Back to 80: My Literary Life

This year (1988), on April 5, the state issued a notice stating that the price subsidies for four non-staple food items, including pork, fresh eggs, street vegetables, and sugar, would be changed from covert subsidies to explicit subsidies.

Prices rose accordingly.

Fang Minghua didn't know much else, but he knew that the price of pork on Tanshi Street in Xijing soared from 1.81 kilogram at the beginning of the year to 2.7 yuan, an increase of 50%!

As a result, department stores and shops of all sizes in Xijing were besieged. People in front of the counters waved their hands and rushed to buy everything they bought: they earned money even if they had faulty refrigerators and electric fans that were missing parts. It has become a hot commodity.

Fang Minghua's mother, Zhang Fenglan, bought 50 packets of washing powder, 50 pounds of salt, and two large barrels of soy sauce and vinegar in one go. She couldn't get it herself, so she called Song Tangtang and asked her to help take her home in a car.

Now listening to Wang Zi, Fang Minghua is not surprised that Liu Fugen and his wife returned to their hometown.

"This is my rent for last year." The girl took out a few more banknotes.

Fang Minghua looked at it but didn't accept it.

"You take care of the yard, and I will waive the rent. You can also use the two rooms in the west wing." Fang Minghua said, taking out the key and handing it to the girl: "But I have a prerequisite."

"I know, take good care of the house and plant beautiful flowers!" the girl said with a smile.

Fang Minghua also laughed.

"Uncle Fang, do you think my flowers are pretty?" Wang Zi said again.

"Yeah, it's beautiful." Fang Minghua looked at the flowers all over the courtyard and felt very happy.

It's a pity that I only come here occasionally and can't stay here permanently.

When I go back to Xijing, I build a similar courtyard house and plant flowers there, which I think will be very effective.

The girl invited Fang Minghua to sit in the room and drink some water, and Fang Minghua agreed.

He walked in and looked around. The room was still very clean and the layout was similar to last year, except that there were more books on the desk than last time.

Zhang Jie's "Heavy Wings", Wang Anyi's "Junior High School Students of the 69th" and "Yellow River Old Man", Tie Nian's "Rose Gate" and Fang Minghua's own "Crossing the Guandong", "Minghua Short Stories" and "The Legend of Wukong" .

There is also a stack of Yanhe magazines.

It seems that the girl did listen to her words.

Before leaving last year, Fang Minghua asked her to read more novels by female writers such as Zhang Jie, Wang Anyi, and Tie Nian.

It turns out that the three sexology books "The Interpretation of Dreams", "The Psychology of Love", "The Sorrows of Girl Dora" and the "****" have disappeared.

"Have you read all these?" Fang Minghua asked while looking.

"Yeah." The girl nodded.

"Not bad." Fang Minghua praised.

"Uncle Fang, I have read so many books and I am a little confused."

"What doubts are there? Just tell me." Fang Minghua turned around and looked at her.

"I found that these writers have rich experience, especially Wang Anyi. In the novels he wrote, such as this one, "Junior High School Students of the 1969th Class", the protagonist is a little girl named Wenwen's life experience and experience: from Writing from the 1950s to the end of the 1970s, I felt that I was writing about what the author had experienced.”

"Yes, her novel is semi-autobiographical."

"But I can't write it." Wang Zi looked troubled. ‘And the novels you wrote, including those published in Yanhe, are avant-garde ones. I can’t understand some of them. "

My experience and knowledge are not enough.

But Fang Minghua didn't say this about the girl, but asked: "Have you written anything this year? Let me see.

Wang Zi looked a little shy after hearing this: "I have written some things, but they are not good. Don't laugh at me."

"What are you laughing at? If it's inconvenient, I won't watch it."

"It's convenient. You can sit down first and drink some water."

Wang Zi poured a glass of water for Fang Minghua, then took out a very delicate diary from the pillow and handed it to Fang Minghua.

Fang Minghua looked very serious.

The heroine in the story is a girl who "comes from a broken family, eats chocolate desperately, and is obsessed with rainy days", and the boy she loves, Sai Ning, also has an unhappy childhood like her. These two people live together, neither one can live without the other, they see each other as they see themselves.

It is very similar to Wang Zi's later novel "La La La", except that the writing style is now more childish and the story is much simpler.

But there is already sex, suicide, drugs, and alcohol between the lines.

Oh my god.

Not even 20 years old yet.

"Let me ask you, have you experienced these things?" Fang Minghua's tone was a bit serious, and Fang Minghua asked, pointing to one of the passages.

"No, no." Wang Zi shook his head hurriedly: "Some of these are what I have read in other books, and some are my imagination. I haven't had a boyfriend yet."

"Don't touch these things, they won't do you any good at all. Don't experience these messy things just for the sake of so-called writing."

"Yeah, I know, so how do I write it?"

Fang Minghua pondered for a moment and asked, "Do you watch "Sprouting"?"

"Look, I used to really like watching it, but now I think it's a bit childish." Wang Zi replied.

"The novels published in "Sprouting" generally belong to youth literature, but the content in them is relatively simple." Fang Minghua said.

"Actually, the novel you wrote also belongs to the category of youth literature, but it mainly writes about confusion and hurt. It can be called youth pain literature."

"Youth Pain Literature? What a nice name!" Wang Zi laughed: "You have captured the key points of this novel I wrote!"

"But the things you wrote are too dark, too violent, and too erotic. How can this be the youth of boys and girls? The adult world is not as dark as you." Fang Minghua explained patiently.

"I am violent and dark? Look at the author named Yu Hua." Wang Zizheng was about to argue but was interrupted by Fang Minghua.

"Don't imitate him, you can't imitate it either. People without a strong heart can easily get lost in the words they write."

"You think Yu Hua doesn't know how?"

"No, I know him."

Wang Zi said nothing and said nothing.

"You should revise it carefully as I said, and then you can vote for "Sprouting"." Fang Minghua expressed his opinion.

"Okay, I'll listen to you." Wang Zi said.

"Okay, I'll look at other rooms, and then I'm going back." Fang Minghua stood up after saying that.

"Uncle Fang, let me treat you to lunch." The girl greeted warmly.

"It's more than an hour before noon, what's for dinner?" Fang Minghua said with a smile: "When you get the royalties someday, if I come to Yanjing, you can treat me to dinner again."

"It's a deal!"

"good."

Fang Minghua agreed, turned around and suddenly remembered something. He turned back to look at the girl: "Wang Zi, how do you feel about working in a hotel? Do you need me to say hello to you, Mr. Yu?"

"No, thank you."

"Well, live alone and pay attention to safety." After Fang Minghua said that, he turned and left.

Fang Minghua opened other rooms and looked around. Seeing that there was no big problem, he said goodbye to Wang Zi and left Liuya Hutong.

On the bus back to the General Political Courtyard, Fang Minghua thought of what he had said to Wang Zi that morning.

Wang Zi, Mian Mian in later generations, is really incomparable to Yu Hua.

In fact, all writers born in the 1970s, including Wang Zi, cannot compare with writers born in the 1960s such as Yu Hua, Chi Zijian, Ge Fei, Su Tong, Bi Feiyu, and Mai Jia.

Of course, Fang Minghua hopes to be better than the post-80s writers Han Han, Guo Jingming, Yan Ge, Di An, and Jiang Fangzhou.

Later generations mentioned that writers born in the 1970s, especially female writers, were said to use "body writing" and were also destroying themselves.

Of course, everything depends on Wang Zi and the others.

After everything that needed to be said was said, Fang Minghua stopped thinking about it.

Fang Minghua was preparing to take the afternoon train back to Xijing. When he was having dinner at his grandfather's house in the General Political Courtyard at noon, he received a call from Song Tangtang.

The English translation of "Braving the Journey to the Northeast" was shortlisted for this year's National Book Critics Circle Award in the United States, and he was invited to attend the award ceremony in New York at the end of June.