No.70 days

The winter of 2017 was not the coldest in Chen Yimang's memory.

They filmed advertisements on a grassland near Baotou, Inner Mongolia. Chen Yimang didn’t know the name of this place—the rickety bus pulled a group of them here, and he only slept in the car. When he woke up, the gray-green grassland was gone. In front of me, the place gets dark after four o'clock in the afternoon, and the field of vision is vast.

Chen Yimang looked out the window and asked the assistant beside him, "Can I shoot in this weather?" It looked like it was going to snow.

The little assistant shook his head, a little worried: "I don't know, Director Wang didn't say anything else..."

Of course it can be filmed, Director Wang said with satisfaction, what he was waiting for was the weather, and then he started talking endlessly, there were 36 of them, two directors, twelve models, and makeup artists, stylists, lighting assistants... 36 people flew from Shanghai to Baotou and took a bus for nearly four hours. Why?Maybe it's because of this gray-green grassland, this gloomy sky, and these few rays of bleak sunshine.Capture, listen, Director Wang said, the moment I captured, and you at this moment, can escape the linear time, do you understand?There are some memories that escape linear time.

The other models are also sleepy. Director Wang has nothing wrong with him, except that he talks too much.It was not easy for him to get enough of his mouth addiction, and a group of people started working noisily.

This time they were shooting an ad for a domestic men's clothing brand, and the clothes Chen Yimang got was a white shirt, the latest in plain style.However, the moment he put on his shirt, the little assistant covered his mouth and screamed in a low voice.Chen Yimang said helplessly, "You are too exaggerated."

The little assistant shook her head again and again: "You are really amazing in this dress! Damn, when we went to choose clothes that day, I thought this dress was not good-looking. It is really more popular than others..."

Chen Yimang took off his jeans and put on a pure black leather skirt.The stylist came over and said, it really is more tense this way!Chen Yimang casually tied her long hair into a ponytail and asked her, what is tension?

She laughed, it's hard to explain. For example, you have a lot to say to someone, but in the end you just waved at him. This is tension...

By eight o'clock in the evening, most of the content had been filmed. In the middle, Director Wang was still dissatisfied and dragged the two newcomers to try again and again.

At night, the wind howls on the grassland, the sky is full of stars, and there is a smell of dry dust in the air.Chen Yimang sat on the pony with his legs curled up, his nose was red, and he drank slowly from the thermos.As soon as the hot air gushed out of the cup, it was immediately blown away by the wind.

Maybe it was because he was too focused on drinking water, until the water in the glass was finished, the boy who was staring at him, dared to move over unintentionally.Chen Yimang knew that he was the lighting engineer's assistant—but that's all.

how old is he 18 years old, no more.

"Brother," the voice was rough, "I still have hot water, do you want to drink it? I haven't drunk it, the cup is clean."

Chen Yimang smiled at him: "I'm not thirsty anymore, thank you." In fact, he was still a little thirsty. Three days before the shooting, he seldom ate or drank water for fear of swelling.

"Oh..." The boy scratched his head, a little embarrassed, "I see you have worked hard."

"Are you making money?" Chen Yimang said.

The two chatted like this, and the boy sat on the floor with a big face. He was tall, with a northern accent, and not very handsome.

"We do this all over there," he said. "One of them is famous all over the country. Brother, do you know? Yanling, Yanling, Henan, Zhangqiao Town."

Chen Yimang turned his face sideways and looked into his eyes: "I know, Lighting Village."

"Yes," the boy laughed and said with some pride, "it's our village."

Chen Yimang asked him: "Is this your first time with the group?"

"The second time," the boy was even more excited when he mentioned this topic, "the first time the group was in Beijing, and I only went there for a few days, and I met Fan Bingbing! She even signed an autograph for me."

Chen Yimang still looked into his eyes: "Is she pretty?"

"It's beautiful! The real person is different from the one on TV. I didn't realize it at the time. I thought..." The boy's voice became smaller and smaller, and finally became quiet, staring at Chen Yimang's hand with flushed faces.

Chen Yimang smiled and didn't ask him why he didn't continue talking.He knew that when he stared at a person with this look, no matter whether the other person was a man, a woman, gay or straight, it was hard not to be moved by him.

After adding the boy's WeChat, Chen Yimang got up: "I'm going back to the car, it's too cold."

The boy said in a daze, "Oh...OK."

After getting into the car, Chen Yimang sent him a WeChat message: What model?

Opponent's reply in seconds: 1

Chen Yimang: Come to my room tonight, 307

There was no response from the other side. After 10 minutes, he replied: Brother, something called me over just now... Then what time should I come tonight?

Chen Yimang: up to you

Chen Yimang put his phone in his pocket, leaned against the soft back of the chair, and closed his eyes heavily.There was the sound of cold wind whistling outside the car window, it was really cold here, he hoped he didn't have a cold, otherwise——otherwise he wouldn't be able to do it tonight.

He is 27 years old, not old, but he is no longer like in the past when he was young. He can make an appointment with one in "Slow Voice", finish the room, and then go back to find the next one on the dance floor.It stands to reason that he should take a hot bath tonight, apply a mask (Inner Mongolia is too dry), and then sleep peacefully.

But the boy's expression and tone were all too familiar. He saw the excitement and shyness in his eyes, and naturally saw his eagerness to move.In the first year of junior high school, his mother took him and his younger brother to Chongqing from Zhongxian County. The night before his departure, he was so nervous that he couldn't sleep. He opened his eyes wide in the dark and listened quietly to the sound outside the window. There was a dog barking, as if to see them off in advance, it was a little black and white mixed-haired dog, very stupid.

At that time, for him, Chongqing covered everything he could imagine about a "big city". His expression that night was exactly the same as when the boy from Henan described how beautiful Fan Bingbing was.

Then he went to Chongqing and lived in the oldest and dirtiest tube building. The shady side of the house did not see the sun all year round, and there was a damp smell in the corner.He was surprised to find that Chongqing's flower rolls cost [-] cents each, but in Zhong County, you can buy two for [-] cents, and they are bigger than Chongqing's.

Later, the mother took the younger brother to marry, and he left them.I have been in the society for two years, I have washed cars, served dishes, and slept in KFC.When I met Peng Fucai, I heard others call him Mr. Peng, and he also called him that way. Peng Fucai took him back to his villa, and while untying his belt, he said, Chen Lei, you can call me godfather from now on.

His original name was Chen Lei.