On Damuqiao Road in Shanghai, there was a residential area called Shangying New Village.
As the name implies, it was a housing estate built by the Shanghai Film Studio.
There were more than 400 households, standard 50-square-meter two-bedroom units — a much more generous hand than the Beijing studio had shown.
In history, after Gong Xue won both the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers awards, she was allotted an apartment here with a flushing toilet.
Now she was living well up in the capital; apart from the film Romance on Lushan Mountain, she hadn’t really caused any butterfly effect for the Shanghai studio.
Zhang Yu was still the studio’s pet leading actress, the top “golden flower.” She was already married; her husband’s name was Zhang Jianya.
The two had just finished quarreling in their new apartment.
Zhang Yu wanted to follow Chen Chong and go abroad to study and try her luck in Hollywood.
Her husband naturally disagreed.
“Don’t worry about whether I go abroad yet—”
“How can I not worry!” he snapped.
“Let’s not talk about that for now, okay? Don’t interrupt. I’m asking you: the studio and the Oriental Company are cooperating to make five American films. Are you going or not?” Zhang Yu pressed.
“I’m not going!”