Literary Master 1983

Chapter 89: Yu Qie in Their Eyes Across the Country (Part )
But his daughter said that the fruit of the Bodhi tree is not Bodhi seeds.

Ma Shi Tu had no choice but to pick the leaves of the Bodhi tree. Qian Zhongshu had a cat at home, and it was said that cats liked the smell of Bodhi trees.

My daughter also said that Bodhi leaves are poisonous and cats will die if they lick too many of them.

Damn it! Can't I just play with these literary and elegant metaphors?
Ma Shi Tu simply stopped talking about those flowery things at the end of the letter and came clean: "Yu Qie is my disciple, so don't get involved with me."

-----

More than 500 kilometers away from Ma Shi Tu, in Wanxian prison, Mou Qizhong, the former richest man in Wanxian, is serving his sentence.

Thanks to someone's help, Lao Mou's life behind bars was pretty good, but Mou was unwilling to accept such a huge gap and tried to commit suicide several times, but failed.

He fell into depression, and he fantasized that he had extraordinary talent, which he would be able to display once he was released from prison. The whole world was persecuting him because they were afraid of him... Many people thought that "Mou Qizhong has gone crazy!"

He received a reply from Yu Qie last year. After reading it carefully, Lao Mou did not completely believe Master Yu. Although he did not know what a "washroom" was, after looking up the dictionary, he knew that it was something like a toilet.

Letters in prison would be checked, and Yu Qie's reply was among them. The prison guards told Mou Qizhong: the letter was nonsense, and they gave it to him only because it was harmless and did not involve any profit transactions.

This young man must be talking nonsense, he is just joking.

What does it mean to walk four steps backwards and chant "Fu Sheng Xuan Huang Xian Zun"? This kind of performance art is as absurd as Mou Qizhong's "Where is China Going", but only people who are absurd enough will believe absurd statements.

Every night and morning, Mou Qizhong would squat in the toilet of the cell, with his back to the cell and take four steps back. When he found that the distance between the cells was not enough for him to take four steps, he changed to three steps.

It was impossible to chant "Fu Sheng Xuan Huang Tian Zun" either. What he chanted was "Even a pig can fly if it stands on the wind!"

Why did he read this sentence? Because he bought it from Yu Qie for fifty yuan.

If these words really have some magical power, they already belong to him.

"Even pigs can fly" became Mou Qizhong's belief. He originally thought he would spend his whole life in prison, or even commit suicide. But since Mr. Qiao went south this year, the situation has improved, and people have been sending him messages:
A leader is watching you. The nature of your case (speculation and profiteering) is changing, and you may be released at any time.

Master Yu also said that as long as we wait patiently and pray more, things will miraculously get better.

On April 4, Mou Qizhong attended activities as usual. In the afternoon, he read the newspaper and saw the latest news. In Wanxian dialect, he felt that the world was going crazy!

A frail young writer from Yenching University, while collecting folk songs on the border, killed an enemy agent in the enemy's position. This writer was his partner, Yu Qie, for whom he had paid 50 yuan in copyright fees.

Mou Qizhong immediately went crazy: "I knew he had martial arts skills and could tell people's fortunes!"

"This Vietnamese man was killed by him using his Qigong just because he didn't respect him."

"The Vietnamese would not have died if it happened earlier or later, but Yu Qie had predicted that they would die sooner or later."

Mou Qizhong's shouting attracted the attention of the prison guard: "This Yu Qie, is he the person you wrote to before?"

"it's him!"

"Mou Qizhong, Yu Qie has been reported all over the country, he is a great writer, don't make up some nonsense to flatter yourself, why would he write to you? This Yu Qie is not that Yu Qie." "Yu Qie is a writer from Yanda University, the 'Yu Qie' who sent me the letter is also the address of Yanda University, there are no two Yu Qies in Yanda University."

The prison guards found all of Mou Qizhong's letters to check, and found that this was indeed the case.

This small place was in an uproar because of this incident. Everyone came to seek Mou Qizhong's opinion and wanted to ask him what kind of person the "Yu Qie" in the newspaper was.

Mou Qizhong said: "I want to see more works by Teacher Yu."

The prison obtained for him all the novels that Yu Che had published, including the first edition of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" published this year. The beginning of this edition describes in detail the role Yu Che played in introducing Latin American literature.

Mou Zhexi naturally couldn't understand those literary theories, and he didn't have the patience to finish reading "One Hundred Years of Solitude".

But he finished reading the weird parts of "One Hundred Years of Solitude", especially the part where the author Marquez wrote that the male protagonist worked hard to decipher the parchment scroll, and then read the ending in which he died.

This made Mou Qizhong realize that if a writer can make predictions, he can also change them. If you are a person in the book, as long as you never read the book, don't pursue the truth and decipher the parchment, and don't realize that you are living in the "world of the book", won't you be safe?

Why do we need to find out whether it is true or not?

If a writer says that pigs can fly in the sky, you should believe whatever he says. Isn't it true that pigs can fly in the sky?
Yu Qie said that he could leave here as soon as possible, and Mou Qizhong chose to believe it.

Once he is truly free, he will look upon Yu Qie as he would upon his Creator.

-----

On April 4, Liu Xinwu was also at the editorial office of People's Literature in Beijing, opening the latest issue of Daily.

The headline on the front page was the news that the President of the United States was here, and both sides expressed their sincere blessings to their people. China played the role of a good host and treated them with the highest standards, arranging everything from food, drinks and entertainment.

Although there had been disagreements between the two countries in the past, aren't they now as close as if they were wearing one pair of pants?

After reading this, he suddenly remembered that Yu Qie had previously written a novel reflecting the experiences of international students, which was complete nonsense.

I've caught the target again! Damn it, you are destroying the relationship between the two peoples!
Liu Xinwu immediately found a young writer and asked him to write a criticism of Yu Qie, and then he himself, as the editor-in-chief, approved it, but the manuscript was rejected directly.

It's strange! This is the first time I've met a novelist who refuses to be edited.

"Why don't you want to write?"

"Teacher Liu, I don't dare to write a critical article about Yu Qie. He is too wild."

"Is it that scary? It's really scary. We live in a society ruled by law. Can we still shoot you?"

Who would have thought that after saying this, the young writer's face turned pale:
"He will shoot me. He will beat the enemy's brains out... Editor-in-Chief Liu, have you not read the news on page two of Renren Daily today?"

(End of this chapter)