Literary Master 1983

Chapter 9: College Entrance Examination 1977 published

"An extremely arduous journey to take the exam, a moving song of youth." This is how the local publication "Youth Literature" described "College Entrance Examination 1977".

"YNU student devotes all his energy to writing, the first one since the resumption of the college entrance examination."

Chongqing Daily used this title to describe Yu Qie's works and deeds.

The local authorities focused on the three generations of loyalty and bravery of the Yu family, reporting in detail the blood this family had shed for the Republic. They also talked about how after Yu Qie left Sichuan and headed north, he would inevitably inherit this fine family tradition, "The green mountains remain unchanged our love for the Three Gorges, and our strong desire to serve the country."

Setting up examples is a common tactic used by the media. This tactic is still useful after forty years. Although it sometimes fails, it remains relevant and effective.

"Sichuan Literature" is the most important local literary journal, and it also plans to reprint "College Entrance Examination 1977". Now that the college entrance examination has just ended, we cannot miss the college entrance examination effect.

How is Yu Qie's novel writing? Is he a potential writer? He still needs more works to support his reputation, but Yu Qie is definitely a top writer.

This is the real deal. He wouldn't have copied the symbol "∑" as "".

"Sichuan Literature" is a monthly magazine. The earliest you can see Yu Qie's masterpiece "College Entrance Examination 1977" is October, which is definitely earlier than "Red Rock".

Why did it become like this? It was me first, it was obviously me first!
Editor-in-Chief Huang of Red Rock magazine fell into depression.

In fact, he originally wanted to play a treasure appraisal game of "real or fake", because he was unwilling to believe that the "movie star" in front of him was the mature writer who wrote "A Moment of Romance".

But all these doubts stopped the moment they saw the "city's top scholar". Instead, they accelerated and developed into a firm belief in Yu Qie.

Because Huang Xingbang shared the common superstitions of people of that time, he believed too much in the power of man to conquer nature and in the fall of the Purple Star from the sky.

In the early 1980s, many people had a "child prodigy" complex. With the liberation of thought brought about by opening up, the attention paid to personal talents and abilities increased, and reports on various kinds of talented teenagers and child prodigies gradually increased. During this period, a phenomenon called "genius fever" or "child prodigy fever" was born.

On the one hand, there are constant reports about "genius", and the media frequently report and hype them. Through the public's superstition about traditional paper media, they have turned into worship and belief in "genius".

On the other hand, the education system also supports this phenomenon. Some universities have begun to set up gifted classes and prodigy classes to admit particularly talented teenagers. This program has a far-reaching impact. Even Yanda University, where Yu Qie is studying, has set up a gifted class.

Huang Xingbang believes that Yu Qie has some extraordinary intellectual strengths, and that Yu Qie is one of the many geniuses of this era who have been able to flourish after opening their minds.

According to the report in Wanxian Daily, it's not just Yu Qie, his entire family seems to be a high-IQ family with genetic mutations - just like some super families that have lasted for hundreds of years and produced talents in science, engineering, art, and politics.

If Yu Qie announced that he had qigong and quantum speed reading, there would definitely be people who would be willing to believe it.

Venerable Sir, please enlighten me!

As for Yu Qi’s new article "College Entrance Examination 1977", it is a novel between a novella and a short story, and its style is completely different from "A Moment of Romance".

If the latter is as humorous and witty as Ma Shi Tu, and speaks in plain language, the former shows the typical characteristics of educated youth literature - describing the life of educated youth and expressing ideal feelings.

The completely different writing style made Huang Xingbang realize that Yu Qie was indeed a genius.

This article "College Entrance Examination 1977" is also well written and can be published together with "A Moment of Romance".

Although there has never been an example of two novels being published in the same issue of "Red Rock" since its resumption of publication, Yu Qie can make an exception.

For two consecutive days, Huang Xingbang went to Yu Qie's dormitory to look for him, but each time he learned that Yu Qie was not in the dormitory, but was working on a project at the provincial library. What was he working on?

According to Yu Qie's roommate Alai, he is writing a novel about the Vietnam War, using the fate of a squad to draw public attention to the soldiers on the front line.

The scene is so beautiful that it is beyond imagination.

Teacher Yu has a great character!

Editor-in-Chief Huang said it was inconvenient to disturb him.

So, Editor-in-Chief Huang always wandered around Yu Qie's dormitory. He wandered.

The seminar lasted for a week, and on the weekend of the first week, Huang Xingbang finally saw Yu Qie in the daytime.

Because today we have invited several soldiers who were on rest after fighting in the Forgiveness Mountain area. They are soldiers who are here specifically to provide real materials for your literary creation.

Huang Xingbang found that Yu Qie was like a war correspondent. He took out the settings of his own work and asked these front-line "consultants" about every detail.

It was as if he wanted to turn his novel into a true story.

"I set the soldier I want to save to be the son of a high-ranking official. Is this possible?"

The soldiers said simply, "It's entirely possible."

"I've read the article 'The Wreath Under the Mountain'. I've also heard that once you go to the front, there are a lot of requests to have your children removed from the frontline combat units. All kinds of monsters and demons come out... But I wrote about a brave son. Is that possible?"

The soldiers replied: "There are cowards, but there are also brave ones. Some have submitted reports to be transferred to become motor soldiers, and of course there are those who dare to charge... Of course, we will still try our best to take care of them on the battlefield, but this care is very limited... You are comrades engaged in literary creation, and I can understand your creation."

Yu Qie asked again: "There are letters asking for a breakup or even a divorce. Can such things appear on the front line? Will it affect combat effectiveness?"

"It was possible at first, but then too many people asked to sever ties, so it was no longer possible. But everyone still had a way to read the letters, because they had to be opened for inspection. Sometimes the monitor would start swearing before the person had even read them... Later we read them one by one in front of everyone, and we were all used to it."

Yu Qie nodded. He had already briefly introduced the setting of his story, and now he had one last question.

"Is there anything wrong with my story?"

"Yes. You said there are eight people here, a sniper, a demolition technician, a mine clearer, a machine gun carrier, a communications technician, and a submachine gun carrier... This is impossible. We don't fight like that at all. We don't sneak in to destroy the defense line. That's what the other side does. We kill the enemy with artillery, a lot of artillery! We use artillery to plow the ground first, and then charge forward."

The soldiers also said, "If you write it truthfully, it won't happen."

"Then the story will be completely invalid, and it can't be changed like that." Yu Qie laughed. "Even if some characters are deleted, there must be a step of going deep behind enemy lines. There is a type of movie called road movie in Hollywood, and there is a character called the messenger. In my opinion, this novel is essentially the same approach."

"Although it sounds like nonfiction, it is, after all, a novel."

As for the cotangent, there is some methodological aspect in the creative thinking.

(End of this chapter)