"Republished Youth"

   Fantasy Romantic Modern Love Film 4

Scene 21 Time∣Dusk Setting∣Tsai Family Living Room

Characters∣Tsai Shih-Nan, Chiu Hsiu-Tuan

△At dusk, the sedan returns to the entrance of the sanheyuan courtyard house. Tsai Shih-Nan gets out of the car, takes a small cooler and a fishing rod from the trunk, and walks into the house.
Tsai Shih-Nan: Mom, I’m back.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: Go wash your hands and face. We’re about to eat dinner.
Tsai Shih-Nan: Alright. Mom, I’m planning to renovate our old house into a Japanese-style garden guesthouse and do tourist business.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: Oh? Anyway, this old house is registered under your name. If you want to turn it into a guesthouse, I have no objection. But renovating the old house will cost quite a lot of money. Let me calculate this part first…
Tsai Shih-Nan: I already have the capital. Ya-Hui said she’ll help me design the Japanese-style architecture and interior decoration.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: (Suspicious) But you’ve only been working for half a year. How could you possibly have any savings?
Tsai Shih-Nan: I have the funds already. Don’t worry about the money issue for now. Once the guesthouse opens, I’ll ask Shih-Fen to quit her job at the health clinic and stay at home to help, so she won’t go dating Yu Ssu-Hai anymore.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: If you ask Shih-Fen to quit her job, I don’t think she’ll agree.
Tsai Shih-Nan: That’s where I need you, Mom. You’ll have to talk to her for me…

Scene 22 Time∣Night Setting∣Tsai Family Living Room

Characters∣Tsai Shih-Fen, Chiu Hsiu-Tuan

△Inside the Tsai family dining room, Chiu Hsiu-Tuan and her daughter Tsai Shih-Fen are sitting at the dining table eating dinner.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: Your brother means for you to quit your job and come back to focus on running the guesthouse.
Tsai Shih-Fen: Mom, big brother is really overbearing! What right does he have to decide my work and my life?
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: Ah-Fen, your brother is determined to start a business. You should come back and work hard together with him. After all, we’re all one family.
Tsai Shih-Fen: If they’re short-handed, big brother can spend money to hire people, can’t he?
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: (Displeased) Isn’t what you’re saying rather strange? You won’t come back to help out together, yet you want Shih-Nan to spend money hiring other people instead?
Tsai Shih-Fen: (Compromising) Fine then! But big brother has to pay me a salary every month before I’ll agree.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: (Forced smile) Oh, you… Don’t calculate things so clearly.

Scene 23 Time∣Day Setting∣Chang Ya-Hui’s Dormitory

Characters∣Chang Ya-Hui, Tsai Shih-Nan

△Inside the Japanese-style tatami room of the teachers’ dormitory, Chang Ya-Hui and Tsai Shih-Nan sit face to face around a square table. Dozens of photographs of Japanese-style architecture are spread across the tabletop.
Chang Ya-Hui: Take your time choosing from these architectural photographs. You can first pick a few that you feel drawn to, and then we can discuss them one by one in detail.
Tsai Shih-Nan: Every profession is separated by mountains. I’m an amateur in this area, so you decide instead!
Chang Ya-Hui: No, this is your business. You need to have your own opinions.
Tsai Shih-Nan: Alright then, I’ll pick a few pictures first.
Chang Ya-Hui: Take your time choosing. I’ll go to the kitchen to prepare lunch.
△Chang Ya-Hui stands up and walks toward the kitchen.
△Tsai Shih-Nan carefully studies the pictures one by one.
▲Camera cuts.
△Several Japanese dishes, two bottles of sake, and a hot pot are placed on the small square table.
△Chang Ya-Hui brings over a plate of fried capelin and places it on the table.
△Beside Tsai Shih-Nan on the tatami lies a document folder.
Chang Ya-Hui: Have you finished choosing the photographs?
△Tsai Shih-Nan picks up the folder and hands it to Chang Ya-Hui. Ya-Hui takes it and places it beside her.
Chang Ya-Hui: Fill your stomach first. We’ll discuss things afterward.
Chang Ya-Hui: (Putting her palms together) Let’s eat!
△Chang Ya-Hui picks up a capelin with her chopsticks and places it into Shih-Nan’s bowl.
Chang Ya-Hui: The fish, meat, and vegetables on the table were all specially selected from the market this morning. When I’m by myself, I usually just casually boil some dumplings to get by.
Tsai Shih-Nan: Oh? Eating one meal with me causes you this much trouble. From now on, just come eat at my house.
Chang Ya-Hui: (Smiling) It’s not troublesome at all! You rarely come over, so I’m taking the chance to reward myself a little!
△Chang Ya-Hui picks up the sake on the table and pours a cup for Shih-Nan, then another for herself. Ya-Hui raises her cup in invitation. Shih-Nan puts down his bowl and chopsticks and lifts his cup. The two gaze into each other’s eyes and slowly drink down a cup of sake.
△Shih-Nan puts down the cup and lets out a burp. He picks up his bowl and chopsticks again.
Tsai Shih-Nan: (Smiling) How could I let such a table full of delicious Japanese cuisine go to waste? I’m going to feast heartily!
Chang Ya-Hui: (Smiling) Since you like Japanese cuisine, there’ll be plenty of chances in the future.
△Shih-Nan picks up a slice of sashimi and places it on a small dish. He scoops a little wasabi with a spoon, drizzles two drops of soy sauce on it, then picks up the sashimi with chopsticks. Holding the dish in his left hand, he puts the sashimi into his mouth, closes his eyes as he chews, and reveals an intoxicated expression. Watching Shih-Nan’s expression, Ya-Hui smiles happily.
▲Camera cuts.
△Inside the Japanese-style tatami room of the teachers’ dormitory, Chang Ya-Hui and Tsai Shih-Nan sit face to face around the square table. Several photographs of Japanese-style architecture are spread across the tabletop.
Tsai Shih-Nan: (Pointing at a photograph) I like the garden landscaping in this photograph. The Japanese-style palace lanterns, cherry blossoms, poplar trees, and artificial mountains with flowing water reveal Zen meaning amid tranquility.
Chang Ya-Hui: Not bad at all. Your aesthetic sense is quite accurate, yet you humbly claim you’re an amateur.
Tsai Shih-Nan: (Scratching his cheek and grinning foolishly) I’m just speaking based on feeling, casually talking nonsense!
Chang Ya-Hui: The main structure in this photograph is a Zen temple, so naturally the garden landscaping reveals a hint of Zen insight.
△Tsai Shih-Nan picks up the top photograph and places it at the bottom. A second photograph appears on the table.
Tsai Shih-Nan: In this photograph, the main structure, the courtyard walls, and the surrounding scenery feel very harmonious together.
Chang Ya-Hui: Harmonious? Can you explain more specifically?
Tsai Shih-Nan: Whether it’s the color coordination of the exterior, the proportions between the main and secondary buildings, or the lighting and ventilation, everything seems to give people a very comfortable and peaceful feeling.
Chang Ya-Hui: You’ve touched on the key point, Shih-Nan. This photograph really does give people a comfortable and peaceful feeling. The overall atmosphere is suitable for travelers to relax, ease their minds, and relieve work pressure.
△The camera gradually pulls farther away.
△The two continue their discussion.

Scene 24 Time∣Day Setting∣Tsai Family Dining Room

Characters∣Tsai Shih-Nan, Chiu Hsiu-Tuan

△Inside the Tsai family dining room, Hsiu-Tuan and Shih-Nan, mother and son, are eating lunch together.
Tsai Shih-Nan: Mom, Ah-Fen is willing to quit her job and come back to help, right?
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: Your younger sister said that you have to pay her a salary.
Tsai Shih-Nan: Pay her a salary? Half of this home belongs to her.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: But that’s not how she sees it.
Tsai Shih-Nan: I’m not going to take advantage of her.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: Her thinking isn’t wrong either. Sooner or later, she’ll get married and leave.
Tsai Shih-Nan: Oh… otherwise, tell her that if she agrees to me, and doesn’t keep company with Yu Ssu-Hai anymore, then this guesthouse will become her dowry in the future.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: For this kind of matter, you’d better go talk to her yourself.
△Mother and son remain silent for a while.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: Where did the money for building the guesthouse and doing the interior decoration come from?
Tsai Shih-Nan: From the salary I earned from working.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: How is that possible? You’ve only been working in Hsinchu for half a year.
Tsai Shih-Nan: I’m not lying to you. I invested my salary in stocks and earned it.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: As long as that’s the case. I was worried you had gone to do something illegal.
Tsai Shih-Nan: Mom, don’t think nonsense.

Scene 25 Time∣Day Setting∣Seaside of Xiaoliuqiu

Characters∣Tsai Shih-Nan, Chang Ya-Hui, Anglers

△At the seaside of Xiaoliuqiu, several anglers cast their lines and fish. Tsai Shih-Nan is among them. While sketching, he also keeps an eye on the movement of his fishing rod. On the drawing paper is coastal scenery, and several fishing boats float upon the sea.
△Chang Ya-Hui, carrying a bag in her hand, with a cylindrical drawing tube inside, walks toward Tsai Shih-Nan.
Chang Ya-Hui: (Taking out the drawing tube) Shih-Nan, the preliminary design draft is finished.
Tsai Shih-Nan: (Surprised, smiling) That fast?
Chang Ya-Hui: I just called your house looking for you. Your mother said you came out fishing. Take a look at these design drawings.
△Chang Ya-Hui sits beside Shih-Nan and pulls the design drafts from the drawing tube.
Chang Ya-Hui: (Handing it over) This one is the design drawing for the main building. It has the main house and four side wings connected by corridors.
Tsai Shih-Nan: (Taking it) It’s drawn quite exquisitely!
Chang Ya-Hui: I’d never drawn this kind of design before, so I specially bought books to teach myself.
Tsai Shih-Nan: The exterior looks antique and elegant, making people feel nostalgic for the past.
Chang Ya-Hui: It’s meant to have a classical atmosphere, giving people a peaceful and tranquil feeling suitable for leisure and vacations.
△Chang Ya-Hui spreads open another drawing and hands it to Shih-Nan.
Chang Ya-Hui: This one is the interior floor plan design of the main building. The main house includes indoor soaking pools and herbal bath SPA pools, while the side wings use Japanese-style interior decoration.
Tsai Shih-Nan: (Confused) Soaking pools? We don’t have hot springs here.
Chang Ya-Hui: We’ll improvise by using heated water plus bath powder produced in Guanziling.
△Chang Ya-Hui spreads open the next drawing and hands it to Shih-Nan.
Chang Ya-Hui: This one is the courtyard landscaping floor plan, imitating the styles of Kyoto and Nara in Japan. In the two corners there are open-air men’s and women’s baths respectively, while in the center is a public bath pool. Artificial mountains serve as screens between the pools, and pathways connect the surrounding areas.
Tsai Shih-Nan: (Amazed) Wow, this layout is practically a Japanese-style hot spring garden.
Chang Ya-Hui: Exactly. The food and clothing we provide will also be Japanese-style.
Tsai Shih-Nan: Then… won’t tourists think the owner is Japanese?
Chang Ya-Hui: (Laughing) Let them think so! All service staff will wear kimono.
Tsai Shih-Nan: (Puzzled) Ya-Hui, how do you know Japanese culture so well?
Chang Ya-Hui: (Smiling) Because my mother came from Kyoto. Before elementary school, I lived in Kyoto.
Tsai Shih-Nan: (Surprised) Really? But I’ve never heard you speak Japanese before.
Chang Ya-Hui: (Smiling) There’s never been a chance for me to speak Japanese.
Tsai Shih-Nan: That’s true! If tourists come from Japan, then shouldn’t our staff learn some Japanese?
Chang Ya-Hui: Of course! The staff must also know English. You’ll have to handle that part of the training. English is your strong point!
Tsai Shih-Nan: (Shaking his head) No way! Once I open my mouth, my Taiwanese-accented English turns turtle legs into snakes crawling out.
△Chang Ya-Hui points at the fishing line.
Chang Ya-Hui: Your fishing rod is moving!
△Tsai Shih-Nan hands the drawings back to Ya-Hui, stands up, grips the rod, and reels in the line. Chang Ya-Hui rolls up the drawings and puts them back into the drawing tube.

Scene 26 Time∣Night Setting∣Tsai Family Dining Room
Characters∣Tsai Shih-Nan, Chiu Hsiu-Tuan, Tsai Shih-Fen, Chang Ya-Hui

△As the city lights begin to glow, inside the Tsai family dining room, Chiu Hsiu-Tuan is wearing an apron and carrying a bowl of soup in both hands as she walks in. There is fish, meat, and stir-fried vegetables on the dining table, an extremely lavish spread.
Chang Ya-Hui: Auntie, this table full of Taiwanese dishes is really sumptuous.
△Chiu Hsiu-Tuan places the soup in the center of the dining table.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: They’re all homemade dishes. I didn’t specially prepare anything. The vegetables on the table were all grown in the garden. No pesticides, so you can eat with greater peace of mind!
Tsai Shih-Nan: It’s a pity that after the old house is renovated, the vegetable garden will become a courtyard instead.
Chang Ya-Hui: We can still revise the design a little and include the vegetable garden in it.
Tsai Shih-Nan: Wouldn’t that ruin the courtyard landscaping?
Chang Ya-Hui: No! We can add a greenhouse vegetable room in one corner. That’s very common in Japan!
Tsai Shih-Nan: But I still prefer the Taiwanese dishes my mother cooks.
Chang Ya-Hui: (Thinking for a moment) Indeed, Auntie’s Taiwanese cooking has a lot of character. Otherwise, we can add it into the menu and provide both Taiwanese cuisine and Japanese cuisine at the same time, giving tourists one more choice.
Tsai Shih-Fen: Big brother, you’ve already discussed everything about the guesthouse, right?
Tsai Shih-Nan: More or less. During this coming year of renovation, we’ll first rent a house nearby to live in.
Chang Ya-Hui: Rent a house? There’s no need! There are still several empty rooms in our teachers’ dormitory. I’ll talk to the school principal, and then your family can move in and live there.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: How could we possibly impose like that?
Chang Ya-Hui: Not at all! Empty dormitory rooms deteriorate faster if nobody lives in them. If your family moves in, I’ll also have company!
Tsai Shih-Fen: Big brother, if you want me to quit my nursing job, you must pay me a monthly salary!
Tsai Shih-Nan: Pay you a salary? Ha! You’re also a shareholder of this guesthouse! And the property rights are registered under both your name and mine. Even so, you still want to ask me for a salary?
Tsai Shih-Fen: Oh? If that’s the case, then… I want a share of the profits earned every month.
Tsai Shih-Nan: How about this! If you obediently stay at the guesthouse and stop hanging around with Yu Ssu-Hai, I’ll split half the earnings with you. In the future, when you get married, this guesthouse will be kept as your dowry.
Tsai Shih-Fen: Big brother, how strange! You really have deep prejudice against Yu Ssu-Hai!
Tsai Shih-Nan: Those are the conditions I’m offering. Whether you accept them or not, think it through yourself!
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: Eat first. The food won’t taste good once it gets cold.
△The four of them each serve themselves rice.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: Ya-Hui, eat whatever you like yourself!
△Chang Ya-Hui nods and smiles.

Scene 27 Time∣Night Setting∣Tsai Family Guesthouse Construction Site
Characters∣Tsai Shih-Nan, Chang Ya-Hui, Foreman, Workers, Excavator Driver

△At the Tsai family guesthouse construction site, the excavator driver is leveling the ground.
△Chang Ya-Hui, Tsai Shih-Nan, and the foreman stand around the construction floor plan discussing matters.
Chang Ya-Hui: Two corners of the site need to be excavated into bath pools. The depth should be about one meter. The shapes and dimensions are all clearly marked on the blueprint.
Foreman: Alright. I’ll instruct the driver to first dig the approximate size and depth, and afterward the masonry workers will handle the detailed refinements.
Chang Ya-Hui: The base foundation should be half a meter deep, with several reserved holes for erecting corner pillars. The holes should be about two Taiwanese feet deep. There are also several drainage holes.
Foreman: No problem. Everything is clearly marked on this floor plan, so I’ll proceed according to the drawings.
Chang Ya-Hui: Master, I’ll trouble you then. If there are any questions, call my cell phone anytime.
Foreman: Alright.
△The foreman holds the floor plan in both hands, comparing it against the ongoing construction site. Chang Ya-Hui pulls Tsai Shih-Nan aside into a corner, and the two watch the site together.
Tsai Shih-Nan: (Smiling) Ya-Hui, I never expected you to have such an architect’s bearing.
Chang Ya-Hui: I was forced into the role. If I didn’t understand something, I simply started learning from the beginning.
Tsai Shih-Nan: Thanks to you. Otherwise, I could only have been led around by the nose by the architect and foreman.

Scene 28 Time∣Day Setting∣Homeless Shelter
Characters∣Lin Dai-Hua, Policewoman, Director Tang An-Ping, Female Staff Member Sung Hsin-Lien

△After Lin Dai-Hua is discharged from the hospital, the police send her to the homeless shelter by vehicle.
Policewoman: (Handing over a manila envelope) Director Tang, these are the records for Miss Number 109.
Tang An-Ping: What? She has no personal identity records?
Policewoman: Miss 109 suffered brain injuries and memory loss from a car accident. We’ve already taken her photograph and created a preliminary file. We’re waiting for her family to come claim her.
Tang An-Ping: Understood. We will take proper care of her. Hsin-Lien, take Miss 109 to the women’s dormitory and process her check-in procedures.
Sung Hsin-Lien: Miss 109, please come with me.
△Staff member Sung Hsin-Lien leads Lin Dai-Hua away toward the women’s dormitory.

Scene 29 Time∣Dusk Setting∣Small Kitchen and Living Room of Chang Ya-Hui’s Teachers’ Dormitory
Characters∣Chang Ya-Hui, Chiu Hsiu-Tuan, Tsai Shih-Nan, Tsai Shih-Fen

△Inside the small kitchen of the dormitory, Chiu Hsiu-Tuan cooks stir-fried dishes while Chang Ya-Hui helps wash and chop vegetables and prepare ingredients.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: Ya-Hui, during this period of time, our whole family has received so much help from you. Auntie is truly grateful to you. To speak honestly, Auntie likes you very much and wants you to become my daughter-in-law.
Chang Ya-Hui: Auntie, thank you for your kindness. After spending this period of time together, Shih-Nan and I have become good friends. Matters of love are mutual, so let Shih-Nan decide for himself, alright?
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: What you say is true! But your father’s side…
Chang Ya-Hui: As for my father, once Shih-Nan makes his decision, I’ll persuade him myself.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: Right! There’s something I want to ask you. Shih-Nan has only been working for half a year, so how could he possibly have so much money to build the guesthouse and do the interior decoration? I thought perhaps you would know.
Chang Ya-Hui: (Thinking for a moment) I invested in him! Shih-Nan truly wants to start a business, and the guesthouse project was something Shih-Nan and I discussed together. Of course I have to support him!
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: (Relieved) If that’s the case, then I can rest easy.
▲Camera cuts.
△Inside the dining room, the three members of the Tsai family and Chang Ya-Hui sit around a square table on the floor, eating dinner.
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: This dormitory gives people a very fresh and comfortable feeling.
Chang Ya-Hui: It’s an old dormitory. The interior decoration was redesigned by me after the principal commissioned me.
Tsai Shih-Nan: The eye of someone who studied fine arts truly has its unique touch.
Chang Ya-Hui: A dormitory is a place for resting and relieving stress. There’s no need to make it overly flashy. As long as it feels comfortable, that’s enough.
Tsai Shih-Fen: (Teasing) Big brother, Sister Ya-Hui has helped you so much. How are you planning to repay her?
Tsai Shih-Nan: I can only sincerely thank her!
Chiu Hsiu-Tuan: Son, when you marry a wife in the future, you should find someone like Ya-Hui, someone who knows how to plan for and support her husband.
Tsai Shih-Nan: Mom, I know.
△Although Chang Ya-Hui feels happy hearing praise from the Tsai mother and daughter, she feels awkward saying anything, and can only smile along politely.

Scene 310 Time∣Day Setting∣Women’s Dormitory of the Homeless Shelter
Characters∣Lin Dai-Hua, Lu Hsiu-Ying (Female Roommate)

△By the window of the women’s dormitory, Lin Dai-Hua stares blankly out the window.
△Her roommate Lu Hsiu-Ying walks behind her.
Lu Hsiu-Ying: Number 109, you’re even more pitiful than I am. I came here because I had nowhere else to go, but you have a home you can’t return to.
△A trace of bitter smile flashes across Lin Dai-Hua’s face.
Lu Hsiu-Ying: I find it strange! You disappeared after a car accident, yet your family isn’t anxiously searching for you. That really goes against common sense.
Lin Dai-Hua: Maybe… I truly have no family in this world.
Lu Hsiu-Ying: How could that be? Even if you don’t have family, you must at least have friends, right? I’ve got it! I thought of a method that might help you find your family or friends.
Lin Dai-Hua: (Interested) What method?
Lu Hsiu-Ying: Publish a newspaper advertisement and print your photograph in it. That way your family will come identify you on their own initiative.
Lin Dai-Hua: (Thinking for a moment) But what if the people who come to identify me don’t actually know me at all?
Lu Hsiu-Ying: Probably not. The people who come claim you would bring things like photographs or identification documents.
Lin Dai-Hua: Alright then! I’ll try your method. These past few days, I’ve felt as though I were a blank sheet of paper, living my life all over again…