rebirth from small pockets

Chapter 256 Folk Art Troupe

In small rural places, the Chinese New Year flavor is definitely stronger than in big cities.

Just like Erlong Town, most people in the whole town know each other, even if their relationship is not very good at ordinary times, but it coincides with the New Year, everyone will say Happy New Year to each other when they meet!

But if you are in a high-rise building in the city, let alone everyone in the entire community knows each other, it is not uncommon even if the neighbors across the door don't know each other.

Especially in big cities, there are a lot of migrants. Many people just rent houses and are very mobile, so there is no need to know them at all.

This has also led to a situation where many people feel lonely despite living in a metropolis with millions or even tens of millions of people.

But this does not exist in small rural areas, because wherever you go there are acquaintances, and everyone passes cigarettes to each other when they meet, chats, and congratulations on the New Year!

Some went out to work, chatting about their experiences in big cities outside, some stayed in their hometowns to develop, and talked about the changes in their hometowns over the past year. In short, this is how the Dragon Gate Formation was set up.

Chen Li and his party headed to the most crowded place in Erlong Town.

Big turntable!

This is the bus station of Erlong Town, because buses coming and going always pick up and drop off passengers here.

At the same time, this is also the commercial center of Erlong Town, with barber shops, Taoranju, small restaurants, and even game arcades all nearby.

The arcade in Erlong Town was packed today. A bunch of kids who had received lucky money completely occupied the arcade.

But I guess it won’t be long until almost no one visits this arcade.

It is estimated that the first Internet cafe will appear in Erlong Town soon! And once there is an Internet cafe, who will play this kind of joystick game console?

Not to mention those online games, even if you go to an Internet cafe to play Red Alert, StarCraft, and CS, they are much more enjoyable than this old-fashioned game console.

It's quite nonsense to say that Internet cafes actually prohibit minors from consuming, but in fact, the vast majority of Internet cafes across the country are supported by minors.

This was actually one of the reasons why Chen Li later gave up opening an Internet cafe.

As for another bigger reason, Chen Li suddenly remembered an incident that affected the entire Internet cafe industry.

Chen Li knew very well that he might not be able to prevent certain things from happening, so he was prepared to stay away from those vortexes.

Of course~ Chen Li gave up on entering the Internet cafe industry because he had enough ways to make money. Even if he didn't open an Internet cafe, he could become a rich man.

But this does not mean that other people are like him. Therefore, it is bound to continue to spread all over the country in the next few years just like in the previous life.

It was not until the emergence of smart phones that Internet cafes gradually fell to the edge.

"Chen Li~!"

Just when Chen Li and Li Yuan were blowing shells and setting up a dragon gate formation with a group of peers, a minibus stopped at the big carousel, and Liu Qingqing was the first to get out of the car.

Well, the asphalt road from Erlong Town to Huilong County is really good.

The original drive of more than an hour was shortened to forty minutes, and as the road conditions improved, more vehicles went to Huilong County via Erlong Town.

Therefore, the county even opened an additional shuttle bus from Huilong County to Erlong Town. Unlike the previous bus that departed from Erlong Town, the departure station of this bus is Huilong County.

Liu Qingqing took the bus that departed at 8 o'clock and arrived at Erlong Town in more than half an hour.

The most important thing is that asphalt roads are much more comfortable than the previous mud roads.

I used to take this road by car. If it rained, not to mention the danger of driving, let alone the potholes on the road. If I was not careful, the car would be stuck, and the journey of more than an hour would be delayed for several hours.

.

However, the current asphalt road is not without its shortcomings. Because the asphalt pavement is laid on the original road, the actual distance has not been shortened.

Because Sichuan Province is mountainous and hilly, with many curves, even if it is an asphalt road, the actual increase in vehicle speed is not very fast.

In a previous life, this road was later built as a provincial highway, and the cost of that road was much higher than it is now.

And because when the road was built, mountains and bridges were built all the way, it was almost a straight road. At that time, it only took more than ten minutes to reach Erlong Town from Huilong County.

"Sister-in-law~Happy New Year!"

As soon as she saw Liu Qingqing, Chen Xue's eyes lit up, and she stepped forward and stretched out her hand to Liu Qingqing, not forgetting to pull Wang Yan and signal her to follow suit.

Wang Yan was also familiar with Liu Qingqing, and she liked her brother's girlfriend better, so she also extended her hand.

"Sister-in-law~Happy New Year!"

The two words "sister-in-law" made Liu Qingqing blush, but luckily she was prepared before coming.

Liu Qingqing took out two red envelopes from her pocket, handed one to Chen Xue and the other to Wang Yan.

This is the first time Liu Qingqing has given out red envelopes to anyone. If her mother hadn't reminded her, she wouldn't have even thought of this.

"What about mine?"

Chen Li also stepped forward and extended his hand like his two sisters, but what he received was a slap from his girlfriend.

"Where are my uncle and aunt? I have to go and say New Year's greetings to them first."

This is polite, even if Liu Qingqing's mother didn't tell her, she would do it.

This was considered business, so the group wandered to Li Yuan's house again.

Liu Qingqing paid New Year greetings to everyone in turn and received several red envelopes.

And she just kept the red envelope because no one would go to Liu Jianjun to get it back.

If Chen Li was not Liu Qingqing's boyfriend, he would dare. But the soldiers did not allow him to do this, so Miss Liu accepted the red envelope, which was a pure profit.

After paying New Year greetings to the adults, everyone could arrange the time freely, so the group went to Xinjiekou.

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, so everyone should go home for reunion.

However, some people do not choose to rest during this period, and they even choose holidays to be busy.

Theater troupe!

To be precise, it should be called a folk art troupe.

In this art troupe, there are cross talkers, dancers, skit performers, and even a Northeastern duo.

And the most exciting ones are probably the acrobatics and magic!

Of course, this is just Chen Li's personal preference! As for others, they seem to prefer dancing and kung fu performances.

Needless to say, dancing, because most of the dancers are beautiful and wear very little, so it is easy to set the rhythm.

As for kung fu performances, let alone things like crushing rocks on the chest, lying on a nail board, piercing the throat with a steel spear, swallowing swords, etc.

In the next twenty years, fewer and fewer people will know these things.

Because practicing these traditional skills is very hard, and as the country's economic development speeds up and there are many ways to make money, fewer and fewer people are willing to learn these things.

In fact, even now in 1999, fewer and fewer people are willing to watch these things.

Compared with these, many people would rather watch the video.

Yes~ Although the cinema in Erlong Town was abandoned, the staff of the cinema directly converted the cinema into a small video hall.

Regular video recording costs 50 cents per person, irregular video recording costs 2 yuan per person!

Don't tell me, after this change, business is pretty good. For example, this guy Li Yuan used to often visit irregular ones.

Hmm. Okay! Chen Li has also been there, but he was brought there by Li Yuan. Otherwise, he wouldn't have spent two yuan to watch those movies where two or three people acted in one scene.

Of course, today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, and both Chen Li and Li Yuan have their future wives with them, so they definitely can't watch the video.

But Erlong Town is such a big place, and there are almost no entertainment options. Chen Li and Li Yuan don't like playing cards, so they had to bring their girlfriends to watch the show.

The business of this art troupe is not good. Even on a festive day like the first day of the Lunar New Year, few people come to watch their performance.

In fact, being able to still make a living during the Spring Festival is proof that this art troupe is not doing well.

Those who made money broke up and went home to celebrate the New Year years ago. Only those who didn't make any money like this group chose to travel around during the Spring Festival.

The performance of the art troupe starts at 10 o'clock, and the ticket is two yuan per person.

The price is either high or low. The reason why no one saw it is probably because today is the first day of the new year.

Moreover, it is still the morning of the first day of junior high school, which is also the first performance of the year by the art troupe.

It's too early, everyone is still visiting each other to pay New Year greetings! Is there anyone here to watch the performance?

So when Chen Li and his party bought tickets and entered the tent, they found that there were only about ten people inside.

Counting Chen Li and his party, there were more than twenty.

But according to the rules of the arena, even if there is only one person sitting in the audience, the performance must continue.

Not long after Chen Li and others sat down, chatting and eating melon seeds for a while, the time came to 10 o'clock, and the performance officially started.

Following the host's opening remarks and introduction, several dancers took to the stage.

And it was because of this dance that Chen Li roughly understood why this art troupe was still traveling to towns to make money during the Spring Festival.

Generally speaking, the dance performances of this kind of folk art troupe are almost all modern dance.

Choose a piece of exciting music and dance with the beautiful and well-dressed dancers, and the temperature in the tent will rise.

But the opening dance of this dance group turned out to be the water sleeve dance!

To be honest, the performance was actually very good and the dancers were pretty beautiful! But how can I put it~ It doesn’t cater to the market!

This kind of performance should either go to an art stage, or go on a TV station or various evening shows.

It's not impossible to do this kind of performance in this kind of folk art performance, but it shouldn't be the first one!

With a performance like this, if you don’t have some artistic bacteria, you really can’t tell whether it’s good or bad.

Chen Li is one of those people with a bit of artistic talent. After all, he used to be the marketing director of a nightclub, and the nightclub also had performances.

Moreover, nightclubs at that time were full of talents, and it was not uncommon for some graduates from professional colleges to perform in nightclubs.

Therefore, when it comes to art appreciation, Chen Li thinks that he is still a little higher than ordinary people.

At this moment, the art troupe in Chen Li's eyes was obviously one with a professional background, and it was definitely not some wild folk art troupe.

Those dancers gave Chen Li the feeling more like that of a local art troupe.

That kind of professionalism cannot be achieved by those who are self-taught or those who only learn a little bit and then go out to make money.

Therefore, Chen Li probably also knows why this art troupe is not doing well.

Because even when these actors are performing, they give people the impression of being "upright"!

There is no down-to-earth atmosphere and no interaction with the audience, but it does not mean that the problem has been dealt with, it is more like that a performance has been completed!

But in fact, this kind of "orthodox" performance is not suitable for the public at all.

Especially in a small rural place like Erlong Town, if you tell the audience what elegance you say, that person will spit on you.

For ordinary people, a program only needs to be good-looking.

And this "good-looking" actually has multiple meanings. The program is good-looking, the actors are good-looking, or even the performance method is unique and novel, etc.

Like the water sleeve dance just now, from an artistic point of view, this thing should be moved to the TV screen, rather than in a tent in the open space on the streets of Erlong Town.

So, it’s no surprise that after the show was performed, the response from the few audience members could not be described as “mediocre.”

Everyone looked at the host on the stage with "eagerness" and "expectation" because they were looking forward to the next program that everyone wanted to see.

However, the facts disappointed everyone. The following programs were almost all traditional art programs.

This made these people who paid for tickets to watch the show very disappointed. When the last middle-aged man came on stage holding an erhu, someone in the audience finally couldn't stand it anymore.

"What the hell, you're playing the erhu for me during the Chinese New Year."

"Get off!"

A bottle of iced black tea was smashed onto the stage in the tent. The tent was actually very large, but it was probably to allow more people to come in and watch the performance, so there was very little space left for the stage.

So actually, when we perform on stage, we are very close to the audience.

As the ice tea bottle hit the ground, the drink in the bottle splashed everywhere, perhaps because the cap was not tightened.

In the past, due to the sparse audience, Chen Li and others who were seated near the front suffered a lot.

If it was Chen Li and Li Yuan who were splashed by drinks, that might be okay, but the people who were also splashed were Liu Qingqing, Zhao Xiaoqiu, and even Chen Li's two younger sisters.

I can't stand this!

I saw a black shadow passing through the sky, and a chair flew directly towards the guy who smashed the drink just now. Then Li Yuan shouted:

"Who the hell lost the bottle?"

(End of chapter)