang Haowei was more than willing, ready to fight anyone who tried to take it from her.
"Don’t worry. If you trust me with this, I’ll make sure it’s done right!"
"Xiao Gong and I have worked together before—no issues there!"
"Oh, do you have any ideas for the male lead?"
"Not at all. That’s up to you. Just pick whoever..."
Chen Qi paused, then added, "Just don’t pick that pretty-boy powder butterfly."
…………
After talking with Wang Haowei, they returned to Gong Xue’s dorm.
Chen Qi lay on the bed while she nestled in his arms—both fully clothed, mind you.
"Are you leaving soon?"
Gong Xue suddenly asked.
Without waiting for an answer, she continued, "I can tell. You’re not as invested in 'Tai Chi 2' as the first one. It’s like you’ve gotten us all trained, and now you’re finally free."
"Your little intuition is sharp, huh?"
Chen Qi was surprised.
"I was going to tell you later. I’ll probably go to Hong Kong in the second half of the year, but not for long."
"How long is 'not long'?"
"Hmm... six months? Or four or five. Hard to say..."
"That’s not long to you?"
Gong Xue lifted her head, gazing at him with melancholy.
"You know I hate being apart from you. If you won’t take me, at least you found me a job to keep me busy so I won’t miss you."
Chen Qi laughed—this was the first time he’d seen her act "unreasonable."
"I’ve got real business there!"
"I know. That’s why I’m enduring it."
After a moment of silence, she suddenly asked, "When will your house be finished?"
"Probably autumn. But the backyard’s done. Once the paint dries and the furniture’s in, it’ll be livable."
"Oh..."
Gong Xue burrowed back into his arms, lost in thought, and let out a soft sigh.
(That’s a wrap!
Thanks to Alliance Leader Qingdeng Gufo.
That’s all...)
(End of Chapter)