I Can Turn into a Fish

 “Dad, Mom, goodbye!”

“At the entrance to Jiu Li Village, Xiao Ying stood on the car and waved to her parents.

“Xiao Xian, they asked you to film a movie – what kind of movie is it?” On the car, Xiao Ying asked curiously.

“The movie is about the sea, and because I know the director they want to borrow my ship and talk to me about some investment opportunities.

As he thought back to the content of the video that Duan Ke and taken, Chu Xian decided to lie.

“Are you going to be in it?” Xiao Ying asked curiously.

“No, I don’t have that ability, I’m not an actor!” Chu Xian laughed. “What, do you want to be in it? I can talk to the director.”

“No need!” Xiao Ying hurriedly shook her head before smiling up at Chu Xian. “But I do want to see what you’d look like in a movie.”

“Heihei, then you probably won’t be able to see it.” Chu Xian laughed. Right, is school starting soon?”

“En, en. I still have two more days. We need to get back early to start preparing, and the students officially register on August 30th. I’ll be teaching a class for the new students, and in the future I’ll have at most one class a day and nothing else to do.

 “Then you can come be the boss’ wife and occasionally go over to the aquarium and goldfish store to look around, or you can do anything else you want.”

“I want to write, to write about the big sea, and about our love, and your hard work, and the ocean, and life.” Xiao Ying cupped her face and replied happily.

“Okay, you can write and I will find someone to make it into a movie, and then we can star in it!” Chu Xian joked.

As the two joked together, the car very quickly reached Hai Qing City. Chu Xian checked the time before saying, “I have an appointment this afternoon with Director Duan Ke, do you want to come?”

“No, I’ll pass. You can take me over to the driving school, I haven’t practiced in days!” Xiao Ying shook her head.

“Okay!” Chu Xian drove Xiao Ying to the driving school and then went ahead early to the restaurant and waited inside.

Less than ten minutes later, Duan Ke walked into the room with two other men.

“Hello Chu Xian, sorry we are late!” Duan Ke walked over and apologized.

“I’ve been the one making you all wait.” Chu Xian shook his head; Duan Ke and the other two men had been waiting in the city for two days to meet him.

“It’s no problem, no problem. We’ve been having a wonderful time exploring Hai Qing – it’s a very nice city.” Duan Ke replied politely, and then introduced the two men beside him. “Chu Xian, this is my partner and photographer, A Peng, and this is my friend and playwright, Jiu Xing. Jiu Xing is a very formidable master!”

“Hello everyone!” Chu Xian greeted.

“Chu Xian, we have already prepared the script, here is a copy. We have included the scenes of some of the video footage we took when we were out at sea. You can look it over and tell me what you think.” Duan Ke handed the script to Chu Xian.

“It will be a big budget movie, with around seventy to a hundred million rmb, and the most stunning scenes are the ones about you!” Duan Ke looked at him seriously and continued. “I have the authority to give you five million rmb for these scenes which you can take, or you can use it to invest in the movie.”

Chu Xian did not reply and opened up the script and looked through it.

The plot of the movie was very good with a lot of meaning; it talked about the stories of fishermen who lived through the sea – the main characters were two brothers, and the main female lead was a fisherman’s daughter. The two brothers always wanted to be their own men and become successful, and they both had the dream to one day own a big fishing ship and make their life on the seas.

They rented a ship and persevered, but on their first outing they did not make much and could not even make enough for rent and gas and moreover lost a lot of money, and so they could only helplessly join up with a fishing company.

The company they joined was a very special fishing company, and all the fishermen were ex-military, and the boss was a young man.

Out at sea, the ship fought off poachers and save children from shark attacks, and even stopped people from hunting dolphins.

The plot was exciting, and the scenes were grand and epic. At the end of the story, the three brothers were successful and had started their own families and their own business, an aquarium store, Paradise Aquariums.

The ending was pretty much a commercial for his aquarium store, and the description was three minutes long.

“Not bad.” Chu Xian read through the script and nodded with satisfaction, but it was one thing for the script to be good and an entirely different question of whether they could film it.

There were many classics filmed terribly, and the script played only a part in the success of the movie.

“The script is very excellent, and with the scenes that we’ve already filmed, this movie will definitely be very popular.” Duan Ke said excitedly.

“You’ll still have to see if you can get the effect that you want with your shots!” Chu Xian laughed. “Oh, and you will need to censor some of the clarity in the shots you took at sea!”

“Don’t worry, we will use computer graphics to alter the image, and we can even photoshop some of the people so they look like the actor leads!”

“That’s good!” Chu Xian nodded. The special effects used in movies nowadays were very impressive, so changing the image was not a big problem.

“Chu Xian, have you fixed up your fishing ship yet?” Duan Ke asked.

“Not yet. Didn’t you ask me to wait for a while so you could borrow the ship?” Chu Xian replied.

 “That’s right, your fishing ship has been in a collision. We can use it to film things in the movie, will this impact your plans to go sailing?”

“No, it’s fine. I won’t be going out to sea in the near future!” Chu Xian thought for a moment and nodded.

“Then that’s good. We will pay a daily rent for our usage. Are you interested in playing a role? Chu Xian, without considering anything else, just with your body and charisma, it won’t be a problem to become an actor.” Duan Ke said very seriously.

Chu Xian looked at him with amusement. “Not this time, you can just find an actor that looks somewhat like me.”

Duan Ke laughed awkwardly.” Haha, Chu Xian, don’t you think that your business will be even better after you become famous? Won’t it be a good advertisement? But since you aren’t interested I won’t push it. DO you have any interest in investing?”

“Investing?” Chu Xian thought deeply.

“Yes, you can be a producer. You are familiar with the sea, so many you can give us some pointers?” Duan Ke smiled and asked.

 “I can invest, but being a producer?” Chu Xian shook his head slightly. A producer was like the boss of a movie, and everything would be under his purview, and he would even have a lot of power in selecting the lead actors.

But producers were usually very experienced people or groups, and their names would appear as producers in the movie.

“Don’t refuse so quickly, we really do want to listen to your ideas, after all, many of the big scenes in the movie were about you. You have a lot of say in this movie!” Duan Ku had some thoughts about dragging Chu Xian in to help him.

“When the time comes we will see!” Chu Xian laughed, neither refusing nor agreeing.

 “For the investment, how much money is your company looking for?”

 “Future Media is actually owned by my father-in-law, and I can ask him to invest in my film, but this is a big venture and I want to get a couple of other investors so he does not have to put in the whole sum himself. Of course, it isn’t that I’m not confident, but I’ll still be embarrassed to go up to him and just ask for such a large amount of money. I’ve already shown the script to the family and my father-in-law is happy with it, and he is fully supporting this venture.” Duan Ke showed some hesitation before he bit the bullet and fully answered the question.

Chu Xian heard his words and furrowed his eyebrows. “So this is your first time filming such a large movie?”

“I won’t lie to you. This is the first time I’m filming such a big movie, but I have directed more then ten online movies and made good money. I’m investing ten million in this film myself, and when the time comes a famous director will also be cooperating with us. I can guarantee the quality.” Duan Ke explained.

“En.” Chu Xian nodded and thought to himself. “I can add five million.”

“Good, good!” DUan Ke nodded happily. “We will send you the details and an account of all the money we will be spending for the movie. You can send someone to supervise, and we will send you your share from the box office as soon as possible!”

“Okay!” Chu Xian nodded.

“Thank you very much Chu Xian, here’s to a fruitful cooperation!” Duan Ke stood up happily. “Trust me, this film will make a lot of money!”

“The scrip is good, and I believe in your ability!” Chu Xian stood up and shook his hand.

“Definitely. We will use the next two weeks to cast and prepare. The filming location will be in Hai Qing City, and I will find you when the time comes.”

“No problem!” Chu Xian nodded.

After discussing a little more with Duan Ke and the others and listening to their fluent and detailed answers, Chu Xian grew more and more satisfied. Duan Ke had prepared very well for this movie, and clearly considered this as a defining moment in his career. He was very serious in his work, and had been on the cruise ship to look for inspiration and to seek out material.

To his great and pleasant surprise, he encountered Chu Xian and even managed to capture a stunning scene, and his confidence in his new movie grew.

After the talk, Chu Xian checked the time and headed over to the driving school when he received a sudden call from Old Huang.

Before he had left to go to Xiao Ying’s home, Chu Xian had arranged for Old Huang to lead seven mermen to go to Thailand and help Li Long start up the company. The mermen were mainly responsible for catching sea snakes, and Li Long had passed on news just a couple days ago about the finalized location of the company office and the ordering of devices from the German company – everything was progressing smoothly.

 “Boss, something happened to Sword One!” Old Huang said urgently into the phone.

“What?” Chu Xian was stunned, and immediately checked with his power. His face darkened.

“What exactly happened?” Chu Xian said coldly.

“Yesterday we went out to sea for the first time and met a group of people. They used weapons and hit Sword One in the head and killed him!” Old Huang said. “We didn’t have weapons at the time, and the new mermen Gun One still haven’t developed their intelligence yet so I didn’t have them fight. Boss, what should we do?”

“I understand!” Chu Xian said emotionlessly. “Don’t do anything, I will be there tomorrow!”