Literary Master 1983

Chapter 390 National Day
The original apology was as follows:

"When I was in Barcelona, ​​I offered Mr. Yu an unreasonably low price for his work. Afterwards, Márquez confronted me about it. After much consideration, I felt that this was inappropriate. In the future, if Mr. Yu has any novels published, he should be paid at least according to the American company's rate... that is, one dollar per word."

"Because this matter has damaged my relationship with Mr. Yu, I hereby publish this statement in the newspaper, hoping that we can reconcile as soon as possible."

The signature is Carmen Balces, and it is in Chinese, English, and Spanish.

Carmen paid a hefty price for the article to be published simultaneously in the Beijing Evening News, Xinmin Evening News (Shanghai), and Southern Weekly (Yangcheng).

From north to south, virtually all of China saw Carmen's apology.

Yu Qie couldn't help but laugh after reading it: This Carmen is quite flexible; she actually managed to pull him back.

From a self-interest perspective, Yu Qie wouldn't completely fall out with Carmen. He needs these people to promote the reputation of Chinese writers overseas.

But I will not bow down to her; Yu Qie's bones will not soften.

Their relationship should have drifted further apart, becoming a mere facade until both found new partners and completely severed ties. However, the appearance of Márquez halted this trend, and out of respect for Márquez, the two sides made contact again.

There wasn't much negotiation this time; Yuche and Carmen shook hands and made peace.

His new novels, "The Road to Dawn" and "The Village Teacher," were published in the Spanish-speaking world through Carmen's company. Yu Qie offered a good price, and Carmen said she would mobilize all the writers under her wing to focus on the issue of "rural education in China" in Yu Qie's novels.

Watson, who has recently been heavily criticized by the American public, will also have writers speaking up for him, so that his situation won't be so embarrassing.

Having learned that "traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture" could treat Alzheimer's disease, Yu Qie met Márquez while he was receiving treatment from a blind master in the alley.

All that could be seen was that Márquez's back was covered with needles, making him look like a hedgehog.

Yu Qie was taken aback: "Gabo, what are you doing? Even the Chinese are still debating whether acupuncture can cure diseases."

Marquez replied, "Why are you in such a hurry? I'm not dead."

Then he added, "I feel warm all over, and these acupuncture needles are more effective than American medicine."

"Don't you feel pain?"

"It doesn't hurt, I don't even feel anything."

Soon, Carmen was moved to acupuncture. Carmen had difficulty walking and suffered from cardiovascular disease. The blind acupuncturist said that acupuncture could also treat hemiplegia, so Carmen lay down and had needles inserted.

The master was probably really blind, because he didn't recognize Yu Qie and instead asked him if he wanted acupuncture.

Yu politely declined.

Marquez laughed and said, "Why do you believe in Western medicine but not traditional Chinese medicine? There are some foreign doctors in the Colombian-Chinese Friendship Association who know acupuncture."

"Then how did Carmen get in touch with him?" Yu Qie asked.

Carmen answered herself, "Because there are acupuncture masters in Barcelona too. I tried it, and it worked very well!"

Good guy!
I believe in Traditional Chinese Medicine less than foreigners do.

In this private setting, Carmen sincerely apologized to Yu Che again: "I apologize for my past rudeness. You and Gabo are the most important people in my life. If he used to occupy 30% of my life, you will occupy 31% from now on. Gabo, do you have any objections?"

“I have no objection,” Márquez said.

The two stayed at Yu Qie's house for one night. Zhang Li asked Carmen for advice on how to run a literary business, as Zhang Li planned to do so in the future. Moreover, many writers, after achieving fame, entrusted their core commercial interests to their family members.

Even Márquez was like that.

Carmen said meaningfully, "The most important thing is trust! Because Yuche does so well in other things, he seems to need no one... so trust is the greatest weapon you have."

Zhang Li seemed to understand, but could only nod.

Chen Xiaoxu bit her lip beside her, thinking to herself: Is this meant to make Zhang Li like that Bazaar, who, even if she has many mistresses outside, still be the woman behind the man?
Zhang Li isn't that kind of person, and I can't let her be!
After daybreak, Yu Qie personally saw Márquez and Bazaar off as they left China.
-
On October 1st, citizens of the capital celebrated National Day.

This year is not a major anniversary like the 5th or 10th of the lunar calendar, so there are no large-scale events. However, people from all walks of life still came to squares and parks early in the morning to celebrate the festival.

In front of government offices, schools, and businesses, there are flower beds with the words "National Day" and "October 1st" and various animal patterns. It is said that a million pots of flowers were used throughout the entire capital city.

Yenching University also held a grand National Day celebration, attracting many international students to go up and speak fluent Chinese.

A female student from Yugoslavia named Sangyang went up and sang a famous Peking Opera excerpt, "Su San Qi Jie," and she did a surprisingly good job! Yu Qie heard a teacher from Yenching University say that this Sangyang was a student at Beijing Language and Culture University and was selected to perform on the Spring Festival Gala because of her fluent Chinese.

She was specially invited to support Yenching University.

After Sang finished singing, she introduced herself, "I am from Yugoslavia. We are a loving country with China..." Yu Qiezhen felt a sense of disorientation. In his previous life, the country of Yugoslavia had disappeared long ago.

I don't know if this guy is Serbian or Armenian.

What happened to Shao Qi, the reporter from Xinhua News Agency, after she arrived in Yugoslavia? Would Yugoslavia, like in history, disintegrate and suffer the same infuriating fate? Because if history had continued in this direction, the Yugoslav embassy in China would eventually have been bombed, and Shao Qi and her colleagues would have perished there.

After the performance, Yu Qie, the newly arrived professor, took the stage to deliver a speech.

He said, "I study for the rise of China!"

This wasn't surprising at this point in time. Thunderous applause erupted from the audience, and the students cheered.

Sang Yang, this female student, was once again chosen as the representative of the international students to present flowers, joining Yu Qie in presenting flowers for the 38th anniversary of the founding of their motherland. Yu Qie asked Sang Yang about the situation in Yugoslavia.
Sang Yang's expression turned grim: "Our economic development is too uneven, and ambitious foreigners are tempting us. But we are becoming better than before."

What's so good about it?

A dying person's last burst of energy before death?
"Sangyang, do you think your country has reached its most dangerous moment?" Yu Qie asked tentatively.

Sang Yang said blankly, "It's not that bad."

"why?"

"Because the Soviet Union still exists, the chaos is only temporary."

Well! It seems the collapse of Big Brother really shocked half the world. Even those who were involved initially thought it was impossible.

On the 2nd, Zhang Li had her prenatal checkup. She was three months pregnant, and this was her first official prenatal checkup during her pregnancy. Early in the morning, Yu Qie drove over.

Peking Union Medical College Hospital processed her medical records and conducted a thorough examination from head to toe. Prenatal checkups at that time were quite simple because many doctors did not know how to interpret ultrasound scans—most of the procedures that are now familiar to later generations were only gradually added in the early 1990s.

However, Peking Union Medical College Hospital was so advanced that Yu Qie experienced the complex prenatal checkup process that wouldn't happen for at least ten years. One of the prenatal checkups was the "Down syndrome screening," which was used to check whether the baby had chromosomal abnormalities or genetic defects... This technology was originally developed in a laboratory in the United States only four years ago.

Because of Watson, Peking Union Medical College Hospital happened to be the first hospital in China to introduce this test.

Dean Gu Fangzhou came specifically to explain to Yu Qie: "This technology is comparable to 'sugar pills'. After large-scale production, the cost is not high, and Chinese children can avoid a potential defect in advance."

"Watson has become the sugar pill grandpa too?"

Gu Fangzhou laughed and said, "Why not? When I was in school, there were always a few people in each grade who got meningitis, polio, or Down syndrome... In another twenty years, this phenomenon will gradually disappear. Watson deserves credit for that."

Gu Fangzhou and Yu Qie reminisced about the "Spring Rain Operation" from back then.

This charitable activity turned the impossible into possible at the time, and the participants received great social acclaim. Gu Fangzhou was promoted to academician as a result, and was elected a foreign academician of the British Academy this year.

“The United Nations has established a Third World Academy of Sciences, and I heard that I also have the opportunity to become an academician. At that time, I was a professor, and you were a student and writer. Now I have been promoted one level, and you have been promoted many levels.”

“When I visited the UK, people there asked me if I had found a good way to quickly build a reputation, and now many celebrities in third world countries are imitating us… In fact, our original intentions were all good.”

Yu Qie was also deeply moved.

Domestically, the "Spring Rain Project" and the "Ice Melting Journey" are among the things he is most proud of in his life. These two things alone are enough to establish his historical status as a writer.

Most people don't read novels extensively throughout their lives. They judge a writer's status not based on their works, but on their social influence.

Gu Fangzhou is 61 years old this year, and according to the current retirement age, he should be preparing to retire.

Yu asked him if he had any regrets.
Gu Fangzhou replied that his regret was that he feared he wouldn't live to see the mid-1990s. This was the time when polio was completely eradicated.

“The United Nations has a ceremony... If a country completely eradicates polio, China will be added to the list. Currently, only some wealthy small Nordic countries are on the list, and we are far from being included.”

As one of the earliest advocates and developers of the sugar pill, Gu Fangzhou hoped he wouldn't miss that moment. He had dedicated half his life to this cause since the 1950s.

Yu Qie felt that this was another kind of "early enlightenment".

It's probably based on this kind of thinking that a villain like Watson is willing to gamble with his own career!
On the other side, on Long Island, New York, lies Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Watson was throwing a tantrum in his office, smashing things everywhere.

His revised edition of The Double Helix was blocked from publication because he had added significant discrimination against Black people, in which he wrote, “I am naturally pessimistic about the future of Africa,” and “All our social policies are based on the assumption that they are as intelligent as we are, when all tests show that this is not the case.”

In response to the questions raised by Black citizens, Watson said, "I wish we were equal, but anyone who has dealt with you for a long time knows that I am telling the truth."

These words were simply too much. Eventually, Americans in the 1980s could no longer tolerate them.

The United States also has a book censorship board, whose members are jointly appointed by the president and the senators. Every year, the board issues a list of banned books.

Watson's "The Double Helix" failed to pass censorship, and the committee even wanted to ban the book.

After extensive investigation, Harper figured out the committee's preferences:
"They don't want you to write too much about how smart Chinese people are."

It turns out that Watson added a lot of his own ideas to "The Double Helix," one of which was an intelligence test of students from a primary school in Beijing. Watson described these students as all more talented than the rich kids at Dalton High School.

This led the judges to suspect that Watson was a communist sympathizer.

It's not terrible for you to discriminate against Black people; many people do it in secret. But you can't praise one while belittling another.

Watson has problematic thinking and a problematic stance.

Harper said, "The Double Helix is ​​recommended reading in many schools across the United States. What would happen if college students saw 'Chinese people have the highest intelligence' appearing openly in their textbooks?"

Watson asked, "So what?"

"That would lead Americans to believe that Chinese people are capable of taking on more important positions, and once these beliefs become a consensus, they will become a reality in the future."

Watson was in a dilemma; he wanted to publish the revised edition of "The Double Helix," but he also wanted to present his research findings in a straightforward manner.

Currently, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has not imposed many restrictions on Watson, but the publishing industry, which is directly involved in the field, can no longer tolerate Watson's provocative behavior.

In October, Yu Qie made a long-distance call to Watson, sharing his new book "The Road to Dawn" and news about Yu's second generation.

Watson expressed his best wishes over the phone: "I believe your child can be as smart as you, I mean, he will at least be a smart person."

Then, something devastating happened: Watson's son, Rufus, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The news spread quickly, plunging Watson into deep anguish.

Furthermore, due to Watson's outrageous remarks, many Black people gloated over his son's illness and publicly mocked him as a sick idiot.

Watson tried to confront the person in person, but ended up having his Motorola phone stolen.

After that, Watson became completely hostile to the Black community. Under the supervision of an authoritative third party, he had his schizophrenic son take an intelligence test. Despite the huge debuff of his illness, his good son still achieved a score of 110, which was higher than most Black people.

Watson thought this would prove him right—that Chinese people are the smartest, white people are smart, and black people are less intelligent.

He even suspected that his son's schizophrenia was due to the low intelligence of Americans, and that if his son had studied at a primary school in Beijing, a place brimming with spiritual energy, his son's schizophrenia would have miraculously improved.

However, this did not happen, and the American media ignored his propaganda.

In the publishing world, Watson was ignored; he lost all speaking invitations, except for the Chinese who continued to persistently invite him to visit. Watson felt a surge of warmth from them.

He said to his assistant, "If China could be as economically developed as Japan, I would throw away this damn American citizenship immediately."

"—Then why don't you go to Japan?"

"Because the Japanese are two points less intelligent than the Chinese, and they don't respect me like they do."

Just when all hope seemed lost, a female writer named Allende published an analysis of "The Road to Dawn" in The New York Times.

(End of this chapter)