beginning

In autumn, the air is filled with the sweet smell of ripe melons and fruits.

Shui Hong wore a black flowing dress and a hollowed-out red women's wide-brimmed casual hat and walked into the lobby of the Kyoto Hotel. The light in the front hall was slightly dim, so she had to take off her color-changing mirror and look around the café on the left, looking for Shu Li. She arrived ten minutes earlier than the agreed time, and it seemed that Shu Li would not come so early. So Shui Hong walked to the long-distance direct dial telephone station in the business center. She came early so that she could call Ah Ni in Suzhou here.

It was Sunday morning, and Ah Ni must still be sleeping.

When her life with Zhou You gradually became more stable, she felt that she missed Ah Ni more and more. If it weren't for the fact that she always had to take into account Lao Wu's emotions, she really wanted to talk to Ah Ni on the phone for an hour every week. From the recent laughter on the phone, she felt that the taut string in Ani's mind had relaxed slightly, her voice had become elastic and energetic, and her body and mood had improved significantly. Two weeks ago, Ah Ni told her on the phone that she had received an acceptance letter from high school, and that she would be a freshman in high school when school started. Dad also promised to buy her a microcomputer so that she could learn English well. During the summer vacation, Uncle Bai also took her to Shanghai to observe a fashion fair, and she thought that the Nanpu Bridge was really beautiful, and it looked like a neon floating over the Huangpu River from a distance...... At the end of the day, she asked her when she would go back to Suzhou to see her, saying that she really wanted to go to the outside world with her mother. Ah Ni seemed to ask more and more urgently every time where she was calling, in Guangzhou? Shenzhen? Haikou? Still is**? It made Shui Hong feel embarrassed. She loved her daughter, but her love had lost its way of expression; She could neither tell the truth to Ah Ni frankly, nor could she continue her lies to Ah Ni openly. This is also the reason why although she misses Ah Ni day and night, she can't call her often.

Happiness and pain are often like twin sisters who will live together for a long time. Shui Hong could only swallow the bitter gourd mixed with honey, waiting for time to slowly precipitate and filter them......

The bell rang on the other end of the microphone for a long time, but no one answered.

Shui Hong put down the microphone in disappointment, and before she could turn around, her hat fell without wind, and there was a burst of happy laughter from behind her.

“…… Wow, hiding here secretly, whispering to whom? ”

When Shui Hong saw Shu Li, a look of joy flashed in her eyes, she hadn't seen her for a few days, and she really missed her. She took the hat from Shu Li's hand, put it back on, and carefully lowered the brim. "Who else but Ani? It's a pity that there is no one in the family who ......," Shui Hong sighed.

"I said, you should also install a long-distance direct dial phone at home, or it will be too inconvenient." Shu Li said. "For example, today, Mr. Smith just called and said that he was in a bit of a hurry and had to delay his arrival by half an hour, and I couldn't inform you, for fear that you would slip away if you couldn't wait, so I had to rush over and accompany you first......"

Shui Hong found that Shu Li was wearing a plain white dress today, and her makeup was also very light, which looked particularly refreshing. Shu Li's dress style seems to have gradually become elegant. She shook her head and said, "You know, Zhou You doesn't like phone calls, and it's better that no one can find him." ”

The two men returned to the antechamber, found a secluded corner and sat down, and each asked for a cup of coffee.

"Mr. Smith says that he has waited so long, and that in a few weeks he will be returning home," said Shuli, "so he must want to make an appointment with you to talk about your manuscript...... I'm also in a difficult situation, but ......"

Shui Hong stirred the spoon in the cup and said, "I brought the manuscript." ”

"He also told me that he had been in China for more than half a year, and it was not until that art exhibition that he discovered that among the intellectual women in China, there was really a woman as beautiful as you......"

Shui Hong smiled slightly and said, "I talked to him for a few minutes that day, if you hadn't taken the initiative to introduce him in advance, how would he know about me?" Lili, you ghost elf, did you transplant all the words he praised you to me? ”

"Look at what you say, how can it be. I think he really admires you, and when I see you, I am fascinated by you...... Hey, what are you doing these days? Shu Li smiled and changed the subject.

"He's starting to conceive a series of paintings, and he'......s been fascinated by it for a few days."

Shu Li opened the Kun bag, took out a box of green "Yves Saint Laurent" cigarettes, lit them herself, and said, "Okay, let's be serious, I've been thinking, when I sell some more paintings, the money is almost raised, and you should buy a bigger house, right......?"

Shui Hong nodded and said: "The property rights of the house we live in now do not belong to Zhou Yu, in the long run, we have to buy a house." However, I actually like the quiet place, the house is smaller, easy to tidy up, and worry-free. It's just that Zhou You is now at the peak of his creation, and he must have a big studio, and I see him painting in that small room, which is really offended, and sometimes I can't wait to jump out of the window to observe the effect of the picture......"

"If I help you find a house, you won't object, will you?"

"I can settle for my life, but I can't settle for the studio. Lili, you are better than me in this regard, even if you help Zhou You, I have to thank you later......"

"What else do we say thank you or not, if it were another woman, she would have been with me a long time ago."

Shui Hong smiled and said: "However, Lili, I often hope that you will meet a good man as soon as possible and marry yourself happily, and I will also take back the sovereignty of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as soon as possible to ensure my territorial integrity." But you're fine, you won't leave......"

"Good man? Is there one? Shu Li's eyebrows were raised. The old one is too roundabout, the small one is too dark, and the woman now wants to find a ready-made good man, and there is no better way to go except for the assembly method......"

"Assembling method? What's your point? A few days ago, I was discussing the word assembly with Zhou You, modern people assemble furniture, assemble clothing, assemble families, assemble markets, but we didn't expect that we could also assemble lovers! ”

"Well, in order to assemble a decent man for yourself, the good parts have to be removed from at least three men—the character parts, the practical parts, and the sexual parts, and the best of them can't all be concentrated in one man at the same time, so you have to divide them up and eat them, and then imagine them as a complete man."

"And what about the part of love?" Shui Hong asked.

"To tell you the truth, the part of love is the hardest to get, he loves you, but if you don't love him, it's still the same as nothing. I'm on a dead end, I can't let people love passively, I love insensitively, I just want to love, love the people I love, so I'm ...... Shui Hong, you know, I have to think about disassembling Zhou You every day, without Zhou You, the part of love, the man I assembled can't live......"

Shui Hong couldn't help but be amused by Shu Li.

"You want to advocate divide and conquer, don't you? You bad girl, I think sooner or later you will force someone to use force to drive you away. ”

"It's not divide and conquer, it's a 'small special zone.'" Shu Li corrected with a smile. "Don't be angry, let's put it into practice first, okay? Haven't you heard of voluntary blood donation? Drawing out a few hundred CC of blood can not only save a person's life, but also activate the hematopoietic function of the blood donor, which is actually not in the way of people at all. Shuihong, you have such a vast continent, do you still care about this small special zone? The lease of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan can also bring economic prosperity to the mainland, and the transition will be gradual and peaceful, and when I discover the new continent one day, I will naturally return the small special zone to you, and it will not be too late for you to claim back Zhou You at that time......"

"Actually, I'd rather you ...... completely," Shui Hong said. All of a sudden, it was broken. But you're on the sidelines, and it's both leasing and borrowing, so it seems that I have no choice but to go down......"

Shu Li pretended to be mysterious and said: "Actually, you can't borrow some good parts, how about it, I'll help you, even if I repay you...... Well, this Mr. Smyth, he is a doctor from Columbia University in the United States, and I heard that his ancestors are still British nobles, and he has inherited a lot of inheritance. ”

Shui Hong interrupted her with a smile: "Lili, are you calculating me, if I find out, I won't be able to spare you......"

"Don't worry, I'll only count the money, and other things...... I'm still worried that you're scheming me...... Forget it, no kidding, I just watched you write and write all day long in your house, are you boring? I can't even spend a day on this kind of day, and it's so hard to play a man outside. When a man faints at the sight of a beautiful woman, you can make fun of them and give them out of their bad spirits. Big men, big men, all small men without money. Shu Li stilted her slender and strong thighs, lit another cigarette for herself, and said in a low voice: "A few days ago, a newly promoted director asked me to borrow money, and he embezzled public funds, and if he didn't make up for it, he would have to go to prison." He was about to kneel down for me that day, I scolded him for a long time, and he still gave me a smile. This kid used to come to power completely by patting horses and giving gifts, if he hadn't helped my dad before, I really wanted him to taste what it was like to be in prison. ”

"Did you lend him money?" Shui Hong asked worriedly.

"Of course I borrowed him. Borrowed 100,000. I will still need him in the future, let him provide me with economic information, introduce major customers......" Shui Hong said: "You really shouldn't care about this matter, if you don't get it right, it will implicate you......"

"If I'm in prison, won't you just take back your territorial sovereignty?"

"Don't talk nonsense Lili, you lost more than 200,000 yuan in the stock market last month, and now you have lent out so much money, you must not do anything illegal!" Shui Hong gently patted the back of Shu Li's hand and sighed softly, "If you really encounter any ** trouble, you must not hide it from us, Zhou You and I will go out to help you." Really, Lili, please always believe this, if you need money, we can find a way, but if it doesn't, I'll sell my two body paintings......"

"Look at you...... Where did you say......" Shu Li's long eyelashes twitched slightly. "I'm fine, I'm used to it, in fact, in the business field, people who don't dare to toss are the most unsafe. What is that 200,000? In the past few days, I have sorted out the sundries, and unexpectedly found that I bought a rare ancient painting at a low price five years ago. All right...... I won't tell you about me in the future, it's like a mountain, but it makes you worry about me......" Shu Li's voice suddenly choked, her eyes were sour, and she said to Shui Hong with emotion: "However, if you think about me like this, if you have this thought, I will be content, in case something happens, you two don't forget to send me something delicious......"

Shui Hong suddenly smelled a burst of flowers, and his eyes were brilliant. She looked up and saw Mr. Smith, tall in his arms, standing respectfully in front of them with a large bouquet of flowers.

Shu Li jumped up from her seat, immediately burst into tears and laughed, and threw herself into his arms happily, kissing him politely.

The three of them sat down to chat. Mr. Smith repeatedly apologized for his tardiness. The conversation quickly got to the point, he asked Shui Hong a few aesthetic questions about Chinese painting, and later learned that Shui Hong was from Suzhou, so he asked her about Wu Yue culture. Shui Hong briefly introduced to him the texture and pattern characteristics of Taihu silk, and also explained to him the cultural origin and formation of silk. Throughout the conversation, he kept looking at Rainbow, and his azure eyes couldn't take his eyes off her face. The coffee in front of him was already cold, but he didn't even bother to take a sip. Finally, he looked at his watch, turned to Shu Li and said that he didn't know if he could have this honor, and he hoped to invite the two ladies to lunch at noon.

Rainbow took out a neat stack of copies of the manuscript from her satchel and said to Mr. Smith that it was a pity that she had already had another appointment at noon this day and could not accompany her. Maybe there will be a chance later. If he is interested in her monograph, they can continue to talk after reading the manuscript.

Mr. Smith shrugged his shoulders regretfully and spread his hands. Shui Hong hurriedly walked through the crystal floor of the lobby, and felt a pair of blue eyes behind her, watching her all the time.

Zhou You closed the doors and windows tightly, still feeling that the outside world had been making a noisy and noisy humming sound, which made him upset.

Over the past few days, he has been painting frantically, and fragments of strange colors and grotesque shapes often appear in front of his eyes, and bright rotating objects appear one after another; One moment the mind is full of white and perfect human bodies, and the next is bloody stumps and broken arms. He even found himself and Shu Li's heads floating in the air and kissing passionately, while their limbs wandered around, hooking shoulders with other limbs elsewhere. In the blink of an eye, the head and limbs were in place again, and they were restored, drifting in the rubble......

Zhou You often felt dizzy and dizzy. In recent days, he has become tired of all the entertainment and vanity that comes with the success of the exhibition, and even extremely disgusted with people's praise and admiration. The quiet and warm days that lasted for more than a year were interrupted by these trivialities, which made him feel even more irritable. He avoided the drinking parties and various parties arranged for him by Shu Li again and again, and only hoped to stay quietly in this small studio, so that Shui Hong could watch him create new paintings alone.

It seemed to him how quiet and long the process of gathering and reorganizing in the air was, while the rhythm of modern life was so rapid and manic. The people of the end of the century, in the fragments of civilization that came to them, feverishly assembled new hopes and new disasters; The assembly desires of modern men and women are exhilarated by all kinds of new material pleasures and stimuli. Break - assemble, break again - assemble again, break again - keep assembling - keep assembling, just like the Sisyphus myth, constantly liking the new and hating the old, constantly pushing through the old and bringing forth the new; Constantly breaking and assembling others, and constantly being broken and assembled by others. Zhou You's fear was that he realized that he was already in the whirlpool of fate that was broken and assembled. He shattered Shu Li's complete love, shattered Shui Hong and Lao Wu's original warm family, and shattered Ani's beautiful flower season life; It also assembled the world of love and art between him and Shui Hong, the friendship relationship with Shu Li, and the configuration of art and brokerage...... And Shui Hong also started another life she was looking forward to in breaking and assembling......

So, will he be broken and reassembled by some other force? Zhou You asked himself. He began to feel deeply anxious and frightened by this high-benefit and high-risk assembly. Whether it succeeds or fails, the assembly is brutal, it is like an invisible hand, coldly juggling - Shu Li's friends in the business world, some broke out, some went bankrupt, some went to prison, and some re-ashore...... Zhou You was often frightened by the stories and theories about assembly told by Shu Li; Shu Li, on the other hand, seems to have been born to be dominated by the fate of assembly, and it is precisely in this turbulent, risky, and fearful modern market that she picks up the parts she needs. But she doesn't seem to be happy with the results of her assemblies, and she's always ready for new ones to break and assemble, and to choose better configurations and reconfigurations. This may mean that there will be more debris floating in the sky in the future...... In those days, the strange and terrifying fragmented and distorted images of Western painting poured into his mind along with the noise of the city, he felt the floor of the house constantly shaking, the colors in front of him constantly changing, his fingertips were full of desire to speak, and there was nothing else to do in his life except to express the love in his heart with painting; There was nothing but painting that could give his boiling thoughts and mood a temporary peace......

Zhou You has entered a peak period of creation. He first painted a few abstract modern paintings, including a small painting entitled "The Long Corridor", which has a very strange structure and very quiet colors. Then he went out of control, and with uncontrollable madness, fear and anxiety, he painted a series of three modern works entitled "Assembly". It's red, white, and black again, thrilling and creepy.

The first is the assembly of all the successful festive reds: the red carpet at the opening ceremony of the exhibition, the red silk ribbon for the ribbon cutting, the red ribbon hanging on the gold trophy, the red certificate for the competition, the red lantern hanging high in front of the hotel, the red wedding dress for the bride, the ruby on the wedding ring, the red invitation card for the banquet, the red wine on the wedding banquet, the red lips of the beautiful girl, the red roses in the luxury apartment, the red gift boxes piled up on the hill, and the red fireworks sprayed all over the sky...... dark red, light red, purple, pink, big red, scarlet, red on red, red on red, red on red, red on red; Red geometric shapes of various shapes assemble all the successes and celebrations into a red world, like a field covered by colorful glow and sunset, pushing the red into the depths and distances......

However, within this brilliant red, there is another slightly darker and cooler red embedded in it. It's like the color of coagulated blood and plasma—the blood vessels that are faintly visible under the translucent skin of the rainbow, the reddish nails of Ah Ni, the bloodshot in Lao Wu's eyes, and the blood of Ah Xiu by the river in Suzhou...... The red dots on the whole picture resemble fireworks, but in fact they are red eyes, jealous and greedy, like red-hot soldering irons, like signal flares in the air, and more like bloody mouths, exuding a bloody breath. As a result, the cheerful and lively red that people looked at first glance soon became blurred, and looked like a bloody cowhide that had just been peeled off, which made people feel terrible and disgusting. The picture is always filled with a turbulent effect, and the colors are constantly changing, transforming, deforming and exaggerated, leaving people with a magical and mysterious sense of fear played by fate......

The second - the blazing white color after the blast is assembled. All the scenes and people on the canvas were blown up by a powerful air current, and they lost their color, lifeless, and bloodless. In a misty white light, the object is broken into scattered parts, rotating and floating in the air without gravity, like space junk in outer space, choking and suffocating......

The third is an absurd and bizarre black assembly, as black as deep caves and canyons, faintly flashing with a shiny dark river. This is a huge** X-ray negative, the picture is unusually smooth, and the tone is as black as ink. But you can see the combination of blue, black, blue, black, purple, black, gray and black: there are able-bodied babies, freaks, molar fetuses, centipeds, three-headed and six-armed monsters, and various deformed children with missing legs and arms after the Hiroshima explosion......

Zhou You was shocked and drew it in one breath. He didn't know which one of them was himself in this great dark skin, and what he was going to be reassembled into something. He was distracted by the images he had created and the demons he had called out. Once again, he went into a state of madness, painting and muttering all day long, not eating or drinking, or overeating. He didn't want anyone to bother him, and even Shu Li was turned away. And as long as Shui Hong left him for a few minutes, he would call her name and call her back to his side; Or take a paintbrush and follow her into the kitchen or bedroom......

In those days, Shui Hong tried her best to restrain her worries, pretending to be calm and watching him paint. At first she hesitated, wondering whether she should suppress his artistic madness, or let it run wild. But she didn't dare to interrupt his state of painting. She knew that once his heart was full of suffocating feelings, like a ferocious flash flood, he would have to vent his pleasure in one go. Late at night, Shui Hong was often woken up by Zhou You's convulsive shouts, and he always said that his head hurt like it was about to crack. Shui Hong turned on all the lights, hugged him tightly, and gently patted his back like a baby, using his warm body to drive away the monster in Zhou Youmeng's dream. In Zhou You's almost morbid state of painting, Shui Hong once again felt Zhou You's deep love and attachment to her. She added another section to her monograph, trying to explain and explain the relationship between the artist's psychological emotions and the work. Love not only produces bright and brilliant colors, worries, and fears of losing love in the artist's paintings, but also produces eerie works; However, only an artist who is full of creative vitality can appeal to artistic expression of his perception of life......

Under Shui Hong's careful care, Zhou You's mood gradually stabilized. The face that was blue and white also had a little blood. One evening in late autumn, he finally finished the "Assembly" series, threw away his paintbrush and hugged Shui Hong tremblingly, looking at those paintings and unable to say a word. Then he fell asleep and slept until the afternoon of the next day. Later, for nearly two weeks, Zhou You did not dare to look at his paintings. He felt like he was seriously ill, and he had experienced the fear of falling from a height.

After Zhou You calmed down a little, Shui Hong specially invited Shu Li to come and see a new painting. Shu Li was also stunned by these new works. Shui Hong tactfully said to Shu Li that these series of paintings are completely non-commercial works of art, and perhaps only a few people can understand them. She hopes to temporarily seal these paintings, keep them a secret from the art world, and wait for a year and a half before taking them out for exhibition. She believes that the feeling expressed by Zhou You's series of paintings will not be outdated in another half century. In the future, people will become more and more aware of the cruelty of fate and the insignificance and helplessness of people. This series of paintings will also enter the nightmare of many people. Therefore, they mark Zhou's breakthrough and transcendence of himself at this stage, and should be classified as a collection and non-sale.

Shu Li stood silently in front of the three series of paintings, and said to Shui Hong for a while: "This Zhou Yu, his emotions have no regularity at all, I can't change him......"