Writer 1978: I Need to Give the Literary World a Lesson

Chapter 14 The ancestral grave is on fire
Liu Fuqing hurriedly held the letter up in the air to read it, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper. In his early years, he had secretly studied at the Han family's private school for a while, and later, when the army led them to suppress bandits, he had also studied in the army's literacy class, so he could recognize a few characters.

He understood every word on it, especially the last part, "Received by Liu Yimin." He scratched his head vigorously and looked at Li Lanyong: "What exactly is going on?"

“Uncle, you’re asking me? I’m the same way! Yimin is really tight-lipped; he hasn’t told anyone. Now that I think about it, he must have sent the article out to the commune during the wheat harvest.”

Li Lanyong took the water bottle from someone else and gulped down several mouthfuls. He wiped the water from the corner of his mouth with his arm and said with a smile.

"Captain, Lan Yong, what does 'writer' mean?"

The three teams had surrounded the two people tightly, and they were all talking at once, discussing what a writer was.
“A writer is someone who writes things, and what they write is published in magazines, newspapers, and textbooks. Maybe in the future, Yimin’s books will be printed in textbooks for children to study.”

Liu Fuqing tugged at Li Lanyong and said, "Don't be so sure of yourself. If it turns out to be wrong, it will be incredibly embarrassing."

Nevertheless, Liu Fuqing's mouth was practically stretched to the sky in a wide grin.

“I always said my Yimin is promising. Even if he can’t be a teacher, he can do something else,” Yang Xiuyun said proudly, taking the envelope from Liu Fuqing’s hand and turning it over and over to look at it.

She couldn't read, but she just thought the envelope was pretty.

"The team leader's second son is doing well. I'll have to teach my son to study hard and learn from Yimin when I get home," a commune member said enviously.

The word "writer" shocked everyone in Team Three. They might not have figured out what "writer" actually meant, but they were familiar with the newspapers and textbooks that Li Lanyong mentioned.

As for magazines, I don't know. The brigade headquarters has newspapers, but we haven't subscribed to any magazines.

Everyone realized that the team leader's second son was about to soar to great heights. He would no longer be the soon-to-be-unemployed brigade teacher, nor the young man who worked alongside them, harvesting wheat and picking corn.

It's absolutely shocking that a writer, this foreign thing, can grow on a land where people rely on the weather for their livelihood!

"Captain, could you open the letter and let us see what's inside?"

“No, this has to be demolished by Yimin. If Yimin doesn’t demolish it, no one can see it,” Liu Fuqing quickly said.

Then he sat down on the edge of the field and happily started smoking his pipe, grinning foolishly as he did so. His gaze fell on a few mounds on the distant mountain ridge, behind which grew three trees that stood out conspicuously on the bare mountain ridge.

"Hey, Captain, what are you looking at?"

"The captain is looking at our Liu family's ancestral graves. Our Liu family's ancestral graves are emitting auspicious smoke!" said a member of the Liu clan.

"Let me see, it really is, it's emitting blue smoke, and it's rising really high," one of the members joked.

Liu Fuqing took a satisfying puff of his cigarette without saying a word, thinking to himself, "This is more than just wisps of smoke; it's like my family's ancestral graves are on fire!"

Soon, the news traveled up the mountain ridge and through Li Lanyong's mouth to the second team. The people in the second team were shocked and put down their hoes, wanting to come to the third team to see what was going on. However, Li Dashan scolded them all away. After scolding the other members, he dragged Li Lanyong and ran towards the third team, wanting to see what a writer was like.

On the way here, Li Dashan asked Li Youtian, the director of the poverty alleviation committee, "Youtian, is becoming a writer in line with the policies from above?"

“It fits, how could it not? The status of writers is not what it used to be. I heard that writers can even get paid!” Li Youtian said excitedly, dragging the heel of his shoe that he could never lift.

"That's good. Old Liu can finally breathe a sigh of relief. You don't know, I've always felt bad for Old Liu about the decision to close our village middle school. Yimin, that kid, I've watched him grow up since he was little. He's not like us country folk, all soft and weak. He's just perfect for this kind of work."

Li Dashan talked as he ran, while Li Lanyong, having run several laps, couldn't keep up and was left far behind by the two, only laughing incessantly from behind.

Good bro, your day has finally come!

The first team was working on the hillside when they heard the cheers from the second and third teams. Everyone strained their ears, feeling like they were being scratched by a cat.

Left with no other choice, Han Shaomin, the captain of Team One, threw down his hoe and ran towards Team Three to find out what had happened.

What he feared most was that the commune would issue some new directive criticizing the Han family and others with "bad class backgrounds." Although such incidents had become rare in the past two years, the memory of those times still filled him with lingering fear.

If we had known what was going to happen, we could have dealt with it sooner.

A letter passed from one person to another, the red seal on it almost illegible from sweat and dirt on their hands. Each time the letter returned to Yang Xiuyun, she would carefully wipe it clean.

Amidst the heavy farm work, besides the evening chores, this was the only thing that could bring joy to the entire production team. Although everyone's clothes were patched in different sizes and locations, and their faces were dirty, they all wore happy smiles.

"When it comes to culture, it has to be our Team Three!"

Li Dashan checked the time, waved his hands at the crowd, and said, "Although it's still early, it's a good day for our Maiji Brigade. So, I order the entire production brigade to finish work early, go home and tidy up properly, and then go to the threshing ground to watch a movie tonight."

"Let me tell you, today's movies are 'Mine Warfare' and 'Chaoyang Ditch,' both great films and shows. Make sure you're all dressed up properly, don't go to the movies looking disheveled and embarrass our Maiji Brigade."

Although it was only Maiji Brigade showing the movie, people from neighboring brigades and even the commune would come to watch. Watching a movie was a rare treat for rural people, and with nothing else to do in the evenings, they were happy to join in the fun, even if it meant trekking over several mountain ridges.

Liu Yimin was riding his bicycle, huffing and puffing, towards the production brigade. He was unaware that the letter the editorial department had sent him had already spread throughout the entire production brigade.

He had to stop frequently to wipe his sweat; the entire route was uphill, and he often had to push the bike after riding for a while. The roadside was bare, with very few trees. There used to be trees, but they had all been cut down recently.

As Liu Yimin reached the entrance of the village, he saw a large group of people standing there. Li Dashan told them to go back and pack up, but most of them followed Liu Fuqing to the village entrance to wait for Liu Yimin.

Li Lanyong, sitting on the locust tree at the village entrance, was the first to spot Liu Yimin. He shouted from the tree, "Look, look! Yimin's back! Yimin's back!"

(End of this chapter)