14 years time difference

Guangzhou in March has begun to be a little hot.As soon as the camera was turned off, Chen Jia carried the guitar on her back, smiled politely at the host who was interviewing her, and left without saying a word.She took out the Walkman from her cross-body bag, and she only wanted to buy a can of cold Coke quickly. Her headphone cable was tangled in a mess in the bag, and she spent a long time untying it while walking.

She walked through the square in front of the gymnasium. There was a long queue of contestants. There was a vending machine near the side entrance of the gymnasium. An old lady was singing a Cantonese opera next to it. on stage".

She is short-sighted, and she had to squint slightly to see the instructions on the machine. It said that only 5 yuan, 10 yuan notes and 1 yuan coins were accepted. In each mezzanine, there is a piece in the east and a piece in the west, 20 yuan, 50 yuan, but there is no 5 yuan and 10 yuan.

The old lady was talking to someone standing in the shadows in the corridor in front of the door, speaking in local dialect: "What do you think? Side support is better?"

The one who answered was a young girl, obviously not from the local area, who answered irrelevant questions with a completely crappy accent: "Houhou!"

The old lady took the registration form and left very satisfied.

The girl jumped down from the steps, turned her head to see Chen Jia, and took the initiative to talk to her: "Hello, you are Chen Jia."

When Chen Jia heard her name, she turned to look at him in confusion.The person in front of me has a pair of beautiful big eyes, her gaze and expression are bright, she is wearing a thin sweater in the season when pedestrians have changed into unlined clothes, and she looks out of place in this southern March.

The girl said again, "I was in there just now. You sang a little too well."

Chen Jia thought about it and asked, "Is it a bit good, or too good?"

The girl smiled, and when she smiled, there was a slight dimple at the corner of her mouth: "You're insulting me." She said, "Let me introduce myself, I'm your future manager."

"Future? I don't need an agent."

"You want to be a star in the future, why don't you need an agent?"

She handed over a business card, and Chen Jia held it up in front of her eyes, and looked at it carefully, it said: Li Miaomiao, executive manager of the Department of Love of Culture and Artists.

Chen Jia said, "Hello, Manager Li. So what artists do you bring?"

"Uh..." Li Miaomiao was a little embarrassed, but she quickly said calmly: "Not yet. But soon. When you are shortlisted for the national finals, you will be my first artist."

Chen Jia asked, "Then what are the managers responsible for?"

Li Miaomiao said proudly: "Responsible for taking care of everything about artists." She grinned.

"Well... then," Chen Jia glanced at the red cans in the vending machine, "I want to drink a can of Coke, can you take care of it?"

As a result, no 5 yuan or 10 yuan banknotes were found on Li Miaomiao's body.She turned around and ran into the gymnasium, saying that she was going to borrow it from other staff members, but Chen Jia said to her back, no, I'm leaving first.However, Li Miaomiao had already run into the door, Chen Jia hesitated for a while, then turned and left.She put Li Miaomiao's business card into the bag that held the Walkman, and then untied the heavily tangled headphone cable as she walked.

She went back to her rented room alone. She lived in an old self-built building in an urban village. The tide was high in March, and the floor and washed clothes were always wet.In the room next door lived a few girls who worked in a nearby hair salon, none of whom were locals. Every night, there were lively voices from the next door, laughing and joking, and the aunt upstairs would open the window and scold them for "I don't know how ugly" they are!Chen Jia didn't dislike them. When she was writing songs in the room, their voices became concrete in front of her, turning into notes full of life.

Li Miaomiao's business card had been left in the Walkman bag, Xu Shi fell into the side mezzanine, and was completely forgotten by her within a few days.There is still nearly a month before the Guangzhou Top 50 competition. She writes songs and sleeps at home during the day, and goes to the bar to sing and make money at night. Do not do serious work.She responded indifferently, and her father would often hang up the phone after punching tofu like a punch.

A few days after the audition, the program was broadcast on TV. There was no TV in her house, so she borrowed it from the girls in the hair salon next door. Once they entered the room, they asked her to test whether she could remember their names. Xia, Nannan, Xiaoqing, Qiuling, she remembers it, but she can't tell who is who, and every time they have to make a fuss about it, it's like Tang Seng entered the Pansi Cave.

The room is less than [-] square meters in total, filled with the aroma of young girls' rouge. There is a simple sink and kitchen stove at the entrance. On the left side wall are two bunk beds, and on the other side are simple wardrobes and a TV. Fans, an unfolded folding table, a few benches, and a small TV.There is everything on the folding table, as if everything is usually done on the table, cosmetics, paper towels, bowls and chopsticks, several boxes of Master Kong instant noodles stacked up, a bag of scattered boiled peanuts, and some crushed peanut shells. Tissues with lipstick marks.They laughed and pulled Chen Jia to sit down at the table, cleared the trash on the table, turned on the TV, pressed and smashed it, and then restored the snow-covered screen to normal. The evening replay was showing Li Miaomiao's interview, Nan Nan Chatting with Xiaoqing, he became a sponsor at such a young age, Chen Jia remembered that business card, and completely forgot where he had left it.

Seeing myself on TV feels strange, as if that person is not me, not my face, nor my voice.The girls praised her for singing well, for being photogenic, and for being pretty. Chen Jia smiled shyly, watched herself bow, and held up her promotion card to the camera.She was quite satisfied with the person on the screen, and felt that that person seemed to be born to stand in focus and sing.Xiaoqing asked her when she would go on TV again, and she wanted to support her in front of the TV as soon as possible. Nan Nan said that she would organize a support club and vote for her every day.Lan Xia said why don't you have long hair, you must be beautiful with long hair.Xiaoqing refuted her, don't you think Faye Wong also cut her hair short?

The room was full of excitement, and the electric fan was whistling.The door opened, and Qiu Ling hugged the washbasin, bringing in a burst of damp steam from the shower, mixed with the fragrance of shampoo, and she called Chen Jia: "Your friend is looking for you."

Chen Jia turned her head and saw Li Miaomiao sticking her head out a few meters behind Qiu Ling.

She froze for a moment, then stood up, Xiaoqing looked back, and whispered, isn't this the sponsor on TV just now?

Seeing her, Li Miaomiao grinned brightly and took out a can of Coke from behind.

Chen Jia and Li Miaomiao walked to the outermost stairs of the building, and Li Miaomiao asked as they walked, "I called you so many times, why didn't you answer?"

Chen Jia asked without answering, "How do you know I live here?"

Looking down on the stairs, you can see the narrow and chaotic streets of the village in the city.Chen Jia held the can of Coke dripping with both hands.

"It's written on your player contact form."

"Oh..." Chen Jia rubbed her head, "I seldom look at my phone, and I haven't received it." She often forgot to bring her phone with her, and sometimes when she thought about it before going out, she couldn't find where to throw it. And give up. "Then you come, what's the matter?"

A few steps downstairs is a fish stall, and the fishy smell of the ocean wafts from it.

"Come and see you. It's my job."

Chen Jia was puzzled.

"My job is to discover and train potential newcomers for the company. I think you will definitely enter the national competition, so I will be your friend in advance." Li Miaomiao has a cheerful face and always smiles when speaking He spoke, revealing the pear dimple at the corner of his mouth.

Chen Jia did not refute.

Li Miaomiao said again: "Today's program is aired, have you watched it?"

"Well, I just watched the rerun."

"Are those girls just now your friends?"

Chen Jia thought for a while, "Well, that's right, we are neighbors."

Li Miaomiao paused for a moment, seemed to be hesitant to speak, and said cheerfully: "I'm going to East China tomorrow, why don't you go out with me? What's interesting in Guangzhou? Let's go to see the Pearl River."

Chen Jia shook her head: "I have to go to work later."

"Going to work so late?"

"Well, I work in a bar and sing."

"Then I'll join you too." Li Miaomiao hung on the railing of the stairs, her new light-colored shirt was stained with embroidery, and said with great ambition: "You won't have to go to the bar to sing anymore, and I will let you sing in the future." Going to sing on many, many big stages." She looked down at the noisy market downstairs and her somewhat dirty white canvas shoes, "I don't need to live here anymore, it's too hard to find, I just searched for a long time."

A drop of water fell on Li Miaomiao's head.She looked up, "It's raining!"

There is not even a cloud in the narrow sky between the houses.It was Qiu Ling who was drying the freshly washed and unwrung clothes on the stairs on the upper floor.

Qiu Ling poked out a pair of eyes, looked at Li Miaomiao, and quickly shrank back.

Chen Jia also raised her head, "Why is it raining?"

Qiu Ling leaned out again, and whispered timidly, "...I'm sorry, I didn't wring out my clothes."

Li Miaomiao asked Chen Jia, "Why do you hang the clothes on the stairs?"

"The corridor is narrow and the sun doesn't shine. It's better here."

Li Miaomiao looked up and down again, as if he was surprised that such a place existed in this world, "I thought Guangzhou was a modern metropolis."

Chen Jia smiled, "Because it's a big city, there are places that can accommodate us little humans."

"You like it here?"

"Well, it's alright."

On a muggy night in March in the south, there is a fishy smell in the free air of the village in the city.

Li Miaomiao didn't go to the bar to listen to Chen Jia's singing. She received a call and left in a hurry. She said to Chen Jia, see you in Jincheng.Chen Jia asked, are you not coming to Guangzhou anymore?There are also semi-finals and regional finals.Li Miaomiao replied, it depends on the work arrangement.

She jumped downstairs one by one, Chen Jia held the can of Coke that was not too cold, and looked down at her walking briskly away.

Qiu Ling stood behind her at some point, startling her.

Qiu Ling hugged the washbasin and asked shyly: "Are you going to become a big shot? Will I not see you in the future?" She seemed to have been standing upstairs listening to them talking.

Chen Jia didn't know how to answer for a while, she wanted to say, no.But she also had a certain hunch that if she said it, it would become a lie.

The sky between the residential buildings in the village in the city is very narrow, like a crab pot for fishing. Some fish feel that this place is big enough and free enough, but some fish know that they are going to the wider sky and sea.