Chapter 0356: In Memory of What Must Not Be Forgotten

Yu Feihong looked at Zhao Fusheng with a serious expression: “I’ll call you Fusheng, okay? You know, I’ve been acting since I was a child, and my family isn’t short of money. So I hope to shoot what I like, not what others want me to shoot. Do you understand?”

Zhao Fusheng sighed. Of course he understood. This woman had never been ambitious; all her success had come too smoothly. If you looked at her resume, you’d find no fighting for roles, no dominating scenes, no crying and wailing after winning awards. She maintained the posture of an ideal woman, and posed no fundamental threat to the world of men.

But Zhao Fusheng really couldn’t guarantee now whether letting Yu Feihong get involved with the story he had told Jiang Wen would be a good thing or a bad thing for her.

“Sister, you know, if you go and shoot this, it might not only be impossible to broadcast, but you yourself might be blacklisted,” Zhao Fusheng said to Yu Feihong again.

Although a documentary of the same type would be released over a decade later, that was in 2017. Zhao Fusheng couldn’t guarantee that under the current political environment, if Yu Feihong shot the same thing, how those big shots who talked endlessly about Sino-Japanese friendship would handle a weak woman.

Sometimes Zhao Fusheng really couldn’t understand what kind of mindset those so-called experts and scholars had when they kept saying we should look forward.

Maybe these people had no ancestors.

“Blacklist me if you will. At worst, I’ll come be your assistant and shoot commercials, okay?” Yu Feihong smiled freely, her big eyes blinking: “You’ll take me in, won’t you, little brother?”

“Of course I will!” Zhao Fusheng, with a courage he didn’t know where it came from, slapped his thigh: “Don’t worry, no matter what, as long as I’m here, you’ll be fine.”

As soon as he said this, he saw Yu Feihong looking at him with a half-smile.

Awkward…

At that moment, Zhao Fusheng felt incredibly embarrassed.

“Come on, let’s talk about that story you told Old Jiang.” Yu Feihong looked at Zhao Fusheng and said with a smile.

For some reason, at that moment, she really felt at ease. Even though this boy was still too green for her, she could sense that Zhao Fusheng’s words were very sincere.

“Alright, this story of mine came from an article I saw on an online forum…” Zhao Fusheng organized his thoughts and began to narrate to Yu Feihong.

“There was a Professor Su at Shanghai Normal University. In 1991, he went to Japan as a visiting researcher and was assigned to the Institute of Social Science at the University of Tokyo. One day in 1992, a Japanese professor at an international conference asked Professor Su: ‘Was the first comfort station of the Japanese army in Shanghai?’” Zhao Fusheng said to Yu Feihong. “This question made Professor Su realize that we had long overlooked many issues, truths buried by history.”

“And then?”

Yu Feihong asked. Although she had already heard about this from Jiang Wen, she still couldn’t believe that such things really existed.

Zhao Fusheng smiled bitterly: “According to Professor Su’s research, during the War of Aggression against China, the Japanese army established comfort stations in 21 provinces and regions including North China and Northeast China, some lasting over a decade. The number of comfort women there ranged from as many as three to five hundred to as few as one; the women forced into being comfort women stayed from as short as a few weeks to as long as seven years…”

At this point, Zhao Fusheng sighed: “To this day, the survivors number fewer than a hundred, and they are all over seventy.”

Yu Feihong’s eyes were already red, tears streaming uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes.

“This matter, times have changed. The suffering the elderly endured cannot be described in words. I happened to learn about it. When I mentioned it to Teacher Jiang Wen, I hoped that those artists who constantly talk about caring for the country and the people would truly pay attention to the people and things that need attention. I didn’t expect it would bring you here, Sister Fei.”

Zhao Fusheng sighed and handed a tissue to Yu Feihong.

She was a true literary young woman, or more precisely, Yu Feihong was a woman with strong convictions. Once she decided to do something, she would give it her all.

Not to mention that everything Zhao Fusheng had told her came from real history.

“I want to make a movie about this.” Yu Feihong gently wiped her eyes, looked up at Zhao Fusheng, and spoke with great determination.

Zhao Fusheng smiled wryly: “Sister, for a movie, no one would be willing to act in it.”

Yu Feihong was taken aback, then understood what Zhao Fusheng meant. With this kind of subject matter, whether for positive or negative roles, probably no one would dare to take it on.

“Then…”

“Making it a documentary is possible, but the time and effort you’d need to spend probably can’t be completed in the short term,” Zhao Fusheng said sincerely to Yu Feihong.

He was telling the truth. The documentary he had seen in his previous life started preparation in 2012, finished shooting in 2015, and was released in 2017. During that time, they couldn’t even raise enough funds and had to rely on crowdfunding to complete the shoot.

“I have time.” Yu Feihong smiled radiantly, her expression gradually turning serious. “And I think it’s worth spending time and effort on this matter.”

Looking at her expression, Zhao Fusheng knew this woman had made up her mind. She wouldn’t rest until she had made this documentary.

“Alright, I’ll tell you everything I know.” Zhao Fusheng sighed and nodded. “As for how you’ll shoot it when you get back, I think you could actually find some film school students, like young directors, to help you with the filming. For specific historical materials, you can go to Shanghai Normal University and find Professor Su.”

That was all he could do.

Yu Feihong nodded: “Thank you, Fusheng.”

Zhao Fusheng shook his head and smiled bitterly: “Honestly, Sister Fei, I don’t know if I’m harming you by doing this. After all, you’re in the entertainment industry; you shouldn’t be getting involved in this.”

In his heart, he was cursing Jiang Wen’s ancestors for eight generations. That bastard had already made “Devils on the Doorstep” and still wanted to drag Yu Feihong into making this thing. Wasn’t he afraid of ruining her acting career?

Yu Feihong said calmly: “I am an actress, and I am also Chinese. It is my duty to show past history to everyone.”

“I won’t look at things from a high vantage point, nor will I label myself, or confine myself to a certain framework just because others like it.”

“What I want to act in, what I want to shoot, is what I think should be shot, not what others need me to shoot.”

“Many times we are beaten down by real life, feeling powerless, panicked, lost, and sad. But I think people are born to love. This world is cruel, but it is also beautiful.”

Looking at the woman before him, Zhao Fusheng suddenly understood why, even more than a decade later, she could still be stunning and still be called a goddess.

“Alright, I’m pretty tired from the flight and need to rest. You go back; we’ll talk tonight.” Seeing Zhao Fusheng silent, Yu Feihong stood up and gave him a “dismissal order.”

Zhao Fusheng shook his head and smiled: “Sister Fei, I’ll take my leave.”

Yu Feihong nodded and saw Zhao Fusheng to the door.

Their relationship wasn’t as familiar as it seemed on the surface. Zhao Fusheng naturally didn’t think that a young college student like him could catch Yu Feihong’s eye. The reason she valued him so much and showed him face was all because of the story he had told.

The art of human relationships couldn’t be learned in isolation. Without the tempering of time and changing circumstances, Zhao Fusheng might not have understood this principle.

Watching Zhao Fusheng’s retreating figure, Yu Feihong remained expressionless, a faint smile on her face.

To be honest, she hadn’t expected that Jiang Wen sending her to Ninghai would yield such a harvest. And thinking about what Zhao Fusheng had just told her, she felt she had found her goal for the next few years.