Chapter 1 Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

Wednesday, April 2002, 11.

The first snow of winter dyed the land of Yanjing white overnight.

Just after nine o'clock, at Hongluo Temple on Hongluo Mountain, a very tall young man, wearing a fur hat, a military coat, and large handmade cotton shoes, walked out of the majestic mountain gate in the heavy snow.

"Three pounds..."

Looking back at Hongluo Temple, he seemed to hear his father's voice again in a trance.

On the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1983, a newborn baby was abandoned at the foot of Hongluo Mountain and was found and adopted by the sweeping monk who was guarding the temple.

The sweeping monk's surname was He, and he was a lonely man. The baby's surname was also He. His full name was Zhongqiu and his nickname was Sanjin. The old and the child formed a father and son.

At that time, Hongluo Temple had not been restored yet. There was no Main Hall and no monks. The Sweeping Monk was a staff member of the Hongluo Temple Management Committee, guarding the cultural relics and Buddhist scriptures. He was not a monk. In the huge ruins of Hongluo Temple, only the father and son depended on each other.

He was born with some deficiencies. When he was thrown into Hongluo Mountain, he weighed only three kilograms. His father taught him to practice the Three-Body Stance Standing Kung Fu when he was three years old. He started practicing Iron Shirt and Eagle Claw Kung Fu at the age of six. His health improved day by day and he became stronger and healthier than ordinary children.

However, he could not hide his origins. Everyone in the area knew about it. Some children called him a bastard to his face. Gradually, he realized that he was not his father's biological son, but was abandoned by his biological parents. As he got older, his personality became more and more perverse.

He has a bad temper and high fighting ability, so he often fights since he was a child. He has beaten those children who called him a bastard.

The year he graduated, his father passed away. He lost the only person who could supervise him and his only relative, and began to give up on himself.

He was a family member of the Hongluo Temple Management Committee and still lived in Hongluo Temple. The Management Committee gave him a living allowance every month so that he had enough to eat. Hongluo No. 1 Middle School also agreed to waive his tuition, but he dropped out of school and started hanging around Hongluo Mountain, becoming a disliked young man.

One year later, which happened to be my father's death anniversary, on November 97, 11, on that snowy night, three robbers broke into Hongluo Temple and stole Buddhist instruments and cultural relics.

The new custodian did not have the skills of his father and was soon beaten. Seeing that the cultural relics that his father had protected for twenty years were about to be stolen, he rushed forward and beat two of them to death. The third was so scared that he knelt down and begged for mercy, but he was still seriously injured by him.

He was young and ignorant, had a bad temper, but also had some kung fu skills, so he continued to mess around in society for two years.

In February 99, he beat up several people, two of whom were seriously injured, and was then arrested by the police. This time, no one could protect him, so he was sentenced to five years in prison.

This was another turning point in his life. He finally realized the majesty of the law, and the price was freedom.

In order to get his sentence reduced and get out of the prison as soon as possible, he learned to act like a submissive boy in front of the instructor. He did whatever the instructor said, putting away all his rebelliousness and hiding even the sharpest eagle claws.

In the second month after entering the institute, he got a magical sports and fitness system. He felt that fate was blessing him. He was not a person given up by God. He woke up overnight and worked harder to transform himself.

By the end of 99, after nine months of intensive training in the institute, Xiao Cheng's Iron Shirt and Eagle Claw skills had been perfected.

That night, the wind was very strong and a fire suddenly broke out in the station. The wind fanned the flames and the entire station was soon surrounded by fire.

Because there were too many juvenile offenders at that time, the juvenile detention center where they lived was converted from three old two-story tube buildings, and many of the walls were cracked.

It is a mixed structure of brick, wood and earth. The front and back walls are made of red bricks and lime mortar. The partition walls are made of earth mixed with straw, and the floor is made of wooden boards.

Not long after the fire started, it spread from the first floor to the second floor and then to the roof under the influence of the wind. Not long after, the other two buildings were also caught fire. It was night time, so it was too late to put out the fire.

At the critical moment, in order to save himself, he relied on his kung fu to break through nine layers of walls and opened up a life passage, while also saving the lives of more than one hundred prisoners and more than twenty instructors.

Although he saved more than a hundred people, the fire still killed more than a dozen juvenile offenders and two instructors.

In early 00, he was granted amnesty and his sentence was reduced. He was released from the juvenile detention center after serving ten months. After that, he went to the Beijing Film Studio to work as a martial artist relying on his kung fu skills.

There were many martial arts films in those days, and he was lucky, with strong kung fu skills and a willingness to fight. Within a year, he went from being a small-time gangster in Yanjing City to a well-known martial artist in the Beijing Film Academy and Beijing Film Academy.

When he was filming Shaolin Martial King with Wu Jing last year, he also played the fourth male lead and his salary was 36,000 yuan.

Because he was doing well in this industry, he did not choose to take over his father's business after he turned 18 last year.

However, the Hongluo Temple Management Committee stated that the position would be retained for him for another two years. If he did not take over after 20 years, it would be invalidated.

He originally thought he could make a name for himself in this industry, and it would not be bad to be a martial arts actor, but he entered his last period of physical growth, and his height increased from 190 cm to 210 cm in one year. How could he film with this height? No crew has contacted him in the past few months.

Of course, he himself knew very well why this year had gone so fast.

This year, he made great progress in Iron Shirt, Eagle Claw and Three-body Kung Fu, and entered the Grandmaster stage from Great Accomplishment. His tendons, bones, Qi and blood increased significantly, and he happened to be in the last growth period, which is why he grew 20 centimeters in one year. He went to the hospital for a check-up, and the doctor said that the epiphyseal line had basically closed, and even if he grew any more in the future, it would only be a few centimeters.

So now I still regret that I practiced too hard. If I had waited until my epiphyseal line closed before entering the grandmaster level and missed the development period, I should still be about 1.9 meters tall now, and who knows, I could have become a big star like Li Lianjie in the future.

……

At around twelve o'clock, He Zhongqiu returned to his rented house in Haidian District.

The place I rented was very close to Beijing Film Academy and Beijing Film Academy. I rented a two-bedroom suite of about ten square meters for four hundred and twenty yuan a month.

Over the past two or three years, he has saved 70,000 yuan, but the commercial housing in Haidian District is too expensive, 4,000 yuan per square meter. He plans to save some more money and buy a three-bedroom apartment in Tongzhou in installments. It is cheaper there, only 1,700 yuan.

"What should I do next?"

He is also worried now. He can no longer make a living in the film and television industry. He has to change his career, but he definitely can't go back.

When we arrived at the gate of Beijing Film Studio, there were not many people there. It was lunchtime, and the extras who usually stayed here had all gone to eat.

There was only one rustic little guy left, with a silly look on his face, his hands stuffed in his sleeves, and his nose running from the cold.

This country bumpkin is a migrant worker from Beijing who just arrived in BJ this year. Since they both had experience staying in temples and practiced martial arts, they got along well after they met.

From a distance, he shouted, "Hey, Baoqiang, are you eating?"

"Hey, Zhongqiu, you're back?"

Seeing He Zhongqiu, Wang Baoqiang was very happy, and shook his head and said, "I don't have any work today, so I don't need to eat lunch. I'm not hungry."

"I said you were eating snot." He Zhongqiu said teasingly.

"Ah ha ha!"

Wang Baoqiang chuckled and wiped his nose quickly.

He suddenly said, "Baoqiang, I don't plan to stay in this line of work anymore."

"Hey, who made you so tall?"

Wang Baoqiang couldn't help but sigh and asked, "What are you going to do in the future?"

"do not know."

He shook his head in confusion. Was he going back to take over his father's job?

Hongluo Temple, in fact, except for my father's death anniversary every year, I seldom go back since I left a few years ago. It is inevitable to feel sad when I go back, and he does have a bad reputation in that area.

"Baoqiang, let's go and have dinner. It's my treat."

"If you don't go, you might find work soon."

"Are you out of money? Here, use this hundred to eat."

"No, Zhongqiu, I still have money, really rich."

"I see you don't have any money, take it, what are you talking about? Don't you trust me if I don't hit you with it?"

"Don't, don't, don't, don't fan me. Can't I just take it, take it, take it?"

He forced a hundred dollars on Wang Baoqiang and then left the gate of Beijing Film Academy alone.

"brother……"

Wang Baoqiang clenched the banknotes tightly, his eyes turned red. He really had no money to eat. He had been hungry since yesterday noon and his legs felt a little light-headed.

(End of this chapter)