Birth of an actor

There is a five-hour time difference between Boston and London. Boston has just entered the afternoon, and London is already dusk.

When I contacted Barry, editor-in-chief of children's books at Waddington Publishing House an hour ago, Lance had already been told that a woman named Rowling, whose full name was Joanna Rowling, had indeed submitted to the publishing house three months ago. manuscript, but has been rejected.

Joanna Rowling, with the right name and surname, did not have time to be amazed that there was such a person, Lance did not think too much and immediately ordered the publisher to contact Joanna Rowling immediately to confirm that "Harry Potter and Magic" The ownership of the copyright of "Stone" at this moment, if it has not been sold, it will immediately start negotiating a contract with the other party.

Although he was inexplicable to the orders of the boss behind the scenes, Waddington Publishing still dutifully complied and carried out the work very well.

10 minutes ago, Barry called Lance and said that the contract negotiation went well. Lance then threw the address of the cafe to the other party and began to wait for news.

It was drizzling again in the London sky, and many pedestrians picked up the umbrellas in their handbags and opened them without any surprises. Some of them fled to the cafes on both sides of the road to avoid the rain. Lance sat in a small coffee. The hall was soon full of people. Two excited female students pushed each other to Lance and asked him in a mosquito-sized voice if he could take a seat opposite, but in exchange for Lance's expressionless After saying "I'm waiting for someone", no one dared to ask if the seat opposite him was really occupied.

The two female students were severely frozen. They whispered to each other. Although they were whispering, their voices were not lowered on purpose: "The attitude is really cold."

"Not a gentleman at all."

"The seats are here for you." Lance put down the coffee he had only taken a sip of, picked up the black umbrella with a wooden handle beside the table, got up and walked out of the cafe.

The rain was getting heavier and heavier, Lance didn't go far, just stood under the eaves and waited for someone.

In the cafe, the female students glanced at the tall figure through the floor-to-ceiling windows, then at the empty table, one pushed the other's shoulders: "Oh, it's you, get him mad."

Another female student curled her lips helplessly: "How did I know that he has such a temper, and he can't bear others to say that he is a flower."

Outside the cafe, Lance held a black umbrella in his right hand, staring at the raindrops dripping in a linear pattern, with a hard expression on his face.He hates rain.

It has nothing to do with Lance’s American background. New York is not a sunny city. Only people from cities like Miami and Los Angeles would hate London simply because of the rain. Lance likes London. It’s free, relaxing, and full of opportunities. He simply hates rain.

Since the burial of her mother, Jeanne Roderick, nine years ago.

The weather today is the same as that day, the sky is low and rainy, and the whole world is full of dark and cold colors. Jenny Roderick's coffin is slowly being buried, surrounded by people from the Roderick and Waddington families , and their friends, enemies, subordinates, political and business associates.

In the eyes of Lance, who was only ten years old at the time, the world has become black and white in his eyes since the color of his mother Jenny Roderick's cheeks changed from rosy to permanent pale, as in old movies. like that.

The men wore black suits and stood under black umbrellas with uniform expressionless faces, while the women wearing black veils wiped the corners of their eyes with white handkerchiefs to wipe away real or fake tears.No one cried out loud because Tyler Roderick didn't like noise.Lance couldn't make a sound, because Taylor wanted him to look mature and stable, like a "hundred billion heir" should be.

The white-haired priest with the cross hanging on his chest said the same prayers in his old and dull voice.

The tombstone reads:

Jenny Roderick

Born on March 1955, 6

Died August 1987, 3

may the Lord let you live again

The coffin landed smoothly into the tomb. Before the soil was scattered, people stepped forward one by one, leaving the flowers in their hands on the coffin, and then they couldn't wait to get close to Tyler Roderick. Their expressions of pretending to be sad couldn't hide their flattery. "I am very sorry and sad for you, Taylor, what a beautiful and virtuous wife Jenny is." What followed was either a discussion about business or votes.

Lance stood under the black umbrella and quietly watched those people courting his father. Jenny Roderick died as a daughter, wife and mother, but most people seemed to only care about her husband's feelings.

Even the old Waddingtons were so sad that they forgot the existence of their grandson.

If it weren't for the big black umbrella in the butler's hand, Lance might not even have a place to shelter from the rain.

——No, he still has a light blue handkerchief handed over by William, the kind of light blue that makes people feel calm, and the bright red of the red rose thrown on Jenny Roderick's coffin, which constitutes Lance's memory of the funeral The only two colors in .

Thinking of William and what he said, the cloud in Lance's heart dissipated a little.

If it were any other person, he probably wouldn't take William's occasional nagging words to heart, and might even forget them, but Lance is different. He has seen William's weirdness too many times since he was a child. place.

For example, William was not ignorant of politics, but he never took the Soviet threat theory to heart, and most of the students at that time were taught by the history teacher that "even if the US and the Soviet Union win a war, it must belong to the United States". Patriotic education is different, and William's is simply the confidence that there will be no war between the United States and the Soviet Union.

And after the merger of East and West Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Lance had a strange premonition—maybe this is why when William talked about modern European history, he seldom used the words East Germany and West Germany, but used Germany as a whole. The reason for the term collectively, he had long thought that East and West Germany would be unified?

There was also the Football World Cup in 1990. When there was a wave of gambling in the Calgate School with a partial British education, Lance bought some chips to join in the fun, ready to bet on the 1986 World Cup champion Argentina will successfully defend the title. , William muttered "No, no, no, my friend, you bet on the wrong place", and then placed the chips in the grid of the Federal Republic of Germany.That small bet made Lance nearly ten thousand dollars.

What made Lance feel that William was always shrouded in mystery was William's self-blame after Edwin Bradley's death.

Seriously, that was too much.

Lance has also tasted the pain of losing a loved one, and also had days of uncontrollable grief, but when he saw William at the funeral after Edwin's death, he found that there was a deeper truth hidden in William's pain. Emotion, that emotion is called self-blame.

Lance overheard William whispering: "Why am I not familiar with Wall Street? If I knew..."

what do you know?What are you familiar with?Did William feel that he was also responsible for Edwin's death?That's ridiculous!

Although it didn't take long for this extremely negative emotion to disappear from William due to the weight of reality, Lance still remembered it.

Not only that, Lance still remembers that when they were young, he often asked William in a dissatisfied and strange tone: "Why do you know so much more than I do?" Obviously he was Lance Roderick. Heir education from the age of three, who has to deal with eight different homework tutors every week, okay!

William's answer is always the same: "God sent an angel to tell me last night."

Coupled with the mysterious tone...Lance Roderick really foolishly believed that he was 12 years old!

When I was young, I didn't know how to doubt, I just felt strange and mysterious.

Now that I'm grown up, I don't want to, and I don't bother to doubt it.

Lance is not the FBI, nor is he interested in being an amateur detective. No matter what the reason for William's mystery is, he doesn't care, as long as the other party is still William Bradley, his closest partner, brother, and friend since he was a child, That's it.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Roderick." Barry, editor-in-chief of children's books at Waddington Press, ran over from across the road holding a big black umbrella. Say hello.

"Good afternoon, Barry." Lance greeted briefly and got straight to the point: "How's the contract going?"

"It went very well. We have signed a publishing contract for the "Harry Potter" series with Ms. Joanna Rowling. Now the manuscript has been proofread, and it will be published before Christmas at the earliest."

"Very good. What about film and television copyright?"

"Ms. Rowling is a little hesitant." Barry glanced at the face of the big boss, and said in an octave lower voice: "When Ms. Rowling saw the film and television copyright purchase agreement, she was surprised. After a while, she became confused. 'As far as I know, Waddington is just a book publishing house.' She said, 'You haven't even released an audio book, how dare you talk about making a movie?' Ms. Rowling questioned Waddington very much. The strength of Dington Publishing House, in desperation, I had no choice but to tell her that the publishing house is just a subsidiary of a large group, of course there are other companies involved in film and television shooting in the group, Ms. Luo Lin..."

"Her what?"

"'I want to meet your big boss.' She said: 'Otherwise the film and television adaptation is out of the question.'"

Lance thought about his schedule: "Help me make an appointment for her afternoon tea tomorrow, at four o'clock."

"Okay." Barry took out a thick brown paper bag from his briefcase: "I have brought the original manuscript of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" as you ordered."

"Please." Lance took the brown paper bag with his left hand, held up the umbrella with his right hand, and walked into the rain: "Goodbye, Mr. Barry."

"You're too polite—" Before Barry finished speaking, the figure in the black windbreaker had gone away, so he could only mutter to himself, "Goodbye, Mr. Roderick."

……

Boston, Cambridge, Harvard.

William escaped from the "LGBT" booth, let out a long breath, like the rest of his life.

"There is such a society at Harvard?" After expressing his gratitude to Christopher Dixon, William couldn't help but complain, "It's really an eye-opener." Then he looked at Christopher Dixon with a very calm expression: "Why don't you surprise?"

"I'm from San Francisco, man." Christopher Dixon shrugged. "There are organizations like this all over the place."

William thought about it.

"...You're not guessing if I'm gay, are you?"

"Yep."

"If I say yes, will you apply to change the dormitory?" Christopher Dixon restrained his smile and looked a little serious.

Although American mainstream society now advocates retro and conservative thinking, after the sexual liberation trend of the 70s and [-]s, the whole society has become very enlightened in its treatment of gender relations. As long as it does not involve moral issues, men and women can play as they want.

Homosexuality is different. The discovery of AIDS in the early 80s, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a series of research investigations on AIDS in the "Morbidity and Mortality" weekly magazine—it can be roughly summarized that homosexuals are high-risk groups for AIDS, especially gay men— ——it makes the whole world look at homosexuality in a very strange way.

As an old elite school, Harvard's school ethos and various rules and regulations still have a bit of traditional legacy. One of the dormitory regulations stipulates that if a student finds out that his or her roommate is gay, he/she has the right to request Change dormitories.

"Do I look like someone who discriminates against non-heterosexual people?" William also put away his smile, and replied solemnly: "I am not a homophobe, my friend, and I respect everyone's choice— Whether they love a man or a woman, or nothing at all."

"Sorry for doubting you, Will, please forgive me." Christopher Dixon: "I'm not gay, but I have friends and family who are, so I care if new friends are homophobic, and you know, I from-"

"San Francisco." William completed it for him with a smile.

"Yes."

The two looked at each other and laughed loudly.