The moment the dismissal bell rang the next day, Cheng Lele’s bottom shot up like a firecracker had been set off. She sprang to her feet and charged into the adjacent classroom on wheels of fire: “Little Brother—”

Chen An was surrounded by several female classmates asking him questions, which made Cheng Lele anxious like a little dog eager to get outdoors. She squeezed into the encirclement, helping Chen An pack his schoolbag while clamoring: “Ask tomorrow, there’s no rush. There are still five or six hundred days until the high school entrance exam.”

“Cheng Lele, are you rushing to be reincarnated or something?”

“Rushing to go on a date, hurry hurry hurry!”

Chen An picked up his schoolbag and pushed Cheng Lele’s head: “Look at how promising you are.” The corners of his mouth curved into a beautiful arc, his eyes filled with undisguisable tenderness.

To watch a movie naturally meant going to Taixi Theater. The ticket office was a small window set up along the road, like selling train tickets. Chen An asked what the next showing was. The ticket seller yawned repeatedly and said: “Lust, Caution.”

Chen An’s understanding of movies was nearly blank. He asked: “Who’s in it?”

“Tony Leung and Tang Wei.”

Chen An knew Tony Leung—he had seen him in “Infernal Affairs” on CCTV6. It sounded like it should be a Hong Kong crime film, so he took out money and bought two tickets.

The last time they came here, Chen An and Cheng Lele were still kindergarten kids. Back then, everything they looked at had a somewhat timid flavor. Now the two had grown to a preliminary scale. Going in again now, there was completely none of the imagined castle feeling from childhood. In a corner of the lobby stood a row of snack counters. Chen An took Cheng Lele to casually pick some food and drinks, then went in to watch the movie.

This was a five o’clock afternoon showing on a weekday. In the huge screening hall, a few couples sat scattered sparsely. As soon as Cheng Lele entered, memories of confined spaces from childhood suddenly surged tumultuously from her mind with bared fangs and claws. She grabbed Chen An’s hand. Chen An carefully examined her deathly pale face by the light, asking uncertainly: “How about we don’t watch it?”

Cheng Lele instead comforted him: “I’ll be fine in a moment.”

Chen An felt terribly uncomfortable inside. He gripped Cheng Lele’s hand tightly and said: “Don’t be afraid, Little Brother is here.”

“Mm.” Cheng Lele smiled, allowing Chen An to hold her hand as they found seats and sat down.

Before long, the surroundings darkened. Cheng Lele’s attention was quickly drawn to the plot, and that earlier bit of fear was cast to the back of her mind. She had never known that images could be magnified to such a large scale, with actors’ subtle expressions shown in minute detail. The sound was also so three-dimensional and realistic—each bullet seemed to whiz past from nearby. She felt as if she were right there in Shanghai under the oppressive Wang puppet government rule.

Seeing Cheng Lele watch the movie so fixedly without missing a beat, Chen An couldn’t help but feel it was somewhat fresh. Cheng Lele’s appearance when she concentrated was quite nice to look at, exuding a refreshing feeling like green bamboo after rain. Had he known she would like it so much, he would have brought her here earlier.

But as they watched, the style began to go somewhat wrong. Tony Leung started tearing Tang Wei’s clothes off, the movements quite indecent, even showing a bare bottom rising and falling on the enormous screen, appearing especially glaring.

Cheng Lele stopped moving. Chen An also stopped moving. The two were like sculptures—this, this was a Category III film!

Who told domestic films not to have a rating system? Small-town theaters didn’t care how old you were—as long as you paid money to buy, they’d take money to sell. Two underage teenagers entered the screening hall and watched a man and woman rolling together naked doing indescribable activities, scared so badly their jaws nearly dropped.

Chen An reacted quickly, immediately covering Cheng Lele’s eyes with one hand: “Let’s go, let’s go, going home.”

Cheng Lele had grown this big without ever seeing this type of film. Even health education class had been muddled through by self-study. Normally when watching TV, at most she’d see a kiss. Now by accident she’d had her eyes opened wide. Without any sense of shame, she pulled down Chen An’s hand: “Not going back, haven’t finished watching yet.”

Chen An’s hand covered them again as he said through gritted teeth: “You’re a young lady—how can you not be embarrassed at all?”

“If they filmed it, wasn’t it for everyone to watch? The actors aren’t embarrassed, so what should I be embarrassed about?”

One tried to cover, one tried to dodge—in any case, Cheng Lele was biting the green mountain and refusing to let go.

Chen An was so angry he used strength, hooking Cheng Lele’s head and pressing it down onto his lap in one motion. Cheng Lele still wanted to struggle up to watch. Chen An slapped the back of her head with his palm, using the remaining force to grab her neck and stuff her into his embrace: “Watch later!”

Hot air blew against his abdomen. The tip of his nose could smell the faint milky fragrance. Before his eyes was又 yellow and violent imagery. Chen An suddenly felt his heart sway, feeling the person in his arms was somewhat scalding to hold.

Cheng Lele was still stubbornly resisting: “Why can you watch but I can’t?”

“I’m not watching either.” Chen An really wasn’t watching anymore. He felt something was strange somewhere, but couldn’t say where the strangeness was. It must be because of this Category III film!

“Bullshit!”

Cheng Lele’s rebuttal rang out forcefully. Taking advantage of Chen An’s daze, she twisted her waist and turned around, passing through the gap between the two chairs in front, and saw imagery unsuitable for minors again—there was a couple in front, performing scenes more vivid and fragrant than on the screen.

Movie theaters really were a great place!

She tugged at Chen An’s hand. Seeing Chen An didn’t move, she simply arched her back and hooked around Chen An’s neck, pressing down.

Chen An still didn’t know what was happening. He went with the flow, lowering his head and bending his waist, following Cheng Lele’s finger to look forward with her side by side.

Oh my, that man’s hand went inside the woman’s clothes, the woman’s hand went into the man’s crotch. The two were about to lie down!

This time Chen An practically lifted Cheng Lele out of the screening hall.

Chen An was usually quite calm, but after all he was still inexperienced with such matters. All the blood in his body rushed to his face. Cheng Lele swallowed her saliva and said: “City people really know how to have fun.”

While walking toward where the bicycles were parked, Chen An said: “You’re not allowed to come again in the future, understand?”

“That’s called choking on food and giving up eating.”

“Oh, you can use such advanced idioms now.”

Cheng Lele didn’t take it seriously. The legs were on her own body—could Little Brother really control her? Next time she’d come with her girlfriends.

She made up her mind and ignored Chen An’s warning. Setting aside those scenically beautiful images, she had developed a longing for big-screen movies. Having been without great ambitions since birth, she suddenly had a new idea about the future.

She wanted to open a movie theater!

Yes, not to be a director, not to be a screenwriter, and certainly not to be an actor, but to open a movie theater!

When Cheng Lele was little, her ideal was to open an ice cream shop with endless ice cream. When she got a bit older, her ideal upgraded to opening a sparkling jewelry shop. Now her goal was to open a movie theater where she could be immersed and watch movies for free every day.