Literary Master 1983

Chapter 216 Like a God (Part )
Many old friends appear on this list.

Qu Tianing had an article titled "Topics of June" selected. Since Qu Tianing had liked Yu Qie's posts many times, Yu Qi also wrote a commentary article for Qu Tianing under the pseudonym "Yu Shi".

Shi Tiesheng also had one of his articles, "Grandma's Stars," selected, and Yu Qie also wrote a review.

He does this during the day, writing reviews, like a novel blogger in the 1980s, commenting on other people's works and attracting traffic. Then at night he watches TV with Zhang Li and Chen Xiaoxu. Zhang Li is always in the middle, while the taller Chen Xiaoxu is next to her, and the much taller Yu Qie is at the farthest point.

"How much money did you make today?" Chen Xiaoxu asked.

"One, ten, a hundred..." Yu Qie counted on his fingers, and then said, "It's less than a hundred, just a few dozen yuan! The maximum price for a commentary article is two or three yuan per thousand words. There is a limit."

"Only a few dozen dollars?!"

Chen Xiaoxu was so surprised that he almost stood up!
My salary is only a few dozen yuan.

"Yu Qie, how much more money do you want to earn?" Chen Xiaoxu said.

She said this not only because her values ​​were impacted, but also because Zhang Li sometimes felt distressed that Yu Qi made too much money, and even planned to quit the film industry and do business.

Isn’t it true that money is enough to spend at a certain point in time?

Yu Qie said, "It's not enough. Even tens or hundreds of dollars are not enough."

"So how much do you want?"

"This time it will cost millions, tens of millions!"

Chen Xiaoxu thought Yu Qie was going crazy and glanced at him: What can you do! Millions?
Do you think you are God?

The East German TV series "The Youth of Karl Marx" was broadcast on TV. This was a TV series produced by the Soviet Union. This was the first time in decades that a Soviet TV series was introduced to China. Before that, people born in the 1960s had never seen Soviet TV series.

Zhang Li was puzzled: "Why haven't I seen any East German films? Or even Soviet ones!"

Yu Qie told her: "Because since you can remember, the Soviet Union has become Suzhou embroidery, and the film can no longer be introduced."

After listening to this, Chen Xiaoxu suddenly sighed: "What kind of relationship in the world can last? Between countries, between brothers, between friends... nothing is permanent."

"Yes." Yu Qie affirmed, "This is how it is in the adult world. We grow up, and then we miss the past, and among all the people we have lost, we miss ourselves the most."

Chen Xiaoxu and Zhang Li both remembered this sentence. They both felt that Yu Qie was more "mature" and "worldly" than them. Zhang Li thought this was called a sense of security, while Chen Xiaoxu thought that this kind of maturity was a manifestation of worldliness.

Yes, Yu Qie may be a worldly and indifferent person.

He had everything at such a young age. Naturally, everyone would think that Yu Qie was ignorant of the sufferings of the people and that he always pushed himself towards bigger things. This was not because he was good at creating big events, but because he could only write about big events!
Yu Qie is like Edward Rochester in "Jane Eyre", who has wealth and a strong physique. He is very manly, but he always keeps people at a distance with his smile. He secretly feels that he is superior to everyone else and everyone has to obey his orders.

If you reject that olive branch, you become a potential enemy, or at least you already have that fear.

This makes a lot of people unhappy, writers are arrogant.

Just like why Chen Jiangong felt that the Hangzhou Conference could not be nonsense?
It's like a failed novelist: Why can you take first and second place? The rules have changed for you, and you are the precedent.

Why you?

Why can't it be me?
Although there was nothing wrong with Edward himself, the erudition and wealth he inadvertently revealed already made people feel heartbroken. Chen Xiaoxu thought that Zhang Li had done nothing wrong, but gradually revolved around Yu Qie.

Is this good or bad?
Of course it's a bad thing! We should turn her over!
Chen Xiaoxu and Zhang Li took a train to Ancheng together. On the train, a salesman was selling magazines. There happened to be a copy of "October" which contained Yu Qie's new novel: "Little Shoes".

They took out money to buy it, and then read the whole story. When they saw the little boy Ali crying because he won the long-distance running championship but missed the "little shoes", they also burst into tears.

In this story, the little boy's sister got a rare disease called polio. For children in this remote area, this disease is incomprehensible. The little boy Ali only knows that one day in the future his sister will no longer be able to walk, jump, and do everything she could do.

This makes the little boy's taking of his sister's shoes a race with time to catch up. He not only has to race against the other people in the field, but also against the time left for his sister by the disease.

He must return a new pair of shoes to his sister as soon as possible!
Many men have had this experience, they work hard for something that they know is impossible to achieve as an adult, but when they were still boys, they felt that they could do it!

polio!
Chen Xiaoxu remembered this strange name in her heart. She put down the book and stroked the two big characters "Yu Qie" on the cover of this issue with her fingers. She couldn't calm down for a long time.

It turns out that Yu Qie has such a meticulous side! How could he write such words? !
Look at it!
In order to get new shoes, brother Ali ran so much that his old shoes were worn out. In the end, little Ali's feet were soaked in the water, and a group of fish swam over to kiss his feet... Chen Xiaoxu's tears were sore again.

Although Chen Xiaoxu is a woman, she also had a similar experience. When she was a child, she failed the examination and could not be selected into the ballet company. But she was too young at that time, and she didn't know that this was a probability of "0". She thought that as long as she worked harder, there would be a turnaround.

Therefore, Chen Xiaoxu was particularly moved by this article, which reminded her of herself who was once powerless.

But who hasn’t felt helpless at times?
Zhang Li also cried bitterly.

Chen Xiaoxu asked her: "Zhang Li, why are you crying so hard?"

Zhang Li said: "I am not crying for myself, I am crying for Yu Che! Yu Che must have written this novel because of his experience of repeating his grade for two years! He has been very successful in writing novels. At most, he was suppressed by the editor of People's Literature, which was another setback."

"Yu Qie has also experienced setbacks?" Chen Xiaoxu suddenly became curious.

"Yu Qie is not an emperor, so how could he not have setbacks? Even if he is an emperor, there are still many things that go wrong." Zhang Li said. Indeed, the reason why the article "Little Shoes" can be passed down is that it uses the simplest linear narrative structure, but presents the most innocent and childish emotions to readers.

It is also related to the economic development of the society at that time. Forty years later, many people would be confused about how "a pair of shoes" could cause a movie plot. But it is not surprising today. Except for a few developed areas, the reality faced by the vast rural areas is that they cannot buy "sports shoes".

These special-purpose shoes, like the vaccine developed for polio patients, are useful but too "expensive".

It slightly exceeds the level of economic development, but does not seem out of reach. This is the beauty of the novel. The pair of small shoes becomes a combination of the moon and sixpence, which is both a dream and life.

The popularity of "Little Shoes" after its publication is unimaginable. In the past, Yu Qie's novels all had a specific audience, either soldiers, students, or overseas Chinese... Only this novel can be read by children of seven or eight years old, and even by people of ninety years old.

It was like throwing a ball of fire into a cotton field. Zhang Shouren described it as "the novel first spread from students and staff dormitories to workers' families, friends and their comrades! Then it swept across the country like a whirlwind. I have never seen a novel spread so quickly and so widely!"

"I met many people who wanted to know what polio was. Before that, I knew nothing about this disease. However, because so many people asked me, they came back to tell me. I became an expert on this disease, as if I had had it!"

After the Hangzhou Conference, many writers wrote good works, which led to a fierce competition among major literary magazines and novels in the first two months of 85. However, as soon as "Little Shoes" came out, it was undisputedly ranked first among all novels.

Feng Mu, the editor-in-chief of the Literary Gazette, who previously criticized Yu Qie for only writing about big things and not small things, wrote a special review for "Little Shoes": "I said before that Yu Qie couldn't write about the daily necessities of life, and then he wrote about a pair of shoes! These shoes made my comments seem ridiculous, but this is a lucky ridiculousness, and it is worth it!"

"I often say that the most powerful things are simple. Wang Meng agrees with me and says that the same is true for music. This may seem a bit general, but if you read Yu Qie's novel "Little Shoes", you will understand what I mean."

"It's like the porridge your mother made. You never thought it was good. Then you were my age, your parents were gone, and you had eaten everything. One day you went to a restaurant and had this bowl of porridge. With tears in your eyes and mixed feelings, you looked for the chef. The person who cooked the porridge in the kitchen came out. He was Yu Qie. In addition to paying, you also wanted to thank him!"

The trend triggered by "Little Shoes" is spreading rapidly. It forms a literary "hot air" to counteract the real cold air from north to south. In the cold New Year of 1985, many people felt warmer in their hearts after reading it.

This will be an unforgettable New Year!

Alai, who was far away in Aba, went to work at the literary magazine "Caodi" in Aba as usual. There were no celebrities in this magazine. The most famous person at present was Alai himself, who was a friend of Yu Qie and was invited to attend the Hangzhou meeting.

After returning from Hangzhou, Alai was always asked about the scenery of West Lake and the style of writers from all over the country... But Alai always said, I have never been to those places!
"So what did you do?"

"I bought three sugar pills for Ba Lao's granddaughter."

"Alai, you have told me this many times, but it is impossible! People from our area are born poor. The mountains separate us from the civilized world. In our world, there is King Gesar and Bimo... Men gather together to worship superstition, drink and eat meat. We don't even have toilets. Many of us can't speak Chinese! We have never been to school for a day! We grow potatoes because our poor soil can only support potatoes. We raise local black pigs because there are no conditions for large-scale breeding of British pigs here... When I talk to you, you and I are the most educated people here, just because I can read, and this is not an exaggeration."

“So, how far are we from a vaccine?”

"The government doesn't even know how many children I have. We live in such a remote area that many people don't know about the policy of planned childbearing. I tell you, I want to have not one, two, three, or four, but five, six, seven, or eight. If someone unfortunately dies, it means that the gods have taken him away. I can only pray like this..."

Alai was a very contradictory person. He knew science and even later engaged in science fiction, but he also believed in traditional folk customs.

So it is not surprising that he angrily said, "King Gesar is the one who can give us a vaccine!"

Alai's colleague laughed and said, "Alai, you are such a fool! You are crazy!"

Under such circumstances, the postman from the town rode his bicycle to drop off a copy of October at the door of the Grassland magazine office. This is how many city-level and county-level magazines learned about the national literary trends.

Each of the above articles can be eye-opening!

Suddenly, someone said in surprise: "Alai! Your friend Yu Qie has written a novel. Please read it first."

Alai didn't even bother to say thank you and immediately opened the novel: "Little Shoes"!
This is exactly the novel that opens the October issue! The two words "Yu Qie" have a kind of magic power, becoming a golden sign that keeps readers reading.

During the two years that Alai was in Aba, he did not know many domestic writers and literary schools, and he was not interested in the Hangzhou Conference at all. But he knew "Yu Qie" clearly, not only him, but also his colleagues in the editorial department of "Caodi", and even the Aba cowherd who fell into the river and eventually died!
They all know Yu Che, and they all read the stories written by Yu Che!

When I saw the introduction at the beginning that Ali's sister fell into the water and suffered from a strange disease that "would make her unable to walk in the future", Alai's breathing suddenly became rapid. King Gesar had already swung his sword, and his pen was his sword.

As the storyline continued to develop, Alai flipped through the magazine in a messy manner, and he was completely immersed in it. Alai's eyes moved quickly, and his mood became heavier.

When Ale saw his sister walking lazily because her shoes were too big, he couldn't help laughing; when he saw his brother Ali running desperately, Ale frowned; when he saw the bloody soles of the feet soaking in the goldfish bowl, with the fish coming to kiss the injured feet, and the little boy looking sadly at himself for not being the champion prize of the "new shoes"... Ale finally couldn't help crying!

I am that little boy!
Who is not Ali? Who is not a little boy?

We all have things that we couldn’t have when we were young!
The reality facing Aba even exceeds the poor family described in "Little Shoes". In Aba, people don't even know what "sneakers" are. In this situation, Yu Qie wants to try to popularize the disease of "polio" to readers and guide everyone to pay attention to it!

What a great endeavor this is!
Even if we can’t raise enough donations, this article alone is enough!

Alai stood up, and the scene that Yu Qie promised him turned into a halo and flashed in his mind again. He waved the magazine and said, "I saw a real King Gesar! He used his pen as a knife. The evil in front of him was the unhappiness of the world, and he tried hard to cut it off! He is about to do it!"

Colleagues were already used to Alai's craziness when he talked about Yu Qie, so after hearing this, they all came to read the novel.

As a result, the colleague who had previously criticized Alai as a "fool" suddenly fell silent after reading the story, and then reached out to Alai and shook his hand:
"Alai, judging only by your friend's attempts at literature, I think he is as great as King Gesar!"

The October issue had a great start. Reports requesting the reprint of novels appeared in the editorial office every day, and letters from readers were stuffed into the mailbox like snowflakes. After only one week, the entire staff of the magazine could not reply to them all!

"Little Shoes" quickly became a designated reading material for teenagers! Parents of primary and secondary schools nearby spontaneously recommended the novel to their children. After reading the novel, almost all the children were moved and asked their elders: What kind of disease is polio?
Ali is so nice, and his sister is so pitiful!
Can we help him?

(End of this chapter)