1979: My fiancée is a goddess

Chapter 114 We, Ditan Temple and Oil Painting
"Chen Danqing? Why are you here?"

Cheng Kaiyan walked out of the room and saw the flat-headed man wearing glasses and holding an umbrella in front of her, and asked curiously.

"A portrait? You forgot."

When Cheng Kaiyan heard this, she looked carefully and found that Chen Danqing was carrying a wooden easel on his back and a tool bag in his hands. He was fully armed and it seemed that he was really a painter.

"Come in for a cup of tea?"

"Hey, what kind of tea are you drinking? Come with me, let's go to Ditan Park to paint. The scenery there is beautiful."

Chen Danqing was an impatient person, and he was about to pull Cheng Kaiyan out.

"Walking there?"

"Then you take me with you. It's hard for me to ride a bike with all the stuff on my back."

There was no choice. Since Chen Danqing was walking over, Cheng Kaiyan had to ride her bike with him towards Ditan Park. After all, he was giving away a painting for free.

"You deliberately didn't ride a bike?"

"Fuck! Ride slower, your butt is broken in two."

Chen Danqing shouted in the back seat.

"Are you sick? Don't hug me!"

Cheng Kaiyan lowered his head to look at his waist and immediately cursed angrily, saying that this guy was actually hugging his waist.

Riding a bike and cursing at the same time formed a beautiful scenery on the street, attracting people's attention.

Finally we arrived at Andingmen on the Second Ring Road, and the outline of Ditan Park was right in front of us.

"Fuck! It hurts so much, you are such a brave boy, who dares to curse me in school? The more you curse me, the faster I ride!"

Chen Danqing jumped out of the car, punched Cheng Kaiyan's shoulder hard, and rubbed his butt with a gritted mouth.

Although his butt hurt, Chen Danqing felt that after the quarrel, their relationship seemed to have become more familiar.

"You guys who are into art are all M, right? I need to stay away from you."

Cheng Kaiyan locked the car and said speechlessly.

After this incident, Cheng Kaiyan probably knew what kind of person Chen Danqing was.

He likes the type who is straightforward. The more awesome you are and the less you take him seriously, the more he thinks you are worth associating with.

If you approach him with a shameless face like others, he will look down on you.

"You know M?"

Chen Danqing was shocked and his eyes lit up.

"roll roll roll!"

……

The two went straight to Ditan Park.

Ditan Park is located on the east side of Andingmenwai in Dongcheng District. It is the second largest of the five altars in Beijing. It was built in the ninth year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1530 AD) and is opposite to the Temple of Heaven.

The Temple of Ditan is a solemn, ancient and elegant royal temple. It was the place where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties worshipped the god of the earth. It is also the largest existing altar for worshiping the earth in my country.

This sacrificial site has always been sacred and inviolable.

However, in August 1923, when the Tokyo earthquake occurred, Puyi opened the Ditan Temple for the first time to worship the "Emperor of the Earth" god in order to raise funds to help the Japanese victims.

Later, Ditan Park suffered from war and had to be repaired many times.

It is basically in a state of abandonment today. Only two military warehouses occupying Fangzetan and Huangjishi are guarded, but they were moved out in February this year.

Now the garden is deserted and desolate like a wilderness and is rarely remembered.

In fact, it’s not that deserted outside. The further you go inside, the fewer people there are and the deserted it becomes.

Cheng Kaiyan followed Chen Danqing into the Ditan Park, looking at the mottled ground, over the half-human-high weeds, and the wild grass and vines entangled on the wall tiles.

A large part of the outer wall in the distance had collapsed, and the old cypress trees around the altar grew densely.

In the garden after the rain, there is a pure smell of grass, trees and soil.

The two walked to a small pavilion in the forest.

"No, buddy, do you need to find such a wild location to paint your portrait? Don't you paint the same thing at home?"

"How can this be the same? Portraits are also closely related to scenery. I have been looking for a long time, and this is the one that suits you best.

What lush vegetation, what exuberant vitality! The theme of vitality should be expressed here. "

Chen Danqing shook his head and recited a few lines to himself like a lunatic.

"Well, it's useless to say it."

……

Chen Danqing took down all the painting tools behind him, sat in the pavilion and started to assemble them.

Cheng Kaiyan looked curiously at the contents of the painting material box: canvas, painting materials, various paintbrushes and oil painting knives.

There were about seven or eight paint boxes, and on the white paint boxes were written Shanghai Art Paint Factory - Oil Paint.

"How much does this cost per box?"

"Two dollars and a half for four in a box. You need at least seven or eight boxes of all the different colors for oil painting, right? The cost of painting an oil painting alone is more than twenty dollars, which is a month's salary for an average worker."

"It's so expensive! No wonder people say learning oil painting is expensive."

"Of course, those from poor families all learn Chinese painting, which is cheaper. But we who paint oil paintings don't do it very often, so it does cost money," Chen Danqing explained.

The two chatted, and soon Chen Danqing was ready.

"This way, you can lean against the pillar and see the tree behind you and the yellow glazed tiles of the Imperial Chamber looming in the distance. Green life, yellow gods, and young human men. It's absolutely amazing!"

Chen Danqing was like playing with a puppet, adjusting Cheng Kaiyan's posture while muttering to himself. Fortunately, he quickly adjusted it, moved a small stool and sat in front of the easel, observing and painting at the same time.

"Tick tick tick~"

In the forest after the rain, raindrops occasionally fall from the leaves.

Time passed little by little.

……

Not far away, a young man pushing a wheelchair and holding a notebook in his hand appeared on the cobblestone road.

"Well, there's someone in the pavilion at this hour?"

Shi Tiesheng noticed two figures in a pavilion not far away, which made him curious.

These days he has been trying to write about his time as an educated youth herding cattle in northern Shaanxi, but as expected he was stuck with a writer's block. He wrote the beginning many times but still felt it was not good enough. Feeling irritated and depressed, he remembered the Ditan Park where his mother often brought him before she died.

"Xiao Lan, let's go to the pavilion. There seems to be someone there."

"I know, brother."

Shi Tiesheng's sister Shi Lan nodded and walked over there along the stone road.

When I got closer to Shi Tiesheng, I realized that these two people were painting, or oil paintings to be precise.

On the off-white linen canvas, there is a emerald green tree and bright yellow glazed tiles in the distance. Of course, the most eye-catching thing is the young man leaning on the wooden pillar in the picture.

"Okay, the painting is done!"

Chen Danqing said to Cheng Kaiyan.

"let me see."

When Cheng Kaiyan heard this, she heaved a long sigh of relief. The painting was finally finished.

He stood up, stretched his arms, rubbed his sore neck, and was about to see how the painting was going when he noticed two more people outside the pavilion.

A man and a woman, a man in his twenties or thirties, and a young girl in her teens.

The unique image of a man, a wheelchair, black-framed glasses, and broad shoulders made Cheng Kaiyan stunned for a moment, and asked curiously: "Who are you?"

"Oh! Sorry, we just came over here out of curiosity because we saw someone here. My name is Shi Tiesheng! Nice to meet you."

Shi Tiesheng looked at the tall young man in front of him and stretched out his hand with a smile.

"Hello, hello! I'm Cheng Kaiyan."

It turned out to be him!
Cheng Kaiyan nodded and extended her hand enthusiastically, and the two shook hands formally.

It seems that it is not very strange to meet Shi Tiesheng in Ditan Park. After all, he is the one who wrote "I and the Altar of Earth".

"Cheng Kaiyan!?"

Shi Tiesheng was stunned when he heard the name, with astonishment in his eyes, and asked in surprise: "You are the Cheng Kaiyan? The one who wrote "Fragrant Grass"!"

Cheng Kaiyan admitted openly, "Yes."

"Nice to meet you! I like your novels very much, they are very well written! Especially the part about the educated youth going to the countryside, which is full of youth and passion, vitality and youthfulness, breaking the dogmatic writing style of scar literature."

Shi Tiesheng was very excited. He didn't expect to meet a writer who inspired him here. He was so lucky!
"Thank you!"

The two chatted animatedly.

Chen Danqing, who was standing by, stared at the man in the wheelchair with his big bulging eyes in displeasure.

As soon as this person came, Cheng Kaiyan abandoned her!
"Hey, hey, hey! Do you still want your painting?"

……

Although Chen Danqing was a little unhappy, the three, no... four of them still introduced themselves in a friendly manner.

"I'm Chen Danqing, an oil painting teacher at CAFA. Have you heard of me?"

"No."

Shi Tiesheng answered honestly. He always felt that this person seemed to be unhappy with him.

Chen Danqing stared at him and asked, "Really?!"

"He published it in the People's Daily. It's Chen Danqing, the XZ group painting."

Cheng Kaiyan held back her laughter and introduced them to Shi Tiesheng and Shi Lan.

"oh oh!"

Everyone chatted for a while and talked about Shi Tiesheng's legs.

"I don't know the exact reason, maybe I got it when I went to the countryside in northern Shaanxi..."

Shi Tiesheng also explained calmly to the two new friends.

After learning about Shi Tiesheng's story and his generous and open-minded character in speaking out about his pain, Chen Danqing admired him very much. If it were him, he would definitely not be able to do so and be so open-minded and cheerful.

So Chen Danqing sincerely asked: "Tiesheng! You are really strong. I want to draw a picture for you. Are you willing to be my model?"

Although this sounds fine, Cheng Kaiyan always feels like he has heard it somewhere before.

They chatted for a while.

In a blink of an eye, it was past five o'clock and time for dinner.

Cheng Kaiyan got a painting for free today, which she considered a good deal, so she took four people to a restaurant and had a meal of mutton wontons.

While eating and chatting, Cheng Kaiyan and Shi Tiesheng talked about the creation of novels on the theme of educated youth. They learned that Shi Tiesheng was in the process of writing and was a little stuck, so they agreed to find time to read the novel.

After eating and drinking their fill, the four of them returned home contentedly.

Cheng Kaiyan and Chen Danqing also learned Shi Tiesheng's address, which was on Lama Temple Street.

(End of this chapter)