Back to 80: My Literary Life

"Minghua and I visited Chairman Wang Meng of the Writers' Association and said that you were probably in Ditan Park, so we took the car and went straight here." Lu Yao said.

"When I have nothing to do, I always hang around here." Shi Tie replied, and then looked at the surrounding scenery: "It's very interesting here."

"Better than the Loess Plateau." Lu Yao said with a smile.

"But that place is lively." Shi Tiesheng said: "I still remember when I was working in the Guanjiazhuang production team, the fellow villagers gave me the easiest job of feeding cows. I also liked to be lazy and put the cows into the ditch. After a blast, then lie down and sleep, or listen to the folks working in the mountains and listen to Qinbei folk songs."

"Do you all like to sing this song?" Lu Yao cleared his throat and sang:

Green line (that) blue line, blue grid Yingying (the) color,

Give birth to an orchid flower and truly love her to death.

There are seedlings in the fields, and sorghum is high on the trees.

Daughters of the Thirteenth Province (yo) are good at (that) orchid.

Damn it!

This was Fang Minghua's first time hearing Lu Yao sing, and he sang pretty well.

"Haha, that's it." Shi Tiesheng laughed, his eyes narrowed under the black frames.

"I was shocked when I heard it for the first time. Someone dared to sing such a love song, but it's really nice."

"Hey, do you remember the meeting in the county when we first met?" Lu Yao asked.

"Of course I remember. You were already a celebrity in the county at that time. I saw your poem in "Mountain Flowers". You don't know how envious I was at that time!"

"At that time, I had not dreamed of literature, and I had not thought about the future. I only herded cows all day long. But I have loved poetry and literature since I was a child, so I envied you very much. Sometimes I was even jealous. We are about the same age, right? Can you write Come out, why can’t I write it?!”

"Ha, Tie Sheng, haven't you written it out now?"

Fang Minghua said nothing, pushing Shi Tiesheng's wheelchair slowly along the path, listening to the two reminiscing and chatting.

Mo Yan once said: "The Chinese Writers Association can only support one person, and that should be Shi Tiesheng."

Some people say that Yu Hua said this, but whoever said it was full of respect.

You can question the words he wrote, but you cannot question his deep thinking about the world and his character.

"Lu Yao, I was here to chat with you and forgot about Xiao Fang behind me." Shi Tiiesheng suddenly thought of something and turned around to apologize to Fang Minghua behind him.

"It doesn't matter, I'm listening to the two eldest brothers reminiscing about old times." Fang Minghua said with a smile.

"By the way, are you here to attend the Outstanding Novel Award Ceremony today? I haven't congratulated you yet."

"Congratulations for what? Next year, no, it might be your turn this year." Lu Yao said.

"Brother Shi, have you written any articles recently?" Fang Minghua took the opportunity to ask.

"I wrote a short story called "My Distant Qingping Bay," which tells the story of a small mountain village on the Loess Plateau and a funny cowherd, but it hasn't been finalized yet."

"What about the Loess Plateau? That's just right. Why don't you vote for our "Yanhe"?" Fang Minghua said enthusiastically. Shi Tiiesheng was slightly surprised when he heard it, and Lu Yao next to him explained: "Xiao Fang is now the editor of "Yanhe", and he recruits people everywhere to submit articles."

Shi Tiesheng laughed loudly after hearing this.

"Okay, then vote for "Yanhe"!"

Seeing that it was getting late, Fang Minghua and Lu Yao pushed Shi Tiesheng out of Ditan Park and walked towards his home.

Shi Tiiesheng's family lives at No. 26 Yonghegong Street, which is very close to Ditan Park. This is Fang Minghua's first time here.

This is a courtyard facing the street, with a narrow and simple gate. On the other side of a row of bungalows, each household has built a low kitchen with bricks, making the corridor very narrow and winding into the depths of the yard.

After entering the gate, the space was not spacious. Stepping into the door, I saw that the house had two rooms. There were several old pieces of furniture in the outer room and a wooden bed supported in the inner room.

Shi Tiesheng's mother has passed away and he lives with his father and sister. His father was a man of few words. When he saw the two pushing his son in, he smiled as a greeting.

"Tie Sheng, Zhu Wei came to see you just now, but you were not here," his father said.

"Zhu Wei is a friend of mine and the editor of People's Literature. We often talk about literature together." Shi Tiesheng explained with a smile.

Shi Tiesheng invited the two of them to stay for dinner, but they declined, leaving behind a can of malted milk and dog-headed dates that Fang Minghua bought from Xijing. He came to Yanjing just to give them to his friends.

Shi Tiesheng accepted the offer with a few polite words.

Seeing that it was almost time and the two were about to leave, Shi Tiesheng suddenly said: "Can you do me a favor?"

"What's the deal?"

Shi Tiesheng's expression became a little shy, and he said after a while: "I have a female pen pal named Chen Ximi. She was a student in the Department of Mathematics at Northwest University and just stayed at the school to teach. Can you help me bring her something?"

Chen Ximi?

Isn’t this Shi Tiesheng’s future wife?

He's actually from the Department of Mathematics at Western University? !

Fang Minghua really didn't know this before traveling through time.

"No problem." Fang Minghua agreed: "My sister is studying at Western University, and she happens to be in the mathematics department. She may also know Chen Ximi."

"Then thank you."

After Shi Tiesheng finished speaking, he pushed the wheelchair into the back room, and within a few minutes he took out a package with the words "Chen Ximi personally expresses it" written on it.

Fang Minghua took it and said with a smile: "I promise to hand it over to her personally."

The two said goodbye to Shi Tiesheng, and Fang Minghua took the parcel out of the alley, turning over and over to look at Shi Tiesheng's parcel as he walked.

What's inside?

Book?

It doesn’t depend on the portion size.

Are there any love letters?

Probably unlikely.

People in this era are very reserved about love.

Love letters are very precious things, and I would never write them until they reach that point.

A general letter begins with: Comrade XXX.

"Hey, Xiao Fang, why are you so interested in Tie Sheng's package?" Lu Yao felt a little strange looking at him like this.

"Brother Lu, don't you think this is more than just a package?"

"What do you mean?" Lu Yao suddenly remembered Shi Tiesheng's a little nervous expression, and suddenly thought of something: "Is it possible that Tiesheng is in love with this female pen pal?"

Then he shook his head: "It's impossible. The two of them are thousands of miles apart now, and the age difference between them is estimated to be relatively large. Tie Sheng is already thirty, and the girl just graduated from college. The age difference between the two is estimated to be 10 years."

"If love really comes, age and distance won't matter." Fang Minghua said leisurely.

After returning to the guest house, the two of them prepared to return to Xijing the next day.

Li Baoyuan, Yu Shan, and Wang Anyi also returned to their respective cities one after another, and everyone said goodbye one by one.

"Everyone is welcome to submit manuscripts. When the time comes, I will invite you to come to Xijing to revise your manuscripts, and accompany you to see the Terracotta Warriors and Horses and climb the Big Wild Goose Pagoda!"

"Okay, Brother Fang, it's a deal!" Yu Shan said first.

"Don't worry, I will definitely keep my word."

What he didn't expect was that he would regret his words later.

I don’t know how many times I have seen the Terracotta Warriors and Horses with my friends, and how many times I have climbed the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.

“You’re such a coward, what’s there to climb on the Big Wild Goose Pagoda!”

This was something he would often complain about in private in the future.

Thanks to book friend 2017051717254395, Lao Mao Monkey, Feng Xinglie, Thinking Too Much 666, book friend 20221210201504632, Ignore Indifference for voting monthly