godfather

During Da Zhou's business trips and filming breaks, during the days when he stayed in Xi'an, Meng Xiaojing went to the other party's home to learn acting, and usually practiced at home at night.

Meng Xiaojing borrowed a few sets of performance costumes from the repertory theater troupe, locked himself in a small room, chanted words in front of the mirror, pondered his lines and performances, and was about to go crazy.I also borrowed a pair of men's ballet shoes, usually wear a set of black tights, put one foot on the row of radiator fans next to the dining table in their living room, stretch my legs, and practice flexibility and body coordination.

Meng Xiaobei came back with a clipboard on his back, and as soon as he entered the living room, he leaned back happily: "Mom, Meng Xiaojing, you are wearing women's pants!"

Meng Xiaojing had one leg hanging on the heating pipe, and looked very serious. He glanced back at him: "Why are you a woman? Our actors only wear this in the body class."

Meng Xiaobei snorted and said, "You're still an actor... The boys in your art school are just a group of goblins who are neither male nor female! Buttercup boy Tang Guoqiang..."

Meng Xiaojing's upper body is a white T-shirt, and his lower body is a pair of black knit bodybuilding pants. The bottom of the trouser legs is made into a ring pocket and stepped on the soles of the feet. The popular style at that time was commonly known as "stepping pants"!Meng Xiaobei looked at his brother for some reason.The tight pants set off the slender legs, showing the beauty of lines, but also revealing the shape, and the private parts of Meng Xiaojing's lower body protrude with an obvious cylindrical shape.

Meng Xiaobei shrugged happily, and said in a sultry tone: "Meng Xiaojing, you are not the same as when you were a child. The bird is still quite big. You don't look like a girl in this respect."

Meng Xiaojing lowered his head following his gaze, and quickly covered it: "Are you playing a hooligan?!"

Meng Xiaobei made a half-circle: "Your butt doesn't look too small from behind, you definitely have a plump butt among men!"

Meng Xiaojing squinted at him, angrily: "Have you seen enough? Go and see your house, what do you think I am doing?"

Meng Xiaobei laughed wickedly and teased his younger brother: "Obviously you are the ones who put on the show, and you deliberately dressed up like that and exposed your body like that, you're not ashamed!..."

A few days later, when Meng Xiaobei came back from his class at the Academy of Fine Arts, he saw Nie Hui coming again.Nie Hui sat obediently on their sofa, eating melon seeds, and accompanied Ma Baochun.

A few days after the young couple got into an awkward situation, Nie Hui couldn't help but ran back voluntarily.She really liked Meng Xiaojing, and when she came to Meng's house, she was familiar with the way, and she didn't need to say hello in advance, she went straight to her, and she didn't feel shy or embarrassed.

Girls are always willing to come, and when they come to be mothers, they greet them.Ma Baochun smiled politely: "Eat fruit, eat fruit! We don't have any good things in our house, and I'm afraid you don't care too much."

Nie Hui had a sweet smile, and she didn't usually put on airs like a rich daughter: "Auntie, you are so kind! I love this peach the most!"

Meng Xiaojing said: "Mom, you can give it to her. She will definitely say what she likes to eat if you give it to her. She usually doesn't eat it at her own home. She has a naughty mouth. She is losing weight."

Nie Hui said angrily: "I hate you, Meng Xiaojing! What are you talking about me!!"

Meng Jianmin also criticized in the room: "Meng Xiaojing, don't lose face."

Meng Xiaobei entered the room, dragging his shoes like a fool, his hair was loosened handsomely, and grabbed two big peaches: "Don't you eat it? You don't eat it, I eat it!"

Nie Hui smiled and said, "Meng Xiaobei, come and draw a picture of me!"

Meng Xiaobei: "Miss, go to the photo studio to take a photo album by yourself!"

Nie Hui said: "I'll be a free model for you, how good-looking am I! I'm not a big fan of others asking me to go."

Meng Xiaobei squinted his eyes and smiled, and turned to greet his younger brother: "Meng Xiaojing, then I will draw a sketch of a real half-bust for my brother and sister—with clothes on! Do you have any objections, then I will draw it?"

Meng Xiaojing glared at Meng Xiaobei.Ma Baochun frowned: "No barking."

Nie Hui took a sip of the cherry and ate peaches, but she didn't refute the word "brother and sister", and she wasn't ashamed: at least Meng Xiaobei was on her side.

For dinner, a family of four also brought a Nie Hui on the dinner table.

Meng Xiaobei sneered: "Nie Hui, you are the only one who praises my mother's cooking is special, special, and delicious! Do you really like it? Don't you feel blushed when you say this? Didn't you see that our whole family is blushing?" Yet!!"

Everyone at the dinner table laughed together.

Nie Hui was eating a large bowl of glutinous rice noodles, her big eyes flickered, and she nodded vigorously: "It's really better than my mother's cooking! You haven't eaten my mother's cooking yet!"

After dinner, Meng Xiaobei occupied the hut to draw under the lamp.

Meng Xiaojing had no place to rehearse, and felt uncomfortable, so he could only occupy his parents' room.As a result, Meng Jianmin and Ma Baochun sat opposite each other at the dinner table, watching their two sons work hard and play their lives.Nie Hui and Meng Xiaojing closed the door in the big house, rehearsing the recitation and sketches for the art test.

Outside the door, I heard Meng Xiaojing occasionally read the wrong lines, dropped the script book in frustration, and walked back and forth. Nie Hui comforted this man.The two got into a heated argument in order to design the scene action of a certain crying scene.Meng Xiaojing cried several times in front of the wardrobe mirror, but couldn't satisfy herself.It may be that he was too involved in the drama and fell into a sad and depressed mood. Meng Xiaojing could hear his breath choking, his chest twitching, and poured out the distress in his chest in a hoarse voice, and he couldn't tell whether it was inside or outside the play...

Going back to the room at night, Meng Xiaojing looked at the toilet paper stained with ink and paint all over the floor, and immediately lowered his face, showing boredom.

Blobs of toilet paper bloom everywhere!

The small conflicts accumulated for many days ignited the fuse on this day.

The biggest quarrel between brothers living in the same room lies in hygiene habits and work and rest schedules.Meng Xiaobei is a night owl. He is good at lighting lamps and fighting at night. He starts to get inspiration late at night, and he is in the best state of designing storyboard scripts; while Meng Xiaojing goes to bed early and gets up early, runs in the early morning to practice kung fu, opens his voice to practice his voice, and recites the lines of sketches.

Meng Xiaojing said, "Meng Xiaobei, can you live a more comfortable life?!"

Meng Xiaobei buried his head at his desk: "I'm busy."

"I'm not busy?" Meng Xiaojing said, "You have ink all over the floor and walls, can you scan it? I've never lived in such a mess in all these years. When you come, you are the master of this house."

Meng Xiaobei was often woken up by Meng Xiaojing's throat hanging in the morning, and he was full of resentment: "I'm glad I didn't splash ink on your bedside wall and bed sheets! Don't disturb me."

Meng Xiaojing picked up the broom and swept all the garbage out of the room, Meng Xiaobei said you swept away all my drafts!Meng Xiaojing said how do I know which one of yours is good and which one is waste paper, it looks like waste paper to me.

Meng Xiaobei was so irritable that he dropped the pen... the nib of a good iridium pen fell and split.Meng Xiaobei said angrily, fuck, it's so fucking annoying to live in the same room with a bitch!I moved away to make room for your future big star, you haven't been admitted to the Chinese opera yet, you are even bigger than Jiang Wen!

Meng Xiaojing said, who can live with a sloppy person like you in the future, who can stand a great artist like you? !

The two brothers quarreled because of trivial matters, and they were both under too much pressure. Seeing each other's face made them inexplicably irritable.

The hardships of the art test, the arduous coursework of the college entrance examination, and the strong ambition to squeeze into the city of Beijing among thousands of troops, are heavy pressures on the top of the head and shoulders.Ordinary candidates only need to prepare for the classroom this year and have nothing else to do. However, for Meng Xiaobei and Meng Xiaojing, the various uncertainties in the road ahead have converged into the most profound psychological and physical double suffering this year.Tired, staying up late, cycling, restless sleep.If the art test fails unfortunately, all hope is finally pressed on the college entrance examination. With Meng Xiaobei's [-] to [-] points in cultural subjects, how can he return to Beijing?What face do you have to see your little dad?

Children from other families compete with their classmates at school every day, and when they get home, they throw themselves into the warm harbor and enjoy the logistical care of their parents in the rear.Meng Xiaobei's two brothers are exactly the opposite.In the school, no one has the strength to compete with the two of them on the road of art examination. They are competing with the art students who have been recruited in advance from the whole province and the whole country, and the admission rate is less than 5%.The most real psychological pressure is actually at home.Brothers are a nest, and they compete with each other, neither of them wants to be abandoned by fate again.

No one wants to become the second "Meng Jianmin".

Meng Xiaojing doesn't have to complain now, when Meng Xiaobei took away the opportunities that could have belonged to him in a twin family.The two seem to have returned to the origin of their birth. In the big valley, they are standing on the same starting line, each relying on their own abilities!

Nie Hui came to their house almost every day. After arguing during the day, she went to Beijing or stayed in Xi'an. At night, she came to help Meng Xiaojing prepare for the exam.

The next night, Meng Xiaobei heard his father talking to Meng Xiaojing in the room about his girlfriend.

Meng Jianmin seldom went back to the Xigou factory due to illness. He spent most of the year recuperating at home. He usually "stands" on the bed with his upper body and reads a book. You can see it all.Meng Jianmin never asked the boss to have a private relationship with boys and girls, but his attitude towards the second child was quite different.Meng Xiaojing is the closest son he brought up with one hand, and he can't just watch him go astray.

Meng Jianmin said: "Meng Xiaojing, your dad doesn't care if you fall in love in your third year of high school. I'm not that rigid, but there is one thing I really worry about you. I have to be responsible for my son. Ask clearly—are you sincerely talking to Nie Hui?" In a relationship?"

"Your father and I are not the kind of people who belittle themselves or are not open-minded, but...there is such a big gap between our two families, Meng Xiaojing, you understand this worldly truth."

Meng Xiaojing frowned slightly, his eyes flickered sullenly: "Are you saying that I don't belong to her family?"

Ma Baochun asked, "What exactly does Nie Hui's mother do?"

Meng Xiaojing said: "...the head of a department in the province."

Ma Baochun was astonished: "...It's not that your parents are old-fashioned and unenlightened, this is too unreliable! It's just two children messing around!"

Meng Xiaojing: "What's wrong with Nie Hui?"

Meng Jianmin said seriously: "It's not bad. From your father's point of view, I think Nie Hui is a really nice girl! She is good-looking, has a generous personality without being coy, and doesn't look like a wealthy upstart at all. She is willing to come to our house. Be polite to me and your mother, and every time you come to our house, you will never be empty-handed with fruit supplements... This girl is really nice!"

"I just feel that a girl with such good conditions, don't be delayed, don't mess around. Meng Xiaojing, when you date Nie Hui, is it because you really like her, or is it because you fancy her, other conditions? "

One sentence hit Meng Xiaojing the most painful point.

Why do you want to associate with Nie Hui?Like it?love?how much love

He himself has thought about it thousands of times.

Meng Xiaojing lowered his eyes and remained silent for a long time: "Why can't I do it? Meng Xiaobei also found a rich man."

Meng Jianmin: "What did you say?"

Meng Xiaobei listened, put down his pen in this room, and stood up abruptly.

Meng Xiaobei went straight to the big house.If he had a brick in his hand, he would want to shoot someone.

Meng Jianmin said in the room, Meng Xiaobei's situation is different, and Shaotang's situation is completely different!It was Meng Xiaobei who met a godfather when he was a child, and that was his father!Moreover, the two families are friends in need, how many storms they have experienced in these years, and they know each other well.And this is you, you want to meet a girl from a family background a few months before the Chinese opera exam, you are a romantic partner!what is this?

Meng Xiaobei said at the door: "Dad, don't get involved with me and my godfather, what's the matter with Guan Shaotang?"

Meng Xiaojing raised his eyes and stared at a room full of relatives, his eyes were clear and deep, and suddenly there was an expression in his eyes that Meng Xiaobei had never seen before.Meng Xiaojing said: "What's the difference? Meng Xiaobei's father is called 'A friend in need', and mine is called 'Climbing the Dragon and Attaching the Phoenix'?... I worship money like this? I have a soft meal?...You treat me Is it fair!"

Meng Jianmin said earnestly: "I don't want to interfere with you. Your father just hopes that the person you date is the girl you really like. The two families are on the same level. In the future, we will be able to withstand the wind and rain together in the future, just like your mother and I so."

Meng Jianmin is close to this son and cares about this son, so he can speak bluntly.He was afraid that Meng Xiaojing would go astray and want to take a "shortcut" on the spur of the moment and go astray. He would be innocent for the rest of his life!

Meng Xiaobei tried to smooth things over with a hippie smile: "Dad, I think Meng Xiaojing and Nie Hui are a good match. Why do you object? Do you want to vote with a show of hands? Then I will vote for them both!"

"No need!" Meng Xiaojing looked cold, and laughed at himself: "What's the difference? Isn't it all for the benefit."

"At least I have feelings with Nie Hui. I like her very much. Dad, you asked Meng Xiaobei to recognize a high-ranking godfather. What did you do? Could it be that you and He Shaotang have real feelings? What is it for? You Isn't it just to build a golden road leading to Meng Xiaobei for the children of Beijing cadres! How do you help Meng Xiaobei? ...I walk my own way, I don't rely on anyone."

Meng Xiaojing's eyes were red.

Meng Xiaobei was stunned for a moment, and then corrected him: "Meng Xiaojing, I walk my own way, I don't rely on anyone, and I don't eat my godfather's soft food. Where I will go in the future is also based on my ability."

He turned and went back to the house to pack his things.

In winter, during the later half of the winter vacation, Meng Xiaobei stayed at the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts and never went home to live.

He begged his brother from the Academy of Fine Arts to lend him a bed, so he simply lived in the dormitory of others, attended classes day and night, took art test remedial classes, prepared reference works for several subjects, and didn't want to go home.

The male dormitory building of the Academy of Fine Arts was still a few old buildings at that time, and there was a period of time in winter when the heating was cut off for the left-behind students.The pipeline failure is not hot, and there is no one to repair it during the holidays. The campus is desolate and depressed.

That winter, on the coldest night in Xi'an, the cold air from Inner Mongolia was blown by strong winds, and the temperature dropped to minus ten degrees.

It was really cold at night, so Meng Xiaobei ran out and bought two rubber warm water bags at the school gate.The off-campus small shop sells steamed buns and Hu spicy soup. He made a pot of hot sheep soup in a thermos and took it back to the dormitory.After drinking the mutton soup, even the oily flowers were licked off with the tongue, and the blood vessels in the body finally flowed smoothly!Fill the hot water bag with boiling water, stuff it in the quilt tube, hug left and right, and sleep with two hot water bags.

At the corner of the bed are piles of his pen works, a pile of sketches, a pile of watercolors, a pile of pens, a pile of sketches, and a pile of architectural design drawings.

In the dormitory, the small lights were on all night, and the brothers who were preparing for the exam and fighting together in the lower bunk stayed up all night in bed reciting art history theory.

Holding the hot water bottle in his arms, Meng Xiaobei lay on his back under the quilt, and hummed, "Mmmm...I'm about to freeze into a plaster half-chested pirate statue."

The brother on the lower bunk said happily, "Hehe, Meng Xiaobei, you are so handsome, even if you are frozen into a plaster statue, you must be Giulino de' Medici!"

"Hmph, don't be so prettier." The buddy was chattering his teeth under the quilt across the bed, "There are six of us in the house, obviously a whole house of Calais righteous people, so prepare to die heroically after the Chinese New Year!"

The six people in the dormitory laughed loudly, the bed boards were shaking, and they were having fun in bitterness.

The windowpanes were covered with mist, and in the darkness, the dormitory building opposite was flickering with lights, and the lights and people's hearts were swaying in the cold winter...

During the day, more than 60 students were crowded standing and sitting in a small classroom, and art candidates from all over the province flocked to Ximei to attend classes.

Half of Meng Xiaobei leaned against the wall, sitting sideways on a high stool, in front of his eyes were easels and paper, and the gaps between his frozen red fingers were filled with patches of paint.He carried a plastic jug of boiling water under his clothes to keep him warm.Two hours of still life watercolor sketching, at the end of the painting, a pile of apples and bananas of various colors kept shaking in front of his eyes.Apples are purple, bananas are green, and he himself is Van Gogh with one ear cut off by a bullet, sitting on a high stool, overlooking the world.

Some candidates couldn't bear the pressure of preparing for the competition, cried to the professor, tore the half-painted watercolor from the easel, and blew their noses into paper.

In the water room, some people were washing clothes in sheets, some were crying, and some were in a daze.Those who engage in art are all a bunch of lunatics, and before the art is completed, they are already on the verge of mass insanity.

The professor who taught the class talked to Meng Xiaobei again in private, are you really not going to report to Ximei?In our college, the quality of students in the past two years has been average, and they are not very satisfied. Our teacher is very optimistic about you, and we really want to admit you in advance.But we can also see that Meng Xiaobei, you are not willing to hide in our shallows, you only want to go to a higher place.

……

Shaotang told Xiaobei that Erhu became a dog father, and his appearance and temperament were more powerful than when he saw him last year.Chun Nier gave birth to four little wolf dogs in the first litter, and now she is pregnant with the second litter. "Hu Nier" loves each other in the kennel all day long, and because of the two tigers, Chun Nier may have to retire from active duty early.

Meng Xiaobei once ate in the school cafeteria, while eating, he stared at the TV that the staff were watching in the cafeteria window.It was said on TV that a fire broke out at a rental counter in a market near Longfu Temple in Beijing, and some PLA soldiers unfortunately died in the disaster relief.In winter, the fire took advantage of the wind and quickly spread to nearby stretches of private stalls. The fire was burning all over the camp. In the picture, the black smoke was thick and the flames were soaring into the sky.

Meng Xiaobei put down his rice bowl, ran out to make a phone call, and called Shaotang.He also didn't know the specific number of the disaster relief team on TV, the clothes and equipment looked very similar.

The CALL machine couldn't call anyone again, so I was in a hurry.

Stomach ache from anxiety, he ran to the water room and vomited all the lunch he had eaten.

Finally got in touch in the evening, Shaotang said that at first we didn't join our team to rescue the disaster, it was Xiaobin's team that put out the fire, and indeed a soldier was sacrificed.Our detachment later went to reinforce, maintain order at the scene, and deal with the aftermath.

Meng Xiaobei asked: "Uncle Xiaobin, is everything okay?!"

Shaotang said that Xiaobin led several team members to attack from the flanks, trying to contain the fire.The iron shelves on the second floor of the market were completely softened and melted, and the roof collapsed, hitting a few steps away from Xiaobin, and a little soldier couldn't escape.

Shaotang's voice was calm, slightly tired and fiery: "I brought a few people in, commanded the crane to lift the iron frame, and lifted that soldier out."

……

During the daytime of the New Year's Eve, the exam preparation class was suspended, and both local and non-local students went out to play.Big fiery red lanterns are hung on the Bell Tower Square, and many street vendors sell New Year pictures, paper-cuts and fireworks.At the window of the small shop, a pile of persimmons was neatly spread out. The big red frozen persimmons were covered with a thin layer of crystal clear snow.

With his easel on his back, Meng Xiaobei boarded a bus at the gate of the school, a few cents a ticket. He took the bus from the south of the city to the Daming Palace, and then circled back to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda from the Daming Palace, aimlessly.

Outside the window, there is an ancient city covered with snow, with patches of low-rise buildings dotted with creatures, and vivid pictures fly across the pupil membranes, leaving hurried shadows.Meng Xiaobei feels like a homeless wandering around the city with a backpack. Where is his home?

He sat on the last row of seats on the bus, spread out his easel, looked at the passengers standing or sitting in the rickety carriage, pinched the watch for himself, and drew three 10-minute sketches.

The fingers seem to be stiff, the human body structure, line skills, and composition techniques that were originally imprinted in the brain suddenly become unfamiliar, the wrist is clumsy, and the brain is blank!

A man sitting in front stood up expressionlessly.

Meng Xiaobei raised his head and subconsciously shouted, "Don't go, I haven't finished painting yet."

The man glared at him: "I'm hungry and I'm going to get out of the car!"

Meng Xiaobei: "..."

Sitting at a certain station, two girls from Northwestern University came up.The two girls stood and sat one at a time, obliquely in front of him, chatting cheerfully and sweetly.

The female college student said: "Hey classmate, what are you drawing?"

Meng Xiaobei said, "Sketch."

The girl was very happy: "Then draw a picture for the two of us!"

The two of them put on a good pose and smiled at him like two big azaleas.

Meng Xiaobei also smiled: "Hey Mom, don't look at me like that, look out of the car window, your expressions and postures are natural!"

The two girls originally wanted to get off at the Provincial Government Station, so they took three extra stops to accompany Meng Xiaobei to finish a painting.

Meng Xiaobei rubbed the curtain of her hair and said, "I'm sorry, I let the two of you pass by."

The girl said with a smile: "It's okay, we will turn around and sit back later! Handsome guy, you draw really well, can you give it to us!"

Meng Xiaobei frantically signed his name and sent the painting.

He bent down, buried his face on the drawing paper, and repeated in his heart over and over again, I love you Shaotang, and I will definitely go to Beijing to see you.

Shaotang said to Meng Jianmin during the New Year's call, I can't persuade our big baby, even if Xiaobei hits the south wall, he must take the Beijing school.

Meng Jianmin said: "I really admire our two sons for their spirit and perseverance. Back then, if I had had their unyielding goal and perseverance, I would have returned to Beijing no matter what... I am not as capable as my son."

Shaotang said: "You were the one who named your two sons at the beginning, and the word "Ben" came from the two of your sons' hearts. If one passes the exam and the other fails, the one who fails can be willing ? Even after World War II, you have to continue to take the exam again!"

"I can judge people. These two children are not ordinary people, and they will definitely become great things in the future."

On New Year's Eve, Meng Xiaobei made a phone call downstairs in the family courtyard, sat in the small sentry box in the reception room, looked up at the blue abyss above his head, and the stars were shining brightly.

Meng Xiaobei spoke lazily on the phone: "Shaotang, I'm looking for Sagittarius in the sky, it seems to be quite far away from my Leo constellation."

Shaotang whispered: "Don't look for it, Sagittarius and Leo can be seen clearly in summer, but you can't find it in winter."

Meng Xiaobei: "How do you know such details?"

Shaotang: "...I checked it out."

Meng Xiaobei sneered: "Hey, Dad, how old are you? You still read constellation books!!"

Shaotang: "...hehe, just take a look if you want to."

The two laughed softly on the phone, pushing each other without saying a word.

Meng Xiaobei said, "Shaotang, I'm sorry, I want to cry for a while."

Shaotang: "..."

Meng Xiaobei said: "Don't worry, I'll cry a little bit, cover the receiver, don't listen, okay?"

Shaotang didn't cover the receiver.

Meng Xiaobei burst into tears on the phone, wailing, crying until his eyes were red in the night wind, and his Adam's apple was shaking.In front of my eyes is a scene of perfect and touching scenes of holding hands in the past ten years.Walking alone on the wandering road is too lonely, sometimes fragile, even when a man is tired, he wants to have someone to accompany him.At that moment, he suddenly understood that the place with Shaotang will always be his hometown and his heart's desire.

After Meng Xiaobei finished crying, he wiped away his tears vigorously, and smiled again at the corner of his mouth, his voice was still hoarse after crying: "It's over! It's all right, it's all right!"

Shaotang's throat choked slightly, and he said calmly, "Are you all right?"

Meng Xiaobei regained his cheerful temper, and said straightforwardly: "It's really fine, who am I? I am such an invincible and fighting race! Don't worry."

"Shaotang, the household registration is just a fucking piece of paper."

"Depending on my own ability, I will definitely go back to see you this summer, so that no one will look down on me."

Meng Xiaobei hung up the phone.

He didn't know that Shaotang was crying on the other end of the phone.