1979: My fiancée is a goddess

Chapter 104 Love Letters, Chen Danqing and Monkey Stamps

"love letter"

This is a novel written by the famous Japanese director Shunji Iwai, which was adapted into a movie of the same name in 1995.

At that time, Japan was in the midst of an economic bubble burst, and society was filled with romance and nostalgia for the past.

This beautiful and slightly sad youth story successfully evokes the young memories of people of that era. The film's depiction of the passing of beauty and nostalgia also echoes people's mood at that time.

Therefore, the movie became a huge hit once it was released and set the highest domestic box office record of the year.

It not only caused a huge sensation in Japan, but also aroused considerable popularity in Asia and even the West.

It was introduced into China in 99 and re-released on May 21, 5. Until today, it is still listed in many classic love movie recommendations, proving its charm and influence that transcends time.

The novel tells the story of the heroine Hiroko Watanabe, who, on the third anniversary of her fiancé Fujii Itsuki's death, could not suppress her longing for her lover, so she sent a letter full of greetings and longing to Fujii Itsuki's address in Otaru during his junior high school years.

This love letter sent to heaven out of grief unexpectedly received a reply from someone with the same name, and the letter was signed "Fujii Itsuki".

After a series of misunderstandings and explorations, Hiroko discovered that the person who replied to the letter, Fujii Itsuki, was a woman with the same name and surname as her fiancé, and was also his junior high school classmate.

As the two women communicate through letters, they gradually unearth a love story that has been buried for many years but has always remained silent. Both the novel and the film tell a story about love and memory, showing a secret love hidden in youth through the exchange of letters between two women.

……

March 3rd is Girls' Day.

There was a rare snowfall in Kobe. Hiroko looked up at the transparent and boundless sky. White snowflakes slowly fell, covering the silent cemetery. The black mourning clothes and the mottled white were entangled together, extending far away.

Today is the third anniversary of the death of her fiancé Fujii Itsuki, and Hiroko came to pay her respects as usual.

"It seems like this snow was caused by that child..." said Ashu's mother.

Hiroko smiled and it was her turn to burn incense.

She stood in front of the tombstone and fell silent when she saw the familiar yet unfamiliar black and white photo.

Unexpectedly, when I faced him again, I felt calm and not disturbed at all. Is this the power of the passing of time?
She felt a little complicated as she brushed away the thin layer of snow on the tombstone. "I'm sorry... I'm such a heartless woman."

"pat~"

An orange flame lit up in the dark sky, and Hiroko lit an incense stick and offered it.

After a while, wisps of grayish-white smoke slowly rose.

A grain of snow swept by and it went out.

Hiroko's chest tightened as she watched this, thinking it was a prank on his part.

……

"It's a prank, huh? Zhan Xinyu, just wait."

A hand reached in from the window and pushed open the curtains.

As soon as Cheng Kaiyan finished speaking, she opened her clean white palm and found a few candies inside.

The old-fashioned glass-framed windows provided almost no privacy. Because of writing, Cheng Kaiyan often closed the windows in the room and drew the curtains.

He didn't like the feeling of being seen, but he liked listening to the chirping sounds outside and doing his own things in the faint sunlight that was filtered twice by the windows and curtains.

The sound is not noisy, and the light is neither glaring nor hot.

It suits someone like him, after all, he has never been one to be overly sunny.

"No, this is coffee candy, brought by dad's friend."

Zhan Xinyu was outside the bedroom window. She stretched one hand in and held on to the window sill with the other hand. There was a ditch under her feet.

The moss on both sides of the canal is also green with the arrival of spring, but it is not pleasing to the eye.

"Coffee candy?"

This is a rare thing.

Cheng Kaiyan took it from the little girl's hand, gathered the few manuscripts she had just written and stuffed them into the drawer, then stood up to open the door.

After coming back in the morning, he closed the door, which is why the little girl couldn't come in.

The yard was very quiet, with only a few women basking in the sun.

"Brother, my dad is calling you for something."

"What is it?"

"I don't know, but there is a guest at home, a man who looks a bit fierce and wears glasses."

The little girl said she didn't know, and then she pulled Cheng Kaiyan towards her home.

Cheng Kaiyan probably had some idea in his mind, maybe it was about the monkey stamps?
Followed the little girl into her home.

This was the first time Cheng Kaiyan entered the Zhan family's house, and she looked around.

The furnishings in the main room were similar to those in my own home. The decoration was relatively simple, with solid wood furniture, old-fashioned wooden floors that were a little warped, and a semiconductor radio placed on a coffee table held down by a glass plate.

The walls were painted with white putty and hung with many framed calligraphy and paintings, both ink and oil paintings.

"Kaiyan is here? Come and sit down!"

On the sofa in the main room, Zhan Jianjun was sitting and chatting with a young man.

Seeing Cheng Kaiyan walk into the room, he greeted her with a smile.

The man also cast a scrutinizing glance at her.

Cheng Kaiyan looked up and the man looked familiar at first glance.

He wore round-frame glasses, had short hair so short that only the scalp could be seen, his face was clean-shaven, he was thin, and wore a black jacket. He exuded a rebellious and confident temperament.

Cheng Kaiyan realized that this was a celebrity, but couldn't remember who he was for the time being, so she pulled Zhan Xinyu to sit down and casually said, "Uncle Zhan, what did you call me for? Is it about the monkey stamp?"

"Yes, it's the monkey stamps. Professor Huang has prepared the monkey stamps you want for you. People are busy at home during the Chinese New Year, so we can go to No. 2 Jia to visit Professor Huang later."

"No. 2? The one in Dabaoya Hutong?"

"Yes, it's not far from Xiaowei Hutong. Professor Huang lives there. That's the teachers' dormitory of CAFA." Zhan Jianjun explained.

Speaking of this, Cheng Kaiyan understood what place No. 2 was.

At this moment, the Central Academy of Fine Arts is still in Xiaowei Hutong and has not moved. The teachers' dormitory of CAFA is in Dayabao Hutong near Jinbao Street.

No. 2, A Dayabao Hutong, is a large courtyard with three entrances and more than twenty rooms.

This large courtyard can be regarded as a legend in the history of Chinese art in the 20th century.

This used to be the teachers' dormitory when Xu Beihong reorganized the National Peiping Academy of Arts. After the founding of New China, it became the family compound of the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Dozens of great painters in the history of modern Chinese art have lived in this ordinary courtyard, including Ye Qianyu, Dai Ailian, Hua Tianyou, Li Kuchan, Li Keran, Zou Peizhu, Dong Xiwen, Zhang Linying, Fan Zhichao, Wu Guanzhong, Huang Yongyu, etc. Many of their classic works were created in this small courtyard.

The No. 2 courtyard is where the masters live, while ordinary teachers live in the family compound built in recent years. There are three small buildings in total. It is different from the tube-shaped buildings and is more advanced.

"I have an impression of this one, but I suggest Uncle Zhan collect a few sets of monkey stamps as well. You will definitely not regret it then."

Cheng Kaiyan put away her thoughts and gave advice.

Although this thing appreciates slowly, it is still worth hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, which is like finding free money.

"Your uncle Zhan doesn't have a penny on him. It's all with your aunt Wang Qiang. Unlike you, who went to Jiangcheng to create something and came back to buy a TV. You're so rich."

Zhan Jianjun joked that he felt a little emotional. Who could have known that life was so magical? The kid next door who came back from southern Xinjiang went from being an unemployed soldier to a writer in the blink of an eye. It was really touching.

"Uncle Zhan's paintings are worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars. There are always people who want them once he shows them off." Cheng Kaiyan said as she poured herself a cup of tea.

There are so many ink paintings by famous artists in state-owned stores these days. A painting by Qi Baishi only costs a few dollars, but it is different with oil paintings. A painting can cost hundreds of dollars, and there are still many people buying them.

Compared to writing books, being a painter is a really good job nowadays.

The threshold is just too high. Painting requires talent, and appreciating paintings also requires certain knowledge, otherwise you can only look at whether the painting is beautiful or not.

The young man who had been silent on the side suddenly spoke up: "People like you who like to collect things always say: I won't lose out if I buy this, and that has collection value.

When I was creating in Tibet before, some local wealthy people wanted to buy my paintings. As long as they thought it was valuable, they would do everything they could to get it. "

"Brother, my dad said you bought ten sets? That must cost several dozen dollars, right?"

Zhan Xinyu bumped Cheng Kaiyan's shoulder and asked in confusion.

She didn't care whether the stamps were valuable or not. Zhan Xinyu was curious about how much Cheng Kaiyan spent on them.

"Sixty-four. Stamps are eight cents each, and there are eighty in a set."

Cheng Kaiyan stretched out her hand and showed a number to Zhan Xinyu, not caring whether they believed it or not, she just said that.

He was in a very good mood as he was about to get the Monkey Stamps. Even though he was not a collector, he was looking forward to it.

"So much? It would be great if you could save this money to buy food!"

Zhan Xinyu was shocked. For a high school student like her who was only fourteen or fifteen years old, one dollar as a New Year's gift could make her happy for several days. Sixty-four was definitely a huge sum of money that she could not spend in a lifetime.

"You just remember to eat, right? You are such a loser."

Cheng Kaiyan didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Everyone laughed when they heard this.

At this time, Zhan Jianjun remembered to introduce Cheng Kaiyan. He pointed to the man next to him and said, "This is Chen Danqing, the oil painting teacher of our third studio. He is the most famous young talent in our college. His work XZ series shocked the whole country and was even published in People's Daily."

Chen Danqing? XZ photo gallery?

oh oh oh!
Cheng Kaiyan finally remembered then, isn't this the pretentious boss?

Chen Danqing had a saying that he remembered very clearly, "I have loved pretending since I was a kid. Art is pretending. If you pretend long enough, it will become true."

Cheng Kaiyan is not sure what kind of person he is, but his personality is quite interesting.

"Hello, hello, I'm Chen Danqing, a university lecturer."

Chen Danqing was the first to greet her. He stared at Cheng Kaiyan through his glasses with his somewhat protruding eyes, as if he was looking at some treasure.

"Hello, I'm Cheng Kaiyan, a university teaching assistant." Cheng Kaiyan just finished speaking.

"Comrade Xiao Cheng, it's a pity that you don't become a model in your current state. Tsk tsk, I think the nude models we found at CAFA have absolutely no aesthetic appeal." Chen Danqing said with some regret.

"Ahem! Your idea is not quite correct. Their beauty is innate. The beauty depicted by the painter is created by the painter." Zhan Jianjun coughed lightly and criticized.

In 1965, the Chairman personally instructed: Human body sketching is an essential basic skill for painting and sculpture and should not be prohibited by feudal ideas. Even if there are some adverse consequences, it does not matter. Some sacrifices can be made for the development of art disciplines.

A number of art colleges responded by adopting nude models for sketching.

Although it was interrupted in the middle due to buzzing, plaster figure training was used.

It was not until the college entrance examination in 1978 that CAFA gradually began to offer human figure painting and sketching classes, abandoning the previous plaster portraits.

Later, more than a dozen art schools including the Central Academy of Fine Arts and the PLA Academy of Art publicly recruited models in the Beijing Evening News.

Most of the people working as nude models nowadays are educated youth who have returned to the cities. It is said that they can earn a lot of money and some can even become contract workers.

"Besides, our Kaiyan is now a famous writer. To be a nude model for you, Chen Danqing? You are dreaming, right?"

Zhan Jianjun directly pointed out Cheng Kaiyan's low-key thoughts and introduced her with a smile.

"A great writer?"

When Chen Danqing heard this, he looked at Cheng Kaiyan in surprise.

Great writer?
Zhan Jianjun naturally wouldn't say anything nonsense.

I thought he was just a young man in his twenties who loved literature, but I didn’t expect him to be a great writer?
"Do you know the song 'Xiao Fang'? It was written by Kaiyan. The 'Fang Cao' that has recently sparked heated discussions among the educated youth is also his work. His talent in literature is no less than your talent in art." Zhan Jianjun said with a smile.

"Hiss! Comrade Cheng is really a hidden talent. Professor Zhan, I am more interested after hearing what you said. Comrade Cheng, how about I find a chance to paint a portrait for you tomorrow? Don't worry, it won't be nude. I don't even like to paint you naked." Chen Danqing's eyes lit up and he said frankly.

"Is it free?"

Cheng Kaiyan suddenly thought that these paintings by painters from the 1980s were much more valuable than any monkey stamps.

Zeng Fanzhi's work "Mask Series 1996 No.6" was sold for 2021 million yuan in 1.61.

Zhang Xiaogang's work "Bloodline: Big Family No. 12" was sold for 8119 million yuan.

Besides, this is Chen Danqing, whose faith has not yet been shattered by seeing the emerging Western art schools. Now is the time when he has just finished painting the XZ series and is at his most spiritual.

A painting titled "XZ Series: Shepherds" was sold for 2021 million yuan at the 1.61 BJ Poly Auction.

"It's all free, I'll give it to you when I'm done."

"That's great! Just draw as many as you want!"

Cheng Kaiyan's face was full of smiles, "Brother, you are so generous!"

After exchanging greetings for a while, Zhan Jianjun led everyone out with some gifts and headed towards Dayabao Hutong.

Half an hour later, I met the famous master Huang Yongyu at Room A-2.

After Zhan Jianjun and Chen Danqing presented their New Year gifts, the 56-year-old great painter, who was in the prime of his life, took out several stacks of stamps from his study.

"This is Comrade Xiao Cheng, right? Here, the stamps you requested, check how many sets you want. My comrades from the post office have sent quite a few over, more than enough."

"That's really troublesome for you!"

Cheng Kaiyan took it from him and looked down.

China People's Post, Year of Gengshen.

The bright red ticket back is painted with lifelike strokes, depicting a cute sitting golden monkey, full of festive atmosphere.

It’s worthy of being a commemorative stamp sold on New Year’s Eve, it feels different.

Cheng Kaiyan counted the number of sets in her hand and found that there were more than ten sets, about fifteen sets, so she asked, "Professor Huang, I want all of them. Is that okay with you?"

"Okay, just give me the money."

Huang Yongyu smiled and extended his hand bluntly.

Wow, this is a straightforward old man.

Even though he is bald now, this handsome young man who was well-known in the area when he was young would not have been able to win the heart of his wife Zhang Meixi.

What Cheng Kaiyan remembers most about this person is the love story between him and his wife. Huang Yongyu's wife Zhang Meixi is the daughter of a general. The relationship between the two was not recognized by their families, so they eloped for love. During that period, Huang Yongyu experienced many hardships, but his wife never left him.

It’s just ninety-six dollars.

Cheng Kaiyan didn't care at all and counted out ninety-six yuan and went out.

He smiled brightly as he held the stack of stamps in his arms.

There is a guarantee in life!
Next, let’s have a good time in the 1980s!
No more

Thanks to the book friend 20211003082200075 for the 100-point reward

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(End of this chapter)