Although it is a gimmick, Director Chen still intends to keep improving.
He found a special person to design the stage and costumes. Li Shanzhu, who was on annual leave, was also urgently recalled by him. Now he was spitting blood in the dark room to write the script. After the script came out, he gave several actors 30 days to rehearse.
Ning Ning didn't have many scenes. After the arrangement was completed, Director Chen had just walked out of the door a few steps before she caught up from behind: "Director Chen, you haven't told me who designed the cinema yet, to be honest, I'm currently renovating. House, I really like this style…”
Director Chen had no choice but to give her an address.
They are really acquaintances, not only Director Chen's acquaintance, but also Ning Ning's acquaintance.
Ringing the doorbell, a middle-aged woman in a black cheongsam opened the door, her voice full of masculine charm: "Who are you?"
"Li..." The sentence Li Ren Yao almost shouted, and temporarily changed to, "Hello, Mr. Li, I'm Director Chen's friend, Zhao Yufen."
"Oh, it's you." The well-known ladyboy makeup artist in the industry introduced her to the door and raised her orchid finger to hold the tea set. "Old Chen has already greeted me... Do you like to drink black tea or green tea?"
"Green tea, thank you."
Longjing came to the table, its color was green, and Mr. Li sat down in front of Ningning: "I'm not a professional designer. If you need to decorate your house, I may not be able to help you..."
"Mr. Li." Ning Ning said straight to the point, "Have you been to Life Cinema?"
After speaking, she stared at his face closely.
If he hadn't been there, he'd be dazed to hear the name, but if he'd been...
The kind smile used for hospitality disappeared from Teacher Li's face, and he stared at Ning Ning.
"You've been there." Ning Ning said with certainty.
"No, it was my woman who went there." Teacher Li got up and went back to the bedroom, holding a folder full of documents in his hand.
The folder was spread out on the table, and the first page was a painting. In the dark night, at the entrance of an extremely old movie theater, there were two long strings of white lanterns. The lanterns illuminated the words on the plaque: Life Cinema.
"Since you can name this name, it is estimated that you have entered this place like my woman." Teacher Li suddenly thought of something and laughed, "No wonder, Lao Chen said that your acting skills have improved by leaps and bounds recently."
Ning Ning flipped the folder in front of her. At first, she turned back page by page. Suddenly, she paused, and quickly turned back a few pages, turning to one of the pages.
There was no writing on that page, but there were a few photos, two of which were written, and one was a painting. The tiled white walls and the plaques on the door make it seem bustling and bustling at first glance. After flipping through a few pages, and looking back again, only to find that there is a tea house mixed in with the shop.
There is a sign hanging at the entrance of the tea house that reads…
"The Theater of Life." Ning Ning said softly, then looked up at Teacher Li, "This is?"
"This is an imitation painting of "Across the River During Qingming Festival", said Mr. Li, "Although it is a fake, the author is from the Ming Dynasty, so it can be regarded as an antique. I wanted to buy it, but the owner of this painting is very I liked it and refused to sell it, but only let me take two pictures."
Ning Ning glanced at the photo again, it was... too similar.
Although the brand has been changed, the two strings of long lanterns hanging down from the door, especially the masked man standing at the door, look like an ancient version of the Life Cinema.
I looked at the other two photos. One was a yellowish novel on this page. The name seemed to be five characters.
Another shot is a paragraph in the book, the traditional characters are not easy to recognize, Ningning struggled to identify: "Longsheng, a Jiangxi native, traveled to Kaifeng at night with a friend, entered a teahouse by mistake, and the people sitting there were all masked people, seeing Longsheng. The two of them were ecstatic, chasing wildly, shouting fare evaders…”
After reading this, Ning Ning's mouth was dry, and he asked Teacher Li, "Is it all true?"
"I don't know." Teacher Li shook his head, "The strange novels written by the ancients are all true and false, false and true, I can only say that if what is written on it is true, then the Cinema of Life is at least in It already existed in the Ming Dynasty, and the name is not called the cinema, but the theater of life."
Ning Ning was dumbfounded for a while. She had also searched for information about the Cinema of Life, but she didn't get much. How could she know that this thing existed in the Ming Dynasty, and it had another name.
"What else do you know?" she asked hastily.
"I don't know much." Teacher Li patted the folder on the table, "It took me almost half my life to collect these."
Ning Ning was stunned: "Why?"
"...No reason, I just want to be prepared." Teacher Li said lightly, "If one day, my woman is trapped inside and can't get out, I at least know where to go to see her."
Ning Ning was about to ask who your woman was when a cold snort suddenly came from behind: "Dad, you're researching this crap again."
When Ning Ning turned around, it was a familiar face again.
Li Boyue, her manager, is still a young man. Considering her age, she should have just entered the entertainment industry. As a newcomer, she should have struggled for a long time. Yuren's favor, he took him directly by his side as a manager assistant.
"Enough is enough." He said to Teacher Li impatiently, "This is obviously made up by that woman to deceive you. You believe it for a year or two, how can you still believe it when you are old?"
"She won't lie to me." Teacher Li glared at him.
Li Boyue rolled his eyes: "Whatever you want."
He walked towards his room and slammed the door shut. Behind him, Teacher Li sighed and said to Ning Ning embarrassedly, "My son has a rather naughty personality."
"...By the way, tomorrow I'll go to work at my friend's place." Li Boyue's voice came from the door, "I don't want to continue working with that woman, I'm upset when I see her."
It's strange, this guy Li Boyue is exquisite, he is a good friend with everyone, he can win even the most eccentric star, who made him so unbearable... and so on.
"I heard that your son is working next to Ning Yuren now." Ning Ning asked Teacher Li tentatively, "What's the matter? Is Ning Yuren treating him badly?"
"How could that be?" Teacher Li smiled, "Even if it's my face, she won't embarrass him."
Ning Ning felt that something was wrong. He seemed to know his mother very well, but she had never heard her mother mention him, and from what Li Boyue said... these two people...
Ning Ning was a little uneasy: "That... your woman... Could it be... "
"Little girl." Teacher Li smiled and put a finger in front of his lips, "It's a simple conversation."
Seeing that he didn't want to talk deeply, Ningning didn't continue to ask, because she herself was afraid of hearing the answer... Looking at his long-haired cheongsam dress, if the "my woman" he mentioned in his words really meant It's from Ning Yu, then Ning Ning doesn't feel that she has an extra father, she will feel that she has an extra mother!
"Okay, it's getting late, it's time for me to go to work on the set." Teacher Li pushed the folder in Ningning's direction, "Take this."
Ning Ning was stunned: "Is it okay?"
"It's okay, I still have it." Teacher Li smiled, "I'll give this to you as a gift."
Seeing Ning Ning happily put it away, he added another sentence: "Reciprocity, you can give me something too."
"...What do you want?" Ningning asked.
"You answer me first." Teacher Li stared at her, "Have you been to the Cinema of Life?"
A lot of thoughts flashed through Ning Ning's mind, she shook her head: "I have never been there... I have been there with my relatives, and since I came back, my health has not been good."
She is talking about Ning Yuren. If there is no accident, it is from the past few years that Ning Yuren's physical condition has become worse and worse. Now that I think about it, this situation can only be caused by the movie theater...
"It turns out to be like this." Teacher Li believed, because the person he wanted to save was also Ning Yuren, and Ning Yuren's current situation is just as Ning Ning said. This answer made him both relieved and disappointed. He sighed and said, "I wanted to say, if you have been there, can you tell me the address."
Ning Ning is happy: Even if I know the address, I can't tell you.
If he could tell, his mother had already told him, so why wait for her to come.
"Actually, my woman told me the address, but I'm afraid you won't believe it. I went to see it, there was nothing there, there was no movie theater, and there were no masked people. If you take someone there, no one will see it." Teacher Li said sullenly, " Is it only she can see, or is she lying to me..."
You can't see because you're not on the brink of despair...
"Old man, is that enough?" Li Boyue's voice sounded again, even more impatient than before, "Not only you, I have been to that place five hundred times, and there is nothing, just a stand selling popsicles, saying she is a liar You, you still don't believe it..."
In Li Boyue's chatter, Ning Ning went out with Teacher Li. Ning Ning held the folder in her arms and said, "I'll go back and take a closer look to see if I can find any clues."
"Go, let me know if you have any clues." Teacher Li exchanged phone numbers with her.
After watching Ning Ning leave, he lowered his head and made a phone call to go out.
After a few rings, the phone was connected.
"Hey, Lao Pei." Teacher Li put the phone on his ear, "Give me another copy of the information, which one do I have? It's a gift, a new kid, just like us, someone in the family is trapped in it. , looking at the movie theater..."
In the taxi, Ning Ning couldn't wait to flip through the folder in his hand.
Ancient strange novels, tabloids of the Republic of China, ancient legends circulated in the countryside...
Cinema of Life, Cinema of Life, Mask, Mask Man...
"It turns out that there are so many people like me who have been in and can't leave." Ning Ning thought, "There are so many people like Teacher Li who try to find people from it, but they can't, so they write down the matter. Let future generations see it and try to figure out how to get people."
While Ning Ning sighed, he fixed his eyes on one of the pages. It was also a strange story. It was written in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. A villager named Zhao Da was on his way at night, passing by the theater of life and the entrance of the theater. The gatekeeper was an alcoholic, and when he saw that Da Zhao brought a bag of wine, he stopped him from leaving.
Zhao was furious: "There is no free drink in the world, what do you exchange for it?"
Gatekeeper: "There's nothing to change, why don't I let you in to watch the show?"
Zhao Da glanced at the pitch-dark theater and sneered: "It's all over, the actors have all gone home to sleep, how can there be any drama to watch?"
The gatekeeper laughed directly: "Whenever there is a show to watch, you will know when you go in."
Zhao Da also drank too much, and thought that there were only half a tael of bad wine left in the bag, and it would not be a pity to give it to him, so he took off the wine bag and threw it to him: "Okay, let the master go in and have a look."
He swaggered into the theater, looked back halfway, and instantly sobered up.
I saw that the gatekeeper untied the wine bag, but did not drink it, but kept sniffing it under his nose, as if he could not eat the food in the world, he could only inhale the smell of wine, the aroma of tribute, and the burning of his family. The firework atmosphere and the strangeness of the scene made Zhao Da's legs a little weak.
Just then, the lights in the theater came on.
The lights illuminated the masks, and groups of masked people played and sang. In the curtains that were gradually opened, a woman's voice came out: "In the soil under Mawei Po, there is no Yuyankong's death..."
Zhao Dahe, dressed as Yang Guifei.
He soon died and returned, not only that, but also infected with the bad habit of wearing women's clothes, bathing in hot springs, and eating lychees. .
The two went back and forth. In the absence of tickets, the gatekeeper let Zhao Da enter the theater many times to watch the play.
Finally one day, when Zhao Da came in, what greeted him in the theater was not the familiar masked people, nor the melodious sound of the flute and pipa.
But through the curtain, a cold voice sounded: "You have evaded the ticket."
After reading this story, Ning Ning closed the folder and posted it for a while, then closed her eyes and sighed: "So fare evasion is all about it."
Zhao Da, who likes to be Yang Guifei, and a certain gatekeeper who is greedy for cups, work together to interpret a story that is not known as a comedy or a tragedy, revealing to Ningning the birth of the fare evasion punishment system, and...