Chapter 20 Chapter two

Qing Ya Pavilion is located on the sixth floor of a building overlooking the palace moat.Under the setting sun, the water in the moat appeared deeper and deeper than usual, and the lights from the buildings scattered in the river like golden dead leaves. Take the elevator to the fifth floor, the glass door at the entrance is dull and sparsely populated.The promotional poster of next month's commercial drama is gorgeously pasted on it, but the name of Aoi Lanzi is not visible at all. The young lady who was sitting at the entrance table boredly saw Shoko: "Xiaozi, the teacher is waiting for you in the backstage! She told you to go to her immediately after you came—"

"Oh! How is it? Are all the guests here?" "Thinking! It is said that the teacher issued about a hundred invitation tickets, and about 80 people have arrived at this moment--this time the list of invitees is really wonderful! All five people who had engaged to the teacher have arrived. Okura just now Wu also came. And his ex-wife also arrived! At this moment, they must have met, and they must have started to quarrel! Also, the female owner of the Ginza bar who cut the teacher also came. ——What is the teacher planning?" "This is very similar to Lanzi's style!"

Xiaozi didn't seem to care much, and walked towards the direction marked with the backstage entrance.Go down the narrow stairs, cross the side of the stage where trivial props are placed in the miscellaneous room, and then walk to the dark and desolate corridor, near the corner is the door with a single lamp hanging.Xiaozi, who was about to open the door to enter, suddenly stopped, because the door was slightly opened, and a woman's voice came from inside: "No, I can't. You have to sit in your seat until the end of the play! If you don't watch it until the end, then that matter will be exposed!"

The high-pitched voice, delicately mixed with cuteness and pathetic charm, is Aoi Ranko's. "No matter how you say it, this is a bad thing!" "Oh! I like bad things! Don't you know?" "A woman like you is really..." At the same time as Qiang Zi suppressed his angry voice, the door opened and a man came out.He is an entrepreneurial man in his forties.It was later learned that he was Sakurai, the vice chairman of Qinglong Products Company, and Lanko Aoi's recent fiancé.He looks like an entrepreneur who has enough energy to digest and bear the hectic business, with a radiant complexion and dry eyes from lack of sleep.Sakurai seemed slightly surprised by the two people in the corridor, but immediately straightened a strand of unruly hair and strode away.

Seeing Xiaozi enter the door, Ranko Aoi, who was sitting tiredly in the cold and lonely room, became brighter. "Xiaozi, I'm waiting for you! Oh! Take a look at this and this side of your face for me, can you still see the wound?" Xiaozi followed her instructions and checked carefully. "No problem! You can't even notice it when you look so close." "That's great—I can't feel at ease without asking your opinion! Only people like you don't lie to me." Having said that, Lanzi finally noticed Junping who was hesitating standing by the door.

"Oh! Xiaozi, your new boyfriend?" "This kind of person is disgusting! I only went with him because the business was sluggish tonight and there was no one else!" Xiaozi said without looking at him.It really made Junping furious, saying that would be like standing side by side with Aoi Lanzi, as filthy as garbage.Lanzi was wearing a simple black evening dress, showing exquisite curves, and her snow-white skin was as bright and smooth as silk.With passionate black pupils and lips painted in incredible colors with red as the base tone - she is only about the same height as Xiaozi, but because of her beauty, it makes people feel that she is several times taller than Xiaozi.

"It's not as you said, is it? He seems to be very nice. Young man, come here." Junping approached her tremblingly, Lanzi's lips approached instantly, pressing on Junping's lips.It just moved away immediately like a dragonfly touching water, but Junping felt his lips swell and hurt as if being brushed by a burning flame.He blushed because of embarrassment, and was ashamed and angry because of this embarrassment, his face immediately turned pale. "It seems to be able to score ninety-nine points. I can see through this man with just one kiss. I have also played games with many young men, but I have never seen this type of boy."

"But—" Xiaozi seemed unconvinced. "Yes, today's Xiaozi is still too young to appreciate his merits deeply, ah! Are all the guests here?" "Si, the letter at the entrance said that eighty people have come." "Oh, what kind of mood did you come here with? Almost all of the 100 invited men were men who had at least one night of passion with me! There are also some who have forgotten their names and did not send invitation tickets of." "What do you want to do, Ranko? Nobudai said that even the five men you broke off the engagement with were here, and she was surprised."

"Me! Those five people were specially arranged in the front seats of the auditorium. Tonight's play is based on the scandals related to the five of them. And the women involved in it are also invited to the scene! Among them There are divorces because of me, sister-in-laws and sister-in-laws recorded in weekly magazines, and bar hostesses who hurt my face and so on--but it doesn't matter, alas, when I get older, I want to write Autobiography or memoir, I am also old, because I am an actor, so I want to try to perform my life on stage. Tonight on the stage, I will tell some stories that Xiaozi has never heard before, which will definitely inspire you Obsessed with the show."

"But, all five of them are here!" "They are all friends with status. I am not afraid that this drama will become material to threaten each other. I added this line of small characters in the invitation letter to them. It is really interesting. The five people just came here one after another , Panicked and asked if that line of words would appear in the drama?... Oh! Sakurai also came to participate, bastard, it is already well-known that even those things are published in the weekly magazine ... Ah! I hate it, and it fell again." The big sparkling diamond on the ring finger of his right hand was set just after the loose setting.

"Don't fall on the stage..." Lanzi suddenly stopped fiddling with her fingers. "Xiaozi—I didn't intend to talk about it at first. Tonight, I invite an audience that no one knows. This time, I tried my best to perform this play, just for this person to appreciate." "Who? Someone I don't know either?" "Yes, you probably don't know him." "Who? Oh! Lanzi, it seems that you will mention that there was someone who killed someone and went to jail for you before, didn't you?" Lanzi only answered Xiaozi with an ambiguous smile that was neither negative nor positive. "It's time!—Ah! If you see Mr. Yasuda, tell him to come here immediately. The pistol in the props tonight is a bit strange!" Before he could finish speaking, a person came in the door.He is an artistic young man with long hair. "Ah! Yasuda, just in time, take a look at this." She took out a black pistol from her purse. Xiaozi took it, and was about to hand it to Yasuda: "Ah! Xiaozi, be careful! This is a real gun, and there is a bullet in it!" Lanzi exhorted worriedly. It was not until after six o'clock that Bach's organ music sounded on the stage.The majestic music swallowed the small theater with about 300 seats like a whirlpool, and a light appeared on the stage surrounded by darkness.The light does not capture the figures, but only pulls the shadow of the woman long and thin on the stage.One shoulder in the shadow drooped, looking sad and beautiful. After the music died down, the lights shifted to the statue-like actress in the center of the stage.Wearing the black evening dress seen in the background, and the black cloak like the wings of a butterfly, Lanzi shook her head and raised her head from the flame-like hairline.The eyes that stared intently at the front were shining brightly, but there was a sense of emptiness.The sound of the phone behind her pierced the dark silence, and a line of tears flowed from her eyes.This line of tears made her face look more beautiful, she must be a very good actress!But being bathed in the light made her beauty swell ten times, even twenty times. Just a glimpse of this small theater, her demeanor overwhelms the audience. Standing still and turning her back to the ringing phone behind her, finally when the fourth ring rang, she walked to the phone and picked up the receiver. ". . . dead? Oh, in the ring, covered in blood—and smiling? No, sure, he must be smiling, he's a man who smiles when he bleeds. Never mind, I'm not sad, but the reporters say I shed ruby ​​tears for it - no, tomorrow's wedding ceremony will be held as usual. In that church, I will give his last ring in the coffin. Wearing black I like his fingers. I can hit many men and hurt them, but only his fingers are as white as a shy boy—” The boxer to whom Lanzi was engaged when she was twenty-nine died in a fight the night before her wedding.From the lines of answering the phone, the curtain of the female star drama that traverses the story of love for the next fifteen years begins. Putting down the microphone, the whole stage finally brightened up. In the corner of the stage, there was a heater, a table and a telephone on the table, leather bags with openings, chairs, and in the center of the stage, there was a glass screen-like square frame symbolizing a door.On the stage with only these equipments, except for the phone conversations that often ring, everything is alone. In the next two hours, Aoi Ranko will act out the love story of fifteen years. Falling in love with a roguish movie star whom he met at a boxer's funeral and, six months later, getting engaged for the second time.The movie star was entangled with his wife who refused to divorce, and then called to tell him that he finally got rid of his wife with alimony of 100 million won. She only responded to his joy by telling him with a smile that she had fallen in love with the pianist.Afterwards, she went to live in New York with a pianist younger than her. The pianist gave her the song "Melancholy Ogis" as a gift, so she planned to quit the show business and live an ordinary life. But in the fourth month of pregnancy, she learned that the pianist had an abnormal relationship with a black tenor singer, and she personally destroyed the fetus in her womb.Returning to the country alone, and then returning to the showbiz.Years after losing her third lover, she experienced all kinds of men and lived an absurd and depraved life.The object of the fourth engagement is an elderly director and actor in the theater troupe to which she belongs.Live a gentle and peaceful emotional life with this white-haired actor who is good enough to be his own father.But she was envied by senior actresses and opposed by her older daughter-in-law.Engaged amidst the sarcasm around her, her life was rekindled by a love affair with a young physician. Smiling and answering, the elderly actor called to inform her that she would replace her lead role in the drama, followed by a long list of enthusiastically expressing her determination to leave the group and be independent, and then she wanted to open the glass door to go out—but the door opened not open.A piece of glass was supposed to be fragile, but she couldn't break through it at all.Clinging to the glass in a cross-like posture, she cried out in despair. With the shouting, the stage also went dark, and the interlude chorus music once again flowed through the audience. Junping, sitting in the tenth row on the right, looked at Xiaozi beside him.Xiaozi hugged the yellow rose entrusted to her by Lanzi at the curtain call, with tears in her eyes. Junping, who has never watched new dramas before, was also deeply moved by this drama. In the complicated interpersonal relationship that is skillfully arranged by the script, Lanzi has superb acting skills. It is unimaginable for one person to support the whole play, but she can make the lengthy lines, sometimes with a soft tone like poetry reciting, and sometimes burn with blaze With a passionate tone, she manipulates it slowly and freely. From her smooth performance, the life of a woman with love and acting skills clearly emerges.It makes people feel like listening to a majestic solo. Junping picked up the invitation ticket left behind, and the drama track on it said "My Life". It is such a waste that such a play is not open to general audiences and critics, and it is only staged for one night. ——Jun Ping was thinking, looking at the audience a few rows ahead.From the front to the third column, only a few people sat sparsely.Before the play was staged, Xiaozi pointed out that it was the third fiancé, a young doctor over there, and said that if the people in the weekly magazine heard the news, they would be very excited.The jazz pianist Masaya Ono, who has performed so far, and the gangster movie star Takeshi Okura sat at the table. In the middle of the first row sat a silver-haired man.I heard from Xiaozi that he was Toshihide Fujikawa, an old theater troupe that Lanko originally belonged to. Beside him, the pearl necklace on the white nape of his neck gleamed. In the right corner of the front row sat Sakurai and a woman with reddish-brown hair.It seems to be Amy, the bar hostess who stabbed people with a knife because of jealousy.Sakurai was leaning over and whispering something in the woman's ear.Judging from the back view, the relationship between the two seems to be very good. Junping's gaze was drawn back to other audience members.Nearly a hundred men, all separated by an appropriate distance.Clothing, age is also varied.Thinking that these one hundred people share a woman's body, I feel a sense of immorality in my heart, and I am also surprised at Lanzi who has such a large-scale male relationship. Junping was startled. The man who had been sitting in the middle of the auditorium after the show had disappeared.I remember that there are empty seats around him, as if sitting alone in an empty cave, his hair seems to be a little longer, his eyes are enduring pain, and there are some shadows of lights on his wrinkled shirt. "Isn't he the guy who murdered and imprisoned for Lanzi? He just got out of prison not long ago! - the only audience that Lanzi said must be that man! Maybe this play tonight is to celebrate his release from prison Yes!" Xiaozi said. Just when Junping was about to tell Xiaozi that the man disappeared at some point, the music stopped and the second act began. There is a row of lighting lights side by side behind the stage. Because it is against the light, only Lanzi's shadow can be seen in the center of the stage. After about ten minutes, only seeing her shadow swaying and the acting skills shown in her lines, the lights finally returned to their original positions. At this time, the love story between her and a young doctor ten years younger than her began.Despite her ankle injury, Lanzi, who still performed the stage play, suffered a fracture just before the closing ceremony. During her admission to the hospital for treatment, she met a young doctor, Hirokawa Xuefu, and the two fell in love passionately. Junping suddenly turned his eyes to the center of the auditorium.The previous man did not return to the seat, and it seems that he will not return to the seat again.The lighting on the stage turned to the auditorium, which was extremely bright and had a very wide visibility.At this moment, Junping noticed for the first time that the atmosphere in the auditorium was strangely peaceful.A row of men in front of Junping whispered softly, but they could be heard talking about tomorrow's horse race, and the staff-type middle-aged men in the farther seats were yawning and smoking.On the seat near the exit, a man who seemed to be engaged in road construction was dozing off, almost falling off the chair to the ground.Because Junping has been concentrating on performing on stage, he has only noticed this situation until now, but it seems that most of the audience don't pay much attention to the performance on stage.Many of them were invited here because of their relationship with Lanzi, so they are not interested in drama?Or is it because everyone has already learned about Lanzi's life story from weekly magazines and other media, that it seems boring?The number of spectators has decreased compared to before, and it seems that several people have left without knowing when. Lan Zi was still performing enthusiastically on the stage without noticing the movement in the audience. Regardless of the opposition from her surroundings, Lanzi, who was engaged to Guangchuan Xuefu, gave up this love song because of the tearful persuasion of Xuefu's mother.For the sake of Xuefu's future, she pretended that she had moved on to a certain entrepreneur, so as to break off the engagement.The next step is to fall in love with the entrepreneur and make a marriage contract.But because the female owner of the bar was jealous and cut her face with a knife, she was quite depressed and desperate for the career of acting.Because of the script written by a young actor, which can be said to be her autobiography, the enthusiasm for the play was rekindled, and she was determined to make another sprint with the performance of this play. This part of the play is the climax, with new hope and emotional fulfillment, as Lanzi exclaims, "This moment, I'm changed!" with a radiant facial expression. Junping thought it was about to end.In fact, so far in the play, her past has been fully narrated. However, the play prepared for a cruel end.The ringing of the phone interrupted her triumphant facial expression. Holding the microphone, she finally replied in a low voice: "Got it, I'll be right there!" hang up the phone.I don't know who is calling, but from her expression, it can be seen that the other party has given her a considerable impact.Her face lost its brilliance, and she slumped down on a chair exhausted.The black dress on her body suddenly became more eye-catching, and there was a feeling of cold air blowing on the desolate stage.When she looked at the ground, she no longer saw the hope full of vitality just now, but stared at the empty days that had traversed men in the past ten years. Finally, as if she remembered something, she pulled the leather bag on the table and took out a pistol from it. She stood up and pulled the trigger on the glass door placed in the center of the stage.A sharp gunshot pierced the theater, the glass cracked and shattered, and her figure standing behind the glass door seemed to shatter together with the glass. Throwing away the pistol, and wrapping her arms around her unsteady body, she threw "My Life," the script that had been the source of her hope a few minutes before, into the stove and lit it.Only the light of embers remained on the stage, which was gradually surrounded by darkness. Finally, the last ashes dissipated as if announcing the end of her life. At this moment, the lighting once again captured Lanzi standing on the side of the stage. Another light brightly reflects a gun dropped center stage.Just as someone's shadow crossed the light, a gloved hand picked up a pistol.The other hand, also wearing a glove, stretched out, playing with the pistol as if by magic, and finally, he stopped, only his right hand held the gun, and the muzzle of the gun was aimed at Lanzi's chest.The two are several meters apart.She said calmly in a weak, deep voice: "I'm waiting for you! Waiting for you to come in through this door with a pistol in your hand. A promise made... to give my life. I won't tell the truth, but only that sentence is true That's right. So, don't worry, just shoot me!" She speaks to the shadow standing in the center of the stage with a pistol pointed at her.That person was completely invisible in the darkness, so he could only guess that it was a man, and the rest could not be seen clearly.One of the six people who had a marriage contract with Lanzi, or one of the characters who have not appeared so far, may be the person who plays the god of death at this moment. "Shoot on my left chest, the moment you touch this chest, I already feel like I'm dead!" As she unfurls her black cloak, broken gunshots resound across the darkened stage.She fell backwards due to the great momentum, and the unfolded cloak fluttered around like a butterfly. In fact, the black butterfly was exhausted and paralyzed on the stage as if its wings had fallen to the ground.The lights in the middle of the stage went out, and the figure of the man was swallowed by darkness. After this scene, the light continued to shine on her motionless body. After a period of time, her black clothes finally melted into the shadows again, the organ music played again, and the curtain fell. Applause broke out in the auditorium where the lights were brightened. I don’t know if it was because she was too moved by her performance, or because she didn’t understand the meaning of the ending scene, or because she couldn’t understand the expression of the play, the applause was sparse and not very enthusiastic. Yasuda came out from the side of the stage where the curtain was hanging down, and bowed his head respectfully in thanks. The curtain rises again.It was time for the curtain call, Xiaozi ran up to the end of the stage holding a bouquet of flowers. The stage lights have all been turned on, but Lanzi's posture remains unchanged.No, the black clothes were still dragging on the stage, and she was still lying in the position just now. Yasuda walked towards Lanzi with a smile on his face, intending to hold her hand.For just a moment, Yasuda looked at his hand in shock.Xiaozi also seemed to sense that something was wrong, and hurried onto the stage, shaking Lanzi's body with Yasuda. The rose in Xiaozi's hand scattered like yellow fragments onto the black clothes. At this moment, there was a dead silence in the arena. "Ambulance—and, call the police." Yasuda's whispered words sounded from the stage, causing the guests at the banquet in front of him to stand up and check what happened like a wave. Xiaozi sprinted off the stage and quickly ran close to Junping with the speed of a shuttle. "Shot! Junping, Lanzi really was shot!" Junping still didn't understand what happened, and kept his original posture, when he suddenly felt someone's gaze, and suddenly looked back.The line of sight came from the center of the auditorium—before the play was staged, a man was sitting in the seat. At that moment, he seemed to see the figure of a man. After a closer look, he realized that it was an illusion.During the interlude, the strange man who disappeared did not come back.Xiaozi guessed that he might be the only audience Lanzi was looking forward to tonight, that is, the mysterious man surrounded by the dark stage. In the middle of the auditorium, as if a big hole had been opened, the vacant seat was very eye-catching.