Chapter 71 people in the picture

At the age of nineteen, he read magazines while having his head shaved in the barber shop; magazines were actually atlases published by auction houses, and under the oil paintings painted by Chinese people, there was a reserve price. The picture numbered 66 is a girl with long hair, her eyes are black and bright, because only half of her face is painted, her nose is more delicate in the shadow, her lips are full and rosy; The world turned around, and the soft light was cast on her face and the palm protruding from the long sleeve of the black dress. "Can I take this book with me?" He asked the barber; at that time, his head was full of troubles, and he finally straightened it out temporarily.When he got home, he cut out the titled picture, put it in a frame and hung it on the bedroom wall.This room of his, and even his life, seem to lack a "center of gravity" or a "theme". The painting was hung under the bedside lamp, and her gaze was frozen in solitude, with joy, anger, sorrow and joy. Radiating in all directions with her black eyes as the axis.

He fell in love with the painting; moreover, he fell in love with the girl in the painting. These are actually two different kinds of love, loving someone and loving someone's reflection, belonging to two different categories; but at that time, he was too young to think it was the same thing. That painting has been exhibited in art galleries in Hong Kong and mainland China; the paintings that have been exhibited will probably be sold at auction houses for a better price.Half a month later, he found the auction venue according to the time and place marked in the atlas, registered his identity information, received a badge, and sat in the front row, waiting for the target painting.

"Twenty thousand? Twenty-five thousand! Thirty thousand! Has anyone bid more than thirty thousand? Forty thousand! Forty thousand..." the auctioneer yelled.His heart was beating so fast and his breathing was difficult; however, once the sign was raised, he hated his meager income and exhausted savings, and he was still no match for those merchants. "Why do you have to compete with me? I love this painting, but they will only buy her and sell this painting." He stared at the fat man with the flat head who finally won the painting with 85,000 yuan , staring at him leaving his seat to go through the confirmation procedures; when the scarlet velvet curtain made people move, he felt so lost and wanted to cry.

Then, he plucked up the courage to go over to ask the fat man for his phone number, and he said, "In two or three years, I will definitely ask you to return this painting at double the price." Two or three years passed in the blink of an eye, but he still didn't save enough money to buy paintings from the flat-headed fat man; he looked at the shrunken replica in the bedroom every day, and always felt inexplicably guilty about the girl in the painting; he worked as a doorman in a hotel, After working hard, he was finally promoted to a senior doorman; he greeted people and sent them off, but he was most afraid of people; after work, he just wanted to go home and talk to the person in the painting.

Then, another two or three years passed.He saved 100,000 yuan, thinking to himself, the owner of the painting might be able to reduce the price in the recession. "The chairman is gone." The person who answered the phone said; the fat man died of overwork a long time ago, and it was his son who took over the position.That painting is still hanging in the reception room, anyone who is willing to pay can give it up. "Our company sells everything, including female employees." The other party said seriously. He finally "married" the original painting back home. He was so satisfied and happy. In the first few nights, he almost refused to close his eyes, and just leaned against the bedside to face the Beijing girl in the painting. "At that moment, what was she thinking? Did she think that one day a man like me would spend every quiet night?" He felt that she was destined to belong to him, just like he was destined to accept her forever look down.

Time passed, counting from the time he encountered this painting in the barber shop, ten years passed in a hurry. He once dated a female co-worker, but he never took her home. He felt that someone was already waiting for him at home.Then, they broke up, and the girl thought he was a boring egg pulled out by a Jurassic hadrosaur. He was so enthusiastic that he couldn't cook the egg. In the spring of 2002, every day was rainy.He saw a woman and a middle-aged man stepping into the hotel; this kind of thing happened an average of 180 times a day, and it happened 657,000 times in the past ten years; but only this time, his heart surged, He felt that the woman looked familiar, and that beautiful face was so different from the 650,000 women who had a tryst with men in hotels.They always came in the afternoon and went out together before dinner; on the evening of the sixth day, they entered the hotel and did not come out before he left work.On the morning of the seventh day, it was still raining.The man left the room and drove straight to Baiyun Airport.

When the woman came in the afternoon, he opened the door for her, and said to her naturally: "He's gone." "Impossible. He agreed to go through the formalities with me today, and then... go to Taiwan together." The woman didn't believe it, He felt that the one who lied to her was the person in front of her who looked at her affectionately. She was sitting on a Ming-style mahogany chair in the lobby, staring blankly at the pot of orchids in front of the gilded screen, probably hiding her sorrow so deeply that she didn't show her face at all.He has been standing by the gate looking at her. She is only in her mid-twenties, but she has an indescribable charm.It was time to get off work, he changed his clothes and came out, the woman just stood up to leave, he still opened the door for her, and asked her: "Do you want to call a car for you?" She nodded, the taxi did not come, she asked him : "Do you know where you can see the sea?" It's far away, he said, but he knows.He was afraid that she would be overwhelmed with suicide, so he said boldly, "I'll go with you." It was a very bad ending and a good beginning, and they began to fall in love on that drizzle evening.

"I always feel that I have known you a long time ago." He said; she had heard the same words a long time ago, and was no longer moved, but accepted his kindness; she understood that she should lower her requirements.She traveled from Beijing to Guangzhou for three years, and her life was not easy at all. "Women all hope to live a stable life, can you give me such a life?" One day, she asked him. "I'll try," he said.Trying wasn't enough, she knew; however, she could sleep with him once for free, in return for his sincerity. He invited her home, the first time he brought a woman home.She agreed without hesitation, and said, "That's the place I've always wanted to see." That night, she put on her bathrobe, walked into his bedroom, and saw that picture; In Beijing, she was sixteen years old, and a thirty-six-year-old painter took a fancy to her, and turned his deep feelings into colors; her youth, frozen in that oil painting, was far longer than in real life.The person who invited her to the bedroom never thought that the person in the painting would be corroded by the world of mortals.

"That's me!" She really wanted to tell him that he paid too much for her "best side"; however, maybe because of love, or maybe because of selfishness, she didn't say anything, but asked him gently: " Have you noticed that the person in the painting is a bit like me?" He woke up like a dream, and it turned out that he fell in love with her just because he "like" her. Half a year later, the woman left him, and their lives took different directions.She never told him the story of the person in the painting; she knew that he would forget her in the end, but he would still love her deeply when he looked back at that moment many years ago; she smiled bitterly, making people love forever, after all, is happy.