Back to 80: My Literary Life

Chapter 27 Young man evading fares



Seeing the young man like this, Fang Minghua thought for a while, squeezed his butt inside to make room for some space, then patted the young man on the shoulder and motioned for him to sit in his seat.

"thanks, thanks!"

The young man was overjoyed and hurriedly sat down next to Fang Minghua and took out the book he had just been reading.

Fang Minghua took a look, and this time he was looking at the "Poetry Magazine" magazine.

In the 1980s, Yanjing's "Poetry Magazine" was very famous. It successively published poets such as Gu Cheng, Shu Ting, and later Xichuan and Haizi. The "Xingxing" poetry magazine in Rongcheng was known as the two heroes of the north and the south.

The young man saw that Fang Minghua was also looking at the poetry magazine in his hand, so he asked, "You also like poetry?"

"Okay, okay." Fang Minghua nodded.

"Then you are also a literary young man?"

Fang Minghua had no choice but to nod again.

The young man seemed to have found a like-minded person and became excited:

"I particularly like poetry, especially the poems written by Bei Dao, especially the song "Answer":

Despicableness is the pass for the despicable/Nobility is the epitaph for the noble. It is so thought-provoking. "

It seems so.

Fang Minghua nodded again and said, "Yes, it's very well written and I like it very much."

"I admire Comrade Bei Dao very much. Do you know why I went to Yanjing?" The young man looked mysterious.

"Business trip?" Fang Minghua asked tentatively.

"No, no, you don't know. "Contemporary" magazine has just held a poetry essay contest, and there will be an award ceremony and poetry seminar soon. I will go there this time to meet my idol!"

Oh My God.

Crazy star-chasers.

"Comrade, why are you going to Yanjing?" the young man asked curiously.

"I'm going to Yanjing for a meeting." Fang Minghua replied vaguely.

The young man did not ask further questions but said enthusiastically: "You are going to Yanjing for a meeting and you love literature. I suggest you go to "Contemporary" magazine to meet those poets. It will definitely open your eyes."

"Actually, I think there is no need. Just like their poems. There is no need to meet the poets themselves. They are all very ordinary people." Fang Minghua advised.

"What you said makes sense, but I just want to meet him."

"Do you still want those poets to read the poems you wrote?" Fang Minghua suddenly thought of Liu Jianjun whom he met at the door of the magazine a few months ago, so he asked tentatively.

The young man smiled and said nothing, which was regarded as acquiescence.

At this moment, Fang Minghua suddenly heard a faint noise coming from the car next door. The young man seemed to notice something, his eyes became panicked, and he said, "I'll hide for a while, and I'll come find you later." After saying this, he recited the words. He left in a hurry with his yellow satchel.

What happened?

Fang Minghua was a little surprised. Within two minutes, he saw a female conductor wearing a big-brimmed hat and a blue uniform appearing at the other end of the carriage, followed by a police officer.

"Everyone, wake up, the tickets are being checked!"

The conductor yelled at the sleeping passengers.

The carriage suddenly became noisy. The passengers who were woken up looked unhappy, but did not dare to say anything and hurriedly looked for their tickets.

After checking the tickets, the carriage became quiet again. Not long after, Fang Minghua saw the young man coming sneakily from the end of the carriage.

Fang Minghua squeezed in again, and the young man sat down on the empty seat next to him.

"Fortunately, there was no danger." The young man sat down and said.

"You? Fare evader?"

Only then did Fang Minghua understand.

The young man chuckled, a little embarrassed: "I can't help it, the ticket is too expensive, it costs 17 yuan and 40 cents."

It's expensive, Fang Minghua felt deeply. If it weren't for the fact that he was on official business this time and was reimbursed, he wouldn't have been willing to go.

"How did you evade the fare?" Fang Minghua was very interested.

"Hehe, it's actually simple." The young man said in a low voice: "First buy a platform ticket, enter the station and get on the bus. It's not expensive anyway, only five cents."

These days, there are platform tickets, which are exclusive tickets purchased by those who drop off and pick up the train. They also allow the drop-off staff to put relatives on and off the bus, so many people take advantage of this loophole.

"Didn't the conductor check the tickets just now? How did you escape?" Fang Minghua continued to ask.

"Hide in the toilet, and if that doesn't work, just pay for a ticket. It only costs a few yuan for a short trip, or you can buy a ticket for several people, and wait for the person in front to check it before passing the ticket to the back. Anyway, there are ways. I just said Hide in the toilet," the young man said.

"Of course, it is not successful every time. The most vicious way to check tickets is to block both ends. The conductor and the policeman respectively hold the two doors of a carriage, and then lock the doors with keys (no inside or outside). Enter). If you encounter this kind of situation, you will consider yourself unlucky, and you will have to pay a fine for making up the ticket. Of course, I am lucky and have never encountered this."

After hearing this, Fang Minghua smiled and said: "It seems that you have gained experience in evading fares."

"There was no way. During the years when I was an educated youth, I sometimes wanted to go home. The captain and the brigade party secretary approved it, but I had no money to buy a ticket, so I had to resort to this method. Although I am back in the city now, I have no job and don't have much money in my pocket. We can only repeat the same old tricks."

There is no job and you are still unemployed, evading fares all the way to Yanjing to meet your idol? !

That's good enough.

The young man brought the topic to literature and poetry again, and talked endlessly. Fang Minghua just listened quietly. He found that this young man had indeed read a lot of literature and poetry. He even read Rabindranath Tagore's "Birds" which was rarely seen these days. Seen.

"You read a lot of poems." Fang Minghua said with sincere admiration.

"Hehe. Literature and poetry are my hobby and everything I have! To tell you the truth, last year the staff of the sub-district office came to me and offered me a job as a worker in the popsicle factory of the sub-district office, but I refused! My My ambition is to be a writer and poet!”

"Actually, you can work, and it's not bad to write poetry after work." Fang Minghua suggested.

Unexpectedly, the young man shook his head:

"You don't understand, and you won't understand, that boring life will kill my hobby of poetry and waste my time!"

I.

Fang Minghua was speechless.

The two chatted for a while, and then the young man took out the magazine and read it carefully.

Fang Minghua fell into a deep sleep.

At dawn, Fang Minghua was woken up by someone in his sleep. It turned out to be the young man next to him.

"Thank you very much. I'm getting off the bus."

get off?

Fang Minghua glanced at the bright sky outside and said, "We haven't arrived at Yanjing yet. Are you going to get off the bus?"

"Yanjing is a big station and I heard it's hard to get out, so I'll get off a stop early. Goodbye!" The young man picked up his yellow satchel and quickly disappeared among the crowd of people getting off the bus.

Another hour later, it was already dawn, and the train finally arrived at Yanjing Railway Station.

After leaving the station, Fang Minghua held his bag and stood on the street in front of the train station, looking at the city with interest.

There were not as many high-rise buildings as in later generations. On the streets, tram cables intertwined with tangled tracks above the heads of pedestrians, and there was even more of an endless sea of ​​bicycles.

But it's no longer just "blue ants", there are already girls in jeans and young men in suits and permed hair.

The early morning sun rises from the east, and the whole city is filled with vitality.

Thanks to book friend Fengyu Enmei for your monthly vote.

PS: The first round of recommendations will be released tomorrow. I hope all readers will read it.

Now Qidian's new books are promoted, not only for collection, but more importantly for follow-up reading! If you don’t read enough, you won’t be able to advance to the next round of recommendations. Many people like to keep books and wait until there are more words before reading them. But with the current promotion system, it’s easy to die if you keep it up. If you don’t read enough, you won’t be able to get into the next round of recommendations, and the lack of exposure will have a huge impact on ordinary writers like us, almost fatal.

Therefore, I hope readers will try their best to take time to read it, and I will write it carefully.

Three chapters will be posted tomorrow.


Tip: You can use left, right, A and D keyboard keys to browse between chapters.