章 169: Chapter 169 - The Journey to the Western Shadow
The environment of the restaurant was elegant and comfortable, richly furnished, the place was very spacious, carpeted, with sofas on all sides, and many brightly colored oil paintings hanging on the walls. Under the soft light, all the furniture and utensils shone with a soft glow. The table covered with a white tablecloth, the exquisite knives and forks, the red wine swaying in the candlelight, reflected Kate's absolutely beautiful face.
According to the theorem of "the protagonist does not die", Kate knew in her heart that O'Connor would be fine, but when Lin Mingyang colorfully talked about the most thrilling part of the story, her eyes still revealed a strong concern, "What happened next?"
"O'Connor touched the face of the queen in the coffin, and the corpse, which had been preserved for thousands of years without decaying and deteriorating, turned into flying ash in an instant, while the Dune Demon Nightmare 'Duimy' that was parasitizing the coffin lost its barrier to life, and its body withered rapidly. The kind of terrifying insects they encountered outside the door earlier swarmed in, instantly gnawing the body of the 'Duimi' clean, and finally all of them surged into the small round hole in the center of the stone platform where the coffin was placed and disappeared."
"That's the end of the story?" Kate propped her chin on her hand, listening in fascination.
"The adventure of the Desert Ancient City ends here, but the story isn't finished." Lin Mingyang elegantly shook his wine glass, looking at the red wine swirling inside, and said, "After escaping from the 'Ghost Cave', they returned to England without incident. While taking a shower, O'Connor realized that an eye-shaped red mark had grown on his back, and the same thing happened to his wife, Rachel."
"It's that mysterious curse?" Hearing Lin Mingyang's account, Kate immediately thought of a possibility.
Lin Ming Yang smiled and nodded, "Everyone who survived the ancient city expedition had similar symptoms, the worst case was Sophie's father, Constanton, the eye-like mark on his back had turned a deep purple color before he began to be confused and was accompanied by intermittent shock. The hospital couldn't check anything, and all the doctors were at their wits' end with this strange disease."
"I just this curse must be a clue to the next episode of the movie!" Kate spread a smile, leaving a suspense at the end of the credits, which was a usual tactic of Hollywood commercial blockbusters, "Tell me, where will they be venturing to in the next episode?"
"Well..." Lin Ming Yang deliberately made a hesitant face, and after successfully arousing Kate's curiosity, he roguishly spread his hands, "I haven't thought about the following episode yet!"
Kate glared at him angrily, this morning she suddenly received a phone call from Lin Mingyang, saying that he was asking her to come out for dinner tonight. Although Kate couldn't figure out how this guy suddenly ran to Los Angeles, she still dressed up seriously and gladly went to the appointment. Lin Mingyang had wrapped up the entire restaurant, and had gone to great lengths to create the romantic effect of a candlelight dinner, so Kate always felt that he wasn't just here to tell her a story.
Lin Mingyang used his dinner knife to cut the steak on his plate into small pieces, then used his fork to stuff it into his mouth piece by piece. As he chewed in his mouth, he said, "After I finish my exams, I'm going to take a trip to China during the winter vacation."
Kate looked at the fruit salad on her plate and gave a distracted "Oh".
Lin Mingyang swallowed the last piece of beef on his plate and wiped his mouth with a napkin, "I know you happen to be free during that time...if you don't mind, we can go together."
"Go together?" Kate didn't expect Lin Mingyang to make such a request. She froze, then stared at Lin Ming Yang with a suspicious face, "Are you really traveling to China?"
Under Kate's bright clarifying gaze, Lin Ming Yang was really embarrassed to lie, he scratched his head and smiled awkwardly, "It's mainly a trip, and I'm doing a little bit of research on the side!"
The smart Kate immediately connected Lin Mingyang's trip to China this time with the story he had just told, "You're going to go to the northwestern part of China?"
"You know about there too?" This time it was Lin Mingyang's turn to be surprised.
"The BBC's Geography Channel introduced that region of China some time ago." Kate explained.
"You still like listening to the radio?" Lin Mingyang nodded in relief, "But the BBC certainly didn't say anything good in their report."
"They said that desertification was so severe in that area that the sand and dust that swirled up from there was not only able to blow to China's capital, BJ, but could even travel across the ocean and affect Japan." Kate paraphrased the original quote from the BBC broadcast without comment.
Lin Mingyang shrugged indifferently, "Sure enough!"
Kate could see the disdain in Lin Ming Yang's expression and asked curiously, "Aren't they right?"
Lin Mingyang shook his head, "On the issue of desertification, they said objectively that the problem is really serious in the northwestern part of China."
"Then why did you have that expression just now?"
Lin Mingyang bristled, "Because they would only tell you how serious desertification is there, but never tell its audience that it was from that place that Chinese cinema went to the world, and then slowly became recognized and accepted."
"But that's the Geography Channel broadcast!" Kate explained helplessly.
"Alright, let's put this topic on hold for now." Lin Mingyang made a pause gesture, "Would you like to come with me?"
Kate asked in disbelief, "But you haven't answered my question, why do you want to go there for an expedition, you're just the screenwriter for the sequel to The Mummy, examining the location should be something the director should do."
"Well, besides being the screenwriter, I'm also the executive producer of this movie." Lin Ming Yang spread his hands, "Beautiful and moving Ms. Beckinsale, may I ask if you have any other questions?"
Such complimentary and beautiful words coming out of Lin Ming Yang's mouth, even with a joking tone, still caused Kate's cheeks to burn slightly.
"Can't you be more serious?" She glared at Lin Ming Yang with some shame, she pretended to be angry, but her sweetly joyful eyes betrayed herself.
"Alright then!" Lin Ming Yang sat up straight, straightened his lapel, and with a very serious expression on his face, he formally extended an invitation to Kate: "Let's go to China together!"
"But you're going for work, is it appropriate to bring me along?" In order to show reserve, Kate didn't just agree straight away.
"This trip to China is just a side trip, traveling is my main purpose!" Lin Mingyang once again emphasized the purpose of his China trip.
Kate bit her lips lightly, still considering this, seeing that the fire was almost ready, Lin Mingyang's hand that was placed on the hidden seat magically changed into a letter of intent, placed it on the table, and then gently pushed it in front of Kate.
"What is this?"
"Remember the story I just told you?" Lin Ming Yang placed his elbow on the dining table, his ten fingers clenched against his chin, "I've always stubbornly believed that you're the best person to play Susan in the story, and while agreeing to be the executive producer of the movie, I also recommended you to Universal...of course this is not a condition of a forced nature, even if you don't want to play the role, I still I hope you can go to China with me!"
----
The distant mountains were actually a large undulating desert high above the river's edge. The fine sand raised by the breeze was like morning mist rising from the golden waves of the desert, slowly drifting toward the highway at the foot of the mountains. An off-road vehicle flew on this desert, the car was made by none other than Lin Mingyang and Kate who had come here in company, there were four people in the car in total, and next to the driver sat their tour guide for this trip to Northwest China.
From Lin Mingyang and Kate's last candlelight dinner, time has passed nearly a month and a half, it is now the early spring of 2006, this time Universal Pictures, although it has not yet formally announced to the media "The Mummy 3: The Phantom of the Ancient City" filming plan, but the preparatory work has been launched in advance. The movie is set to be directed by Stephen Sommers, with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz in the lead roles. At the strong request of Lin Mingyang, the film's location was chosen to be the Western Film and TV City in Zhenbei Fort, China.
Outside the car window, the Gobi Desert is a vast expanse of sand and rocks, with no human population, not even a tree to see, and only a clump of yellow camel grass and hyacinth. The car sped past, the gusts of wind raised the yellow sand into the air, as if it were the smoke of the fire rising from the ground, whirling in the desert running.
Soon, a desolate old castle appeared in the cause, a kind of desolate and ancient flavor came. Who would have thought that an abandoned in the western desert of the Ming Dynasty ancient fort, although not as imposing and spectacular as the ruins of the Qin Du Tang Palace ruins, but will be hundreds of years later today flashes so dazzling sparks.
Adjacent to the east side of the old fort along the mountain highway has been wind erosion, only the remnants of the wall broken wall, the shape of the system still exists. To the north through the city of loess road, is the old fort urn site, and then northbound 200 meters is the new fort. The new fort is more complete, the wall with loess rammed into the east side of a semi-circular urn, south of the city gate has a slope can be mounted on the wall, above the four corners of the original corner of the corner building, the base is still vaguely visible.
"Now along the highway side of the old fort commonly known as 'Old Fort', was built in the Ming Dynasty Hongzhi years, is an ancient military fortress barracks, in the Qing Dynasty Qianlong three years was destroyed by the earthquake, has a history of 500 years. According to legend, when General Han Yu, a general of the Ming Dynasty, was preparing to build a castle in this area of Helan Mountain, he asked the so-called 'feng shui master' to look at the 'feng shui' of this place, and the master went around and said that this place was in the middle of the Helan Mountain range, and that there was a 'crouching dragon with a pearl'. 'Crouching Dragon with Pearl's potential', there is a 'dragon vein' extends down, predicted that here in the future 'will be out of the emperor and generals', so Han Yu decided to build the castle here, it became the current Zhenbei Fort." In the car, the guide introduced the history of Zhenbei Fort to the two American guests who came from afar in fluent English.
"Did that prophecy come true later?" Kate asked curiously.
"There have been no emperors or generals here throughout the ages, but there have been a lot of movie and television productions and stars and famous directors that have stirred up the world's movie world." The Chinese tour guide is not very old, the young man was born with thick eyebrows and big eyes, thick lips like carved out of stone, but the eloquence is top-notch.
Listening to his introduction, the movies made in this place had won many awards internationally, but Kate herself had never heard of this place. Filled with doubt, she looked inquisitively at Lin Mingyang beside her.
Most of the award-winning movies set in Zhen Beibu Western Film and TV City were shot in the 1980s and 1990s, and because of the long gap in time, Lin Mingyang could no longer remember them. The one he had some impression of was Zhang Yimou's Red Sorghum, and the one that really made him remember this place was the classic Journey to the West with Big Lies starring Stephen Chow.
Faced with Kate's doubts, he had to make up a reason that barely made sense. "The movies that were made here were all about art subjects, and at that time, commercial movies in the true sense of the word had not yet appeared in China. They all won awards at some European film festivals, so naturally you don't know much about it in England!"
Kate nodded with relief, then she changed the topic, "You said there are two castles here, but how come I didn't see it?"
This Lin Mingyang couldn't explain, he could only use his eyes to ask for help from the tour guide sitting in the front row. The Chinese boy nodded knowingly, instead of Lin Mingyang explained: "Because in the Qing Dynasty, when the troops guarding this place for the defense of foreigners to take advantage of the situation, in the earthquake destroyed the 'Old Fort' next to less than 200 meters, and built a slightly larger than the 'Old Fort' earth. This is the so-called 'New Castle', which is slightly bigger than the 'Old Castle'. It was completed about two years after the old fort was destroyed by the earthquake, in 1740, more than 260 years ago."
He pointed to a section of crumbling earth wall outside the car window, "This kind of ancient fortress, commonly known locally as 'earth enclosure', is a unique 'earth-covered building' in northwestern China. Ancient people also pay attention to the local conditions, local materials, the castle wall without a piece of masonry, completely rammed with loess and become. Because this side of the weathering eyes, after hundreds of years of rain, snow, wind and frost as well as man-made destruction, to the 1950s and 1960s of the twentieth century, the majestic capital of the border fortress has disappeared."
Since he was here to travel, after getting off the bus at Zhenbei Fort Western Film and TV City, Lin Mingyang didn't rush to the location of the movie The Mummy 3: The Phantom of the Ancient City to inspect the progress of the project, but instead pulled Kate around to visit.
The establishment of the Western Movie and TV City had brought new life to the old fortress that had withered and declined in the past. The average person strolling through these familiar movie and television scenes, lingering among the real and fake props, might have the feeling of coming to a dreamy movie world. Lin Mingyang, however, was not very interested in these props and scenes because he was a movie maker himself. He walked among them mostly with a feeling of emotion and nostalgia.
Kate, on the other hand, was different, because of the cultural differences, she was curious about everything here, and asked Lin Mingyang to take pictures of her at every place, and in the end, Lin Mingyang basically became her full-time photographer.
The most interesting thing was that every place Lin Mingyang and Kate went, the vendors would flock over to sell them souvenirs. In this kind of tourist attraction, the best way to make money was from foreigners, because they never haggled, and when they came across something they liked, they would give as much as they wanted.
Because of the language barrier, when introducing the price, they would all compare a number. Usually it wasn't a particularly excessive price, Lin Mingyang wouldn't try to stop it. These vendors were also out to make a living, it wasn't easy for everyone. But when it came to the kind of price that was too outrageous, Lin Mingyang would pull Kate and leave directly, or failing that, he would shake out a sentence or two of fluent Chinese, and then in the eyes of the vendors who were staring blankly, he would leave.
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