zh-cn	6.片厂
en-us	The Film Studio

zh-cn	四十年的故事都是从去片厂这一天开始的。
en-us	FOUR DECADES THE story spans, and it all began the day she went to the film studio.

zh-cn	前一天，吴佩珍就说好，这天要带王琦瑶去片厂玩。
en-us	The day before, Wu Peizhen had agreed to take Wang Qiyao to have a look around the studio.

zh-cn	吴佩珍是那类粗心的女孩子。
en-us	Wu Peizhen was a rather careless girl.

zh-cn	她本应当为自己的丑自卑的，但因为家境不错，有人疼爱，养成了豁朗单纯的个性，使这自卑变成了谦虚，这谦虚里是很有一些实事求是的精神的。
en-us	Under normal circumstances, she would have suffered from low self-esteem because of her homeliness, but because Peizhen came from a well-to-do family and people always doted on her, she had developed unaffected into an outgoing young lady. What would have been poor self-esteem was replaced by a kind of modesty—modesty ruled by a practical spirit.

zh-cn	由这谦虚出发，她就总无意地放大别人的优点，很忠实地崇拜，随时准备奉献她的热诚。
en-us	In her modesty, she tended to exaggerate other people's strengths, place them on a pedestal, and offer them her devotion.

zh-cn	王琦瑶无须提防她有妒忌之心，也无须对她有妒忌之心，相反，她还对她怀有一些同情，因为她的丑。
en-us	Wang Qiyao never had to worry about Wu Peizhen being jealous of her—and she certainly had no reason to be jealous of Wu Peizhen. On the contrary, she even felt a bit bad for Wu Peizhen—because she was so ugly.

zh-cn	这同情使王琦瑶变得慷慨了，自然这慷慨是只对吴佩珍一个人的。
en-us	This compassion predisposed Wang Qiyao to be generous, but naturally this generosity did not extend any further than Wu Peizhen.

zh-cn	吴佩珍的粗心其实只是不在乎，王琦瑶的宽待她是心领的，于是加倍地要待她好，报恩似的。
en-us	Wu Peizhen's carelessness was the function of an uncalculating mind. She appreciated Wang Qiyao's magnanimity and tried even harder to please her as though repaying her kindness.

zh-cn	一来二去的，两人便成了最贴心的朋友。
en-us	Basking in each other's company, they became the best of friends.

zh-cn	王琦瑶和吴佩珍做朋友，有点将做人的重头推给吴佩珍的意思。
en-us	But Wang Qiyao's decision to befriend Wu Peizhen meant, in some way, that she was pushing a heavy load onto Wu Peizhen's shoulders.

zh-cn	她的好看突出了吴佩珍的丑，她的精细突出了吴佩珍的粗疏，她的慷慨突出的是吴佩珍的受恩，使吴佩珍负了债。
en-us	Her beauty highlighted Wu Peizhen's unattractive appearance; her meticulousness highlighted Wu Peizhen's lack of care; her magnanimity highlighted Wu Peizhen's indebtedness.

zh-cn	好在吴佩珍是压得起的，她的人生任务不如王琦瑶来得重，有一点吃老本，也有一点不计较，本是一身轻，也是为王琦瑶分担的意思。
en-us	It was a good thing that Wu Peizhen could take it; after all, the weight of everyday living did not rest as heavily on her. This was partly because she had plenty of psychic capital to draw on, but also because she simply did not mind. Things came easy to her and she was willing to bear more than her share.

zh-cn	这么一分担，两头便达到平衡，友情逐日加深。
en-us	Thus an equilibrium of give-and-take was maintained between the two girls and they grew closer by the day.

zh-cn	吴佩珍有个表哥是在片厂做照明工，有时来玩，就穿着钉了铜扣的黄咔叽制服，有些炫耀的样子。
en-us	Wu Peizhen had a cousin who did lighting at the film studio. Occasionally he would come over to see her. In that khaki uniform of his, with its copper buttons, he came across as a bit flashy.

zh-cn	吴佩珍本来对他是不在意的，拉拢他全是为了王琦瑶。
en-us	Wu Peizhen really could not have cared less about him; the only reason she kept him around was for Wang Qiyao.

zh-cn	片厂这样的地方是女学生们心向往之的地方，它生产罗曼蒂克，一种是银幕上的，人所周知的电影； 一种是银幕下的，流言蜚语似的明星轶事。
en-us	The film studio was the stuff of girls' dreams—a place where romance is created, the kind that appears on the silver screen in movies that everyone knows as well as the off-screen type that one hears about in the enchanting gossip and rumors surrounding the lives of film stars.

zh-cn	前者是个假，却像真的； 后者是个真，倒像是假的。
en-us	The former is fake but appears real; the latter is real but seems fake.

zh-cn	片厂里的人生啊，一世当作两世做的。
en-us	To live in the world of the film studio is to lead a dual life.

zh-cn	像吴佩珍这样吃得下睡得着的女孩子，是不大有梦想的，她又只有兄弟，没有姐妹，从小做的是男孩的游戏，对女孩子的窍门反倒不在行了。
en-us	Girls like Wu Peizhen who had all of their needs taken care of seldom wallowed in dreams; moreover, as the only girl in a house full of boys, she grew up playing boys' games and never learned the social skills and canniness most girls picked up.

zh-cn	但和王琦瑶做朋友以后，她的心却变细了。
en-us	However, after making friends with Wang Qiyao, she became more thoughtful.

zh-cn	她是将片厂当作一件礼物一样献给王琦瑶的。
en-us	She came to see the film studio as a gift that she could offer to Wang Qiyao.

zh-cn	她很有心机的，将一切都安排妥了，日子也定下了，才去告诉王琦瑶。 不料王琦瑶却还有些勉强，说她这一天正好有事，只能向她表哥抱歉了。
en-us	She arranged everything carefully, only informing Wang Qiyao after she had already set a date, and was surprised when Wang Qiyao greeted the news with apparent indifference, claiming a prior engagement.

zh-cn	吴佩珍于是就一个劲儿地向王琦瑶介绍片厂的有趣，将表哥平日里吹嘘的那些事迹都搬过来，再加上自己的想象。
en-us	This compelled Wu Peizhen to try to change Wang Qiyao's mind by exaggerating the glamour of the film studio, combining stories her cousin bragged about with others from her own imagination.

zh-cn	事情一时上有些弄反了，去片厂倒是为了照顾吴佩珍似的。
en-us	Before long, it was more like Wang Qiyao was doing her a favor by going with her.

zh-cn	等王琦瑶最终拗不过她，答应换个日子再去的时候，吴佩珍便像又受了一次恩，欢天喜地去找表哥改日子。
en-us	By the time Wang Qiyao finally gave in and agreed to go some other time, Wu Peizhen was acting as if yet another gift that she herself had to be thankful for had been bestowed upon her, and she ecstatically scurried off to find her cousin to change the date.

zh-cn	其实这一天王琦瑶并非有事，也并非对片厂没兴趣，这只是她做人的方式，越是有吸引力的事就越要保持矜持的态度，是自我保护的意思，还是欲擒故纵的意思？
en-us	Wang Qiyao did not, in fact, have any prior engagement, nor was she as reluctant as she appeared; this was simply the way she conducted herself—the more interested she was in something, the more she held back. This was her means of protecting herself—or then again, was it part of a strategy of disarming an antagonist by pretending to set her free?

zh-cn	反正不会是没道理。 吴佩珍要学会这些，还早着呢。
en-us	Whatever the reason behind her action, it was impenetrable to Wu Peizhen.

zh-cn	去找表哥的路上，她满心里都是对王琦瑶的感激，觉得她是太给自己面子了。
en-us	On her way to her cousin's place, she was consumed with gratitude for Wang Qiyao; all she could think about was how much face Wang Qiyao had given her by agreeing to the invitation.

zh-cn	这表哥是她舅舅家的孩子。
en-us	The cousin was the son of Wu Peizhen's uncle on her mother's side.

zh-cn	舅舅是个败家子，把杭州城里一爿茧行吃空卖空，就离家出走，也不知去了什么地方。 她母亲平素最怕这门亲戚，上门不是要钱就是要粮，也给过几句难听话，还给过几次钉子碰，后来就渐渐不来了，断了关系。
en-us	This uncle was the black sheep of the family. He had driven a silk shop in Hangzhou into the ground and Wu Peizhen's mother had dreaded his visits because all he ever wanted from her was money or grain. After she gave him some heavy doses of harsh words and turned him away empty-handed several times, he gradually stopped coming around and eventually broke off all relations.

zh-cn	忽有一日，那表哥再上门时，便是穿着这身钉了铜扣的黄咔叽制服，还带了两盒素点心，好像发了个宣言似的。
en-us	Then one day his son had showed up at her door wearing that khaki uniform with copper buttons and carrying two boxes of vegetarian dim sum as if they represented some kind of announcement.

zh-cn	自此，他每过一两月会来一次，说些片厂里的趣事，可大家都淡淡的，只有吴佩珍上了心。
en-us	Ever since then he would come by once every two months or so and tell them stories about the film studio. Nobody in the house was interested in his stories—nobody, that is, except Wu Peizhen.

zh-cn	她按了地址去到肇嘉浜找表哥，一片草棚子里，左一个岔，右一个岔，布下了迷魂阵。
en-us	Wu Peizhen went to the address in Qijiabing in search of her cousin. All around were thatch-covered shacks surrounded by small unmarked trails that extended in different directions, making it virtually impossible to find one's way.

zh-cn	一看她就是个外来的，都把目光投过去，待她要问路时，目光又都缩了回去。
en-us	People stared at her. One glance told them that she was an outsider, but just as she was getting ready to ask directions they would immediately look away.

zh-cn	等她终于找到表哥的门，表哥又不在，同他合住的也是一个青年，戴着眼镜，穿的却是做工的粗布衣服，让她进屋等。
en-us	She finally found her cousin's place, only to discover that he was not home. The young man who shared the shack with her cousin asked her in. He was wearing a pair of glasses and a set of coarse cotton clothes.

zh-cn	她有点窘，只站在门口，自然又招来好奇的目光。
en-us	Wu Peizhen was a bit shy and waited outside. This naturally drew more curious gazes.

zh-cn	天将黑的时候，才见表哥七绕八拐地走来，手里提着一个油浸浸的纸包，想是猪头肉之类的。
en-us	It was not until dusk that her cousin finally staggered in with a greasy paper bag holding a pig's head or some other cheap meat he had bought over at the butcher's shop.

zh-cn	她回到家里，已经开晚饭了，她还得编个谎搪塞她父母，也是煞费了苦心。
en-us	By the time Wu Peizhen got home, her family was already at the dinner table and she had to fib about where she had been.

zh-cn	可她无怨无艾，洗脚时看见脚底走出的泡，也觉得很值得。
en-us	But she didn't have an ounce of regret; even when later that evening she saw the blisters on the soles of her feet from all that walking, she still felt that it was all worth it.

zh-cn	这晚上，吴佩珍竟也做了个关于片厂的梦，梦见水银灯下有个盛装的女人，回眸一笑，竟是王琦瑶，不由感动得醒了。
en-us	That night she even had a dream about the film studio. She dreamed of an elegantly dressed woman under the mercury-vapor lamps. When the woman turned to her and smiled, Wu Peizhen saw that she was none other than Wang Qiyao; she was so excited that she woke up.

zh-cn	她对王琦瑶的感情，有点像一个少年对一个少女，那种没有欲念的爱情，为她做什么都肯的。
en-us	Her feelings for Wang Qiyao were a bit like the puppy love that a teenage boy feels for a girl for whom he is willing to go to the edge of the earth.

zh-cn	她在黑漆漆的房间里睁着眼，心想：片厂是个什么地方呢？
en-us	She opened her eyes in the pitch-dark bedroom and wondered: Just what kind of place is this film studio anyway?

zh-cn	到了那一天，去往片厂的时候，吴佩珍的兴奋要远超过王琦瑶，几乎按捺不住的。
en-us	When the day finally arrived, Wu Peizhen's excitement far surpassed that of Wang Qiyao; she could barely contain herself.

zh-cn	有同学问她们去哪里，吴佩珍一边说不去哪里，一边在王琦瑶的胳膊上拧一下，再就是拖着王琦瑶快走，好像那同学要追上来，分享她们的快乐似的。
en-us	A classmate asked them where they were off to. "Nowhere," Wu Peizhen casually responded, as she gave Wang Qiyao a knowing pinch on the arm. Then she pulled Wang Qiyao aside and told her to hurry up, as though afraid that that their classmate would catch up and force them to let her in on their pleasure.

zh-cn	她一路聒噪，引得许多路人回头侧目，王琦瑶告诫几次没告诫住，最后只得停住脚步，说不去了，片厂没到，洋相倒先出够了。
en-us	The whole way there Wu Peizhen couldn't stop jabbering, attracting curious glances from people on the street. Wang Qiyao warned her several times to get hold of herself. Finally she had to stop in her tracks and declare she wasn't going any further—they had not even set foot in the studio and Wu Peizhen had already embarrassed her enough.

zh-cn	吴佩珍这才收敛了一些。
en-us	Only then did Wu Peizhen cool down a bit.

zh-cn	两人上车，换车，然后就到了片厂。
en-us	To get to the studio they had to take the trolley and make a transfer.

zh-cn	表哥站在门口正等她们，给她们一人一个牌挂在胸前，表示是厂里的人，便可以随处乱走了。 她们挂好牌，跟了表哥往里走。
en-us	Wu Peizhen's cousin was waiting for them at the entrance; he gave each of them an ID tag to clip on her chest so that they would look like employees: that way they could wander around wherever their hearts desired.

zh-cn	先是在空地上走，四处都扔了木板旧布，还有碎砖破瓦，像一个垃圾场，也像一个工地。
en-us	Once inside, they walked through an empty lot littered with wooden planks, discarded cloth scraps, and chunks of broken bricks and tiles—it looked like a cross between a dump and a construction site.

zh-cn	迎面来的人，都匆匆的，埋着头走路。
en-us	Everyone approaching went at a hurried pace with their heads down.

zh-cn	表哥的步子也迈得很快，有要紧事去做似的。
en-us	The cousin also moved briskly, as if he had something urgent to take care of.

zh-cn	她们两人被甩在后头，互相拉着手，努力地加快步子。
en-us	The two girls were left straggling behind, holding hands, trying their best to keep up.

zh-cn	下午三四点的太阳有点人意阑珊的，风贴着地吹，吹起她们的裙摆。
en-us	It was three or four o'clock, the sunlight was waning and the wind picked up, rustling their skirts.

zh-cn	两人心里都有些暗淡，吴佩珍也沉默下来。
en-us	Both of them felt a bit gloomy and Wu Peizhen fell silent.

zh-cn	三人这样走了一阵，几百步的路感觉倒有十万八千里的样子，那两个跟着的已经没有耐心。 表哥放慢了脚步与她们拉扯片厂里的琐事，却有点不着边际的。
en-us	After going a few hundred steps, their journey began to feel interminable, and the girls began to lose patience with the cousin, who slowed down to regale them with some of the rumors floating around the studio; his comments, however, seemed to be neither here nor there.

zh-cn	这些琐事在外面听起来是真事，到了里面反倒像是传闻，不大靠得住了，两人心里又有些恍惚。
en-us	Before their visit all of those anecdotes seemed real, but once they had seen the place everything was now entirely unreliable.

zh-cn	然后就走进了一座仓库似的大屋，一眼望过去，都是穿了制服的做工的人走来走去，爬上爬下，大声吆喝着。
en-us	Numbness had taken hold of them by the time they entered a large room the size of a warehouse, where uniformed workers scurried back and forth, up and down scaffolding, all the while calling out orders and directions.

zh-cn	类似明星的，竟一个也见不着。
en-us	But they did not see a soul who even faintly resembled a movie star.

zh-cn	她们跟着表哥一阵乱走，一会儿小心头上，一会儿小心脚底，很快就迷失了方向。 头上脚下都是绳索之类的东西，灯光一片明一片暗的。
en-us	Thoroughly disoriented, they simply trailed after Wu Peizhen's cousin, but had to watch their heads one second and their feet another, for there were ropes and wires overhead and littering the ground.

zh-cn	她们好像忘记了目的，不知来到了什么地方，只是一心一意地走路。
en-us	They moved in and out from illuminated areas into patches of darkness and seemed to have completely forgotten their objective and had no idea where they were—all they did was walk.

zh-cn	又好像走了十万八千里，表哥站住了脚，让她们就在这边看，他要去工作了。
en-us	After what seemed an eternity, Wu Peizhen's cousin finally stopped and had them stand off to one side—he had to go to work.

zh-cn	她们站的这块地方，是有些熙攘的，人们都忙碌着，从她们的身前身后走过。
en-us	The place where they were left standing was bustling with activity; everyone seemed to be doing something as they moved briskly around the girls.

zh-cn	好几次她们觉得挡了别人的路，忙着让开，不料却撞到另一人的身上。
en-us	Several times, rushing to get out of one person's way, they bumped into someone else.

zh-cn	而明星样的人还是一个不见。
en-us	But they had yet to lay eyes on anyone who looked like a movie star.

zh-cn	她们惴惴的，心想是来错了，吴佩珍更是愧疚有加，不敢看王琦瑶的脸色。
en-us	They were both getting anxious, feeling that the whole trip was a mistake. Wu Peizhen could hardly bring herself to look Wang Qiyao in the eye.

zh-cn	这时，灯光亮了，好像有十几个太阳相交地升起，光芒刺眼，她们这才看见面前是半间房间的摆设。
en-us	All of a sudden, the lights in the room lit up like a dozen rising suns, blinding them. After their eyes adjusted they made out a portion of the warehouse-like room that had been arranged to look like one half of a bedroom.

zh-cn	那三面墙的房间看起来是布景，可里头的东西样样都是熟透的。
en-us	That three-walled bedroom seemed to be the set, but everything inside was peculiarly familiar.

zh-cn	床上的被子是七成新的，烟灰缸里留有半截烟头的，床头柜上的手绢是用过的，揉成了一团，就像是正过着日子，却被拆去了一堵墙，揪出来示众一般。
en-us	The comforter showed signs of wear, old cigarette butts were left in the ashtray, even the handkerchief on the nightstand beside the bed had been used, crumpled up into a ball—as if someone had removed a wall in a home where real people were living to display what went on within.

zh-cn	看了心里有点欢喜，还有点起腻。
en-us	Standing there watching they were quite excited, but at the same time irritated because they were too far away to hear what was being said on set.

zh-cn	因她们站得远，听不见那里在说什么，只见有一个穿睡袍的女人躺在床上，躺了几种姿势，一回是侧身，一回是仰天，还有一回只躺了半个身子，另半个身子垂到地上的。 她的半透明的睡袍裹着身子，床已经皱了，也是有点起腻的。
en-us	All they could see was a woman in a sheer nightgown lying on a bed with wrinkled sheets. She tried to lie in several different positions; on her side one moment, on her back the next, and for a while even in a strange position where half her body extended off the bed onto the floor. All this became somewhat boring.

zh-cn	灯光暗了几次，又亮了几次。
en-us	The lights turned on and off.

zh-cn	最后终于躺定了，再不动了，灯光再次暗下来。
en-us	In the end, the woman in bed stopped moving and stayed still in the same position for quite some time before the lights once again dimmed.

zh-cn	再一次亮起时，似与前几次都不同了。
en-us	When the lights came back on, everything seemed different.

zh-cn	前几次的亮是那种敞亮，大放光明，无遮无挡的。
en-us	During the previous few takes the light had been marked by an unbridled brilliance.

zh-cn	这一次，却是一种专门的亮，那种夜半时分外面漆黑里面却光明的亮。
en-us	This time they seemed to be using a specialized lighting, the kind that illuminates a room during a pitch-black night.

zh-cn	那房间的景好像退远了一些，却更生动了一些，有点熟进心里去的意思。
en-us	The bedroom set seemed to be further away, but the scene became even more alive.

zh-cn	王琦瑶注意到那盏布景里的电灯，发出着真实的光芒，莲花状的灯罩，在三面墙上投下波纹的阴影。
en-us	Wang Qiyao was taking in everything. She noticed the glow emitting from the electric lamp and the rippling shadows of the lotus-shaped lampshade projecting onto the three walls of the set.

zh-cn	这就像是旧景重现，却想不起是何时何地的旧景。
en-us	A powerful sense of déjà vu gripped her, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not remember where she had seen this scene before.

zh-cn	王琦瑶再把目光移到灯下的女人，她陡地明白这女人扮的是一个死去的人，不知是自杀还是他杀。
en-us	Only after shifting her gaze to the woman under the lamplight did she suddenly realize that the actress was pretending to be dead—but she could not tell if the woman was meant to have been murdered or to have committed suicide.

zh-cn	奇怪的是，这情形并非阴森可怖，反而是起腻的熟。
en-us	The strange thing was that this scene did not appear terrifying or foreboding, only annoyingly familiar.

zh-cn	王琦瑶看不清这女人的长相，只看见她乱蓬蓬的一头鬈发，全堆在床脚头，因她是倒过来脚顶床头，头抵床脚地躺着，拖鞋是东一只，西一只。
en-us	She could not make out the woman's features; all she could see was her head of disheveled hair strewn out along the foot of the bed. The woman's feet faced the headboard and her head lay propped against the foot of the bed, her slippers scattered on opposite sides of the room.

zh-cn	片厂里闹哄哄的，货码头似的，“开麦拉”“OK”的叫声此起彼伏，唯有那女人是个不动弹，千年万载不醒的样子。
en-us	The film studio was a hubbub of activity, like a busy dockyard. With all the cries of "Camera" and "OK" rising and falling amid the clamor, the woman was the only thing that did not move, as if she had fallen into an eternal slumber.

zh-cn	吴佩珍先有些不耐烦，又因为有点胆大，就拉王琦瑶去别处看。
en-us	Wu Peizhen was the first to lose her patience; after all, she was the more brazen one. She pulled Wang Qiyao away so they could go look around other parts of the studio.

zh-cn	下一处地方是拍打耳光的，在一个也是三面墙的饭店，全是西装革履的，却冲进一个穷汉，进来就对那做东的打耳光。
en-us	Their next stop was a three-walled hotel lobby where a fight scene was being shot. All of the actors, in suits and leather dress shoes, were standing around when suddenly a poor fellow in tattered clothes walked onto the set and slapped the hotel manager across the face.

zh-cn	做派都有点滑稽的，耳光是打在自己手上，再贴到对方的脸上，却天衣无缝的样子。
en-us	The way the action was carried out looked a bit ridiculous; the actor produced the slapping sound with his left hand as he slapped the restaurant owner with his right, but his timing was impeccable and one could hardly tell it was fake.

zh-cn	吴佩珍喜欢看这个，往复了多少遍都看不厌，直说有趣。
en-us	Wu Peizhen liked this scene much more than the first. She watched them do take after take without getting bored, the whole time exclaiming how much fun it was.

zh-cn	王琦瑶却有些不耐烦，说还是方才那场景有看头，是个正经的片子，不像这，全是插科打诨，猴把戏一样的。
en-us	Wang Qiyao, however, grew impatient and said that the first one was much more interesting. She said that it was a serious film, unlike this one, which was pure buffoonery, no better than a circus sideshow.

zh-cn	两人又回到方才那棚里，不料人都散了，那床也挪开了，剩几个人在地上收拾东西。
en-us	The two returned to the first set only to discover that everyone had gone. Even the bed had been taken away, leaving only a few workers behind to straighten up the remaining items on set.

zh-cn	她们疑心走错了地方，要重新去找，却听表哥叫她们，原来，收拾东西的人里头就有表哥。
en-us	The girls wondered if they had gone to the wrong place and were about to go look elsewhere when Wu Peizhen's cousin suddenly called out to them. As it happened, he was one of the workers breaking down the set.

zh-cn	他让她们等一会儿，再带她们去别处逛，今日有一个棚在做特技呢！
en-us	He told them to wait a little while, and then he would take them to watch a special effects shoot that was going on at one of the other sets!

zh-cn	她们只得站在一旁干等。
en-us	They had no choice but to stand off to one side and wait idly.

zh-cn	有人问表哥她们是谁，表哥说了，又问她们在哪个学校读书，表哥说不上来，吴佩珍自己说了，那人就朝她们笑，一口白牙齿在暗中亮了一下。
en-us	Someone asked the cousin who his guests were and he told him. But when the man asked where they went to school, the cousin was stumped and Wu Peizhen had to answer for herself. The man flashed them a smile, revealing a set of white teeth that shimmered in the darkness of the studio.

zh-cn	过后，表哥告诉她俩，这人是导演，在外国留过学的，还会编剧，今天拍的这戏，就是他自编自导的。
en-us	He was the director, the cousin later told them. He had studied abroad and was also a screenwriter; in fact he had written and directed the scene they had earlier seen being filmed.

zh-cn	说罢，就带上她们去看拍特技，又是烟又是火，还有鬼的。
en-us	The cousin told them all this as he led them off to see the special effects shoot, where they saw smoke, fire, even ghosts.

zh-cn	也都是底下的工人在折腾，留给演员去做的事，只一眨眼。
en-us	Once again the technical people were doing all the work while the actors did virtually nothing.

zh-cn	吴佩珍又要表哥带她们去看明星，表哥却面露难色，说今天哪个棚都没拍明星的戏，说这明星的戏不是哪天都有的，也不是想排哪天就排哪天的，要随着明星的意思。
en-us	Asked by Wu Peizhen if they could see some movie stars, the cousin looked embarrassed. He told them that there was not a single big star on any of the sets that day, explaining that it was not every day that big movie stars had scenes. The studio simply could not schedule things the way they would like—they had to work around the stars' schedules.

zh-cn	吴佩珍便揭底似的说：你不是讲每天都可看见谁谁谁的？
en-us	Wu Peizhen caught her cousin in a lie. "Didn't you tell us that you are always running into all these big name stars at the studio every day?" she protested.

zh-cn	王琦瑶见表哥脸上下不来，就圆场道：下回再来吧，天也黑了，家里人要等了！
en-us	Wang Qiyao took pity on the cousin and tried to smooth things over. "It's getting dark. We had better come back some other time. Our parents will be worried!"

zh-cn	表哥这就带了她们往外走，路上又遇见那导演一回，竟还记得她们，叫她们某某中学的女学生，很幽默的，两人都红了脸。
en-us	As the cousin led them toward the exit they once again ran into the director. Not only did he remember them, he addressed them jocularly as "the girls from So-and-so middle school"—Wang Qiyao and Wu Peizhen turned a bright red.

zh-cn	回去的电车上，两人就有些懒得说话，听那电车的当当声。
en-us	On the ride home, neither was in the mood to talk and they sat silently, listening to the ringing bells of the trolley.

zh-cn	电车上有些空，下班的人都到了家，过夜生活的人又还没有出门。
en-us	The trolley was half empty; the after-work rush hour was over and Shanghai's nightlife had yet to begin.

zh-cn	那片场的经验有些出人意料，说不上是扫兴还是尽兴，总之都是疲乏了。
en-us	The girls' experience at the film studio was not exactly as expected; it was difficult to say whether it was disappointing or whether they had had the time of their lives—the one thing for sure was that they were both exhausted.

zh-cn	吴佩珍本来对片厂没有多少准备，她的向往是因王琦瑶而生的向往，她自然是希望片厂越精彩越好，可究竟是什么样的精彩，心中却是没数的，所以她是要看王琦瑶的态度再决定她的意见。
en-us	Wu Peizhen had never had her sights set on the studio. Her reason for going rested entirely in making Wang Qiyao happy, so naturally she had hoped it would be a wonderful trip. Just what was so wonderful about the film studio, however, Wu Peizhen had not the slightest clue—she had to wait for Wang Qiyao's reaction to find out.

zh-cn	片厂给王琦瑶的感想却有些复杂。
en-us	The impression the film studio left on Wang Qiyao, on the other hand, was much more complicated.

zh-cn	它是不如她想象中的那样神奇，可正因为它的平常，便给她一个唾手可得的印象。 唾手可得的是什么？
en-us	It was not nearly as magical a place as she had imagined, yet because it appeared so ordinary it gave her the impression that it was within her grasp—but just what was it that she could grasp?

zh-cn	她还不知道。
en-us	She had yet to figure that out.

zh-cn	原先的期待是有些落空，但那期待里的紧张却释然了。
en-us	Her initial hopes may have been dampened, but the anxiety that came with anticipation had been relieved.

zh-cn	从片厂回来几天，她都没什么表示，这使吴佩珍沮丧，以为王琦瑶其实是不喜欢片厂这地方，去片厂全是她多此一举。
en-us	In the days following their visit to the film studio, Wang Qiyao did not utter a single word about their trip, and this left Wu Peizhen quite depressed. She was afraid that Wang Qiyao had not liked the studio and the whole trip had been a complete waste.

zh-cn	有一日，她用作忏悔一样的口气对王琦瑶说，表哥又请她们去片厂玩，她拒绝了。
en-us	Then one day she told Wang Qiyao in a confessional tone that her cousin had invited them back to the film studio but she had already declined the offer.

zh-cn	王琦瑶却转过脸，说：你怎么能这样不懂道理，人家是一片诚心。
en-us	Wang Qiyao rounded on her. "How could you do that? He is trying to be nice to us!"

zh-cn	吴佩珍瞪大了眼睛，不相信地看着她，王琦瑶被她看得不自在，就转回头说：我的意思是不该不给人家面子，这是你们家的亲戚呀！
en-us	Wu Peizhen's eyes widened in disbelief. Wang Qiyao felt a bit uncomfortable under her stare. Turning her face away, she said, "What I mean is, you should show the guy some respect. After all, he's your cousin!"

zh-cn	这一回，连吴佩珍都看出王琦瑶想去又不说的意思了，她非但不觉得她作假，还有一种怜爱心中生起，心想她看上去是大人，其实还是个孩子呀！
en-us	This was one occasion when even Wu Peizhen saw through Wang Qiyao. But far from belittling her friend for being phony, Wu Peizhen felt a tenderness well up in her heart. Although on the outside she looks like a grownup, deep down she is still a child!

zh-cn	这时候，吴佩珍对王琦瑶的心情又有点像母亲，包容一切的。
en-us	Wu Peizhen thought to herself. At that moment, her feeling for Wang Qiyao approached maternal love—a love that encompassed all.

zh-cn	从此，片厂就变成她们常去的地方。
en-us	From then on the film studio became a place for frequent visits.

zh-cn	拍电影的窍门懂得了不少，知道那拍摄完全不是按着情节的顺序来的，而是一个镜头一个镜头分别拍了，最后才连成的。
en-us	They learned quite a few inside secrets about filmmaking. They learned that movies are never shot in sequence, but are made one scene at a time and only edited together in the final stages.

zh-cn	拍摄的现场又是要多破烂有多破烂，可是从开麦拉里摄取的画面总是整洁美妙。
en-us	The set locations may have been dilapidated and in disrepair, but the images captured by the camera were always perfectly beautiful.

zh-cn	炙手可热的大明星她们也真见着了一二回，到了镜头面前，也是道具一般无所作为的。
en-us	On one or two occasions they actually saw some of those famous movie stars, who sat in front of the camera doing nothing, like a collection of idle props.

zh-cn	那电影的脚本则是随意地改变，一转眼死人变活人的。
en-us	Films scripts were revised at random, and in the blink of an eye even the dead could come back to life.

zh-cn	她们钻进电影的幕后，摸着了奥秘的机关，内心都有一些变化。
en-us	The girls made their way backstage, and as they rubbed their hands against the mysterious machinery that made images come to life, their hearts seemed to undergo a kind of transformation.

zh-cn	片厂的经验确是不寻常的经验，它带有一些人生的含义。
en-us	Time spent in a film studio is never humdrum; the experience always hints at life's greater meaning.

zh-cn	尤其在她们那个年龄，有些虚实不分，真伪不辨； 又尤其是在那样的时代，电影已成为我们生活的一个重要部分。
en-us	This is especially true for the young, who cannot yet completely distinguish truth from fiction and the real from the make-believe, and especially during that era—when movies had already become an important part of our everyday lives.

zh-cn	7.开麦拉
en-us	Camera

zh-cn	王琦瑶知道了，拍电影最重要最关键的一瞬，是“开麦拉”的这一瞬，之前全是准备和铺垫。 之后呢？
en-us	Wang Qiyao had learned that the most critical moment in making a film came the second that the director calls, "Camera." Everything up to that point boils down to preparation and foreshadowing, but what happens afterward?

zh-cn	则是永远的结束。
en-us	It ends forever.

zh-cn	她看出这一声“开麦拉”的不同寻常的意义，几乎是接近顶点的。
en-us	She came to understand the significance of the word "Camera": it announced a kind of climax.

zh-cn	那导演有时让她们看镜头，镜头总是美妙，将杂乱和邋遢都滤去了。
en-us	Sometimes the director let them look through the camera and what they saw through its lens was always gorgeous; the camera had the power to filter out all of the chaos and disarray.

zh-cn	还使暗淡生辉。
en-us	It had the power to make what was dark and dismal glimmer with light.

zh-cn	镜头里的世界是另一个，经过修改和制作，还有精华的意思。
en-us	Inside the camera was a different world. After editing and postproduction, only the pure essence would remain.

zh-cn	那导演已成为熟人，她们见他不再脸红。
en-us	The director became quite close with the girls and they eventually stopped blushing in his presence.

zh-cn	有几回，表哥不在片厂，她们便直接找他。
en-us	A few times, when Wu Peizhen's cousin was not in the studio, they even went straight to look for the director.

zh-cn	他自作主张的，喊她们一个叫“珍珍”，一个叫“瑶瑶”，好像她们成了他戏里的角色似的。
en-us	He had given them the nicknames "Zhen Zhen" and "Yao Yao," as if they were characters in his latest movie.

zh-cn	他背地里和片厂的人说，珍珍是个丫头相，不过是荣国府贾母身边的粗使丫头，傻大姐那样的； 瑶瑶是小姐样，却是员外家的小姐，祝英台之流的。
en-us	Behind their backs he described Zhen Zhen to his colleagues as a graceless servant girl right out of Dream of the Red Chamber, a little cleaning maid who thinks she is special just because she is employed in a large, wealthy household. Yao Yao he described as a proper miss who acted the part of a rich official's daughter, like the tragic lover Zhu Yingtai.

zh-cn	他把吴佩珍当小孩子看，喜欢逗她，开些玩笑；
en-us	He treated Wu Peizhen as if she were a child; he loved to tease her and play little jokes on her.

zh-cn	对王琦瑶则说有机会要让她上一回镜头，因她的眉眼有些像阮玲玉，趁着人们对阮玲玉的怀念，说不定能捧出一颗明星。
en-us	He promised to put Wang Qiyao in a scene in one of his movies as soon as the opportunity arose. Who knows? Because her coquettish eyes resembled Ruan Lingyu's, they might even be able to capitalize on the audience's nostalgia for the dead movie star and make Wang Qiyao into a new diva of the screen.

zh-cn	也是带点玩笑的意思，却含蓄得多。
en-us	Although he seemed to be kidding, this was the director's reserved and humorous way of making a promise.

zh-cn	王琦瑶当然也不会认真，只是有点喜欢自己和阮玲玉的相像。
en-us	Wang Qiyao naturally did not take him too seriously, but she did kind of like being compared to Ruan Lingyu.

zh-cn	可是有一日，导演竟真的打电话到家里，让她去试一试镜头。
en-us	Then one day the director telephoned Wang Qiyao at home to have her come down to the studio for a screen test.

zh-cn	王琦瑶心怦怦跳着，手心有点发凉，她不知道这是不是个机会，她想，机会难道就是这般容易得的吗？
en-us	Wang Qiyao's heart raced and her hands grew clammy. She was unsure if this was the opportunity she had been waiting for. She wondered: Could my big chance really come this easily?

zh-cn	她不相信，又不敢不信，心里有些挣扎。
en-us	She could not believe it, neither did she dare not to believe it. Deep down her heart was in knots.

zh-cn	她本是想不告诉吴佩珍，一个人悄悄地去，再悄悄地回，就算没结果，也只她自己知道，好比没发生过的一样。
en-us	At first she did not want to tell Wu Peizhen about it. She planned to sneak off alone and return before anyone noticed that she was gone. In case nothing came of the screen test, it would be her own little secret and she could pretend that nothing had ever happened.

zh-cn	可临到那一天，她还是告诉了吴佩珍，要她陪自己一起去，为了壮胆子。
en-us	But then, just before the day of her screen test, she broke down and asked Wu Peizhen to go with her so that she would not be too nervous.

zh-cn	晚上她没睡好，眼睛下有一片青晕，下巴也尖了一些。
en-us	Wang Qiyao did not sleep well the night before; her face appeared thinner than usual and she had dark rings around her eyes.

zh-cn	吴佩珍自然是雀跃，浮想联翩，转眼间，已经在策划为王琦瑶开记者招待会了。 王琦瑶听她聒噪，便又后悔告诉了她。
en-us	Wu Peizhen naturally jumped for joy as all kinds of wild ideas went flying through her head. In no time she was talking about organizing press conferences for Wang Qiyao, who regretted telling her friend about the screen test.

zh-cn	这一天的课，两人都没上好，心不知飞到哪里去了。
en-us	Neither of them paid attention during their classes that afternoon.

zh-cn	终于放学，两人便踅出校门，上了电车。
en-us	When school finally let out the two rushed out of the gate and hopped onto the trolley car.

zh-cn	这时间的电车，多是些家庭主妇般的女人，手里拎着布袋，身上的旗袍是有皱痕的，腿后的丝袜也没对准缝，偏了那么一点，头发或是蓬乱，或是理发店刚出来戴了一顶盔似的，脸上表情也是木着的，万事俱不关心的样子。
en-us	Most of the passengers at that time of the day were housewives with cloth bags in hand, wearing wrinkled cheongsams, the seams of their stockings running crookedly up the back of their legs. They either had messy, disheveled hair or, if they had just walked out of the beauty salon, hair that look like a helmet. Their faces were rigid, as if nothing in the world concerned them.

zh-cn	电车在轨道里哐哐当当地走，也是漠然的表情。
en-us	Even the trolley seemed to be afflicted with an air of apathy as it rattled along the tracks.

zh-cn	她们俩却是这漠然里的一个活跃，虽然也是不做声，却是有着几百年的大事在酝酿的。
en-us	Amid this sea of indifference, Wang Qiyao and Wu Peizhen were animated and alive. Though neither said a word, centuries of anticipation and excitement were brewing inside them.

zh-cn	下午三点钟的马路，是有疲惫感的，心里都在准备着结束和换班了。
en-us	At three o'clock in the afternoon, the Shanghai boulevards were suffused with weariness, preparing to sign out and change shifts.

zh-cn	太阳是在马路西面的楼房上，黄熟的颜色。
en-us	The sun hung in the western sky above the apartment buildings, glowing ripe and golden.

zh-cn	她们俩倒好像是去开始这一天的，心里有着许多等待。
en-us	Their hearts were filled with anticipation as if they were about to begin a brand-new day.

zh-cn	导演先将她俩领进化妆室，让一个化妆师来给王琦瑶化妆。
en-us	The director led them into the dressing room and had a makeup artist work on Wang Qiyao.

zh-cn	王琦瑶从镜子里看见自己的形象，觉得自己的脸是那么小，五官是那么简单，不会有奇迹发生的样子，不由颓丧起来。
en-us	Seeing herself reflected in the mirror, Wang Qiyao could not help feeling that her face was small and her features plain—she realized that a miracle would not occur—and this depressed her.

zh-cn	她由化妆师摆弄，听天由命的表情，有一段时间，她闭起眼睛不去看镜子。 她感到十分的难堪，恨不得这一切早点结束；
en-us	She became completely resigned as the makeup man worked on her. She even closed her eyes for a while to avoid looking in the mirror, uncomfortable and anxious only to get everything over and done with.

zh-cn	她还有些神经过敏，认为那化妆师也是恨不得早点结束，手的动作难免急躁和粗暴的。
en-us	She even got neurotic and thought that the makeup man, impatient to get finished with her, was applying the makeup hurriedly and crudely.

zh-cn	她睁开眼睛再看镜子，镜子里的自己是个尴尬的自己，眼睛鼻子都是不得已的样子。
en-us	When she opened her eyes once again and looked, she saw the awkward expression of someone who had no desire to be there.

zh-cn	化妆室的光是充足的平均分配的光，没有抑扬顿挫，看上去都有些平铺直叙的。
en-us	The harsh, unmodulated light of the dressing room made everything appear commonplace.

zh-cn	王琦瑶对自己没有信心了，反倒是豁出去地，睁大眼睛看那化妆师的手法，看着自己一点一点变得不是自己，成了个陌生人。
en-us	Losing all confidence in herself, Wang Qiyao decided to simply let everything ride; she focused on watching the makeup man gradually transform her into someone else—a stranger she did not recognize.

zh-cn	这时，她倒平静下来，心情也松弛了，等那化妆师结束工作走开时，她甚至还生出几分幽默感同吴佩珍开玩笑。 吴佩珍说她简直像是嫦娥下凡，她就说嫦娥也是月饼盒上的嫦娥，于是两人都笑。
en-us	It was then that she began to calm down and her tensions eased. By the time the makeup man finished his job, she had even started to regain her sense of humor and joked around a bit with Wu Peizhen, who remarked that Wang Qiyao looked like the Lady in the Moon descending into the secular world, whereupon Wang Qiyao quipped that if she were a Lady in the Moon, she was the kind whose image was found on boxes of mooncakes. The two of them had a good laugh.

zh-cn	一笑，表情舒展了，脂粉的颜色里有了活气，便生动起来。
en-us	Once this happened, Wang Qiyao's expression relaxed, her powdered face lit up, and she came to life.

zh-cn	再看那镜子里的美人，也不那么生分和隔膜了。
en-us	As she returned the gaze of the beauty in the mirror, the image she saw no longer seemed quite as distant and unrecognizable.

zh-cn	不一会儿，导演就派人来招呼她去，吴佩珍自然尾随着。
en-us	Before long the director sent someone over to escort Wang Qiyao to the set, Wu Peizhen naturally following close behind.

zh-cn	棚里灯架都支好了，那吴佩珍的表哥在一个高处朝着她笑，导演却变得很严肃，六亲不认似的，指定她坐在一个床上，是那种宁式眠床，有着高大的帐篷，架上雕着花，嵌着镜子，是乡下人的华丽。
en-us	The lights were already set up and Wu Peizhen's cousin was up on the scaffolding, smiling down at them. The director, on the other hand, became serious and cold, as if he did not even know them. He had Wang Qiyao sit on a bed. It was a Nanjing-style bed with ornate flower patterns carved into the woodwork, a mirror set into the headboard, and high bed curtains all around—all the signs of rustic elegance.

zh-cn	导演告诉她，她现在是一个旧式婚礼中的新娘，披着红盖头，然后有新郎官来揭盖头，一点一点露出了脸庞。
en-us	Wang Qiyao was to play a bride in a traditional wedding ceremony. She would be wearing a crimson bridal veil over her head when the groom entered and he would pull it away, slowly revealing her face.

zh-cn	导演规定她是娇羞的，妩媚的，有憧憬又有担忧的，一股脑儿交给她这些形容词，全要做在一张脸上。
en-us	The director explained that her character had to be bashful and charming, filled with longing and uncertainty; he unloaded these adjectives on her all at once, expecting her to capture them all with a single expression.

zh-cn	王琦瑶虽是点头，心却茫然，还恍恍的，不知从何着手。
en-us	Wang Qiyao nodded, but deep down she was completely lost and had no idea where to begin.

zh-cn	可此时她只是一个豁出去，反倒是很镇定，竟能注意到周围，听见有邻近棚里传出来的“开麦拉”的叫声。
en-us	But having decided to let everything ride, she was actually quite calm and composed. She was aware of everything going on around her, down to the shouts of "Camera" coming from the adjacent set.

zh-cn	接着，一块红盖头蒙上来了，眼前陡地暗了。
en-us	The next thing she knew, a crimson bridal veil came down over her head. Suddenly everything was swathed in darkness.

zh-cn	这时，王琦瑶的心才擂鼓似的跳起来。
en-us	In that instant her heart began pounding like a drum.

zh-cn	她领悟这一时刻的来临，心生畏惧，膝盖微微地打颤。
en-us	She understood that her moment had come and fear welled up inside her as her knees began to tremble faintly.

zh-cn	灯光齐明，眼前的暗变成了溶溶的红色，虽是有光，却是不明就里的光。
en-us	The set lights came on, transforming the darkness into a thick crimson hue.

zh-cn	王琦瑶发热似的，寒颤沿了膝盖升上去，牙齿都磕碰起来。
en-us	Suddenly she felt feverish, and the tremors worked their way from her knees up through her body. Even her teeth began to chatter.

zh-cn	片厂里的神奇在光里聚集和等候着。
en-us	All the mystery and grandeur of the film studio hung suspended in the light shimmering outside her veil.

zh-cn	有人走过来，整理她的衣服，又走开了，带来一阵风，红盖头动了一下，抚着她的脸，是这一下午的紧张里的一个温柔。
en-us	Someone came and straightened out her clothing and then quickly walked off set. The air whisked against her as he passed by. The crimson veil fluttered a bit, for a moment softening the anxieties of that afternoon.

zh-cn	她听见四周围一连串的“OK”声，是递进的节奏，有几分激越的，齐心奔向一个目标的，最终是一声“开麦拉”。
en-us	She heard a series of "okay"s repeating in rhythmic succession around her, as if converging upon a common target. Finally came the word, "Camera."

zh-cn	王琦瑶的呼吸屏住了，透不过气来，她听见开麦拉走片的机械声，这声音盖住了一切，她完全忘记了她该做什么了。
en-us	Wang Qiyao's breathing stopped. She could not catch her breath. She could hear the film running through the camera, a mechanical sound that seemed to override everything. Her mind just went blank.

zh-cn	当一只手揭去红盖头的时候，她陡然一惊，往后缩了一下，导演便嚷了一声停。
en-us	When a hand pulled away her wedding veil, she was so startled that she shrank back with fright. "Cut," the director yelled.

zh-cn	灯光暗下，红盖头罩上，再从头来起。 再一遍来起就有些人事皆非了。
en-us	The set lights went dim, the crimson veil went back over her head, and they took it once more from the top. As they redid the scene, everything grew fuzzy.

zh-cn	很多情景远去了，不复再现，本来也是幻觉一样的东西。
en-us	Things faded off into the distance, never to reappear, as if they had been an illusion.

zh-cn	王琦瑶清醒过来，寒颤止住了，心跳恢复正常。
en-us	Then Wang Qiyao snapped out of her daze, her shivering ceased, and her heart rate returned to normal.

zh-cn	红盖头里的暗适应了，能辨出活动的人影。
en-us	Her eyes adjusted to the darkness once more and through the wedding veil she could make out silhouettes of people moving around.

zh-cn	灯光亮起，是例行公事的，一连串“OK”也是例行公事，那一声“开麦拉”虽是例行公事，也是权威性的，有一点不变的震撼。
en-us	The set lights came up and this time the shouts of "OK" sounded perfunctory. When the word "Camera" was called out, it too seemed little more than a formality—but this formality still carried with it an air of authority, of unwavering power.

zh-cn	她开始依着导演的交代在脸上做准备，却不知该如何娇羞，如何妩媚，如何有憧憬又有担忧。
en-us	She began to prepare the emotions the director wanted to see on her face; the only problem was that she had no inkling of how to act bashful or charming, or what it meant to be filled with longing and uncertainty.

zh-cn	喜怒哀乐本来也没个符号，连个照搬都没地方去搬的。
en-us	Human emotions are not simple symbols that can be called up at will.

zh-cn	红盖头揭起时，她脸上只是木着，连她天生就有的那妩媚也木住了。
en-us	The crimson wedding veil was lifted to reveal a rigid expression; even the bit of natural charm that she normally had about her was frozen.

zh-cn	导演在镜头里已经觉察到自己的失误，王琦瑶的美不是那种文艺性的美，她的美是有些家常的，是在客堂间里供自己人欣赏的，是过日子的情调。 她不是兴风作浪的美，是拘泥不开的美。
en-us	As soon as he saw her through the eye of the camera, the director sensed that he had made a mistake; Wang Qiyao's was not an artistic beauty, but quite ordinary. It was the kind of beauty to be admired in by close friends and relatives in her own living room, like the shifting moods of everyday life; a retrained beauty, it was not the kind that made waves.

zh-cn	她的美里缺少点诗意，却是忠诚老实的。
en-us	

zh-cn	她的美不是戏剧性的，而是生活化，是走在马路上有人注目，照相馆橱窗里的美。
en-us	It was real, not dramatic—the kind of beauty that people noticed on the street and photo studios displayed in their front windows.

zh-cn	从开麦拉里看起来，便过于平淡了。
en-us	Through the camera's lens, it was simply too bland.

zh-cn	导演不觉失望，他的失望还有一点为王琦瑶的意思，他想，她的美是要被埋没了。
en-us	The director was disappointed, but his disappointment was partly for Wang Qiyao's sake. Her beauty will be buried and lost to the world, he said to himself.

zh-cn	后来，为了补偿，他请一个摄影的朋友，为王琦瑶拍了一些生活照，这些生活照果真情形大异，其中一张还用在了《上海生活》的封二，以“沪上淑媛”为题名。
en-us	Later, in order to make things up to her, he had a photographer friend of his do a photo shoot for her—but this photo shoot turned into something quite extraordinary. One of the photos even made it into the inside front cover of Shanghai Life with the caption, "A Proper Young Lady of Shanghai."

zh-cn	试镜头的经历就这样结束了，这是片厂里的小事一桩。
en-us	And so that is how the screen test ended, just another trifling incident in the life of the film studio.

zh-cn	王琦瑶从此不再去片厂了，她是想把这事淡忘，最好是没发生过。
en-us	After that, Wang Qiyao stopped going. She wanted to forget the whole affair—that it had ever happened.

zh-cn	可是罩着红盖头，灯光齐明的情景却长在了心里，眼一闭就会出现的。
en-us	But the image of that crimson wedding veil and the dazzling studio lights were already imprinted in her mind and reappeared whenever she closed her eyes.

zh-cn	那情景有一种莫测的悸动，是王琦瑶平静生活中的一个戏剧性的片刻。
en-us	There was a strange frisson attached to that scene; it was the most dramatic moment in Wang Qiyao's quiet life.

zh-cn	这一片刻的转瞬即逝，在王琦瑶心里留下一笔感伤的色彩。
en-us	The moment had come and gone in an instant, but it added a dab of melancholic color to her heart.

zh-cn	有时放学走在回家的路上，会有一点不期然的东西唤起去试镜头的那个下午的记忆。
en-us	Occasionally, on her way home from school, something would unexpectedly stir up her memory of the screen test.

zh-cn	王琦瑶这年是十六岁，这事情使她有了沧桑感，她觉得自己已经不止十六岁这个岁数了。
en-us	Wang Qiyao was sixteen years old at the time, but that one day's experience left her with the feeling that she had already been through a lot—she felt much older than sixteen.

zh-cn	她还有点躲避吴佩珍，像有什么底细被她窥伺了去似的。
en-us	She started to avoid Wu Peizhen, as if the latter had stolen some secret from her.

zh-cn	放学吴佩珍约她去哪里，十有九次她找理由拒绝。
en-us	Whenever Wu Peizhen invited her out after school, Wang Qiyao would almost always find some excuse not to go.

zh-cn	吴佩珍有几次上她家找她玩，她也让娘姨说不在家推了。
en-us	Several times Wu Peizhen even went to Wang Qiyao's apartment to look for her, but each time Wang Qiyao had the maidservant say that she was not home.

zh-cn	吴佩珍感觉到王琦瑶的回避，不由黯然神伤。 但她却并不丧失信心，她觉得无论过多少日子，王琦瑶终究会回到她的身边。
en-us	Sensing that she was being avoided, Wu Peizhen felt heartbroken, but she held on to the hope that Wang Qiyao would eventually come back to her.

zh-cn	她的友情化成虔诚的等待，她甚至没有去交新的女朋友，因不愿让别人侵占王琦瑶的位置。
en-us	Her friendship changed into a kind of pious waiting; she did not even look for any new girlfriends, afraid that they might take Wang Qiyao's place.

zh-cn	她还隐约体会到王琦瑶回避的原委，似乎是与那次失败的试镜头有关，她也不再去片厂了，甚至与表哥断了来往。
en-us	Wu Peizhen had a faint notion that the reason Wang Qiyao was avoiding her had something to do with that failed screen test, so she too stopped going to the film studio, even breaking off contact with her cousin.

zh-cn	这次试镜头变成她们两人的伤心事，都怀有一些失败感的。
en-us	The screen test became a source of sorrow for both of them, leaving them with a deep sense of defeat.

zh-cn	后来，她们逐渐变得连话也不大讲了，碰面都有些尴尬地匆匆避开。
en-us	Things gradually got to the point where they were no longer on speaking terms: running into one another at school, each would make haste to awkwardly get out of the other's way.

zh-cn	当她们坐在课堂的两头，虽不对视，可彼此都感觉到对方的存在，有一种类似同情的气氛在她们之间滋生出来。
en-us	They sat on opposite sides of the classroom, but, though their eyes never met, they could always feel one another's' presence. A wall of pity grew between them.

zh-cn	去片厂的事情是以一声“开麦拉”告终的，这有一种电影里称作“定格”的效果，是一去不返，也是记忆永存。
en-us	The incident at the film studio ended with the word "camera," and the result was what they call in the industry a "freeze frame." Gone, never to return, but the memory hangs on for all eternity.

zh-cn	如今，课余的生活又回复到老样子，而老样子里面又是有一点新的被剥夺，心都是有点受伤的，伤在哪里，且不明白的。
en-us	Their after-school lives gradually returned to normal; but things were not really the same—something had been snatched away. They were hurt, but neither could say where the pain was.

zh-cn	本来见风就是雨的女子学校，对这回王琦瑶试镜头的事，竟无一点声气，瞒得紧紧的。
en-us	At their girls' school, where rumors usually flew rampant, not a soul knew about Wang Qiyao's screen test; they had succeeded in keeping it completely under wraps.

zh-cn	两人虽然没互相叮嘱，却不约而同地缄口不提。
en-us	It was implicitly understood between them that they should never broach the subject.

zh-cn	其实在一般女学生看来，能为导演看上去试一回，已是足够的光荣，成功则是奢望中的奢望。
en-us	Actually, just to be chosen by a director for a screen test would already have been a great honor in the eyes of most girls—any hopes of getting a part would be a long shot in a long shot.

zh-cn	这也是王琦瑶她们原先的想法，可一旦走到了那一步，情形便不是旧时旧地，人也不是旧人，是付出过代价的，有些损失的。
en-us	This was also what Wang Qiyao thought at first, but once she reached that stage everything changed. Suddenly, a price had been exacted and loss was imminent.

zh-cn	若非吴佩珍这样将心比心的旁观者，是体尝不到这番心境的。
en-us	Only because Wu Peizhen stepped out of her own shoes and empathized completely with her friend was she able to understand the grief Wang Qiyao was going through.