1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 443 You Have No Choice

[Li Ming has thought about dropping out of school more than once.

Talented, elegant, and musical. This is how one teacher described him.

But he just wanted to drop out of school.

The lecturer who came to class in the morning was full of energy and talked nonstop, with notes all over the blackboard. Everyone was nervous, afraid of missing a word. This female lecturer also had a powerful trick, which was to ask questions suddenly.

If you lose focus, she will suddenly say, "Li Ming, answer this question."

Li Ming stood up.

"Please tell me how to solve the 17-degree triple counterpoint of this problem?"

"..."

"You didn't listen, so go ahead and tell me."

So Li Ming stood there and waited for Ma Li to finish his stuttering answer. In the inexplicable silence, Li Ming sat down with an apologetic look on his face.

]
Meng Mingjie turned to the corresponding page and read a passage from "You Have No Choice".

As a reader who is very familiar with Jiang Xian, Meng Mingjie knows very well that this is a new novel by Jiang Xian, a new novel that has never been published.

He couldn't contain his excitement.

The last time Jiang Xian published a novel was last year, when he published "Going on a Long Journey at the Age of Eighteen" in "Huacheng".

It's a story for young people.

Meng Mingjie liked it very much and read it over and over again. He felt that his blood was boiling and hot every time he read the novel.

And from this article "You Have No Choice", we can also see that the content of the novel also belongs to young people.

Because the character who appears at the beginning, Li Ming, is obviously the protagonist of this novel.

This is a college student, so this story is not that old.

Meng Mingjie held the People's Digest and continued reading.

[
Li Ming paid close attention to the female lecturer's eyes. She kept paying attention to everyone's expressions while teaching. If anyone was distracted, she would ask you to stand up without fail.

Sometimes Li Ming really wanted to relax, but he was a little afraid of her.

Of all the lecturers and professors, he was most afraid of her.

He only took her lessons and the exercises she assigned him seriously, because he would often think of her eyes when doing the exercises.

As a result, he learned this subject most thoroughly.

So is horsepower.

He skipped everyone's classes, but this one was the only one he dared not skip.

Since Li Ming decided to drop out of school, he often hides in the dormitory to draw, or takes a sketchbook to draw the faces of several teachers in class. Drawing faces is very interesting, and each teacher's face has many "things".

Draw the one, two, three, and four for this person, and then fill in five, six, seven, and eight based on your imagination.

Within a few days, every gentleman was painted, except the female lecturer.

Then he started drawing his classmates.

The classmate's face was far less vivid than the teacher's. It was all so young and bald, and he couldn't even imagine five, six, seven, or eight. Finally, he came up with a solution, using only a single line to draw a face with two nostrils, and posted it on the academic discussion column in the classroom, asking everyone to guess each other's guesses.

What Ma Li did was even more boring. He always liked to record the book numbers of all the books he bought, and carefully drew a seal of Ma Li's personal collection of books on them, and even attached a library card like a school library.

He had to spend two hours every day on this matter. He kept buying books, and also built a bookcase and a desk, decorating the piano room like a playing house.

But he always fell asleep in class. He had this ability. He would hold the handouts as if he was reading, but without moving his head, he would suddenly snore loudly.

No one came back to the dormitory before midnight. They were all studying hard in the piano room. After midnight, everyone returned to the dormitory one after another, and the most relaxing time of the day began. But Ma Li had already fallen asleep by then. He didn't like staying up late, even if the people in the room were shouting, he would still sleep.

Li Ming always felt that he would suddenly fall asleep, so he was always pushed awake after twelve o'clock.

"Horsepower! Horsepower!"

Ma Liteng sat up suddenly, without opening his eyes. Li Ming breathed a sigh of relief and left him to chat with others.

"Have you finished today's homework?"

"No. Too many."

"Damn it, leaving so much homework is going to kill us."

"It's time for another midterm exam."

"Thirteen gates."

"I have tendonitis." The short guy who shared the room with me stretched out his hand and lowered his hand, revealing a big bump on the back of his hand.

Ma Li was indifferent to everything and never spoke. Except for his undergraduate degree in composition, which scored 80 points, his scores in other subjects were average.

The night before Li Ming went to Professor Wang to ask for advice on dropping out of school, an earthquake suddenly occurred.

Everyone in the dormitory ran out and stood on the playground.

Some were wearing shorts, some were covered in towels. The girls hid in a dark corner and chattered, afraid to be seen by the boys, but also afraid that they didn't know they were there.

It is said that two girls from the Vocal Music Department are still looking for suitable clothes in the dormitory, saying that they want to die decently.

The people standing on the playground waited for another earthquake, but after standing there for a long time, nothing happened. Later, they found out that there was no earthquake at all. Someone saw a flash of red light outside the window and shouted "earthquake", so everyone ran out.

The next day, Li Ming went to Professor Wang to ask him whether he could drop out of school.

Professor Wang is recognized as a "lunatic" by the whole hospital. He is proficient in several languages, has made hundreds of inventions involving more than a dozen disciplines, and holds titles in countless departments at once. He added an extra line to the five-line staff, rearranged the piano keys, and verified each note by taking the square root.

This invention drives everyone crazy.

Li Ming admired Professor Wang the most. Even though he didn't understand what he said, he still loved to listen.

"Ah."

"I won't learn it anymore. I have to admit that I'm not cut out for this."

"Ah."

"That's it. I have to drop out of school."

"Ah."

"Others think they are what they are, but I think I am not."

"Ah."

"Maybe I'd be better off doing something else."

"Ah."

"I'll go and file a report."

"Ah."

Li Ming stood up, and Professor Wang also stood up:
"Just study hard, you fool."

“You have no choice but to compose.”

]
boom.

Meng Mingjie felt as if something hit his head.

"Meng, eat."

Without time to look back, Meng Mingjie put down the magazine in his hand and quickly picked up the food in the bowl.

"Slow down, who snatched it from you?" the wife scolded.

"."

Meng Mingjie said nothing.

His mind was filled with the novel he had just read, and the absurd picture of youth that Jiang Xian had painted with exaggerated strokes.

But the last sentence that Professor Wang blurted out shocked Meng Mingjie so much that he couldn't calm down for a long time.

“You have no choice but to compose.”

When he first read it, Meng Mingjie didn't quite understand what the novel was trying to express.

Jiang Xian buried the answer at the end of the first chapter, or rather, he made it clear at the very beginning:
You have no choice!

Meng Mingjie felt deeply empathetic.

He felt like he was Li Ming, doing a factory job that he didn't like.

He also wanted to drop out of school like Li Ming and get away from everything.

But he had no choice.

Li Ming could only compose music. As for Meng Mingjie, the huge rock of life weighing on him forced him to make no choice to rebel.

Like Li Ming, he mistakenly believed that he had the freedom to choose, but reality made him sober:

You have no choice!

You can only be a victim on the altar, without any power to resist.

"What are you thinking about?" The wife was a little surprised.

Meng Mingjie said nothing and put down the bowl in his hand. "I'm full."

Then, under his wife's strange gaze, he went into the inner room and couldn't wait to pick up the 1985th issue of "People's Digest" in 4 again, opened the novel "You Have No Choice", and found the part he had just read.

The novel is not long, with about 30,000 words, and Meng Mingjie took two hours to read it all.

He put down the magazine in his hand, closed the book and thought for a moment, then wiped the moisture from the corners of his eyes with his fingers.

"It's so well written."

Meng Mingjie couldn't help but sigh.

This novel is very different from Jiang Xian's previous novels, a style he has never read before.

However, after reading it, Meng Mingjie's first reaction was a bit suffocated.

That's right, suffocation.

Every word Jiang Xian writes is exaggerated and absurd.

But when these words are combined together, they create a suffocating atmosphere.

"Is this novel interesting?" The wife turned her head and said, "I see you have been reading it for a long time, so seriously."

"nice."

Meng Mingjie's voice was still a little choked up, and he let out a long sigh, "Bring me my wine, I want to have a drink."

"what happened?"

"I suddenly want to drink something."

Although his wife was puzzled, she still brought him the unfinished bottle of wine at home, and took out a few wine glasses and gave one to Meng Mingjie.

"Put two."

For some unknown reason, Meng Mingjie asked his wife to put two wine glasses on the table.

As he drank, he recalled the content of the novel he had just read, and inevitably his thoughts drifted to the author of the article.

"How could Jiang Xian write such a depressing novel?"

A sudden thought occurred to Meng Mingjie.

What about the premiere of "Furong Town"?
"Furong Town" was criticized by fans because the three main characters did not appear at the premiere.

All along, the creative team’s response to the outside world has been: no tickets were bought.

At this critical juncture, Jiang Xian published this novel:

You Have No Choice

Does this mean anything?
Thinking of this, Meng Mingjie couldn't help but think of the most widely circulated saying:

"Due to pressure from above, Jiang Xian, Liu Xiaoqing and Jiang Wen were unable to appear on the stage."

If things are really as Meng Mingjie thinks, then everything can be connected!

Why can't Jiang Xian appear?
Because there is no other choice!

After figuring it all out, Meng Mingjie gradually became excited.

He believed that his speculation was not groundless.

A writer's works are absolutely inseparable from his own experiences.

For example, "How the Steel Was Tempered" was written by Ostrovsky based on his own experience.

Another similar work is "Jane Eyre", which comes from the life of the author Charlotte.

Almost every character in "The Sorrows of Young Werther" corresponds to Goethe and the people around him.

Marquez even mentioned in his autobiography that when he showed his works to relatives and friends, everyone would chat about who in the book was who in real life and which storyline came from which specific event.

Each work is the author's plaintext code, and his life experience is the decoding rule.

When it comes to ancient poetry, there are even more things about the poet's own experiences hidden in the poetry.

Although the literary world in later generations systematically divided the writers into two opposing factions: "experiential writers" and "fictional writers".

But it is still difficult for fictional writers to completely separate their works from themselves, and they will always find a few clues.

Meng Mingjie's hard-working letter, "You Have No Other Choice" is a work in which Jiang Xian writes the helplessness and powerlessness of self-confidence.

Only in this way can the emotions be written so strongly that they can be seen through the paper!
"You wrongly blamed him!"

Meng Mingjie was filled with guilt.

After reading the article "You Have No Choice", Meng Mingjie reacted.

During this period, his accusations against the creative team of "Furong Town" really wronged them.

They are also victims.

They have no choice!

"Gudong."

Meng Mingjie poured a glass of wine into his throat.

After thinking for a while, he filled the other empty glass with wine.

Then pick up your cup and clink it with yours.

"Wife, let's go watch "Furong Town" tomorrow."

Yenching Normal University.

"Comrade Su Tong, after careful review by the editorial department, your short story "Memories of the Mulberry Garden" is temporarily not suitable for this publication."

Su Tong folded the letter, feeling a little disappointed.

At the age of 22, Su Tong has already published some poetry works and two novels in "Youth" and "Young Writers".

But it was not until some time ago that he created his first real short story, "Memories of the Mulberry Garden".

Unfortunately, because this novel displayed some characteristics of avant-garde novels, it was a little too avant-garde for literary editors who were used to reading realistic novels, so it was rejected four times in a row.

This was undoubtedly a huge blow to Su Tong.

"Not again?"

The comrades working in the mail room had long known Su Tong, a student with a dream of becoming a writer.

"What about changing it? Maybe it will work if you change it."

Not knowing how to comfort him, the other party handed Su Tong the latest issue of "People's Literature".

"If you can't do it, just read how others write it and see how they get published in People's Literature. You will learn it if you read more. I'll lend it to you first and return it to me later."

"Ah."

Su Tong nodded introvertedly and returned to his dormitory with the magazine in his pocket.

"how is everything?"

"Has the manuscript been approved?"

The roommates asked curiously.

"No."

Su Tong shook his head, but he was not too sad. Having experienced too many rejections, Su Tong had become more open-minded.

He himself felt that the novel was well written and that it must have been their mistake to reject it.

After figuring this out, he sat on the bed and took out the copy of People's Literature that someone had given him, the fourth issue of 1985.

“Oh, it’s the latest one.”

Su Tong flipped through the pages and soon noticed the following words in the foreword of People's Literature:

The "daring" decision to publish such an unconventional work in the forefront, which uses "farce form" to reflect "the struggles, pursuits, depression, success and failure of contemporary youth", is to break up the increasingly rigid publishing model and change the stereotype of "People's Literature" in the minds of readers.

(End of this chapter)