Back to 80: My Literary Life

"Miss Emily, can you tell me how you met?" Clark took out paper and pen from the briefcase he carried.

At this time, he has transformed into a reporter.

"It was one day in early July. My classmates and I took a train to Chicago to attend the Nebula Awards Ceremony. I am a science fiction enthusiast. In the car I saw a very handsome young man with an oriental face, who was quietly relaxing. Just look at the scenery outside the window."

Emily drank coffee and slowly recalled the scene of her encounter with Fang Minghua.

"Later, I signed up for summer classes at the University of Iowa, and I met him again at a poetry recital in the Prairie Bookstore. He was reciting their ancient Chinese poems in English."

"Did you guys go out to play together?" Clark couldn't help but ask.

"Yes, that day I originally asked him to go to Grace Lake, which is a beautiful scenic spot in Iowa, but he proposed to go to Madison, saying that there is a small town called Winterset, where there are several wooden bridges. , he wanted to take a look.”

"Is there really a Roseman Covered Bridge in the small town of Madison Winterset?" Clark couldn't help but interjected.

"Yes, I went to the bridge specifically to see the name of the bridge. It was called the Rossman Covered Bridge." Emily was sure.

"Oh, God. Finally found the origin of this bridge." Clark quickly wrote down the name of this place in his notebook.

"The content of the novel, which is that very touching story, is it fictional or is it true?" Clark asked again.

"Oh, it was a story I heard from the boss at a small restaurant in town." Emily told the story of the funeral and the widow she saw that day. "

Sure enough, the story has a prototype.

Everything is revealed.

Clark looked at this beautiful girl and asked with a heartbeat: "Miss Emily, can I ask you a personal question?"

"Okay, you can ask." The girl raised her head.

"Do you like Mr. Fang very much?"

"Yes." Emily said openly: "I like him very much. I once invited him to my home in Los Angeles. We sat on the roof of my house that night and talked about a lot of things, about ideals and literature. I I once offered to let him stay, and with his talents, he can live happily in our country."

"But he refused?"

"Yes, rejected." There was a trace of sadness on Emily's face; "He said that he loved his country and he had to go back. There was a beautiful fiancée waiting for him in his hometown, and he couldn't let her down. "

"Oh, I'm sorry for making you sad." Clark apologized.

"It doesn't matter." Emily smiled: "He once wrote this sentence in the novel: Old dreams are good dreams, they have not come true, but I am very happy that I have had these dreams. Yes, I have had them, and that is enough. Yes, I also wrote a novel about this but it was not published."

"Miss Emily, you also wrote a novel?" Clark was a little surprised.

"Yes, the name is "Before Sunrise""

"Can you let me take a look?" Clark suddenly became interested.

"Okay, but I'll keep the manuscript in the dormitory."

"It's okay, I can go get it with you."

The two left the coffee shop, and Clark read the novel written by Emily under the apartment building of Davenport University.

It's not too long, only about 30,000 words.

It was simply writing the story between her and Fang Minghua.

Although the writing style is a bit immature, it is natural and smooth, and the faint feeling of youthful love in the words makes people's hearts beat when they read it.

Very good, it seems that the girl is still talented in literature.

"Miss Emily, your novel can be published in the American Writers magazine under our publishing house."

"Really? Thank you." Emily was surprised and happy.

"American Writer" is a long-established literary publication in the United States, and has successfully discovered and promoted many new literary talents. The writing careers of famous writers such as Norman Mailer and Philip Roth started here.

Clark left, taking with him the answers readers were looking for, and Emily's story.

Soon, Clark's exclusive interview with Emily was published in the new issue of "American Writer" magazine column, which solved the mystery of this novel.

At the same time, the magazine also published Emily's debut novel "Before Sunrise". Careful readers could immediately tell that this was not a semi-autobiographical novel by the author.

What I am writing is a story with that Chinese writer Fang Minghua!

The romantic and beautiful love story in the book makes people's hearts beat.

As the night went on, I began to like him more and more.

(The night gets darker and darker, and I like him more and more)

If somebody gave me the choice right now of to never see you again or to marry you, I would marry you, all right? And maybe that's a lot of romantic bullshit, but people have gotten married for a lot less.

(If someone gives me two choices now, I will not see you, or marry you. I will marry you, you know, it may sound like a ridiculous love story, but there are many people who are far less romantic than this when they get married.)

If "The Lost Dream on the Bridge" is about the complex emotions of middle-aged people, then "Before Sunrise" is about the simple and beautiful love between young people.

Emily has become a rising star in the American literary world.

The time has entered winter.

Winter in Iowa is extremely cold. Just like today, although the sun is shining brightly, the wind still cuts people's faces like a knife.

Emily stood on the Roseman Covered Bridge near the town of Winterset, wearing a thick down jacket and a pink wool hat, letting the cold wind blow her long hair.

There was no class today, so she borrowed a Beetle and drove from Davenport to this small town to look at the covered bridge in the past.

The bridge is still the same bridge, and the town is still the same town, but it has changed from when Xia Tian came.

There are obviously more tourists than those who come in summer, and many of them are young men and women in love looking for the kind of romantic feelings described in books.

Emily brushed her hair that was blown by the north wind and stood quietly on the opposite side of the bridge, watching a newly married couple standing on the bridge exchanging wedding rings and performing a sacred ceremony under the guidance of the priest. wedding.

Emily had seen the priest, the one who went to pray by herself in the small church in the town during the summer.

Think about it.

What we saw this summer was a pair of funeral processions, but now we see a pair of newlyweds vowing each other.

But the bridge is still the same bridge.

Life is so unpredictable.

Also, the young man who once played with him has already returned to his motherland.

Is he currently with his beautiful fiancée?

He must be happy now, right?

Maybe he has forgotten the American girl who accompanied him to see the covered bridge?