Back to 80: My Literary Life

The train is speeding across the Great Plains of North China.

It was already the next morning. Fang Minghua and the others were sitting in a hard sleeper. After they washed up, they went to the dining car to have breakfast.

In the 1980s, the food on the train was quite good. Yesterday’s dinner was grilled eggplant with dried shrimps and braised fish slices. The breakfast was a porridge, pickles, and an omelette. I sat on the white dining table and looked outside while eating. The scenery is really a treat.

A variety of drinks are also provided - last night Fang Minghua opened a bottle of Danfeng wine, which is said to be a special product of the Xijing Railway Bureau.

Another advantage of eating at a food truck is that it only requires money and no food stamps.

Of course, the price is not cheap either. A portion of grilled eggplant with dried shrimps costs NT$5, and braised fish fillet costs NT$5. Spending several dollars for a meal is definitely a luxury.

But now we have money. All the royalties from the publication of "The Legend of Wukong" in Xiangjiang have been paid off. We have signed a contract with Baodao Culture Publishing House to print 300,000 copies for the first time. The royalties given are 13%. We have negotiated with Japan's famous publishing house. Tanshe is negotiating.

This does not include the royalties for the collection of novels published last year and the publication of "The Legend of Wukong" in mainland China this year.

If you have money, you can't treat yourself badly. This is Fang Minghua's consistent principle, let alone with a girlfriend.

It was already afternoon when they arrived in Yanjing. They packed their luggage and piled onto the bus and went straight to the Huangsi Compound of the General Administration of Police near Andingmen.

There were guards standing guard at the door. Song Tangtang was wearing a military uniform and took out his military officer ID card. The other party looked carefully and registered at the door before letting him go.

"Minghua, I haven't been back for a long time. I used to live in grandma and grandpa's house, and everyone on guard knows each other, so there's no need to bother." Song Tangtang said with a smile.

Fang Minghua didn't pay attention to the girl's words, but looked at this compound that was rumored to be very mysterious. In fact, it is very ordinary inside. Most of them are buildings with gray walls and red tiles built in the 1960s and 1970s. There are passersby and children playing on the road from time to time.

Of course, there are young people wearing imitation 65-style green military uniforms, whistling and riding 28-meter poles, and some even have a beautiful girl behind them.

This reminds Fang Minghua of the movie "Sunny Days" filmed by Jiang Wen.

Seeing Fang Minghua looking around while walking, Song Tangtang asked, "Minghua, what are you looking for?"

"It's nothing." Fang Minghua said: "I originally thought these courtyards were very mysterious, but when I came in, they were actually very ordinary."

"It's very ordinary to begin with."

Yeah?

The buildings are indeed ordinary, but the people who live here are not ordinary.

Including this compound, Yanjing also has the Air Force compound, the Navy compound, and the General Logistics compound.

Fang Minghua had some knowledge about the mysterious group Big Courtyard Brothers in the Army before on the Internet. It was a very complicated group, but one thing could not be ignored. The Big Courtyard Brothers in Beijing accounted for half of the capital's cultural circle in the 1980s and 1990s.

From directors Jiang Wen, Chen Kaige, Guan Hu, Ye Jing, Zheng Xiaolong, to writers Wang Shuo, Hai Yan, to singer Cui Jian, media person Lao Cui, and antique collector Ma Weidu, including several female stars Xu Qing, Ye Jing, Xu Jinglei , Zhang Hanyu...the influence of these people in the cultural field in the mainland cannot be underestimated.

Of course, the most awesome person in the literary world is Wang Shuo.

Has Wang Shuo published any novels now? Still doing business?

The two walked to a family courtyard. There were also rows of bungalows here, but they were obviously more spacious than the one where Song Tangtang's father lived, and the yard seemed larger.

When you open a door and go in, the most you see is two rows of bonsai pansies, asters, and dwarfs on the edge of the yard. An old man with gray hair in casual clothes is pruning a pomegranate in the yard.

"Grandpa." Song Tangtang put down the luggage in his hands, shouted happily, ran towards the old man, and threw himself into his arms.

"Tangtang, you finally came back to see grandpa." The old man said kindly.

"I've been a little busy lately." Song Tangtang muttered, then straightened up and introduced: "Grandpa, this is my boyfriend, Fang Minghua."

Fang Minghao quickly called out: "Grandpa, hello."

The old man looked him up and down and nodded with satisfaction: "The young man has thick eyebrows and big eyes. He looks very talented. Where do you come from?"

"My ancestral home is Lu Province. My grandfather's generation traveled to Guandong and arrived in Liao Province." Fang Minghua answered respectfully.

"Where is the Northeast? I fought in the Northeast for several years!"

"I heard Tangtang say that you are the troops of the Four Fields."

"Yes, it's so cold. As a native of Hunan province, I couldn't stand it when I first went there."

The three of them were chatting when the door of the room opened, and a very elegant old man with short ear-length hair walked out. Although he was over seventy years old, he could tell from his eyebrows that she was definitely a beautiful woman in her youth.

"Grandma."

Song Tangtang called out and hugged her grandma's shoulders affectionately.

"Grandma." Fang Minghua quickly shouted after him.

Grandma also looked at Fang Minghua, nodded, and said, "Come in and talk."

Fang Minghua quickly followed behind with his luggage.

"Tangtang, you haven't come to visit grandma and grandpa in almost a year, but Lili comes every weekend now." Grandma said angrily.

"It's certainly convenient for Lili to study at Yanda University. I'm busy, and it's not convenient to live in Xijing because of the distance."

"Then I might as well transfer to Yanjing and live in my grandma's house after I change my career!"

"Oh, what about my mother and second aunt? They said that Lili would come to Yanjing to stay with you two elders, and asked me to stay in Xijing to accompany them."

"Accompany them?"

Grandma turned her head and glanced at Fang Minghua, who was following behind silently.

"Are you accompanying him?"

"Grandma." Song Tangtang Niu paused.

The house is very spacious, with a large living room in the middle, sofas and coffee tables, all of which are relatively old, but very clean.

Fang Minghua sat on the sofa, and naturally a nanny poured tea for him.

"Tangtang, how long do you plan to stay in Yanjing?" Grandma asked.

"There's nothing going on in the art troupe right now, so I don't care. I just want to see Minghua. He's here mainly to revise the manuscript." Song Tangtang replied.

Fang Minghua accepted the call and submitted the manuscript of "Crossing the Guandong" to the Writers Publishing House. He was invited to revise the manuscript and briefly explained it. "The main thing is the progress of revising the manuscript. This can only be determined after communicating with the editor."

"Did you write a story about the Northeast?" At this time, my grandfather interjected: "The Northeast is a familiar place! In 1945, one hundred thousand troops entered the Northeast, and later there was "Three expeditions to the south of the Yangtze River, four guarantees to the riverside"

Grandpa was very excited when he talked about it, but he was glared at by grandma: "You are talking about the liberation period, while what Minghua wrote is about the early Republic of China. There is a difference of many years."

Grandpa laughed after hearing this: "Pretty much, they are all in the same place anyway."

Fang Minghua felt happy when he saw this.

Grandma, a lady of the family, can take care of grandpa, a soldier.

When the time came in the evening, grandma and grandpa arranged a sumptuous dinner to entertain them, and they stayed at grandpa's house that night.

Of course, the two of them sleep in separate rooms.

The next morning, Fang Minghua planned to go to Shi Tiesheng's house to deliver the things Chen Ximi brought there first, and then go to the Writer's Publishing House.