1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 215 More Than One Generation
Beijing, Dahua Radio Instrument Factory.

"Xiao Zheng, here we come."

"Ah."

Zheng Yuanjie has to work the night shift today. He is a retired maintenance personnel. He used to repair airplanes in the army, the J-6. After retiring, he was assigned here to work as a water pump worker.

This guy has shown some outrageous tendencies since he was young. He once jumped from the second floor with an umbrella and was expelled from the classroom for having a bag full of firecrackers.

When he grew up and joined the army, he wanted to be a pilot at first, but his background was not good and he had a scar on his face, so he did not meet the requirements and could only be an aircraft repairman.

Repairing airplanes was never peaceful. One time, I got on a J-6 with just a sparrow in my pocket. After working for a while, I slapped my forehead and gave up.

Damn, the sparrow is gone!

Old Zheng's heart also sank.

If the sparrow cannot be found, the other person will be gone too.

In the end, the plane was dismantled, but the sparrow was never found. As a result, he served in the army for more than five years, and he ranked first in mathematics, physics and chemistry, but he could not become a cadre and even failed to join the party.

"What are you going to write today?" he asked the comrade who was about to take over.

"I won't write today." Zheng Yuanjie answered honestly, "I'll read what others have written today."

As he spoke, he glanced at the sink and pressed the blue button on the console.

His job is very simple. He just looks after the water pumps and the water tanks. When he is at work, he presses the blue button to deliver water. When he gets off work, he presses the red button to stop the water supply.

The monthly salary is forty-one dollars and seventy-five cents.

As the saying goes, inspiration always comes from slacking off.

Old Liu at the power plant also has something to say about this. After all, he, like him, has little time at work, so he writes to pass the time and make money at the same time.

Sitting down at his familiar workstation, Zheng Yuanjie took out the book "Children's Literature" that Jiang Xian gave him from his bag.

"Why would a writer like him write children's literature?" Zheng Yuanjie muttered.

He didn't start out writing children's literature. He made a list of literary genres for himself and tried them one by one: poetry, novels, reportage, science fiction, and comics.

None of them worked, so I tried fairy tales.

If fairy tales don’t work, the last option is crosstalk.

"Thatch house?"

After taking a look at the table of contents, I found that this issue was particularly brief. The article "The Grass House" was placed at the very beginning of this issue of the magazine. It can be said that this issue is almost entirely composed of this article. Zheng Yuanjie did not need to turn the pages deliberately to find the first page of the novel.

The three words "Grass House" are arranged vertically, with an editor's note of several hundred words next to it.

The general idea is that this is a tasteful and elegant children's novel. Many descriptions in the novel will bring you back to your childhood and arouse deep resonance. This novel is not only for children, even adults will be touched when they read it.

Jiang Xian's narrative style this time is simple yet profound, humorous yet solemn. The story revolves around Sangsang and several children from Yau Ma Tei Primary School, telling the story of Sangsang's six years in primary school. They are flesh and blood, and their tears and smiles are equally heavy and precious.

Seeing the title of the novel "The Grass House", Zheng Yuanjie had many associations. In the adult world, houses are a very scarce resource due to the supply and demand relationship. The grass house seems to have given this heavy word a layer of dreamy color.

This made Zheng Yuanjie interested in continuing reading.

The environment in the workshop is very noisy, but Zheng Yuanjie has long been accustomed to it. He would quickly be pulled into another world while writing. Reading Jiang Xian's novel today was no exception. He was quickly pulled into the dreamy Yau Ma Tei.

The night shift is more difficult to bear. Dim light shines from the high-hanging lamps, machines rumble, and the air is filled with the smell of engine oil, rust, and some subtle chemical raw materials.

When it was almost dawn, Zheng Yuanjie had already seen the ending.

"Sangsang has been admitted to a middle school. Sancho has been appointed as the principal of a middle school on the edge of the county town because of his outstanding work. Sangsang and his family will have to move to another strange place with his father.

Sangsang went to Ai Di and said goodbye to his grandmother. Sangsang also said goodbye to Jiang Yiluan, Wen Youju, Du Xiaokang, Xima, Tuhe, Ashu and almost all the teachers and children.

The only person Sangsang couldn't say goodbye to was Zhiyue. But Sangsang felt that no matter where he went, Zhiyue would be able to see him.

Yau Ma Tei will always be in Sangsang's heart.

Sangsang looked at the thatched houses, and through her tearful eyes, they formed a large expanse of golden color.

The pigeons seemed to know that their owner would abandon them forever tomorrow morning, so they kept circling in the air. Finally, they linked their heads and tails together, as if forming a huge white wreath, spinning around Sangsang up and down.

Sangsang could hear the pleasant sound of pigeon feathers flying through the air, and a metallic white light kept flashing before his eyes.

On this morning in August 1962, many adults and children in Yau Ma Tei saw the huge white wreath spinning in the sky.

The story came to an abrupt end.

After reading it, Zheng Yuanjie did not close it immediately. Instead, he turned to the first page of the novel with a hint of shock and read the first line.

"It was a morning in August 1962. The autumn wind was blowing and the summer heat was gone. A 14-year-old boy, Sangsang, climbed to the roof of the tallest building among the grass houses of Yau Ma Tei Primary School."

At this point, the novel is like the doves circling in the air at the end, connected from beginning to end, as if forming a huge white wreath.

Zheng Yuanjie left the golden Yau Ma Tei with a look of reluctance and a look of wanting more.

Looking around, there was still some distance in his eyes.

All the children in the novel appeared before my eyes.

The person that impressed Zheng Yuanjie the most was the child named Du Xiaokang.

Du Xiaokang, known as the "eldest master of the Du family", is the child of the wealthiest family in Yau Ma Tei. He owns the tallest and strongest house in Yau Ma Tei, made of small green bricks, small green tiles, and a vermilion courtyard gate.

He had a greasy belt that all the kids envied. Other kids only had a string to tie their waistbands, so every time Du Xiaokang peed, he was the most elegant one.

He's like that boy in elementary school that every little boy in class secretly hated.

Often this boy serves as the class monitor. He has a good family background, is a good student, is more mature, and has excellent character and academic performance. You cannot find a single fault with him, and this is also his only fault.

Zheng Yuanjie quickly thought of such a person in his elementary school class. Although he was expelled from the class in the fourth grade, he still remembered such a person.

Just like Sangsang and Du Xiaokang, he has a special relationship with him. They have friendship but secretly want to compete with him.

In the novel, Du Xiaokang's family suddenly falls into poverty.

After dropping out of school, he followed his father to raise ducks in the reed marsh. After failing to raise the ducks, he gave all five double-yolked duck eggs to Sangsang. This was all the wealth he brought back from the big reed marsh.

Sangsang also sold his beloved pigeons and gave all the money to Du Xiaokang to help him tide over the difficulties.

At the end of the story, Du Xiaokang, once a "prodigy", set up a small stall in front of the school and grew up to be a man who worked hard for his family's livelihood.

At this moment, I'm afraid no one would not be moved by the shining charm of Du Xiaokang.

After the publication, literary critics also said: Jiang Xian has once again written what he is best at, the "character arc", in the field of children's literature.

"How can it be written so well?" Zheng Yuanjie closed the Children's Literature and sighed deeply. After reading Jiang Xian's article, he was completely convinced.

He really didn't rely on his fame to convince Children's Literature. What he wrote was indeed good, so good that Zheng Yuanjie couldn't wait to read it again.

"Comrade Zheng Yuanjie, it's time to change shifts." The comrade on shift call him, and he stood up with a dazed look, checked the operating status of the water pump, and pressed the water stop button.

On the way back to the dormitory, Zheng Yuanjie was still thinking about Jiang Xian's novel.

The reason he wrote the fairy tale was very utilitarian. When he saw in the People's Daily that the family planning program was about to begin, he immediately realized:

If a family has three children, then the three children will take turns reading the same book. But if a family has only one child, then they will definitely want to buy 3 books for the child.

So he began to write fairy tales.

But now, after reading Jiang Xian's novel, he suddenly felt that what he had written before was too pale.

Children's literature should not only be liked by children, it should also be written for adults.

Or maybe fairy tales shouldn't be simple short stories, they should have a didactic tone, but he can't write that, but he can write satire.

Beijing Youth Ditch.

Xia Lin, who had just entered middle school, sat at his desk, reading with relish a copy of Children's Literature given to him by a boy from the next class.

The magazine "Children's Literature" is very popular in their middle school, but this issue of "Children's Literature" is particularly difficult to buy.

The classmates were all saying that the article "The Grass House" was particularly well-written. That's how kids are. Everyone follows what's popular. If you say you haven't read it, you'll feel ashamed at school.

This is just like talking about the Four Heavenly Kings and Michael Jackson in the 90s. Even if you don’t know or have never heard of them, you have to pretend to know them to keep up with the trend.

Xia Lin loved the story of "The Grass House" so much. She envied the friendship of those children in Yau Ma Tei. Due to her poor health since childhood and strict discipline at home, she missed out on such a wonderful childhood.

There has never been such a group of smart partners.

Paper Moon.

She really liked the name of this character, it was much more beautiful than her own name, and she wished she could change her name to Zhiyue.

Xia Lin would never have thought that she would actually change her name twice more in the future.

One is called Wang Jingwen and the other is called Wang Fei.

"What are you looking at?"

Mother Xia Guiying burst in through the door and said, "Let me see."

"Nothing." Xia Lin quickly hid the book under his body, but his mother snatched it away quickly.

"Children's literature? How old are you and still reading this?!"

"This isn't for kids." Xia Lin said stubbornly. He was almost at the rebellious age, but he wasn't completely rebellious yet.

Xia Guiying scolded her, spanked her on the butt a few times, and then confiscated the book.

"Have a meal."

Xia Guiying is a soprano in the art troupe, and her husband works away from home all year round.

After dinner, she listened to the radio for a while, and soon it was night and the children were in bed.

She tossed and turned in bed, with nothing to do, so she casually opened the book of children's literature on the bedside table and read it.

"Thatch house?"

Xia Guiying had nothing to do. After seeing the editor's note, she became interested and looked at the first line.

The night is getting darker.

Xia Lin was woken up in the middle of the night by the urge to urinate.

She put on her slippers, shorts and a vest, got out of bed and felt for the urinal under the bed.

I saw that the kerosene lamp on my mother's side was still on.

In the dim light, Xia Lin could see her mother holding the book "Children's Literature" that originally belonged to her, rubbing her eyes as she read.

“This story is so touching.”

"This is not written for children, it's so well written."

The September issue of Children's Literature magazine has been out for a week.

Because it is a children's literature magazine, few young readers have the conditions to write letters, and there is no way to get timely feedback like other literary magazines.

But the editorial department has its own way.

That day was September 9th, but September 10th was not Teachers’ Day at that time. It was decided by a group of grandchildren a few years later.

The headquarters of China Youth Publishing House is not far from Wangfujing. Xu Dexia followed the leader of the fairy tale group to the Xinhua Bookstore in Wangfujing. They took a look around first. The store was bustling with people.

Unlike bookstores in later generations, bookstores at this time sold books in a counter-style manner. Readers would stand outside the counter, tell the salesperson what book they wanted, and the salesperson would then take it from the shelf.

Xu Dexia and the team leader waited for a while, and when they saw the salesperson was free, they rushed over. It was obvious that the two were familiar with each other.

"How is the sales of our issue of Children's Literature?"

"It's selling really well. I don't think there's much stock left. You'll have to print more."

Xu Dexia was surprised.

You should know that the Xinhua Bookstore in Wangfujing has been expanded twice. It has a total construction area of ​​more than 3 square meters and sells 6 to kinds of books annually. It is currently the largest bookstore in the country.

It should be said that they have the largest supply in the whole Beijing. This issue of "Children's Literature" has only been on the market for more than a week, but it's selling so well?

"The Grass House in this issue of Children's Literature is really well written." The salesperson couldn't help but praise. "My child and I have read it and we like it very much. Can you help me get an autograph from Comrade Jiang Xian? My child likes him very much now."

"Definitely if there's a chance." The leader of the fairy tale group agreed.

While the two were talking, another female comrade came up with a child in her arms, "Comrade, do you still have the September issue of Children's Literature? There's the one with The Grass House."

"Is this for you or your son to see?" the team leader asked with a smile.

The female comrade looked at him and said, "I'll read it first and then tell my son about it. I heard from several colleagues in our unit that the article "The Grass House" in this issue is very good and can be read by both adults and children."

Xu Dexia listened quietly, thinking that Jiang Xian had only emerged in the literary world a few years ago, and now his works have influenced more than just one generation.

(End of this chapter)