The empty house became quiet again, but the faint scent of flour could still be smelled.
Yan Ting picked out a wooden bobblehead doll from the small ornaments brought back by Li Zhao. The doll had a big head and a small body, and was wearing a bellyband with the word "Fu" on it. It looked both cute and festive.
Gently tap its head and it will shake back and forth, looking cute and adorable.
"Sir, you haven't taken your medicine yet." The housekeeper saw that Yan Ting was suddenly interested in the little gift that Li Zhao brought back, and seemed to have forgotten about the medicine that was placed in the study: "Do you need me to get it down for you?"
"No need." Yan Ting curled up the fingers that were poking the doll, put the bobblehead doll on the display cabinet, turned around and went upstairs to his room.
"Sir!" Seeing that Yan Ting didn't seem to be planning to take the medicine, the housekeeper followed him worriedly: "You..."
Yan Ting stopped and turned to look at him expressionlessly. All the butler's courage and words disappeared under this look, and he didn't even dare to take another step forward.
It was not until Yan Ting walked away and the sound of a door closing was heard that the housekeeper recovered his breath. He turned his head to look at the wooden carved big-headed doll on the display cabinet that looked out of place among the other expensive ornaments. He also carefully put away the other things that Li Zhao had brought back.
In the middle of the night, Yan Ting was awakened by a woman's screams and curses. He sat up from the bed, opened the door and walked out.
The woman in the red dress walked slowly past him, reached the top of the spiral staircase, then jumped up, like a butterfly that had lost its wings, and fell heavily to the ground.
She just lay on the shiny floor like that, blood-red liquid continuously flowing out of her body, redder and brighter than the dress she was wearing.
Walking down the stairs, Yan Ting stepped on the floor of the hall and felt a sticky feeling on the soles of his feet. He lowered his head and saw blood staining his shoes.
Why can one person bleed so much?
The woman lying on the ground opened her big, beautiful eyes and looked into his eyes. Her lips were moving and her expression was extremely sad, but Yan Ting couldn't hear what she was saying.
He stepped on the stream of blood, walked to the woman, knelt on one knee in front of her, and put his ear close to her pale mouth.
"Baby, mommy will take you away."
"Let's get out of here together."
Her cold hands suddenly gained strength, and she grabbed his wrist tightly, staining his arm with blood: "Come with me."
The blood had already dyed half of Yan Ting's body red. He looked at the crazy and desperate woman and said without emotion: "No."
"Why, why?" the woman screamed, "Are you going to apologize to me too?!"
Yan Ting looked at her without saying a word. The woman's scream seemed to pierce his eardrums and try to pull his boring soul out of his smelly shell.
"Someone will come to see me tomorrow." The woman screamed so loudly that it covered Yan Ting's own voice: "I promised him."
The screams stopped abruptly, the woman disappeared, the blood in the room disappeared, and in the spacious hall, only Yan Ting was left.
"Sir." Two bodyguards rushed in at this time and turned on the lights in the room: "Are you okay?"
Under the light, Yan Ting's face was pale and he was wearing thin pajamas. He looked like a perfect yet emotionless sculpture.
"It's okay." Yan Ting lowered his eyelids, and there was darkness in his eyes.
"Sir, your medicine." The butler came out from the corner holding the medicine.
Yan Ting looked at the medicine bottle but did not reach out to take it.
"Mr. Li will come to see you tomorrow morning."
With a slight movement of his fingertips, Yan Ting put the medicine into his mouth. The warm water and the pill rolled into the esophagus. He looked out the dark window and raised his arms to look at the world.
It's almost dawn.
Li Zhao was very tired after several days of high-intensity filming. When he woke up, it was already after nine in the morning.
He jumped out of bed, washed up quickly, and rushed to Yan Ting's house next door holding his hat, scarf and coat.
As he walked through the door, Li Zhao saw Yan Ting sitting neatly on the sofa, with an untouched breakfast on the dining table.
"I'm sorry, Tingting, I overslept today." Li Zhao scratched his head embarrassedly and looked at the dining table: "Haven't you eaten yet?"
"Sit down and eat together." Yan Ting stood up and walked to the dining table and sat down. Li Zhao quickly sat down with a thick face: "It smells so good."
After breakfast, Li Zhao put on his hat and scarf and said to Yan Ting, "My agent said that I have become a little famous recently and I can't let people recognize me outside."
Fortunately, it’s cold now, so it’s not too strange to cover yourself up tightly.
Yan Ting looked at Li Zhao, whose eyes were exposed only, and took the scarf from the housekeeper. He then tied it around his neck like Li Zhao did.
During the New Year's Day holiday, any fun place is crowded with tourists. Li Zhao took Yan Ting to a not very spacious courtyard with familiarity, from which applause and cheers could be heard.
"There are a few young guys here, they learned the skills from performing arts on the flyover. I became friends with them when I was a stand-in on a film crew." Li Zhao reached out and knocked on the small window with the wooden sign "Tickets" hung on it, and the young man who was sleeping on the table looked up.
"Brother, is there any vacant seat?" Li Zhao pulled down the mask covering his face, "Arrange a good seat for my buddy."
"Zhao Zhao?!" The young man who bought the ticket saw Li Zhao's face clearly and quickly ran out of the room. He looked around and whispered, "You are a famous person now, why are you here?"
"What's so red about it?" Li Zhao put his mask back on. "It's a holiday, so I brought my good friends here to show my support for you guys."
"Come on, come on, I'll take you in." The young man smiled and nodded at Yan Ting, which counted as a greeting. He led the two of them into the side door, lifted the curtain and pointed to the wooden table in the middle: "Sit down first, I'll go get you some tea."
"Thank you." Yan Ting thanked the young man and took Yan Ting to the middle position. Yan Ting noticed that there was a very small open-air courtyard inside with a rain shelter over it. There were about a dozen spectators sparsely sitting in the auditorium. After the young man in red on the stage finished swallowing the iron ball, the audience threw some money into the basket.
"What they perform is the authentic skills of street performers, but young people nowadays don't like to watch these performances, and there may be fewer and fewer people learning this in the future." Li Zhao introduced to Yan Ting in a low voice: "After watching the street performances, I will take you to eat at an old restaurant nearby."
After a while, the ticket seller came in carrying a teapot and a fruit plate. Seeing that Yan Ting looked very impressive, he thought he was a big shot in the circle. He was afraid that if he spoke too much, he would bring trouble to Li Zhao, so after greeting him briefly, he found an excuse to leave.
The young men performing on the stage were all in their twenties or thirties, but their performances were old-school skills, such as swallowing a sword alive, holding a spear in the throat, carrying a bucket of water in the belly, etc. A complete performance only took a few dozen minutes.
At the end of the performance, some people brought baskets to receive tips. Most of the audience got up and left. Occasionally, some people gave tips, but only ten or twenty yuan.
When the young man holding the reward basket passed by Yan Ting and Li Zhao, Yan Ting put a handful of money in it.
The young man was so shocked that he stopped walking, looked at Yan Ting, and then looked at Li Zhao: "Zhao Zhao, we don't need to abide by these rules of the underworld."
Li Zhao had not expected Yan Ting to give out so much money. He put his arm around Yan Ting's shoulders and laughed, "According to the rules of the martial arts world, the money you give out as a reward cannot be taken back. Just keep it."
"Thanks, brother." The guys saw the audience off, cleaned up the fruit peels and melon scraps in the yard, and all gathered around Li Zhao.
"You're good, kid." The leader was called Dalong. He nudged Li Zhao's chest with his elbow and said, "For the web drama you starred in, we brothers turned on our phones every day to help you increase the hits. Now you've finally made it. Congratulations."
They all had played supporting roles as stand-ins in film crews, but unlike Li Zhao, they at least had a skill to make a living, while Li Zhao had no parents and no way out.
Seeing that Li Zhao had finally become famous, they were all very happy, although they subconsciously felt that they would never have the chance to see Li Zhao again.
After becoming famous, many artists would change their mobile phone numbers and delete many people's contact information to avoid trouble. They never thought that they would have another chance to become brothers with Li Zhao.
But Li Zhao still came, and not only came, he also brought his friends.
"Thank you." Li Zhao rubbed the place where he was hit and smiled bitterly: "Brother Dalong, you have a strong hand, be gentle."
"Hehe." Dalong smiled embarrassedly and turned to look at Yan Ting: "You are Zhao Zhao's friend, right? I just heard from them that you gave us a lot of money. Thank you. Next time if you come to watch the show, please don't give us any more money. We are brothers and we don't care about this."
"Good performance." Yan Ting had never dealt with such a social person, so he didn't say much.
"Your compliment is better than anything else." Dalong saw that Yan Ting was a quiet person, so he turned around and continued chatting with Li Zhao: "Do you know how many girls are shouting on the Internet that they want to be your wife? How come you go out at this time? Aren't you afraid of being recognized?"
"Last year, we agreed that if I had time on New Year's Day this year, I would come to watch your Qigong performance. At that time, you also said that no matter how many people I brought, I wouldn't charge admission." Li Zhao raised his eyebrows and pretended to be angry: "Why, I just brought a good friend here, and you can't bear to let me go?"
"Hey, you brat!" Dalong raised his hand to slap, but then he remembered that his hand was heavy, so he smiled and took it back: "Of course my words count. Whether it's New Year's Day this year or next year, as long as you come, I won't charge you for the ticket."
"Everyone has heard it. From now on, no one can take money from me when I come here." Li Zhao put his arm around Yan Ting's shoulders: "Also, you can't take money from me when I come here."
Dalong: "Hey, you've become a big star, why are you still as stingy as before?"
"Because I'm poor."
Everyone laughed.
Dalong and others chatted and laughed with Li Zhao until noon before parting with him. After watching Li Zhao and Yan Ting's backs, the guy performing the iron ball swallowing came up to Dalong and whispered, "Dalong, do you think the jackets Zhao Zhao and his friend are wearing look like couple outfits?"
"That can't be possible." Dalong scratched his forehead: "Can't it be that they just have a good relationship?"
"You need to be more pure in your thoughts and don't think everyone looks gay."
“…”
In the old restaurant, Li Zhao ordered the boss's signature dish: "His lamb chops are especially delicious. You must eat two more later."
The restaurant was full of customers, and the whole place was filled with the atmosphere of life.
"good."
Although the world is full of noise, chaos and annoyance, but...
He looked at the smile on Li Zhao's face and tried his best to blend into the hustle and bustle.
The author has something to say: Tingbaobao: Although this world is noisy and noisy, it’s good to have you.
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