toffee

In the narrow auditorium, the smell of inferior tobacco is difficult to dissipate.

The school girls and other group members have already arrived, sitting in the center in twos and threes.Tang Tang greeted them one by one, but Lu Yuxing couldn't remember their names, so he followed Tang Tang silently, like a bodyguard.

"Xiao Lu is here too?"

A thick male voice sounded, and Lu Yuxing was startled. He followed the reputation and found a middle-aged man with an outstanding temperament sitting in the middle of the last row. It was Li Yaoqiang, a professor of the Department of Acting.

When Li Yaoqiang was young, he was the number one drama actor in Hong Kong City. Although he is getting older now, he is still radiant.The older generation of artists has outstanding temperament, even wearing a blue ice silk shirt that is standard for middle-aged people, sitting in such a messy hall, they still look calm and unhurried.

"Professor Li."

When Lu Yuxing saw him, a smile appeared on his face.

When Tang Tang saw his teacher, he was even more excited than him. "Ms. Li!" He opened his eyes wide in surprise, "I didn't expect you to come too."

Li Yaoqiang's energetic laughter echoed in the projection hall.

"Of course I'm here to check my homework." He smiled and looked at the students in the front row. "Let's start when everyone is here. I'll treat you to dinner later."

Several students cheered.The junior girl ran to the backstage to operate the projector, while Lu Yuxing and Tang Tang sat down beside Li Yaoqiang, waiting for the screening to start.

In the film era, it is not easy for students to shoot short films independently.The cost of film is too expensive, so many students choose to complete their homework in the form of drama, only a few like Tang Tang are able to prepare and shoot short films by themselves.

The screen in the theater is small, and there are some problems with the photoelectric sensor of the projector.When the picture on the screen hadn't fully emerged, there was a murmur in the hall.

Listening carefully, I realized that it was the sound of waves hitting the rocks.

A dazzling blue sea appears in the picture, and a huge freighter passes by in the distance.

The sound of the sea wind blowing and the sound of the waves are mixed together, and the camera slowly zooms out, bringing the boy on the beach into the picture.

Facing the golden coast, the boy stood barefoot on the sand.The waves blew his hair up, and the wide round neck and short sleeves were on his body, and his thin body seemed to be blown away by the wind.

He and his mother depended on each other for life, but his mother was killed by cancer.Before dying, his mother held his hand and begged him to take him away from here and go to the other side of the sea.

The story takes the form of a flashback.As soon as the camera turned, it seemed as if time had flown back in time, and the young man returned to the KTV, which was full of feasting and feasting in Hong Kong City.

The colorful light ball reflected strange colors in the narrow box, and the two boys hooked their shoulders and sang birthday songs to their companions in an extremely exaggerated way.The beer bottles on the table were tilted here and there, wetting the edge of the table.In the distant view, Lu Yuxing was smiling and tapping the time expectantly.

Seeing him appear, Tang Tang couldn't help curling the corners of his mouth and looking to his side.

Lu Yuxing frowned and stared at the front.

"To celebrate our brother's birthday!" One of them raised the wine bottle in his hand and shouted towards the sofa with a smile: "Now, let's present him a birthday present!"

He snapped his fingers, and the camera switched to a close-up of Lu Yuxing in the corner.Lu Yuxing's hand was hanging in the air, his expression was a little surprised.

The next second, as in memory, Tang Tang was wearing a red sequin miniskirt and pushed the door open.

Before he appeared on the stage, everyone didn't seriously watch the plot.Even if Lu Yuxing appeared on the stage, his acting skills still did not bring the audience into the story.

It wasn't until Tang Tang walked in with boots that didn't fit his feet with a shy face that everyone really separated him from the character.

No one remembers that this young but alluring boy is Tang Tang.

This is his first day working here.

The boy's face was flushed red, but he still did not forget the trick he learned from his senior.A smile appeared on his ruddy face, his soft waist swayed slightly, and the sequins on his skirt shone strangely under the red and blue intersecting light.He walked towards the sofa step by step and sat on the student who looked like a college student.

He put his arms around his guest's neck, muttered something to himself, and then kissed fiercely.

Under the rich color of the film texture, the red and blue figures are entangled with each other, bursting out a huge tension in just a few seconds.

One of them showed shock, and the other was helpless, as if they had been entangled like this for a lifetime.

The thin body was violently pushed away, and the student pushed the poor boy to the ground and cursed loudly.

This is the end of what Lu Yuxing knew.

Next, the teenager squatted on the street full of traffic.He rested his chin on his knees, his brows hidden by his messy forehead.He lost his job and had to look elsewhere to make money.

He took out the small mirror given to him by his deceased mother, gently opened the round cover, and looked at the picture of the sea on the back.

After a while, he got up and walked into the crowd, continuing to think of ways to leave the port city.

The boy serves dishes in restaurants, cleans commercial buildings, and sells balloons in amusement parks on weekends.He's wearing a bulky, stuffy Donald Duck costume and clutches a handful of colorful balloons.

The heavy and boring days were repeated countless times, and the boy no longer had a smile on his face.With a calm expression like an empty shell, he mechanically handed the balloon in his hand to the child who bought it.

The moment he squatted down, the strength in his hand was loosened, and the swarms of balloons lost their confinement, floated up into the air, covered the sky and covered the sun, and set off a firework over the lively and joyful amusement park.

The boy in Donald Duck's down jacket raised his head blankly, looking at the balloon that was getting further and further away.

The balloon floated farther and farther, and disappeared into the air.

In the brief transition to the shady scene, the sound of waves hitting the reef was heard again.

The boy stood barefoot on the beach. He casually picked up an empty mineral water bottle with a large opening from his feet, and took out the small mirror from his pocket.

The camera stays on the back of the mirror for two seconds. With a "snap", the boy quickly closed the round cover and stuffed the small mirror into the mineral water bottle.

The sound of the waves became louder and louder. The boy walked into the sea, and the salty and cold water covered his calves.

He raised his hand and leaned back.After pausing for two seconds, he suddenly threw the mineral water bottle in his hand into the sea.

There was a small splash of water on the sea in the distance, and then calmed down.

The picture freezes on the blue water, and the whole play ends.

The noise from the projector also stopped, and the surroundings fell into silent darkness.

After a few seconds, Professor Li Yaoqiang took the lead in applauding.A few students sitting in the front row also recovered from the camera and started applauding excitedly.The school girl is the chief director of this assignment, she wiped her eyes excitedly, and ran backstage to get the film.

"Very good," Professor Li Yaoqiang patted Tang Tang's shoulder solemnly, and said to the others, "It's really nice of you to be able to make such a complete ten-minute short film." He nodded his juniors, "I think this film can be submitted directly to film festivals, and the college student film festival held in Hong Kong City in winter is very suitable."

The school girl's eyes lit up, and she hurriedly asked about specific matters.

In the back row, Tang Tang turned his head and glanced at Lu Yuxing. Seeing that his brows were still frowning, he quietly reached out to rub the center of his brows.

"I am fine."

Lu Yuxing blocked his hand away.He looked at Tang Tang quietly, his slightly upturned eyes were a little absent-minded.

Tang Tang was taken aback for a moment, then smiled.

"Did you watch the film?" He said briskly in a tone that did not belong to the character in the film, "Is the filming good?"

His hand was hanging in the air, and Lu Yuxing grabbed it and pulled him between the two seats.

"Very good." Lu Yuxing held his hand, and said in a flat voice, "Tang Tang, I take back what I said this morning. You should be the one who deserves all the attention."

The author says:

Chapter titles are taken from Miriam Yeung's "Electric Phantom"

"Human existence is only for proof, and the scene in memory has been left behind."