As for the profession, I always feel that there is no one more freedom than the profession of an artist, where the famous artists make a lot of money, and the impoverished artists do whatever they want at the bottom. In between these two are pseudo-idealists, who refuse to give up their precious ideals or some memories that are difficult to let go, and at the same time have to bow their heads to the cruel reality of life.

As the saying goes: wine in a tavern is not cheap, just like we can't even afford to be emotional. Most of us are pseudo-idealists, with neither the whimsical nor the materialistic supremacy of realism.

Because of a mistake on a voyage, I came to Yuzhi Ancient Town by mistake. The southwest is misty and rainy, lightly covering the ancient stone bridges and gentle stone beasts. This thousand-year-old river flows like time, from early morning to late twilight, the light smoke disperses and the drizzle is endless. Yuzhi Ancient Town is an unearthly ancient town, without too much commercial rendering, retaining the original appearance of the ancient town, the residents of the ancient town are simple and unpretentious, and the government of the ancient town does not make a big deal of publicity, in the depths of this mountain, follow its natural development.

This is a place of literature and art, literature and art can exude a faint sadness without any embellishment, some people come here to stay in the inn, some people come here to heal, the wandering artist who accidentally broke into this place is amazed by the tranquility and atmosphere of such an ancient town, often improvised songs in the ancient town, or meditating on a painting. Tourists come and go in a hurry,

If you go to Yuzhu Ancient Town, you must go to Nanxi Street, step on the bluestone path, and go to No. 31 coffee shop. The stone slabs are paved with narrow alleys, wet, not flat, the deep streets and alleys with winding paths, the green tile wooden buildings and the small shops next to each other, as if telling the wealth and prosperity of the small ancient city for hundreds of years, and the people sent away by this ancient town, and the desire for human affection. The old-fashioned radio in the Guzhen video store always played "City in the Sky", repeating the cycle over and over again, like a tangled vine rooted in a dream:

At the moment I am in the night in a foreign land

It feels like you're flickering in and out

I want to go back in time and rejoice in silence

The city in the sky is crying, and you are getting brighter and brighter

Love is nothing but the fart of life, tormenting me and tormenting you

…………

Sister of Hong Kong Island, the sweet love we once had

Madness tore me apart, and the city in the sky was crying

Café 31 is only 20 square meters and is located in the westernmost part of the town, and if it were not for the deliberate search or fate, Café 31 might be silent until dawn at night. There are several bookcases in the coffee shop, and there are old to yellowed books such as "You Are Jinse, I am Flowing Years", "Leaving the City", "The Moon and Sixpence", and "The Source...... These books breathe on the bookcase, and there is life watching the people who come and go. A few tables and stools in warm tones, and the dim light illuminating the room, make the atmosphere warm and sensual. There are paintings hanging on the walls, field oil paintings with heavy makeup and light makeup, sketches with a few brushes, carefully sketched realistic life, and abrupt but harmonious folds and shine on the walls.

The owner of the coffee shop is called Luo Ben, a native of Zhejiang, but he is struggling to make a living in this small town in Guizhou. Robben was a man who loved freedom and romance, and was a well-known painter student at Nanjing University of the Arts.

It was the off-season for tourism, there were no tourists in the store, Robben was sitting at the front desk, the front desk was very messy, an unfinished oil painting oil paint had not yet dried, Robben was out of his mind. I sat in my seat and looked at Robben, his face full of stubble, his hair was long and shaggy and drooping. Robben held a cigarette in his hand, the cigarette slowly rose, and the ash was about to fall on the oil painting, Robben raised his head and suddenly saw me, he immediately smiled, full of shame and said: "I'm sorry, I wanted to paint just now, I was too involved and ignored you!" Robben's voice is very good, easy-going with a gentle tone, and it seems to have residual sadness precipitated by great grief, exuding the graceful temperament of a Jiangnan man.

"It's okay, it's okay, but I'm disturbing your creation." I replied.

Robben smiled faintly, stood up, and said, "What do you want to drink?"

"Let's have a drink of Castle in the Sky!"

"Okay." Robben turned around and went to make coffee. "By the way, you can smoke in the store."

I immediately took out a cigarette and lit it, to be honest, I like to smoke in such a quiet and literary place, the environment can arouse a kind of throbbing of literature and art in my chest, and smoking will make me worry about new words in this small space. I walked and smoked a cigarette while admiring the paintings on the walls.

In the center of the wall is a portrait of a young girl. Shoulder-length short hair, playful nose, elegant and vulgar, with a fairy atmosphere, a leisurely demeanor, peach cheeks with a smile, indescribably gentle and lovely. The whole painting is in a corner coffee shop in a bustling city, with a girl holding her red cheeks and looking forward to pedestrians and cars.

The ashes burned out, Robben handed me the "Castle in the Sky", and then he lit a cigarette himself and looked at the girl in the painting with affection. Outside the door of the store came another woman dressed in bright jewels, she opened the door, a strong smell of smoke choked into her nose, and then she coughed twice, and looked at Robben and Robben with her hands on her nose with disgust, and there was an indescribable speechlessness in her eyes, as if looking at two dirty and uninteresting people made her spirit and soul feel sick. Robben and I looked at each other's cigarettes and smiled.

Robben's coffee is freshly ground, according to the proportion of his state of mind self-creation, the coffee is added with a little milk and sugar, which not only retains the frosted feeling of coffee beans, but also has the lubrication of milk, exuding mellow, I don't think this is called "Sky City", but it is more appropriate to "Nai He Bridge", Nai He Bridge communicates life and death, located in the dark underworld, which is as bitter as coffee beans, but carries the reincarnation of all things in the world.

Take a sip of coffee and savor the flavor. "This girl is so good-looking, is this your girlfriend?" I asked, pointing to the painting.

"Yes, she is my wife Xiaoman." Robben looked at the gentle and playful woman on the wall, and replied with doting and pride.

"Wife? You're married, which is so unexpected to me. That sister-in-law must be very happy, after all, there is a man like you who loves her. I took another sip of my coffee.

When Robben heard this, his body trembled slightly, he did not speak, he looked at the painting intently, and then took a deep puff of cigarette, and the smoke ring spread above our heads, and Robben was fleeting with a touch of sadness. "I'm sorry, I was presumptuous to ask this topic." I say with apologies. "It's fine!" Robben replied. Robben then left the wall and sat down on a stool in the store. For a moment, the café plunged into a daunting tranquility.

The weather in the southwest is blocked by mountains and foggy, so the local rain comes unexpectedly. The lingering rain hit the tiles and dripped on the green bricks, and the red lanterns swayed in the rain. A few tourists put their clothes on their heads and ran to their respective inns. The glass windows of the coffee shop are split by the rain, refracting the world, quietly emerging, the leaden sky is crumbling, the wind is blowing the raindrops, and the ancient town should be so peaceful in a ticking beat. Looking at the rain through the rain, I don't know whether it is the clarity of the rain that stimulates the nerves of the long-sealed, or the natural brightness of the stone wall, everything becomes pure, all of this is like the ancient meaning lingering people can't bear to look at it.

I walked over to Robben's table and sat down, feeling guilty for my presumptuousness. The cigarette in Robben's hand had burned to the filter, I took out my own cigarette and handed it to him, Robben took the cigarette and lit it again.

"I'm so sorry, I seem to have brought up your sad past!"

"It's okay, it's okay, it's my own that is too easily swayed by emotions. Let you see the joke. Robben smiled at me. This gave me a little relief in my guilty heart. The two were relatively speechless, falling into a state of embarrassment.

"Actually, I should be relieved, you are lucky, maybe you will be the last guest of Cafe 31." Robben said.

"Huh? Why? Isn't the café ready to open? "It shocked me.

"Yes, I've been here for five years, and you should be able to see that Yuzhu Ancient Town may be the last fig leaf for the commercialization of ancient Chinese towns, and I will never be able to make ends meet in the five years I have been here. So, it's time to get out of here and give up on my unrealistic literary choice. Rain stop is really a paradise, suitable for a slow-paced retirement life, but also suitable for escaping real life. My parents in Zhejiang are getting old, and they are also urging me to start a family. So, it's time to get back to the outside world. Robben said seemingly casually, smoking a cigarette, flicking the ash into the ashtray, and smiling helplessly at me.

"The outside world is wonderful, and the outside world is helpless." I laughed and sang.

The rain outside was still dripping, as if a folk singer was singing from the heart.

"Robben, have a drink of Castle in the Sky!" The café was pushed away with a bang, and a tall, burly, unruly man shouted with his long hair in his hands.

Robben looked at the visitor in surprise, then extinguished his cigarette and turned to make coffee, and the man walked to the table. I took out the cigarette from my bag, and it was already wet and rotten because of the rain. The man shouted and shouted, "Robben, get a cigarette!" Robben didn't seem to hear it, and still didn't hurry to mix coffee. "I've got it here!" I handed him a cigarette, and the man sat across from me without pretentiousness and lit it. After a while, Robben handed the man a glass of "Castle in the Sky". The three of them sat together and slowly got acquainted, the new man was called Qiao Yuan, a native of Changsha, Hunan, who set off from Changsha alone, passed through Guizhou, prepared to go to Sichuan, and then from the 318 Qinghai-Tibet line all the way to the Potala Palace. Attracted by the quiet life of the town, I stayed for a few days, and naturally fell in love with Robben's "City in the Sky"!

"Robben, tomorrow I may have to leave the rain stop and set off for Sichuan." Qiao Yuan said with a big grin, his tone was full of yearning and expectation for the unknown journey.

"I'll leave tomorrow, that feeling is good, and I know to come to me for the last cup of coffee tonight!" Robben teased.

"Yes, I'll leave tomorrow, and I may never be able to drink coffee as flavorful as yours in my life. What a pity! When the time comes, I will go to Tibet, and when I get to the Potala Palace, I will take pictures so that you can see the real city in the sky! Qiao Yuan took a sip of coffee and said.

Robben and I laughed together, and I had a natural affinity and affection for Qiao Yuan's eclectic character.

"Robben, it's not me talking about you, the city in the sky should be transparent, clear and fresh, but your coffee is so bitter, there is only a little sweetness in the bitterness, this is not like the city in the sky, but like a life that can be lived." Qiao Yuan picked up a cigarette and held it in his mouth casually. Robben heard Qiao Yuan's words, as if he was making a big choice, his body trembled slightly, and he struggled for a long time, Robben also picked up a cigarette from the table and lit it and inhaled nicotine into his lungs, which calmed down, Robben took a deep breath and spit out the smoke rings, Robben was dark and sad, his eyes were already moist, his tear ducts were stimulated, and tears dripped down his cheeks.

The reason why it is called the city in the sky is because she once wanted to go to the Potala Palace, she felt that Tibet was the closest place to the sky, and the Potala Palace was a mysterious and solemn city in the sky. I'm talking about her, the girl on the wall, I always say she's my wife, but she left me before we could survive life. That's why I opened this coffee shop, and the main coffee is this cup of 'Castle in the Sky', for you, Castle in the Sky is a sacred yearning, and for me, Castle in the Sky is a past that I can't bear to look back on. Robben's throat was jammed with a mouthful of sputum because of the heavy smoking, which made his voice more hoarse.

"She's not going back, she's gone to heaven?" Qiao Yuan is obviously an informal person, he blurted out such heavy words, and then realized that something was wrong, so he could only cover his mouth with guilt.

After a brief pause, Robben lit a cigarette, the smell of kerosene and smoke mixing in the small space of the coffee shop. "Her name is very good, called Vitex, a kind of purple flower of Chinese medicine is also handed over to Vitex, she is the same as the flower, a native of a small family of jasper Nanjing girl, gentle, sensible, intellectual, kind, I think no matter how many words can describe her, she is a unique woman in this world." Robben fell into a long memory, as if her vitex was singing for him on the city in the sky.

"And then?" I lit a cigarette and asked.

"At that time, I was still at Nanjing University of the Arts, I was an art student of the college, and she was a music student of the college. Vitex's voice is quiet and elegant, which is just right with her slim temperament, Vitex has many suitors in school, she can always shine in the crowd, but because of her family cultivation, Vitex has always been alone, which makes her even more fascinating! My first encounter with her was at Akimbo café, when my buddy and I finished drinking and walked to the door of Akimbo café in a trance. When I went back to school, I painted this picture on the wall and gave it to Vitex, and since then, she and I have gradually come to know each other, appreciate each other, and be together naturally. The corners of Robben's mouth turned up slightly as he talked about the experience.

"This is youth." Qiao Yuan said.

"I was an art student from a humble family, but I always wanted to be a famous painter. But this world is cruel, no one understands my paintings, and no one is optimistic, but Vitex supports my dreams, and she loves my paintings very much, so I always forget to sleep and eat and immerse myself in the creation of paintings, and my shy and introverted Vitex, for me, for the first time, went to the streets to sing to earn money, the first time to accept the fingers of all kinds of people, the first time she and I squatted on the side of the road to eat instant noodles, my poverty and destitude made this woman make too many sacrifices and concessions, Her former suitors and friends lamented it. The dream of painting is still heavy, and the cruelty of reality is that I am still unknown until I graduate. My vitex went from a petite and effeminate girl to help me connect with art dealers, and no one was willing to make an uncertain investment in a fledgling art student. ”

"This world is like this, the crowd of people in the world is bustling and all for profit!" I was smoking a cigarette and accidentally flicked the ash on the table.

"Jingzi is actually very pitiful, her family is either rich or expensive, but her family is patriarchal, Jingzi has a younger brother, her parents gave all their love to her younger brother, and only money was given to Jingzi, in the huge city of Nanjing, Jingzi is lonely. So Jingzi and I kept each other warm and snuggled up to each other, trying to have our own one-story house, a warm home in such a city. Jingzi and I always sat on a chair on the street, looking at the new office buildings rising around us, and agreed to work there, looking at the soaring housing prices, we could only look at the old city in the distance, and Jingzi said: 'In the future, if we don't have money, then we will move to the old city, where the housing prices are cheap, as long as we are with you, we will go anywhere is home'. At that moment, I realized that Jingzi was so eager to have a warm home that belonged to her. ”

"Alas, how many young people nowadays have worked hard in a city all their lives but cannot own a house of their own in the city, and even if they do, they only have 70 years of property rights. Panicked, in a hurry, like me, to move around, the world is home, it is also a good choice. Qiao Yuan smoked a cigarette and looked at the rain outside the door. Then he said: "But the four seas are home, and once it rains, it will be the ocean!"

"Later, my paintings finally started to be appreciated, and I got the support of some small art dealers, and my experience gradually improved, and Jingzi became a middle school music teacher. So, in order to meet the ideals of Jingzi, in a summer vacation, we drove all the way from Nanjing, through Hefei, through Hubei, transferred to Hunan, arrived in Guizhou, the night of arriving in Guizhou, the rain was very big, in the mountains of Guizhou, Jingzi and I went all the way to the north, and finally came to the ancient town of Yuhu by mistake, we lived in the homestay, the two of them for the first time in a foreign land in the rainy night lingering compassion, that night, we were completely integrated, that day was July 31st, which is also the origin of the name of my coffee shop. Later, before he finished ............speaking, Robben began to cry, and his tears burst through the embankment, Robben's emotions began to lose control, holding his head, covering his face, tears flowed down from between his fingers pressing his eyes, and at this moment I saw a real heartbreak. Qiao Yuan took Robben's hand, and I stroked Robben's shoulder, hoping to give Robben some comfort. Robben twitched and slowly trembled, and I felt the trembling of his body, a huge sadness roaming through Robben's body.

Later, Robben gradually stabilized, I lit a cigarette for him, Robben smoked a cigarette and said: "Leaving Yuzhu Ancient Town, Jingzi and I entered the Sichuan territory, when the accident came, she was still singing for me in the car, it was Miriam Yang's "Wild Child", we discussed together to go to Tibet to shoot the most beautiful city in the sky, and draw the most beautiful her. The car suddenly skidped, the steering wheel failed, and just like that, the car flew off the road, fell down a high slope, and woke up in the hospital, and my Jingzi left this world. She went to the city in the sky, and later Jingzi's parents brought back Jingzi's ashes and beat me half to death, and my parents were so disappointed in me that they sighed. Later, I went back to Nanjing, where I rented a house with Jingzi, packed everything, and came to Yuzhi Ancient Town to open a coffee shop, because I met her in the coffee shop, and this is a place of great significance to me and her. The café's main restaurant, 'Castle in the Sky', was supposed to be lubricated and refreshing, but for me, Castle in the Sky was a hell to set foot in. After Robben finished speaking, he turned his head to look at the painting on the wall, his eyes were full of tenderness, and the smile of Vitex was still sweet.

"Yuzhu is a beautiful place, not very suitable for commercialization, I am destined to just stay here, after all, my parents are still waiting for me to support in Zhejiang, five years, I stopped in Yuhu for five years. It's time to go back, I gave all my years to my ideals, she gave me my youth to my absurdity, the story is not long, and it is not difficult to tell. Robben looked at the painting, and I don't know if he was saying to me and Qiao Yuan, or to the vitex on the wall.

The rain stopped, the red lanterns reflected in the potholes on the blue bricks and ancient stones, and the river water in the ancient town was reflected, like an upside-down world, a city in the sky. And Vitex is also in the depths of this sky city, just as he once loved Robben.