deserter

I don't want to be a violinist, or a conductor at all.Not at all.

"I've decided to give up the violin."

"That's what you said last time," said Albert.

"This time is different from the last time. This time it's true."

Well, but this time Albert didn't feel betrayed as he was back then.

Xie Wei really started to give up the violin. At the beginning, he was happy. He felt that he had resisted for the first time, against his parents, against the fate his parents had arranged for him.Then, he felt unspeakably lonely, but he never felt regretful.

When his violin teacher stepped into the house, Xie Wei also told him clearly: "I have given up learning the violin."

"But what can you do without learning the violin?"

"There are many things I can do. I can learn languages, I can learn history, I can learn painting, and even learn other musical instruments."

"I think you're being mad."

"I didn't."

"Stupid! You know if you were a violinist..."

But I don't need to.I don't need to earn money playing the violin.Not at all.

Then, Xie Wei chose to learn painting, a path that was completely different from Albert's, but it was also an artistic path.

Xie Wei still remembers that during the period after that, the Spanish Civil War had not fully started yet, but it was already the early stage of the Civil War.Barcelona has been shrouded in a thick layer of gray fog.People walking on the street have lost their former enthusiasm, strangers are strangers, even acquaintances will become strangers to each other when they meet.

Xie Wei and Albert imitated the men on the street and greeted each other by handing cigarettes or borrowing fire.

"I'm going to France," Xie Wei said.

Xie Wei went to France to study painting, but at that time, many Spaniards who went to France would be considered as fleeing.

"Are you also here to escape?" Xie Wei met a young man who also spoke Spanish.

"Of course not. I'm here to learn how to draw..."

In fact, Xie Wei wanted to know how the other party knew that he was also a Spaniard.

"You can learn the same in China, right?" The young man didn't quite believe Xie Wei's words.Xie Wei didn't entangle with him for too long.Xie Wei got out of the car. It has been two years since he left Spain and Barcelona.He planned to open an art exhibition in Paris after he got his academic certificate.

Back then, at that small concert, he fled without courage like a deserter, and the accomplice was still Albert.If he opens an art exhibition this time, he is determined to invite Albert, because this time he will not be a deserter again.

In 1936, Spain was plunged into civil strife.Fascist regimes such as the Nazis in Germany and Mussolini in Italy were mixed into it.Many artists living abroad supported the Republican faction even though they did not go to war.

It was under such circumstances that Albert took his violin and came to Paris, France alone to look for Xie Wei Desau.

"Are you also here to escape?"

They haven't seen each other for a long time.Now, Xie Wei was waiting for him at the station.Smile at him in the sun.Little did they know then, hell was coming.

"I'm not like you, I just love being a deserter." Albert's powerful fist fell and hit Xie Wei's shoulder.

Unlike their farewell a few years ago, Albert is already a violinist now.

Xie Wei took Albert into a French restaurant.

"I've never been a deserter, I'm just good at rebelling against fate."

"Okay. But are you really used to the food here?"

"It's okay." Xie Wei said.

"Can we visit your place in a moment? I want to play the violin for you."

Xie Wei looked at the door anxiously.

"If you have time." Xie Wei said.

"Actually, I thought...after giving up the violin, you would choose to learn the cello."

"I think so too," Xie Wei said. "The cello is good, but painting is also good. But if I learn to play the cello, I will be better than you at the violin."

"I never denied it," whispered Albert. "Are you expecting a girl?"

"what?"

"You have looked at the door dozens of times, aren't you waiting for someone?"

"No, I don't have anyone... Well, I'm just looking to see if I can meet..."

Xie Wei frankly told Albert about his acquaintance with the great painter Pablo Picasso.

"Since I came to this country, I have met several people who asked me if I came here to escape..." Xie Wei slowly told, so Albert understood. When they met, Xie Wei said to him That sentence is just a joke.

"Although I have left our country, I still hope to know what is going on in the country all the time. That day, when I was buying a newspaper, I met a woman who asked me the same thing. She told me Her name is Dora Maar. I told her I came to France to study painting..."

Yes, Dora is Picasso's lover.

"That's how I met Picasso."

In the end, Albert was actually unable to play a piece of violin music for Xie Wei, and he was unable to hear Xie Wei's criticism, because he had to leave for his country.

"Goodbye, Albert."

Adéu, elmeuamic. (Catalan: Goodbye, my friend.)

Xie Wei will never see what Albert wrote on the window.

"Can I come in and have a look?" This was October 1936, and it was Xie Wei's fifth visit to Picasso's residence.

"Now. But not when I'm creating." Picasso smiled.

The next day, Xie Wei received a letter from Little Paula, saying that she had thought about it for a long time and decided to tell him that Mrs. Desau had passed away a week ago.

I'm a housekeeper invited by my wife.Now that she's gone, it's time for me to go too.

Xie Wei did not return to Barcelona in the end, but he began to prepare for his exhibition.

"I like this painting." Picasso said.

It was on the streets of Barcelona. Two men handed cigarettes to each other with indistinct smiles on their lips. That was their special way of greeting each other by relying on silence.

It was Franco who made it all happen.Is a right winger.It's a fascist regime.

The Spanish artists of this period seemed to be born for the left wing.

"I am also very satisfied with this painting." Xie Wei said.He recalled that he and Albert had done the same.Like the two men in the painting.

In January 1937, Xie Wei temporarily handed over his paintings to Picasso.

"I decided to go back to Spain." Xie Wei said.

Back to Spain, with his unfinished works, although he may not be able to hold his exhibition in Paris.He has fought for art all his life, whether it is language, history, musical instruments or painting.

"Say hello to Dora for me." Xie Wei said finally.

He is determined to return to Barcelona and fight for his hometown.

In 1937, the Spanish Civil War broke out.On April 26, Hitler and Mussolini's air force bombed and burned Guernica, the oldest town in the Basque Country.