Literary Master 1983

Chapter 204 Four People
"Teacher Yu, have I been eliminated?" Yu Hua asked pitifully.

"You were not eliminated, so how could you be eliminated? Also, you are not an editor, just call me Yu Qie." Yu Qie said.

"I am from Haiyan County, but I was born in Hangzhou, which is also my home. Now we are going back to Hangzhou. Doesn't it mean that I have failed and have to go home?"

Yu Qie smiled and said, "We are going to attend a meeting, a meeting that will be mentioned repeatedly in the future... I didn't expect that you are actually from Hangzhou, so you should go there."

So the two of them boarded the train, along with a graduate student named Liu Zhenyun. This time, Wang Meng, the senior leader, was not with them, so they only bought an ordinary hard sleeper.

The train to Hangzhou also takes more than 30 hours and passes through many stations. When passing through Hebei Province, a female passenger named Qu Tiening got on. Qu Tiening was an editor in the editorial department of the Hebei Provincial publication "Huashan" and had been a female educated youth for several years.

Qu Tiening is a few years older than Yu Qie and Yu Hua, and about the same age as Liu Zhenyun. She is a well-known beauty in the writer circle, with dimples on her face when she smiles, and is very sweet. Now she is 27 years old, which was definitely a "big girl" at that time.

All four of them were invited to attend the Hangzhou Conference, so they bought tickets for the same train. Qu Tianing even managed to change to the carriage where Yu Qie and the other two were. Instead of discussing literature, the four writers actually discussed love—it was Qu Tianing's suggestion.

Liu Zhenyun was the first to speak: "My partner and I met on the train. After talking, we found out that we were from the same place, and we were both from Yanda University. That's how we started dating, and it hasn't changed until now."

Yu Qie went on to say: "My girlfriend and I 'knew' each other a long time ago, and we met again when we grew up."

Yu Hua said: "My girlfriend is very famous in the local area. She is a secretary in the cultural center. Many people pursue her, but she just likes me."

Qu Tiening was the last one to speak, and she was particularly disappointed: "You guys are so lucky, it seems like the targets are sent to you. I haven't waited for that person yet...Among the four of us, I happen to be the oldest!"

Everyone tried to comfort her, saying that according to Qu Tianning's conditions, she would definitely be able to find someone quickly, as she had a hukou in Beijing and was an editor of a provincial magazine. But Qu Tianning said, "It's better to be alone than to be with someone who is not good enough."

This answer stunned the men in the car, and they didn't say a word for a long time.

You are already twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, and you still prefer to be single rather than to be with something less than perfect!

In order to make Qu Tiening happier, Yu Hua took the initiative to reveal her own shortcomings: "My girlfriend and I are about to break up. She can't write a single novel because I insisted on writing one."

As a result, Qu Tianing didn't care why he broke up, but wondered why Yu Hua couldn't write a novel?

Why can’t I write it?

Yu Hua actually knew it in his heart.

This is because his appreciation level increased dramatically in a short period of time, but his writing level did not improve significantly, so he was always unable to accept what he had written, and eventually he could not write a single word!
Yu Qi advised him: "When you get to Hangzhou, find a way to meet your girlfriend and keep her stable, and then come to the meeting."

Yu Hua immediately said, "Then I'll get off directly at my house? Is that okay?"

"Sure, why not!"

It seems that his heart has already flown to his girlfriend. After two months of writing at Yenching, Yu Hua's determination is not as firm as he appears.

The train passes through beautiful places, especially when it passes through the Central Plains Province. It was evening, and Yu Qie came out alone with a board, writing a novel. The afterglow of the sunset sprinkled on the yellow wheat fields of early winter, stretching as far as the eye could see. Sometimes all you could hear was the clanging of the rails and the rustling sound of Yu Qie's writing.

To Yu Hua, this rustling sound was the same as the crying of babies he heard in the Maternal and Child Health Hospital when he was a child. It represented the birth of a new life, and Yu Hua felt like he was still the child back then. Yu Hua couldn't help asking Yu Qie, "What are you writing?"

"A military novel." Yu Qie said.

"Can I see it?"

"Why not?"

Yu Qie made some space for Yu Hua to bend down and read the novel he wrote. He saw a scene written on it:
[April 4, on the east side of a high ground in Laoshan.

Zhang Xingwu's first aid kit had just burst into blood on his comrade's broken arm when a faint groan came from the shell crater three meters away. He rolled into the crater and found a young soldier from the first battalion using a steel helmet to plug the bloody hole in his abdomen - it was a wound opened by the Vietnamese 60mm cannon, and his intestines were exposed mixed with mud.

[“Wake up! Look at my red cross armband!” Zhang Xingwu tore off his vest and twisted it into a rope to tie the artery, then poured the last half bottle of emergency water into the man’s mouth. He murmured in his heart, “I saved another person. I can still hold on!”

[There is one more, and one more...]

It’s really a military novel!
By the way, Yu Qie is a great military novelist! "Letter from the Fiancée" and "Kiss of Death" are his works!
Yu Hua's actions attracted the attention of others, and everyone came to read the novel written by Yu Qie.

This part of the novel is not well written, but Yu Qie introduced that the person "Zhang Xingwu" has a real prototype. He crossed the line of fire dozens of times without carrying a single gun or cannon, but a large number of tourniquets and first aid kits, and rescued 47 comrades.

It turned out that Yu Qie was actually writing a war documentary novel, but he did more than that. He wrote the ins and outs of the war clearly, but focused on one person, "Zhang Xingwu", and linked him together with more than 40 other people to make it a group drama.

Ultimately, he wanted to create an iron-clad spearhead force in which everyone is part of him and everyone is part of him.

This is not a model opera, nor is it pure personal heroism, but a group of ordinary people who form the Great Wall.

The writers were immediately moved: this kind of novel is a huge work, and I wonder how much effort it must have taken!

Yu Qie told Yu Hua: "It's nothing that you haven't written a satisfactory novel in two months! Think about it, I've been writing for half a year! Liu Jiaju, the editor of Military Literature and Art, sent me many letters urging me to submit my manuscripts, and I could only tell him that my ability was limited and I couldn't finish the manuscript yet."

But can it be the same?

What most people mean by being unable to write is nothing more than a short story or a novella, but this is a huge work involving dozens of people. It usually takes several years for any writer to write such a novel.

How long did it take García Márquez to write One Hundred Years of Solitude? He conceived it for more than ten years, and actually took two years to write it!
Qu Tiening said immediately: "I didn't expect that you were writing a novel while writing those novels... This is beyond my imagination, Yu Qie, you are the most unrestrained and omnipotent writer I have ever seen in real life!"

"You are wrong!" Yu Qie refused to accept Qu Tianing's praise and said, "Some literary theorists have criticized me, saying that I can only write novels with the help of great figures or great events." He held up the manuscript in his hand and said, "There are no great figures in this novel, but there are also great events of war."

Qu Tiening said: "No one is perfect. How can there be a writer who can write about everything? Even great writers have things they are not good at!"

Yu Qi did not explain any more, but lowered his head and continued writing his novel.

Everything you said is right!
(End of this chapter)