This is the second time in my life that I have come to the police station in a police car. The second time always reminds me of the first time. There are many, many firsts in life, and every first time is worth remembering again and again.
The first time I got in a police car was when I was in college.
In the beginning, I wasn't in a police car, but on a bus. I had to take the bus back to school from the students' homes. At that time, I was a tutor. In addition to amateur writing, I also worked part-time as a tutor as a college student, which can be said to have earned two dollars. Students earn living expenses will generally choose the "profession" of tutoring, come to money quickly, settle once, have forty yuan in two hours, deduct two dollars for round-trip bus fees, and earn thirty-eight yuan.
Going to three nights a week can earn more than a hundred, enough to spend a week, and even eat a KFC meal outside the canteen. There was a drunkard that day, not knowing whether it was because he had drunk too much and dozed off in the car or for some other reason, who took the bus past the station. Because the next stop was to cross the river—the river that bisected the city of S—he insisted that the driver stop right away, that he get off. Across the river, everything will change. The driver said not to stop. The conductor, the old character, was so insistent that he repeated the driver's words, and the drunk broke down and ran to the driver's seat, trying to tear the driver who was driving. A young man in the car stopped doing it and punched the drunkard a few times in the middle of the pull. Originally, we were going to call the police to catch the drunk, but this is good, the drunkard actually took the lead in calling the police. In this way, the driver really stopped the car. No one can go. After the police came, they inquired about the incident, the two sides insisted on their own words, the police were helpless, and finally invited the same car people to testify and go to the office together. I gleefully raised my hand and said I could, I could testify. Of course, I support the righteous deeds of fellow young people, and cannot let justice suffer.
We cannot let justice suffer, this is my simple belief. It has never been changed.
The above is a clip from the writer Koi's new work "Stealing Life".
Bridges across rivers, buses, disputers who ask drivers to stop halfway, and brave people who come forward to stop them, a few keywords are easily reminiscent of the phenomenon-level hit drama "Beginning" some time ago.
▲ Stills of "The Beginning"
"Beginning" tells the story of the explosion of the No. 45 bus driving across the cross-sea bridge, and the two young men and women on the bus are able to cross back to the pre-event and repeat the explosion again and again until everyone survives safely.
Following the explosion of two suspense-themed short dramas of iQIYI Mist Theater "The Hidden Corner" and "The Silent Truth" in 2020, the creation of domestic suspense dramas has opened up a new situation. But unfortunately, in the whole year of 2021, there will not be a single drama of the same type that can match the two.
Taking the strongest cast of "Octagonal Pavilion Mist" as an example, it is also the signature of "Mist Theater", with more well-known powerful actors, but Rao is the golden partner of Hao Lei and Duan Yihong, and cannot save the reputation of this drama, and finally ended with a Douban score of 5.6 and a sluggish broadcast volume.
Why?
At the end of the day, it's the core issue – the story. If a drama does not have a good story core, the characters do not have basic logic, they cannot complete the entire subsequent drama structure, no matter how good the actors and superb acting skills cannot show the arc of the characters, no matter how exquisite and grotesque the picture, and then the thrilling and outstanding soundtrack can only be mysterious.
As the first time loop short drama produced by the noonday sun of the "industry ceiling", "Beginning" does not have the exquisite picture that its previous works are good at, relying only on a few simple scenes such as buses, streets, and police stations, but it plays a first-hand king explosion, which is fundamentally in the fascinating storyline.
In the story, the male and female protagonists go back to the past again and again, trying their best to prevent the explosion, and the emotional line between the two will also develop naturally, and will not dominate. Even if the ending can only be said to be unsatisfactory, this does not prevent it from ending with a Douban score of nearly 8 points, and starting the first shot of the 2022 suspense drama.
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The book "Stealing Life" also has a good story, and the author Xiao Rice even borrowed the mouth of the male protagonist Xiao Huo in the article to say:
"It's the best story of my life."
The best story I've ever made up.
Unlike "The Beginning", the protagonist of this story does not have the superpowers that can be torn down again and again, can not get the reunion ending that can save everyone by repeated trial and error, and he has also borne the same guilt of "killing" against his own will, and he is doomed in a fiery dream.
The author Koihi writes in the preface:
Do you get angry about something you didn't handle well? Will you be confused and stuck in a wrong behavior or decision for a long time?
Will you feel powerless and depressed or even desperate because you can't change the past?
I think mortals will have it, and the difference is the degree of depth.
People who are naturally sensitive are a little unlucky.
I experienced this many years ago.
This is of course very, very bad.
Guilt is a particularly large negative energy. But no, it doesn't work. Shame is a decent relative. Without shame, you wouldn't become a decent person. Without a sense of awe, you would not be a godly person.
It is to write such emotions, I made up such a story.
I'm going to write about the man who blames himself, is upset, and can't move forward because of the wrong decisions of the past.
He writes about the self who blames himself, is uneasy, and cannot move forward because of the wrong decisions of the past, the "I" who can neither be infinitely full of blood nor make time go back in time.
The stories he writes are not related to surreal transfiguration reasoning, nor are they orthodox Benguet novels, and his stories are not only fascinating suspenseful, but also unforgettable love.
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· About Rice ·
Readers familiar with Xiao Di should know that as one of the "Five Tigers of Post-80s Literature", he was also the editor-in-chief of "ONE· One" and "Hanabi" magazines, the editor of "Sprouts" magazine, and the stories that many people saw in their youth and were moved to tears were more or less related to him.
Over the past few years, he has gradually become a teenager who has never stopped working, and he has begun to try new styles and new stories, but there is still a flame in his writing.
The well-known suspense writer Nado commented on this exploration of Xiao Di:
On the road to writing, Koihi embarks on a new adventure, this time his story is demagogic, his characters are unforgettable, and his world is intertwined with good and evil.
He sheathed his sword in the jianghu of youth literature, and drew his sword again on another mountain, still with a sharp edge under the blade, and stroke by stroke, knocking out the glow of the character.
Dream Glow Bar and three women
Similar to "Beginning" placing the main stage in a narrow carriage, "Stealing Life" also sets the stage very small, the three main female characters and other characters are almost all related to the "Dream Hui Bar", the narrow plane of the main stage is more convenient to explain the relationship between the characters, dig out the story content, is conducive to more reasonable divergence of the plot, in the limited capacity of the dramatic tension to the maximum, and can better help the author to grasp the reins, not too imaginative.
In the story, the three heroines with different images but their own charms, part of which are shaped from the author's own emotional experience, you can find their images specific and grounded, and even find a correspondence from life. Among them, some have a prominent appearance but a back on morality, some have free will but are impulsive, and some have a gentle disposition but also have the greatest malice.
Around the Menghui Bar, each character has an AB face.
#欲念之火
I looked at her, and the light of the fire shone on her face as well. Her two eyes were not big or small, just right. There were two burning flames in her eyes. ”
Stealing Life often uses images of fire.
The incident originated from a fire in the Menghui Bar, and the protagonist's three-year-old aunt died in it, and there was an experience of playing wildfires together when he was a child, and the protagonist also named himself "Little Fire". In addition, fire also appears repeatedly in the protagonist's dreams, and also in various metaphors.
In the fourth chapter of the novel, the entire section is devoted to writing about "fire"—
For a few years there was a question that puzzled me: Is fire a substance or a phenomenon?
I was in junior high school by then. He is still very short and likes to think. I suspect it was my short stature that made me choose to think. A small man can't do anything else.
Gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, only fire, visible, untouchable. What is this thing?
I think. You can't touch it, but you can feel the heat and scalding heat. It was inexplicably exciting.
In the winter, I crave fire even more. I stole matchboxes from my house and collected a lot of plastic bags and wood. If there is no one around, then the small alley behind my house is a good choice, there is no wind, it is a suitable place to breed fire. Plastic bags are easier to ignite, and branches and the like can prolong the life of the fire and fuel the fire.
Watching the flames burst forth, I was elated. I held the small insects I had caught on the flames until they emitted a pungent burnt smell.
Unfortunately, there are no butterflies or moths in winter. I wanted to look at them, burning them one by one in flames to ashes.
What exactly is fire? My curiosity continued to scratch my little head, for a month, two months, half a year. Whatever fire it is, it can burn everything and turn everything to ashes as if it didn't exist. Like a magician, but also like a devil.
People say that love begins with curiosity. I don't think so. The appearance of the lighter made my feelings for fire slowly fade later.
Then I fell in love with writing and gave myself a pen name. Let's call it a small fire.
Playing with fire and writing, the only thing that the two have in common is to start from scratch. If I had to add a little more, it would have created and destroyed everything.
Unfortunately, the love of writing only lasted a few years. The only thing that's thankful about this hobby is that it was given the opportunity to publish when I first started writing. The media preached young writers in those years, and I happened to be a teenager at that time. After three books were published, the media no longer cared so much about the teenagers of that year. None of the three books sold well, so the path to writing was blocked.
Later, when my creation was blocked, I was trusted and coaxed by the owner of the publishing company, joined a chain bookstore, took out my few royalties, and became a bookstore owner. A year later, the bookstore closed.
Many things, including life, are like a flame, and as soon as the wind blows, it may be extinguished.
But after the fire, the world will change a little.
He wrote about his encounter with the girl Jaja:
Later we spoke louder and louder. And because the music was so loud, we started yelling at each other. There was a spark of roaring and roaring, and it wasn't until later that we started slapping each other that I felt the coming of love.
This is love. I was sure at the time.
Not far away, Teacher Qiu watched us pumping each other, and at first he was a little nervous, and I noticed that he wanted to talk and stopped, like a child who was not good at dealing with complex problems. Later, none of us shouted for help or help, and even sat motionless on the card seat, just like two old friends just threw punches, and Teacher Qiu let me be in violence.
My face was getting hotter and hotter. It was like my heart was also starting to burn.
▲ Stills from "The Last Night on Earth"
He also wrote about the crime of fire:
Second, if I succeed in killing my aunt and burning down the Menghui Bar, it will help me cover up the truth. Good people and bad people, after doing bad things, such as killing people, they will have the idea of escaping from the crime. Fire can extinguish many traces. You and I know. I know better than you do.
In addition, he also wrote about the fire in the dream of "Ancient and Modern Wars and Qin Figurines", wrote about the inexplicable fire of mania in the chest, and wrote about the fire in nature, inspiration, emotion, blood, and living in various carriers.
In Xiao Di's pen, fire is impulse and violence; it is enthusiasm and anger; it is love and lust.
In some inexplicable emotional friction, sparks burst out, bright, magnified, and burning.
#荒诞的电影感
"The fire was raging, and I couldn't save it when I saw death.
No, I'm ready to save.
In the night, watching the car carrying my Ah Zhen away from me frame by frame, I seemed to see myself playing the male lead in Almodóvar's movie, under the fire of Menghui, the car took my Ah Zhen and frantically fled. ”
The text images in "Stealing Life" often give people a sense of cinema.
Obviously, it is a reasoning story in the background of reality, and there is a different texture in the writing of Xiao Rice, like the finished material is placed on the editing table, and after the color grading of Da Vinci's software, the filter effect seems to give a glaze to the porcelain surface.
Through the dreams and memories of the protagonist interspersed in the text, the author's emotional expression can be strongly perceived, and along with the perspective of "I", it is suddenly withdrawn from the dreams and memories, facing the cold reality, an absurd feeling climbs up the whole body, making the skin tremble.
If you can, I am very happy to see "Stealing Life" can be made into a movie, and its temperament is really unique. If it is not a genre film with a standardized structure, it can also be a good literary film.
At the end of the story, the protagonist Xiaohuo sat in Officer Liu's police car again, and where will the police car go this time?
The lights and wines shake the golden lamp, surrounded by the bustling Menghui Bar, accompanied by the raging fire, each character has their own life, rotating to the end of the dream, what will be the end of the story?
Avoid spoilers, and don't dwell on them here, as you will find out in the book.
Text | Chen Qianru
Figure | Originated from the web
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New book recommendation
"Stealing Life"
Author / Small Meal
Ah Fang, an employee of Shanghai Menghui Bar, was killed, and Menghui was set on fire. Ah Fang is "my" aunt. On the night of the murder, "I" escaped all surveillance, carrying two cans of gasoline and carrying a knife to Find Ah Fang, ready to kill her. But when I really met and talked to Ah Fang, I no longer wanted to kill people, so I gave up committing the crime and left the scene. But not long after, Menghui caught fire and Ah Fang was killed. Who is the real culprit?
"I" inadvertently recognized the figure of my uncle on the surveillance photo held by Officer Liu, and began to cooperate with Officer Liu to "solve the case". There were four suspects, and "I" was one of them. And between "I" and other suspects, "I" and Ah Fang, and other suspects and Ah Fang, there are intricate stories that have to be told.
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