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

Chapter 81 Saihanba in the Snowstorm

The state-run bathhouse in Haidian was much better than the large pool at the Writers' Association guesthouse; it was similar to a typical bathhouse in later times. After soaking, you could even get a massage. After the massage, you could lie outside and relax comfortably for a while, with melon seeds and tea provided.

If officials or other people from out of town couldn't find a guesthouse, spending the night in a public bathhouse was a good option. However, tickets weren't cheap, costing two mao (0.2 yuan) each, which was enough for about one meal per person.

"That feels good, Comrade Klifu, you really know how to enjoy yourself!" Li Congren felt completely refreshed after his first bath.

Klif lay on the bed, a white towel draped over him, and said with half-closed eyes, "How about I invite you over once a week from now on?"

"Hmm?" Liu Yimin laughed, "Isn't that inappropriate?"

“Professor Deng said that when Chinese people say this, it means it’s very good!” Li Congren interjected.

After resting for a while, the three of them began to ask Liu Yimin some questions. Considering that they had been taking a bath, Comrade Liu Yimin naturally answered all their questions without reservation.

This issue of *People's Literature and Art* has become a huge hit, making other magazines drool with envy. Especially Zhou Yanru from *Yanjing Literature and Art*, who was filled with regret the day she missed publishing the article about Lao Xue and Xiao Ba in *People's Literature and Art*.

"De Ning, we were so stupid, really. All we knew was to wait for the rabbit to run into the tree stump. If we had chased after Liu Yimin that day, we might have been able to catch up with him."

"We haven't received a reply to our last letter requesting an article. Shall we go again?" Zhang Dening asked tentatively.

"I have to go! I refuse to believe it!"

Before the people of the capital even saw the first snowfall, blizzards had been raging for several days to their north.

Looking down from the sky, everything was white. Amidst the heavy snow, a few lonely wooden houses stood out out of place. The houses were mostly buried in snow, with only a little snow at the doorways. This was the path that the people inside had cleared that morning, and it had been almost completely covered by snow in just half a day.

White smoke billowed from the chimney on the roof. Inside, a group of people, wrapped in blankets, sat around the telephone receiver, their faces chapped from the cold, yet all wore smiles.

They made a makeshift megaphone next to the phone.

This is the Saihanba Forest Farm, originally the Mulan Hunting Ground of the Qing Dynasty, a royal hunting ground. After the late Qing Dynasty, the hunting grounds were opened for cultivation, and coupled with war, it gradually became desertified. In order to resist the southward encroachment of the Hunshandake Desert, the state established the forest farm in 62.

127 college and vocational school graduates and 242 workers from all over the country began the miracle of afforestation.

Like Lao Xue, the dozen or so people in the house were specifically responsible for afforestation work in this area, including students and elderly workers.

There were no telephones here before, but after the accident on the mountain, the forest farm went to great lengths to install telephone lines.

After winter sets in, it becomes very difficult for people to come up from below, and supplies can only be replenished when the snow lightens. It starts snowing as early as October here, and the winter is long and harsh, with an average snow cover period of up to seven months a year. The only vegetables available are potatoes, and even if cabbages are brought in, they freeze into rotten water very quickly.

Today, the forest farm called and said they wanted to read them a novel. The protagonist was also involved in desertification control. A group of people excitedly sat around the phone and listened to the person below read it.

They'd been up in the mountains for so long that they'd be overjoyed every time news came from down below. In winter, even food couldn't be delivered, let alone newspapers and magazines.

Hearing that the people at the forest farm below still thought of them after seeing the magazine, they joked that the forest farm had at least not forgotten them.

"Old Xue has a dog with him when he's fighting desertification, and we have one too. Xiao Anzi, come here." The worker excitedly pointed to Xiao Anzi lying under the wooden bed when he heard that Old Xue had a dog.

Xiao Anzi's name means "peace and safety".

“We’re better off than Lao Xue. There are more than a dozen of us, while Lao Xue started out all alone and had no one to talk to.”

"That's it!"

This group of people could empathize most with Lao Xue's situation, but their sense of identification was relatively low at first because they were indeed fighting against the harshness of nature.

It's like telling someone who's freezing and starving that another person is pitiful—you haven't even taken care of yourself, how can you think of others? But when they heard that the dog had dug Lao Xue out of the yellow sand, the group of girls couldn't remain calm and started wiping away tears.

In the end, after Xiao Ba guarded Lao Xue's grave day and night and died saving the young students, even the grown man couldn't hold back anymore.

"Comrades, the Party and the people remember your struggles. Since the establishment of Saihanba, we have successfully resisted the encroachment of the yellow sand and even planted a forest. As long as we persevere, victory is just around the corner. The people of the capital are suffering from the ravages of the yellow sand, and the whole country is watching us. Through this novel, they know that we are working hard."

In a few days, some colleagues from a newspaper will come from Yanjing to interview you all. Once the weather clears up, we'll go up the mountain together. Let us know if you need anything, and we'll do our best to get it to you.

"It's not just about trying your best, it's a must!"

"Comrades, did you hear that? The factory director said it's a must!"

"Factory manager, there's nothing to bring. Just send up the letters and magazines that have been collected down the mountain."

After hanging up the phone, the group of people silently walked to the window of the wooden cabin. To protect against the wind and snow, the window had been sealed tightly with the door, so they couldn't see anything outside.

"Come on, comrades, let's open the door, clear a path, and go out to enjoy the snow scenery of Saihanba! We've been here for years and haven't had a proper chance to see snow!"

"Good!" A group of people worked hard to clear a path through the snow, stood in the snowdrift, looked at Saihanba, at the newly planted forest, and at the pine tree in the distance that everyone in the Saihanba Forest Farm called the hope.

"We're not going to be buried here too, are we?" Someone's words silenced everyone present.

After a long pause, another girl suggested, "Let's call the people down the mountain and ask them to write a letter to Comrade Liu Yimin for us!"

"it is good!"

On December 5th, Liu Yimin tidied himself up early, got a haircut, and thoroughly applied face cream. He looked in the mirror and nodded in satisfaction. However, looking at his hair, he secretly lamented that he didn't have any Stamcon hair oil.

Liu Yimin was getting dressed, while the people next to him made strange noises from time to time.

"Yimin, anyone who didn't know better would think you were going to see a leader in the ministry!" Li Xueqin said sourly.

Liu Yimin straightened his collar and said with a smile, "There will definitely be a lot of girls at the girls' dormitory dance. I'm representing the image of Yanda University, so I have to dress up properly."

"You're full of fallacies!"

“Yes, you think Yimin dressed up for himself? He dressed up for our school, for us!” Liu Zhenyun said, leaning closer.

"Correct!"

"Can you take me with you?"

"I'm leaving, I'm not talking to you guys anymore!"

"It doesn't start until 6 PM, Yimin, why did you leave so early?"

"I'll go to the Poetry Journal for a while; it's getting late and cold."

After the dormitory door slammed shut, someone spat out a "pui!" The three of them exchanged glances and then listlessly flipped through their lecture notes.

The current National Academy of Medical Sciences is located in what is now Peking Union Medical College Hospital, next to Tiananmen Square and very close to the editorial office of the Poetry Journal. It's just a few minutes' ride from there by bicycle.

I had dinner at the Writers' Association canteen in the evening, chatted with Lao Ma, and then went to the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. I managed to do everything without missing a beat!

(End of this chapter)