Back to 80: My Literary Life

Fang Minghua didn't insist on writing a novel about teachers because of Zhang Yimou, but he did have such an idea.

Grassroots teachers work really hard.

He remembered that before he came to this era, his junior high school Chinese teacher's surname was Meng. His situation was slightly better than that of Li Yuanfu. He was a middle school teacher and student in the 1980s.

It is said that he ranked third in the county in the high school entrance examination that year. After graduating from the middle school normal school, he first taught in elementary school and later went to the countryside to teach junior high school. He taught conscientiously all his life and gained many talents, but he always had a technical secondary school diploma.

I was proud of it at first, but the value of the diploma gradually depreciated, and in the end I was ashamed to say it. Just because the diploma could not be improved, the evaluation of professional titles was often blocked in the future. In the end, he retired only as a second-level teacher.

Teacher Meng teaches really well.

He could actually speak standard Mandarin without any dialect. Fang Minghua still remembers his emotional recitation of "The Inscription on the Humble Room":

If the mountain is not high, if there is an immortal, it will be famous; if the water is not deep, if there is a dragon, it will be spiritual.

Zhang Yimou happened to come up with this idea today.

Didn't he make a movie about rural teachers called "No One Less"?

I heard that it is adapted from the novel "There is a Sun in the Sky".

Fang Minghua has not read the novel but has seen the movie.

Just write it.

You can write the script directly, or you can continue to write it as a novel and publish it.

Just do it. Fang Minghua returned home and finished coding "My Journey Is the Stars and the Sea" the next night as planned, and then started writing the script.

The script is not complicated.

Teacher Gao of Shuiquan Primary School wanted to go home to visit her seriously ill mother. Wei Minzhi, a 13-year-old girl, was hired by the village head from a neighboring village to teach for a month.

Teacher Gao saw that Wei Minzhi was too young and thought she could not teach and did not want her to take over the class. The village chief told Teacher Gao that it was not easy to find such a person, and asked Wei Minzhi to keep an eye on the students and wait for Teacher Gao to come back for a month.

The dropout situation among Shuiquan Primary School students is very serious. Students are lost every year, and now there are only twenty-eight students left. Before leaving, Teacher Gao repeatedly told Wei Minzhi to keep an eye on the students and not leave out any of them.

Wei Minzhi didn't know how to teach, so she asked students to copy texts all day long and counted the number of students every day. Seeing that she was young, the students did not listen to her and even made trouble on purpose, making the classroom noisy. But she ignored them and just stood guard at the door of the classroom, refusing to let the students leave until the time was up.

Ten-year-old Zhang Huike had to drop out of school and work in the city in order to pay off his family's debts. Wei Minzhi kept in mind Teacher Gao's instructions that no one should be left behind. She was determined to find Zhang Huike and embarked on the road to the city to find the person alone.

This movie was released around 2000 and won the domestic Golden Rooster Award, the Golden Lion Award at the Venice International Film Festival, and many other awards.

A simple, simple yet touching story with a warmth and sweetness that is irresistible.

It doesn’t have to be written according to the original script, it just needs to be roughly the same.

A script only has about 30,000 words. With the computer, the writing speed will be accelerated immediately. When Fang Minghua was writing in front of the computer in the evening, Song Tangtang came again.

I was surprised to see that what he was writing on the computer was not science fiction but a realistic novel: "Minghua, why did you start the script again?"

"I agreed to someone's request." Fang Minghua briefly told the story of the meal with Wu Tianmin and Zhang Yimou that day.

"Do you admire Zhang Yimou very much?"

"It's okay, but even if it weren't for him I would still want to write this." Fang Minghua replied:

"No matter how hard it is for children, no matter how poor they are, education cannot just be said but must be done. We are not the ones who formulate policies, but we should publicize them more and attract the attention of the whole society. I think we can still do it."

Song Tangtang nodded after hearing this, and suddenly thought of something and said: "After I sent the books I bought to Guanjiabao Primary School, Teacher Li also sent a letter expressing his gratitude and saying that the children like these books very much."

"That's good. In the future, if I earn more money, I will use some of it to specifically support teachers and students in impoverished mountainous areas."

"Minghua, I support you on this!"

"That's good."

"Okay, hurry up and write, I'll read a book." After the girl said that, she sat quietly and took out a book from her schoolbag to read.

"The Practice of Management" written by American management scientist Peter Drucker.

There is nothing much to do at work recently, so if he has time during the day, he will go home and write the script at home. It only took him four days to write the script of about 30,000 words. He printed it out according to the address Zhang Yimou left during dinner that day. Come out and send it.

Okay, the next step is to restore the script into a novel and try to complete it before the Spring Festival.

At this time, Zhang Yimou was living at the home of his father-in-law and mother-in-law in Xingping.

He works at the Guizhou Film Factory, and his wife Xiao Hua works at a factory in Xingping. The factory did not allocate a house to her, and they have a daughter, so Xiao Hua lives with her daughter at her parents' home.

Zhang Yimou naturally stayed here when he went home to visit relatives during the New Year.

The house is not big, it is an old-fashioned two-bedroom apartment with a total area of ​​more than 60 square meters. The house seems crowded, and the father-in-law and mother-in-law are a little bit unfriendly to him, which makes him feel like he is under someone else's roof.

But his wife was very kind to him, which comforted him.

On this day, he was helping to make briquettes at home - when he usually uses briquettes, some black briquettes are left behind and are not burned in the furnace. After a long time, he can collect a large amount of briquettes and mix them with water himself, and then use a special briquette mold for casting. Making new briquettes can save money. Many families do this these days.

Zhang Yimou was busy doing this in his woodshed in front of his family's building, his hands black with coal, when he suddenly heard the sound of a bicycle bell coming from outside, and then someone called: "Room 301, Unit 2, Building 8, Zhang Yimou, letter!"

"Here we go."

Zhang Yimou hurried out of the woodshed and received thick registered letters from the postman. They turned out to be from "Yanhe" magazine!

He found some scrap newspapers to wipe his hands clean, and carefully opened the envelope. It turned out to be a novel - no, it was a movie script!

A film script that is ready to be filmed!

He didn't bother to beat the briquettes any more and just squatted on the ground and looked carefully.

“Yimou, it’s time to eat!”

His wife's shout from upstairs woke him up from the script.

He replied and hurried up to the third floor with the script.

As soon as I entered the door, I heard my mother-in-law ask: "Have you finished beating the briquettes?"

Oops!

I just read the script and forgot about this!

Seeing Zhang Yimou's somewhat embarrassed expression, her mother-in-law understood immediately, her face turned dark, she put the basin in her hand on the table, turned around and entered the kitchen.

"Mom, it's okay. I'll go fight with Yimou after dinner." Xiao Hua said quickly.

Seeing his mother enter the kitchen, Xiao Hua complained in a low voice: "What are you doing down there? You haven't even finished a few briquettes in such a long time?"

"I'm reading the script."

"script?"

"Yes, it's a script written specifically for me by the writer Minghua!" Zhang Yimou looked excited and raised a stack of manuscript papers in his hand.