Chapter 496: Movie Dream
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The German Shepherd in Cage 9 was Babe, who was also a police dog.
Fu Tao rubbed Babe’s neck and said proudly to Zhang Zian and Old Yang, “Don’t think you have the only dog who’s made a movie. I don’t care about your dog! See? This dog has also made movies.”
Zhang Zian didn’t quite believe him. How had a dog that had filmed movies end up at this nursing home?
“Really?” He thought that Fu Tao was joking. “What movies?”
“I’m telling the truth! Why would I lie to you? The movies are called…they are called…”
Fu Tao was embarrassed. He patted his head and said, “My poor memory, I can’t remember the names of the movies. It really has filmed movies, I’m not lying!”
Famous saw Babe’s memory and knew Fu Tao was telling the truth, Babe really had filmed movies before.
Babe was a ordinary police dog. Apart from maintaining public security and capturing thieves, it had no other special experiences.
It should have spent the rest of its life modestly and then safely retire.
However, one day, the police force where Babe was serving was notified to take the police dogs to an audition and to assist a film crew.
Unlike the Dog Warrior’s crew, this crew had selected the lead dog, while the police dogs would play supporting roles.
Babe’s audition wasn’t particularly outstanding, and its owner didn’t think that it would be selected for a supporting role. Surprisingly, Babe was selected, not for a supporting role. Since Babe’s appearance highly resembled the protagonist, it would be the stunt double for the protagonist in some of the more dangerous shots.
Famous didn’t know why Babe’s owner agreed to the arrangement. Whether it was because he was pressured by his superiors or some unknown reason, he agreed and let Babe join the crew.
The director and other personnel of this crew treated the dogs with a far worse attitude than the Dog Warrior’s crew. The movie was filmed in the summer and sometimes they encountered copious amounts of rain. When it rained, people went to find shelter and forgot about the dogs, locked in their cages, getting drenched.
The German Shepherd selected as the protagonist was not a police dog. Rumor had it that this dog was raised by a relative of the producer of the movie. Because his relative wanted to make his dog become popular, the producer invested in this movie. Therefore, the protagonist was treated as an emperor in the crew and could eat beef every meal, while the police dogs could only eat the ordinary lunchboxes or dog food.
Babe’s owner may not want to keep earning the low wages in the police force. Instead, he was aspired to enter the lucrative entertainment industry. With this wonderful opportunity, after he entered the crew, he kept selling himself to the celebrities and was fully obedient to the director’s requests without any hesitation. In order to curry favor with the producer, he frequently belittled Babe and appraised the protagonist in front of the producer. Even in some dangerous scenes, he volunteered to let Babe shoot the scenes.
Babe knew nothing about its owner’s intentions. As usual, it faithfully carried out its owner’s orders. Whether it was required to climb a mountain or swim in the sea, or jump into bushes full of thorns and ants, or escape from a room that was on fire, Babe completed the tasks as instructed, and all it wanted was the appraisal from its owner.
One day, the crew needed to shoot a dangerous scene. To display the protagonist’s courage and vigorousness, it must jump over a cliff. As the significant protagonist, it certainly couldn’t take the risks by itself. Hence, the task was entrusted to Babe.
To make the scene appear as vivid as possible, the crew found an actual cliff where two mountains were more than four meters apart. Between these mountains was an unfathomable abyss.
Of course, the crew had provided the most basic protection measures.
A safety net had been placed below the cliff. However, to prevent the safety net from appearing in the camera, the safety net was placed about five meters below the cliff.
Babe flinched for the first time when shooting this scene.
Led by its owner, Babe went to the edge of the cliff. Looking at the abyss below, Babe was so scared that it kept retreating backwards. It looked at its owner as if it was begging. It whimpered and didn’t want to jump over the cliff.
It was a sunny day in midsummer. Everyone was enduring the scorching heat under the sun. The director, who was wearing a straw hat and sitting under a parasol, urged Babe to jump impatiently. Next to the director, someone was fanning him to cool him down.
The German Shepherd that was selected as the protagonist was lying under the shade next to the director. To disperse the heat in its body, it stuck out its tongue. It looked at everything that was happening around it indifferently.
Everyone in the crew was waiting for Babe to jump over the cliff. Babe’s owner, whose police uniform was drenched in sweat, scolded Babe and forced it to jump.
Babe’s body temperature increased under the sun, but there were no umbrellas or fans to cool it down.
Babe was aware that it had to jump over the cliff. If it failed, its owner would be very angry, so it obeyed and no longer tried to escape.
When the director ordered, the scene began.
Each time it ran to the edge of the cliff, Babe stopped to look at its owner, as if it was begging him to change his mind and spare it from doing the task.
“Can your dog jump over the cliff, or not? If it can’t, we’ll replace it with another dog. Stop wasting everyone’s time!” The director snapped and threw his script to the floor.
Babe’s owner was ashamed and annoyed. He strode furiously to Babe and kicked it.
Babe rolled on the ground. It was in so much pain, but it did not dare defy its owner.
“This is your last chance. If you fail to jump over the cliff, I’m not your owner anymore,” its owner said coldly.
Babe didn’t understand him, but could tell from his facial expressions that something bad was happening. Babe had never seen its owner so angry before. Babe couldn’t think straight due to the stress and the heat.
Babe succumbed to its fate. Obeying its owner trumped surviving.
The scene started once again.
This time, Babe didn’t stop on the edge of the cliff. All it saw was its owner, standing on the other side with open arms. As long as Babe made the jump, Babe would be forgiven.
Babe jumped, creating a graceful arc in the air, and was about to land on the other side.
Seeing that the scene was about to finish, the crew members were relieved.
However, due to the powerful winds, the seemingly stable rocks on the other side of the cliff had loosened. Impacted by Babe’s landing, the rocks suddenly collapsed!
To everyone’s surprise, several rocks fell off the cliff.
Babe had not landed steadily on the cliff. It stumbled and its back legs hung in the air. Unable to muster any strength, its two front legs were clinging to the stones.
To make sure he wouldn’t appear on camera, its owner was standing five meters away from the cliff. When he realized that Babe was in danger, he tried to walk towards it so he could pull it from the edge.
“Don’t move!”
The director stood up from his chair and shouted, “Who told you to move? Did I say ‘cut?'”
Babe’s owner was stunned. His absolute obedience to the director stopped him from rushing to Babe.
The director excitedly picked up the walkie-talkie and asked the cinematographer, “Did you get that? What a pleasant surprise!”
The cinematographer made an “okay” gesture from afar. The director, now satisfied, sat back in his chair and shouted, “Cut!”
Babe’s owner ran to the edge of the cliff and went to pull Babe from the edge, but he was too late. Babe was tired of holding onto the cliff.
If he arrived sooner, he would’ve been able to pull Babe from the edge.
Babe fell.
In Babe’s memory, all it saw was the blue sky, as if it was swimming in the air. Its owner’s hand moved farther and farther away from Babe. Babe’s fall was as graceful as a slow-motion video.
Babe wasn’t scared, it was happy because it had seen its owner’s concern.
My owner has finally forgiven me, thought Babe.
Babe landed in the net. One of its front leg was broken because Babe hit a rock on the way down. The bone pierced through its skin.
Babe’s whining echoed through the mountains.
The most ironic thing, no one benefited from this movie.
There was more than one police dog and police dog trainer in the crew. Someone reported the behavior of Babe’s owner to the police force. As the evidence was against him, Babe’s owner was expelled from the police force for neglecting his duties.
Each year, 90% of the movies filmed in China fail to be released in theaters, and this movie became one of them.
The producer’s investment and desire to make his relative’s German Shepherd a star went down the drain.
After Babe recovered from its injury, its front leg was permanently disabled. It remained in the police force and was taken care of by a new owner. From then on, it only carried out simple tasks, such as patrolling, until the day of its retirement. It was then sent to this police dog nursing home.
However, Babe still missed its previous owner. It had forgotten that he had ever kicked it, all it remembered was the genuine concern in his eyes when it fell.
Just like Luo Luo, Babe was waiting for its owner to come and take it away.
After his dream of making a movie was crushed, Babe’s former owner was expelled from the police force and disappeared. Babe never saw him again.
If there was still a glimmer of hope for Luo Luo, then Babe’s waiting was futile.
Famous burst into tears without thinking.
