Chapter 47

Three years later.

“Welcome to the opening reception of Li Boxi’s solo exhibition “One Side”.” The curator walked up to the podium in the exhibition hall with a smile on his face.

“The works exhibited this time include one hundred portraits. As far as I know, for these one hundred faces, Mr. Li has disappeared from public view for three full years.”

Someone in the audience held a glass of wine and showed doubts.

Among these guests, many of them stayed in the art circle and didn’t hear anything outside the window. Their knowledge of the name Li Boxi was limited to the paintings that have been in the limelight in recent years, and they didn’t even know what the painter looked like. Hearing the word “disappear” at this time, he didn’t know what to say.

“Before I contacted Mr. Li, I didn’t know where he was. It took him ten days to reply to my email, and I found out later that he had just returned to a place with a signal that day.

“He has been wandering for a long time, brushing shoulders with countless people, but he only has a special liking for painting faces. Through long-term gaze and interpretation of the theme of ‘face’, he draws from the faces of portraits rooted in different cultural soils. , extracted the humanistic concept that transcends the individual and has universal value.

“He has expanded a broader context for realistic portraits, that is, the realism of human life and destiny…”

The curator made a lot of hype, and finally put away the manuscript and smiled: “Ms. Li himself has some psychological barriers to high-spirited speeches. It took me a lot of effort to persuade him to speak on stage. Let’s talk about the weather for five minutes, please bear with me.”

He turned around: “Ms. Li, please.”

Amid the applause of the crowd, Li Boxi showed up in a relaxed suit.

There was a small commotion in the audience.

Li Boxi pretended not to notice, and regained his communication skills in a somewhat rusty way: “The weather is quite hot.”

Everyone laughed.

Li Boxi: “I received a task and had to talk a few words about painting. As you can see, I mainly paint faces at present. Maybe some people don’t know my previous work. Don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything, I used to paint faces too. ”

The critic who had done his homework in the audience laughed so hard that he couldn’t hold his drink: “What about cross talk?”

Li Boxi turned around and pointed to a portrait hanging on the wall behind. The old lady in the painting was so old that she could hardly tell her ethnicity, but she was wearing orange gradient eye shadow and lip gloss of the same color, and raised her eyebrows. watching the audience.

Under the light and flying brushstrokes, her aging face, which is obviously not maintained, collides with this makeup, as if a reckless vitality gushes out from this square inch.

“This old lady was very curious when she heard that I had worked as a makeup artist. She had never been exposed to cosmetics in her life, and there was basically no such thing as makeup in the place where she lived. I asked her what style she wanted, and she said she wanted to be like a flower. Bright. After the transformation, I developed a photo for her, and she was very happy, saying that she would save it for the funeral as a posthumous photo.”

Li Boxi picked up a few interesting stories about models, and finally said: “Talking about painting, I can only do this. Before, I avoided self-expression. Now that I think about it, it might not be a kind of arrogance. ”

Someone showed a “how to say that” expression.

Li Boxi: “At that time, my eyes stayed on the clouds, as if everyone was not worthy of having myself. But I never really understood the so-called ‘people’. Their life, old age, sickness, death, love, hatred, sorrow and joy constituted a bond that engulfed me. His own, boundless river of destiny.

“When I went down the stream and looked at their faces seriously, I saw myself clearly.”

Looking at the crowd nodding their heads in a serious manner, he should have said to himself, “Thank you to the person who opened my eyes.”

As soon as Li Boxi stepped off the stage, he was surrounded. Critics want to ask questions, colleagues want to chat, and passers-by want to take photos.

Li Boxi hadn’t been in business for three years, and his scalp was numb for a while, and he slowly adjusted a smile on his face, and dealt with each of them one by one.

While chatting, a familiar face suddenly appeared in front of my eyes. Li Boxi was startled: “Why are you here?”

It was a photographer he often worked with in the past.

Photographer: “I want to see how you are doing now. I thought you would change careers and you would have to become uglier no matter what, but I didn’t expect that your appearance would get farther and farther away from me.”

Li Bai laughed and patted him.

Li Boxi’s appearance has not changed much, but for some reason, at a glance, it seems to have been completely reborn.

The delicate makeup was probably blown away by the mountain wind, and the brows were much more open. He still wears that waist-length hair. He used to look like a drunken young master, but now he is mysteriously moving closer to an ascetic.

The photographer saw a sense of self-exile from it, and felt tired for a while: “It wasn’t a big deal back then, especially since you changed circles, why bother…”

The entertainment industry has its own ecology, and there are minefields everywhere. However, the ecology of the art world is just the opposite. If you don’t have any wonderful deeds in your life, you are ashamed to come out and mess around.

The photographer’s implication is obvious: Chasing a man is all it takes, but is it really a felony and exile for three years?

Li Boxi couldn’t say too much to his former acquaintances, so he said perfunctorily, “It’s just a good time to take this opportunity to practice for a while and think about something.”

Photographer: “Don’t cultivate to the end and become enlightened, and just escape into Buddhism.”

Li Boxi laughed out loud.

Photographer: “It’s been so long, it’s almost enough. In fact, when Crane Umbrella won the award, you didn’t go to collect it, and the public’s evaluation of you has already turned. It’s a pity that your career died just after reaching the peak…”

Li Boxi raised his eyebrows: “Are the public so tolerant?”

Photographer: “You may not know, they say you designed the characters so beautifully, you must really love Cheng Ping.”

Li Boxi heard this name suddenly, with a distant and empty echo like a world away.

He guessed that he couldn’t control the change in his face, because the photographer was excited: “Cheng Ping held back his tears and refused to shed them when he received the award. Many people imagined a sea of ​​love and hatred…”

Li Baixi saw the other party’s sneaky glances at him, and he dared to feel that this guy was here to inquire about gossip.

Many pairs of eavesdropping ears were also pricked up nearby.

Li Boxi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, he hiccupped and peed.

He avoided the flow of people and walked towards the back door of the exhibition hall, the trance in his heart hadn’t passed yet.

Indeed, three years.

The days when he and Cheng Ping did not see each other were almost longer than the days when they were together.

Before Li Boxi walked out of the back door, he saw a figure standing outside, as if waiting for a rabbit.

Hearing his footsteps, the figure suddenly turned his head: “Master!”

He still spoke with a smile, but by the end the voice was already crying.

Li Boxi paused: “What have you experienced?”

The change of the horse button is also quite large-mainly reflected in the makeup. The flirtatious **** whose eyeliner flew to his temples transformed into a pure and innocent deer with round eyes and pink nose, which made people feel chills.

Ma Koukou jumped up and hugged him, refusing to let go: “Without you, my life is so hard.”

Li Boxi: “?”

Ma Koukou proposed to find a place where he could talk conveniently and invite him to dinner.

A moment later, Li Boxi was sitting in the corner of the shop full of people, looking at the glistening hot pot expressionlessly.

“This is the restaurant you said is convenient for talking?”

Ma Koukou: “Oh, it’s too late to make an appointment for a high-end restaurant. It’s so noisy here that no one can overhear it. It’s safe.”

Li Baixi put down a chopstick of red meat: “Boy, after three years of separation, you’ve become more and more picky.”

Ma Koukou: “Mother! You saved my life this time, and I will give you eight Michelin stars if you want to eat!”

Li Boxi: “?”

Ma Koukou rubbed his hands: “Didn’t you run away a few days early when Hesan was finalized three years ago? I finished the finishing work for you, and after the finale banquet, I returned to China.”

Li Boxi: “Yes.”

Li Boxi: “…Huh?”

He looked up at Ma Koukou: “Where’s Albert?”

“After the breakup cannon, part ways—otherwise, what can I do? Can I still kill this popular male god? It’s just a dewy relationship, everyone tacitly, get together and break up…at least in my eyes.” Ma Koukou looked ready to cry again.

Li Boxi began to have a headache.

After returning to China for three years, Ma Kou Kou has initially established a position in the cosmetics industry. When he attended an overseas event this year, he found that Elbert was there.

Seeing Albert’s increasingly stern and graceful side face through the crowd, Ma Koukou felt itchy, so he wanted to drag him to talk about old times.

Albert is very face-saving, and he was really asked out by him.

However, there is obviously a difference in cognition between the two of them on the content of “reminiscing about the past”.

What Ma Koukou wanted was to light another fire.

But Albert dragged him to the terrace for a long talk over a drink.

Ma Koukou patiently drank until he was half-drunk, thinking that the atmosphere was finally brewing, and he was giving him a sneak peek, but he saw him looking at him with a solemn expression: “…”

Hearing this, Li Boxi asked suspiciously: “So what did he say?”

“I do not know.”

“?”

Ma Koukou: “My English is so good, he can understand what I say, but I can only guess what he said.”

“???”

“I saw that he was very serious, and I didn’t dare to interrupt, so I kept nodding.”

Li Boxi went crazy: “Can’t you tell him honestly that you don’t understand, and ask him to take out his phone and turn on the online translation?”

Ma Koukou lowered his head and pointed at his fingers: “I’m afraid that once I confess, he will realize that I didn’t understand it three years ago.”

Li Boxi: “…”

Ma Koukou: “And then, neither of us could post in the end. I wondered if he had drunk too much. I regretted returning to China. But the next day after returning to China, I found that there was an extra long letter in the mailbox. The very long email was sent by him. This time I finally dragged it into the translator.”

Ma Koukou flashed out the screen of his phone, wanting to cry but without tears: “Let’s take a look.”

Li Boxi scanned ten lines at a glance, and said calmly: “Otherwise.”

Ma Kou Kou’s eyes lit up.

Li Boxi: “Please cut open your stomach and apologize.”

“…”

Ma Koukou burst into tears: “I want to reply to the email, but he has blocked me! I also asked a mutual acquaintance to take the call, but he refused to meet with me, saying that he would completely forget me.”

“You deserve it. You have ruined your heart twice!”

“Where did I expect it! I thought he just said a few love words before and after the **** to add to the fun. Who would have thought that he would be serious? Would you believe this thing for you?”

Li Boxi hesitated for a moment.

I really can’t believe it.

Ma Koukou leaned back dejectedly: “I don’t want to think about anything now, it’s all a bubble. The only wish is to apologize to him in person, and promise not to show up again after the matter is over. Master, master, you and Isn’t he also a former colleague—”

“Why should I take on such a bird thing?”

“A day as a teacher…”

“I didn’t see you repaying your favor.”

Ma Koukou saw that he didn’t want to get in, so he had to take out his trump card: “I followed my instructions and handed over your thing to Brother Cheng after it was finished.”

Li Boxi: “.”

Li Boxi fell silent.

Ma Koukou noticed something strange, restrained himself for a few seconds, and asked cautiously, “You and Brother Cheng…”

“I see. I owe you one time for that, and I will find a way.”

Ma Kou Kou is very grateful, and he almost kowtowed on the spot. Li Boxi watched the play with his chin resting, no emotion could be seen on his face.

The horse button couldn’t be put down, so he asked again, “You really haven’t seen Brother Cheng for three years?”

“Ok.”

“None of the videos through?”

Li Boxi said impatiently: “Eat yours.”

“You can always send a message, right?…Why do you have to do this? Are you so afraid that Zhang Yingdi will wait for the opportunity to retaliate?”

Ma Koukou deliberately provoked him with words, but Li Boxi heard it, but still cooperated: “Not all of them. I didn’t dare to contact him in the first year. I was afraid that if I got in touch, I wouldn’t be able to break it off. Sooner or later, I would be discovered again—without Zhang. The actor will have someone else. If we repeat the same mistakes, the original separation will be meaningless. I don’t want to become a sword hanging over his head.”

“But then the public opinion has calmed down. Why…”

Li Boxi lowered his head and rinsed his belly. Ma Koukou looked at him intently, through the white mist steaming on the pot, his face seemed to be blurred by the past.

Ma Koukou’s heart slowly raised: “Is it because the feeling has also faded?”

When you go to the vast world and find endless inspiration, does the light of the original muse seem dim?

For some reason, he dreaded hearing the answer. He knew early on that people’s hearts could not be tested, but he didn’t want to be reminded. As if witnessing such an ending one more time, one’s own destiny will be nailed to death.

A calm voice came from the opposite side of the white mist: “You think too much.”

But Ma Koukou couldn’t tell how sincere this answer was.

Li Boxi accepted Ma Koukou’s commission, planned for a while, and finally found a suitable opportunity—one of his touring art exhibitions opened in London, which was Albert’s hometown.

Li Boxi sent an invitation email in advance, saying that he hadn’t seen him for a long time, and hoped that he would appreciate it.

Elbert had a pleasant cooperation with him in the Crane Umbrella crew, and he was a little curious about the exhibition, so he readily agreed.

Li Boxi sent another message to Ma Koukou: “On that day, I will take him to drink nearby. After he has a few drinks, you can sneak in and say what you need to say.”

Ma Kou returned a series of ecstatically dancing emoticons: “Then let’s fly to London together?”

Li Boxi: “Don’t, take care of yourself.”

He didn’t want people to find out about his itinerary, because he arrived three days early – so that he could catch up with Cheng Ping’s new film road show.

Since Hesan won the award, Cheng Ping occasionally received scripts for European and American films. Right now, the crew is rich and powerful, and they have done a lot of pomp during the promotional period. The road show site is overcrowded, which is a good time to sneak in.

Li Boxi dressed up in disguise, with a peaked cap covering most of his face, and sat in an inconspicuous seat in the auditorium.

In fact, during those three years, he went to see Cheng Ping once.

Half a month after Hesan won the award, he found a signal at the foot of a certain snow mountain and saw a video of Cheng Ping lifting the trophy.

In the picture, Cheng Ping is thin and haggard, clenching his teeth in order not to let the tears fall, as if he is tug-of-war with some invisible force.

Li Boxi stayed up all night, contacted Assistant Yang at dawn, and found out where Cheng Ping was. After he left, Ma Koukou went solo, and Assistant Yang became Cheng Ping’s personal makeup artist.

Cheng Ping accepted the script like crazy that year, seamlessly entered the group, and worked all year round. During that time, there was only one day to leave the crew to participate in a performance.

Li Bai Xizhou returned to China in a car, without saying hello to anyone, and silently appeared in the backstage of the performance.

He said to himself, only see once, see once and leave. Just before the other party grows up, give him a final ride.

He stood in the corridor outside the actor’s lounge, waiting for Cheng Ping to pass by after the curtain call.

The hallway was empty and dimly lit. Li Boxi leaned against the wall, listening to the familiar footsteps from far to near. A figure appeared at the end of the corridor, approaching him as before.

Cheng Ping’s eyes met his eyes, and then slipped out lightly.

He didn’t stop for half a second, just passed him by without looking back.

It turned out that he didn’t need to send him off.

The host loudly invited the crew members to appear on the stage. Among the cheering crowd, Li Boxi raised his peaked cap slightly and looked up the stage.

Now Cheng Ping is neither thin nor haggard.

He’s in good shape and in high spirits. The English is also completely free, laughing and chatting with the audience.

The once-struggling smile is now a semi-permanent one that easily sticks to your face.

It’s clear that he’s used those three years productively and squeezed out every second of his value. The once half-baked newcomer has become a real Cheng actor, recognized and loved by many people.

This is good, Li Boxi thought. In this way, they reached the best ending they could have foreseen when they separated.

However, because it was too perfect…the motivation to rewrite it was probably lost.

In a daze, he felt Cheng Ping’s gaze turned to this direction, subconsciously lowered his head, and realized that this move was unnecessary. It was impossible for Cheng Ping to notice this seat, not to mention that he had disguised it.

Li Boxi smiled self-deprecatingly, and when he looked up again, it turned out that the other party had already looked away.

He pressed his hat and quietly left the field early.

??

Albert remained the same, indifferent in a gentle way. He seriously praised Li Boxi’s painting, and even gave a five-minute review, but rejected Li Boxi’s invitation to drink with an excuse.

As a mother, Li Boxi is a gangster. In order to give Ma Koukou a chance, he bit the bullet and persuaded him again, with the utmost sincerity.

Albert probably really admired his paintings. After thinking about it for a long time, he changed his mind and agreed.

In the evening, at the bar recommended by Albert, Li Boxi vaguely discovered the real reason for his initial refusal—the bar was so remote that he didn’t want people to find it, and there were no third customers besides them tonight. It looks like its life is hanging by a thread and it will close down at any time.

Elbert: “It’s my favorite — in fact, the only bar I go to. I come in sometimes for a drink.”

Li Boxi thought to himself: Got it, your social fear is getting worse.

He began to wonder whether Ma Koukou knew that the male **** was a social terror. Then I wondered whether such a serious social fear would take the initiative to fall in love.

Could it be that when he was taken down by Ma Kou Kou, the male **** was still a…

Li Boxi shivered.

This is really a big crime.

After two glasses of wine, Li Boxi saw that the time was almost up, and lowered his head to send a message to Ma Koukou: “Come here.”

Ma Koukou: “Here we come!!”

“Let’s say it first, no matter what the result is tonight, I won’t get involved anymore.”

“Of course, don’t worry.”

Li Boxi put the wine glass back on the table, ready to sneak away: “A friend stopped by to say hello, I hope you don’t mind.”

Albert froze in place for a moment, looking at him in shock.

It’s not such a big reaction, is it? Li Boxi was a little apprehensive: “Uh, if you mind very much…”

Albert: “How do you know someone is coming?”

Li Boxi: “Ah? Because he greeted me just now.” He heard the sound of the door opening behind him, stood up a little guilty, and introduced, “You should still remember this…”

The voice stopped abruptly.

It was Cheng Ping who came in.