Literary Master 1983

Chapter 76: Will and Letter (Part )

At night, the men slept together in the big bunk bed in the army tent. Yu Qie and Feng Gong had the upper and lower bunks. They were all awake, reading the letters sent from the front line by the light of the lamp.

I had read these letters in "Military Literature and Art" before, but they were printed in Chinese characters. Now seeing the handwritten ones, the feeling in my heart is completely different.

Feng Gong suddenly lowered his voice:

"Co-cut? Co-cut?"

"What's the matter."

"I'm going to tell you a secret, but don't tell anyone."

"Then keep your voice down a bit."

"The soldiers we are visiting are the first to rush forward. I'm afraid that many of those who took photos with us today may not be around after this month."

"Old Feng, your voice is too soft. I can't hear you clearly."

"Right—" Zhu Shimao said, "I can't hear you either. I'm telling you what you want everyone to hear."

"I agree!" Li Shuangjiang patted the bed. "No one is asleep, so let's just speak frankly."

What the hell, they’re all awake and not saying a word?
Feng Gong had no choice but to tell the story again.

Zhu Shimao said, "Of course. They provided good food and drink, invited people to perform, and finally asked them to put their minds at ease and fight! Have you written a suicide note? I know they all wrote a suicide note."

Feng Gong said: "I wrote it, I am more dangerous."

Zhu Shimao stepped forward and asked, "How many days do you want to perform?"

"I applied to perform for six or seven days. I will travel to several front-line positions and perform stand-up comedy for people everywhere."

"You're awesome!" Zhu Shimao was convinced. "No wonder you wrote a suicide note - the telescopes across the street can see us, who wouldn't be scared? The safest people among us are the female comrades in the song and dance troupe. They will leave tomorrow. The next safest are us men. We may have to perform a few more shows, go to Mount Faka, go to the cooking camp... I also wrote a suicide note."

"What about the rest of you?"

Yu Qie was only busy reading the letter and did not reply to Comrade Xu Lingjun. As far as Yu Qie knew, there had never been any fatal accidents in the years-long consolation performances, and the troops must have put them in a relatively safe place.

Feng Gong was dressed so flashily, but nothing happened to him, right?

The soldiers who wrote the letters were indeed facing the most difficult environment. Yu Qie's heart was already fully focused on creation.

Seeing that no one responded to his conversation, Zhu Shimao didn't know what was going on, so he started chatting with Li Shuangjiang. The two of them discussed how to write a suicide note, and they chatted enthusiastically until late at night.

In fact, everyone was so excited and nervous that they couldn't sleep.

Feng Gong lay on the edge of the bed and wrote another letter, also a suicide note. There was only one sentence on it: "My wife, no matter what I encounter, I will always love you." He handed it to Yu Qie.

"What are you doing for me? Lao Feng, your suicide love letter is so badly written that I can't even finish reading it."

"I'm afraid I'll be glorious, so you'll help me pass the letter to my wife. Also, I'm not a writer."

"Didn't you write it?"

"I'm afraid that my body will be gone and no one will find my letter. Please bring one for me. This way, there is a greater chance that she will see it."

Zhu Shimao and Li Shuangjiang stopped talking and just listened quietly. Everyone had their own reasons for coming here, and they couldn't accept that they would die just like that.

It turned out that Gu Yue was not asleep either. He sighed and said, "Li Shuangjiang, sing a song for everyone."

"Listen to the Chairman! What song should we sing?"

"As you wish."

Li Shuangjiang said, "All reactionaries are paper tigers! Then I will sing "Remembering Comrades-in-Arms"."

"My lovely hometown is at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains. When I left it, it was like the Hami melon had its vine broken..."

"Oh, dear comrade, I can no longer see your majestic figure and kind face. Oh, dear comrade, you can no longer listen to me playing the piano and singing..."

Li Shuangjiang's voice is indeed a gift from her ancestors. Her breath control at the beginning is very good, her middle notes are clear and penetrating, and at the end, she sounds like crying and complaining, without any feeling of hoarseness, and it is full of storytelling.

Everyone listened, thinking about their own things and looking at the ceiling.

Gu Yue said, "Let's go to sleep, let's all go to sleep." Everyone finally stopped talking. But lying on the bed, they still didn't stop thinking.

----

The lights on the actress's side were also on and she hadn't slept at all.

They have to put on makeup and get up at four or five o'clock the next day or even earlier.

"Gong Xue? Are you still reading that comic book?" Yu Shuqing asked. "The author is right next to you, why don't you talk to him?"

Gong Xue said: "'The Letter from My Fiancée' is a good novel and a good comic book, but the author is not a rule-abiding one."

"Ah?" Yu Shuqing was shocked. "What do you mean by unruly? Did he take advantage of you?"

"He played a trick on me!"

"It's not his fault. No one would have thought that Mr. Yu Qie would be so young. He looks like a little soldier. Didn't you send him a letter? He even wrote back to you!"

"You can't tell him!" Gong Xue said helplessly, "I read his articles and thought he was a mature and steady old writer. I said a lot of things in the letter that can't be heard by others..." The more she thought about it, the more depressed she became, "It's so infuriating."

"Are you interested in him?" Yu Shuqing asked.

"Don't talk nonsense!" Gong Xue was under Yu Shuqing's bed. She kicked the bed board above to express her dissatisfaction.

Yu Shuqing was quite happy: "It's OK if you don't like it. I like it very much. She's young and well-educated."

"Is Yu Qie younger than you?! Yu Shuqing..."

"What's wrong with being young?" Yu Shuqing said, "Whether a person is mature or not is not determined by his age. Yu Qie was able to write such an article, so he must have known it in his heart. Otherwise, how could he write it and make others believe it?"

Gong Xue agreed with the first part of the statement, but disagreed with the second part.

She thinks that what Yu Qie writes is too profound, and he may not be able to do it himself. Gong Xue was born in an artistic family and has been interested in writing, painting, literature and other things since she was a child. This is something that flows in her blood.

She had met too many young literary people and knew that some of them were particularly good at art because of their talents and had extremely strong emotions - if you only read their works.

But that’s not the case.

However, Yu Shuqing said: "In fact, Yu Qie doesn't care whether you like him or not. Once the show is over, it will be difficult for us to meet again."

Yes, how can we meet again?
Idiots bother themselves.

If someone is good at writing novels, does that mean he must be a mature person?

Gong Xue read the letters written to her by the soldiers one by one. The words were very simple, and there were also love letters among them. Gong Xue could empathize with them, but they did not move her.

It was quite late when Gong Xue murmured again, "I know why I am bothered by him."

"Why--" Yu Shuqing was not asleep yet, but she was sleepy, and her voice sounded like a tape recorder set to the slowest setting.

"Because I'm afraid of him..."

"Afraid!" Yu Shuqing was visibly nervous, "What are you afraid of?"

"I am afraid of people whose writing is very beautiful. They can make you intoxicated, but they do not feel that their writing is beautiful. They just use these words to play with you, and they can do so at any time. You can never get rid of them..."

"——Have you read his novel carefully? There are so many beautiful descriptions and unforgettable words..."

"I used to write to him, and he casually replied me with many things that I will never forget, such as 'In the past, transportation was slow, letters were far away, and a lifetime was only enough to love one person'... What beautiful words, what a beautiful story."

Yu Shuqing was dumbfounded and didn't know how to comment. After a while, she said, "Gong Xue, why don't you read more of his novels?"

"why?"

"I think you kind of like him... at least the one who writes novels. This is a bit dangerous. Your will to fight is too weak, and you have already given up your position... If Yu Qie speaks fluently and all of them are the words you like, and he is also that kind of person, then this will be a spiritual atomic bomb for you, and you won't be able to bear it."

"You, you start talking nonsense again!"

　Feng Gong's wife pretended to be sick in order to get him to care about her.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)