Chapter 15 third quarter

On a scorching dusk in early December 1999, the Zhenli people were on the grasslands of Kenya, Africa.Wearing a straw sun hat with the strap tied under her chin, she hid in the jungle with the photographer, and she was using a long lens to capture a group of lions lolling or lying still on the grasslands.She and her five companions were flanked by four heavily armed African bodyguards.In case a lion finds them.If they wanted to attack them, these four bodyguards with excellent marksmanship would shoot at the group of kings of beasts without hesitation. When Zhenli first came to the African forest in 1998, she was terrified, but she has overcome this fear of death now.They have been photographing the lions for half a year.She even recognized the appearance of each of them and gave them nicknames.The thinnest one is called Chai Zai, and the one who loves to look around and is curious is called Man Zhu.The little lion who likes to climb trees is called Shancheng, and the most handsome and strongest male lion is called Taiyi.The same name was assigned to the Whiskers family a year earlier when she was photographing the life of a group of lion-tailed Whiskers in Ethiopia.

Zhenli became thinner and stronger.The skin is tanned to a bright color like honey.She used to secretly laugh at the slow-moving Manju who would be best suited for animal documentaries, or the life of a snail.She didn't expect that Manju was still living in that city, but she ran here. It all started in 1998.At the end of May of that year, she quietly left Hong Kong to visit her parents in Toronto.She hasn't seen them for two years.Since seeing Taiyi and Ziying outside Lyra that night, she has no contact with Taiyi.After graduating, the market was very bad, and she couldn't find a job. She decided to go to Toronto first, maybe continue her studies, maybe go back to Hong Kong in a year or two, maybe never go back.Even when she broke up with Lu Zikang, she never thought of leaving Hong Kong, but Tai Yi gave her the idea of ​​leaving.

That day, when the plane took off from the runway of Kai Tak Airport, she looked at the scenery outside the window and cried with sadness.A middle-aged French man sitting next to her handed her a tissue.When they chatted, she realized that he was a photographer named Paul who made animal documentaries for the TV station.Fate is so mysterious. Paul asked her if she was interested in making a documentary, and then asked her if she was afraid of going out all year, from one jungle to another, or the grassland, or the Antarctic, sometimes for three months. Maybe it's just the way a beast eats, drinks, and sleeps.He smiled and said to her:

"If you're afraid of separation and being alone, this isn't the job for you." He gave her a business card.Three weeks later, Zhenli packed her bags and left Toronto for Africa, where she became a photography assistant.Their filming team consisted of French, British, American, Japanese and Korean, and she was the only Chinese. At first she agreed to go to Africa, but she just wanted to exile herself willfully, but she didn't expect to go there for two years.She fell in love with the beautiful sunset on the grassland, and also fell in love with documentaries.She felt that she used to be a big dreamer, and making a documentary would make her more steadfast.

but.It still took her a while to get used to it.She usually has to live in a simple tent or hotel, facing the scorching sun outdoors during the day, enduring the weather like being on fire, eating food that is not to her appetite, and fearing that she will be eaten by a beast at any time. Whenever she wanted to give up and walk away in a frustrating moment, she always said to herself: "I'm going to get over it!" She overcame the harsh environment and fears in her heart, as well as various inconveniences in life and her nostalgia for city life.Hardest to overcome were those long lonely nights.Sitting alone in a tent or in a room in a strange hotel, the longing would hit her.She couldn't tell if it was missing home, the city she grew up in, everything in the past, or Taiyi.

He said: "People who like long nights are closer to eternity." She often thought of his words.She also remembered that Grandma Lin told her that those who liked "Ancestor and Zhan" were crazy girls who loved freedom, and they would run around in the future, and no boy could hold her down.At that time, she didn't believe Grandma Lin's words at all, but now her words have come true, more accurate than a fortune teller. In Africa, her only connection to civilization was the laptop she carried with her wherever she went.She stopped writing letters, and only occasionally wrote emails to her family and Manju.Sometimes she felt as if she, too, had become a lazy animal in the African jungle.

However, due to natural selection, no matter humans or animals, only those that adapt to the environment can survive.In the past two years, she has overcome lovelorn, loneliness and parting, but her feelings for Taiyi have become stronger because of constant memories, which is unexpected to her.Because, although she was far away from him, she could still hear his voice. In Ethiopia in 1998, on the days around Christmas, she stayed by the computer and listened to his "Sleepless Christmas Night" through the Internet. Whenever these moments came, it seemed that he had never left her .Under the pseudonym Ikkyu, he still loves to play his multiple-choice game.The song he played was still so beautiful.Once a song falls into his hands, it will be different.

On Christmas Day 1998, she heard him ask this question: "Which hour of the day is closest to eternity." "Ah...it's the long night," she thought to herself, remembering that Christmas morning in 1997, when they ate a terrifyingly large turkey together.She was also glad to know that the blue cat had become popular, and it was Manju who told her about it.In 1998, Blue Cat released its first album, the main song was the one Tian Taiyi played to her in the car when he sent her home, and the lyrics were not written yet.He asked her if she had any suggestions, and she said that this song was more like a long longing.She remembered him saying:

"Love is not like a kite, you can't just take it back." She said: "If you don't let it out, you won't be afraid that you won't get it back." This song is sung everywhere.The blue cat became popular in just one year.The lyrics were written about a conversation between her and him in the car that day. The name of the song was "Love Is Not Like a Kite". She downloaded the song to her Walkman and listened to it often.She didn't know if there was some wishful thinking too—she felt that Taiyi still missed her. On December 20, 1999, she was in a tent near the Kenyan jungle, listening to Yixiu's program.How afraid she was that he would stop doing this show after he became famous!She thought to herself:

"Isn't he afraid that his fans will recognize him?" She is in Kenya, Africa.He is in Hong Kong.In the program, he asked this question: "Choose a movie, and those who like this movie are crazy girls." "My God! Did he mean me?" She laughed. He didn't play the song, just said: "I gave this question to a friend of mine, she knows the answer." She used to think that she and Taiyi could not be friends anymore, however, far away, she felt as if they were friends again now.It's fine as long as we don't meet.She had told him long ago that a love that never begins is relatively long.She suddenly remembered that the day he kissed her, she said, "Why am I afraid of you? You are not a lion or a tiger!"

She saw lions more often now.