In July 1997, Xu Liang, a Vietnam veteran, was reading the newspaper alone at home when the phone rang suddenly.
It turned out to be a music screenwriter for a local TV station, and I wanted to invite him to write a song for the August 1st Army Day and star in a related music video.
"Ten years ago, on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, your song "Blood-stained Style" touched the national audience, and now you sing another song as a commemoration and farewell. ”
Listening to the screenwriter's persuasion, looking back on the past ten years, Xu Liang couldn't help but feel a sigh.
At the beginning, he threw his pen from Rong and participated in the Battle of Laoshan, but he died in the battle and was seriously injured. After the victory, he was awarded the title of first-class combat hero of the People's Liberation Army, and his deeds were also reported by major newspapers.
Later, he received an invitation to the Spring Festival Gala to sing on stage, and became famous, and he was in the limelight for a while. But the ensuing rumors and slander hit him hard.
But the screenwriter's words still touched him deeply, and in the state of farewell mentality, he accepted the invitation.
Unexpectedly, it was this invitation that made him completely fall from the clouds to the bottom. So what exactly happened after accepting the invitation?
Accidentally involved and imprisoned for a year
Army Day is less than a month away, and time is pressing. After Xu Liang accepted the invitation, the screenwriter quickly began to work on it.
Creating lyrics and music for Army Day was not a temporary idea of the screenwriter, he only approached Xu Liang after completing the prototype of the song and invited him to improve it.
So they didn't spend a lot of time writing songs, but left plenty of time to shoot music videos.
And the change happened after the first day of shooting.
At the end of the day, Xu Liang planned to go home directly, but as soon as he walked to the door, he was stopped by the screenwriter.
said that a friend of mine had a birthday today, admired him for a long time, and heard that they had worked together in the past few days, so they wanted to take the opportunity to meet.
After all, they have been working together for half a month, and there is cooperation in the future, Xu Liang is not easy to refuse, so he agreed to go. Unfortunately, Xu Liang was busy with affairs that night, and he went outside to answer the phone many times during dinner.
When the matter is finally dealt with, I return to the private room, leaving only the screenwriter and friends. The two were obviously drunk, but before they were happy, they called two more escort girls.
Although Xu Liang did not agree with their behavior, he had no identity to stop him, so he could only use the excuse of making a phone call to escape from the private room to enjoy the quiet.
After a moment, he estimated that the time was almost the same, and returned to the private room again.
The two finally had fun, and when the screenwriter saw him coming back, he apologized for not entertaining him today, and would invite him to have a meal after the filming of the skit was over.
The three of them chatted like this and walked to the car, but as soon as they got into the car, they saw one of the escort girls pointing to their car to a group of people, not knowing what they were talking about.
Suddenly, the other party walked to the car menacingly.
Just when Xu Liang was confused, the man led directly dragged the screenwriter out of the car.
Seeing this, Xu Liang realized that the situation was not good, so he hurriedly called his friend to get out of the car together. However, the two fists were hard to beat, and there were at least ten people on the other side, and the three of them quickly fell behind and were severely beaten.
Xu Liang later described in an interview that "it was like being put on a sack, punched and kicked, and it hurt everywhere."
Maybe he saw that Xu Liang was a disabled person and let him go, and instead beat the other two.
So that Xu Liang could use this half of his breathing time to call his friend and call him to help.
When the group saw Xu Liang calling someone, they didn't dare to stay any longer, and quickly fled the scene. Seeing his friend arrive, the screenwriter pointed to an alley, "Where did they run!"
My friend is also an impulsive person, and as soon as he heard this, he immediately drove a car to catch up.
By the time Xu Liang limped in, the scene was already messed up. In order to avoid the expansion of the situation, he hurriedly stepped forward to pull the rack, but he didn't expect to be smashed in the dark and fainted immediately.
When I woke up the next day, I found that it was a dimly lit confinement room.
He was puzzled, and asked the friends who came to visit to find out that a person had died in the melee that night.
In an instant, the news about Xu Liang, a Vietnam War veteran, who participated in a fight and killed people, was overwhelming.
The police also arrested him and put him in confinement.
Afterwards, although he repeatedly defended that he was not involved and was only unilaterally beaten, and his friends admitted that he was the one who killed him, but there was no evidence, and he was eventually imprisoned for a year.
During the year, the wife brought the divorce settlement and wanted to separate from him.
"It's said that you killed someone, and now no one in the school wants to make friends with children, and everywhere we go, we feel like someone is pointing fingers at us, so let's get a divorce. ”
Although he was reluctant in his heart, it was indeed his wife and children who were burdened, and in the face of the divorce agreement, he lowered his head and was silent for a long time before picking up the pen and signing his name.
A song in the Spring Festival Gala is popular all over the country
During the year of confinement, Xu Liang remembered many things from the past.
I thought that more than ten years ago, as a student of the Conservatory of Music, I went to the army to carry out a condolence performance according to the school's arrangement.
But after witnessing the heroic military demeanor, he decided to sign up for the army. After three months of special training, he went to the front line of the Laoshan Battle in Yunnan with the troops.
In a battle, he was unfortunately hit by a bullet in his left leg, and the thickest blood vessel in the inner thigh was broken, and the blood spurted out with the heartbeat, and he underwent nine surgeries to save his life.
He only had his left leg amputated and was disabled, and he could only rely on a wheelchair or crutches to move.
At first, he couldn't accept such a reality, especially at home later, when he heard his father carrying a gas tank of more than 70 catties upstairs, and every time he went up the stairs, there was a "bang" sound, which made him panic.
Until December, he received an invitation to the Spring Festival Gala and became well-known for his song "Bloodstained Style" at the Spring Festival Gala.
Then he starred in the TV series of the same name with the song of the same name based on himself, which touched countless people and quickly became popular all over the country.
During that time, Xu Liang basically had at least one report meeting every day, including four times in the Great Hall of the People, and after each report, countless reporters were guarding to interview him, and all walks of life wrote letters to him.
But he really realized that he was famous, and it was once when he was riding on the road, and he was recognized and shouted: "Isn't this Xu Liang!"
Then the pedestrians on the road looked back at him, and even the people sitting on the bus stretched out their hands to greet him.
In order to avoid causing a riot, Xu Liang took a taxi when he went out.
But even then, there will be some surprises. Once Xu Liang was in a hurry to catch a plane, but he finally arrived at the airport, and the plane was about to take off.
Some airport staff recognized him, saw that he was anxious, and walked up to him and asked him what he needed. Xu Liang didn't want to trouble others, so he only said that he wanted to catch a plane.
As a result, a colleague next to him opened his mouth and added: "He is going to catch a plane to Beijing at half past four." ”
So, the staff immediately picked up the walkie-talkie to contact the tower, and the plane immediately stopped and returned, allowing Xu Liang and his party to board the plane.
Later, Xu Liang recalled the past and said that he was too young back then, and he was dizzy with joy in the face of all kinds of praise and pursuit, but he didn't know that he just made people see jokes.
There are many people who are popular, and rumors are spreading
"The name is ruined, and it is difficult to prevent ingenuity. "When the reputation is great, there is more slander.
For Xu Liang's explosion, naturally some people can't get used to it, and all kinds of slanders come one after another.
On December 18, 1987, the Shanghai Culture and Art Newspaper published an article titled "The Shock Brought by the Asking for 3,000 Yuan", which pointed the finger at Xu Liang.
accused him of asking for 3,000 yuan in the face of the invitation to the Shanghai Golden Autumn Gala, and he had to pay no less, otherwise he refused to perform.
After unsuccessfully negotiating with the rumor-mongers, Xu Liang sued him in court for spreading rumors and harming his right to reputation.
In the end, Xu Liang took out the performance settlement check to prove that he only received 1,002 remuneration for his three performances, and ruled in favor of Xu Liang.
As soon as the incident passed, a report pushed it to the forefront again.
A writer with the pen name Bei Ming published an article in the newspaper saying that Xu Liang was a deserter and that the wound on his leg was a play in which he shot himself to avoid going to the battlefield.
said that because he had been criticized by the company commander, he held a grudge, and he did not save the company commander when he saw him die, causing him to fall off a cliff and die.
The article listed his "various crimes" and criticized him for not being a heroic model at all, but a deserter and a murderer.
Xu Liang, who learned of this, sighed that "disaster does not go alone", but he was helpless.
He approached the local media to clarify the matter, but the empty words and preconceived habits made people more willing to believe what they saw first.
In other words, people are more accepting of an imperfect person in their hearts.
Seeing that public opinion was intensifying, Xu Liang had no choice but to bother to find a relationship and contact the company commander and doctor of the year to testify for him.
This matter was very noisy, and they naturally heard about it, so when Xu Liang found them, they didn't say a word and responded quickly.
"Heroes can't be wronged!"
But even if they later came forward to clarify the rumors, everyone made money, and accumulated and destroyed their bones, this incident finally had a deep impact on Xu Liang.
After these two incidents, Xu Liang rarely appeared in public again until 1997, when the music screenwriter came to the door.
Xu Liang thought that after seven or eight years, his identity would not set off any more storms, but the sky did not fulfill people's wishes.
Not only was he beaten for no reason, but he was also charged with being a murderer, and he was obviously innocent, but he was still confined for a year.
In the confinement room, Xu Liang figured out many things, in the past ten years, these things have caused his wife to be separated, maybe it is better to be a celebrity than to be comfortable as a common person.
epilogue
A long time after the incident, a reporter once went to his home to interview him, and noticed that every time he went out and came home, his clothes were always soaked with sweat.
But it was March, and the weather in Beijing didn't make people's sweat soak their clothes. When asked him why, he always kept silent and dismissed the reporter as soon as he said he was fine.
After interviewing his family, he learned that it was the root cause of the operation back then, and now it hurts when he walks around a lot, and the reason why he doesn't want to say it is probably because he said it himself, to live like a man.
At the end of the interview, the reporter wanted him to sing "Bloodstained Style" again, but he refused.
The reporter retreated and asked him to sing a song, anything, so he opened his mouth and sang a song "I Don't Want to Say".
Either he understands that the reporter wants to ask him how he feels about the events of the year, and he doesn't want to say, or he just wants to sing this one.
However, these are no longer important to Xu Liang, now he can walk calmly on the street, no longer causing riots, and no one will point fingers.
He is no longer a hero Xu Liang, but just an ordinary person.
After experiencing ups and downs in life, Xu Liangxue returned to a peaceful life, which is a rare wisdom and courage.
He calmed down in the hustle and bustle, kept the firmness in his heart, was not bound by past glories or setbacks, and found the most comfortable way to travel in life.
-END-
[Text: Winter]
[Editor|Chang Gung]