Attempted first love

"Because you just kissed my ear."

After Xia Yan stated the facts, he kept his chin raised slightly, and also maintained his precarious determination.

However, under Lu Zhouyu's expressionless gaze for a long time, he was frustrated and found that no matter how much hypnosis and self-suggestion he repeated, he would still be moved by meeting and palpitated by inadvertent touch.

While sighing, the spotlight on the wall suddenly lit up, making Xia Yan's eyes go blank.

"The exhibition has begun." Xia Yan heard Lu Zhouyu's voice approaching, and his speech was a little slow. He put a hand on his eyes to block the light, and at the same time, his shoulders pressed a force of gravity, turning him around. Finally, the hand in front of him was removed.

Lu Zhouyu's hand was a little cold, and Xia Yan noticed it when it touched his ear. Like a handful of snow falling on the palm of his hand on a snowy day, he first sensed the ice, and after the snow melted, his skin began to heat up locally.

The curator briefly introduced the mother and daughter in the pilot film.

The mother has suffered from cancer for many years, and the daughter has been accompanying her mother to actively fight against cancer.After countless times of chemotherapy, when everyone thought her condition was improving, her mother passed away quietly in a dream.

Two years later, not only did the daughter not come out of the shadows, but she was in pain because she couldn't dream of her mother.

At the end of the film, she choked up and said: The biggest dream is to see my mother again.

The technical team used the images of the mother during her lifetime to reconstruct her face, and found actors with similar body types for motion capture, and finally synthesized images.

On the booth with full-body green screen, the curator put on VR glasses and equipment for the girl present. Almost instantly, she let out a mournful cry and called "Mom" vaguely.

There are two suspended LCD screens on the side of the booth, and the pictures processed by technology are synchronized in real time.

In the center of the picture, the green screen turns into a blue sky and grassland. The mother, who was sitting in a wheelchair with her back to the picture, turned around slowly after hearing the call, and caught her daughter who was rushing towards her with both hands.

This is a long-awaited reunion specially planned by the exhibition team for girls.

Knowing that the images and sounds were preset in advance, Xia Yan still felt his eyes warm. Amidst the sobbing sounds around him, he turned around, only to find that Lu Zhouyu was not where he was.

After quietly exiting the exhibition hall, Xia Yan walked through the corridor and heard a loud conversation coming from a room.

Knocking on the door was answered, he leaned half his body in, "Teacher Ji?"

Ji Qilin was sitting in the center of the equipment, with a pair of earphones stuck around his neck, he raised his eyes when he heard the sound, and said without surprise, "Here you are? Come here."

Xia Yan passed many technicians, walked behind Ji Qilin, squatted down to watch him skillfully adjust the equipment, and couldn't help but tease: "When did you change your career?"

Ji Qilin laughed loudly, kept moving his hands, rendered the picture on the computer, cleared his throat and said, "My friend's exhibition, come and help me, and make visual adjustments."

"I didn't hear you say you were coming over yesterday."

"You didn't say you came to see this exhibition."

"Oh yes, I forgot." Xia Yan nodded.

"I saw it, I came here with Xiao Lu," Ji Qilin wrote lightly: "How far has it developed?"

Xia Yan was taken aback by his unexpected words, and clarified: "He and I are friends. We haven't seen each other for many years. I haven't found a chance to make it clear before. Don't think too much about it."

Probably because of the people coming and going in the exhibition hall, Ji Qilin stopped speculating on his own, and asked: "Have you asked him about the Biennale, and do you have any willingness to participate?"

"Not yet."

Xia Yan felt that whether he asked or not, the result was already obvious. He didn't want Lu Zhouyu to feel that he was doing invalid retention, but he couldn't tell Ji Qilin directly, so he could only say: "I think the organizer should formally talk to him to show respect."

"It's so defensive." Ji Qilin teased noncommittally.

Xia Yan didn't bother to argue with him, so he sat cross-legged on the ground, picked up the technical manual on the side to look through, and helped Ji Qilin record several sets of data.

After adjusting a set of screens, Ji Qilin looked at the time and changed the topic, "Just ask Xiao Lu to meet after the end, and I'll talk to him directly."

After handing over the data sheet, Xia Yan vaccinated Ji Qilin in advance, "Yes, but there is a high probability that he will refuse, so don't feel like it's a shame, and don't blame me."

"I just got angry at you once, take revenge!" Ji Qilin raised his thick black eyebrows, waved his hand, and motioned him to back down, "Go play, and I'll call you when it's over."

"Hey." Xia Yan got up, squeezed his shoulders casually, then pointed to the technical manual beside him and joked, "I think this is much more interesting than curating, why don't I change careers."

Coinciding with the technical guidance path, he stopped and tilted his head and asked, "Do you understand?"

"Barely." Xia Yan clapped his hands and answered with a smile.

"Then consider joining our team? I can trust the people in the old season."

"Prying the corner of the wall came in front of me?" Before Xia Yan could answer, Ji Qilin blew his beard and stared.

"The corner of the wall must be pried face to face to be interesting."

The two chattered back and forth, Xia Yan took the opportunity to say goodbye and exit the exhibition hall. Before leaving, the technical director stopped him and said that if he was interested, he could come and try after the exhibition.

Xia Yan was a little hesitant, but more excited, he was willing to challenge new things, and said euphemistically: "I'm a layman, so I don't know if I can do it."

Before the technical guidance came out, Ji Qilin took the lead, "Anything outside the field, if you can understand it, you can get started."

"Isn't art just for fun?" The technical director also encouraged, "Your teacher Ji has just learned it not long ago, and you have firmly implemented the spirit of living to learn and moving China."

Seeing that Ji Qilin was about to choke with him again, Xia Yan responded repeatedly, thanked him and opened the door to go out.

No one was seen at the end of the corridor. After thinking about it, Xia Yan walked around the rotating wooden ladder and went downstairs, and sure enough, he saw someone on the bench in the corner of the hall.He paused slightly, and after finishing the wrinkled hem of his clothes on the spot, he walked over.

Before approaching, Lu Zhouyu turned his head when he heard footsteps, put his phone away and asked him, "It's over?"

"It should be. It's almost over when I come out." Xia Yan said, sitting on the other side of the bench, noticed Lu Zhouyu's eyes on his face, and asked again: "What's wrong?"

"It's almost over." Lu Zhouyu caught the key words in his words, raised his eyebrows slightly, and said in a subtle tone, "You slipped out early."

Almost bluffed by his positive words, Xia Yan replied: "You slipped out earlier than me."

"I'll come out to answer the phone."

Seems to be a legitimate reason, Xia Yan turned his eyes away with an "oh", and couldn't say "come out to find you" no matter what.

After a moment of silence, he thought of Ji Qilin's explanation again, turned his head to look at Lu Zhouyu and said, "I just met Mr. Ji, he came to adjust the screen, and said he wanted to meet you after the end and talk about work."

"What job?" Lu Zhouyu asked.

"Maybe it's related to the exhibition," Xia Yan prevaricated, seeing Lu Zhouyu raised his hand to check the time, he said again: "If you have other things to do first, I'll tell him."

"It's okay," Lu Zhouyu said, "wait here."

Xia Yan nodded and said, "Okay."

Seeing that Lu Zhouyu didn't ask any more questions, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He felt like a poor student who was racing against time in the examination room. He was afraid of hearing the ringing bell while praying in his heart, give me some more time.

Xia Yan took out his mobile phone and wanted to send Ji Qilin a WeChat message, telling him to meet downstairs after the end. When he opened it, he found many unread messages, but he didn't hear it because the phone was muted.

Most of them came from Shen Qi, and there were more than a dozen WeChat calls in a row.Since the last time he had an unhappy farewell at the Mirage Art Museum, Shen Qi was uncharacteristically, and hadn't harassed Xia Yan for a long time.

The latest call was 5 minutes ago, Xia Yan didn't reply, so he set him to Do Not Disturb, and clicked on Xiao Jiang's dialog box.

Xiao Jiang arrived at the destination smoothly, said that the air on the mountain was very good, and his body and mind were cleansed, and asked Xia Yan how the exhibition was.

"It's touching, isn't it?" he asked.

Xia Yan replied to the first topic: "Have fun."

After replying, he put the phone between the two of them, and said to Lu Zhouyu, "Xiao Jiang asked how the exhibition was going."

Lu Zhouyu looked down at the screen and smiled noncommittally.

"How can I tell him tactfully that the two of us skipped class?" Xia Yan asked.

Lu Zhouyu looked away from the screen and said calmly, "It's touching to tell him, really."

"It's not good to lie to a young boy like this." Xia Yan handed over the phone and said, "Tell him, remember to sign."

Lu Zhouyu glanced at him, did not refuse, took the mobile phone and started typing, Xia Yan leaned his head to look at it, and was interrupted by a voice call before he finished typing a sentence.

It was Shen Qi again.

With the phone in Lu Zhouyu's hand, he stopped typing, tilted his head and asked Xia Yan, "Are you going to pick it up?"

"Don't answer," Xia Yan crossed his arm and simply pressed the hang up button, "Don't worry about him."

The half-typed words were automatically cleared, and when Lu Zhouyu re-typed, Shen Qi started bombarding with text messages, and his messages kept popping up on the top of the screen.

"Brother Yan, why didn't you answer my call?"

"Brother, don't you want me?"

"Call me back, or you'll regret it."

"I only give you one chance."

He didn't care about his threat, Xia Yan felt extremely embarrassed, but Lu Zhouyu didn't notice it, and replied to Xiao Jiang calmly, attaching his name as promised, and handed the phone back.

Unblocking Shen Qi's contact information again, Xia Yan put away his phone, sweating slightly on his forehead, he raised his hand to wipe it, and changed the subject lamely: "It seems that the background music has been changed."

On the high platform beside the revolving wooden ladder, there was a gramophone, "The last song was "Afternoon of the Shepherd". Xia Yan recalled.

Lu Zhouyu gave a "hmm" and told him, "This is Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor."

"You even know this." Xia Yan admired from the bottom of his heart. He knew nothing about music, but his university course covered a piece of classical music history. Afternoon of the Faun was one of the few pieces that he could remember the melody of.

"My mother likes to play this song very much." Lu Zhouyu stated without any ups and downs, and then said, "I don't understand music."

The night when Lu Zhouyu brought Xia Yan back to the courtyard, he said that it was his mother's house. Xia Yan immediately became nervous and asked, "When will she come back? I didn't bring any presents. Let's go buy some now?"

"Why are you nervous?" Lu Zhouyu laughed at him and said calmly, "She passed away."

His tone was indifferent, as if there was no emotion, just like now.

But Xia Yan felt that he was a little sad, he regretted the bad topic he brought up, and said again: "I'm sorry."

"You like to apologize inexplicably." Lu Zhouyu said, as if sensing Xia Yan's frustration, he smiled, and said with relief for the first time: "Why this expression, I won't be sad because of a song."

These words seemed to go full circle in the body before reaching the brain.Obviously he wanted to comfort him, but the current situation seems to be the one being comforted.

No matter when, the person being comforted will automatically become more vulnerable to seek more sympathy and attention. This is Xia Yan's experience from raising many children.

But Xia Yan is not a child, he said: "Thank you."

"Go out for a cigarette?" Lu Zhouyu stood up, patted one of his shoulders, and walked out.

After walking a few steps, seeing that Xia Yan hadn't followed, he turned around again, because of the backlight, he couldn't see his face clearly, only heard him say: "My lighter is still with you."