normal friend

Chapter 5: Small talk

When Meng Weiqing woke up, it was almost one o'clock in the afternoon.When he walked to the living room, Bai Xiaojun was slumped on the sofa and flipping through his phone.

"Aren't you going to work today?" Bai Xiaojun didn't take his eyes off the phone screen.

"Um... what's wrong?"

"It's not a festival, and it's not a weekend. It was almost eleven o'clock when you left yesterday. Why don't companies have to arrive before nine o'clock?"

"Oh, I'm on vacation." Meng Weiqing made it up casually.

Bai Xiaojun lifted his face from his phone, "I had an appointment with a friend to watch a movie today, but he told me that I couldn't watch it because of something. I booked the ticket. If you have time, would you like to come with me?"

"what movie?"

"'Anything'."

"Female friend?"

"Um……"

"Is it the girl you want to chase?"

Bai Xiaojun rolled his eyes, "Are you going?"

Meng Weiqing changed his clothes and came out of the house. Bai Xiaojun heaved a sigh of relief, "It's so good, so good, I'm afraid you will dress like yesterday again."

"How was it yesterday?" Meng Weiqing looked at the half-sleeve floral shirt and nine-point beige canvas pants on himself in the mirror, and didn't think there was anything good about it.

"I feel uncomfortable when I see people in suits and leather shoes. With glasses, I don't want to get close to them. Look how handsome you are without glasses. Why don't you wear invisibility?"

"I'm just a little farsighted. It doesn't matter whether I wear glasses or not. But many people say I'm suitable for wearing them."

"Don't believe them, you listen to me. I'll give you another piece of advice that you might not like to hear."

"what?"

"For things like suits, either, don't wear them. If you want to wear them, wear tens of thousands of them."

Meng Weiqing pursed her lips to hold back a smile, turned her body [-] degrees to face Bai Xiaojun, put her hands in her pockets and tilted her head, "How do you know that my suit doesn't cost tens of thousands?"

Bai Xiaojun curled his lips, "Cut! You can find a shared house for 3000 a month in a suit worth tens of thousands, and still want to bargain?"

Meng Weiqing laughed, "Well, what you said makes sense. Let's go, we won't have time to eat later."

Sure enough, I didn't have time to eat.After entering the movie theater, Meng Weiqing endured hunger and only drank a bottle of water, while Bai Xiaojun kept eating popcorn with Coke.

After watching the movie, I found a nearby restaurant that had western food for dinner.The weather was rare, cool and windy, so they chose an open-air booth.Bai Xiaojun felt that the two of them hadn't gotten to know each other very well, and it wasn't good to keep swiping their phones at each other, so he had nothing to say, "How many days are you on vacation?"

孟为卿正在查看支付宝和微信零钱的余额，现在除非有人把现金交到他手里，否则他唯一能付钱的方法就是支付软件。支付宝在前天买了洗衣机之后已经只剩下1块2毛8，微信零钱在昨天坐了地铁和刚刚买过水之后也只有76元整。这会儿他点了一份73元的中式简餐，结账后他的可支配财产将只剩下4块2毛8分钱。

"I don't know." Meng Weiqing answered casually, and clicked on the chat page with Wu Wei.The 20000 on the orange background seems to be beckoning to him: click me~click me~

"What? You don't know?!"

Bai Xiaojun's startled voice interrupted Meng Weiqing.

"Huh? What?"

"You said you didn't know how many days off you were off? Did you get fired?"

Meng Weiqing raised her head and was stunned, "Oh, on vacation. I... I have more free working hours now. Hmm...don't worry about whether I'm on vacation or not. I'm asking you a question, can you answer me truthfully?"

Bai Xiaojun put the phone on the table and leaned back, "Ask."

"What do you think: dignity or life, which is more important?"

"Whoa - so heavy? Let me see."

Bai Xiaojun first picked up the watermelon juice he ordered and took a few sips, then put down the cup, leaned forward, and put his arms on the table, "At any rate, you have saved me, although there is no need for it, but you After all, it’s a good intention, so I’ll try my best to tell you about my own affairs.”

"Okay." Meng Weiqing drank his own boiled water, "All ears."

"At that time, I graduated from university and came to Beijing to work for two years. Some fixed advertising, film and television and model agencies approached me, and my life gradually became stable. In 07 and 08, housing prices in Beijing rose rapidly. The money gave me the down payment for the current house. As long as I continued to accept advertisements and shoot planes honestly, it would not be a problem to collect the house and pay the monthly payment before renovating. But suddenly there was a movie by a famous director who said that he wanted to find new people. I took a fancy to me after looking at photos of artists signed by many agencies. Of course I was happy, thinking that Xianyu was about to turn into a big star, and I had to throw my head and blood and go all out.

"In the next half a year, I turned down all commercial shootings. I either went to try on costumes, attended events, or studied scripts at home. I was fully prepared to join the crew at any time. Then, less than half a month before the start-up, I never dreamed , then the bloody plot will happen to me. One night I had dinner with several managers, and everyone drank a lot. When we were about to leave, one of the major shareholders of a certain company—I won’t say what company and name Well, let’s call him W for short. W said that he would go back to the hotel room to rest after drinking too much. Except for me, the main actors present were all female. I sat next to W. He was about the same age as my father, so of course I took the initiative offered to send him back.

"I don't want to go into details about what happened later, but you should be able to understand. I used the plexiglass booth on the bedside table to smash W's forehead. He just slipped out and covered his bloody head and yelled at me: If you Walking out of this door today, don’t even think about receiving movies or TV dramas in the future. I said you should give it a try. Then I went out and stood at the door of the room and called 120. It’s a pity that Weibo and WeChat didn’t exist at that time, otherwise it would be hyped. As soon as I get fired, maybe I will go on the road of Internet celebrity. Hahahaha, just imagine taking pictures of W's embarrassing appearance and throwing it on the Internet, it will be enjoyable!"

Speaking of which, Bai Xiaojunle slapped his thigh straight.

"What happened next?" Meng Weiqing waited expressionlessly for him to laugh enough and continued to ask.

"Later? Haha, no one approached me for two full years, not just TV dramas, even commercials. Several companies terminated my contracts. What can I do? I haven't taken any jobs for half a year, and all my savings have been spent long ago. , I wanted to rely on my credit card to hold on to the advance payment of the film salary. I can’t afford a new house if I don’t have the money to pay taxes. It was time to pay the rent for the next quarter, and I really wanted to die at that time. I don’t regret what I have done, but “no regret” can’t be eaten as a meal. Fortunately, I was young at that time, and I first lived in a family. I worked as a waiter in a restaurant for two months. After a little relief, I joined an intermediary company to run a lease. Until more than a year later, the movie that I was originally looking for me to shoot was released and sold well. During this period, some artist agencies closed down, and A lot of new companies popped up, I persistently submitted my resume and photos, and finally another company contacted me, so I quit my job as an intermediary and returned to the state of life when I first came to Beijing. The difference is that I have My own house and car, my mentality has also matured and calmed down a lot. However, the curse W gave me is still not lifted. I have reached this age in a blink of an eye. I don’t think I will be able to make movies in my life. But it doesn’t matter, I accept it. Save some money and see if you can open a store in the future, at least you have to support your parents, right?

"So, you ask me which is important, dignity or being alive? I have told other people about my experience. Some people say I am the Virgin Mary and White Lotus, and some say I am a fool. In the dead of night, I will also ask myself: When I grit my teeth, what is the most important thing?" Close your eyes and get fucked by that old G, A, Y, in exchange for tens of thousands of people chasing luxury cars and villas; serving dishes to see the faces of customers, anyone can call and drink, call to disturb others and ask if they want to rent and sell houses, everyone Most of the time, people hang up the phone when they can't finish their conversation. Which of these two lives is less dignified?

"As for you to be alive. Just look through your phone: someone beat a child in the subway for a few dollars, someone committed suicide for a loan shark of [-] to [-] in the end, and someone even lost his life because of a small tricycle. Really People who need to think about how to live will not think about dignity. So your question is not valid. Dignity and living are not juxtaposed, and there is no need for choice."

After finishing speaking in one breath, Bai Xiaojun picked up the watermelon juice and gurgled until there was only foam left in the straw.

Meng Weiqing nodded slowly, "After all, I lived two years longer, and I understand a lot."

After speaking, he raised his mobile phone and snapped a photo of Bai Xiaojun.

"What are you doing?" Bai Xiaojun stretched his neck to look.

Meng Weiqing passed the phone to him: It turned out that the watermelon juice was too full at the beginning, and Bai Xiaojun would spill it when he picked up the cup, so he put his mouth on the brim of the cup and drank a few sips, but the red foam from the juicer stuck to it. Bai Xiaojun's upper lip lasted for a week, and then because he said a lot of words, the foam dried up and printed around Bai Xiaojun's mouth in circles, looking like a dirty mustache.

"Was it always like this when I spoke just now?" Bai Xiaojun looked at the photo in surprise.

Meng Weiqing nodded, took back the phone and set the photo as Bai Xiaojun's call photo, and changed the original "Bai Xiaojun" to "two idiots".

"Then why didn't you tell me?!"

"You will become popular in the future," Meng Weiqing opened WeChat again and blacklisted Wu Wei, "I just posted this photo on the Internet and asked for hundreds of thousands of likes. If I become famous with you, I might become an Internet celebrity."

Bai Xiaojun stared at Meng Weiqing with wide eyes.Meng Weiqing smiled and shook the phone.

"Hey! Delete!"

"Do not delete."

"Delete or not?"

"Do not delete."

"Then I grabbed the phone."

"Excuse me? In broad daylight - open-air garden restaurant - two big men - snatching mobile phones - are you sure?"