1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 565 No Longer a Child

Li Mingshuo didn't notice Xu Yang coming in; he was completely absorbed in the world of "The Little Prince."

The novel doesn't rush to tell any adventures or stories. Jiang Xian is like an old man with a white beard, in the quiet of the night, lighting an oil lamp and speaking softly to the children who have gathered around him:

"Alright, children, listen to me."

Jiang Xian was afraid that the children wouldn't be able to keep up, so each chapter only covered one very simple thing.

He started by talking about the "baobab tree".

Li Mingshuo had never heard of this tree species. Based on Jiang Xian's nonsensical style in this novel, he needed to verify whether the "baobab tree" actually existed.

But Jiang Xian said that on the Little Prince's planet, there is a terrible seed, which is the seed of the baobab tree.

This tree species has become an invasive species in the soil of his planet.

If you discover this sapling too late, you'll be powerless to stop it, because it will keep growing, and since the Little Prince's planet is so small, when there are many baobab trees, their roots will penetrate the tiny planet.

So after the Little Prince finished washing up in the morning, he began to groom the planet, carefully identifying and removing the baobab seedlings.

Baobab seedlings look very similar to rose seedlings, so once you find one, you must pull it out.

This is a tedious task, but it's also easy to do.

The Little Prince also gave an example of a planet where a lazy man carelessly pulled up three baobab saplings.

I drew this scene because the Little Prince said, "This will let the children in your area know about this, and it will be helpful for them if they travel someday."

Besides the story of the baobab tree, the Little Prince also often had some poetic and picturesque conversations with "me".

In the novel, "I" directly addresses the Little Prince as "you," and these dialogues between "I" and "you" are simple yet directly touch Li Mingshuo's soul:

"I love sunsets, let's go watch them together!"

But we have to wait.

"What are you waiting for?"

"Wait for the sun to set."

You looked surprised, then laughed, "I was so silly, I kept thinking I was at home!"

Indeed, on that tiny planet, my little prince only needs to move his chair a few times to see the sunset anytime.
"One day, I watched the sunset forty-three times."

After a moment of silence, you said, "You know, when someone is sad and upset, they like to watch the sunset."

"Are you particularly sad?" I said, "because you watched the sunset so many times in one day."

My little prince did not speak.

"."

These innocent and carefree conversations made Li Mingshuo's heart tremble.

Is this really a message for children?

It contains very simple content and very simple language, yet it can be listened to as a vivid and interesting story, while behind the story lies a thought-provoking meaning.

The rest of the story maintains this style.

Jiang Xian first talked about the Little Prince's rose.

The Little Prince said, "I didn't understand anything at the time! I really shouldn't have left her. I shouldn't have just listened to what she said, but also watched what she did."

She exudes fragrance and brings sunshine into my life.

I should have realized the tenderness behind all her little tricks long ago.

But how stupid I was back then, all I remembered were those words about tiger claws.

Flowers are always so hypocritical.

Unfortunately, I was too young then and didn't know how to love her.

Li Mingshuo was no longer able to describe how shocked he was.

Of course he could understand the deeper meaning behind the roses.

Jiang Xian used such concise words and such a simple story about roses to write a complete love story.

Li Mingshuo recalled that he had also liked a girl during his time as a sent-down youth. As a young man, he was ignorant and clumsy, and could only like someone based on instinct and impulse, wishing he could give his whole heart and soul.

But later, his unreserved love was soon scarred.

Isn't this exactly the "rose" that Jiang Xian wrote about?
When the Little Prince left planet B612, he said to the flowers:
"Goodbye."

But the flowers did not answer him.

"Goodbye," he said again.

Hua'er coughed for a while, but it wasn't because of a cold.

She finally said to him, "I was so stupid just now. Please forgive me. I hope you can be happy."

He was surprised that the flower didn't complain to him at all. He stood there, holding the cover, at a loss. He didn't understand why she was so gentle and serene.

“Indeed, I love you,” the flower said to him, “but because of my mistake, you haven’t paid any attention to me. It doesn’t matter at all. However, you are just as foolish as I am. I hope you will be happy in the future. Put the cover aside, I don’t need it anymore.”

"What if the wind comes?"

"My cold isn't that bad; the cool night breeze is actually good for me. I am a flower."

"What if there are insects or wild animals?"

"If I want to get to know butterflies, I can't do without a couple of inchworms. They're said to be very beautiful. Otherwise, who would come to see me? You'd have to go far away. As for large animals, I'm not afraid of them; I have claws."

So, she innocently revealed her four thorns, and then said:
"Stop dawdling. It's so annoying! Since you've decided to leave, then hurry up and go!"

She was afraid the little prince would see her crying.

She is a very proud flower.
After leaving his own planet, the Little Prince visited a total of seven planets.

He visited a planet inhabited by only one person, who called himself king.

The king was contradictory and arrogant. At first, he boasted that all matters on the planet obeyed his orders, but when the little prince asked to see a sunset, he said that authority is based on reason.

Finally, the little prince, feeling lost, wanted to leave, but the prince used his authority to coerce and entice him.

Yes, they talk about democracy on the one hand, but on the other hand they are assertive, stubborn, and arrogant.

The second planet is inhabited by a vain person.

He wanted others to praise him as the most handsome, most modern, richest, and most learned person on the planet.

Whether this is true or not, he only enjoys the pleasure in the bubble of false praise.

The third planet was inhabited by a drunkard.

"Why do you drink?" the little prince asked. "To forget," the drunkard replied.

The little prince felt a pang of pity for the drunkard. He asked, "Forgotten what?"

The drunkard lowered his head and confessed, "To forget my shame."

"What are you ashamed of?" The little prince really wanted to help him.

"I'm ashamed of my drinking," the drunkard said, and then fell silent.
In short, this alcoholic was trapped in a vicious cycle of drinking, feeling ashamed, feeling ashamed, and then drinking again.

"These are just too many drunkards," Li Mingshuo remarked.

The alcoholics he had met were the same; because they drank all day, they hated their own decadence, and the feelings of hatred and sadness would arise, so they would continue to drink, creating a vicious cycle. Just as Jiang Xian wrote, he summarized the image of the alcoholic very well.

The fourth planet is inhabited by a merchant who only knows how to count stars and buy stars.

This is someone who only thinks about possessing but doesn't want to give.

The merchant believed that whoever discovered the island first would own it, and since he was the first to discover the stars, the stars also belonged to him. Therefore, he counted the stars day and night, eventually reaching more than 500 million.

When the Little Prince asked the merchant, "If I had a scarf, I could use it to protect my neck and take it with me; if I had a flower, I could pick it and take it with me. But you can't pick these stars!"

The merchant responded that he could deposit the money in the bank, so he wrote down the number of stars on a small piece of paper and locked it in a drawer.

"This metaphor"

Li Mingshuo immediately thought of those leaders who only wanted the horse to run but didn't feed it, and also of the "gold diggers" in Hong Kong that he had seen in the newspapers some time ago. These women only demanded money and luxury goods from men and leeched off them.

"Human greed is endless," Li Mingshuo couldn't help but sigh.

Finally, the Little Prince said:
“I possess the flowers and water them every day. I possess the three volcanoes and clear them every week. I possess them and it benefits them. But the merchant possesses the stars and it does them no good.”

"Well written." Upon reading this, Li Mingshuo couldn't help but applaud Jiang Xian. "Incisive and insightful, it truly mocks adult society from a child's perspective."

Recently, there have been voices saying that with the rapid economic growth, many workers feel that their work is getting harder and harder, with more and more overtime, while their social status and income are getting lower and lower, even lower than those of self-employed individuals.

Li Mingshuo felt that Jiang Xian was probably satirizing this phenomenon.

On the fifth planet the Little Prince visited, there lived a lamplighter who only knew how to work hard and never looked up to see where he was going.

The lamplighters were required to turn the lights on and off every day due to the system, but the planet's rotation was getting faster and faster, shortening the time between night and day. As a result, the lamplighters gradually lost their rest time.

"This person lacked the ability to think and cope with changes in the rules of planetary rotation, so in the end he exhausted himself to the point where he had no time to rest," Li Mingshuo summarized simply.

If it were an ordinary writer, they might have ended the story here.

But the author of "The Little Prince" is Jiang Xian.

So after the Little Prince left the planet, he didn't exclaim, "These adults are so strange!" as he had before.

Instead, it means:
“This person will certainly be looked down upon by others, such as kings, vain people, drunkards, and merchants.”

"But he alone does not make me feel ridiculous or laughable."

"This may be because he is concerned about other things, not himself."

He sighed regretfully and said to himself:
"This was originally the only person I could have become friends with. But his planet is just too small; it can't house two people."

Jiang Xian said that what the Little Prince did not have the courage to admit was that he was attached to this admirable star because there were 1,440 sunsets there every 24 hours!

"Enjoy it." Li Mingshuo felt that reading this novel had made his soul clearer.

On the sixth planet the Little Prince visited, lived a geographer who never left his home.

Ironically, the most important thing for a geographer is to go out and investigate geographical phenomena, not to stay indoors, yet he chose to work in isolation.

The geographer told the Little Prince that he should go to Earth, a famous planet.

So the Little Prince arrived at the seventh planet, Earth.

Earth is no ordinary planet!

Jiang Xian introduced in an exaggerated tone that there are 111 kings on Earth (of course, the black king was not omitted), 7,000 geographers, 900,000 industrialists, 7.5 million alcoholics, and 311 million vain people, which means there are about 2 billion adults.

To give you a sense of the size of the Earth, I want to tell you that before the invention of electricity, on the six continents, maintaining a real army of 462,511 people was necessary to power streetlights. From a distance, it gave a magnificent and awe-inspiring impression.

The army's movements were as methodical as the movements of a ballet dancer in an opera house.

The first to appear were lamplighters from New Zealand and Australia.

They lit the lights and then went to sleep.

Then it was the turn of the lamplighters from China and Siberia to take the stage.

Then they also hid behind the curtain.

So it was Russia and India's turn to be the lamplighters again.

Then there are Africa and Europe.

Next are South America, and then North America.

They never get their order of appearance wrong.

That's amazing.

There is only one street lamp in the Arctic and only one in the Antarctic.

The only one who lives a leisurely and lazy life is the lamplighter in the Arctic and his Antarctic counterpart: they only work twice a year.

"."

amazing!
There are two types of children's literature: one is written for adults, and the other is written for children.

In Li Mingshuo's view, "The Little Prince" can definitely appeal to two groups.

First, he assured that children would love to read it because the story is vivid, innocent, and romantic, and the novel is accompanied by more than sixty illustrations, making it a very enjoyable read.

As for adults, Li Mingshuo felt that the novel's profound core would surely captivate every adult who picked it up. At least he was deeply drawn in and read it from beginning to end, and was moved to tears several times by the simple yet profound words.

"Old Li, how is it?" Xu Yang asked hurriedly when he saw Li Mingshuo raise his head.

Li Mingshuo closed the book and pondered for a long time. Leaving "The Little Prince" behind, he returned to the real world feeling alienated and weary of his surroundings. It took him some time to adjust before he spoke, his voice slightly choked:

"Excellent! Tens of thousands of words, explaining the philosophy of life quite clearly!"
This is probably the best children's literature I've read in the last five years—no, ten! It's the best I've read in the last decade!

"Is it really that good?" Xu Yang asked incredulously.

Li Mingshuo suddenly opened his mouth but didn't speak, as if he was stuck there.

Because he suddenly remembered a sentence.

In his dedication, Jiang Xian said that he wanted to dedicate this novel to his daughter, hoping that she would not forget that she was a child at heart.

Why her from the future?
Because when you truly understand this novel, you are no longer a child.

(End of this chapter)