Back to 80: My literary life

Chapter 26 Going to Yanjing to attend a seminar
  The girl said in the letter that she liked the song "Premonition" very much.

"Many readers say that it is about the feeling of first love between boys and girls. Teacher Minghua, is this the feeling of first love? I haven't been in love yet."

this?

It’s really hard to answer.

As an old man who has traveled through time, first love? That was a long, long time ago.

"It should be." He wrote in his reply: "What does first love feel like? Just like someone wrote:

Leaning on the railing and waiting for her to appear/The once lively scenery suddenly disappeared/I was busy putting the bicycle at the intersection/In order to see her more clearly in the rain/The story I made up in my mind while waiting for someone was different from usual/Drinking When you drink too much, your words take longer than usual/I don’t know if the story I’m waiting for is true or false/It feels like I’m drinking
  Li Li received the letter and found a quiet place to open it alone. She looked at it carefully and read it, and suddenly became a little obsessed.

Fang Minghua soon received the award certificate and remittance form from "Contemporary" magazine, as well as an invitation letter. Award-winning authors including him went to Yanjing to participate in a poetry seminar organized by "Contemporary" magazine, mainly Discuss the new situations and issues emerging at the current stage of poetry as well as future development trends.

Going to Yanjing for a meeting to discuss poetry?

Fang Minghua doesn't want to go.

What is there to study about poetry?
  Now it is as gorgeous as a summer flower, but it eventually died. Ten years later, after Haizi committed suicide by lying on the train, the poetry also died.

But somehow Dong Mo found out about this. That afternoon, Fang Minghua invited three leaders of the editorial department, as well as Chen Zhongshi, Jia Pingwa and others to eat mutton dip. After that, Dong Mo specifically stopped him.

"Xiao Fang, you'd better go to this seminar. "Contemporary" is a very famous magazine in our country and has great influence. Why don't you make some more friends? Yanjing is our political and cultural center, and Xijing is in a corner. Yes. Well, if you go to visit a friend of mine, bring something over for me."

"Who is your friend?" Fang Minghua asked curiously.

"Wang Meng is the one who wrote "Long Live Youth"."

"Wang Meng is your friend?!" Fang Minghua was very shocked.

"I was transferred to Xinjiang for a few years. Wang Meng and I were in the same brigade, and we had a good relationship." Dong Mo said lightly.

What the hell!

Literary tycoon.

"Okay, I'll go." Fang Minghua agreed immediately.

This thigh is very thick, I can hug it as much as I can.

"Work hard, I'm very optimistic about you." After saying that, Dong Mo left on his bicycle.

Watching Dong Mo's retreating back, Fang Minghua felt very grateful.

This is secretly setting the thread for oneself.

Since he had to take leave to go to Yanjing, Fang Minghua reported to the company leaders, who agreed with an enlightened stroke of a pen and promised to reimburse the round trip expenses.

tolerance!

Haha, even if it’s just a trip to Yanjing.

But since it is a seminar and everyone has to speak, you have to prepare yourself well.

What is the development trend of domestic poetry?
  Death.

Now is considered the golden age of poetry, and in the 1990s it was the silver age. After Haizi committed suicide, he announced that poetry had entered the bronze age, followed by the most trashy black iron age. Fang Minghua spent two nights and wrote thousands of words eloquently, describing the future development trend of domestic poetry.

No doubt, this is all true.

Also, he went to Yanjing for less than a week and couldn't come back. On this weekend, Fang Minghua went to Western University to take a correspondence class. He asked for leave from the teacher by the way, saying that his employer asked him to go to Yanjing for a meeting, and there was no need to show off the specific meeting.

It is common for employees to go on business trips, and teachers quickly approve it.

On the morning of the 29th, Fang Minghua put on clean clothes, which were actually imitation 65-style green military uniforms, and carried an old bag containing a gift from Dong Mo to Wang Meng—a bag of dog-head dates.

Then he took the bus and rushed to Xijing Railway Station, carrying the yellow satchel he never left behind.

Soon after entering the station, he saw a green train parked quietly on the tracks. Fang Minghua bought a hard seat and, of course, a hard sleeper.

Of course, the more advanced ones include soft sleepers, and the carriages are even covered with red carpets. Fang Minghua can only envy them.

He suddenly remembered a passage from "The Ordinary World".

"Most of the soft seats in the train sleepers are occupied by these businessmen with a lot of RMB in their waists. These people are wearing rough suits, with ties as wrinkled as dead snakes around their necks, and they speak jealous Mandarin. He stepped on his dirty leather shoes and stepped confidently into the red-carpeted soft sleeper room."

However, this era seems to have not yet appeared. Without a letter of introduction from the company, you can’t buy it with money. Let alone sit down, even if you want to go in and see what’s new, you can’t.

Fang Minghua curiously walked to the door of the soft sleeper compartment, but was scolded away by a train conductor wearing a blue uniform and red sleeves. He had no choice but to return to his seat.

There were quite a lot of people in the carriage, and the seats were full. Judging by their clothes, most of them were cadres and workers on business trips, and there were also soldiers. A few were like farmers, and the first generation of migrant workers began to appear.

Fang Minghua's seat was by the aisle, and there was a young man standing next to him, about the same age as him. He was carrying a yellow satchel, had his hair parted in the middle, and had two pens stuck in his chest. He looked like a gentleman.

It looked like he didn't buy a seat ticket. This was so common these days, so Fang Minghua didn't care.

However, the young man actually took out a book from his yellow satchel and leaned on his seat to look at it with interest. The noise around him seemed to have nothing to do with him.

This made Fang Minghua a little curious, and he pretended not to pay attention and took a look.

It turned out to be a collection of poems "Selected Poems of Heine"!
  Unexpectedly, I met a literary young man on the train.

But Fang Minghua did not disturb the other party.

The train went all the way east, and most of the day had passed. Night fell, and there was only darkness outside, with occasional lights.

Late at night.

There was only a faint light, and along with the rhythmic clang of the train, the passengers fell asleep peacefully.

But Fang Minghua couldn't sleep. The sound of the train reminded him of many past events, intertwined with reality and giving him a trance-like feeling, and he finally fell asleep slowly.

When Fang Minghua woke up, he didn't know what time it was and found the young man next to him sitting on the ground in the carriage aisle, reading a book seriously under the dim light.

What a young man who loves reading.

Fang Minghua sighed in his heart.

　Thank you to book friends 20170517193322989, No One Call Me, Dragon Beard Candy 1, Apache Bulldozer, Soldier Brother 1009, Warm in Winter and Cool in Summer for your monthly votes.

　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)