Chapter 21 Chapter Nineteen

The year-end bell of 2001 rang in a hurry, and I didn't realize that I, a foreigner, had been struggling in Beijing for almost a year.Two days before Christmas, I called Connie, who was out of town.According to her intention, I sent two boxes of American Dove and Hershey and one box of Italian Ferrero chocolates to her office building by express mail.I spent Christmas with Li Hao and Yang Xingchen. I sent my greetings to some of my friends in a mass email, and most of them got replies. Fatty Niu of "New Oriental" has firmly stood on the podium.Unsurprisingly, Yang Tao's girlfriend Yinyin fell in love with a Korean-American just a few months ago.Yang Tao's Beijing household registration, which is very popular in China, has lost its meaning there.Wu Tongtong sent back an electronic greeting card, saying dryly: "Christmas and Happy New Year!"

The company made a lot of money, and they dined, drank and had fun in a five-star hotel.I seized an opportunity to go to the sauna with Liu Xiancong and submitted my resignation to him. He was a little surprised: "Do you think the salary is too low?" I hurriedly said that I was ashamed of the salary, and I couldn't help at all except eating and drinking.I am ashamed of the salary increase, but you are uneasy about the salary reduction.Liu Xiancong thought for a while, and then used a formal phrase: "That's fine, you should have a better space." Fortunately, Liu Xiancong promised me that I could live until the Spring Festival, so I don't have to brave the bitter cold wind to find a new shelter for the time being.I rushed to the typography room in Xingfu Village to supervise the production according to the publisher's intention, and I was excited again.

The designer is a fashion kid, and I was not satisfied with the first few designs.He read the synopsis and asked me to describe it.I frowned, pointed out my finger and said, "It shows the sense of tearing, despair, distortion, and nothingness of a small person. Let me tell you this-you were fine at first, but overnight the corrupt defendant was caught in a stock market with stolen money. Stealing his wife, prying Viagra out of effect and sending him to a forced labor camp..." "Is there such a thing as unlucky? They are all drowned." A girl next to me couldn't help laughing, and I said decisively: "It's just so unlucky, embarrassing! A drowned? That's what it means, stripped of everything by the cruel reality! Embarrassed but not Obscene, tragic but not despicable, obscene but not dirty."

"Drained chicken..." the designer muttered silently with a mournful face, and suddenly stood up and said excitedly: "The human body, use a stripped human body." "What's that like?" I was dumbfounded.The designer said: "Don't worry, we will not use the front, side or back, twisted, scorched, torn, as you said." As I thought about it, I felt more and more that this idea was a good one, but a new concern came up again: "Will the publishing society pass it? Pornography!" The designer doesn't care: "Now body art is stinky, as long as we grasp the boundary between pornography and art, it should be fine."

"How can I be sure? They are all naked." I was full of doubts. "Theoretically speaking, what arouses beauty is art, and what arouses evil thoughts is pornography." "Come on, what are the aesthetic evils? According to my experience, these two feelings are rooted in the same root, so there is no need to rush." "This is your problem, not enough concentration." The designer smiled, "Looking at a piece of grass, a poet sees spring, and cattle and sheep see feed." As soon as I thought about it, I said to design it first.Searching on the Internet, many pictures are good, but most of them are Westerners.The designer had a sudden inspiration: "How about I shoot you? Anyway, you wrote it."

"No! No! No!" I shook my head like a juggler's rattle, "Except for Li Kuangao from Taiwan, there is no other Chinese writer who is so famous, and - I am not strong enough, not vigorous enough. Gentle and herbivorous people Well!" The designer looked at me: "You are a little thin, please hire a model." "Why don't you play a guest role?" I urged, and the designer patted his belly: "Haha, I think, look at this, does it look like a watermelon or a pear?" Therefore, finding a bodybuilding volunteer who is willing to strip naked and face the camera has become a top priority.I whimsically went to the streets to hunt, which felt exciting and awkward.I squatted on the side of the street and watched. The first group of people passed by me. Two of them were not bad. I secretly giggled for a while and waved to them. They stopped and looked at me. I stammered: "Will you help me?"

"What's the matter?" One person asked vigilantly, and my mouth suddenly lost control: "Well—how do I get to Sanlitun Bar Street?" "Turn the corner at 'Jingkelong' and go straight, about ten minutes." They pointed to the front.After thanking me, I pretended to take a few steps forward, hid in the store for a while and came back to continue to stay where I was.From a distance, I saw a few migrant workers wearing hard hats coming over. Although they were wearing thicker clothes, I could still see the tall and tough body and bulging tendons under the dusty and dirty overalls.I bit the bullet and went over to stop them. They panicked and turned around and ran away.My face was pleasant: "Don't be afraid, I'm not looking for trouble for you, I'm looking for a job for you."

A few people hesitated, called back those who had run away, and looked at me suspiciously. I praised them for being so strong!The leader seemed very dignified: "Boss, we are laborers. We are not afraid of the sun and rain—we are only afraid of thunder." "It's an easy job. It won't be exposed to the sun, rain, or lightning." I said.Their eyes lit up immediately, and one of them said shyly, "Oh, we can find such a good job." I told them with a shy face that I was from a magazine and wanted to take pictures of male bodies. They seemed a little confused, so I raised my arms and bulged muscles that didn't exist: "Show the fitness of working people."

As if they found a gold ingot, the boss said excitedly: "So it's taking pictures! This job is good, fresh and easy. Boss, don't think that we peasants are uneducated. We have seen the world, and we have been in the world." The TV station said that we are the glorious builders of the capital. Don’t think that the Beijingers are so good. They don’t want to see us. If they leave us, they will have nothing to eat, wear, and live in, and the Olympic Games will not be held. Beijingers, let’s say Ah, just one word - lazy, just talking without practicing fake moves." He smiled sarcastically as if realizing a slip of the tongue: "You're not from Beijing, are you? We're a thick ass - talk straight."

"We are the same as you, outsiders. You are engaged in material civilization, we are engaged in spiritual civilization." I reassured them, "However, we haven't finished talking yet, our job is to take pictures. We also have one intestine to go there Let’s be blunt, I have to take off my clothes when taking pictures.” The boss nodded again and again: "That's no problem. When we do this work, we will be shirtless in the spring. We work at heights, and it's too hot." I finally said, "It's not enough to just take off your clothes, you have to take off your pants too, not even underpants."

"Ah? That's not ham!" Several people laughed so much that their noses and tears came out.The leader approached me, showing his scorched teeth that had been severely fluoridated and covered with years of cigarettes and leftover food, and whispered, "To tell you the truth, we are naked at home, but we can't do it outside. We are farmers, and we can't earn your money." La." After speaking, they roared away.The second group of people took me for a lunatic, twisted my legs and ran away before I finished speaking.The big man was furious: "Are you still sick for bullying Yin (people)? Do you owe me a beating?" I don't want to look for teeth all over the place, so I apologize and run away.Only one migrant worker offered a salary of 1,000 yuan and used a leaf rag to cover his private parts, but I flatly rejected it; he reduced it to 800 yuan, but I still refused: "This is a very noble job, priceless! At most You two hundred." He left in dismay, turning his head three times a step at a time. I thought there was something interesting, so I chased after him.The man galloped up and quickly disappeared around the corner of the intersection.Under the gaze of passers-by, I walked out of breath and sat down in the garden beside the street. Where can I find this volunteer?Li Hao, Yang Xingchen and I are similar in size, and Fatty Niu is more suitable for advertising junk food.Yu Jianghu and Hu Meng are not fat and strong, especially Hu Meng can be called a specimen.I called Yu Jianghu first. It happened that he went to Guangzhou to attract investment for "Human Essence", but he provided Hu Meng's new number. Hu Meng, who is still avoiding debts, is very wary of strange calls, and only speaks after hearing my voice.First tentatively asked him how the cover idea was, and he praised it as a genius idea: "This is a blockbuster. I messed up that gimmick at the beginning, and it was a complete failure. At the beginning, Li Fengao was naked. It’s all at a glance. Just this trick has won the hearts of countless female readers——in fact, his stuff is quite wretched.” "Yeah, yeah, it's far worse than you." I continued to praise how fit he is, just like a frog in an autumn rice field. Idle equipment is simply a huge waste of resources.He became vigilant: "What do you mean?" "Didn't you publicly say that you are also considered a handsome man, with a good temperament and a good body, and that you are going to enter the entertainment industry?" I released a sugar-coated bullet, "Can you dedicate yourself to art once? I want to, but the photographer said I If you are not fit enough, my buddy will think of you first, so the fat water will not flow into the fields of outsiders." "Isn't it appropriate? That's all I said." He laughed, and I went on fooling around: "This is a strategic reserve, maybe it will be used someday. Life is like a play, who can tell the future?" He hesitated for a while, and agreed, the only requirement was not to show his face and make excuses, after all, he was still in debt.I guarantee there are professional photographers and professional computer designers who can technically handle it.He couldn't wait: "When will we shoot?" "Come now." "No problem, I'll come after I take a shower." "Ugly words up front, no pay, volunteer work, so you don't have to worry about selling yourself. Of course, if the book sells for 10 million, I will pay you a million portrait copyright fees." He laughed.Hurry up to find a photographer, Xiao Yuan, the photographer who interviewed Lord Gun with me, couldn't get away.I jumped the wall in a hurry to find Connie, but I didn't expect her to be more excited than Hu Meng and me: "This is also a cultural event, and it is worth recording." "But the model is a man." I had a showdown. "If it's not a man, we won't come here. I'm afraid I won't be able to control it? Don't worry, I don't have much confidence in the body shape of Chinese men." She is chic, she said that she and Gege have photographed countless nudes of women who want to keep their youth. , I have also photographed non-nude male models, but this is the first time to shoot male nudes.Don't need a penny, just take care of the food. Soon they rushed over with a bunch of long guns and short cannons.Under Connie's command, we began to set up the scene and adjust the lighting.We spread a green blanket across the wooden floor, placed several light stands at different angles, and removed some unsightly clutter. It didn't take long for Hu Meng to come excitedly, with a black windbreaker, clean but messy hair, still tall and straight.smiling.I grandly launched him: "This is our protagonist today—Specimen No. 1, the famous Bohemian poet Daqing Shenghu Jun in the 1990s. How about it? Enough specimens?" Everyone walked around Hu Meng like prey, and Connie said, "It's not bad, it's not as good as a professional model, but it's more dimensionally powerful than ordinary men." I took the opportunity to introduce Connie and Grid: "Professional directors and photographers are here to serve you." Hu Meng let out an "ah" and ran away.I was afraid that the duck that was about to go into the furnace would fly away, so I quickly cut off the way out: "People are not afraid of you, are you afraid of a bird? This is such a serious art activity, and people think highly of you when they shoot you. Besides, you have never seen any scenes before. Huh? Are you fucking a man?" Others also urged one after another, and Hu Meng finally gave up with a tragic face.Take a break and let's conceive the look together.When he was ready, Hu Meng began to warm up, rubbing his hands, twisting his neck, expanding his chest, twisting his waist and squatting down, splitting and doing push-ups, kicking forward, smoothing his hair, and then twisting and undressing.A few overtime female employees turned their heads to watch, giggling, and I smiled and said, "Don't watch it, you have to buy a ticket." The designer shouted loudly: "Look at it, don't look at it! Go to the kitchen to cook!" Hu Meng didn't take it seriously: "They can just look at it if they want, it's okay, I don't charge money." The girls ran into the kitchen laughing and laughing.Ge Ge carefully took out the photographic equipment for installation and adjustment. The computer designer and I turned off the fluorescent lights in the room, and turned on the photographic lights with uneven brightness to form a soft crossed and layered light area.The designer locked the door.Connie gave an order as if nothing had happened: "Let's start." Hu Meng undressed slowly, pausing when only his underpants were left.Gege circled around him again and commented: "His back, buttocks and leg muscles are more toned, and his biceps are also very prominent. It looks more tense and textured from the back." Connie said to take a few more shots from various angles, and compare them at the end.Grid put his finger up to indicate OK, and I said to Hu Meng: "Brother, it's time to dedicate yourself to art." Hu Meng took a deep breath, gently removed the last triangular strip of cloth, and walked straight into the light area. His body was immediately covered with a layer of golden light, showing dark brown lines and an amber-like texture. A slanted and distorted human light and shadow.His upside-down handle makes people uneasy, like a bird poking its head, perched restlessly on the messy lower abdomen like a bird's nest.I saw Connie and Grid holding their breath, hands and feet stiff.I issued the first command: "Look up at the stars—" At the mercy of the designer, Hu Meng pretended to pose.He lay sideways on the green carpet, resting his chin on his hands, looking at the ceiling with his head tilted.His eyes are full of reverie, and the creature is lying lazily between the green carpet and his thighs, like a peaceful miniature reclining Buddha.Hu Meng asked, "Is it alright?" "Relax the corners of your mouth, relax your body, and contract your abdomen." Connie pointed, and Gege took pictures from various angles, and then stretched out her thumb, "OK. Now it's—embracing the sun." Hu Meng stood up and stretched out his hands, facing the sky on his back, dumbfounded, his upper body questioned the sky speechlessly, and his lower body tortured the earth infatuatedly.Hu Meng chanted affectionately: "Those who know me say that I am worried; those who do not know me say what I want. I have not seen the ancients before, and I have not seen the coming ones in the future." —and shed tears." I couldn't laugh or cry: "Qu Yuan mentioned Chen Ziang, Guan Gong fought Qin Qiong?" Hu Meng said: "Cultivate and cultivate emotions. A lonely soul has no time and space boundaries." "Not bad, keep your hands a little higher and be more excited." Connie reminded, and Grid frantically pressed the shutter.I then went to the next one: "Contemplating hard——" Hu Meng tried to strike a pose, quite similar to Rodin's "The Thinker", who felt that he was ignorant, and he looked bewildered.I stimulated him: "Great poet, come up with some ideas, this will not trouble you." Hu Meng sat up, curled up, with his elbows resting on his knee joints, his fingers interlaced, his chin propped on the back of his hands, and his eyes fixed on the green carpet.His cock hides in the shadows, and barring a change of angle or professional voyeuristic paparazzi, he's unlikely to be caught.After Gege took a few pictures, I followed the scripted plan I designed: "Next one, get carried away—" Hu Meng showed his usual half-smile, and I said, "Let's forget about this, it definitely doesn't fit the theme." "Okay," Connie announced, glancing at her notebook, "next, suddenly—look back." Hu Meng stood with his hands on his hips and clasped hands hanging down his back. He felt that it was too old-fashioned, so he either squatted, half-kneeled, or sat on his back with his hands on his back. The temperament of the poet is fully exposed.His utensils sway with the posture change, looming and vague, like a hazy poem. The designer praised him as the teacher's killer, and then announced "Xian Xun Mi Mi—" Hu Meng searched affectionately on the green carpet, his concentration was like searching for a lost lover's precious hair.I said, "Boss, are you walking like a horse, or are you squatting in a latrine?" Hu Meng touched the back of his head, wondering, "What's wrong, I don't feel it." I said: "You may wish to repeat 'the road is long and the road is long, I will search up and down' to find the feeling." Hu Meng tried a Monkey King flying through the clouds and looking into the distance with his hands covering his forehead, and another martyr took a step back and took two steps with determination before he died calmly, and said: "This is boring, the image is too boring, the abstraction is too mysterious, forget it Bar." We thought about it and found it reasonable, so we said forget it.Next up is "Indomitable—" Hu Meng bowed his right leg and kicked his left leg, clenched a fist with one hand and raised it on his chest, stretched his arm straight and dragged it back. He leaned forward with a solemn expression, and his valiant little brother drooped down immediately, like a heavy faucet.Everyone laughed, and I asked, "Boss, are you acting in a model play, or singing 'Tracker's Love'?" Connie said: "This is a bit exaggerated, but it's very interesting. Let's take a few pictures." "The last one—, nothing." Hu Meng was at a loss again, he tried to cry, his face was tightened, and he was in pain, but his half-smile and rebellious expression were twisted together, the funny was better than the pain.Connie reminded Grid: "Avoid patting his face, he has a tragicomedy temperament." Hu Meng tried a few more times, but none of them felt appropriate.The filming was suspended, and the few of us discussed with the naked Hu Meng like a director talking about a play.Hu Meng suddenly realized that he was sitting on the green carpet with a bent body, covering his face with his hands, his arms, legs and back muscles were very strong, and his body curves were extremely tense; he could not see his face clearly, and his life, which made people feel uneasy, was also taken good care of Living.Seen from the side, it is extremely anxious and painful, and covering his face with his hands reminds people - what is wrong with this guy?We said in unison: "That's it!" "This is also called keeping the roots." Hu Meng joked and began to put on his clothes.Gege downloaded all the photos to the designer's computer, we reviewed them one by one, deleted some duplicates or poor quality, and praised Hu Meng from time to time as a specimen model.Hu Meng repeatedly ordered not to keep the negatives. "Don't worry, this is a digital camera, I will delete it right away." Ge Ge deleted it in front of Hu Meng. Everyone agreed that the last one was the best, as it was relevant and easy to pass.Ge Ge sighed: "Old Ge, it's a pity that I don't look like you at all." The designer said that this is easy to handle, and the two can be put together through Photoshop (Note: Photoshop, a picture processing software.).I asked, "Naturally? Stop being a sphinx." "Absolutely flawless, I've transplanted the heads of some politicians and celebrities onto nude bodies and parodied them, it's cool," said the designer, pulling up some of his grafted images, which had us laughing.Hu Meng was a little unwilling: "You want to behead me." I quickly comforted him: "Don't worry, it's just in case." Gege also took a few photos of my upper body, one for the transplant just in case, and the other for putting it in the author profile in the pocket of the book cover. When a few cover samples were sent to the publishing house, it was as if a pot had exploded. He Xin and Chen Ke couldn't laugh or cry.I pointed to the "Nothing" and said, "Look, isn't this conservative enough? If you can't even pass this book, don't publish it." Chen Ke took a look at it: "It doesn't look like you, does it?" "The model cameo, you can't tell the difference, how can you find such a good thing? Does anyone know this model? Hu Meng, a famous poet in the 90s, buddy." Chen Ke was surprised, and took a closer look.He Xin sighed: "The poets nowadays are either crazy or commit suicide, or even kill their wives and children, and this is happening again here." I said: "He is very normal, a returnee Ph.D. from 'West Pacific University' in the United States, is it easy for me to invite him?" Chen Ke finally said: "The first few pictures are definitely not good, this back and side picture is barely acceptable, and then blurred, it is not a photographic work after all." I quickly echoed: "That's right, distance is the beauty, and the blur is more artistic." Two issues of "Human Essence" were prepared and only one issue was printed. As a part-time job, I don't even have a basic salary, so I can only earn more than two thousand.I am very dissatisfied, Yu Jianghu is sorry to say that he can't do anything, but considering our relationship, after discussing with other people, he will squeeze out a thousand from their bonus for me. At the end of the year, this huge city with a population of more than 10 million began to retreat periodically like a cramp. Almost all foreigners or "capital builders" had to leave within a month, and most of them had to resort to the airtight , slow and cold iron cargo.Buying a train ticket to go home for the Chinese New Year is like finding a squat house in Beijing, which tortured me enough.Originally, people had plenty of time to buy tickets, but they were only sold in advance for one week; when it was your turn to buy tickets, the sales outlets were already out of tickets.Braving the wind and snow for a week, you rushed to the train station where there were so many people like a refugee camp to queue up. Always when you exhausted your efforts to get to the window, the white and fat middle-aged woman said coldly No tickets left.Don't talk nonsense, it's easy to scold nonsense, and the majestic armed police next to you will let you weigh the consequences of nonsense at any time.As soon as you turned around full of resentment and disheveled, a ticket dealer immediately urged you to pay double the price to buy the ticket in his hand, and you chose the time of the train.Never buy scalpers, I have principles in life.I'm considering flying, but all flights are on sale.The strength of monopolistic state-owned enterprises lies in the fact that you can only call it patriotic if you use the country's reputation to rob you. Three days before the New Year's Eve, I hadn't gotten a ticket yet, so I panicked. Li Hao and Yang Xingchen, who weren't going home, suggested that I go online to try my luck.Ticketing forums are full of traps like looking for a house online, but the scalpers here are more clumsy, with only one excuse—he also bought a scalper ticket, and he didn’t go home for a special reason.They always compare their hearts to each other - you can't let me bear the loss, can you? I kept refreshing the page and waited for a long time, and finally caught a ticket on the day before the New Year's Eve, with only an additional 50 yuan, 30 yuan agency fee and 20 yuan taxi fare.If I go to pick it up, I will only add 30 yuan.I contacted him immediately, and unlike the northern accent of most scalpers, this person spoke a local accent, saying that he hadn't finished urinating after posting the post.Half an hour later, I met this man at Chaoyangmen, a very honest young white-collar worker.The printed text on the ticket is a little fuzzy.He explained again and again that the fellow villagers had sweated a lot to buy the tickets, and they were squeezed in their hands.He took out his ID card to prove his honesty, and pointed to the "Fenglian" building next to him and said that his office is there. If you don't believe me, I can go with him to see it. I believed him. It took me a lot of shit to squeeze from the car door to the seat.The seat was already occupied, I took out the ticket to ask the invader to give way, this guy looked at the greasy ticket and muttered, "Is it fake?" "Stop talking nonsense, show me a counterfeit ticket as well." I'm not a fucking meathead.He dawdled up and stood next to me, conscientiously serving as my bodyguard.The train drove for half an hour and no one yelled at me, so I felt relieved.I sat, stood, curled up, and lay on my stomach in the train that was crowded like a beehive, smelled like a garbage dump, and stuffed like a tin can.Occasional texting with friends for fun.After a journey of more than a thousand kilometers and 30 hours of shaking, he finally walked out of the Dicheng Railway Station alive.After all, the speed is less than 60 kilometers per hour!I wonder when I can get on the high-speed rail! At the New Year's Eve dinner table that had already been set, I took out a sample booklet and circulated it around the family, feeling that my suffering this year was not in vain.My mother looked at the book and asked: "——Why, why do you look like a frog?" "That's not a frog, that's your son," my brother said.I also explained that the body is of a model and the head is mine, please look at the back of the head, I turned my head to let them compare. My mother was startled, she took out her reading glasses and looked at it, she laughed and said anxiously: "What kind of words does this sound like?" My nephew who was in elementary school said: "Grandma is really feudal. My uncle said it was art." My sister asked about Wu Tongtong's situation, and I said angrily, "Don't mention her!" The other sister said: "It can be regarded as a vigorous conversation, as long as she lives better than you." The city is not big, and I met many acquaintances, including Xueer.We met at a noisy cold noodle restaurant, she was with her family, she was different from the young girl at the time, she looked more and more like a charming young woman and a professional woman.She looked at me in surprise, and sat down at my table: "Is that you?" "Hehe." I was a little flustered. "It's been so long since you disappeared, I heard you went to Beijing?" "Beipiao." "Go without saying a word," she reproached. "What am I, an old nine can leave as soon as he leaves." "The place that the people of the whole country yearn for, what are you doing there?" "Oh, let's be a fool. Laid-off workers, uncle doesn't love grandma and grandma, how can I be a fool?" "What are you doing there?" "Being a board master is what we call riding three rounds here." "You're talking nonsense, you're afraid of trouble, aren't you?" "Come anyway, the place that the people of the whole country yearn for, didn't you just say it. Beijing welcomes you!" "What are you really doing? Don't worry about it. I guess you're a reporter or something." "I let you say it's right, but it's an amateur." "That's right, the Uncrowned King." "A depilated phoenix is ​​not as good as a chicken, and an uncrowned king is not as good as a beggar." I laughed, "It is only beneficial to ride on the heads of the people these days, like your husband." "You're still so sharp," she said, and complained again, "I beg you not to be there when I get married.—Would you please come?" "Well, I will come. How about I give you a gift today, the cold noodles and rice porridge with pickled cabbage will be my treat." "Okay, this ceremony is too heavy." She smiled, "Are you still going to Beijing?" "Leave after the new year, just like migrant workers, I am now a part of the migrant worker wave." "Migrant workers are also divided into several classes. The migrant workers who can go to Beijing must be excellent migrant workers, who built the Olympic Games." She joked, and then said, "My cousin will go right away, just Yuanyuan." "Oh." The nerd who earned me eighty dollars came to my mind. "Leave a call, and I'll treat you to tea before you leave." "Does your husband have any objections? I can't afford to offend a public servant. Now it's the servant riding on the head of the master to shit and pee." "What are you worried about? We all have our personal space." "Is he a public servant with a gun?" I asked cautiously, and she looked blank: "No,—what's the matter?" "So as not to make unnecessary sacrifices." I grinned.Xue'er smiled and sighed: "You man!" Xueer invited me to have tea together several times, and I was either at the family’s card table, or at Xu Dakuan’s wine table, or already at the tea table of Wang Wenge Donggua’s gang, I regret to say that it will be later.