Chapter 37: The Zhang Zhang Yaba's House

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Chen Nuo's family of three carried large and small bags of Sichuan local specialties to pay a New Year's visit.

First, they went to Zhang Yi's Sihe Academy. Although Zhang Yi wasn't there, Chen Bicheng said that Zhang Yi was the first noble person Chen Nuo met, so he must be the first to pay a New Year's visit. Zhang Yi's parents happily received Chen Nuo and his family of three.

The two families had a lively New Year's visit and even had lunch. Originally, Chen Bicheng and the others weren't planning to stay for lunch, but they couldn't resist the enthusiasm of Zhang Yi's parents, so they wrapped dumplings together.

Pan Chengrong said when leaving that this dumpling meal was the most comfortable one she had eaten since coming to Beijing.

In the afternoon, their family of three arrived at Li Er's house. The things they brought were almost the same as those they went to Zhang Yi's house with, only one massage device was replaced with skincare products chosen by Pan Chengrong.

Li Er's house wasn't at the Film Academy, but in the family compound of Renmin University, because her husband was a professor at Renmin University. This made Chen Nuo and Chen Bicheng almost awe-struck. The house here was quite old, the walls covered with green ivy, making people feel as if they could feel the cultural heritage under the long years.

However, Li Er's room was decorated very modernly, in a pure Mediterranean style. When their family arrived, Qi Yuntian opened the door, and seeing Chen Nuo, he smiled: "Young Master is here."

Li Er's voice scolding Qi Yuntian could probably be heard upstairs and downstairs.

Li Er's husband was named Qi Yifei, teaching economics at Renmin University, seemingly a bit older than Li Er, his hair already gray, wearing glasses, looking gentle and elegant. He looked like a person from a completely different world compared to a rough country coal boss like Chen Bicheng.

But when everyone sat together chatting, he and Chen Bicheng actually got along quite well, listening to Chen Bicheng talk about some of his experiences as a coal boss, shaking his head repeatedly: "Wild growth is not a long-term plan, it needs industrial planning, it needs to be standardized, it needs to be integrated, it needs a regular army, not guerrillas, otherwise something will happen sooner or later."

Li Er rolled her eyes at him: "Alright, stop nagging about your making it big and strong. Chen Nuo, some time ago before Zhang Yi went abroad, he specifically came to find me, gave me a videotape, saying it was the rough cut of the movie you filmed, and asked me to watch it with you when you finish filming and return to Beijing. Should I play it now? It just so happens your parents are here too, let them see your achievements."

Pan Chengrong was quite excited: "Good, good, good, Teacher Li, sorry to trouble you. To tell you the truth, we really don't know what kind of movie he filmed, asking him two questions, he just said we don't understand. We don't understand, but we are indeed a bit curious."

Chen Bicheng also followed up and said: "It's actually useless for us to watch, just for the fun of it, mainly to ask Teacher Li to comment and guide, pick out Chen Nuo's problems and shortcomings, so he can absorb and improve. Chen Nuo, did you hear that."

"Heard it."

Afterwards, Li Er pulled the curtains, the shading effect of the curtains was very good, and the room was pitch black. Except for the small screen and slightly inferior speakers, the atmosphere was almost the same as a movie theater.

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

Without any prelude.

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

The face was very dirty, with black ash and yellow mud on it; his knife-carved features were very good-looking, as if polished by the wind and sand of the north for thousands of years, full of a sense of time and grain, with a kind of masculine beauty.

Only his eyes...

What kind of cowardly and pitiful eyes were those.

Timid, frightened, shrinking, these eyes were like a rabbit caught by someone, it was already finished, unable to break free, waiting to be skinned, it was desperate, so its eyes were so heart-pounding.

And the mouth, the mouth on the screen was twisting and twitching.

Once, twice, again.

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

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

Suddenly, a slap came from outside the screen, fiercely hitting this face.

With a "slap" sound.

The screen went black.

The five pale white characters "The Zhang Zhang Yaba's House" appeared on the screen.

Chen Nuo heard Pan Chengrong taking a heavy breath.

The screen lit up again. A withered old man, jumping on his feet, cursing, swinging his slaps and hitting the mute's head, body, and legs, beating him until he ran around the courtyard.

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

The mute bent his waist, buried his head, revealing a flattering smile. He opened his mouth, but couldn't make a sound, chased by the old man and fleeing in a panic, his back like a dog.

Chen Nuo noticed from the corner of his eye that Pan Chengrong was already wiping her tears, and also heard Chen Bicheng cough lightly.

The plot slowly unfolded.

Xiaozhu brought him porridge, a childhood sweetheart love.

But more of it was the ridicule of neighbors, the bullying of peers, that pair of legs crossing over his head was just a microcosm, and there were countless details performing the mute who was collectively bullied in the alley.

The breakup in the middle of the night, the stumbling figure in the dark alley, and the silent crying constructed the final impression of this alley—that was a dark prison of human nature.

Chen Nuo seemed to be watching this movie with two pairs of eyes at this moment. One pair of eyes saw the mute, the other pair of eyes saw himself.

Zhang Yi once told him that every creation of a work is a process of childbirth and nurturing. Not only to let the character be born, but also to let him grow, let him use your body, mind, and soul as nourishment, and finally grow up and stay away from you.

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

He personally condensed the flesh and blood of the mute from his own body, wove the soul of the mute bit by bit from his emotions, he personally created a character like the mute from nothingness, yet his final purpose was not to make the mute inseparable from him, but to let the mute have an independent life, having nothing to do with him.

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

Chen Nuo's thoughts were flying, and the plot of the movie continued.

After breaking up with Xiaozhu, the mute decided to build his own house.

He walked out of the city barefoot, walked to the mountain, and started digging a house in the ground.

At first, he used his hands to dig, later he picked up trash to exchange for a hoe and a dustpan, but just as there was some progress, everything was destroyed by a heavy rain, and he had to start over.

Just like this, blow after blow, reconstruction after reconstruction.

The mute's house was dug more and more efficiently, and built more and more solidly; he learned how to reinforce the mud walls, level the ground, make the dug-out room more like a room, and also learned how to build the orientation of the cave entrance to resist the erosion of rainwater, and also learned how to catch rats from the ground to eat.

There was nothing in the mountains and fields, everything was available in the city, but the mountains and fields gave the mute everything, while the city deprived him of his only possession.

In the end, when the mute roared that desperate and angry cry to the sky, Chen Nuo found that he was tearful without knowing it.

The mountains and fields returned to the mute what the city had taken away, but the mute had to go back to the city. 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 mountains and fields, crawled into the house he had dug from the cave entrance, and lay in the bedroom with mud on all four sides. The camera slowly pulled up, and the gray-yellow him seemed to have merged with this piece of land.

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

That was a high-rising mound of earth.

The mute's house was actually not a house.

It was a grave.

It was his long-destined final destination.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 38 =====