Back to 80: My Literary Life

This time Jia Pingwa went to Tangyu Town, Mei County.

There are two Tangyu Towns in the Guanzhong Plain, one in Lantian and the other in Mei County, and many people get them confused.

Tangyu Town, Mei County is located in the southeast of Mei County, at the foot of Taibai Mountain, the main peak of the Qinling Mountains. It borders Hengqu Town in the east and has a cool climate, making it a good place to escape the heat in summer.

Lu Yao is a person who loves to be lively, and he immediately agreed to go with Fang Minghua when he was invited. Chen Zhongshi felt relaxed after writing "White Deer Plain". The novel is still in printing and has not yet been seen by readers, but the promotion of Shengshi Books has begun. Managers of Xinhua Bookstores in various places and private booksellers are very interested in his novel.

When this news was fed back to Chen Zhongshi, he was naturally in a good mood and gladly accepted Fang Minghua's invitation.

He has been staying in his hometown, Bailuyuan, for the past few years, and it's time to go out and walk around.

At dawn that morning, Fang Minghua got up, washed up, and drove his off-road vehicle with his travel bag to Lao Liu's house outside Chaoyangmen to drink a bowl of spicy soup. Then he went to Xingfu Community outside Nanmen to pick up Lu Yao, and then turned east to Bailuyuan. When he arrived at Jiangxi Village, Chen Zhongshi was already waiting at home. After getting in the car, Fang Minghua drove around Nanrao Xijing City and drove west along National Highway 108.

According to the map, first go to Zhouzhi County and then turn into National Highway 310 and go straight to Tangyu Town at the foot of Taibai Mountain.

The reason why Jia Pingwa chose this place is that he has a close relationship with Taibai Mountain.

Four years ago (1988), Jia Pingwa was hospitalized due to illness, but he still worked hard during that time and wrote a collection of short stories called "Taibai Mountain Notes", which contains about 20 short stories.

"Widow", "Ginseng Digger", "Hunter", "Village Ancestor", "Husband", "Girl", "Boy".

These various stories, seemingly "wild fox Zen" texts, have a mysterious and confusing atmosphere under the influence of the traditional culture of Eastern mysticism.

This is reflected in his later novels such as "Wasteland" and "Missing the Wolf" and "Old Man".

Jia Pingwa's writing style began to change dramatically.

Fang Minghua drove for more than four hours before arriving at the destination.

Tangyu Town is a small town. Driving on the narrow streets, you can see Taibai Mountain when you look up. The top of the mountain is shrouded in clouds and mist, which really gives you a feeling of "clouds across the Qinling Mountains".

Fang Minghua and his friends didn't know where Jia Pingwa lived, but it didn't matter. They drove straight to the town government compound and found the town office to ask a town cadre.

When the town cadre heard that they were looking for Jia Pingwa and learned the identities of the three people, his face immediately became respectful. He smiled and said that Chairman Jia lived in the dormitory of our town government compound. I will take you there.

Following the town cadre to the backyard of the town government, there are three rows of bungalows. The staff said that these are the dormitories of the town cadres. Many cadres live in the county town, which is almost 50 miles away, so they usually don’t go back at night.

“Chairman Jia’s room is on the easternmost side.”

Fang Minghua followed him. The door was closed. The town cadre knocked on the door and saw smoke inside. Jia Pingwa was sitting at the desk, holding a cigarette in one hand and writing furiously with the other hand.

Seeing Fang Minghua and the others come in, Jia Pingwa was stunned.

“Why are you here?”

“We are here to visit you.” Fang Minghua smiled.

Jia Pingwa laughed immediately: “Okay, okay, come in and sit down, sit down.”

There were not so many chairs in the room. The town cadre was very enthusiastic to move three chairs from other rooms, and poured them tea before leaving.

“Pingwa, you really know how to find a place. I heard that you can soak in Taibai Hot Springs, drink Taibai wine, and visit Taibai Mountain here, right?” Lu Yao said with a smile.

"Haha, you're right. I can't drink alcohol now, just like you, but I still took a few hot spring baths and it felt good. Taibai Mountain has beautiful scenery, and it's best to climb it at this time. Last week, I went to a place called Red River Valley and stayed there for a day."

"Really? When will you take us there?"

"No problem."

Jia Pingwa talked about his situation here. He lived in the town government compound and ate in the town government cafeteria. He usually stayed in his room to write. When he was tired, he would go around the town. Sometimes he would go to the mountains to visit the scenery accompanied by local leaders. His life was very comfortable.

"Anyway, it's better than being at home!" Jia Pingwa said.

The four were chatting when footsteps came from outside. The cadre just now came back, and there were two middle-aged men who looked like middle-level leaders behind him.

"Secretary Zhang, Mayor Liu came to visit you." Jia Pingwa smiled.

It turned out that the town cadre saw Fang Minghua and the other three people suddenly arrive. These are all the "big guys" in the Qin Province literary world that he expected. Why didn't he report such a big thing to the leader?

Report to the leader immediately, so the secretary and the mayor put down their work and rushed to the backyard.

After introducing each other, Secretary Zhang smiled and said, "No wonder I heard magpies chirping in the trees when I went to the village today. It turned out that there were distinguished guests. I have asked the office to arrange meals to welcome the three newly arrived vice chairmen!"

Fang Minghua and his friends came from Xijing and were already hungry. After a few polite words, they followed the town leaders out.

There is a restaurant called "Taibai Restaurant" in the east of the town. When Fang Minghua and his friends went in, they saw a middle-aged man who looked like the boss came forward with a smile to greet them.

"Secretary Zhang, Mayor Liu, please come in, the private room on the second floor."

"Boss Hu, we have distinguished guests today, so the meals must be prepared." Mayor Zhang said.

"Don't worry, Mayor Zhang, it is definitely the specialty of our restaurant."

Tangyu Town also belongs to Guanzhong, and the dishes are actually similar, but it is located at the foot of Taibai Mountain, and there are also many wild game on the table, such as deer meat, wild boar meat, etc.

The wine is naturally Taibai wine.

During the meal, the town leaders toasted Fang Minghua and others, and also introduced the basic situation of Tangyu Town.

"Our Tangyu Town is located at the foot of Taibai Mountain and belongs to the Qinling Fold Belt. There are many people and little land. In recent years, many young and strong laborers in the town have gone out to work, some go to the county town, and some go to Baoji or even Xijing. The town is not as lively as before."

"Now the countryside is like this, and our hometown Shangzhou is also like this." Jia Pingwa interrupted: "I estimate that in a few years, there will be no young people in the village, and they will all be old men and women sitting under the roots of big trees to bask in the sun."

"Pingwa, according to what you said, who will farm the land?" Lu Yao asked back.

"Farming can only provide food and clothing, but it can't make you rich. How can it be more profitable than working?"

"Doesn't that mean that the countryside will gradually decline?"

"That's how it is. Doesn't the book talk about industrialization and urbanization?"

Everyone discussed this topic with great interest.

But it was just a discussion.

Whether it was grassroots officials like Secretary Wang and Mayor Zhang, or literati like Jia Pingwa, there was no correct answer to this question.

After dinner, Fang Minghua and his friends declined Secretary Zhang's suggestion to arrange accommodation for them.

There were not many dormitories for cadres in the town, so it was not bad to arrange one for Jia Pingwa. Anyway, they would only stay for a few days, so they could just find a cleaner hotel in the town to stay.

Soon, they stayed in a place called Tangyu Hot Spring Hotel and started their summer vacation.

Climbing Taibai Mountain, soaking in hot springs, and playing mahjong at night, the four of them had a comfortable life.

Of course, the four of them would still talk about literature together.

Tonight, after dinner, the four of them wandered around the town, and Jia Pingwa asked Chen Zhongshi.

"Zhongshi, your book "White Deer Plain" is about to be published, right?"

"Mr. Su from Shengshi Books called and it is expected to be published in mid-July. By then, I will have to go to several cities to hold some reader meetings, sign books and sell books, etc. Anyway, I don't know much about it, they will arrange it." Chen Zhongshi answered truthfully.

"Haha, Minghua knows, he has done this before." Jia Pingwa said.

Seeing that the three people were looking at him, Fang Minghua replied: "Reader meetings, talk to your readers about your writing experience, talk about some interesting things when you are creating, anyway, it is simpler than holding a creative seminar. As for signing books, this is even simpler. Teacher Chen, your penmanship is so good, just show off your skills."

After hearing Fang Minghua's words, everyone laughed.

Jia Pingwa suddenly changed the subject and asked in a joking tone: "Minghua, Shengshi Books has published the two novels of Lu Yao and Zhongshi and paid royalties. When will it be my turn?"