The Pentium Era - South to North

In 1990, one night in early summer, a small town in Cangnan, Wenzhou.

Zhang Chen, an artist from the Yongcheng Wu Opera Troupe, was sitting across from the owner of Chunping Photo Studio, drinking. Behind him was the scenery Zhang Chen had just painted for him, the coconut grove scenery of Hainan.

The front door is open, and in front of it is a narrow and lively street. From time to time, groups of girls pass by the door. At this time, the boss will put two fingers into his mouth and say, Whistle, the girls turned to look, giggling and passing by.

Some of them turned around to look, but there was nothing going on. They were attracted by the scenery that Zhang Chen had just completed, and couldn't help but stop and stare at it. At this time, the boss would greet him warmly:

"Come in and see, come in and see, this is the newest set."

The brave ones were attracted by the painting and actually came in. They looked at it and praised it, and the boss shouted proudly:

"Well, it was this great painter who painted it!"

The girls nodded quickly, then glanced at Zhang Chen with blushing faces, and timidly asked the owner and photographer of Chunping Photo Studio, when can they take pictures?

"Tomorrow, tomorrow will be enough, the real southern scenery, blue sea, blue sky, coconut breeze - yeah!"

In the end, the boss couldn't forget to add a strange scream, and the girls went out giggling, with their flowing hair, leaving a room full of delicious soap smell, and the two young men twitched their noses desperately to sniff.

The boss looked at the scene behind him, picked up the wine glass, clinked it with Zhang Chen, then picked up the steamed dried squid on the table and bit it hard.

"Painter Zhang, again, don't go back. Come with me to Wenzhou City. We will open an advertising company that will paint scenes for photo studios. Do you know how many photo studios there are in Wenzhou City? There are so many more There are advertisements at the door of the hair salon, and I guarantee you will make a fortune within a year." The boss was eloquent.

Zhang Chen smiled and was too lazy to talk to him. He picked up a dried shrimp from the table and ate it.

"You only earn a few copper coins in the troupe. Look at your troupe. It's here today and there tomorrow. It sounds like you're doing art, but in fact it's just like being a beggar." The boss continued to encourage.

Zhang Chen was unhappy when he heard this. He threw half of the shrimp on the table and cursed:

"Damn it, I'm in a theater troupe. After all, it's a business establishment. Do you understand that it's an iron rice bowl? You're a peasant. You let me throw away my iron rice bowl and hang out with you self-employed people? Fuck you!"

"What's wrong with the self-employed? Let me tell you, money is the king now. As long as you have money, you will get a golden job. Your broken iron bowl is nothing." The boss was not happy either.

The two of them were swearing, drinking, and chatting. The boss would look back at the scenery from time to time and admired:

"The painting is really good, exactly like the photo."

Turning around, he looked at Zhang Chen and became angry again: "It's a pity that this man looks elegant, but he is just a blockhead and not enlightened."

Zhang Chen heard this and ignored him.

It was already dark, and the number of pedestrians on the street outside was gradually sparse. After the sound of the street collapsed, the sound of opera singers could be heard faintly from the stage in the ancestral hall at the other end of the town.

Zhang Chen could tell. What was being performed on the stage now was "Three Invitations to Fan Lihua". Tan Shuzhen's singing voice was so ups and downs that it really sounded better the farther away it was.

Teacher Li from the troupe once said to the young students in the student class, what is ecstasy? When you wake up in the morning and listen to Tan Shuzhen singing her voice downstairs, you will know what ecstasy is. As a result, many people were lying in bed early in the morning. Listening to Tan Shuzhen babbling and hoarse in bed.

The boss also listened attentively. After a while, he patted his thighs with both hands, then leaned over and asked Zhang Chen in a low voice:

"Painter Zhang, tell me, how much does it cost me to have sex with this heroine of your group?"

Zhang Chen hit the boss with the dried shrimp in his hand. This time he was really angry:

"Who the fuck do you think you are? Get the fuck out of here!"

The boss was stunned and was about to get angry. He looked up at Zhang Chen. Seeing that Zhang Chen was really angry, he actually became happy:

"Okay, okay, brother, forget I made a mistake, come on, come on, I'll punish myself with another drink."

After a while, he saw Zhang Chen's complexion gradually improving, and couldn't help it anymore, so he asked again:

"Brother, is there a story between you and the heroine?"

"Fuck you, she's my brother's girlfriend."

The boss was relieved and sighed: "I see, I didn't expect that Painter Zhang is still a kind and caring person. Come on, come on, I'll toast to you brother."

The two of them picked up their wine glasses and drank it all in one gulp. A man hurried in from outside the door. When he saw Zhang Chen, he shouted:

"I knew you were here."

He came over and didn't wait for the boss to invite him. He grabbed a stool and sat down. He took the beer bottle in front of Zhang Chen and took two sips. He put down the bottle and saw that the boss had opened another bottle. He did not return the wine to Zhang Chen, but paused in front of him.

He reached out and picked up a dried shrimp and bit into it.

"Why are you here? If you don't want to help break up the trouble, aren't you going to have to change the scene at night?" Zhang Chen asked.

"Transition? What transition?"

"Aren't you going to perform in Pingyang tomorrow?" Zhang Chen said.

"You can't act like shit, Lao Yang has escaped." The visitor shouted.

"Ah, what did you say?" Zhang Chen was surprised and asked urgently.

"Old Yang, Captain Yang has escaped and is missing!" The visitor shouted to Zhang Chen.

When Zhang Chen heard this, he was about to get up, but was grabbed by someone: "What are you doing? There is a chaos there. Come on, let's drink, who cares."

The visitor raised the wine bottle, but Zhang Chen did not touch it. The visitor touched it with the owner of Chunping Photo Studio.

The boss laughed loudly: "Painter Zhang, did you see that? I was right. You don't have to go back. You'd better go to Wenzhou City with me."

"Why are you going to Wenzhou?" the visitor asked curiously.

"Open an advertising agency and paint scenes." The boss said.

"Okay, okay, take me with you." The person called.

The boss squinted at him: "You are useless, and you can't draw. You only know how to pick up women. I heard that when you pick up women, you use all kinds of rhetoric. In Taishun, you coaxed other women into throwing them away. Your husband and children are going to run away with you, is this a problem?"

"Who said that?" The visitor looked at Zhang Chen and shouted, "I, Liu Ligan, am I the kind of person who hooks up with married women?"

After Liu Ligan finished scolding, he glanced at Zhang Chen again. Zhang Chen scolded: "Look at what I'm doing. I didn't say anything."

The boss also shouted: "Don't do other people's business, don't do the painter's business. Screenwriter Liu of Yongcheng Wu Opera Troupe is very famous in our Wenzhou. He knows how to pick up girls and has many fancy words. People say that when you sing for the dead, , those words you made up on the fly can make a dead person jump out of his coffin."

Zhang Chen just took a sip of wine, and when he heard these words, he spat out the wine with a "pop" sound.

Zhang Chen, the artist of Yongcheng Wu Opera Troupe, and Liu Ligan, the screenwriter of Yongcheng Wu Opera Troupe, were drunk. When they returned to the ancestral hall where the performance was performed, it was already a mess.

Tan Shuzhen, the leading actress of the troupe, did not even take off her makeup. Several local girls were still following her. Whenever they had the opportunity, they stretched out their hands to touch her colorful costumes enviously. Tan Shuzhen looked at the hem of her skirt. It was dragging in the mud and it was very inconvenient to walk, so I simply lifted up the hem of my skirt and said to them, "Hey, hold it for me."

Several girls excitedly held up Tan Shuzhen's skirts and followed her inside and outside the ancestral hall like flower girls at a Western wedding.

When Tan Shuzhen saw Zhang Chen and Liu Ligan coming back, she hurried over to greet them and cursed:

"Where did you two go?"

Someone gathered around and told them: "Lao Yang escaped."

"If you run away, run away. I'm not the director of culture, so I can't control him." Zhang Chen muttered.

Liu Ligan raised several plastic bags in his hand, which contained steamed dried squid, dried shrimps, and salted edamame, and waved them in front of Tan Shuzhen flatteringly. Tan Shuzhen was so angry that she waved her hand and tried to knock them down.

There was someone nearby who had already had quick eyesight and quick hands, and snatched the food from Liu Ligan's hand.