Super Zoo

Old Yangchuan people are not unfamiliar with Changhe Cinema. This is the first batch of cinemas in Yangchuan City. As early as more than 20 years ago, when there were only three cinemas in Yangchuan City, Changhe Cinema was one of them.

Two large viewing rooms, an auditorium, and four small viewing rooms were simply the configuration of the "super deluxe version" at that time. If we only look at the scale, even among the dozens of cinemas in Yangchuan City today, there is a place.

It is said that Changhe Cinema once undertook various meetings and celebrations of the municipal government for a long time in the early 1990s.

When mentioning Changhe Cinema, the older generation will first think of Changhe Color TV Factory, a long-established state-owned enterprise in Yangchuan City.

Because Changhe Cinema is a subordinate institution of Changhe Color TV Factory, built as employee welfare and corporate image.

In the early 1990s, when the national electrical industry was developing rapidly, Changhe Color TV Factory followed the trend of the times and introduced six color TV production lines from abroad at one time. In just a few years, it became a nationally renowned color TV giant enterprise.

It is precisely because of the almost irresponsible investment of Changhe Color TV Factory that Changhe Cinema was able to lead the market.

As time passed, the domestic color TV market gradually became saturated, foreign brands poured into the country, and the drawbacks of rough development began to be exposed. Coupled with the rise of the Internet, the younger generation's dependence on TV decreased. The Changhe Color TV Factory was like a Wang Xiaoer's New Year, and it was getting worse and worse every year. The giant factory that was once promoted as a national model went from bad to worse, and finally announced its bankruptcy in 2010.

At the end of the asset liquidation, all the assets and book funds of Changhe Company were not enough to cover the accounts. The only thing left was the Changhe Cinema. Because the last few factory leaders were really unable to maintain the cinema and had no time to manage this side business, they simply contracted it out.

After a few years, Changhe Color TV completely disappeared in the long river of history. The former "Changhe Group" only had such a cinema.

Without the support of Changhe TV, the business situation of Changhe Cinema is not much better. The equipment is old, the staff is redundant, and the service competition awareness cannot keep up. It has become a marginal role in the cinema in Yangchuan City. Most of the people who go here to watch movies are residents living nearby, just for convenience and cheapness.

Su Ming and Hou Longtao walked into the door from the cement steps at the entrance of the cinema. In the deserted hall, there were two rows of old brown sofas, with a few customers sitting here and there.

Hou Longtao was about to call Mr. Wu of the cinema to tell him that he had arrived. Su Ming shook his head and said, "Let's have a cigarette first and sit for a while."

Hou Longtao was stunned for a moment, but soon understood.

If Mr. Wu came, he would definitely say good things, and his side might not be able to see the real situation of the cinema.

The two lit a cigarette each on the sofa. There was a "No Smoking" propaganda sign above their heads. The few uniformed staff in the hall seemed to have seen nothing, and no one came to care.

The two young lovers probably bought tickets in a group and handed their phones to the ticket sellers, who were two older women in their forties. They were talking about which daughter was in her thirties and still not married. They were talking with saliva flying and making disdainful sounds from time to time.

Seeing the phone handed over, the two people actually didn't know how to operate it. One of them turned back and called to the control room, "Xiao Zhang, come and see, there are group-buy tickets..."

A young man in his twenties hurried out of the control room. He was not wearing work clothes and his hair was messy. He quickly entered the group-buy number on the ticket purchase screen, put down the phone and rushed back to the control room like a house on fire, and sat in front of the computer.

Su Ming tilted his head and looked at it. It seemed that the computer screen was a picture of the Warcraft game, and they were playing a team dungeon.

The young couple bought the tickets and turned to the side to buy popcorn and drinks.

The popcorn salesperson looked to be in her twenties, a young girl in work clothes, with big curly blond hair and a bunch of weird metal rings on her fingers, like someone playing death music.

She was leaning against the glass shelf, looking down at her phone, and when she saw someone wanting to buy popcorn, she said without raising her head: "A large portion is 15 yuan, a medium portion is 12 yuan, and a small portion is 10 yuan. They are all packed on the side, take them yourself."

"Do you have Coke?" the boy asked.

The salesperson tapped the shelf with her fingers impatiently, "I can't see it, it's all here, 5 yuan a bottle."

The boy's face darkened, and he wanted to say something, but the girl pulled him, so he didn't say much, and said to the girl, "Wait for me for a while", then turned and ran to the door. Not long after, he came back with two bottles of Coke, probably bought from the small supermarket next door.

The two of them walked into the viewing channel with drinks. The person in charge of checking tickets didn't seem to look at the tickets. He took the tickets and tore off a piece of them. Without saying anything, he pointed at the dark channel and continued to press half of his body on the ticket checking counter in a daze.

"Fuck..." Hou Longtao was dumbfounded. The service of this theater was too perfunctory, right?

"Go in and take a look." Su Ming smiled. It was not surprising. If the service equipment here was first-class, how could it become his acquisition target.

After buying the tickets, Hou Longtao habitually prepared to buy popcorn. Just as he picked up a box, he remembered that they were not really going to watch a movie, so why buy popcorn, so he put the box back.

The salesperson who had been playing with his mobile phone was sharp-eyed and yelled at Hou Longtao: "Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing, you won't refund it!"

"I didn't buy it." Hou Longtao pointed at the popcorn box: "These boxes are all sealed, I just picked it up to have a look, it won't affect your secondary sales."

"Then I don't care, you have to buy it if you take it."

Hou Longtao was about to say something, Su Ming took out fifty yuan from his bag and handed it to him, without the time to talk to these people.

The salesperson rolled his eyelids and looked at it, saying: "There is no change."

"No need to change."

Su Ming waved his hand impatiently and turned to walk into the viewing channel.

"What are you pretending to be? Fuck!" The female salesperson muttered behind him.

On Saturday afternoon, the largest screening room was showing an imported film with a good reputation. The audience was sparse, about less than 20% of the seats.

The seats and carpets were very old, and the ground was scattered with beverage bottles and melon seed shells left by the previous audience. It was estimated that no one would come to clean it up after the full-day screening.

The only consolation was that the movie-watching effect was not bad. It could not be compared with the giant screen stereo surround sound, which was used to watch the big production that relied on special effects to attract attention. The effect was definitely a bit worse, but ordinary movies were still acceptable.

After watching for more than ten minutes, Su Ming and Hou Longtao left the viewing room and went around several other viewing rooms. They were all similar. The small theater that could be used as an auditorium was empty, and there was a layer of dust on the ground and the stage.

The two of them wandered around backstage, and no one cared.

"Okay, call Mr. Wu."

Su Ming and Hou Longtao walked out and sat down on the sofa again, waiting for Mr. Wu to pick up.

Su Ming lit a cigarette, but before he could take a puff, someone noticed it this time.

The popcorn seller who was playing with his mobile phone just now pointed at Su Ming from a distance across the counter with a finger wearing a heavy metal ring, and said loudly: "What are you looking at? I'm talking about you! You can't read, don't you see that it says no smoking?!"