Chapter 37: The Mute's House

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Chen Nuo and his family arrived for a visit, carrying large and small bags of local specialties from Xichuan.

They went to the Sihe Academy of Zhang Yi's family first. Although Zhang Yi was not there, Chen Bi said that Zhang Yi was the first benefactor Chen Nuo had ever encountered, so they had to pay their respects to her family first. Zhang Yi's parents received Chen Nuo and his family of three with pleasant surprise.

The two families had a lively New Year's visit and even shared lunch. Originally, Chen Bi and his family had not intended to stay for a meal, but they could not resist the hospitality of Zhang Yi's parents, so they all made dumplings together.

As she left, Pan Chengrong said that this meal of dumplings was the most comfortable one she had eaten since arriving in Jingcheng.

In the afternoon, the family of three arrived at Li Er's home. They brought almost the same gifts as they had to Zhang Yi's house, except that one massage device had been replaced by skincare products chosen by Pan Chengrong.

Li Er's home was not at the Film Academy, but in the faculty residential compound of Renmin University, because her husband was a professor there. This made Chen Nuo and Chen Bi feel a sense of reverence. The buildings here were quite old, with green ivy winding all over the outer walls, making one feel as if they could sense the cultural heritage beneath the long passage of time.

However, the interior of Li Er's apartment was decorated in a very modern, authentic Mediterranean style. When their family arrived, Qi Yuntian opened the door, and upon seeing Chen Nuo, he smiled: "The Young Master is here."

The sound of Li Er scolding Qi Yuntian could probably be heard both upstairs and downstairs.

Li Er's husband was named Qi Yifei, who taught economics at Renmin University. He seemed a bit older than Li Er, with graying hair, glasses, and a gentle, refined appearance. He looked like someone from a completely different world compared to a rough-and-tumble rural coal boss like Chen Bi.

Yet, when everyone sat down to chat, he and Chen Bi actually got along quite well. Hearing Chen Bi talk about some of his experiences as a coal boss, he shook his head repeatedly: "Savage growth is not a long-term strategy. You need to carry out industrial planning again, standardize, integrate, and use a regular army, not guerrillas. Otherwise, something will go wrong sooner or later."

Li Er rolled her eyes at him: "Alright, stop preaching about your 'getting bigger and stronger.' Chen Nuo, before Zhang Yi went abroad a while ago, she specifically came to find me and gave me a videotape, saying it was a rough cut of the movie you filmed. She said when you finished filming and returned to Jingcheng, I should watch it with you. Should we play it now? Since your parents are here, let them see your achievements too."

Pan Chengrong was quite excited: "Yes, yes, yes, Teacher Li, sorry to trouble you. To be honest, we really don't know what kind of movie he filmed. Whenever we asked him, he would just say we wouldn't understand. We don't understand, but we are indeed a bit curious."

Chen Bi also chimed in: "It's not much use for us to watch it; we're just here for the excitement. The main thing is to ask you, Teacher Li, to critique and guide him, to pick out Chen Nuo's problems and flaws so he can absorb them and improve. Chen Nuo, did you hear that?"

"I heard it."

Afterward, Li Er pulled the curtains shut. The curtains had excellent light-blocking properties, leaving the room pitch black. Except for the small screen and slightly inferior speakers, the atmosphere was not much different from a movie theater.

The first scene after the television screen lit up was Chen Nuo's face.

There was no prelude whatsoever.

His eyes, nose, mouth, and ears suddenly occupied the 42-inch screen.

His face was very dirty, covered in black soot and yellow mud. His chiseled features were handsome, as if polished by the northern winds and sands for thousands of years, full of a sense of time and texture, possessing a kind of masculine beauty.

Only his eyes...

What a cowardly and pitiful pair of eyes they were.

Timid, frightened, and shrinking, these eyes were like a rabbit caught by someone. It was finished, unable to break free, waiting to be skinned. It was in despair, which was why its gaze was so heart-stoppingly terrified.

And the mouth; the mouth on the screen was twitching in a distorted way.

Once, twice, and again.

This person desperately wanted to reveal a fawning smile, to smile for the person outside the frame. But he didn't even have the courage to show a complete smile. Every time he gathered his courage, it would dissipate in the next second, thus forming a neurotic tremor.

His expression and his appearance formed a strange contrast, making one feel a physiological sense of discomfort and unease.

Suddenly, a slap entered the frame from outside the screen and landed heavily on this face.

A "slap" sound rang out.

The screen went black.

The five pale white characters for "The Mute's House" appeared on the screen.

Chen Nuo heard Pan Chengrong taking a heavy breath.

The screen lit up again. A gaunt old man, hopping on his feet, cursing loudly, swung his hand to slap the Mute on the head, body, and legs, chasing him all over the courtyard.

"If you dare to provoke Xiaozhu again, I'll beat you to death!"

The Mute bent his waist, buried his head, and revealed a fawning smile. He opened his mouth, but could not make a sound, fleeing in a panic as the old man chased him, his back looking just like a dog.

Chen Nuo noticed out of the corner of his eye that Pan Chengrong was already wiping away tears, and he also heard Chen Bi cough lightly.

The plot slowly unfolded.

Xiaozhu brought him porridge—a romance of childhood sweethearts.

But there was more mockery from neighbors and bullying from peers. That leg stepping over his head was just a microcosm; there were countless details depicting the Mute being collectively bullied in the alley.

The late-night breakup, the stumbling figure in the dark alley, and the silent weeping constructed the final impression of this alley—it was a dark prison of human nature.

At this moment, Chen Nuo felt as if he were watching this movie with two pairs of eyes. One pair saw the Mute, and the other pair saw himself.

Zhang Yi had once told him that every creation of a work is a process of childbirth and nurturing. It is not just about giving birth to a character, but also letting him grow, letting him use your body, mind, and soul as nourishment, until he finally grows up and leaves you behind.

Chen Nuo wanted to tell Zhang Yi that at this very moment, he finally understood.

He had personally condensed the flesh and blood of the Mute from his own body, bit by bit, and woven the soul of the Mute from his own emotions, bit by bit. He had personally created a character like the Mute out of nothingness, yet his ultimate goal was not to make the Mute inseparable from him, but to let the Mute possess an independent life, having no connection to him at all.

He was the Mute, but the Mute was not him.

Chen Nuo's thoughts were in turmoil, while the plot of the movie continued.

After breaking up with Xiaozhu, the Mute decided to build a house of his own.

He went barefoot, walked out of the city, went up the mountain, and began to dig a house in the ground.

At first, he used his hands to dig, then he traded trash for a hoe and a dustpan. But just as he had made some progress, a heavy rain destroyed everything, and he had to start all over again.

Just like that, blow after blow, reconstruction after reconstruction.

The Mute's house was dug with increasing efficiency and built with increasing sturdiness. He learned how to reinforce the earthen walls, level the ground, make the dug-out room look more like a room, learned how to orient the entrance to resist the washing of rainwater, and even learned how to catch rats in the ground to eat.

The wilderness had nothing, while the city had everything, but the wilderness gave the Mute everything, while the city stripped him of the little he had.

Finally, when the Mute let out that desperate and angry roar toward the sky, Chen Nuo found that he was unknowingly filled with tears.

The wilderness returned to the Mute what the city had taken from him, but the Mute had to return to the city. And so, in the end, the city girl in the apartment building took away his faith and hope.

This heavy blow completely crushed the Mute.

He returned to the wilderness, crawled into the house he had dug through the entrance, and lay down in the bedroom made of earth on all four sides. The camera slowly pulled up, and his gray-yellow figure seemed to merge with the earth.

The camera went higher and higher, passing through the ground. Then, for the first time, the audience saw the Mute's house from the air.

It was a high, protruding mound of dirt.

The Mute's house was not actually a house.

It was a grave.

It was his long-destined final resting place.

(End of chapter)