I'm back in 1990

Chapter 46: A Roll of Film

After leaving the house, Yu Weicai suddenly remembered and asked, "Where should we go first?"

Huang Xiaochuan glanced at Yu Wei sideways, then patted his chest bag: "Of course we'll go buy film first! What's the point of shooting without film!"

Hearing that Huang Xiaochuan was going to take him out for a photoshoot, Yu Wei made sure to tidy himself up at home and even changed his clothes before leaving.

After confirming that Huang Xiaochuan wasn't playing a prank on him, Yu Wei instructed Huang Xiaochuan, "Wait until I'm in the right pose before you take the picture, okay? Don't take a blurry one again."

In those days, taking photos was a considerable expense for an individual. A roll of film cost over twenty yuan and could generally only produce thirty-six photos.

If you mishandle the process and the film is exposed when you take it off the roll, you'll not only waste over twenty yuan but also waste a lot of time and effort.

In addition, there is a fee for developing the photos. All these miscellaneous expenses add up to more than 50 yuan for the 36 photos, so the cost of each photo is 1.5 or 1.6 yuan.

At that time, the average monthly wage of an ordinary worker in a factory was only 120 or 130 yuan, which meant that an ordinary worker's monthly wage was only enough to buy two rolls of film for photography and developing.

Therefore, the photographer is very careful when taking each photo, while the person being photographed will stand there like a puppet for a long time in order to leave a beautiful photo, until their facial nerves are numb from smiling.

Unlike later generations, everyone has a smartphone, which allows them to take pictures however they want, plus beauty filters that can make even a winter melon look like a cucumber.

Worried about taking bad photos? No problem, there's a feature called burst mode. Just tap the touchscreen and take a dozen or so shots. Surely one of them will be decent?

Huang Xiaochuan and Yu Wei went to a photo printing shop not far from their home. As soon as they entered, Huang Xiaochuan asked the owner to give them ten rolls of film.

"Boss, give me ten rolls of this Kodak film." As she spoke, she took out three bills from her shoulder bag and handed them to the shop owner.

When Yu Wei saw Huang Xiaochuan immediately ask to buy ten rolls of film, he was so alarmed that he quickly tried to dissuade him: "Are you fucking crazy? Why are you buying so many rolls of film? Can you even finish shooting them all?"

Huang Xiaochuan ignored him, put nine of the ten rolls of film the shopkeeper handed him into his bag, and unpacked the remaining one and put it into his camera.

After finishing all this, while receiving the change from the shop owner, Huang Xiaochuan discussed with him, "Boss, when we buy so much film from you to develop the photos, you have to give us a discount. Also, we need it in a rush; we'll give you the film at six o'clock tonight. When can we get the photos and negatives?"

After thinking for a moment, the shop owner said, "If it's ten coupons, I'll work overtime tonight and get them by tomorrow afternoon."

Huang Xiaochuan nodded: "Okay! Let's do it this way. We'll send over the film once we're done filming."

Then he pulled the still-astonished Yu Wei away, who kept grumbling, "Are you crazy? You really plan to shoot all ten rolls of film in one afternoon? There's no way you can finish!"

Yu Wei mistakenly thought Huang Xiaochuan was filming people. Little did he know that Huang Xiaochuan intended to film street scenes and preserve images of this era. He estimated that even ten rolls of film wouldn't be enough to capture these images.

"Why do you ask so many questions? It's like a million whys. Don't worry about it. It's just ten rolls of film, it'll be over soon." Huang Xiaochuan was a little annoyed by Yu Wei's nagging.

Yu Wei simply stopped asking. After all, they were just out taking photos and having fun, so let him do whatever he wanted!

Along the way, Huang Xiaochuan stopped frequently, taking pictures whenever he saw something that interested him, and then riding his bike to the next street.

Yu Wei was incredibly annoyed. Why was he constantly patting the road? Why didn't he pat someone at least? Didn't you see I just got a haircut like Aaron Kwok's yesterday? It would look really cool in photos!

Yu Wei couldn't hold back any longer until Huang Xiaochuan changed to the fourth roll of film.

"Why are you taking pictures of the street for no reason? Do you have too much money to burn? Why don't you take a few pictures of me too?"

Huang Xiaochuan glanced at Yu Wei, then realized that they had been out for quite a while and hadn't taken many photos of the kid yet, so he agreed, "Then find a place to stand, and I'll take your pictures."

Yu Wei pointed to the street, looking shocked, and said, "You're filming right here? Couldn't you at least find a park or a scenic spot?"

"Do you want to film people or scenery?" Huang Xiaochuan asked Yu Wei.

Yu Wei arrogantly smoothed his Aaron Kwok-style hair and said, "Nonsense, of course it's for taking pictures of people."

"Since you're taking pictures of people, why do you have to go to the park? It doesn't matter where you take the pictures. Taking pictures in the park won't make you look like Aaron Kwok. Your hair is really ugly." Huang Xiaochuan casually made fun of Yu Wei.

Yu Wei's hair was originally naturally curly, but for some reason he got it styled like this. Huang Xiaochuan thought it looked ugly no matter how he looked at it, as if Yu Wei had a big black mushroom on his head.

This hairstyle is characterized by thick, bushy hair on both sides, naturally parted in the middle, shaped like a mushroom. It is usually parted in a 3/7, 4/6, or middle style, so it looks like a mushroom head.

Yu Wei disagreed with Huang Xiaochuan's opinion: "You don't know anything. This hairstyle is popular now. Look at all the people on the street who have this hairstyle. If it didn't look good, why would so many people get it?"

Huang Xiaochuan, ever the sharp-tongued one, spoke up again: "The flu is pretty popular, why don't you get one? And does being popular mean it looks good? Does having this hairstyle everywhere make it look good? Are you stupid?"

Yu Wei was almost depressed after being directly confronted by Huang Xiaochuan. He wondered when this kid had become so sharp-tongued.

The two parked their bicycles at the street corner's bicycle parking area. The old man watching the bicycles gave them two bamboo tags. When they went to retrieve their bicycles, they had to show the bamboo tags to the old man so he could check if the numbers matched the numbers on the bamboo tags hanging on the bicycles. If they matched, they could take their bicycles and leave.

This is the simplest anti-counterfeiting mark invented by car inspectors; it's simple and practical.

The two unintentionally walked to the vicinity of the former Xiheng Street. Huang Xiaochuan stood in the middle of the road and took a panoramic photo of Xiheng Street from the east and west sides. This happened to be the very middle of the street.

Ren Yangyang was enjoying a rather large chocolate cake at the "Return to the Past" café, her eating manners were anything but ladylike. Suddenly, Ren Yangyang's eyes widened in surprise. She had unintentionally spotted an acquaintance, Huang Xiaochuan.

With her mouth full of cake, she couldn't speak, so she just kept making "uh...uh...uh..." sounds towards Qin Yu sitting opposite her.

At first, Qin Yu didn't understand what Ren Yangyang meant and thought she was choking, so she quickly pushed a glass of orange soda in front of her.

Unexpectedly, Ren Yangyang didn't want soda. She kept pointing out the window and desperately trying to get Qin Yu to look out the window with her eyes.

Qin Yu looked out in the direction Ren Yangyang was pointing and saw Huang Xiaochuan busy taking pictures outside, with Yu Wei standing next to him with a long face. But what was going on with these two? It looked like they were taking pictures of the shops on the street?

Qin Yu was full of questions, but since she had seen them, she invited them in to sit down and have something to eat. It's better to meet by chance than to invite them in!

Qin Yu quickly got up and ran outside, calling out, "Huang Xiaochuan..."