lips and teeth play

About people are always selective about their own memory.

Recalling his childhood life in Zhou's Village, he was still called "Zhou Xiaoyu" at that time, but now he doesn't have much memory left.

The sporadic fragments of memories are about the sudden illness when I was more than three years old, the lungs were constantly tearing like pain, and the whole body was scorching as if it was about to burn.

At first, he just coughed continuously for a week, and the family didn't take it seriously at all. Later, his condition continued to worsen, and he suddenly developed a high fever for several days and nights. Then his parents panicked and rushed to the capital with him to ask for a doctor. It is said that they are quite rich distant relatives.

That was the first time he met Zhou Maoqin. For some reason, he was particularly impressed by the other party.

At that time, Zhou Maoqin was still a young man in his prime, with kindness and compassion in his eyes that Zhou Xiaoyu had never seen in a small backward village.

Zhou Maoqin took him to the hospital. The doctor said that he was suffering from bronchopneumonia in children. Because the illness was delayed for too long, the condition was already very serious. Even if he received treatment, he would be close to death.

Unexpectedly, this kid was so lucky that he was cured after staying in the hospital for more than half a month.

Only serious sequelae were left, and the respiratory system was traumatized.The doctor specifically explained to his parents that the child's body is severely malnourished, if it continues like this, any cold will be enough for him to toss again.

After he was discharged from the hospital, he was left at Zhou Maoqin's house by his parents, who asked him to take good care of his health in the city and learn art from Zhou Maoqin.

Now that I think about it, my parents didn't want to raise him as a sick child at about that time, otherwise why didn't he appear again in the twenty years since then.

Zhou Maoqin is a good old man, and he saw how pitiful Zhou Xiaoyu looked, so he took him in just like that.

Zhou Maoqin took him to meet his father, the old class leader Zhou Yinchun.The first time the old man saw him, he asked him to say a few words and sing two songs, but in the end he didn't agree with him to learn cross talk.

After all, there is an old saying that the more ordinary the appearance of a person who talks about cross talk, the better. It is best to be one that cannot be found in the crowd, so that people will not be attracted by the face, and the audience will wholeheartedly Pay attention to the content of cross talk itself.

This little fish looks too juicy, like a little girl, and has a rare good voice, it's like a patriarch's meal, so Zhou Yinchun decided to teach him how to sing.

"My master learned to play danzi in the theater troupe," Zhou Chenyu said, "It's a pity that I didn't catch up with the good time."

Push forward a hundred and 80 years, during the period of the Republic of China, it was the most chaotic era, actresses dared not go on stage to sing, so all the cast members were all male actors.And Qiandan (note: male dan) who sings Danjiao plays a female role on stage, which will inevitably attract some people with malicious intentions. When invited to sing in church, they often sing on stage, and the audience may be forced Or voluntarily started a shady business.Over time, Qiandan's reputation has been tarnished like this.

By the time Zhou Yinchun was admitted to the department and was released as a teacher, it happened to coincide with the ten-year catastrophe. In that special historical period, "ghosts and snake gods" like him were all driven into the "cowshed".

Later, the development of Qiandan was increasingly criticized, blocked and ridiculed by the public.Opera schools were also restructured, strictly implementing "male singing male and female singing female". In the decades since then, qiandan has almost disappeared.

Zhou Chenyu said: "So my master had to change his career to talk about cross talk, but what he couldn't let go of the most was always drama."

The old man has been playing in elementary school for 20 years, but he never got a chance to appear on the stage in a serious manner. After a long time, it will inevitably become a heart problem for him.

Yan Chao sighed, and asked after a long while, "That's why he wants to pass on Qiandan's mantle to you?"

Zhou Chenyu nodded, and said in a low voice, "Unfortunately, I don't want to learn."

Yan Chao looked at him in surprise: "Why?"

"'I'm a man, not a girl.' Isn't that how it's played in movies?" Zhou Chenyu smiled helplessly, "Good old man, who wants to pretend to be a woman every day?"

Yan Chao asked, "Then why did you still learn it later?"

Zhou Chenyu said: "They kindly took me in, there is no reason for me to eat for nothing."

Yan Chao was stunned for a moment, he didn't expect that Zhou Chenyu, who seemed to be so generous, would already know how to compromise at such a young age.

Learning opera is much more difficult than learning cross talk. Singing, reciting, acting, and fighting must have a bright singing voice, soft waist, soft movements, and charming demeanor.

A man learns from a woman, but he has to learn to be more beautiful than a woman. It depends on hard work day after day, and countless beatings.

Yan Chao felt emotional, no wonder when Zhou Chenyu was on stage, he was always able to get into the show in one second, saying that he was a peerless beauty, and in the next second out of the show, he was still a romantic son.

Zhou Chenyu went on to say: "When I got older, I often performed on stage. The audience saw that I was young, and they all praised me, but I couldn't be happy at all, and even resisted."

Yan Chao was taken aback, and asked, "Is it because you are singing Danjiao?"

Zhou Chenyu nodded subconsciously, then shook his head quickly: "How should I put it, people who don't know think I'm a little girl, and it happened to be the rebellious period of youth at that time. Would you be happy if it was you?"

He was in his teens at the time, and his voice had already reached Cangmen (note: the beginning of the voice change period), and it was not so bright, so he took advantage of the situation to lose his temper with the master, saying that he couldn't sing anymore, and naturally changed it back. beat.

Until one day, when he stepped off the stage, a male spectator sneaked in at some point in the backstage. He hadn't taken off his outfit at that time, and the other party came up and groped him with a wretched face.

Hearing what he said, Yan Chao's heart twitched violently for no reason: "And then?"

"Who am I, my lord? When I sang Xi Shi on the stage, you really thought I would only be meowing offstage?" Zhou Chenyu sneered, "I kicked his ass off with one kick."

It was clearly more than ten years ago, but after hearing his answer, Yan Chao still felt that his hanging heart became much more stable in an instant.He sighed: "It's fine that things like this happened in the old society, but why is it happening again now?"

Zhou Chenyu said: "Although that kick nearly sent him to the west, I was still sick for a long time, and I almost vomited out my dinner the night before."

The next day he still performed on stage, singing the same "Xi Shi".

But for some reason that day, as soon as he opened his voice, he sang the split completely.

Amid the cheers from the audience, he was dragged backstage by the master.

Before the master could speak, he pre-emptively tore off the top flower from his head, and fell to the ground with a "snap", a golden outfit weighing several tens of kilograms was instantly shattered into several petals.

He has never seen such an expression on the master's face, unbelievable, extremely disappointed, hating iron for being weak...

Although he has been beaten countless times by his master since he was a child, he has never been so severe.Master's slap hit his head and face, and he was finally on the verge of collapse.

At that moment, for the first time, he felt very clearly that those heavy outfits on his body, like a heavy iron, pressed him tightly, making him breathless.

He almost tore off his costume, and ran out of the backstage in a frenzy.

"Coincidentally, it was raining heavily outside that day, and I squatted near the overpass for most of the night. When Master found me in the early morning, the makeup on my face hadn't been removed, and my whole face was soaked enough to cosplay with Sadako."

Zhou Chenyu's playful tone as usual, as if he was just a storyteller outside the play.

When Zhou Maoqin brought him home, he already had a fever of 40 degrees. It turned out that after a rain, the pneumonia that had not recurred for a long time was reinfected.

I don't know if it was caused by heart disease, but the pneumonia that time was more severe than when he was a child, and he stayed in the hospital for two full months.

"When I came home from the hospital, my voice was completely hoarse." Zhou Chenyu smiled, "Look, it's not a waste of time to run away from home. This time, even God won't let me eat this bowl of singing It's time for dinner."

Yan Chao's heart tightened again: "Then what should we do?"

Zhou Chenyu still idly said: "What should I do? Learn cross talk."

His voice became hoarse, and the master couldn't force him to learn opera anymore, so the master began to teach him cross talk.

After another two years, he finished his warehouse (note: his voice changed), and his voice improved a lot.However, the recurrence of pneumonia still caused irreversible trauma to the respiratory system, and the breath and lung capacity were greatly reduced.

By that time, the opera industry had been in decline, Liao Fengxuan's cross talk became more and more famous in the folk art circle, and the business of Dongning Garden and Xia Qingyuan was booming.

Under such conditions, no matter what, it is impossible for him to go back to the road of singing.

Master Zhou Maoqin gave him the character "Chen" against all opinions, so he began to use the name "Zhou Chenyu" and talked about cross talk on stage in Xia Qingyuan.

When he was 20 years old, He Chenfeng had a conflict with his partner because of filming, and the two broke up, so he offered to be a fan of He Chenfeng.

Later, He Chenfeng became popular overnight, and even he became a famous actor.But He Chenfeng didn't go back to the garden to talk about cross talks, and his life was very leisurely, so the master handed over Xia Qingyuan to him.

He has been doing the work of the "owner of the garden" for four or five years, and the days have passed, and it is today.

After a long time, Yan Chao said dumbly, "Your master is really kind to you."

Zhou Chenyu nodded: "There is no difference between me and him as a father and son."

Yan Chao thought for a while, then asked in a deep voice, "Then... where is your master?"

Zhou Chenyu was silent for a while, then sighed silently: "For a long time, I couldn't understand him at all, and I even hated him when I was a child."

Yan Chao could understand his thoughts. After all, which child was forced to do something he didn't love for more than ten years, and suffered so much suffering and sin in the process, how could he be happy?

"But now I understand a little bit," Zhou Chenyu continued, "He is a real drama idiot, but God refuses to give him this opportunity."

Yan Chao looked at him: "So he turned all his distress into hope and poured it on you?"

Zhou Chenyu nodded: "Actually, I should feel honored."

Yan Chao asked him, "What about you? Do you like drama?"

Zhou Chenyu thought about it, and smiled noncommittally: "Your question is like asking you when you were a child, do you love studying? Your first reaction must be that you don't, but you still got into Peking University by studying hard. From then to today, I will ask you again, do you love to study? How would you answer?"

Yan Chao was silent for a while, and then said: "That's why many people don't study anymore after being admitted to university, just like you don't want to sing anymore now."

Zhou Chenyu shook his head: "I don't sing anymore, not because I hate it, but because I think it's inappropriate."

Yan Chao was a little surprised: "Why do you think so?"

Zhou Chenyu said: "Qantan is a product of a certain historical background, and it should belong to that era. Now it is different from the past. Naturally, there are a lot of excellent actresses playing Dan roles. They have good figures and good singing voices. Is there still a need for a group of old men to pretend to be women on stage?"

Yan Chao was silent for a while, and said: "But since it is a product of a certain historical background, it carries the cultural memory of that era. Nowadays, Qiandan is already rare. If you are not willing to share this special If the cultural memory is passed on, then it will really be extinct.”

"Really?" Zhou Chenyu sighed, "But I don't know how many people are full of righteous indignation, saying that Gandan is a distortion of gender concepts and a deformed cultural aesthetic."

Yan Chao thought for a while and said in a serious tone: "Why is it that a woman disguised as a man can be praised as heroic, while a man dressed as a woman is deformed? In the final analysis, this is still a kind of prejudice arising from the awareness of gender inequality. In fact, True beauty should transcend gender."

Zhou Chenyu was silent for a while, and after a while, he suddenly smiled: "When I sang "Xi Shi", did you really feel abnormal at all?"

"Of course not," Yan Chao shook his head without hesitation, "And it's not just me, the audience doesn't think so either."

With that said, Yan Chao turned his head, and in the darkness, with the faint moonlight outside the window, he traced Zhou Chenyu's sharp-edged outline with his eyes.

Yan Chao stared at him for a while, then said again in a deep voice, "I blame me for getting to know you too late, otherwise I would have told you at that time that you are the best character."