money player

Chapter 25 Do you have low self-esteem?
As soon as the curtains were fully opened and there was no host to make an opening statement, the band on the stage began to play the music, and rows of female performers raised their legs in order and danced.

A familiar tune that Xian Yaowen had just heard in the barber shop half an hour ago. It is the theme song of the most popular movie "The Third Man" in the UK this year. It has been slightly adapted and is more upbeat than the original song; a familiar dance, with most of the movements derived from the original. For ballet, a little bit of gaudy body-showing elements are added. After all, it is a nightclub, and it will be boring to the end. It is still necessary to add some meat and fat.

The song lasted only ten seconds, and suddenly the style changed to another song. Xian Yaowen listened to the intro for three seconds and couldn't tell what the song was. He didn't know much about the songs of this era. It's normal not to come out.

However, when the female performer started humming and heard the lyrics, he knew what the song was. "Scarborough Fair" is a folk song that has been sung for hundreds of years in England. He knew the allusion but had never heard it. , only familiar with Paul Simon's version adapted by the old guy...no, the little guy.

Listening to the music, Xian Yaowen's eyes changed from aimlessly appreciating the performance to staring at the suspected Hepburn. Although her face could not be equated with Hepburn for the moment, her behavior was very close to what Xian Yaowen remembered, even if it was discounted. Eliminating the preconceived subjective impression, it still feels like it.

He thought, this is probably Hepburn.

He took out a 2 pound note from his pocket. After thinking about it, he changed it to a 5 pound note. He put it between his index finger and middle finger, raised his hand and waved it. A waiter quickly came to Xian Yaowen's side and bowed. Waist, ear to his mouth.

"Sir, what do you need?"

"What's the name of the second lady from the right?"

The waiter turned to look at the stage and said, "Ada, a student of Ms. Mary Lambert's dance school."

"Ada?" Xian Yaowen confirmed.

"Yes, that's what we all call her. It's her Dutch name, and her British name is Audrey, I think."

Xian Yaowen shook his finger, and the waiter took the pound from his hand knowingly. Xian Yaowen took out a 5 pound note from his pocket and clamped it between his fingers. "When Ms. Ada's performance is over, I would like to invite her to come and sit down." ."

The waiter hesitated for a moment and said, "I can only convey this to you sir."

"There is also a note." Xian Yaowen put the money into the waiter's hand and hooked it with his index finger.

The waiter wisely stuffed the money into his pocket, then took out a pen and order book from another pocket and handed them to Xian Yaowen.

Xian Yaowen took it, wrote two lines of poetry, another sentence expressing invitation, and signed his name "Adam Hepburn".

10 pounds is not a small amount of money. It is only natural that the waiter accepts Xian Yaowen's tip and does what he should do. Otherwise, once Xian Yaowen insists on it, the waiter will be in trouble.

Although the British economy has been doing well in the past two years with aid from the United States and the unemployment rate is not high, the vast majority of British people just don't have to worry about food and clothing. Money is still tight and they have to count their days.

Being a waiter at Ciro Nightclub is a well-paying job. In addition, you are in the company of high-class people every day. You can transcend your own class mentally and mentally. Just like a salesperson in a luxury store, you are exposed to high-end people every day. People with high incomes will inevitably place themselves in the high-income circle. In their eyes, cars with less than one million are not considered cars. At most, they are just four wheels on a tin frame.

The waiter just now was guaranteed to have a good harvest both materially and spiritually in Ciro. He didn't dare to make any mistakes. In fact, after a performance, the waiter went backstage and conveyed Xian Yaowen's invitation to Hepburn, along with the note.

Hepburn heard the invitation and didn't take it seriously. She put a Marlboro in her mouth, took a few sips hastily, and then snuffed it out. She took off her dress and put on the clothes for the next performance. After finishing her new makeup, she took a few sips and snuffed it out. After she lit the cigarette again, she was in the mood to pick up the note she had put aside.

"One day is better than the sea and the mulberry fields, and one day can be an eternal love. A gentleman invites you to taste the wine of freedom, Adam Hepburn."

Hepburn read it silently, feeling that the two lines of poetry were very beautiful, but they seemed very frivolous when written to a strange lady. Instead, the word "freedom" and the surname "Hepburn" touched her heart.

Needless to say, Hepburn was just a "coincidence" that made her lower her guard, but freedom held a very important position in her heart. She lived in the Netherlands as a girl, and when she grew taller, the Netherlands was under German occupation. During that period, her family's assets were looted, and the young lady could only wear shabby clothes and dig tulip roots to satisfy her hunger. Long-term hunger led to her malnutrition, asthma, jaundice and other diseases.

This childhood experience affected her later metabolism, resulting in her still being thin, with a height of 170 centimeters but a weight of only about 40 kilograms.

In 1945, when she was sixteen years old, the Netherlands ushered in liberation. She followed the crowd to the streets to welcome the British troops entering the city. A soldier gave her a bar of chocolate and a carton of cigarettes, which gave her an unexpected luxury after a long absence. From then on, these two things have special meaning to her, symbolizing freedom and happiness, which are irreplaceable. They have been with her to this day and will probably continue to be with her throughout her life.

In the Netherlands during the war, for the Dutch people who were under high-pressure rule by the German army, cigarettes were a luxury product. Being able to afford cigarettes meant that they did not have to worry about food and clothing. Whenever he smoked, Hepburn always felt a sense of joy all over his body. It feels like every wisp of smoke is telling her happily that you are free and you don’t have to go hungry.

Freedom touched her, made her fall into memories, and made her curious about Xian Yaowen. She wanted to meet Mr. Hepburn.

After the invitations were sent out, while enjoying the performances on the stage, Xian Yaowen would also observe the other guests seemingly unintentionally. He wanted to try his luck. Maybe he had a Baidu destiny and was blessed by Mazu who eats Putian incense. Everyone was looking for him. After a thousand clicks, I suddenly looked back, but that person was there, in a dimly lit place.

Well, it was probably because the quark interaction in his body was too intense, which affected Mazu's power of faith. He did not see anyone suspected of being a Borg.

After a performance, Hepburn returned to the stage and performed a wonderful and enduring musical "High Buckles" with dozens of other actors. Sin Yaowen had seen it twice on Broadway, spanning more than thirty years. In 2016, compared to the performance that had gone through many iterations and improvements decades later, the performance in front of him was a bit immature, and the actor's appearance and makeup techniques did not fit his aesthetic.

The musical was very long, and there were several scene changes in the middle. Xian Yaowen, who was paying half of his attention to Hepburn, saw the other person turn his eyes to him several times. Once, their eyes happened to meet, and he nodded to indicate .

After the musical ended, about a quarter of an hour later, Hepburn, whose heavy makeup had been removed from his face, came to Xian Yaowen's table and said, "Sir, did you invite me?"

"Yes."

Xian Yaowen nodded, stood up, walked to Hepburn, and helped her pull up the chair.

"Thank you."

Hepburn thanked him, sat down, and immediately took out a cigarette and put it on his lips, then gave Xian Yaowen a look of understanding.

Xian Yaowen, who had just walked back to his seat but had not yet sat down, chuckled lightly, walked back to Hepburn, took out a match and held it in his hand. He gave Hepburn a "watch my performance" look, and then held the match in his hand. In the palm of your hand, only the tip of the match is exposed. Then, you raise your hand and make a motion of swiping the match head on your cheek. Turn your palm over, palm down, hold the match between your middle finger and index finger, and put the burning match His head came to Hepburn's mouth.

Hepburn and Xian Yaowen looked at each other and smiled slightly, "Are you a magician?"

Xian Yaowen helped Hepburn light the cigarette. When he put out the match, he also shook out the phosphorus flakes stuck to his fingertips. "I am a very special magician." Hepburn took a puff of cigarette and tilted his head and asked: "What's so special about it?"

"I can only perform successfully in front of a beautiful lady like you." Xian Yaowen extended his right hand to Hepburn, "Adam, Adam Taylor Hepburn."

Hepburn held Xian Yaowen's hand and introduced herself: "Ada Hepburn-Luston, you can call me Audrey."

Xian Yaowen changed his hand to a pinch, raised it slightly, leaned over and kissed Hepburn's finger, then released it and said impolitely: "Audrey, your hands are rough and need to be taken good care of."

"Maintenance?" Hepburn showed a wry smile and said with a hint of self-deprecation: "Adam, do you understand the hardship of life? Have you ever tasted the feeling of starvation?"

Xian Yaowen sat back in his seat and poured Hepburn a glass of wine, "I just found out from the waiter that you have a Dutch name, Ada, and a very obvious Scottish surname, Luston, so I can think that your mother is Are you Dutch and your father is British?”

"You guessed it, my mother is Dutch and I have spent most of my life in the Netherlands."

Xian Yaowen nodded, "I can now understand your understanding of the hardship of life and starvation, but your understanding is probably not as profound as mine. I have lived in an Eastern country that attaches great importance to blood and women's chastity since I was a child, because I am not a pure blood. , because my mother...I shouldn't say my mother, you can understand that I am an alien and incompatible with everyone else around me."

Hepburn nodded and listened.

"I grew up being bullied and resisting bullying. When I gained recognition and status with my fists, before I could fully appreciate the taste of victory, the war spread to my hometown and I was forced to get involved in another struggle."

Xian Yaowen caught Hepburn's eyes and said, "What I want to fight against are the Japs who are more cruel than the Germans. In order to obtain and pass on information, and in order not to starve, I study in a school controlled by the Japs, and walk in the world of life and death every day." On the front line, every second I feel that I will face death the next second.

I'm not afraid of death, I'm afraid of the torture I'll face before I die. The Japs have too many ways to torture people, and I'm afraid I won't be able to survive it, and I'll confide all the secrets I know in my belly. "

Xian Yaowen showed pain and ferocity on his face, and roared: "Five years, a full five years, do you know how I lived those five years?"

Hepburn showed a trace of pity on her face and said empathetically: "Adam, I'm sorry for reminding you of painful memories."

"It doesn't matter, everything is over." Xian Yaowen took a deep breath, raised his glass and said, "Cheers to the victory of the anti-fascist war, and cheers to freedom!"

"Here's to freedom!"

Hepburn only mentioned freedom and never mentioned "fascism" because it was embarrassing. Her father was a member of the British Fascist League. Before Germany went to war, her mother was also a supporter of fascism and even met Hitler. She wrote articles praising each other, but it wasn't until her mother's hometown was occupied by the Germans that a noble lady went from having no worries about food and clothing to having no worries about food and clothing, that she realized her naivety in the past.

She herself delivered information to the Dutch guerrillas, and organized her dancing classmates to perform secretly to raise funds for the resistance. Five of her uncles were executed by the German army for supporting the resistance. Her two half-brothers She has lost contact with her since she joined the resistance. Fascism in her family is just a messy mess that cannot be sorted out at all.

Of course Xian Yaowen didn't know this. By the time he had the hormonal impulse, Hepburn had already passed away. He was neither a relative nor a friend, and there were no interests involved. How could he be interested in a dead person? The little information he knew about Hepburn was It is not understood actively, but absorbed passively in various situations and environments.

He is approaching Hepburn, not because of things between men and women. He is not in the mood to flirt with women or talk about bullshit love. The Huns are not destroyed yet. Why is he a family? Making money is his top priority at the moment. Women, wait. Once you have money, it's easy. He has all the money, Pan, Donkey, Deng Xiaoxian, and all the women in the world.

After a sip of wine, the depressive atmosphere that had arisen before dissipated a little, and Xian Yaowen changed the topic.

"Audrey, this is my first time in London. I'm not familiar with this place. Can I invite you to be my tour guide tomorrow? You can do it in the morning or afternoon."

Hepburn looked embarrassed and said, "I'm very sorry. It's very unfortunate. I will be very busy tomorrow."

"You are very busy?"

"Yes."

"OK, don't make yourself too hard, everything will get better."

Although Xian Yaowen was a little anxious, he knew that stalking would only make Hepburn feel disgusted. Perhaps, some of the later steps needed to be mentioned earlier.

"Thank you, I believe the difficulty is only temporary." Hepburn said with a faint smile.

"You are very optimistic. Besides your beauty, I find another advantage in you."

"Adam, do you really think I'm beautiful?"

"Of course, otherwise I wouldn't invite you over."

Hepburn laughed at herself: "I don't think I am too thin, my teeth are crooked, my neck is long, my ears are not good-looking, and I have feet over size 9 (UK size 10 = size 44)."

Xian Yaowen filled his eyes with sincerity, "No, Audrey, you have the right beauty, but the stupid people of the world have not yet come out of their wrong aesthetics. Be tolerant, slow down, and give God some time to save them." ."

Hepburn's appearance is indeed not in line with the current aesthetics. Female stars who can make a mark on the big screen are all blond, round and sexy, and have a sexy temperament. A straightforward and elegant person like Hepburn is not popular at all.

"Hahaha!"

Huge laughter burst out of Hepburn's delicate body, and she let out three wild laughs. She realized that she was too loud, so she lowered the volume, but her body was still shaking uncontrollably.

After a long time, she stopped laughing and stroked her chest to smoothen her breathing, "Adam, thank you for thinking I'm beautiful, but I still don't feel it myself."

"You have low self-esteem?"

(End of this chapter)