Chapter 8 A Beautiful Girl Ruolan (6): A strange fire in the theater five years ago
The car stopped, and in front of it was a gray building, like a demolition zone, with only a solitary house left there.
Shen Zhen and I got out of the car, took out the things we bought in advance from the trunk, and walked forward.
The survivor Shen Zhen found out was named Zheng Cheng. When he was young, he participated in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. He never got married after changing his career. Later, due to survival problems, he went to Chengji Theater to work as a handyman. Unexpectedly, Zheng experienced that fire. Cheng has an eccentric personality and is not very good to others, so his life is not satisfactory. Since the incident at Cheng Kee Theater, he has not been out again and lives alone in the old house.
I looked at the place in front of me and couldn't help but wonder if anyone lived here. First of all, there were no wires or power supply boxes on either side. Secondly, there was sewage everywhere. There were also stones and garbage piled up on both sides of the road. There were even some places. They are all overgrown, which means no one has been cleaning them for a long time.
Soon, we saw a small house behind the gray building. The door was open and it looked like someone was living inside. It seemed that this should be Zheng Cheng's home.
Shen Zhen and I looked at each other, then walked over and knocked on the door, "Is anyone there?"
"Who is it?" an old man's voice came from inside.
"Is it Uncle Zheng?" Shen Zhen asked with a smile, "We are from the community and we are doing census work. Please cooperate with us."
"Oh, come in." Zheng Cheng opened the door.
I followed Shen Zhen and walked into Zheng Cheng's home. It was said to be a home, but in fact it was a not too big house. It was densely packed with things. Because the room was not exposed to light and was not cleaned all year round, there was a smell of talk. The sour smell didn't come out. I looked around the room carefully and found an old-fashioned tape recorder on the table next to the bed, and there were some tapes with no covers next to them.
"What are you investigating? Are you working in the community? Why haven't I seen you?" Zheng Cheng looked at us suspiciously and asked.
"Of course, we are doing administrative work. There are too many things right now, so we have to work overtime. By the way, can I see your ID card first?" Shen Zhen is a psychologist after all, and his speech seems to be impeccable.
Zheng Cheng took out his ID card and handed it to Shen Zhen. Shen Zhen looked at it pretendingly, and then gave it back to Zheng Cheng.
Although Zheng Cheng is older, he is still very defensive.
Just as I was thinking about how to bring up such a topic with Zheng Cheng, Shen Zhen glanced at a cup on the table. That cup was not an ordinary cup. It had the words Chengji Theater printed on it. He blurted out, "Uncle Zheng, what are you doing?" There will be cups from Sing Kee Theater!”
"I, I worked there, and this was the benefit I received at that time," Zheng Cheng said.
"Really? I heard that Cheng Kee Theater was developing very well five years ago. Then it suffered an inexplicable fire. Now no one dares to go there. They say you can still hear some crying at night. Uncle Zheng ,Did you experience that fire at that time?" Shen Zhen asked again.
Zheng Cheng frowned, maybe mentioning the fire, and his face twitched unconsciously. After a few seconds, he raised his head and looked at us, and said gloomily, "Do you believe there are ghosts in this world?"
"Ghost? Ha, how can there be ghosts in this world?" Shen Zhen chuckled.
"No, you are young and still don't understand anything. Didn't you ask about the fire? That was the ghost's revenge and death. I clearly remember the scene I saw..." A trace of fear flashed in Zheng Cheng's eyes.
Then he murmured about the situation at that time.
The fire happened in the summer five years ago, when it was the peak business season of Cheng Kee Cinema. In fact, theaters are no longer popular in today's cities. Many people watch TV at home, and even when they go out, they go to see movies. But Cheng Kee Theater
I remember that the theater performs a rather special kind of opera, which is also a traditional opera that many people in southwestern cities like to watch, and that is a ghost play.
The so-called ghost dramas can be found in many dramas, such as "Hongyang Cave" in Peking Opera, which specifically talks about the plot of Yang Liulang summoned by Yang Linggong after his death, as well as "Love Hook", "Nv Diao", "Wuben Ji"
"And so on. You must know that Chinese opera comes from ancient shamanism and shamanic rituals. Among the more than 160 kinds of existing operas, there are as many as 60 or 70 kinds of ghosts, accounting for almost half of the number. Some
Even ghosts are at the center of the play.
Speaking of ghost plays, it is natural to talk about Cheng Afu, the owner of Chengji Theater. Cheng Afu is from Liangshan, Sichuan. He was born to sing ghost plays. It is said that when he was born, his mother and father heard several strange things at the same time.
The sound of opera. Later, the wizard who sang ghost opera in the next village came to the door and wanted to accept Cheng Afu as his successor. However, because the identity of the wizard was too weird, Cheng Afu's parents refused. But their rejection did not matter.
Changing Ah Fu's fate of singing a ghost show, his father discovered one day that Cheng Ah Fu sneaked out every night and didn't come back until late at night. Later, he discovered that Cheng Ah Fu had secretly gone to the wizard's house and followed him.
The wizards sing ghost plays together.
In Cheng Afu's hometown, if he chooses to sing a ghost play, it means that he will be a widower, unmarried, and have no children, which means he will be cut off from the family. So his parents broke off the relationship with him and was kicked out of his home.
Cheng Afu simply lived in the wizard's house and learned the ghost plays thoroughly. When he was twelve years old, he could sing ghost plays at funerals in some nearby villages by himself, and even sang better than his master.
Even better.
After Cheng Afu's master died, Cheng Afu left his hometown. He went to some troupes that sang ghost operas, and later met several colleagues. Several of them finally came to this city and opened Chengji Theater. Because singing
There are not many people who perform ghost plays, and there are only a handful of good and large-scale singers. In addition, in some places in the southwest, some elderly people have passed away and people are still needed to perform ghost plays, so the business of Chengji Theater has always been small.
Yes. Therefore, Cheng Afu's team relied on this theater, settled here, and even married and had children.
The first time Zheng Cheng saw Cheng Ah Fu at Cheng Kee Theater, he was attracted by his temperament. Cheng Ah Fu looked gentle, elegant and looked like a scholar. Hearing about Zheng Cheng's situation, he
He decided to let him come to work in the theater and bought him a suit of clothes.
Later, Zheng Cheng learned that Cheng Ah Fu was very kind to everyone around him. Therefore, everyone had a very deep affection for Cheng Kee Theater. Almost all of them were old people who had worked in the theater for many years. They all had a very harmonious relationship, and they were almost like a family.
Same. This also made Zheng Cheng, a lonely man, feel a touch of warmth.
Because the theater was performing a ghost show, statues of gods were always enshrined in the backstage of the theater, and incense was constantly burning. On the day of the fire, Zheng Cheng remembered that there were some special circumstances in the theater, such as who covered the statues with white cloth.
His face, and then someone wrote four big bloody characters on the costume that Ah Fu wore, please give me back my life.
Cheng Ah Fu was very angry when this happened, and everyone felt it was unlucky. However, since all the theater tickets were sold, Cheng Ah Fu had no choice but to change into another costume for the performance.
Maybe Cheng Ah Fu also thought that something would happen that day, so he asked Zheng Cheng to pay more attention, especially behind the stage. At that time, Cheng Ah Fu and the others were singing at the front stage, and Zheng Cheng was watching backstage.
There is a scene in the front-stage play where all the lights are turned off and only one person sings and cries. This part is operated by a man in the backstage of the theater. It was very normal at first, but then the person cried more and more loudly, and the sound became louder and louder.
His voice didn't sound like that man's, and he ended up singing some ghostly lyrics that he couldn't understand.
So, the whole program had to be stopped.
Cheng Afu and the others came to the backstage operation room to take a look, and found that the man who was responsible for singing behind the scenes had fainted in the operation room. Everyone hurriedly woke him up, and after careful questioning, they found out that the man had been knocked unconscious at the beginning.
, which means that the person singing in the background was not him at all, but someone else.
Seeing that he couldn't finish the show, Cheng Afu suggested that he should stop. Then he told Zheng Cheng that he should go home and rest for two days. Zheng Cheng knew that among the people in the theater, he should be an outsider, so naturally he knew
It was Ah Fu's wish, so he left.
When Zheng Cheng left, he heard Cheng Afu chatting with several people, and they said a few words in the middle. He still remembers it fresh and cannot forget it.
"It must be that evil spirit who is here to claim his life."
"I think I'd better invite people from those days to come over and take a look, right?"
"Some things have to be faced sooner or later."
These three sentences were the last three sentences Zheng Cheng heard, because early the next morning he received the news of a fire in Chengji Theater. The police conducted a detailed investigation inside, except Zheng Cheng, Chengji Theater
Everyone inside was burned to death. And the police found out that everyone was not burned to death, but in a flat state. There was no struggle, no shouting, it looked like they knew they were going to
Like being burned to death, he lay there quietly, waiting to be swallowed by death.
Zheng Cheng’s narration was intermittent. Of course, I made some descriptions and supplements about the situation of Cheng Kee Theater. In short, through Zheng Cheng, we learned about the fire at Cheng Kee Theater five years ago and some things about Cheng Afu, the leader of Cheng Kee Theater.
matter.
"Do you know this girl?" I took out the newspaper, which reported news about Cheng Kee Theater. Among the photos of the victims next to it, I pointed to Wu Ruolan's photo.
"I know her, but I don't know her specific name. People in the theater call her Xiaoqian. She specializes in playing the heroine of ghost dramas and is Cheng Afu's female apprentice. However, this girl has a weird temperament. She never
She only speaks when she sings ghost operas. Many people suspect that she is mute, but she can sing operas." Zheng Cheng looked at Wu Ruolan's photo and said.
"Is she sure she was also killed?" I asked.
"Yes, the police confirmed the body at that time. Why do you ask this?" Zheng Cheng looked at me.
"Master Zheng, I, I want to ask you a favor?" I ignored his question.
"What?" Zheng Cheng asked.
"Come with me to Chengji Theater tonight." I want Zheng Cheng to help me confirm whether Wu Ruolan is actually Xiaoqian?
"What are you going to do there? I, I haven't been there for five years." Zheng Cheng seemed a little resistant when he heard this.
"I suspect that Xiaoqian is not dead, and has been singing in Chengji Theater. I want you to confirm it for me." I told the reason.
"Yes, we have seen it with our own eyes." Shen Zhen nodded.
"Okay then." Zheng Cheng looked into our eyes and finally agreed.