Lin Yuan suddenly felt stupid. Why was he worried that Liu Yifei would cheat?
He wanted to see Liu Yifei wearing white stockings, but did she really not want to wear it for him to see?
Have you forgotten that a good hunter always appears in the form of prey?
It turns out that women are born with the ability to play both sides. Lin Yuan sighed again: No wonder many men always suffer in interactions between the sexes.
If a man starts at a low level and becomes a bootlicker, then he can only accept the fate of others.
Sure enough, love is only interesting if it is a two-way relationship.
"I will keep it well. With it, I will feel that you are always with me." Lin Yuan put the wallet into the inside pocket of his coat.
Liu Yifei also raised her left wrist and waved the bracelet, indicating that she thought the same way.
"What book are you reading recently?" Lin Yuan changed the subject.
Ever since the last night they camped in Bear Mountain State Park, Lin Yuan found that he really enjoyed chatting with Liu Yifei.
The spiritual connection between the two during conversation was their true emotional bond.
"Maugham's The Painted Veil, do you know this book?" Liu Yifei replied.
"I know. I've read it too." Lin Yuan nodded.
This was a love novel written by British writer William Somerset Maugham in 1920.
Compared with this book, Maugham's other two representative works were obviously more well-known: "Of Human Bondage" and "The Moon and Sixpence".
Lin Yuan knew about this book because, after a hundred years, "The Painted Veil" suddenly became popular in China around 2020.
It had resonated widely among literary and artistic young women in China and was hailed as a must-read love book for women.
The love movie of the same name based on this book even scored a high score of 8.3 on Douban.
The most famous passage in "The Painted Veil" that immediately touched the hearts of literary young women was what the male protagonist said to the female protagonist:
I have no illusions about you at all.
I know you're stupid, frivolous, and empty-headed, but I love you.
I know your ambitions, your desires.
You are snobbish and vulgar, but I love you.
I know you're a second-rate piece of shit, but I love you.
I didn't fall in love with the beautiful face you tried your best to present, but fell in love with your turbid heart.
Is this taste pure?
Is this smell overpowering?
The Celestial Being smell was off the charts.
No wonder women liked it. Which woman didn't want to be useless but still get unconditional love from a man?
Lin Yuan's attitude towards this book was: disdain.
Although he knew that the author Maugham was critical of the vain heroine before her transformation, it still did not affect his belief that this was a work of petty-bourgeois whining.
"Do you like this book?" Lin Yuan asked. Based on his understanding of Liu Yifei, it should not be her favorite.
"I don't like it, but I only took a look at it because all the students around me were reading it."
Sure enough, the Celestial Being didn't like this tune.
"The pretentious view of love, the whining and self-admiration. I really don't like it." Liu Yifei added.
"But I know many girls like this book." Lin Yuan wanted to hear her views on love.
"Many people believe that love should be unconditional, and they long for someone to love them unconditionally no matter how bad they are.
This is very much in line with human selfishness, but I just can't agree with it." Liu Yifei's views have always been sharp.
Lin Yuan nodded and motioned for her to continue.
"If I were a second-rate person who was stupid, frivolous, empty-headed, snobbish, vulgar, and muddy in heart.
Then no matter how beautiful I am, I don't deserve other people's love.
Love should not be a panacea that cures all ills, as if anything can be done in the name of love and should be taken for granted."
Her heart was not as weak as her appearance. On the contrary, she was an extremely confident and opinionated person.
Lin Yuan smiled and nodded: My Celestial Being has positive values and is a girl full of positive energy!
"There is another part of this book that makes me very uncomfortable, although it has nothing to do with love," said Liu Yifei.
"What?" Lin Yuan asked.
"The more Maugham portrayed China as an idyllic 'primitive life' in this book, the more I felt the arrogance of the white world. This made me feel uncomfortable from the bottom of my heart.
I don't know if you can understand what I mean." Liu Yifei said worriedly.
Of course Lin Yuan understood.
The story of "The Painted Veil" took place in the old Chinese society. Both the original novel and the later adapted films contained a lot of descriptions of the folk customs and style of old China.
Between the lines, the author expressed his strong love for these oriental elements and wrote China as a utopia.
Many Chinese people were aware of a phenomenon: foreigners were very interested in ancient Chinese things, such as our traditional architecture, traditional clothing, folk customs...
The older and more original it was, the more they liked it.
Logically speaking, this should be a good thing. Wasn't it worth being happy that foreigners liked our traditional culture?
But why did many Chinese people feel vaguely uncomfortable?
In fact, this involved a very fundamental question:
What exactly did European and American countries like about the classical East?
As a Chinese, Lin Yuan did not have any differences in cultural cognition between the East and the West.
So he could answer this question very accurately:
What European and American countries liked was the paradise-like East that they had imagined.
It's better for you to always go out in a sedan chair instead of a car.
You'd better go to the river and wash your clothes by beating them with a stick instead of using a washing machine.
It's better not to use air conditioners or electric fans when it's hot in the summer. It would be much nicer to fan yourself with a traditional handmade fan.
They hoped that we would always live the ancient life and carry their fantasy of paradise.
As for whether we also wanted to live a better life and lead a modern life, they didn't care and might even be opposed to it.
The essence of all this was curiosity.
It's the same feeling we got when we saw the primitive life of the primitive people in African tribes, just curious and interesting.
When you said you liked this, did that mean you liked our culture?
It's not that I didn't really like you, but it's that arrogant look down on me that makes people feel uncomfortable.
Lin Yuan also deeply experienced this when filming "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
The older the China you photographed and the more backward the people's lives were, the more interested foreigners would be.
If you filmed a modern, prosperous China, foreigners would not only not like to watch it, but would also scold us for destroying the tranquility of traditional life and losing our own cultural traditions.
They would also like to add one more sentence: It is too environmentally unfriendly!
This condescending arrogance that came from white civilization had always been widespread.
Lin Yuan being discriminated against and excluded in Hollywood was just one manifestation of this.
In fact, Lin Yuan was very surprised that Liu Yifei could be so keenly aware of this.
After all, she was not very old, and she could really be said to have a delicate mind, and she saw everything more thoroughly than her peers.
"Of course I understand what you mean. We'll see them that way one day too."
"Really?"
"Yes! Believe me, the roots of our business must be in China in the future."
As a reborn person, Lin Yuan certainly knew that when he looked at Americans again in 2024, he would feel all kinds of magic and cyberpunk.