Chapter 4 Uninvited Guests

Author: XiangzhuMM

Chapter 4 Uninvited Guests

For the people in the troupe, the declining situation has made them aware of the grim future of the troupe. At this moment, they have to work in the fields like farmers. Although they feel aggrieved, compared to daily green vegetables and white porridge, they prefer to rely on their own hands. Create a new life. Especially after Zhang Chennian went to Sanya to set up a stall, every time he came back, he described the beauty of the spring breeze of reform in the city, which made them full of expectations for planting sweet potatoes, as if they had seen the brand new Qiong Opera Troupe. 's future.

On the first day of land reclamation, Huang Simei bought 5,000-watt firecrackers to boost morale. Meng Huaxiang hid on the second floor of the wooden attic, listening to the crackling firecrackers downstairs, and felt sad: The theater troupe left by her mother was originally She only had the elegant singing that had been lingering for three days, but now it was filled with fireworks. How could she not feel sad? But there was no evidence of tears, so she didn't even know whether the resentment in her heart was sadness.

Zhang Wenqian, the naughty dumpling, didn't understand the sorrows of the adult world. She nestled in her grandma's arms, watching the colorful firecrackers explode outside the house, and clapped her hands in a sweet voice.

At this moment, human beings' joys and sorrows are not the same.

Although she made an exception to open up wasteland for farming, Huang Simei was very supportive of her mother-in-law's idea and still had ardent hopes for the troupe's comeback. In order to retain the roots of the Qiong Troupe, the troupe still got up every morning when the rooster crowed, sang their voices, practiced and rehearsed. Then we had breakfast and went to open up wasteland. Considering that all the young people in the Qiong Opera Troupe had never done farm work, Huang Simei bought thick cotton gloves and big hats for everyone to cover their faces tightly. Show a pair of eyes.

Young students Liu Guangwei and Wu Linlin were playing and playing with each other.

"I am the Masked Man Zorro! Come quickly and accept your fate!"

"I am the cloaked and masked woman! Take my sword! Don't run away!"

There was originally a slightly sad atmosphere, but the fight between these two little ancestors made everyone laugh so hard that they couldn't stand up straight.

Except for Huang Simei and Zhang Chennian, the rest of the Dongfang Qiong Troupe were recruited by Zhang Lujin and Meng Huaxiang. The younger ones among them all grew up in the troupe. Although they have endured all the hardships of practicing, they still have nothing to do. The master of onion water.

Therefore, Huang Simei prepared all kinds of protective equipment for them, hoping that they would suffer as little as possible and still maintain their love for Qiong Opera. From this point alone, Meng Huaxiang felt that her daughter-in-law was more considerate than her son. :Zhang Chennian, this dead monkey grandson, has lost his sights on money! When he talks, he always talks about market economy, but when he talks silently, he talks about reform and opening up, and the construction of the four modernizations.

Annoying!

Thinking of her son, Meng Huaxiang felt itchy again and wanted to slap him.

For the tiny dream of Qiong Opera, Huang Simei was not only pioneering the field, but also thinking about how to use performances as training to prevent everyone's basic skills from being wasted. In order to create the atmosphere of Qiong Opera's ten-mile tour, Huang Simei called on the younger members of the troupe to use bamboo fences to fence the wooden attic. A large yard was formed, and a three-meter-high green bamboo oil-paper shed was built to protect against wind and rain. Bougainvillea trees were planted around the bamboo fence. A few scattered coconut trees at the door stood in the wind, alternating with red and green bougainvillea trees. The colors complement each other. The entire wooden loft looks retro and elegant at a glance from a distance, without destroying the troupe's rich cultural heritage and literary atmosphere.

"In the future, this will be our big stage: no matter the weather, we will put on a complete play every month! To honor our ancestors!" The troupe looked solemn, nodded heavily, and their eyes were red and wet.

Eyes, but the determination to protect Qiong Opera is revealed in them.

Huang Simei looked at a sincere and simple heart with great pride in her heart: "If the heart is there, the dream is there! There is true love between heaven and earth! Look at success or failure, life is heroic, it is just starting from scratch! As long as we work together, Qiong Opera will definitely be able to reproduce

brilliant!"

Meng Huaxiang looked at her daughter-in-law who was standing upright on the stage and quietly wiped away her tears.

In order to make her mother-in-law happy, every three or five days, Huang Simei would compile interesting stories about land reclamation into short and quick excerpts. She would find young students from the troupe to rehearse secretly in the field. Then after dinner, the lights would be turned on, the erhu would sound, and the red curtain would rise.

As soon as you pull it, it will appear in full glory, creating surprises for Meng Huaxiang from time to time and making her happy.

Meng Huaxiang was often teased to the point where she leaned forward and backward, laughing until she burst into tears. However, she still pretended to be angry and reprimanded Huang Simei, warning her not to turn Qiong Opera into entertainment. This is a serious and elegant art and cannot be turned into something different.

Huang Simei listened to this with an open mind, but did not forget to tell her mother: "Comrade Xiaoping said, 'Black cats and white cats, the one that catches mice is a good cat.' No matter whether it is an excerpt, a single act, or a full play, what the people like to see is

Good form!”

Meng Huaxiang said that Huang Simei had sharp teeth and a sharp tongue and would not argue with her. However, under the influence of subtle influence, she gradually let down her body and was willing to listen to the excerpts and even act in the excerpts.

After the troupe opened up space, Huang Simei arranged a task for Meng Huaxiang: to take care of the baby at home! However, Meng Huaxiang could not stay idle at all. She would get up when the rooster crows every day to cook breakfast, and then get up to practice with everyone. During the performance, she

He will always take the trouble to help everyone correct the shortcomings of singing and adjust the details of movements...

Meng Huaxiang has dedicated her whole life to Qiong Opera, and there is a high probability that she will live and sing until she is old like her grandmother. Seeing her mother-in-law's temples turning gray, Huang Simei felt sad, but she still smiled and comforted her, everything will be fine

Getting better and better.

The East is located in a tropical monsoon maritime climate zone. The summers are hot and the sun is as scorching as a knife, which can hurt people. Every noon, Meng Huaxiang would go to the fields with his pair of grandchildren, carrying lunch and Kuding tea.

Every time she watches the members of the troupe working with their backs to the sky and the earth facing the earth, Meng Huaxiang feels happy and sad at the same time: the sad and joyful actors are forced to work in the fields because of their livelihood.

Remembering that her nephew had come to her door again in recent days and wanted to "give alms" to her, Meng Huaxiang made up her mind to work with her daughter-in-law to turn the tide and vow to keep everything her mother left behind!

*

1993, Slight Heat.

The Dongfang Qiong Opera Troupe's land reclamation has initially yielded results. On fifty acres of wasteland, green sweet potato seedlings have been planted. Having said that, this is based on Huang Simei's memory of purchasing sweet potatoes in Erxian Village, and she followed the good seedlings to every household.

Purchase seeds.

One of the conveniences of growing sweet potatoes is that you can choose the seedlings in the field and cut off the buds to use as seeds, which is simple and convenient.

Huang Simei looked at the rows of small green seedlings, as if there was a fire burning in her heart, and said warmly: "Sister, no wonder the ancients taught us to make enough food and clothing by ourselves! These days, after working every day, simple meals are better than rare delicacies. Look at this

With rows of potato sprouts, I think I can still eat two big bowls of dry rice tonight!"

Meng Huaxiang laughed loudly when he heard this: "If a person is so hungry, he can even swallow boiled stool legs!"

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law looked at each other and smiled, with more expectations for the future in their hearts.

The young students of the Qiong Opera Troupe heard that Zhang Chennian could make a net profit of more than a thousand yuan a month by setting up a stall in Sanya. They were full of expectations for the fifty acres of potato fields: This is nearly a year's salary for ordinary workers! As long as the potatoes are If the land is harvested successfully, the troupe's income will also increase steadily.

The troupe immediately became excited, and everyone was gearing up, claiming that they would roll up their sleeves and work hard with Huang Simei, vowing to grow big, plump sweet potatoes and make a lot of money.

Li Dongming and Lin Jiaojiao, who were only 20 years old, had bright eyes and thought to themselves: If they had known that they would go to sea to make money, why would they be apprentices?

Meng Huaxiang looked at the joyful faces of the troupe and couldn't describe the joy and sorrow: Will the big wave of the market economy really kill all the treasures left by the ancestors on the beach?

Sensing that Meng Huaxiang's face was gloomy, Huang Simei threw the stack of ten-yuan bills that Zhang Chennian had enclosed with her into her hand, and quietly planned the future - when the sweet potato seedlings were sown, they would cultivate the 50 acres of land next door. Come out, plant some peanuts and melons, and supply them to Zhang Chennian. In this way, the Qiong Opera Troupe will earn money from both sides.

Seeing Meng Huaxiang's frown, she added: "If you want, Grandma, the Dongfang Qiong Troupe can still go to the countryside to set up a stage every month and tour to eight villages to let more people know about the treasures passed down by our ancestors... "

He understood his daughter-in-law's kindness, but Meng Huaxiang still glared at her with feigned anger, and warned her not to be too ambitious, not to run away before she learned how to walk, and to cultivate the land first, and not to want everything. End of instructions My daughter-in-law, Meng Huaxiang, did not forget her duties as the leader of the Dongfang Qiong Opera Troupe, and shouted to all the members to gather at the rooster's crow the next day to practice. Everyone in the troupe happily responded in unison: "I heard it!"

There was a lot of laughter in the wooden loft, but Meng Huaxiang’s smile was very far-fetched. The better the market economy, the greater the impact on Qiong Opera. She mentioned that she would go on tour to ten miles and eight towns, just to make Meng Huaxiang happy - after all Nowadays, movie theaters are popping up all over the place, and people entering the movie theaters are crowded one after another, but there are often no people in front of the Qiong Opera stage.

Huang Simei wanted to keep the treasure of Qiong Opera together with her mother-in-law, but had no way to deal with it and couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

Suddenly, a loud song and dance show promotion vehicle broadcast on the street: "Tianmi, your smile is so sweet, like flowers blooming in the spring breeze, blooming in the spring breeze. Where? Where have I seen you? Your smile It's so familiar that I couldn't remember it for a moment! Ah! In a dream! In a dream, I saw you in a dream, sweet, sweet. Your smile is so sweet..."

As the singing gradually faded, a thick voice came from the radio: "Tonight at seven o'clock, in eight cinemas, the Guangzhou Song and Dance Troupe's national tour will be launched! Infinitely exciting! Don't miss this opportunity, it will never come again! Please buy quickly ticket……"

The sensational song and dance promotion vehicle instantly opened up Huang Simei's two connections: Our Qiong Opera is now full of wine but afraid of deep alleys, so we have to promote it!

In the past two years, the popular song and dance performances, in which the singers wore revealing bikinis, had flirty makeup, and exaggerated movements, were very popular. Meng Huaxiang denounced them as "kitsch performances" that were immoral, but the venues were always full.

The stage was full of melodious music, and the audience cheered and shouted loudly.

The most novel thing is their publicity method: half a month before the performance, they began to hire floats to amplify the loudspeakers in the city: photos of the singers in cool clothes were pasted on the cars, which were hot and fragrant; the loudspeakers exaggerated and sensationalized. Huang Simei decided to find a A promotional vehicle to advertise the excerpts of the Oriental Tea House!

Nowadays, people's living standards are rising, and their spiritual enjoyment is also different from before. If Qiong Opera is still about talent and beauty, how can it retain the younger generation?

Huang Simei tossed and turned for several days and came up with a bold idea: to hold a special performance of Qiong Opera on the wooden pavilion stage on the first and fifteenth day of every month, and at the same time, invite a promotional truck to go to the countryside to promote it, calling on everyone to come and watch the performance on the day.

Qiong opera performance.

On the day of the special performance, as long as they are willing to pay one yuan for the Qiong Opera performance ticket, free tea and snacks will be provided to the audience.

Huang Simei even thought that Qiong Opera could also be performed in movie theaters so that more people could experience the charm of Qiong Opera.

As long as the script is fashionable enough to keep up with the times, the younger generation will also like it!

When Meng Huaxiang heard the tricks of the promotional truck, she was furious: "How can the cultural essence passed down by our ancestors be compared to those things that expose breasts? If you dare to ruin Qiong Opera, I will die for you!"

Huang Simei took her to do ideological work for five or six days, and assured her that every performance day would be a full-length drama, and the excerpts would only be used for scenes and breaks. She also promised that the promotional vehicle would never play the music of Mi Mi, and would only use

Radio broadcasts of Qiong Opera performance information are widely publicized.

After a series of chest-slapping, finger pointing, and vows, Meng Huaxiang still only said: "I'm old! Let you go!"

Although Meng Huaxiang was unwilling to give up, all the music coming from the recorder in the wooden loft was melancholy. The young students in the troupe who got up early to practice kung fu felt weak, and everyone even looked at her with a bit of sadness...

In the end, Meng Huaxiang had to compromise and agreed to Huang Simei's suggestion. However, she repeatedly emphasized that Qiong Opera cannot imitate song and dance performances and become vulgar, and all scripts must be controlled by herself.

In order to ensure the quality of Mu Loft's performances, Huang Simei adjusted the troupe's land reclamation time to: one day for farming and one day for rehearsals.

As the propaganda truck continued to exert its power, the Qiong Opera performance day of the Oriental Qiong Opera Troupe in Erxian Village soon became an important pastime for the villagers: the ticket price for each special event was only one yuan, but the free green tea could be refilled unlimitedly.

, unlimited sugar, and snacks ranging from 5 cents to 1 yuan, such as steamed ribbons, white plates, rice dumplings, sesame paste, etc.

In short, even if you don't like listening to plays, you can still get your money back or even make a profit by going to the Oriental Qiong Troupe's teahouse to eat and drink.

Therefore, the villagers spread the word by word of mouth. On the first and fifteenth day of every month, villagers from all over the country would go to the Qiong Opera Troupe teahouse. Huang Simei originally just wanted the spark of Qiong Opera to start a prairie fire, but she didn’t expect that the start of a prairie fire would eventually change.

It became the "Oriental Teahouse".

The name evolved from "Oriental Qiong Opera Troupe Tea House". After word of mouth spread, it became "Oriental Tea House". On the first and fifteenth day of every month, many people come to Erxian Village to drink tea and chat.

Leisure days.

Because the "green tea with cakes" model of Oriental Tea House has triggered a new round of consumption boom, villagers from all over the country have fallen in love with the leisure mode of going to the tea house in the afternoon to order a pot of green tea and have a leisurely chat with tea after busy farming.

Under everyone's strong request, Huang Simei changed the tea house day from twice a month to once a week, and then gradually changed it to twice a week, and finally evolved into a regular daily afternoon tea house.

As the saying goes, if you plant flowers intentionally, they will not bloom, but if you plant willows unintentionally, they will create shade!
Chapter completed!