1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 250 The Great Book That Was Born

After the meal, Jiang Xian handed the Japanese translation to Chen Xiru and asked him to take it back and read it.

After saying goodbye to Sato Jun'ya, Jiang Xian was not in a hurry to leave Cuihua Hutong.

He looked at his watch, lit a cigarette, and strolled around Cuihua Hutong.

The location is OK, in Dongcheng District, less than a mile from his home, Jingshan East Hutong, and two kilometers from Tiananmen Square, close to the National Art Museum of China. The hutong is five meters wide and T-shaped, connecting to Wangfujing Street horizontally to the east and Wusi Street vertically to the north.

Before moving to Yenching University, the master of Chinese studies Ji Xianlin lived in the courtyard at the west end of this alley for many years, living in the east room on the deepest floor of the courtyard.

That was the location of the East Factory. The yard was filled with coffins from the Han Dynasty. At dusk, ghostly figures were everywhere, making the place look eerie.

However, Ji Xianlin did not believe in ghosts or gods. In his words, "Living with ghosts every day, I lead a peaceful life."

Today I came to Cuihua Hutong, not only for the official business of treating guests to a meal, but also for a personal matter, which was to look at the courtyard.

His parents came over quickly and Zhu Lin also followed. After all, looking after the yard was a big deal.

Apart from the three of them, there was another unfamiliar face.

"This is the landlord of that courtyard, Comrade Wu Qinghua," Jiang Guoqing introduced.

"this is my son."

Jiang Xian shook hands with the man, Wu Qinghua, and listened to his introduction: "This is our own yard, passed down from the Qing Dynasty, and the property rights are in our hands."

"Why do you want to sell it?"

Wu Qinghua did not hide anything and looked like he was really anxious to sell it. He said directly:
"My wife's company has an opportunity to get a house. We have been married for so many years and our children are so grown up. We have been waiting and looking forward to this opportunity year after year.

As a result, one of the grandsons in the unit complained, saying that our family has an ancestral home. The unit leader immediately called my wife over for a talk and said that although you are in line, your family has the ancestral home, so we have to give priority to those colleagues who have no houses.

My wife and I discussed it and decided to sell the old yard and divide up the houses. I'll see what those people have to say."

As he spoke, he took out the key and pushed open the gate.

This is a large two-courtyard house, about 800 square meters, but the screen wall, hanging flower gate, and winding corridors are all gone. The whole yard is bare, with only a few irregular small earthquake sheds against the wall, and even the trees are just stumps.

Looking around, it was shocking to see that only half of the northern room in the entire yard was still intact, with broken walls and ruins all over the floor, and the walls were all blackened by smoke.

Jiang Xian was startled.

Rather than saying it is a courtyard house, it is better to say that it is a ruins!

He was just wondering why someone would give up the ancestral home and insist on taking the house allocated by the company.

Well, no one is really stupid.

If you want to live in this yard, you have to rebuild the house. Ordinary people don’t have the money to build a house.

When Rao Yuemei saw this condition, she immediately discussed it with Zhu Lin and Jiang Guoqing in a low voice out of concern.

"Where is this yard?"

"Wouldn't it be a huge injustice if I bought it?"

"Yeah." Zhu Lin also looked at Jiang Xian anxiously, fearing that he would do something stupid.

Jiang Xian walked around by himself, "Why is this yard like this?"

Wu Qinghua smiled and asked, "Do you know Zhang Xun from the Braid Army?"

"Ah? Braided handsome man!" Jiang Xian had seen "Towards the Republic" and was very familiar with this man.

Five years after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Xun and Kang Youwei tried to restore the monarchy, but they were defeated by Duan Ruiqi. This incident was considered a farce in the Republic of China. After Zhang Xun's death, Puyi conferred the title of "Zhongwu" on him.

"Yes, that's him."

Wu Qinghua gnashed his teeth and said, "His family lives next door to us. At that time, this bastard led the pigtail army to support Puyi, but was beaten to a pulp by the anti-rebelion army. He finally hid at home, and they pushed a few cannons over to bombard his house, causing our yard to suffer as well.

Look at the big holes on the ground. They were made by artillery shells."

"Ho."

Jiang Xian was shocked.

This is really a ruins!
How can this be a pit on the ground?
This is a scar left by history!
Now that he understood the whole process, he thought about it from Wu Qinghua's perspective, and everything made sense.

I can’t afford to build a house, and my company won’t allocate me a house. Do I have to continue living in an earthquake shelter?

This makeshift earthquake shelter has no ventilation or rain protection, is cold in winter and hot in summer, has no water supply or drainage. The poor living conditions are worse than their small dormitory in the courtyard of Wei Ran Hutong.

No wonder Wu Qinghua wanted to buy it.

Moreover, in those days, ordinary people saw a house as just a place to live, which was different from later generations, when houses were commodities and were also related to children’s schooling.

In other words, in the eyes of people of this era, houses have no attached value.

Most people can get a house at their workplace, and if they don’t, they have to rely on the workplace to give them one. Who would spend money on this thing?
Jiang Xian was guessing.

Wu Qinghua over there has his own plans.

The abacus was clattering loudly.

You live in this yard, so you have to repair it every year, right?
Just repairing this is a considerable amount of money.

What if I sold it?
If you deposit money in the bank, it is pure profit!
Interest rates are so high right now that if you deposit for five years, it is possible that your money will double in seven or eight years.

I saved seven or eight years of money spent on repairing the yard, and I also earned enough money to build an extra yard.

Make money however you want!
"How big is your yard?" Jiang Xian asked.

Wu Qinghua gestured with his hand and made the number "eight". "A full eight hundred square meters!"

After listening to this, Jiang Xian took a stroll and had a rough idea in his mind.

All in all, this yard is not suitable for living.

He doesn't care about living there. What he wants is the land. It doesn't matter to him whether it is rebuilt or not. He can buy the land and leave it idle.

"How much do you plan to sell it for?"

"We have a big yard too. If you make some changes, even your relatives can move in. We can even rent it out and collect some rent."

"Don't talk nonsense, just tell me the truth."

"Okay, we're both straightforward people, so let's put it this way, one price."

Wu Qinghua rolled up his sleeves and gestured, "Eight thousand."

Jiang Xian turned and left.

"Hey? Let's talk it over!"

"Comrade, I want you to take a look at your yard.

Is this a courtyard? Isn't this an ancient battlefield?!

Eight thousand? If I add a little more to this number, I can get a whole high-end residence in the Overseas Chinese Apartment, with water, electricity, heating and everything else.

What do you have here? No water or electricity. You want me to dig up shrapnel from your land for 8,000 yuan?"

Jiang Xian kept talking back, and Wu Qinghua was unable to respond for a long time.

"Look at what you said. I heard from your father that you are a cultured person." "I am a cultured person. I can't be a sucker." Jiang Xian spoke bluntly.

He ate Wu Qinghua to death.

With this yard, these days, no one could buy it except him.

Of course, his family didn't know about his little thought. When his mother heard that he didn't want to buy it, she nodded in agreement.

"That's right, what can we do with this yard?"

"Your royalties didn't come from the wind. We can't buy a yard like this. We need to build several yards inside this house."

I didn’t plan to build it, Jiang Xian muttered to himself.

Wu Qinghua was really being bullied by Jiang Xian at this moment. He was in a hurry to divide the house and asked people for a long time. Finally, he found a family that was interested.

He just deliberately gave himself a raise to leave room for negotiation, but he didn't expect that he would make things worse and make others give up the idea of ​​buying the yard.

He quickly tried to make amends, "It's easy to negotiate, how about you give me a price?"

Jiang Guoqing frowned upon hearing this and pulled Jiang Xian's arm, "What price are you going to give us? We don't want this yard anymore."

"The price is five thousand yuan. If it works, it works. If not, forget it." Jiang Xian made the decision directly.

The whole family was anxious.

Jiang Guoqing and Rao Yuemei looked at each other.

Five thousand dollars for such a shabby yard? Crazy!
Zhu Lin also frowned slightly. She had no objection. Since they got married, she had the final say on small matters at home, while Jiang Xian had the final say on big matters. She just didn't understand why Jiang Xian wanted to stay together like this.

Wu Qinghua was delighted when he heard this. Besides, this was the price the other party offered after changing his mind. He felt that there was a ray of hope at the end of the tunnel, so he didn't dare to be clever anymore.

"Five thousand is five thousand.
But you have to give me a few days, and we can move out only after we divide the house."

"I can give you a few days' grace, but we have to write something and set a date. No matter if you get a house or not, you have to move out in three months.

Besides, I have to tell you that you have to make the property rights clear to me. I have taken over the yard before, so I know everything here. Don't try to fool me." Jiang Xian quickly finalized the matter.

Wu Qinghua exclaimed, "Go to the city and ask around to find out who I am. You will find that I am definitely not capable of such a thing."

After it was finalized, Jiang Xian went back with Zhu Lin.

Although his parents didn't understand, they didn't oppose it at all. After all, they knew that five thousand yuan was nothing to Jiang Xian at that moment.

Zhu Lin revealed that Jiang Xian now has five "ten thousand yuan households" in his savings.

He just couldn't help but sigh, lamenting that Jiang Xian made a wrong move. It was not worth spending money to build such a shabby yard. It would be better to put the money in the bank.

"Such a good piece of land, every time you buy one, you have one less piece. It's no big deal to spend this money." Jiang Xian comforted Zhu Lin, "You won't lose money if you buy a house."

He actually didn't care too much about this matter. He was just collecting land and would buy it when it was suitable.

As I recall, in the last year of housing distribution in the 80s, the area east of Cuihua Hutong was demolished. The developer said they were planning to build a shopping mall. However, as soon as the houses were demolished, the demolition party fled with the huge sum of money, leaving behind a ruin. That area remained in disarray for many years with no one taking care of it.

Jiang Xian’s yard was not within the demolition area, but even if it was, he was already alert and would not be fooled like this.

So this yard can be bought, and then modified according to demand. It's bare now, so it can be used as a small football field. Invite Da Feng, Wang Weiguo and others to come and play football, and ask Shi Tiesheng to be the goalkeeper.

Thinking of Wang Weiguo, it had been more than half a month since his last visit. Jiang Xian was always thinking about him and decided to go visit him.

That day he rode his bike and exchanged his food coupons with farmers in the suburbs of Beijing on the roadside for some fruits, including spring crops such as apples, strawberries, mangoes, and mulberries.

When he arrived at No. 166 Chaoyang, he didn't know which room Wang Weiguo lived in, so he asked the comrades at the guesthouse.

"Who are you looking for?"

"Wang Weiguo."

"Oh, him."

The comrade at the guesthouse was deeply impressed and said, "You should go check on your friend. I think he might be a little mentally disturbed."

During this month, this comrade often saw Wang Weiguo walking around in circles in the guesthouse late at night. He reported this to his superiors, who told him not to disturb him as he was writing something.

Jiang Xian soon saw Wang Weiguo working in a mess. The room was filled with smoke, the iron dustpan was full of cigarette butts, and there were hard steamed buns, a few twisted dough sticks, and some crispy cakes on the table.

Wang Weiguo was working at his desk and didn't notice Jiang Xian coming in.

He looked like he was possessed by a ghost, his hair was disheveled, the corners of his eyes were red, and it seemed difficult for him to even lift his arms. He held the pen with great effort and wrote noisily, writing madly.

Jiang Xian pursed his lips and didn't dare to disturb him seeing this situation.

He knew Wang Weiguo's writing habit, which was like mercury pouring out on the ground, that is, he liked to write in one go.

In his own words, this allows him to maintain the same passion from beginning to end. What he fears most is that his emotions will be interrupted by unexpected disturbances while writing. This will leave a scar at the interruption, and even if he carefully repairs it later, it will be difficult to restore its original appearance.

He put the bag of fruit aside, tore off a page of manuscript paper and put it underneath, writing a line: "Take care of yourself, Jiang Xian."

On the way back, thinking about Wang Weiguo, Jiang Xian thought of Li Lande. It seemed that every image of a supreme artist could be pieced together into Li Lande.

I remember that Wang Weiguo later recalled his experience of creating "Life", saying that he could not distinguish between day and night, his whole body felt like it was on fire, his facial features were ulcerated, and his bowel movements were blocked, but he said that those were the best days of his life so far.

Along the way, thinking about Wang Weiguo, a literary review of "Life" gradually took shape in my mind.

Less than a day later, Wang Weiguo came to the door. His face was pale, a little swollen, and he had difficulty walking.

"Have you finished writing?" Jiang Xian asked.

"Finished." He nodded.

"Life" was finally born.

Jiang Xian couldn't wait to finish reading it. In the previous draft, Qiaozhen was Liu Liben's only daughter. In this draft, there was an older sister and a third younger sister, Qiaoying and Qiaoling.

This is exactly Wang Weiguo's breakthrough in the interweaving of character relationships.

The full text is more than 140,000 words, and it took two years to conceive and went through three drafts.

It can be said that this is the best version of "Life" that Jiang Xian has read so far, even surpassing the original third draft in history.

"Comrade Weiguo, you have written a great work!"

Jiang Xian said solemnly, "Your hard work is worth it. The future literary world will keep your name and Lu Yao's name because of Life."

After hearing his words, Wang Weiguo was so excited that he almost cried.

"Comrade Jiang Xian, I have a request."

"You speak."

"I want to give you this manuscript."

Wang Weiguo said solemnly, "Without you, there would be no Life. I hope you can help me publish this article in Beijing Literature."

Jiang Xian was stunned for a long time, "Are you really going to give it to me?"

"I have decided."

Wang Weiguo said firmly, "Because Life is not only my work, it is also yours."

(End of this chapter)