Stumbling all the way, working hard for his dream for many years, what kind of joke did the years play with him? Late love, late success, and good luck only showed a smiling face after the most beautiful years faded.
When the loess buries the glory and withering of youth, in exchange for a double harvest of career and family, what is his dissatisfaction?
In the sixties and seventies of the 20th century, Beijing still retains many ancient urban imprints.
Stone pavement, blue brick houses, and courtyard houses constitute the main color of market life.
Zhang Xilin was born in a dilapidated Shikumen alley.
Both parents were Chinese language and literature teachers at Peking University, and his bookish family cultivated his quiet reading personality.
As a child, Zhang Xilin could concentrate on reading a book for hours as soon as he picked it up, and the whole family talked about his future learning.
However, the good times did not last long, and the ten years of the Cultural Revolution made their generation experience a catastrophe.
Zhang Xilin was forced to interrupt his studies and step into society.
After graduating, he was admitted to the printing secondary school, where he learned the most advanced offset printing technology and became one of the best students in the school.
After graduating, Beijing Foreign Languages Printing Factory absorbed Zhang Xilin with a high salary.
He became a highly valued and pampered worker in the factory, with the best benefits and the easiest job.
But Zhang Xilin did not feel happy because of this.
The repetition of mechanical operations made him feel like a lifeless printing machine, boring all day long, and his heart was empty.
By chance, he participated in the amateur performance training class in Xicheng District, which suddenly opened the door to a new world.
Zhang Xilin on the stage was heroic and full of emotion, and won everyone's admiration.
Here, he got acquainted with Feng Yuanzheng, Wu Gang and others, who were also lovers of literature and art, and found a bosom friend.
Gradually, Zhang Xilin came up with the idea of becoming an actor.
In 1987, 23-year-old Zhang Xilin plucked up the courage to apply for the performance department of the China Academy of Drama, wanting to realize his dream of stardom.
He did well in the professional class, but in the last part of the cultural class, he suddenly suffered from severe jaundice hepatitis and had to interrupt the review and lie in the hospital.
After being discharged from the hospital, he was depressed and dizzy, and finally missed the Chinese drama that he had been thinking about, and his name fell to Sun Shan.
A year later, Zhang Xi didn't give up and applied for the Beijing Film Academy again.
The professional course was still passed, but the score of the cultural course was still not up to standard.
He was devastated, and the leadership had completely lost faith in him.
The college dream was shattered twice, and Zhang Xilin's whole person became gloomy.
He began to live in a state of confusion and was not interested in anything.
However, a few like-minded friends still often come to him to chat and cheer up, and have a lively drink.
During the day, after work, they often wander around to beat the beat, looking for free amateur performance opportunities to fulfill their artistic dreams.
In 1989, Zhang Xilin finally made up his mind and applied for the Shanghai Theater Academy in a desperate way.
But the maximum age limit on the registration form gave him a headache.
In desperation, he had to falsely report that he was one year old in the age column.
Fortunately, in the last round of interviews, Wang Lin, a student who was taking physical education classes together, suddenly sprained her ankle.
Everyone stood by and watched, only Zhang Xilin didn't say a word, picked up Wang Lin and ran to the infirmary.
This behavior impressed the teachers, and they made a special exception and admitted Zhang Xilin, who was on age leave.
After graduating from college, Zhang Xilin wanted to develop freely, but found it difficult to gain a foothold in the entertainment industry alone.
He is about to turn 30 and is embarrassed to ask his family for money.
So he had to change careers and became an assistant director in the TV crew, specializing in selecting actors for the main creators.
Zhang Xilin thought that with his relationship in the crew, he could successfully get some roles as a small actor.
I don't know that the director and screenwriter dislike him for being too old and not in line with the character setting.
Every time he interviewed, Zhang Xilin would be made difficult in all kinds of ways, and he couldn't act.
Gradually, he felt very frustrated, and the double blow of his career and relationship brought him into a trough.
One year during the Spring Festival, Feng Yuanzheng invited a group of frustrated theater fans to go to a foreign theater to play tricks.
It's a pity that the good times didn't last long, and the fire suddenly broke out during the third scene performance, and after escaping death, everyone found out that the organizers had already patted their butts and ran, and the actors were played around.
This incident became a joke at their future gatherings, and it also made Zhang Xilin understand that a good brother is the spiritual pillar on which he depends.
Every time a friend comes to Zhang Xilin for dinner, he always welcomes him warmly, even if he can't take a single child out of his pocket.
Zhang Xilin will take them to eat all over the small restaurants on credit.
By default, the boss will pay off the arrears at the end of the month when the salary arrives.
This kind of life lasted until 1999, when Zhang Xilin was 35 years old, he finally returned to the starting point of being an actor.
In 1999, when interviewing actors for Zheng Xiaolong's crew, Zhang Xilin's acting skills were finally favored by the director, and his first starring job fell on his head.
Since then, there has been a slight increase in drama appointments, but most of them are nameless supporting roles.
In his long acting career, this is the first time Zhang Xi has faced the camera directly, and he has his own name on the credits.
But the secondary role could not promote the explosion of his career after all, and Zhang Xilin's life continued to rise and fall.
Fortunately, with a basic income, he was able to occasionally have drinks with his friends, and he was a jolly decadent.
After the age of 35, Zhang Xilin's life is like a roller coaster, with ups and downs and difficult to control.
Sometimes filming comes one after another, and sometimes it's hard to find a corner in a month.
Fortunately, the bosses are open to him, so that he has no worries about food and clothing.
Gradually, Zhang Xilin lost his expectations in life and did not consider the relationship between the sexes.
In 2010, by chance, Zhang Xilin played a small supporting role in the TV series "Before Dawn" and unexpectedly became popular on the Internet.
Various entertainment companies are vying to stuff resources into his arms, and Zhang Xilin finally sees the dawn of his career taking off.
For the first time, he experienced the taste of pursuit, and he seemed to have regained his life, and even his aging body stood a little straighter.
At the age of 40, Zhang Xilin decided not to give up his happiness again.
He plucked up the courage to confess his heart to Zhu Min.
The two formed a bond in "Carving Time", but lost contact after the finalization.
Now that he has a career guarantee, Zhang Xilin finally dares to pursue his true love.
Fortunately, Zhu Min has also been secretly in love with Zhang Xilin, a calm and introverted middle-aged man.
In 2011, the two entered the palace of marriage.
In the face of belated love, Zhang Xilin cherished it.
He began to work day and night, hoping to accumulate more money for his future family.
At the same time, he is also anxious that his youth has passed, and he is afraid that it will be too late to watch his children grow up.
Fortunately, God blessed, Zhang Xilin's career has risen steadily, and his income has increased exponentially.
Soon, the two had two sons one after another, and a harmonious and happy family of four took shape.
In 2017, Zhang Xilin brilliantly performed an extremely complex villain in "In the Name of the People" - Cai Chenggong.
He portrayed all aspects of the character thoroughly, causing a sensation across the country and becoming a popular student again.
The black boss on the screen who is very deep in the city and has arrogant means is like two people like a calm and introverted middle-aged man in reality.
The audience was amazed by Zhang Xilin's acting skills, and he himself was excited and difficult to express in words.
When he was 51 years old, he felt the glory of the pinnacle of his career for the first time, and the surprise and excitement in his heart were far higher than the sharpness of his youth.
Those years of stumbling through were calmed and washed at this moment: failing the college entrance examination, applying for the exam over age, acting in scattered dramas, and living on credit. All suffering has come to naught.
Finally, God blessed him with a magnificent life.
Today, at the age of 58, Zhang Xilin still works from 9 to 5, and he does not dare to slack off for the sake of his children.
In the Name of the Family", "Patrol Inspection Team", "Radiance"...He has no choice, and he desperately performs whatever role he gets, just to support his family.
After finishing every day, he immediately rushed home to take the children to do homework and tell stories.
Friends joke that he can't stop at all, and he just smiles shyly.
Because he understands the preciousness of time, he is not willing to waste every opportunity to spend time with his family.
At the same time, he and Zhu Min have also become a model couple in the entertainment industry.
The relationship is stable, and the two often appear together to do public welfare.
No one thought that good luck would fall on Zhang Xilin's head without warning, and he and his wife could grow old together and walk the long road of life hand in hand.
He is such an actor who rubbed shoulders with fate and time, stumbled, and finally ushered in the arrival of a double harvest of love and success in middle age.
The joke that the years played with him finally made him laugh.
Regardless of the wind and sun, Zhang Xilin sticks to his position and has a long way to go.