1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 404: A story triggered by a stolen apple

"What to write?"

Seeing Jiang Xian put down his pen, straighten his back and stretch, Zhu Lin leaned over and asked softly.

"You're back."

Jiang Xian held the hand that Her Majesty the Queen had placed on his shoulder, "I promised to write an article for Huacheng before, and I finally finished writing it for them."

"You can really write."

Zhu Lin lazily lay on Jiang Xian's back, put her arms around his neck, and picked up the manuscript on the table.

She turned to the first page and whispered the title of the novel on the first line:
"Going on a long journey at the age of eighteen?"

"【18 years old】+【First time going out】= short story "18 years old going out on a long journey"!"

Yes, the avant-garde novel compiled by Jiang Xian is the famous work of Yu Hua, the "Eastern Evil" among the "Pioneering Five Tigers".

This novel is not long.

Zhu Lin felt the thickness of the manuscript and found it was probably less than 20,000 words.

"I could have finished it and handed it over to Huacheng a long time ago, but I've been busy with People's Digest recently. I finally made some time recently and I'm rushing to finish it," Jiang Xian said.

He scratched the side of his face. A few strands of Zhu Lin's naughty hair hung down beside his cheek, making him feel itchy.

"What's the content?" Zhu Lin asked.

Jiang Xian thought about it and concluded, "It's probably about an 18-year-old boy going out to see the world for the first time."

Many people should be familiar with the novel "Going on a Long Journey at the Age of Eighteen".

About 20 years later, this novel appeared in the field of literary education in an "abrupt" manner.

It has been selected into the new curriculum standard textbooks for high schools of the People's Education Press and the new curriculum standard textbooks for high schools of the Chinese version!
It can be seen that among the many "avant-garde novels" that have gone through the test of time, "Going on a Long Journey at the Age of Eighteen" is still a treasure that can stand the test of time.

"What did the crew say?" Jiang Xian asked with concern.

"It's been decided."

Zhu Lin smiled and said, "Director Wang is very satisfied with my role as Qin Keqing, but I have few scenes. This is good, because I have more time to take care of our family, Nian Nian."

"Qin Keqing."

Jiang Xian thought about it and realized that this was probably Zhu Lin's first time wearing a costume.
Ya uncalculated.

Bai Wuxia in "Shaolin Temple" also wears ancient costume.

It’s just that Bai Wuxia’s clothes are simple, and she is far from being as graceful and elegant as characters like Qin Keqing and Her Majesty the Queen.

As Jiang Xian thought about it, he couldn't wait to see what Zhu Lin would look like after putting on Qin Keqing's clothes.

A character that is so similar to Her Majesty the Queen, one can definitely see some of the Queen’s shadow in her.

As I thought about it, I felt a little hot in my heart.
"Oh, your hands are not behaving properly again." Zhu Lin pressed the big hand on her waist.

Jiang Xian grabbed her soft and delicate hand and said with a smile: "What do you mean by unruly? You are my wife, and if I have to say anything, it can only be called a little interest between husband and wife."

As he said this, he hugged Zhu Lin in his arms.

The soft body carries a faint fragrance that lingers at the tip of the nose, making people intoxicated. In an instant, it seems as if the whole world has quieted down.

Both of them have been busy with their careers recently and haven't had a good time together for a while. Now that they are hugging each other like this, it is like dry wood meeting fire.

Well, occasionally "having sex in broad daylight" can be quite interesting.

Hugs and kisses.

Zhu Lin only felt her body getting hotter and hotter.

Before her consciousness became completely blurred, she used the remaining clarity to raise her hands and push Jiang Xian away, suppressing the volume in her throat:

"Ah."

"Stop it, stop it."

"what."

"Zhu Hong is still outside."

Jiang Xian is certainly not a lustful ghost with no sense of propriety.

After they were almost done being intimate, he let go of Zhu Lin, whose clothes were half undressed and her shoulders were half exposed.

"I, I shouldn't have come to see you." Zhu Lin's face flushed and her chest heaved violently.

She was really panicking just now.

When she thought about her younger sister who was still outside, she wondered if her younger sister heard her screaming and crying. How could she face her sister in the future?

Well, but thinking back to that scene just now.

Zhu Lin didn't understand why. She was terrified and worried about being discovered. At the same time, she was much more sensitive than usual.
"Sister, brother-in-law."

Just as I was thinking about it, Zhu Hong shouted from outside.

"May I come in?"

"."

Zhu Lin and Jiang Xian looked at each other.

Seeing his wife's eyes full of embarrassment, Jiang Xian coughed lightly.

".Wait a moment."

"Oh."

Jiang Xian stood up and walked to the door, giving Zhu Lin a few seconds to tidy up her clothes before pushing the door open.

"what happened?"

"Brother-in-law, someone is looking for you outside." Zhu Hong came in holding the child and said to Jiang Xian.

"Okay, I get it now."

Jiang Xian listened to the barking of dogs, looked out the window, and caught a glimpse of Li Tuo teasing his father's Pekingese dog "Mantou" in the yard.

"Master Tuo!"

Jiang Xian called him with a smile.

On the other side, Zhu Hong secretly looked into the study and caught a glimpse of Zhu Lin with disheveled clothes and a strange look on her face.

"sister."

"Ok?"

"Are you and your brother-in-law so anxious to give Nian Nian a brother or sister?"

"Find a fight."

Zhu Lin's face, which had just faded a little from its blush, became hot again, and she chased Zhu Hong out of the study.

Li Tuo loves dogs and doesn't mind that dogs are dirty. He came to Jiang Xian's study carrying "Mantou".

"Oh, your study is really well decorated. I'm afraid there's no other one like it in the whole capital."

Li Tuo put the dog down and looked around.

The walls of the study are covered with calligraphy and paintings. In addition to neatly arranged books, the mahogany bookshelves are also filled with rare and exquisite small ornaments, as well as various bottles and jars.

Li Tuo picked up a narrow-mouthed porcelain vase painted with blue and white patterns. It looked valuable just by looking at it.

“This looks interesting.”

"This is from the Chongzhen period. It's a pen holder."

"Where did you get it?"

"Oh, I found these things. You know I like these things. As the saying goes, 'I built a house to store books on history, tripods, inkstones, and antiques. I can spend my mornings and evenings in them. I don't want anything else.'"

Li Tuo nodded, "Yes, if I had a house like yours, I would have nothing to ask for."

"."

Jiang Xian smiled and said nothing.

Is that all you want?

Where are we now?!
In later generations, he had heard of Jia Pingwa's study. It is said that the great writer Jia's study was like a farmland, divided into plots of land, with antiques in the middle and a small path on the side for people to squeeze in and out.

Anyone who comes in to ask for a calligraphy must be careful when walking on that narrow path.

Otherwise, if you accidentally touch any antiques, you will be in big trouble.

Besides, Jia Pingwa is not afraid that you will take advantage of his favorite things.

Can you believe there is a camera in his study?

It is said that a young man went to Jia Pingwa to ask for calligraphy, and while Jia Pingwa was distracted, he slipped into another study upstairs to tinker with it.

Jia Pingwa told him:
"Young comrade, be careful. I have installed surveillance cameras here, directly connected to the police station!"

In that person's study, antiques are counted by the pile.

It’s really cool to tinker with words in this environment.

Jiang Xian still has to get closer to them.

"Open the door, too open!"

Li Tuo played with Jiang Xian's pair of colorful lion-emblazoned flower jars for a long time and was reluctant to let them go.

"It's from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Drink some water."

Jiang Xian brought Li Tuo a cup of tea.

Li Tuo put the small jar back to its original place, and sat on a pair of huanghuali armchairs with Jiang Xian to talk about business.

"Jiang Xian, didn't you ask me for manuscripts? I have selected a few manuscripts that I feel are particularly good and brought them to you. They are all short stories. Take a look at them." Li Tuo took out a few manuscripts from his bag and stuffed them into Jiang Xian's hands.

Li Tuo is a well-known figure in the cultural circle of Beijing.

All the authors in the capital knew that if they had manuscripts that were difficult to publish, they should send them to Li Tuo, and he would guarantee that they would be published in a journal.

Therefore, the number of manuscripts received by Li Tuo's family every month is even more than that of the editorial departments of some literary journals.

Jiang Xian wants to compile manuscripts, and he definitely cannot miss Li Tuo's place. He will definitely be able to discover manuscripts from many new writers.

He took a sip of water, opened a manuscript handed to him by Li Tuo, and read it quickly.

Li Tuo continued to look around his study.

He stood up and walked around twice, staring at Jiang Xian's wide and long carved desk.

I originally wanted to appreciate the table, but my attention was drawn to the manuscript on the table.

"Commander Jiang, this manuscript is..."

"what?"

Jiang Xian raised his head and followed Li Tuo's gaze. "Oh, it's a manuscript I just wrote recently."

"The manuscript you just wrote?" Li Tuo was surprised and his expression became excited, like a gourmet who came across a rare delicacy.

"Can I see it?"

Jiang Xian smiled and said, "Master Tuo, if you don't mind, you can give me a thumbs up. This novel of mine follows the trend of the recently popular 'avant-garde novels'."

"Avant-garde novel?" Li Tuo was stunned.

Jiang Xian hurriedly explained, "It's the kind of novels like Ma Yuan's previous work LS River Goddess. I call this kind of novel avant-garde novels. This description is of course very general. Novels like stream of consciousness and absurdism, which have Western modernist characteristics, can all be classified as 'avant-garde' in my opinion."

Li Tuo nodded, "Stream of consciousness and absurdism have been very popular in recent years, but they have not yet formed a trend of thought, and no one has attributed this type of novel to this category. There was a term called 'avant-garde' before, but no one has ever formally proposed the term 'avant-garde novel'.

By the way, I have also been paying attention to Ma Yuan's "LS River Goddess" recently. Since his novel was published, many works of this kind have emerged in the literary world like mushrooms after rain. I have a hunch that a new literary trend has taken shape. "

"Take a look at my novel first." Jiang Xian said with a smile.

Li Tuo agreed, sat down in a comfortable position on the chair, picked up Jiang Xian's manuscript titled "Going on a Long Journey at the Age of Eighteen" and began to read:

“The asphalt road was undulating, as if it was attached to the waves. I was like a boat as I walked on this mountain road.

I was eighteen years old that year, and the few yellow whiskers on my chin fluttered in the wind. They were the first batch of whiskers that settled here, so I cherished them especially."

Li Tuo felt that this novel was unusual as soon as he read it.

Different from traditional novels, this novel has a strong sense of absurdity from the very first few sentences.

The story told in this novel is also very simple:
As an eighteen-year-old boy, I listened to my father's encouragement and went on a long journey alone for the first time.

At the beginning, I was full of longing for the unknown world, but I encountered constant setbacks during the journey.

“I” am so relaxed in the face of everything, because “I” always imagine the new things in front of me as some familiar past events in my limited memory.

Even my cleverness allowed me to exchange a cigarette for the joy of a free ride. I was a little complacent and thought going out was a happy thing.

But then things changed. The car broke down, and then a group of passers-by stole the apples from the truck.

"I" tried to stop them and got beaten up. The driver just watched indifferently from the side. In the end, even my red backpack was snatched away by him.

At night, I had to spend the night in an abandoned truck and became the only victim.

End of story.

Li Tuo put down the manuscript in his hand, raised his head, and was in a trance for a while.

He glanced at Jiang Xian who was still reading the manuscript, opened his mouth, but said nothing.

Jiang Xian's novel can be said to be very simply written.

I went out to catch a ride, the car broke down, someone stole the apples from the car, I tried to stop them and got beaten.
The whole novel tells such a simple story.

But this novel is not simple at all.

It's just like when you watch the movie "Let the Bullets Fly".

The story is actually a very simple one, but the slightly exaggerated and absurd plot makes the whole movie profound and incredible.

"finish watching?"

Li Tuo's actions attracted Jiang Xian's attention.

He looked up. "How do you feel?"

"How about it?"

Li Tuo paused, not knowing how to describe it.

To be honest.

He had no idea what Jiang Xian's work was trying to express.

"Incredible."

The critic Li Tuo held it in for a long time, and finally only squeezed out four words.

"Incredible!"

Thinking back on the content of this novel, isn’t it incredible?
The protagonist "I" wanted to take a ride, but almost all the drivers seemed not to see "me" and did not stop to pick me up.

I finally found a driver. He accepted the cigarette I gave him, but when he learned that I wanted to take a ride, he still told me to get out.

After getting on the car, I yelled at the driver, but instead of scolding me, the driver smiled at me and chatted with me enthusiastically.

Halfway through the journey, the car broke down. Instead of getting anxious, the driver stood in the middle of the road and did radio gymnastics.

Some villagers wanted to steal the driver's apples. I told the driver, and the driver was very happy.

After all the apples were snatched away, the driver not only laughed at me, but also snatched my bag.

"How did you think of writing such a novel?" Li Tuo asked puzzledly.

Of course Jiang Xian had already thought of the source of inspiration for the novel:

"Some time ago I saw a news report about a box of apples being robbed during transportation. I thought it was very interesting, so I wrote this novel about it."

“I heard that a box of apples being robbed can be written into a novel?!”

Li Tuo was a little dumbfounded.

How come for Jiang Xian, inspiration comes as easily as eating and drinking?

The news of an apple being stolen is a novel!
It is harder for him to write a novel than to lay an egg.

Even if I travel thousands of miles and see all the mountains and rivers of my motherland, I still can't write an article.

(End of this chapter)