The brigade's courtyard is just 100 meters northwest of Liang Liang's house. As soon as you step out of your house, you can see a cloth shed standing in the brigade's courtyard.
This shed is quite large; its diameter is estimated to be over twenty meters.
It was May, and the weather was already getting warm.
Liang Liang draped her vest over her shoulders and came out of the house shirtless.
Instead of going to the brigade's courtyard to watch the circus set up its tent, he went out and headed due west to the small river at the western edge of the village, intending to take a bath in the clear water.
If you are reborn, you must turn over a new leaf, wash away all the filth, and then start a new life with renewed vigor.
Normally, there are hardly any people by the river around 9 a.m., and women usually come to the river to wash clothes after lunch.
But today, two girls appeared by the river, and they were people Liang Liang didn't recognize.
The two girls were quite good-looking; they were probably from a circus.
"Hey ladies! Washing clothes?" Liang Liang said, squatting by the river, and then scooped up water with both hands to wash her face.
In the early 1990s, the word "beauty" was not yet widely used. In cities, the popular terms were "Miss" and "Mr.", while in rural northern China, the terms "sister" and "brother" were used.
The term "beautiful lady" might have made the two girls a little uncomfortable, so they just smiled and didn't answer.
"Hey beautiful! Do you have a towel I can borrow?"
A girl with an oval face threw a towel over.
"Hey sis! What's wrong with you? Why are you throwing this like a grenade?"
The two girls giggled.
After wiping her face, Liang Liang handed the towel back to the oval-faced woman and then squatted down next to her.
"Sis! From the circus?"
"Yes!" The oval-faced man glanced at Liang Liang sideways.
The girl was quite pretty, and looked to be no more than twenty years old, but her face had a slightly worldly air about it.
They're just traveling around doing odd jobs; that's normal.
The girl with the oval face had very white arms while washing clothes, like the white plaster on the wall, while the skin of the other girl with a round face was much worse in comparison.
Where are you from?
"They sneaked over from Donggou County."
"Is this a circus or a song and dance performance? How many shows are you planning to put on here?"
"Singing and dancing! We are a pure song and dance troupe. Normally, in a place like yours, we would only put on one show."
How much does it cost per game?
Three pieces!
Holy crap! This ticket price isn't cheap; a movie ticket only costs a little over a dollar these days.
However, Liang Liang was still somewhat interested in singing and dancing, as it was more interesting than watching circus animals shed their fur.
The song and dance troupe sang whatever songs were catchy and performed whatever dances were appealing. In the 1990s, when cultural life was scarce, this still had a large market, especially in rural areas.
"Hey girl! I'm going to see something tonight, can I sneak a ticket?"
The oval-faced woman tilted her head and glanced at Liang Liang. This young man was decent-looking and had a good physique. The bulging muscles on his chest and arms made her heart flutter a little.
"You were calling me 'sister' just now, how come you've suddenly turned into 'little sister'?" The round-faced girl, who had been smiling without saying a word, interjected.
“Isn’t it normal to call someone ‘sister’ first and then ‘sister’?” Liang Liang said with a grin.
"Is it just calling her 'wife' over and over again?"
He's a man who's been around the block; he speaks without any affectation.
"Round-faced lady! Looks like you're experienced! Have you been called that before?"
The two girls laughed again.
"How old are you to call us girls?" the oval-faced man asked.
"I'm eighteen!" Liang Liang said, adding a year to her age.
"You're only eighteen! Lanzhi is a year older than you."
So the round-faced girl is called Lanzhi.
"So that means you're older than me? Are you thirty this year?"
The woman with the oval face flicked a handful of water at Liang Liang: "She's only twenty, you know!"
"Looks like I can't call her 'girl' then. How about I call you 'sister'? You splashed water all over my face, shouldn't you tell me your name?"
I won't tell you!
"Heh! Should I splash water on you too? I'll count to three, and if you don't tell me..."
Liang Liang cupped a handful of water in both hands, the threat of which was quite serious.
"One! Two!..."
“Her name is Ming Hongling,” the round-faced man with the oval face replied.
"Surname Ming? Really? This is the first time I've ever met someone with the surname Ming."
“Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” Ming Hongling rolled her eyes at Liang Liang.
"Sister Ming! A song and dance troupe of your size should be performing at the commune level, why are you performing at the brigade level?"
This song and dance troupe, judging by the size of the tent, should be around twenty people. In rural areas, this would be considered a large song and dance troupe, and they should at least be able to perform in communes. Performing at the brigade level would be a waste of their talent.
Performances at the brigade level are usually by small groups of ten or fewer people.
"Sigh!" The man with the oval face let out a long sigh.
“Our troupe’s top male and female performers were poached by another troupe a few days ago, and our troupe’s status has dropped immediately. We used to not perform at the brigade level, but now we can’t care about that anymore, we’ll just perform wherever we go.”
I see.
Actually, their choice of Pingshan Brigade was not bad, as it is located at the junction of three townships.
To the east is Tonghui Brigade of Baidao Township, and to the northwest are two villages in Lianshan Township: Chenbao Village and Xiajiahe Village.
These brigades have populations of several thousand. If the publicity is done well, it wouldn't be difficult to get two or three hundred people to attend a show. It just depends on whether anyone is willing to spend three yuan on a ticket.
"Your troupe's top male performer got poached? How about I become your troupe's top performer?"
Liang Liang blurted out this sentence without thinking.
Ming Hongling and Lanzhi stopped what they were doing and looked at Liang Liang.
"You? What do you even know that you want to be the top performer in our group?"
"It's just singing, right? I'm a really good singer."
"Really? Sing a couple of lines and let me hear it."
"Singing a cappella here? That's so uninspired."
"Let's hear how your voice is first, and what songs you can sing?"
"I'm so old, there's no pop song I don't know."
"You've got quite the mouth to brag, and you claim to know everything? How about you sing 'Platform' for me?"
Liang Liang thought they could suggest some songs, but after a long time, they came up with the first song.
He broke off two sixes from the riverbank, made them into drumsticks of the same length, and then borrowed Ming Hongling's plastic laundry tub.
Without any accompaniment, he would use the laundry tub to find a drumbeat to keep time.
The song "Platform" was quite famous in the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s. The original singer was a singer named Liu Hong from the south.
The original melody was steady and standard, but it naturally changed when Liang Liang sang it.
Liang Liang sped up the tempo of the song. Apart from the slightly faster tempo and slightly higher pitch in the verses, he didn't make any other changes to the melody. However, he made significant changes to his singing style in the chorus.
The main thing is that he used a screaming singing style for the three words 'waiting,' which greatly enhanced the tension of the song and gave people a very powerful feeling.
"My heart waits, forever waits for love~ Alas, my heart waits, forever waits! My heart waits, forever waits for love~ Alas! My heart waits, waits—ah!"
The final roar was prolonged and intensified, making it incredibly powerful to hear.
Ming Hongling and Lan Zhi seemed stunned after hearing this, clearly showing signs of dementia.
Ming Hongling dropped a piece of clothing into the water; it would have floated away if a rock hadn't stopped it.
Liang Liang stretched out his hand in front of Ming Hongling, raised his palm like a knife, and waved it up and down a few times: "Are you dumbfounded?"
If this song makes someone mentally impaired, will the singer be held legally responsible?
Ming Hongling breathed a sigh of relief: "I never imagined there was a stone buried in your little mountain valley!"
"What kind of talk is that? What do you mean by 'a stone'?"
"It's the kind that shines wherever it goes."
"That's gold, isn't it? Your stones glow?"
This grammar for praising someone must have been taught by a PE teacher.
Lanzhi giggled.
"What kind of singing style is this? It's different from the singing style on the cassette tapes and videotapes," Ming Hongling asked earnestly.
“What’s the point of singing the same way as everyone else? Of course, I have to sing in my own style.” At this moment, Liang Liang looked dignified and exuded the charm of a master.
Ming Hongling looked at her with admiration: "You sing so well, your voice is excellent! And your appearance is great too, you're more than qualified to be in our troupe. But you'll have to ask the troupe leader about that, we can't just say it."
"Then I'll go ask now."
"Oh dear! It's a bit unfortunate. The troupe leader and his wife went to the police station to handle the performance permits, and then they need to go to the county town to buy supplies for the dance troupe. They probably won't be back until four or five in the afternoon. You'll have to wait until they get back before you can ask them."
That's a bit unfortunate; we'll have to wait a day.
"That's fine then, let's talk about it tonight."
"I see you have a good grasp of the rhythm when you tap the washbasin. Do you know how to play the drums?" Lanzhi was a dancer and singer in the song and dance troupe, and sometimes she also played the drums. She became interested in Liang Liang tapping the washbasin.
"The drum set isn't my specialty. I can at most play it, but I'm not good at it. It's the worst instrument I know," Liang Liang said very modestly.
He can play the keyboard, but he can mess with everything else in the band.
"If you ever join our dance troupe, you must teach me."
"There's no need for instruction; we can learn from each other." Liang Liang didn't know Lan Zhi's drumming skill level, so he couldn't make any definitive statements.
By noon, the tent for the song and dance troupe was set up. The troupe's name was Bi Sheng.
Bi Sheng is the name of the head of this song and dance troupe.
Once the greenhouse was set up, the next step was promotion. Around 1 p.m., a Jiefang 141 truck from the song and dance troupe, carrying all six female performers of the troupe dressed in somewhat revealing clothes, began promoting the troupe in various small villages.
Ming Hongling and Lan Zhi were also among them, dressed in bikini-like outfits and flaunting their sex appeal on the truck.
Wherever the truck went, bloodshed ensued. Not only were young men infected, but even middle-aged and elderly people felt a surge of youthful exuberance upon seeing the sea of white flesh.
So, around 6 p.m., people gathered from all directions to the courtyard of Pingshan Village Brigade.
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