The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Ba Jin is a very interesting person. He devotes three-quarters of his time to writing every year, and spends all the manuscript fees he earns on traveling and visiting friends in the remaining two or three months. In order to avoid running around because of life, he didn't get married until he was 40 years old. One person was full and the whole family was not hungry.

In Ba Jin's own words, he has no home, and his friend's home is his home. He goes to see friends everywhere, and he can write some travel essays along the way.

This is a wonderful person who has no concept of money. Later, he became famous all over the country, but he still has little savings. One day when his wife saw him go out to buy books, she couldn't help but said, "The family has no money." Ba Jin knew nothing about it, and replied, "Money is used to buy books. If you don't buy books, how can a book writer live?" ?”

Ba Jin was stopped by his wife that day and went to the bookstore with his children the next day.

It was May, and the Central Plains War had already begun.

Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi sent troops to Hunan from Guangxi, with the strategic goal of capturing Wuhan. Feng Yuxiang set off from Henan to attack Xuzhou, with the goal of joining forces with Li Zongren in Wuhan. Yan Xishan marched from Shandong, cooperated with Feng Yuxiang to attack Xuzhou, and aimed directly at the central government in Beijing. Shi Yousan, who swayed repeatedly, this time mainly attacked Yanzhou and Jining, and at the same time cooperated with the Jin army to take Jinan. There are also He Jian in Hunan and Liu Wenhui in Sichuan, who also fought with Lao Jiang's people on the territory.

From south to north, from east to west, the flames of war continued.

Shandong, which has been suffering from severe famine for several years, has not recovered. Now it has once again become the main battlefield of warlords. In addition, old warlords such as Zhang Zongchang are fishing in troubled waters, and it is almost a wasteland.

Ba Jin originally planned to go to Shandong to visit Lao She, but under the raging flames of war, he had no choice but to give up.

Before leaving Tianjin, Ba Jin was encouraged by his friends to ring the doorbell of Sanle Hall in a rickshaw.

Zhou Hexuan is playing with her child at home. Her daughter, Lingjun, has been successfully weaned and has also learned to walk - she will fall if she barely takes two steps.

"Go, go to my brother's side!" Zhou Hexuan let go of his hand and shouted.

Xiao Lingjun tugged at Zhou Hexuan's sleeve, his body swayed, and he said in a waxy voice, "Daddy, give me a hug."

Sitting by the cradle, Zhang Leyi waved to Xiao Lingjun, "Lingjun, come quickly and play with my brother."

Little Lingjun glanced at Zhang Leyi, then at Zhou Hexuan, then suddenly lay down on the ground and slowly crawled towards the cradle.

Zhou Hexuan sweated profusely, carried her daughter back and stood upright: "No climbing, you have to walk with your feet."

Xiao Lingjun half-comprehended, took a few steps forward with his fleshy calves, and then stopped suddenly. She was frightened, Zhang Leyi was a few steps ahead, and Zhou Hexuan was a few steps behind, she stood in the middle with nothing to worry about.

"Wow wow wow..." Xiao Lingjun stood there stupidly and started to cry.

Zhou Hexuan quickly changed the location, ran to Zhang Leyi and shouted, "Come here!"

Xiao Lingjun seemed to have forgotten the fear of falling, and quickly ran towards Zhou Hexuan, hugging Zhou Hexuan's knee and continued to cry.

Zhou Hexuan sighed, "What a crybaby."

What Zhou Hexuan didn't expect was that Xiao Lingjun learned to run within a few minutes after fully mastering walking. Although she fell while running, she got up by herself and continued running, giggling and walking around the room.

Infected by her sister's laughter, little Wei Lie leaned against her mother's arms and writhed back and forth, clapping her little hands excitedly and laughing. The room was full of children's laughter.

"Sir, there is Mr. Li Yaotang asking to see you outside." The servant came to report.

Zhou Hexuan didn't connect Li Yaotang with Ba Jin for a while, he asked, "How old are you and what do you do?"

The servant said: "Very young, maybe in his 20s, he said he wrote novels."

"So it's a writer, let him come in." Zhou Hexuan didn't think much about it.

Ba Jin combed his hairstyle and wore a pair of round-rimmed glasses. He looked a little handsome. He took the initiative to shake hands and said, "Mr. Zhou, hello, my name is Li Yaotang, a small author, and I came here just because of my reputation."

"Mr. Li, please sit down." Zhou Hexuan smiled.

Zhang Leyi hugged her son and led Xiao Lingjun, and quietly left the living room, only Zhou Hexuan and Ba Jin were left.

Ba Jin said some words of admiration for a long time, then talked about "Goddess" and "Dog Officer", and finally took out a stack of manuscripts and said: "Mr. Zhou, this is a novel I wrote recently. It has not been finished yet. I hope you can give me some advice." .”

Zhou Hexuan opened it and saw that the name of the novel was "Spring Dream", a very clichéd name, it should not be a famous work.

It wasn't until Zhou Hexuan read the text and found out that the names of the characters in the book were Juemin and Juehui that he suddenly raised his head to look at Ba Jin: "May I ask what Mr. Li's pen name is?"

Ba Jin smiled and said, "Ba Jin."

Knew it!

Zhou Hexuan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He said why the draft of the novel reads like "Family", but the title and content of the first draft are different, so it was impossible to be sure for a while.

Zhou Hexuan put down the manuscript and said, "Mr. Li, I will read your works carefully. It seems that you wrote "Destruction" serialized in "Novel Monthly" a while ago, right?"

"Exactly," Ba Jin said with a smile, "I started writing that novel when I was in France. Studying abroad is too boring, so I can only find something to pass the time."

"In the past two years, the Chinese literary world has been in decline. Many writers are mentally exhausted, and it is difficult to see good works in the "Novel Monthly." Zhou Hexuan praised unabashedly. ", only Mr. Li's "Death" is the most dazzling."

With Zhou Hexuan's current fame and status, Ba Jin felt a little embarrassed after receiving the compliment, rubbing his hands together and said, "It's still incomparable with Lao She's works. His works are humorous, especially the unique Beijing flavor. I admire him. I heard that he is teaching at Qilu University, so I thought about going to pay a visit, but I never knew he was fighting in Shandong.”

Zhou Hexuan said: "Then why don't you stay in Tianjin for a while longer, and it won't be too late to go to Shandong after the war is over. By the way, besides writing novels, does Mr. Li have other jobs now?"

"I used to work as a magazine editor, but I resigned at the end of last year." Ba Jin said.

Zhou Hexuan sent out an invitation: "Why don't you go to my "Popular" supplement, it won't delay your writing."

Ba Jin wondered: "I am a person who likes to be free and unrestrained. I am afraid that I will resign after I can't work for a long time."

"Haha, it's okay, you can go or stay as you like." Zhou Hexuan said.

Only then did Ba Jin agree, and chatted with Zhou Hexuan about "The Rise of Great Powers", and then began to discuss the French Revolution in full swing.

Ba Jin was originally an anarchist, but after studying in France, he became obsessed with the Great Revolution, and liked to study and read the history of the French Revolution. Now that he has met Zhou Hexuan, a historian, he will naturally not give up the opportunity to discuss the French Revolution.

The two chatted until the evening, when Liao Yaquan and Cui Huifu both returned home from get off work, and Wanrong also came back from the salon, so Ba Jin left regardless of his persuasion.

Zhou Hexuan sent Ba Jin to the gate, and said: "In two days, a writer friend will get married. He is also from Sichuan, and his surname is Li like yours. Then we will go to the Xi Bar."

"What a coincidence? Then I must go." Ba Jin laughed.

Ba Jin and Li Shoumin, these two people who are at odds with each other, should have a good chat.