1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 160: Playful Conspiracy and Revenge: Fall
The time goes back to the night before.

"Finally finished."

Jiang Xian put down his pen and lay down on the chair like a donkey with its legs spread out.

After a while, I finally regained my strength. I picked up the teacup and took a sip of water. I patted my face, suppressed the strong depression in my heart, and read the article again.

The small conference room was lit by fluorescent lights. If I lowered my head for too long and then looked up suddenly, the faces of the people I saw looked a little yellow and blurry.

He lowered his head again, and circles of light and shadow appeared on the paper, which disappeared after a while.

Rice, Jiang Xian.

[In the evening, a coal train from the north came to a stop at the old freight station. Wu Long felt the vibration and recoil of the train while pretending to sleep. There was a loud bang, and the coal under him also made a sound of collapse.

Wu Long climbed up from the coal pile. The incandescent lights on the freight station platform were so bright that he couldn't open his eyes. There were many people running around the railway. The steam and the twilight merged together, and the scenery of the freight station seemed hazy, some of which were still, and some were floating.]
[Refugees] + [Rice] = "Rice"

Introduction: A novel by writer Su Tong.

It tells the story of a famine-escaping peasant named Wulong, who left his hometown "Fengyangshu" and fled from north to south to the city on a coal train. After settling down in a rice shop, he gradually fell into depravity.

It was later adapted into the movie "The Dahong Rice Shop", which was banned for 7 years.

"Su Tong, let me bear this pain for you." Jiang Xian said bluntly.

The novel "Rice" talks about the ultimate evil and the ultimate badness. There is not a single good character in the whole novel, so much so that Jiang Xian felt that he was talking to the devil while writing it.

The writing process was so painful that he felt unprecedentedly unclean and dirty at one point.

Because he is not a pure copyist.

He thought the first half of the novel was better written than the second half, so he made a lot of changes to the second half.

"How did this guy finish writing this novel?" Jiang Xian pondered for a while.

Just glance over it and if there are no major problems, correct the typos that you can see at a glance, and correct the ones you can't see later. "Submit the homework first."

Pack up the paper and pen, turn off the lights, and leave the small meeting room.

Beside the outdoor corridor, there is a locust tree with thick branches and large leaves, layered one on top of the other.

The moonlight cast shadows on the ground. Jiang Xian walked back to the dormitory from under the tree, above the deep and shallow shadows.

The next day.

"Oh, whose child is this?" Teacher Xiaojing from the information room exclaimed.

Jiang Zilong held his son's hand and laughed, "Teacher Xiaojing, this is my son, come and call me auntie."

Xiaojing touched the child's head and turned back to a large information room.

"This is the May issue of "Beijing Literature and Art." Teacher Tang came over to deliver it.

"Are there any works by our students?"

"No, it's only been a while. There will probably be more published next month. Let the students read more of each other's works then." Teacher Tang said goodbye.

Xiao Jing sat on the chair, intending to take a quick look, and glanced at the cover of the May issue, "Why is it not here? Isn't this Comrade Jiang Xian's?" Wang Meng received the "stream of consciousness" assignment submitted by Jiang Xian, the thickest assignment.

15 words!

This was something he had not expected.

Most students chose to submit their assignments in the form of short stories or essays, but Jiang Xian actually chose a novel.

"This novel took me a month to complete. I really need to take a closer look at it." Wang Meng was immediately attracted by the opening paragraph.

"He sinks, he falls, and you laugh at him again and again. You must know that he falls from a place higher than you, his joy turns to sorrow, but his bright light is followed by your darkness. - Nietzsche"

Wang Meng pondered over this sentence for a long time.

He has read foreign classics and knows where this sentence came from.

The Gay Science, preface poem "Joke, Intrigue and Revenge": Sinking.

Wang Meng was first shocked by Jiang Xian’s erudition. The Gay Science is not Nietzsche’s most famous work, and Jiang Xian’s famous quote “God is dead!” is not the most famous quote in the book.

Then I thought it was a little interesting. The title is used to attract readers and reveal the profound theme of the novel. Jiang Xian used Nietzsche's words as a message, which should be more to deepen the theme. Wang Meng laughed and said, "What does the theme want to express? Playfulness, conspiracy, revenge, and finally sinking?"

He scanned the first line:
The protagonist is a young man named Wulong, who escaped from his hometown of Fengyangshu in the north by taking a train to a city.

"Maple Poplar? I've never heard of this village. Is it fictional?" Wang Meng pondered for a while, picked up the water cup, took a sip, and continued reading.

Wu Long was an honest and kind young man. He looked at the man sleeping against the wall and kindly reminded him to wake up, as he would catch a cold if he slept like that.

But Jiang Xian's slightly dark words made Wang Meng feel that things might not be that simple.

[The sleeping man was motionless. Wu Long thought that he was probably too tired. All people who travel far away from home are like dogs, sleeping wherever they go. Their expressions are also like a dog, tired, sleepy or fierce.

Wu Long turned his head and looked at the colorful advertisements on the wall. The advertisements for soap, cigarettes, Rendan and Dali Pills all had a woman with blood-red lips posing coquettishly. Squeezed among the women were various notices and the addresses of private clinics specializing in treating venereal diseases.

This is a messy and weird city, so people gather here like flies, laying maggots and building nests. No one praises the city, but they all migrate here in the end.

The sky was already dark. Wu Long could discern the legendary smoke from the low night sky. Even at night, the smoke was still rising. This confirmed Wu Long's previous imagination of the city. In the past, some people returned to Fengyangshu Village from the city and told Wu Long that the city was a huge chimney.
"Stream of consciousness"! Wang Meng realized later that this was a description of "stream of consciousness".

"When was it inserted?" The editor's old habit came back, and he realized that he was not reviewing manuscripts, but marking the "stream of consciousness" exercises of the students.

The above text has been inserted with many "stream of consciousness" descriptions, but Wang Meng found it very comfortable to read. He didn't even realize that he had fallen into the "trap" of "stream of consciousness" and was completely immersed in the story itself.

[When Wu Long left the street corner, he looked at the man under the street light. The man was lying on his side in the same position. A layer of white frost particles formed on his messy hair.

Wu Long walked over and pushed his shoulder, saying, "Don't sleep, it's time to get going." The man's body was as cold and stiff as a stone, motionless. Wu Long put his hand under his nostrils, and there was no breath.

dead.]
"Dead? Not asleep?"

"The story is going to be so dark?!"

Wang Meng frowned, took another sip of tea, and thought of the inscription again.

Jokes, conspiracies, revenge, and finally, downfall.
(Huh, five chapters are finished today.)
(End of this chapter)