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

Chapter 310 Zhu Lin Collects Taxes
Xu Chi casually found a seat and sat down. Liu Yimin on the podium spotted him immediately and nodded slightly at him.

On the podium, Liu Yimin was lecturing to the class about Ernest Hemingway. The classroom wasn't just filled with second-year students; there were also third-year Chinese literature students and students from other departments who shared a love of literature.

Liu Yimin's class, if not the most popular in the entire department, at least wouldn't be skipped by any student.

"Comrade Hemingway, note that I prefer to call Hemingway comrade, he was an internationalist and an idealist. Even those prejudiced against him must admit that he was a formidable man who always stood on the side of justice."

To understand Hemingway's writing and literary thought, we must first understand him as a person. In the time to come, everyone should collect information and try to learn as much as possible about Comrade Hemingway.

In the next class, I won't be lecturing anymore. I've invited the renowned reportage writer, Comrade Xu Chi, to talk about reportage writing!

Liu Yimin changed the subject, extending his right hand toward Xu Chi's location in an inviting gesture.

Xu Chi was listening to the lecture with his arms crossed when Liu Yimin suddenly pulled this stunt on him. After a brief moment of surprise, he stood up with a smile.

"Hello students, I'm Xu Chi. Let me make this clear first, I was recruited by your Professor Liu, not invited here!"

Liu Yimin said, "Whether they were arrested or invited, they're here now! Classmates, let's give them a round of applause!"

Applause rang out in the classroom for about thirty seconds. Liu Yimin then said, "Those who need to go to the restroom, hurry up! You'll be missing out if you can't hear this!"

After he finished speaking, the student rushed out of the classroom. Liu Yimin walked up to Xu Chi and said with a smile, "Old Xu, when did you arrive in Yanjing? You came to school before even going home?"

"I've been away from Yanjing for so long, I miss my old friends!" Xu Chi held Liu Yimin's hand tightly, his words filled with emotion.

Liu Yimin held Xu Chi's hands and said, "It's been more than a year since we last met after Mr. Mao Dun's memorial service!"

"Yes, in your poem you said that in the past, carriages and horses moved slowly, but now they move quickly, and it's not so easy to meet up!"

"Travel will be even faster in the future!"

After chatting for a while, Xu Chi took out his notebook from his bag and said with a wry smile, "I need to prepare my lesson quickly. You really caught me off guard."

"Just say whatever comes to mind. I'll go to the office and get you a cup of tea!" While Xu Chi was doing his homework, Liu Yimin went to the department office and poured him a cup of tea.

When Professor Wu Zuxiang and several other senior professors heard that Xu Chi was going to give a lecture, they all grabbed their notebooks and got up to join in the fun.

When the students finished class, they called in a few more people, and the classroom was packed with them.

When class time arrived, Xu Chi smiled slightly and wrote a few large characters on the blackboard: "The writing steps and methods of reportage."

"Students and professors, although I have worked in the south for a long time, Yenching University and its classrooms are very familiar to me. I was a student at the old Yenching University in 32. In recent years, I have also often come to Yenching University to visit friends."

But standing on the podium at Yenching University, to be honest, is a challenge for me. Actually, when it comes to writing reportage, you don't need to ask me; your Professor Liu writes very well.

Xu Chi looked at Liu Yimin and said proudly, "However, your Professor Liu learned reportage from me, and now he has surpassed his teacher. I really like reading his 'Chinese Girls,' which describes the resilience and fighting spirit of the women's volleyball team. He also helped the volleyball team build a new venue through donations, which is something I never imagined."

After Xu Chi gave an opening speech, he officially began the lecture. Xu Chi had lectured at universities in Hubei Province before, so this wasn't difficult for him.

The only difference might be that the questions asked by students from Yenching University are more tricky.

After the short lesson ended, the students were still eager for more. Xu Chi had no choice but to stand on the stage and answer a few questions from them.

After answering, one of the students raised his hand and asked, "Professor Xu Chi, have you translated any new works recently?"

"I'm currently translating a biography of Tolstoy, which I estimate will be published next year. Everyone can take a look then!" Xu Chi said with a smile.

"Professor Xu Chi, why is your foreign language proficiency so good?"

Xu Chi smirked and said, "To be honest, I don't know either. When I was in school, I liked to flip through English dictionaries, and I learned it just by flipping through them! Later, I learned French, which was even easier than English. I didn't need to flip through the dictionary much, and I learned it just by doing that."

When Liu Yimin saw Wu Zuxiang and Yan Jiayan beside him and heard Xu Chi's words, the muscles on his face twitched.

The students in the audience let out a scream and lost all interest in asking any more questions.

Liu Yimin secretly gave Comrade Xu a thumbs up, but this was not Xu Chi's intention to say so. His foreign language skills were indeed self-taught; he learned them by looking up words in a dictionary.

After class, Xu Chi went to the department office and greeted several senior professors.

Yan Jiayan invited Xu Chi and Liu Yimin to his office. Yan Jiayan smiled and said to Xu Chi, "Comrade Xu Chi, Yimin, I'm relieved that you two are going to the United States together! After all, you two have experience working together!"

As departure approached, Yan Jiayan gave Liu Yimin a few more instructions. He then produced a certificate for exchanging US dollars, stamped with the official seal of the Ministry of Education. Liu Yimin could simply take this certificate to a bank that could exchange foreign currency.

The limit was only $500, but fortunately the Ministry of Culture also approved a $700 exchange limit for Liu Yimin, and the Ministry of Culture also gave each person an additional $50 as pocket money.

Since it was a group trip, a clothing allowance was essential. It had been three years since Liu Yimin's last trip to France, so he received another 200 yuan clothing allowance.

If it has been a full year since your last trip abroad, you can only receive a clothing allowance of 100 yuan.

After leaving the Chinese Department office, Liu Yimin led Xu Chi to the Overseas Chinese Apartment.

Upon entering the house, Xu Chi smiled and glanced around the Overseas Chinese Apartment, showing no surprise like Cui Daoyi and Li Shu.

"This house is nice, more comfortable than a traditional courtyard house. The housing standard is even higher than my brother-in-law's!"

Xu Chi's family was well-off during his childhood, and he was well-educated. His father, Xu Yibing, was a famous sports educator in modern times. In order to get rid of the label of "sick man of East Asia", he auctioned off the family property and founded a sports school.

He joined the Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Alliance) and, during the Xinhai Revolution, organized students from his school to form a student army to participate in the war. After the war, he continued to focus on physical education, making significant contributions to the development of modern physical education in my country.

姐夫是军人，弟弟是航空专家，曾主持、组织或亲自设计的飞机有歼教-1、初教-6、强-5、歼-6、轰-6、运-7。

They were a family of loyal and virtuous people!
After seeing it so many times, I'm not so surprised anymore!

"Comrade Xu, this is the study. Let me make you a pot of tea!"

"Have a cup of coffee, we're about to arrive in America, let's calm our stomachs first!" Xu Chi sat down at Liu Yimin's desk, glancing at the drafts on it.

"Alright, we just got a new packet of coffee. You're in luck, Lao Xu!"

"Is 'Green Book' going to be written into a screenplay?" Xu Chi asked.

"Yes, Teacher Wan thinks it would be good to write it into a script. He hadn't mentioned it before. I guess it's partly because there's a lack of scripts, and partly because he's seen some scripts that have recently been imported from abroad and thinks that foreign plays can also be loved by the audience."

Liu Yimin placed the brewed coffee on the desk, while he drank tea.

After glancing at it a few times, Xu Chi looked up at Liu Yimin and asked, "You've written more than just this one recently, haven't you?" "You've come at the wrong time. The one I just finished has already been submitted to *People's Literature*!"

Xu Chi asked curiously, "What kind of subject matter?"

“It’s also about this war!” Liu Yimin said.

After taking a sip of his coffee, Xu Chi asked Liu Yimin to explain the details to him.

"It tells the story of five college students on the front lines. These student soldiers were tempered on the battlefield and became true soldiers. Some sacrificed their lives, some were wounded, and some continued to fight on the battlefield, becoming the new generation of backbone of our army!"

"Explain in more detail?"

So Liu Yimin explained it to Xu Chi in detail. After they finished their coffee, Xu Chi said, "I really want to know, how do you come up with so many ideas?"

"I don't know either, I just kept writing and writing with a fountain pen!"

Now it was Xu Chi's turn to twitch his lips. Those words were really rude, but why did they sound so familiar?

"You little rascal, really."

"Haha, Comrade Lao Xu, to be honest, you deserve half the credit for 'Green Book' winning this award. If it weren't for your excellent translation, we wouldn't have such an authentic American novel," Liu Yimin quickly praised.

Upon hearing Liu Yimin's words, Xu Chi sat up straight again, appearing calm and composed.

"Translation is at best the icing on the cake; your writing is still superior, and the translation plays a negligible role!"

At noon, the two of them ate something at the Overseas Chinese Apartment and chatted until after 4 p.m., when Xu Chi had to leave.

"I send you!"

"No need, I'll take the bus back!"

Liu Yimin, holding Xu Chi's hand, said with a smile, "Let's go!"

Xu Chi didn't stand on ceremony and got on Liu Yimin's motorcycle. When they reached the middle of the road, Liu Yimin suddenly asked, "Old Xu, when I got married, I received a strange painting?"

"What painting? Who painted it? Take me to see it!" Xu Chi said immediately.

Liu Yimin quickly said, "Never mind, I'll show you another time!"

Seeing Xu Chi's reaction, Liu Yimin felt that the painting "A Pair of Lovers Under the Mandarin Duck Blanket" was probably not painted by Xu Chi.

Upon arriving at the leader's house in Jiaodaokou, Xu Chi pulled Liu Yimin inside for tea. They did not see the leader, but only Xu Chi's sister, Xu He.

Xu He had the air of a well-bred young lady; judging from her attire, one could tell she was a literate woman.

"Yimin? I often hear Lao Wu mention you. I've seen your play at the General Political Department Drama Troupe; it's really well-written. Xu Chi also frequently mentions you. Come and have some tea!"

"Thank you, I can do it myself!" Liu Yimin said politely.

Xu Chi said, "Sister, Yimin is one of us, no need to be so polite!"

Liu Yimin didn't stay at the Wu family's house for long before leaving. He rode his motorcycle to the Beijing People's Art Theatre, intending to wait for Zhu Lin to leave work together.

Before leaving the country, Li Shu told Liu Yimin the latest sales figures for "Triumph at Midnight," which had reached 4.8 million copies. He estimated that by the time Liu Yimin returned, it would have already surpassed 5 million copies.

“We found another printing factory to print the comic books. The Commercial Press is also printing them, so we need to find another way.”

"It must take a long time to draw the comic book, right?" Liu Yimin asked.

“It will take quite a while, painting one picture at a time, at least one or two months. The people from the Art Association don’t know what some of the specific weapons look like, so they wanted me to come here to get some photos,” Li Shu said.

Comic books are definitely a best-selling category in this era, and children love reading stories in comic books.

It's not just people in this era who like to read comic books; in the 21st century, students also enjoy reading them, but their tastes have changed, and they've switched to things like "Dragon Ball."

After seeing Li Shu off, Liu Yimin carefully looked at the final list of travelers sent by the Ministry of Culture, which included Wang Meng and Zhang Guangnian from the Writers Association.

The delegation was led by Zhang Guangnian of the Writers Association and Wei Junyi of People's Literature Publishing House.

Wei Junyi and Chen Yuan from the publishing industry are in charge of publishing, while Zhang Guangnian and Wang Meng are mainly responsible for exchanges between the literary circles of both sides.

Liu Yimin was responsible for accepting the award, while Xu Chi was mainly responsible for the translation.

That evening, Zhu Lin cooked a sumptuous dinner for Liu Yimin. Zhu's parents had originally planned to invite Liu Yimin and Zhu Lin to their home for dinner, but Zhu Lin declined.

"Teacher Liu, please try this. You won't be able to eat such delicious Chinese food once you go abroad!" Zhu Lin said reluctantly.

"There are Chinese restaurants in America too!"

Zhu Lin retorted, "Then you still won't get to eat what I make. Besides, people who go to America have long forgotten the ways of their ancestors!"

"Yes, yes, Zhu Lin's cooking is the best." Liu Yimin picked up a piece of meat and put it in his mouth, deliberately making a loud chewing sound.

Seeing that she wasn't very interested, he asked again, "Is there anything you want to buy? I'll bring it back for you from America."

Zhu Lin stirred the soup in the bowl a few times, and a smile unconsciously crept onto his lips: "Oh, Teacher Liu, it's good that you're back. Please don't not come back!"

"Look at what you're saying, you're still here, we have to take you away first!"

Zhu Lin was delighted and kept serving food to Liu Yimin, and soon the bowls were piled high.

"There's too much, I can't finish it all!"

"Eat quickly, Teacher Liu, we have a meeting in a bit!" Zhu Lin said, quickly shoveling food into his hands.

After hurriedly finishing her meal, she pushed Liu Yimin to the bathroom to wash up, then pushed him to the bedroom, hooked her arms around Liu Yimin's neck, and pulled him down onto the bed.

"Don't rush, don't rush, what's the topic of today's meeting?" Liu Yimin asked with a smile.

"The topic is tax collection, specifically the collection of taxes for the next month!"

(End of this chapter)