The World of Rosie Wong, Part 2 by JM6379

Part 2 has been delayed a bit due to some input by John Knuckles. He has been going great guns with his Babysitter Betrayed story. Will syndicate another of his stories up here soon. For now, here is Part 2 of Rosie.

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Rosie was determined to win that Golden Horse, and there was a role that was going to do it for her. "Across the Straits", an old Chinese classic was going to be made into a movie. In that story, a widowed, young country wife falls on hard times when her husband dies during the Chinese civil war. Believing her to be bad luck, her in laws then cast her out of her village matrimonial house.

Things get worse when she goes to Guangdong on the invitation of a friend. From Guangdong, they were meant to travel to Hong Kong together to escape the war. Instead of helping her, the friend cheats her and leaves her to fend for herself in the war torn landscape.Left on the streets with nobody to turn to, the lead character is forced to beg and do other desperate things for a living until she is eventually saved by an army general. 

The film had all the hallmarks of becoming a blockbuster. A good script, a critically acclaimed mainland director, big male star and world class crew. Then of course there was also herself. She would be in the company of equals, she thought.

But there were 2 problems - her bitter rival, Ai-Ling Kwan was also in the running for the same role. Slightly senior to her in the TVB academy, Ai-Ling was on the way to the top when she was eclipsed by Rosie's own meteoric rise. Unable to match Rosie, Ai-Ling moved to the mainland where she carved a decent career for herself.

Secondly, Rosie's own perfect, glamorous image. The producers were not convinced that Rosie could pull off the role. To win the part, Rosie convinced the director to do a screen test with her on the streets, dressed as a beggar.

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The screen tests and dress rehearsals in Hong Kong went so well that everybody was shocked. The production team had placed Rosie in full garb and dirty "make up" on a busy intersection in Causeway Bay and nobody batted an eyelid at her. She not only looked like a common vagabond on the street, but one of the filthy street kids commonly seen begging for money in Chinese cities due to her diminutive size. The final test was to be held in Guangzhou, where parts of the movie would be shot.

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Rosie was left outside Xidi wharf in the old quarter of the city. At the spot there were also 50 or so beggars of different ages, male and female. Rosie’s job was just to sit with them for the day and try to blend in.

A production assistant was left to monitor her from afar, from across the Pearl river with a handycam. About two hours into the test Rosie let her guard down and fell asleep inside a cardboard box, huddling from the cold Guangzhou autumn.

Rosie was rudely awakened by a sharp kick to her backside. The blow was only softened by her padded panties and thick jacket. Shocked, she quickly sat up to find a Chinese policeman shouting into her face. Rosie quickly apologized and tried to scurry away. Instead of letting her go the policeman grabbed her by her forearm and started dragging her towards a truck with the whole bunch of beggars on it. The officer was a big strong bloke so there was no chance of Rosie breaking away so she tried to reason with him.

Another problem struck Rosie as soon as she opened her mouth – she couldn’t speak proper Mandarin (Hong Kong is predominantly Cantonese)! The officer heard Rosie’s gibberish and his eyes narrowed. If a Chinese could not speak “Putonghua” it normally meant they were from the countryside and they had come to the city to beg. Otherwise, they would be from Hong Kong but HK people were rich, not beggars. Rosie certainly looked like a typical child beggar now.

 

Desperate, Rosie looked across the river trying to find her guardian. She found him quickly but instead of looking at her, his back was turned and he was talking on the phone! Rosie’s heart sank. There was no way she could shout over the bustle of the ferries around her to alert her guardian.

Very quickly she was bundled up the truck and taken away.

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Carson finished the call with his girlfriend. He was very happy that he could introduce her to “Mui Gwai cheh” (Rosie’s Cantonese nickname) over dinner later that night in a swanky hotel. Feeling pleased with himself, he turned around and got back to work.

Much to his shock – the entire beggar colony was gone! And along with it, Rosie! 

Carson was in a state of shock. After gibbering to himself for a minute of two, he called the production office in Hong Kong. After a further 10 minutes of trying to explain the situation, it suddenly hit him that the camcorder had been running the whole time. He promptly explained his latest brainstorm and hung up.

Carson went back an hour into the footage. There Rosie was, sound asleep in her cardboard box. Then about 5 minutes in, 6 police trucks rolled into the area. Some of the fitter vagabonds were seen running helter skelter. Rosie was sound asleep and didn’t move. She was then seen waving and screaming at the camera before being dragged up the truck. Within 5 minutes the entire operation was done and the police team rolled on.

Carson sat and thought for a moment. If he let the bosses see the video they would know he slacked off and he might be sacked. Further time passed as Carson deleted parts of the video before calling the production office again to explain what had happened.

By that evening there was a panic in Hong Kong as Mui Gwai cheh had been detained by the mainland police. The high powered bosses of the production company were burning up the phone lines to their influential mainland counterparts, trying to track Rosie down. As word spread, the HK media also quickly got word of the incident.