The Imitation of a Star Chapter 5

When Ethan Lu drove back, the gang from Megatron's demolition company had already left. Ethan Lu got out of the car and threw the keys to Connor Wei: "Connor Wei, your son will return it to you."

Viagra took it and went around his precious motorcycle to check from the handlebars to the tires.

"How is it," Ethan Lu asked while flicking his wrist, "Aunt Zhang's medical expenses have been repaid?"

Viagra confirmed that there was nothing wrong with his motorcycle, hung the key back on his waist, and smiled: "Here you go, two thousand five thousand. Do you still have any debt you can't get back when Viagra takes action?"

"Awesome." Ethan Lu cheered.

"Then brother went to work." Connor Wei looked at the time, "Do you have a performance tonight? If not, let's have a drink tonight. I haven't had a drink with you for a long time."

In addition to working a few irregular part-time jobs during the day, Ethan Lu is basically a night worker and goes to bars at night.

Ethan Lu said: "Let's try another day. I have to go somewhere tonight."

Ethan Lu has a habit of going to the bar two hours in advance to prepare and start cleaning up when the time is almost up.

As a result, he had just put on his trousers, and the low-waisted jeans with metal chains were stuck loosely on his H!ps. He continued to look through the closet with his upper body naked. Halfway through, he suddenly remembered that there had been too many accidents today, and he had not done something important. .

Ethan Lu threw his vest back and dug out a number called 'Max Sun' from his address book.

The phone beeped twice and the call went through.

A deafening disco song came out directly. Because the volume was so strong, it even blasted several notes when it came through: "Shoo, shoot, shoot, shake the society! Buy a watch, buy a watch! I'm playing in my old pocket." Lie down! It won’t work without shaking!”

...

Ethan Lu took his hand farther away: "Brother Qian."

Then a man's voice came from the other end of the phone. His voice was louder than the disco music, and he yelled with great energy: "Wait a minute! I'm busy!"

The voice paused.

Then another sentence: "Fcuk you, you dare to smoke white powder in my shop---throw him out, call the police! Throw him away, there are eight Fcuking streets away from our bar... Ethan Lu What's wrong with you kid?"

Ethan Lu looked at the calendar and saw that today was May 1st. He felt that the way to get to the point was to be more tactful: "Brother Qian, happy Labor Day."

Max Sun was standing at the door of the bar at the moment. He had just finished cleaning up the idiot who was hiding in the toilet and sucking white powder. He was very sad.

"What the hell is this holiday?" Sun Xiong said unbearably, "Ethan Lu, if you fart, just let it go!"

Ethan Lu then said: "That's it. I've had my head permed, will I be reimbursed?"

"What---?"

Max Sun opened a bar near the business district of Xia Jing City. Although he has seniority, the policies are becoming more and more strict, and it is not easy to open a bar. If these young people get high at night and secretly come to gather people to take drugs, they will be caught. Even if he jumped into the river, he couldn't get rid of it. If you're not careful, you'll get a yellow card.

He usually has too many things to do, and when he heard about getting his hair permed, he didn't even think of it.

Until Ethan Lu said again: "As for that stupid hairstyle that looks like a ball of fire from a distance and looks like a broom from a distance, I advise you to have some conscience."

The band Ethan Lu formed with him and four young people have been singing in his store for almost four years.

Last week he suggested that the young man change his look into something more special.

but...

"Brother Qian." Max Sun was thinking when a bartender came out of the store and didn't know what he wanted to say.

Sun Xiang had a headache. He waved his hand to the bartender and asked him to wait: "Why are you so stupid? That hair! It shows the word handsome! Two words means super handsome! Brother Qiang, I played in a band when I was young. This thing was very popular at that time. I had this hair style at that time. You young people nowadays really don’t understand it--but isn’t your band’s performance tonight canceled?”

"Cancel?"

"Ah, yes, just now, Daming and Xuzi called me and said they couldn't come... I thought you had discussed it, and I asked them if they knew about it, but they both hesitated. "I know for a long time."

Max Sun said, and there was silence on the other end of the phone.

Max Sun wanted to ask what was going on again, but he stopped mid-sentence: "You guys---hey."

Ethan Lu didn't know what he said at the end or what he said to Max Sun until he hung up the phone.

His mind was broken for a long time.

The phone rang, and there were two identical messages on it.

One is from Felix Huang, and the other is from Leo Jiang:

[Brother, we can’t do this anymore. ]

This was followed by another man who had also apparently just learned of the incident.

Dylan Li:? ? ? ? ? ?

What the Fcuk is going on! What nonsense are you talking about?

Today is April Fool?

No, today is Labor Day!

Fcuk is this real? !

Ethan Lu stared at the phone screen, closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he typed a reply: Stop it, really.

He added two more sentences:

-Call them together and come out to meet.

-old place.

After Ethan Lu finished sending, he didn't care what Dylan Li would reply and threw the phone aside.

His eyes fell firmly on the mottled wall. There was a poster on it. It was said to be a poster, but in fact it was just a printout of a photo he took.

The scene in the poster is a bar, with psychedelic lights shining down from the top, and the stage that barely squeezes four people into it looks like it will glow.

There were hands raised high in the audience.

They were hidden in the darkness. Scream along in your own way.

There was a piece of cloth hanging from the pole in front of the stage.

Like a flag, there are four English letters on it: Vent.

The bottom of the poster says ---

Band members: vocalist Ethan Lu, drummer Dylan Li, guitarist Felix Huang, bassist Leo Jiang.

The old place Ethan Lu mentioned was a roadside stall.

Usually after the band performs, they often come here to drink, chat about songs, performances, and talk some colorful trash.

When Felix Huang and Leo Jiang appeared at the intersection in front of them, the skewers were almost cooked. Dylan Li drank two bottles of wine by himself and vented his emotions unilaterally while holding the bottles: "I didn't tell you sooner or later, but I chose to start the show." Is there anything we can't discuss together? Are these brothers? Can brothers do this? "

Ethan Lu sat next to him, shaking off the ashes from his cigarette and saying nothing.

"Brother Yan, Brother Dylan Li." Felix Huang was not tall and very thin. He finished calling hesitantly, and then said awkwardly, "Brother Yan, your hair is permed very coolly."

Leo Jiang stood behind and nodded: "It's really cool. I watched it from afar."

Four people sat at a table, and the atmosphere was slightly silent.

After all, they are teammates who have been together for four years. Ethan Lu broke the silence: "What's going on? Let's talk?"

Felix Huang and Leo Jiang both lowered their heads and no one spoke. After a while, Felix Huang said: "My mother is sick..."

The two of them are very similar. They started running around with their pianos on their backs at the age of sixteen. Their families strongly opposed it. No one understood what a band was or what 'rock and roll' means.

But while life gives people courage, it also constantly teaches people to give up.

How many years have you been in the band?

How long have you been underground?

I used to practice enthusiastically day and night, but now I lie in bed at night with my eyes open and can't fall asleep. What's constantly lingering in my mind is the idea that I don't know when it came up: Forget it.

In fact, it is not uncommon for bands to break up.

Too common.

In the past few years, we have been rehearsing in the air-raid shelter. Various bands have come and gone in the air-raid shelter, formed and disbanded again.

The ideal is too full and the reality is too skinny. When you are young, you can still pursue your dreams without hesitation. However, after a few years, you will find that there is always an invisible and intangible thread growing on you. When that force is pulled, you have to go back.

Ethan Lu couldn't remember how many cigarettes he smoked: "...Auntie, just be fine, have you decided?"

Felix Huang raised his head suddenly and couldn't hold himself any longer. Tears fell straight down and he choked and said: "Brother Yan."

Ethan Lu was really not good at dealing with such a tragic atmosphere. He stood up on the ground and planned to go to the refrigerator to get some drinks: "Speak well and don't cry in front of me---"

Dylan Li put down the wine bottle he was holding and said, "What are you crying for? If you don't know, you might think we are acting in a sad drama at eight o'clock."

The dinner lasted until after ten o'clock.

The barbecue stall was doing a booming business, and several children gathered together to chase each other around the stall. As the least developed area, Xiacheng District’s only advantage compared to other places in the city was that you could see the stars at night.

This day was just like any other day.

After the dinner, Ethan Lu didn't take the bus and walked forward for a while. Halfway there, he felt nauseated after drinking too much wine and squatted down to retching.

Perhaps because he drank too much, he stared at the reflection of the street lamp and remembered the first time he met Felix Huang and Leo Jiang four years ago.

To be honest, these two people were not very good at playing the piano. They were met by him and Dylan Li because they auditioned for other bands and were not selected. But at that time, these two boys were full of energy, and when it came to music, their eyes Just shine.

Then the picture in his mind turned to the barbecue stall. Felix Huang said without any fluctuation in his eyes: "I bought a ticket for the train back three days later. My mother's health has also stabilized. My family found it for me in the county. A job, auto repair... I studied this when I was in vocational school, but I didn't finish it, and the salary was quite stable. "

Ethan Lu was holding on to the steps on the side of the road. The street in front of him seemed to be imaginary, and there was a strong sense of unreality between the light and shadow.

It took him more than an hour to walk back to the community. During this more than an hour, he went back and forth and thought a lot.

Four summers ago, their band had just been formed. It was a band that no one knew about. A few people can't cooperate well. To find a word to describe it, it's like working together and working alone. They express one idea in action: get out of the way, this is my place!

From 2015 to 2019---they rehearsed day and night in city air-raid shelters, making crazy noises in this secret, dark, and confined space.

Ethan Lu walked to the door of District 7. Among the ruins, there were several lights on in Unit 3 of No. 6.

Go upstairs.

Open the door.

Ethan Lu finally felt a sense of reality beyond illusion when he stood in the bathroom. Cold water rushed down from his head, and the broom head that stood high on his head hung down obediently after washing.

This silly dynamite head that was permed for the performance was of no use in the end.

I can't explain how I feel.

Maybe it's regret.

I should have known what I would do if I wasted all my efforts.

Ethan Lu didn't bother to dry his hair after taking a shower. He stood on the edge of the pool with one hand and gestured with a pair of scissors in the other hand, trying to find the best place to start.

The hair dye was applied from the back half of the hair, and the reddish-purple gradient followed the original black part, but it was not evenly applied, with different heights and different shades.

Ethan Lu finally made a few cuts based on his feeling.

There were broken hairs on his face, so he took some water and washed his face. After washing, he opened his eyes and looked in the mirror.

After cutting his hair short, only a few strands of barely noticeable highlights were left at the ends. Ethan Lu, who hadn't had his hair cut short for several years, touched the exposed back of his neck and felt a little uncomfortable.