Three years ago, I quit my job as a kindergarten teacher in Hunan and came to Hengdian to realize my dream of being an actor. When I was a child, I liked to perform in front of the mirror with a bow, but my parents said it was not a proper job. When I was in my twenties, I didn’t want to grow old in front of a group of children in my hometown town, nor did I want to be forced by my parents to have a blind date, but I didn’t dare to think about it in Beijing, and the only place I could deserve was Hengdian.
I didn’t expect that the adventures of my little hengpiao were more wonderful than those in movies and TV plays.
The pigeon
sunset slanted on the wooden table where the paint had fallen off in the service department of the Actors Guild. A group of middle-aged men rolled up their muddy and off-line trouser legs, sat or lay down, and fell bored in the dusk. At that moment, a man came over with a trumpet and shouted, “Gather up!” Like pigeons at the sight of crumbs, the men emerged from the low curtain of the union door, listened to the fame, and threw their name tags one by one into the crumpled plastic bags used to buy vegetables. With their name, ID number, height and weight on
the nameplate, this nameplate is the pass of the group performers in Hengdian, leading to the 90 yuan a day acting job, to the background of the passers-by behind the stars, or to the unreachable dream of supporting roles. For me, who is new here, such a dirty document is like a gold brick.
I was still looking around when a young man with a crooked mouth suddenly appeared in front of me, scanning me up and down like an MRI: “You’re too short.” Then he leaned around to the place where people gathered, and kept saying, “Pick up pigeons, pick up pigeons..”
“Just pick up a pigeon. If the person who signed up doesn’t come, someone else can take the lead.” The man had just walked away, and a Zhejiang accent sounded in his ears. He turned around and saw a young brother with regular features, but a beard on his chin. He held a wad of typing paper in his hand and kindly explained to me, “Don’t pay any attention to him. He used to be a group actor. Then he went crazy and ran around here every day. “He looked at me again.” You’re new here, aren’t you? First go to Huaxia Avenue to apply for an actor’s card, and then you’ll have a good show to take. ”
I thanked him repeatedly and pulled the suitcase to settle down. There is a single room with a single bathroom for 500 a month. I posted on the Internet and found a girl who had just come to Hengpiao to share it. The girl’s name is leisurely. She is still in college. Her eyes are full of innocence and enthusiasm. Her parents in business, to Hengdian in addition to experience life, but also because like a star, in addition to the previous krypton gold, but also want to meet here.
I laughed at her for a long time. I read the guide on the Internet before that I had to go to the hotel when I met a star. I embellished and showed off leisurely: “I heard that stars also have their own preferences for hotels. Lu, Yang, and whoever you like, all like to stay in Fengjing Jiali. The bathtub in the room is placed beside the bed, heroic!” Yiran and
I both got our actor’s cards, but we still couldn’t get into the play. There are more monks and less porridge in the group performance, and it is particularly difficult to get a job. Group performance here is divided into several grades, the lowest is called group performance, 90 yuan a day, there are prospects, special, can flash in the camera, and even one or two lines. The work of group acting is simple and boring, often walking on the street for a day as a background. The threshold is the lowest and the most difficult to grab. The
two of us wait for each other every day. In the first month, I only earned 800 yuan, and after paying for water and electricity, I was reluctant to buy milk tea. I wanted to call my parents, but I gritted my teeth and put it down. In the
local small restaurant, there are often some seemingly true or false group news: there is a play in a certain building at a certain time in a certain month, and the assistant casting director is staying in a certain hotel.
Yiran and I gritted our teeth, put on short skirts, drew smoky makeup, wore high heels, swayed to the hotel, and held our resumes firmly in our hands. Who knows we were stopped downstairs in the hotel, and the staff looked at us back and forth with the eyes of a woman who had lost her footing, but refused to let us go upstairs.
Leisurely angry, simply went to the front desk to book a room, we were released. Following the news, there was a stack of resumes high and low at the door of the room. After knocking on the door for a long time, a female assistant came out, glanced at us impolitely, impatiently pulled the resume, and picked up the pile on the ground and said, “Go back and wait for the news.”
I know that the only result of going back and waiting is to sink into the sea. I couldn’t
arrange the play, but I added a lot of pigeons, which were all people like us who couldn’t get the play, waiting for someone to announce the pigeon and leave us two.
The turning point came from the kind little brother at the beginning, and I didn’t think I would meet him again. At that time,
Lao Zhang
was shooting a kung fu movie, in which there was a scene in which the whole city was surrounded by people, and a huge girl was needed. The head of the group pulled in a person in charge, crazy in the group @ everyone: girls, are there any girls? He shook me out of bed and pulled me excitedly to sign up.
Staring at the head portrait of Lao Zhang, the person in charge, I felt a little familiar, added his WeChat, and passed in seconds. “How many girls do you have?” He asked? I want it all.
As soon as I gritted my teeth, I said a big word: to get forty or fifty more small things.
He said, “30 more first.”.
I turned around and spread the news of the registration to the pigeons crazily, but I didn’t expect to get 30 girls together soon. On the day of filming, I arrived at the scene early and met the person in charge, Lao Zhang. Coincidentally, he was the little brother I met on the first day I came to Hengdian.
He also recognized me. “Oh, so your name is Xiao Lin. I didn’t expect you to be so young.”. Thanks to you this time, I will invite you to dinner next time.
I smiled and waved and asked him, “Are you ordering a costume?”? I’m early. I’m free. Do you need any help?
Lao Zhang was able to find reinforcements, and the chores at the scene were thrown to me without hesitation. He took a fancy to my diligence, and from that day on, I became the leader of the group of girls in the crew. I was the one who called the roll, handed out the costumes and arranged the announcements. Lao Zhang trusted me more and more, and I gradually became his general leader. The daily wage doesn’t go up, but every time I can arrange a play for myself.
Lao Zhang is always very polite. He often sends me red envelopes of five hundred and one thousand yuan. Sometimes when he finishes a big project, he takes me to eat and drink. He is not short of money, his parents are local people, living in a two-storey basement row house, there are many self-built houses for rent. Laozhang dissolute to high school, only to find that the results are so bad that they can not be admitted to the undergraduate course, so they simply go to the college to perform. But he doesn’t like acting either. It’s just that his parents arrange something to do.
Without work, Lao Zhang went to play cards and often asked me to go with him. They were all young local boys with similar backgrounds, smoky rooms, wine bottles piled on the floor, and some girls who were more gorgeous than me. They looked me up and down with playful eyes and whistled, “Lao Zhang, it’s really not interesting enough. Why don’t you introduce me?” Occasionally, when someone wants to clink glasses with me, Lao Zhang always blocks me. The daily salary of
group performance is only 90 yuan. With the help of Lao Zhang, I got the chance to pass the exam in advance. I was not tall enough to get into the foreground, but I studied acting with my heart and was admitted to the special test. The lowest salary is three or five hundred a day. After I took it several times, my life slowly got better.
Occasionally, when I met a familiar crew, Lao Zhang would take me to have dinner with the director and assistant director. The first time I went there, I wore a shirt dress and carried a canvas bag. Sitting in a Honda car, Lao Zhang first drove me to the counter, bought a new little black dress, and asked me to bring only a mobile phone, not a canvas bag. I blushed and burned with shame. Lao Zhang and
I are getting closer and closer, and rumors are coming. Yiran once reminded me, “Recently I’ve been asked by girls if you have anything to do with Lao Chang.” I don’t think so. “Forget it. He likes the one with big breasts, big ass and long legs.” In my heart, I couldn’t help weighing Lao Zhang: his appearance was not bad, he was generous, and he was a local. He would certainly have no worries about food and clothing in the future. And I didn’t admit it, but I knew in my heart that Lao Zhang was also interested in me, but I always felt that there was a layer of things between me and Lao Zhang. As for this layer of things, I couldn’t figure out what it was. There are more scenes of
Xiao Pang
‘s running, and I know more friends. One day at halftime, I was leaning against the pillar in a daze. A cigarette butt suddenly popped up at his feet. It turned out that a little fat man was smoking beside him. The fat man is still wearing the costume of the shopkeeper, which is also the group performance of our group. Angrily,
I punched him on the shoulder and said, “Don’t litter!”
“Oh, miss, I was wrong!” The fat man winked in an exaggerated way, covered his arms and bent down, “Ouch..” Just as
I was wondering if I had done too much, the fat man took out a plastic gold ingot and said, “I’ll make amends for the small one. This is the new silver from our bank. Please accept it.”
I laughed. “Who wants your plastic silver?” At the
beginning of the shooting, the director shouted, “People go,” and the background, including me, began to move. The little fat man was not the owner of the bank, but a roadside stall clerk, selling some dough toys. I pretended to choose, and the little fat man was very involved in the play. He enthusiastically pulled out a pig’s face from the straw and handed it to me, and then handed me a Chang’e. He made a gesture to let the pig kiss Chang’e. I almost didn’t laugh. At the
end of the show, the little fat man came to me again, happily holding the dough figurine in his hands. “Look at this rake. Does it look like you’re going to hit someone?” I almost punched him in the stomach: “Fatty, am I so ugly?”
I call him “Xiao Pang” with everyone else. He is also a drifter. He often comes to my house to eat when he has nothing to do. Xiaopang is from Sichuan and Yiran is from Hubei. All three of us love spicy food, can drink, and can play together.
It is said that every Sichuan man is a born cook. Although Xiaopang looks slovenly, he is particularly fastidious about eating. He can taste the proportion of fat and lean beef and the proportion of several kinds of chili peppers with a chopstick. Xiaopang even knows western food. Once in our humble rental house, he was stunned to toss out a Wellington steak with a microwave oven. Since Xiaopang, our family seems to have a Michelin chef, I and Yiran have grown a few pounds of meat, repeatedly wailing, and then eat can not get the play.
Hengdian is so small that it takes less than half an hour to walk from south to north. After a long walk, even the passers-by on the street look familiar. My original life is very monotonous, in addition to following Lao Zhang to play and socialize, I take acting classes on the Internet. But after knowing Xiaopang, my life gradually became vivid. When there is no chance, Xiaopang will take me and Yiran to the surrounding counties and cities to climb mountains, picnic, eat seafood, and go shopping in Hangzhou.
He is not only good at cooking, but also knows how to play. We had picnics in the remote hills of Wuyi, with beautiful scenery and few people. Xiaopang even took us to the farmhouse to stew local chicken, which didn’t cost much, but it was delicious to drink soup in the sun. Or we went to the small island of Zhoushan, far from the inland, where the sea was blue and clear, and we were frozen miserably at the seaside. Xiaopang took off two layers of coats and gave me and Yiran one to wear. Mid-Autumn Festival
that year, we did not go home, plus leisurely, three people at home while watching variety shows while fighting landlords, with duck neck and Qiandao Lake beer, a bit like a family. Xiaopang also specially carried half a dozen hairy crabs. The crab paste was fat and beautiful. The rich family was very happy. I had never eaten this thing in the inland before. Xiaopang picked out the crab meat from the crab feet and piled it up in front of me. When
the Chinese parasol tree fell, autumn turned to winter. Unexpectedly, Yiran was caught by her parents and went back to school to take the TOEFL test. She cried until her eyes were red and moved out of the rental house. Xiao Pang and I are the only poor and humble friends left in Hengdian. Xiao Pang is still fooling around, while I am still pursuing my dream of being an actor. After my
promotion, I began to have more choices. Once the most expensive scene, I asked for 800 yuan a day. That scene is also Lao Zhang to help me pick up, did not expect to get to the set, I found that the scene needs to play zombies, the whole body is painted with special effects makeup, but also lying in a coffin.
I slept on the floor on the set and waited for work to start, and I was woken up at 2am to put on special effects makeup. The makeup artist picked up a bottle of domestic white glue and poured it on my face to make a concave and convex effect. On
the first day of the audition, the white glue made my whole face allergic, with red rashes of all sizes. Every day I show my teeth and claws in front of the camera in a zombie makeup. The leading actor is a new young student. I want to jump out of the coffin and chase him all over the place. He ran three times, and I ran three times. Xiaosheng’s acting is poor, but he can make mistakes, but I dare not make mistakes. Once I slipped on the soles of my feet and fell down the stairs twice. I got up without saying a word and continued to chase. After a long day of running around
in my heavy clothes, I was sweating all over. I followed the actors and tried to go into the lounge to sit for a while, but I was stopped at the door: “Group performance?” I nodded. The assistant pointed to a nearby open space. “Sit over there. This is the greenroom.”
Fortunately, the makeup artist felt sorry for us zombies and came over with a piece of cake: “Eat it quickly.” I held out my hand happily, and he said, “They don’t eat. Here you are.” My half-stretched hand froze there, reluctantly took it and put it on the ground. Although I was very hungry, I did not move.
My companion said sullenly, “It’s really tiring to earn a thousand yuan.” Just as I was about to nod yes, I suddenly realized, a thousand? Lao Zhang gave me a quotation of only eight hundred yuan. The price of filming here is not open and transparent, and the so-called association exists in name only. The closer I get to the crew, the more I feel that this is a hierarchical world. Group performers and special actors are at the bottom of the industrial chain, which is the most humble, like the existence of worker ants. After taking off my makeup
in the evening, I took the night bus home and took out my cell phone. I wanted to ask Lao Zhang about the quotation, but I hesitated and put it down. It was the middle of the night, the street lights were dim and the streets were dead silent. When I got out of the car, I turned on the flashlight of my mobile phone and walked back with one foot deep and one foot shallow.
Before I got downstairs, I saw a light at the bottom of the unit building in the distance. When I got closer, I saw a fat figure I was familiar with, and he was carrying a bowl of things in his hand. My nose was sore and I refrained from crying.
Xiao Pang was probably frightened by me and asked doubtfully, “What’s the matter? Have you been wronged?”
I shook my head. “Who dares to bully me? How long have you been waiting?”
He laughed. “I was just passing by. I just got here.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the bag in his hand. I know this shop that makes peach gum desserts. It closes at nine o’clock. It’s almost twelve o’clock now. After
removing my makeup, I had a rash all over my face. Xiao Pang helped me apply the medicine, carefully blowing and applying the medicine at the same time. He also comforted me by saying, “If you have suffered a lot, you will become a superior person. You see, now you have your own representative work, don’t you?”. I was amused.
The scene lasted for a week. Although it was very hard, I earned a month’s money in a week, and there was still a lot left over from the cost of buying medicine. I was very happy. On the day of shooting, the actor who had played with me stood in the C position of the group photo, and we zombies were watching. I would have been depressed in the past, but I was in a good mood that day. I asked Xiaopang to go to Jinhua and invited him to eat Haidilao.
We drank late into the night, and after dinner we took a breathable walk along a big river. The night wind blew the smell of hot pot and wine through our bodies. Little Fatty suddenly asked me, “Qingqing, would you like to be my girlfriend?”
Probably because he had been drinking, he was at a loss and stammered, “I have been holding this sentence in my heart for a long time. In fact, I liked you when I first met you.”. I He took out a small box from his pocket. Inside was a simple necklace with a row of diamonds in the middle. Xiao Pang blushed and mumbled, “Although these diamonds are fake, my heart is real..”
Hearing this, my drunkenness was suddenly awakened by the evening breeze. I stared at Xiaopang, his sincere fat face was not greasy at all, but at that moment, I suddenly thought of Lao Zhang devilishly, I do not know why, I fled, leaving Xiaopang standing in place. I dare not look back at him.
In fact, after mixing with Xiao Pang, I have less and less contact with Lao Zhang. Sometimes he asks me out and I don’t want to go out. Although I am not a boyfriend or girlfriend with Lao Zhang, I often feel like a canary raised by Lao Zhang, locked in an invisible cage. He said that I dare not go left or right. But now, I don’t want to go to a smoky mahjong hall or a drinking banquet, just like a bird that wants to fly. Not long
after Xiaopang and I confessed, Lao Zhang asked me to find ten girls to perform in a group, saying that it would cost 120 yuan a day to cross a stream. I gathered a group of girls in the group. One of the new girls told me timidly that she was on her period, but she also wanted to earn some money. I assured her that Lao Zhang only said that it was OK to Wade through the water.
The next day’s task, however, made us dumbfounded. Where is a small stream, it is clearly a big muddy puddle, deep enough to soak the chest.
I froze there, feeling the rage of being cheated. When someone urged us to change our clothes, I didn’t move. I didn’t know where my courage came from. “We quit,” I said coldly.
The air suddenly fell silent. I said word for word, “This is not the same as the notice. What you said at that time was that you would only wet your shoes.”. Now the whole person is soaking in. This is a matter that will result in a lifelong illness.
The person in charge was a little stupefied: “Is this the person that Lao Zhang is looking for?”? Too little money? Hurry to get dressed and wait for the shooting to begin. Without saying a word,
I stared at him, but did not move.
The man froze for a moment, took a puff of smoke, and whispered a few words to the people around him.
Passed a little while, old Zhang came, pull me aside: “Did you eat gunpowder today?”? Just apologize. If you don’t answer it yourself, you’re done. Why do you have to go against the crew?
I looked at Lao Zhang in disbelief and read doubts from his eyes: he was a noble playboy who had never made a living and did not understand the bitterness of the word humble. But the group performance is also a person, how can not even personal safety be guaranteed? He didn’t even know about it.
I gnashed my teeth and felt my voice jumping out of my teeth: “You didn’t make it clear in the first place. If I had known this, I wouldn’t have looked for someone.”. Do you know that people who are raised by their parents will be sick for the rest of their lives?
“Hey,” Lao Zhang relented, as if he were talking to a child. “I told someone to increase it to 150 a day. Xiao Lin, please don’t make things difficult for me.
“You don’t understand!” I retorted, “It’s not just about the money!”! When you watch a group performance, it’s like watching a piece of turning around, a tool, picking it up and throwing it down, bullying and trampling on it. You are a group leader, and all you want is not to offend people. When will you really give us consideration? And this salary, it’s supposed to be 200 yuan a day, right? When
I am in a hurry, my voice is loud and my tone is very strong. As a matter of fact, I was talking nonsense about the figure of 200. Unexpectedly, Lao Zhang suddenly froze. His expression changed from shock to disappointment, and then he sneered. He became angry from embarrassment and turned to shout at the other performers: “If you don’t do it, there are plenty of people to do it. Those who want to do it will stay, and those who don’t want to do it will get out now!”! I’ll add up to 250 a day at my own expense!
I turned around and walked away, and a few girls behind me hesitated to leave, and a few girls stayed behind, trembling to change into the linen prison clothes in the play, including the little girl who had previously said that she was on her period.
Lao Zhang is right. If we don’t do it, some people will do it. Hengdian is also like a big play, many Hengpiao group performances, on the stage of life, so humble that even bit players can not run away.
Lao Chang once said to me, “Do you still remember the man in the guild who wandered around every day to pick up pigeons? He had been acting in groups for three years, and then somehow a male director took a fancy to him and suddenly asked him to make a special appointment and give him two or three thousand scenes a day. Then somehow he went crazy.”. All right, the water is deep. Hsiao Lin, don’t run around all your life. Follow me in charge of people.
But I really like acting. At that time, I always kept silent and bowed my head to sort out the forms. Perhaps Lao Zhang has not understood that my silence is not acquiescence, but resistance. I also finally understand what is the layer between me and him. After
that day, I never contacted Lao Zhang again. Until one day, one of his mahjong friends came to see me and said angrily, “Old Chang has gone home to work in sales. His father runs an electrical appliance factory, and he doesn’t need a few steel bars from the guild.”
He was very unkind and handed me a box. “Here,” he said, “this was supposed to be your birthday present. I asked someone to bring it back from Europe.”. Or give it to you. There is a white CHANEL on the
black box. I still recognize this brand. I remember the first time we went out to meet guests. I didn’t have a bag or a skirt. Lao Zhang bought the skirt at that time. The famous brand bag was waiting here. Unfortunately, this is not what I want.
I’m with Xiao Pang. He was so happy that he put the fake diamond necklace around my neck with trembling hands. Not to mention, although the diamond was fake, it was still quite bright. Xiao Pang was very proud, saying that it was a high imitation version he bought from a wechat merchant in his circle of friends, and that he had spent several hundred yuan. “Keep an eye on it, don’t take it off.” He was so excited that he blurted out Sichuan dialect. I didn’t want to owe Xiaopang,
either, so I dug up the money I had saved and spent more than 1,000 yuan to buy Xiaopang a pair of real Nike limited edition sneakers. “Look, these are not from Putian.” Xiaopang was surprised and happy. While giggling, he pinched my nose and said that I was spending money recklessly.
Before long, Xiaopang’s transformation was behind the scenes, which meant stable income and more resources. In addition, I had a “masterpiece,” and more special scenes began to find me. The monthly income of Xiaopang and I can add up to more than ten thousand. The day when I just arrived in Hengdian and couldn’t pick up the play seemed to be a century ago. I
no longer have the false dream of being an actor in those days, and I will work as a bit player in a down-to-earth manner. My relationship with Xiaopang is getting better and better, although sometimes Xiaopang is extravagant, I can’t help but say a few words about him.
Yiran was admitted to TOEFL and came back to see us when he was ready to go abroad. He invited me and Xiaopang to have afternoon tea together. When Xiaopang went to the toilet, she pointed to the necklace around my neck and asked me. I openly admitted it. Xiaopang said it was a high imitation. She smiled leisurely and meaningfully: “Xiaopang is really good to you.” At that moment, there was a loss on her face that she could not hide.
I suddenly thought that before, Xiaopang drank too much, leisurely looked at his eyes, and leisurely always said that if Xiaopang lost weight, it would be a bit like the star Wang she chased, but I decided not to ask anything, let leisurely keep her secret. After spending more than a year
with Xiaopang, he offered to take me to Sichuan to meet his parents. He also planned for the future, saying that if I wanted to continue to drift, I would buy a house in Hengdian with a mortgage and settle down. Otherwise, I would accompany him to drink tea and play cards in my hometown, and I would not starve to death. I pointed out that he had no ambition. Before
going home, we went to Hangzhou on the way.
Xiaopang took me to the Vientiane City, a skirt of thousands of yuan, a silk scarf of Hermes, and a red perfume that I couldn’t name. I exclaimed that it was a waste of money. Xiao Pang said that the first time I met my elders, it was only once in my life. I didn’t want to leave any regrets. The card debt could be repaid slowly. I secretly felt distressed and calculated that the money I spent today would be enough for me and Xiaopang to work for a few months. As I walked past a shop marked with a crown, I saw a necklace that looked very familiar, as if it was exactly the same as the one Xiaopang had given me. I wanted to pull Xiaopang to open his eyes, but Xiaopang pulled me away and said, “Don’t be ashamed!”.
Xiao Pang said he wanted to give me a big surprise. During the three-hour flight from Hangzhou to Chengdu, he slept soundly, but I was on pins and needles.
I recall the abnormality of Xiaopang these days, and my heart is inexplicably perturbed. Xiaopang often carried me on his back and browsed some luxury cars and villas secretly. My heart sank. Was Xiaopang pulled into some fraud? Coming out
of the airport, Xiao Pang took a luxury car. Driving all the way to the suburbs of Chengdu, looking out of the window at the increasingly desolate scenery, my palms oozed sweat. Turning around, a garden villa area with green trees appeared in front of us, and the car was parked in one of them. Before I could react, Xiao Pang pulled me out of the car. In front of the iron gate of the
garden, a mother-in-law was waiting quietly with her hands down. “You’re back, young master,” she said with a smiling face.
The full text is over
