Back to 80: My Literary Life

Fang Minghua was silent for a moment and shook his head.

"My home is in China. It's okay to come out and have a look, but I have to go back eventually." Fang Minghua said, "Besides, I have a girlfriend waiting for me to go back."

"I heard the writer from your visiting group said that she is very beautiful?" the girl asked.

"Yes, she is very beautiful and capable." Fang Minghua said.

"Well if I go to your country, I must meet her!"

"I will welcome you on her behalf now, and then I will take you to visit our city and countryside, which are equally beautiful."

"Thank you. Hey, I heard you said that there are Terracotta Warriors and Horses in the city you live in. I checked the information and found that our current President Reagan and the previous President have visited China. Is it interesting?" The girl gently bypassed the topic just now.

"Yes, known as the eighth wonder of the world, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses are actually the burial pottery figurines of our country's Qin Dynasty emperor Qin Shihuang, which were made in life-size sizes. Qin Shihuang was a great emperor in ancient my country, and that was before 200 BC. .”

Fang Minghua talked about this period of history, and the girl listened carefully.

At around eleven o'clock in the evening, the surroundings were dark and the wind was much cooler.

"It's getting late, let's go back and rest." Fang Minghua stood up.

After sleeping all night, Emily got up the next morning and drove him around the small town again, and even went to the elementary school specifically.

The school is not big. It has no walls. It has a few rows of bungalows and a large playground in front. The summer vacation is not over yet so the school is empty.

“I went to primary school here for six years,” Emily said. “I like it here very much and I like working with children.”

"So you can become a very good teacher in the future." Fang Minghua said.

"But I want to be a writer more, like you." Emily said: "You wrote that theoretical article on avant-garde novels. Our teacher said it was very good, and said that you actually know avant-garde literature better than us."

Emily's words reminded Fang Minghua of what Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the owner of City Lights Bookstore, said when he met him in San Francisco.

He thought for a while and said: "Actually, the skills of writing novels are not the most important. What matters more is the touching nature of the story itself, such as Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" and Mrs. Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin". For a famous novel, first of all, the story itself is very touching, and then it is perfect only if it is supplemented by certain writing skills.”

The girl nodded.

"What about the book "Covered Bridge's Lost Dreams" you wrote?" Emily knew that he was writing a novel when he came back from the town of Winterset, and she even read part of it.

"That novel is definitely not a avant-garde work, it just uses a multi-angle narrative method." Fang Minghua explained.

"By the way, Emily, you said you wrote a novel in summer school, can you let me read it?" Fang Minghua asked.

"Okay, I'll give you the copy when you return to Los Angeles."

"OK!"

After lunch, Fang Minghua had to return to Los Angeles and take a flight back to Iowa City at seven o'clock in the evening.

The girl drove him to the station.

"Minghua, this is a straw hat that our locals often wear. I made it from palm leaves. I gave it to you as a souvenir. If it's not done well, don't laugh." The girl said, taking it out of the bag she was carrying. A straw hat comes.

It was a black and white hat with beautiful circles of patterns. Fang Ming remembered that Emily's father wore a similar hat.

"Thank you." Fang Minghua took it, thinking that he should also give the other party a gift, but unfortunately he came in a hurry and didn't buy anything.

Suddenly I remembered that I still had an English translation of "150 Tang Poems" in my backpack, so I took it out of my backpack and handed it to the other person.

"I don't have any gifts, so I brought you an English translation of Tang poetry from our country."

Is there such a nice sentence in the book as the moonlight in front of the window that you recited, it is suspected to be frost on the ground? "

"Yes."

"thanks, thanks."

The girl happily took the book and carefully put it into her backpack.

"This is my novel." The girl took out another stack of manuscripts and handed them to Fang Minghua.

"goodbye!"

"goodbye!"

"Minghua, if I go to China, I will go to you, bye"

After saying that, the girl got into the Beetle and quickly disappeared into the town.

Fang Minghua got on the minibus. On the highway, he took out the manuscript written by the girl and read it.

The name is actually "Before Sunrise"!

Fang Minghua quickly started reading.

A girl named Isabella met a Chinese young man named Zhang Jianguo on the train to Chicago. The two chatted together about literature and life. Later, the young man went to Iowa City, and the girl also went to Iowa. During the summer school of the university, we went to visit the covered bridge together.

Oh my god

Isn't this writing about the process of getting to know myself and Emily?

There are also many fictional plots in it,

In the ambiguous night of Chicago, among the beautiful music on the streets of Iowa, on the wooden deck of the covered bridge, looking at the cheerful river below, love slowly grew in the hearts of the two, and the two hearts were attracted and moved by each other.

At dawn, the young man decided to follow the girl to Palm Springs, Los Angeles, her hometown.

The story ends abruptly.

Fang Minghua looked at the bound copy. There seemed to be some at the back but it had been torn off.

Fang Minghua sighed slightly, carefully put the manuscript into his backpack, and looked at the huge wind turbine on the roadside outside the window, silent.

It reminded him of an American romance movie from the 1990s.

It’s just called “Before Sunrise”! The Chinese translation is "Love Before Dawn".

It tells the story of Jesse, an American young man, who encounters Selina, a French female student, on the train. The two have a great conversation. They tour the city and talk about each other's past. Finally, they agreed to meet again half a year later.

Before Fang Minghua came to this era, he had seen the subtitled version of this movie online. The storyline of Hollywood love movies was almost completely absent in the film. What the audience saw was unrestrained talk: about parents, about music. , about past boyfriends or girlfriends, and death.

The film was very heart-warming and was nominated for the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The novel written by Emily is very similar to that movie, with a light tone and everything is so natural and beautiful.

Is it an occasional coincidence, or is it?

But that's not important.

It was already four o'clock in the afternoon when Fang Minghua returned to Los Angeles. After dinner, at eight o'clock in the evening, he, Zhang Xianliang and others got on the plane to Iowa City.

Far away from the bright lights of Los Angeles, the plane turned and flew northeast. Fang Minghua saw a few stars appearing on the dark ground from the window.

That's like Palm Springs.

Seeing Fang Minghua staring blankly out of the window, Zhang Xianliang, who was sitting next to him, joked and whispered: "Minghua, I thought you would stay in Palm Springs and not come back."

"How could it be? This is against the rules of going out." Fang Minghua said half-jokingly and half-seriously.