these years

Anyone with experience knows that a story cannot be told from the beginning, it can only start from a relatively suitable place.

——Where the Angels Fall by Lu Nei

one,

Wang Lijun thought of his time again.

In that year, he ended the long period of changing his voice, and after listening to and discussing with several masters, he finally announced the failure of closing his position [1].

Wang Lijun was born in a family in Liyuan, and he studied in the drama attached middle school. He practiced and performed with the class on weekdays. He used heavy makeup and heavy color on his face. He happened to hit puberty and developed a large face of poisonous acne. Coupled with a male duck voice, the audio-visual effect is amazing. Said tragic.

He was a former academician and studied both civil and military affairs.After entering the female role, the typhoon is beautiful, and her forte is "Melontown". In addition, she is tall and slender, with a bright face, and knows how to express feelings.

The masters prophesied that when he reaches adulthood, he will become a big hit.

After that, nothing.Wang Lijun walked sideways in the alleys, did not raise his head, did not look at people, and did not make eye contact with others. He was afraid that people would see his face, and he was also afraid of speaking. Usually, the conversation was resolved within three words.The masters felt sorry for him and knew that he had strong self-esteem, so they had to turn a blind eye to him to avoid further embarrassment.It’s just that the old courtyard house was not soundproof. Every night, Wang Lijun lay on the bed, crying all over the alley. The masters said:

"Memorize it a little bit, the Wang family will waste another one."

His family is Ding Xingwang, and Wang Lijun has a dozen or so brothers in his generation, but one after another, his development has gone astray, and one and the other have all failed—Wang Lijun is the last one.In other words, since the end of the Cultural Revolution, in the ten years since the end of the Cultural Revolution, there has not been a single singer in the Wang family who can sing.

Brothers were not discouraged, and rushed to share with Wang Lijun the experience of those who have passed through: such as inhaling essential oils to protect the throat, exercising sweat to keep the skin clean, eating bitter gourd, celery and mung beans to eliminate heat toxins in the body, and even offering beriberi ointment on the face Wait for the acne treatment.

Therefore, during the summer vacation of [-], Wang Lijun’s daily routine was as follows: get up early in the morning and drink a bottle of essential oil, play basketball with his brothers for three hours under the scorching sun, eat only fried bitter gourd mixed with celery and mung bean soup all day, sleep I wiped my face with beriberi ointment before, lay down on the bed and cried wildly, and turned off the lights to sleep.

His father advised him, it’s okay, take good care of your body first, the theater belongs to our family, even if you can’t take the lead, you are indispensable for playing tricks and pulling the curtain. Your second uncle and the others are all there.

Wang Lijun felt uncomfortable, and playing basketball every day was unshakable—he still had a little hope.The brothers defended him, and tacitly did not mention the matter of his face. They all thought in their hearts, that pimple face, the spiked shoes stepped on the mud, the pomegranate peel was turned over, and the meat bun fell to the ground and was run over by the tank. , who is so cruel, so ruthless enough to mention it?

The brothers knew the inside story, but the children who played together didn't know. When everyone was tired from playing and resting together, a child pointed at Wang Lijun and said, so what, brother, are you sick?

Wang Lijun immediately howled, covered his face with his hands, and ran away in tears.

The brothers stared at the naughty kid for a long while, but they couldn't stop beating him up—everyone would call him brother, and they wouldn't hit the smiling face when they stretched out their hands.

The child's name is Qiao Weidong, who is also studying in the Drama Attached High School, and was born in a worker's family.He is an Er Maozi[2], so he is big-boned. He looks like he is in his twenties when he is 16 years old. He is born with the best features of both bloodlines.

Qiao Weidong also has no future to speak of - he was appreciated by his teacher because of his looks, and he wants to develop in the direction of singing and dancing, so as to prepare for the future contact with international friendship.Unfortunately, he broke the stage floor when he first appeared on the stage. The reason was not only that he was overweight and danced too hard; he also found a wrench from his right trouser pocket. Du Yibing asked, why are you keeping this in your pocket?

Qiao Weidong said, I'm going to help my dad turn the screws after the performance.

Du Yibing expressed his disbelief, but found a hammer from his left trouser pocket.

Du Yibing was shocked, why are you putting this in your pocket again?

Qiao Weidong said, for the sake of balance.

Since Qiao Weidong's intellectual development has not kept up with his physical development, his class performances rarely take him to play. He can only be responsible for moving props, pulling the curtain and acting as a big tree.Occasionally playing musical instruments, he is only allowed to play the piano, accordion and other heavy instruments. As for playing the flute, he is absolutely not allowed, because it is necessary to completely eliminate the possibility of Qiao Weidong dancing with the songs and overwhelming the stage again—how about that small stage? Well, it's not enough to place a class of ballerina girls, how can there be room for him?

Therefore, Qiao Weidong is destined not to belong to the stage.

In the evening, the kids playing basketball left one after another. Qiao Weidong stayed where he was. He knew he had said something wrong and scratched his head, feeling guilty.

Wang Lijun cried for a while, his eyes swollen like walnuts, and he wobbled back to the basketball court, leaving his water glass there.

Qiao Weidong moved to Wang Lijun's side, hesitating for a long time: "Brother, I'm sorry."

Wang Lijun ignored him and continued to look for the water cup in the grass.

Qiao Weidong continued: "I didn't recognize it just now, I know you are singing Sister Li Feng."

Wang Lijun rarely cheered up: "Really?"

Qiao Weidong said, "I went to the Chang Gung Theater last year for the Mid-Autumn Festival."

Wang Lijun sneered: "Ganqing is a young fancier."

Qiao Weidong didn't notice the sarcasm in his words, and said happily, "I can't be considered a fancier. My grandfather used to play the suona, and he often took me to the theater to play. It's too high, I can't do it, and several masters also said that I have no talent, and the patriarch will not reward this meal."

Wang Lijun was thoughtful: "So, we are also considered brothers?"

Qiao Weidong was quite happy: "Forget it, forget it."

Wang Lijun said perfunctorily: "Yes, little junior brother, help senior brother find the water bottle quickly, I don't know where it went, don't give it to me."

The two searched the grass for a while, but they didn't find the water bottle, but Du Yibing came.

Du Yibing was a small fat man, running up and down, out of breath.

He said: "Qiao Dongdong, your mother got angry and asked me to come to you. She said that the food was cold and she didn't come back so late. Is something wrong?"

Qiao Weidong had no choice but to say: "Then let's go first, the family is waiting for dinner, see you, brother."

Before Wang Lijun responded, Du Yibing said, "Are you the one who sang "Melontown"?"

Wang Lijun said, "You all know me?"

Du Yibing said: "Can you not recognize me, your plate is bright and smooth."

Wang Lijun couldn't smile immediately, and stretched his face: "My face is turned into walnut skin, is it still bright?"

Du Yibing comforted: "Adolescence—well, isn't this normal? Several girls in our yard are also like this. Once puberty passes, everything will be healed, leaving no spots or traces."

Wang Lijun said, "That's a girl, and I'm not a girl."

Du Yibing said: "It has nothing to do with gender, right? They seem to have made a folk remedy. Once the folk remedy is used, it will be fine soon."

Wang Lijun's eyes lit up: "What folk remedy?"

Du Yibing was in a dilemma: "That's not clear, let me ask you later?"

After asking for more than half a month, Wang Lijun never heard any follow-up news.He didn't know what to do, and continued to live his summer vacation, occasionally going to the screening theater of the studio next door to watch a feature film for [-] cents.Watching a movie made him feel relieved, because the world was dark and no one wanted to see anyone.

This day, the screening theater showed a Hong Kong movie. Whenever a Hong Kong movie was shown in the screening theater, the audience loved it, and the attendance rate must be the highest.By convention, a brochure is distributed before the Hong Kong film begins, and it is collected after watching the film.Wang Lijun opened the booklet, and the first sentence that came up was: Hong Kong is the most debauched city in the world, a gold-selling cave that destroys the will of young people...

Wang Lijun felt bored. He closed the booklet and thought to himself, do you think you are a fool if you talk nonsense.

At this moment, the lights went out with a snap, and someone in the audience threw the booklet into the air, whistling and flying in the white light of the projector.Wang Lijun followed suit in the dark, threw the brochure away, and hit a person in the back row when it fell.

The man let out a headache, and Wang Lijun turned around quickly, and saw a very bourgeois face. In such a dark situation, other faces are only worthy of being cut by light and shadow, and only his face is cutting light and shadow——like this In terms of appearance, there is no one else except Qiao Weidong.

Qiao Weidong was very pleasantly surprised when he saw him, and hurriedly greeted this dear senior brother, led Du Yibing to his feet, and ran to sit next to Wang Lijun.

Wang Lijun felt uncomfortable. It was originally his leisure time alone, but now there are two more people sharing it. Fortunately, they don't have to face each other, which makes the situation less embarrassing.

They started to enter the movie. After the first 10 minutes, a Hong Kong man was fighting bloody battle with two guns on the screen. Qiao Weidong stood up a little excitedly.Qiao Weidong returned to his original position. Wang Lijun suddenly remembered something. Amidst the sound of gunfire, he asked Qiao Weidong: "Hey, tell me about your iron porcelain, what is the folk prescription he asked me about?"

Qiao Weidong came to his senses and was about to ask a question, but Du Yibing saw the excitement, as if he had been possessed by the male protagonist, and he shouted to the villain who was talking nonsense, you have a good idea!

A bunch of studio boys were excited, some shouted, some continued to curse, and some even started throwing the brochures. When the papers were flying all over the sky, the curtain was also hit by the brochures, and the face of the Hong Kong man fluctuated violently twice. , and then disappeared instantly.A crowd of idiots and resentful women screamed angrily in the artificial night, Wang Lijun thought, people really tend to go crazy in summer.The lights came on quickly, and Wang Lijun lowered his head suddenly, hoping that no one would see him.

After coming and going, the folk prescription never disappeared, but they met many times, sometimes on the basketball court, sometimes in the theater.The final result was that Wang Lijun stopped asking questions, but became more and more familiar with Du Yibing and Qiao Weidong.

That night, Wang Lijun was applying beriberi cream, Du Yibing was sitting on the window sill, and Qiao Weidong was squatting and eating watermelon.

Du Yibing rushed to Wang Lijun and said, "Your six in the second year of high school, do you know?"

Wang Lijun said, "I don't know, what's wrong?"

Du Yibing said, "The one whose father works in the Forbidden City?"

Wang Lijun said, "Oh, I know, what's wrong?"

Du Yibing said: "He said that although Qiao Dongdong was not allowed to dance in the class, he played better and better, and the Forbidden City is planning to invite him to perform."

Qiao Weidong squirted watermelon soup happily: "Well, why haven't I heard of it? What are you going to perform?"

Du Yibing said: "The one that was unearthed a few days ago, Chime Bell! Please Qiao Dongdong to perform."

Wang Lijun couldn't stop laughing wildly. He laughed a lot recently, but he still didn't forget to half cover his face with his hands.

After he had laughed enough, he remembered the serious matter, and continued, "Look at what my dad means, I'll go to high school for one more year, and when my body recovers, I'll see what to do in the future."

Du Yibing said: "Very good, just in time for the drama festival next semester, I have saved up a drama script, and I plan to perform with Dongdong on stage, you can also play together."

Wang Lijun asked: "Performance? Didn't they not take you two?"

Qiao Weidong was upset: "It's because they didn't bring it, so we had to come by ourselves. Bingzi is the director and screenwriter, and I'm in charge of the soundtrack, costumes and props. I have to draw the posters myself."

Du Yibing quickly answered: "Jun'er, why don't you take care of the makeup?"

Qiao Weidong also booed: "Come on, come on, let's go together."

Wang Lijun didn't want to get together with children at first, because the children in the big courtyard paid attention to ranking. He was the youngest and had no right to speak. If he was wrapped up with the two of them, his status would plummet even more.But there are also advantages. When he was with the two of them, he actually felt like a big brother. Seeing that they praised him and pulled him into the group, Wang Lijun finally felt some self-worth. He would rather be a chicken head than a phoenix tail—— It's just makeup, so others won't dislike him for being ugly.

So he said: "I declare in advance that I can only do theater makeup, and I don't know all kinds of stage makeup."

Du Yibing said cheerfully: "You know everything, good! That's the decision, let's make good arrangements, and don't fight unprepared battles!"

Qiao Weidong also shook his head and tail.

Du Yibing calmed down quickly: "Then let me talk about the script?"

[1] Dao Cang: A term used in Peking Opera, referring to the voice change of young people.

[2] Ermaozi: Chinese-Russian mixed race.