Writer 1979: Writing for the People

November 15, 1979!

"Old Xu, do you want a wife? Just say the word, and I'll bring her over in a bit!"

"What a joke! I've even brought the proof!"

"Alright, you two can just live your lives peacefully!"

……

As the excruciating pain in his head gradually subsided, everything before him began to clear: the mud walls blackened by the kerosene lamp, the portrait of a great man hanging in the center, the compacted yellow earth, and a girl sitting on the earthen bed…

girl?

Xu Lu was startled. Upon closer inspection, he saw that there really was a girl sitting there!

She was sitting upright with her head down, and she was stealing glances at him. Their eyes met, and she quickly lowered her head again!

So... what I just heard wasn't a hallucination?

Did Zhang Dameng really find him a wife?

As a transmigrator, Xu Lu had already gained some understanding of the original owner's current situation after receiving the original owner's memories.

The original owner was also named Xu Lu. He was exactly thirty years old this year. His parents passed away when he was 16. He finished middle school with the help of relief. Then, he was assigned by the neighborhood committee to go to Zhangjia Village in Anyan City, Shaanxi Province.

This has been going on for more than a decade!

In the past two years, the "sent-down youth returning to their hometowns" movement has been making a great deal of noise. The original owner of this body did think about going back, but there were many difficulties. There were only a few common routes!

Substitute job?

His parents had both passed away, and there were no jobs available in the city, so he was asked to fill in for them.

college entrance examination?

Even putting aside whether he can pass the exam, at the age of thirty, he doesn't even qualify to register.

As for relying on his own efforts to return to the city and find a receiving unit?

There are so many unemployed youths in the city right now, who would be so bored as to give them a job?

This won't work, that won't work...

In the end, he helplessly discovered that he might really have to stay in this Zhangjia Village for the rest of his life!

Zhang Dameng, the production team leader, was a friend he met here. A couple of days ago, after learning that Xu Lu probably wouldn't be able to go back, he started thinking about helping him find a wife.

He's only five years older than her, and his eldest daughter is already 14!

Being unmarried at thirty is considered a "veteran bachelor" in this day and age.

That day, I happened to meet a 19-year-old girl who had fled famine from Sichuan Province. She was pretty and had a good personality.

  

In no time at all, the kid got the job done!

And so, Xu Lu, who had just transmigrated, ended up with a cheap wife.

An awkward atmosphere filled the cave dwelling, which remained silent for a long time. Finally, Xu Lu spoke first, breaking the silence.

"Have some water first!"

"Thanks."

The girl spoke softly, took the enamel cup, and took a sip. This was the first time Xu Lu had seen her in her entirety.

Zhang Dameng wasn't lying to him; the girl was indeed beautiful, with clean and bright eyes, a healthy blush on her cheeks, and a bright yet slightly timid and soft gaze.

He looked a little tired, probably because he had been traveling a lot lately.

"My name is Xu Lu. I'm here as part of the rural work assignment program. What's your name? Where are you from?"

"My name is Li Xiuzhi, and I'm from Jiangyou, Sichuan Province!"

She speaks with a slight accent, but it's not hard to understand.

Who else is in your family?

Xu Lu wanted to find out what was going on and see if he could give her some money so she could go home.

What happened today is even more outrageous than an arranged marriage!

"My father passed away last year from illness, leaving only my mother and me at home..."

"And what about your mother?"

Xu Lu continued to press, thinking there was hope, but who would have thought that the next second Li Xiuzhi's tears would burst forth.

"They got separated on the way to escape the famine, and we can't find them..."

Then she lowered her head and began to sob.

Xu Lu fell silent. This was indeed quite tragic!

Seeing that she was upset, he didn't know what to say, and he didn't want to do anything else.

Although the marriage certificate was still on the table, very conspicuous, the two had only just met.

He had no choice but to go outside to prepare dinner, letting the girl process her emotions on her own.

In Zhangjia Village, cooking is done using earthen stoves, a "connected stove" where a large pot is paired with a small pot.

Large pots are generally used for steaming buns, making rice soup, and cooking mixed grain rice, while small pots are used for boiling water.

Before transmigrating, Xu Lu was a young lecturer in the Chinese department of a university. He died suddenly while jogging at night, which is why he transmigrated.

He had used this kind of earthen stove when he was a child, and with the original owner's memories, starting a fire was not a problem.

The family's food reserves were mostly coarse grains like corn and millet, but after hesitating for a moment, he still threw the remaining small handful of rice into the pot.

He didn't dare to shamelessly say it was all because of Li Xiuzhi; it was also his first day in this world, and he wasn't used to eating coarse grains either...

We can deal with the hardships later; let's finish this bowl of rice first tonight!

Li Xiuzhi processed her emotions quickly. While Xu Lu was idly poking at the firewood with tongs and carefully planning his next move, she walked out with tears in her eyes.

Then they eagerly volunteered to help with the work!

Xu Lu didn't stop him, but remained silent, unsure of what to say.

He's not a quiet person, but he's never encountered anything like this before in his life.

Li Xiuzhi, however, seemed to have seen through his thoughts and suddenly asked a question.

"Do you think I'm ugly?"

"Huh? No, no..."

Xu Lu quickly denied it, saying that although Li Xiuzhi was not a stunning beauty, she was gentle and charming, and could not be considered ugly in any way.

It's just that it's really hard for an outstanding young man of the 21st century to suddenly have an extra wife.

Besides, it's not easy for him to go back to the city by himself now, so taking her with him would be even more difficult!

"Then can you please not send me away? I can work, and I don't eat much..."

Li Xiuzhi's voice carried a hint of pleading.

Seeing her pitiful state, even if Xu Lu had a heart of stone, he couldn't bring himself to refuse her!

Sigh, never mind...

"Don't be afraid, I won't send you away."

……

The rice porridge is cooked, and paired with pickled cabbage, this is tonight's dinner.

There was no meat. Although the educated youth could receive half a pound of meat coupons a month, in that era of scarcity, even with coupons, it was not guaranteed that they could buy meat.

Compared to the life of having no worries about food and drink decades from now, tonight's meal is really just simple fare.

But the thought of having to eat coarse grains from now on made Xu Lu feel that tonight's meal was actually not bad.

After dinner, Xu Lu boiled some water and had Li Xiuzhi wipe herself down. Then the two of them went to bed on the kang (a heated brick bed).

However, they were both quite proper, suggesting that neither side was ready to take that step.

Neither of them slept well that night!

……

……

After thinking about it all night, Xu Lu finally had an epiphany and figured out the path he needed to take next.

Write articles, become a writer!

In an era when spiritual needs were scarcer than material ones, the public's yearning for literary works reached its peak.

Literary publications are emerging in large numbers, with circulations of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of magazines!

Even a purely literary work like Anna Karenina can sell millions of copies.

Writers are the stars of this era!

If he can join the provincial writers' association and become a full-time writer there, then his household registration can be transferred from Zhangjia Village back to the city, and he can get a government-subsidized grain ration.

Even his family member, his "wife" Li Xiuzhi, was able to be transferred along with him.

There are real-life examples of this.

In the original history, Chen Zhongshi was transferred to the Provincial Writers Association in 1982 and his household registration was moved to Anxi City. Six months later, his wife and children also moved to the city.

Although this strategy of "besieging Wei to rescue Zhao" is difficult and takes a certain amount of time, it is entirely feasible, at least in theory.

He had thought it through, and starting tonight, he would officially begin "creating".

As for now, he has to go to work!

……

Zhangjia Village is a small village with just over 300 people and nearly 100 households. It is a typical mountain village in the Loess Plateau.

The place where the eldest brother was sent to the countryside back then was also in a mountain valley on this plateau.

If I had traveled here a few years earlier, I might have been able to run into him.

More than a dozen educated youths came to Zhangjia Village, but in the past two years, they have all "used their own methods" and now only seven remain.

Logically speaking, since we're all outsiders coming to this rural area, we should be united.

But in reality, they are not a united front.

At least for now, Lin Xiaocong, a bespectacled guy with a sleazy look, was walking towards Xu Lu and they didn't get along.

Actually, the two didn't have any deep-seated hatred for each other. It was just that Xu Lu had been in the countryside for a long time, and the brigade assigned him an easy job of recording work points. Later, they also assigned him a cave dwelling. Lin Xiaocong, who had just arrived a couple of years ago, was envious, and the two naturally had a conflict.

Furthermore, with Lin Xiaocong's family already trying to get him transferred back to the city, he was even less worried about falling out with the other party.

So when he heard that Xu Lu had gotten married yesterday, he came over specifically to tease him.

"Hey, isn't this the groom? What's up? Out so early, aren't you going to spend more time with your wife?"

He had heard that the girl was a refugee from famine, and that she was filthy. Although he hadn't seen her face, he was sure she was ugly.

The thought of Xu Lu never being able to return to the city and having to spend his life with such an ugly woman made Lin Xiaocong want to laugh out loud.

He had never felt so comfortable in his entire life!

The others who were familiar with Lin Xiaocong didn't say anything at the moment, but they all looked like they were watching a good show.

Whether something is bitter or not is always relative.

Compared to the educated youth who had already returned to the city, they were naturally suffering, but compared to Xu Lu, they were actually quite lucky!

Before I could retort, I heard shouts coming from behind.

"Xu Lu!"

Everyone looked over and saw Li Xiuzhi running over with a cup in her hand, whispering.

"I brought you some water. You're tired from working, so remember to drink plenty of water."

Ok?

Could this girl be Xu Lugang's wife?

Is this what you call ugly?

Although she was dressed simply, she was so beautiful that you couldn't find anyone more attractive than her in the surrounding area.

Is Lin Xiaocong still half asleep or what? How could he say such nonsense in his sleep?

Lin Xiaocong was also dumbfounded. He hadn't seen the real person yesterday, and all he heard about was that the person was a refugee and filthy.

He never imagined that Xu Lu, this "old bachelor," would actually be able to find such a beautiful wife.

How come this guy always seems to get all the good things in the world?!

As for Li Xiuzhi, after realizing that everyone was looking at her, she bit her lip lightly, looking somewhat awkward.

I should have brought him the water when no one was around.

He must feel very embarrassed to be seen by so many people...

Is he angry?

Li Xiuzhi was both angry and annoyed with herself, hating herself for not thinking things through.

To her surprise, Xu Lu not only wasn't angry, but even smiled at her.

"I see!"

She glanced at Xu Lu with some surprise, then quickly lowered her head and turned away, the corners of her mouth unconsciously turning up at that moment.

After she walked away, Xu Lu turned around and stared at Lin Xiaocong with a mocking expression, his thoughts self-evident.

The latter's face turned ashen; he wanted to say something but didn't know what to say.

He just rattled off a whole bunch of stuff, but the other guy only showed his face briefly and didn't even need to say anything before he was slapped in the face.

"Hmph! I can't be bothered to argue with you. I'm going to resubmit my article to Shaanxi Youth soon, and this time it'll definitely be fine."

Lin Xiaocong tried to change the subject and regain face, and although it was a bit awkward, it did have some effect.

Upon hearing this, the other educated youth immediately turned to him with curious gazes.

"Xiao Cong, have you finished revising that article?"

"Could you let us see your submission before submitting it? We'd like to learn from you!"

"Being able to publish an article in a provincial-level journal—that's the first time anyone's done that in the entire commune, isn't it?"

In the 80s, nine out of ten literate people wanted to be writers or poets.

Lin Xiaocong is one of them. Although his personality is not likable, his writing is indeed quite good.

He had previously published articles in municipal publications, and recently submitted his new work to the provincial publication, "Shaanxi Youth".

I was just thinking of submitting it casually. Since it didn't pass, it just means that his work didn't have the potential to reach that level, so it's not shameful.

Who would have thought that his work would actually reach the final review stage? Although it was ultimately rejected, the editor of "Shaanxi Youth" still wrote him a special letter pointing out its shortcomings and asking him to revise it and submit it again.

This made Lin Xiaocong extremely proud; he never expected that his article would actually reach the final review stage.

So, within two days, the news that his article had passed the review of "Shaanxi Youth" spread throughout the entire Zhangjia Village.

This time, he deliberately brought up the matter in order to save face in front of Xu Lu.

Seeing him turn around and run to those educated youths to start bragging, Xu Lu was too lazy to pay him any more attention and continued walking into the fields.

On the way, they also met Zhang Dameng, the production team leader. Xu Lu had saved him before, and that's when they became acquainted.

"How was last night?"

As soon as he saw Xu Lu, Zhang Dameng started making faces at him.

Although Xu Lu had never eaten pork in his previous life, he had taken classes with a Japanese teacher and knew what he meant.

I'm too lazy to bother with him right now!

If it weren't for this kid's tricks, how could he have an extra wife the moment he opened his eyes!

Fortunately, Li Xiuzhi is good-looking and has a good personality, otherwise he would definitely have settled the score with him!

Zhang Dameng assumed he was embarrassed, so he didn't press the matter further and walked into the field whistling!