"Let go of me! Let me go!" The scholar's mask was forced to tilt his head back, and he was dragged back by the articulated hand until he retreated to a hard chest.
The gatekeeper pressed his chest against him, tugging at his hair with his left hand, and raised his right hand slowly and gently placed it on his mask.
"...No! Cough, no!" The scholar's mask suddenly made a choking sound. He seemed to be sweating, and the water kept flowing along his neck. No, it wasn't sweat. No one could sweat so much.
It was as if a faucet had been turned on, and the water flowed endlessly from under the mask, hitting the ground with a thud, and soon merged into a small puddle.
The gatekeeper suddenly let go of his hand lightly, the scholar's mask bent his knees, knelt heavily in the small puddle, the water splashed on Ning Ning's face, she forgot to wipe it, and looked at the scholar's mask timidly, no, At this time, he can no longer be called a scholar mask.
The mask on his face changed, from a somewhat frivolous scholar face to a painful drowning face. No matter how he pulled it, he couldn't pull it off. Even if he smashed his face on the ground desperately, he couldn't smash the mask. Only the more and more water flowed, it flowed on the ground, and snaked in all directions like a snake, winding towards Ningning's feet.
Ning Ning was so frightened that she backed away again and again, not daring to let the water get on her feet.
"I... Gulu Gulu... I was wrong..." On the opposite side, the scholar's mask had crawled back to the gatekeeper's feet, hugging his legs and begging bitterly, "Spare me, spare me... Gulu Gulu..."
The gatekeeper was indifferent to his plea, he turned his head slowly, and under the snow-white mask, a pair of deja vu eyes looked at Ning Ning.
Ning Ning suddenly had a cold fight, then turned around and ran.
"Stop! Stop!" She raised her hand to stop a passing taxi. She hurriedly opened the door, reported her home address, and sat on it.
The car started slowly, and she suddenly looked back.
Not far behind, two rows of lanterns were floating, like two white mourning banners on the mourning hall. The gatekeeper stood under the mourning banners and looked at her from a distance.
Ning Ning slowly turned her head and lowered her head to support her face.
"Impossible." She whispered, "It can't be him... woo... ugh..."
I don't know if it was due to excessive fright or some other reason. The dizziness from the previous day appeared again. Ning Ning bent down and made a painful retching sound.
"Hey! You don't vomit in the car!" The driver became anxious, "I'll park the car on the side of the road, you go out and vomit!"
Raising his head with difficulty, Ning Ning said to him, "Send, take me to the First Hospital..."
Before she could finish speaking, she fainted.
A few hours later, the city's first hospital.
Ning Ning on the hospital bed opened her eyes, glanced at the people around her, groaned in pain, and closed her eyes again.
"Okay, stop pretending." Cui Hongmei said lightly while peeling the apple, "I saw your eyes opened."
Ning Ning opened her eyes helplessly: "Why are you here?"
"The hospital called me." Cui Hongmei put the peeled apple in her mouth and took a bite. Although this old woman is old, her body is tougher than some young people, and her teeth are good. She bites the apple and clicks. The clicking sounded, "I paid for the money, a total of 3,000 yuan, including what chest pulls, electrocardiogram pull, blood lipid test pull..."
"Okay, okay, you leave the list, and I'll give you the money later." Ningning didn't want to listen to her nonsense anymore.
"... Don't you want to hear the results?" Cui Hongmei said.
Ning Ning opened her eyes again and looked at her.
Cui Hongmei held a medical report in her hand, reported the detected values to her one by one, and finally said lightly: "There is also a white blood cell value of 2800, which is almost half of a normal person. The doctor asked me what do you do? Whether you have been engaged in radioactive work for a long time."
She looked up at Ningning and said with a smile, "How is it? Does it sound familiar?"
Ning Ning lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling above her head.
Familiar, why not
When my mother entered the hospital for the first time, she got the same physical examination result. The white blood cell counts were exactly the same, and the other errors were only between single digits!
"First your mother, then you." Cui Hongmei took a bite of the apple and said inarticulately, "What are you two hiding from me?"
Ning Ning still stared at the ceiling.
"... I really want to talk to people, but the person I talk to doesn't include you." After a while, she turned her head slowly, "Why do you treat your mother like that?"
Cui Hongmei slowly stopped chewing and looked at her expressionlessly.
"You are so scary, even scarier than a stranger." Ningning stared at her, "Mom is so kind to you, she will give you everything you want, everyone knows what virtue you are, but she never said it. You're not good, don't talk about outsiders, I think she's a bit stupid like this... How about you? What have you done to her?"
"Stranger." Cui Hongmei chewed these three words slowly, and suddenly sneered, "Are you sure she is real again?"
Ning Ning was stunned.
Cui Hongmei paused for a moment, then lowered her eyes: "... Is she really my daughter?"
"...What do you mean?" Ningning asked.
"You don't understand anything, you don't remember anything..." Cui Hongmei lowered her head and muttered, not knowing what she recalled, there seemed to be a trace of disgust and fear in her eyes... There was even a little grievance, "Everyone will Change, but no one will be like her... Stranger, yes! Stranger! Don't you think she's become like a stranger, completely different from your memory?"
It was like the question that had been bothering her for many years was suddenly answered, the formula that had been bothering her for many years suddenly got a standard answer, Cui Hongmei's spirit became excited, she danced and said: "By the way, now that technology is so advanced, you can rely on plastic surgery. to be like everyone else..."
"Enough!" Ning Ning couldn't stand it anymore, she interrupted the other party with a loud shout, then stared at the other party and said word by word, "She is a mother, always a mother."
She didn't know why Cui Hongmei didn't trust her mother so much, and even thought that her mother was a stranger pretending to be plastic surgery. But as someone who got a movie ticket and went to Life Cinema, Ning Ning knew that her mother had always been her mother, and her change was only because she had been in the movie for too long.
Just like herself, after two movies, didn't it also change a lot
Cui Hongmei opened her mouth slightly, as if she wanted to talk to Ning Ning, but after hearing this, she no longer had the desire to talk.
"... I'm leaving." She threw the unfinished apples away, then got up and said, "Remember to call me when you go back, and take good care of yourself. Your mother isn't here, it's your responsibility to feed me."
Bitchy, with only money in her eyes, she changed back to Cui Hongmei in Ning Ning's memory.
Duode's footsteps ranged from near to far. Seeing that Cui Hongmei was about to leave the room, she suddenly stopped and asked without looking back, "Ning Ning... Do you think this world is real?"
Ning Ning was on the bed with his eyes closed, but when he heard the words, he opened his eyes and saw that there was no sign of Cui Hongmei at the door.
Only her question just now echoed in Ning Ning's ears.
Is this world real
A doctor walked in from the outside, met Ning Ning's gaze, stunned for a moment, and said with a smile, "You're awake."
His attitude is very familiar, like treating his own juniors, Ning Ning also treats him as his own senior. He is the attending physician of his mother. During her eight years of medical treatment, he has been accompanying her mother, Ning Ning He even knew that he was very fond of his mother, but her mother never accepted it.
It was because of this acquaintance that she did not hesitate to ask the driver to take her to the First Hospital.
He walked over to her bed and hesitated.
"Uncle Huang, what's the matter?" Ning Ning asked.
Only then did Dr. Huang regain his senses. He took out a letter from his white coat pocket and handed it to her.
Ning Ning didn't answer and looked at him suspiciously: "This is?"
"Your mother asked me to give you a letter." Dr. Huang was also puzzled. "She told me that if one day you get the same disease as her, you will hand this letter to you."
Ning Ning hurriedly grabbed the letter in his hand, tore open the envelope, and poured out the contents.
A letter and a key.
Ning Ning opened the letter and saw that it was handwriting that Ning Yuren was familiar with. She wrote two lines on the letter.
"If you read this letter, it means that you have already gone my way."
"I left you something. It's at No. 404 Yangming Road. The key is in the envelope."
No. 404, Yangming Road, is a small apartment building.
Despite Dr. Huang's stop, Ning Ning went through the discharge procedures urgently. Dr. Huang asked for leave to come with her. The apartment building was bought by Ning Yu, but his name was written on the property certificate. He was not only the custodian of the letter. , is also the keeper of things.
The apartment building is not high, with a total of four floors, and each floor can accommodate three families. Along the way, the residents they encountered all called Dr. Huang as the landlord. Dr. Huang looked a little embarrassed. He took Ningning to 404. In front of the numbered room, while using the key to open the door, he said to her, "This is the room where your mother keeps things. I didn't move any of the things in it. I just came in and cleaned it occasionally."
The door opened, and Ning Ning walked in slowly.
"I'm walking outside, you need to call me." After Dr. Huang finished speaking, he closed the door and left the room completely to Ningning.
Ning Ning had no time for him, she slowly looked around, and saw that from left to right, the entire room was densely covered with masks.
Men, women, old people, children, surrounded by so many masks, Ning Ning couldn't help but feel uncomfortable all over, and even had an illusion that she was back in the cinema of life, she couldn't help hugging Arms, hurriedly left the living room and entered the bedroom.
It can't be regarded as a bedroom. There is no bed in the room, only a TV, a DVD player, a VCR, and a chair. Today's young people are used to downloading and watching movies on the computer, but because of the times, Ning Yuren still keeps the habit of watching discs and videotapes.
Ningning couldn't find the disc or tape in the room, so she had to go back to the living room. Surrounded by the mask, she dug out a safe. She opened the safe with the key in her hand, revealing the neatly placed video tapes and discs.
But in the middle, there is also a small safe.
On the box was written a line: "What month is our anniversary?"
"March 21, 2012." Ning Ning muttered to herself, while entering 2012321 on the password box. With a bang, the box was opened, and a disc was still displayed in front of her.
Ning Ning took the disc and hurried back to the bedroom. She turned on the TV and the DVD player one by one. She put the disc into the DVD player. She didn't even have a chair to sit on, so she knelt down in front of the TV and watched without moving. staring at the TV screen in front of him.
After a brief pause, Ning Yuren's face appeared on the screen.
She opened her eyes and looked at Ning Ning through the screen: "Are you trying to ask me, where exactly is the Cinema of Life?"
Ning Ning was stunned.
"The answer is—" Ning Yuren smiled playfully, "I don't know either."
At that moment, Ning Ning raised her hand to cover her mouth and couldn't help whimpering softly.
Mom is the best actress, everyone says she smiles on TV like she smiles in front of you, she looks at you on TV like she looks in front of you, she feels the same way now , Mom is like still alive, living on the TV, living on the screen, eternal.
"No matter what it really looks like, but to me, it's a place to hone your acting skills." Ning Yuren smiled and said to her, "By the way, am I dead now? Did your grandmother come to trouble you? Like asking you for money or auctioning off my relics."
Having said that, Ning Yuren covered her lips and smiled softly.
"I have my reasons for indulging her, but you don't have to indulge her. Just give her a living allowance every month. If she says she doesn't have the money to auction off the relics in her hand..." Ning Yuren tilted her head to think about it, and then asked Ning Ning blinked, "Then let her sell it."
"Mom!" Ning Ning seemed to have forgotten that there was only a TV in front of her. She rushed over and lay on the screen anxiously, wanting to say something.
"The evidence that I live in this world has never been the clothes I wore, the jewelry I've worn, or my underwear and socks." Ning Yuren looked at her tenderly, "it's you. "
Ning Ning stared at her blankly.
"...And those masks outside." Ning Yuren glanced behind her with nostalgia in her eyes, "Each of them is a person I've crossed over, a life I've experienced, and this room is me The Cinema of Life!"
The elderly Ning Yuren smiled gently, and that smile surprised time and years, approaching eternity. After laughing, she turned her gaze back to Ningning's face and said to her, "Okay, turn over under the DVD player."
Ning Ning raised his hand and wiped away tears. He groped under the DVD player twice with his right hand, and finally found three movie tickets.
"I leave them all to you." Ning Yuren said softly, "One day, you can also create your own cinema of life, but before that, we will offer three chapters of the law."
Speaking of which, her voice and expression became serious.
"...This cinema is definitely not a place for us to train our acting skills. It's very weird." Ning Yuren said solemnly, "I suspect that we are not traveling through movies, but the past."
Ningning clenched the movie ticket in her hand and looked at her.
"The past can be changed." Ning Yuren raised two fingers, "but no more than twice. Remember? Repeat my words!"
"The past can be changed." Ningning repeated the conditioned reflex, "but no more than twice."
"Very good." Ning Yuren put down his hand and continued, "Also, depending on the ticket, we can change the content and the degree to be different, but in general, as long as we don't change the fate of the protagonist, we are safe. "
Ning Ning took her words to heart and nodded seriously.
"Unless it's a last resort, don't accept tickets from the staff, and... Never evade tickets!" Ning Yuren suddenly frowned, "Are you listening to me?"
"Never accept tickets from the staff, never evade tickets!" Ning Ning hurriedly repeated her words.
Ning Yuren's clenched brows only loosened. She smiled at Ning Ning, stretched out a hand, and pressed it lightly on the screen. Ning Ning couldn't help raising her hand and gently put it on her hand, two Individuals stared at each other for a long time across the screen.
"Ning Ning." Ning Yuren had tears in her eyes, "I love you."
"Mom." Ning Ning also had tears in her eyes, "I love you too."
This is the end of the contents of the DVD.
Ning Ning wiped away her tears, rewinded the plate to the beginning, and re-watched it several times until she received a worried call from Dr. Huang, and she ended the viewing.
She walked out of the bedroom with the plate in her hand, looked around the living room in front of her again, looked around at the countless masks in front of her, but had a completely different feeling in her heart.
"This is mom's movie theater," she murmured. "This is mom's life..."
Those men and women, the elderly and children, all turned into the faces of mothers, watching her tenderly from all directions, Ning Ning couldn't help showing a warm smile, but suddenly, she thought of something, the smile a little bit from the corner of her mouth dissipate.
"...Why do you say that the past can be changed, but only twice at most?" Ning Ning slowly turned her head, looked at the bedroom behind her, and looked at the dark TV in the bedroom, "Mom, what did you do? "