Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 827 Orion

Li Li attended the conference organized by the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA) as the vice president of American Comparative Literature. The conference was held at Oxford University. For this purpose, Fang Minghua also made a special trip to Christ Church College, Oxford University to watch Li Li's speech.

The entire classroom was almost full, with not only delegates attending the conference but also students attending as auditors. Fang Minghua quietly walked in from the back and saw Li Li standing on the podium giving a lecture.

Li Li also noticed Fang Minghua slipping in from the back door. A slight smile appeared on her face and she continued her speech.

Today she is wearing a black suit and glasses, looking intellectual and elegant.

The title of her lecture today is "History of Chinese Civilization and Dialogic Comparative Literature in the World", and she spoke eloquently in front of the audience.

Fang Minghua only had a passing knowledge of comparative literature, a cross-language, cross-cultural, and cross-disciplinary branch of literary research. It was clear that Li Li's lecture was quite innovative and received warm applause at the end.

After coming down from the podium, Li Libin did not return to his seat, but walked to the back and sat next to Fang Minghua.

"Why are you here?" Li Li asked.

"I have nothing to do in the hotel, so I came here to listen to your lecture." Fang Minghua whispered, "Do you know what I just thought of?"

"What comes to mind?"

"I think of you teaching in the Northwestern University Literature Society 20 years ago."

After hearing this, Li Li showed a shy smile on her face.

That was the first day the two met. Li Li, the president of the literature club, explained Shu Ting's "To the Oak" and Fang Minghua's "Spring" in the classroom. At that time, Fang Nianmei also listened to her lecture because he was visiting his sister.

Time flies so fast.

Twenty years have passed in a flash, and the boys and girls who were once young have now reached their forties.

Back then, she was ignorant about love and almost lost the love of her life, but fortunately she got him back in the end.

Although it's not perfect, she is content.

Is life inherently imperfect?

After the meeting, the two walked side by side on campus.

"Lili, your meeting will be over tomorrow. Shall we go back to San Francisco together the day after tomorrow? I'll book a plane ticket for you." Fang Minghua said.

"No. I want to spend two days in London with you."

"You said you come to London every year. Haven't you had enough?" Fang Minghua asked.

"But I've never gone shopping with you before." Li Li said with a hint of coquettishness in her tone.

"OK then."

Fang Minghua agreed.

After Li Li finished her academic conference, the two of them walked around London hand in hand.

Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London all leave their footprints.

Because of their special relationship, Li Li rarely got so close to him outside.

It’s impossible in China. Since Li Li got pregnant with Fang Minghua’s child, she has never returned to China. In San Francisco, they rarely go shopping hand in hand like this.

But in London, Li Li let go of everything, snuggled up to Fang Minghua, and enjoyed this rare romantic moment.

The two lived together at night.

Standing on the hotel balcony, looking at the scenery outside.

Today, the sky in London, known as the Fog City, was exceptionally bright. Fang Ming looked up and saw a sky full of stars. Sirius in the east-southeast sky was particularly bright, and not far away was Orion.

"Minghua, is the brightest star in the southeast Sirius?" Li Li leaned against him and asked, pointing to the sky.

"It's Sirius." Fang Minghua answered with his pitiful knowledge of astronomy.

"That's Orion next to it."

"Ah."

Li Li suddenly recited with great emotion: "I have a window now. Orion has appeared on the horizon, and Jupiter is near it. There will never be a brighter moment than this before the year 2000. (I am not going to tell you what time it is or how high the star is.) But I hope you can see it too. The stars we see are the same. Clarice."

Fang Minghua knew that she was reciting classic lines from "The Silence of the Lambs".

The two held hands tightly.

Finally, the two made a special trip to Shakespeare's hometown.

Shakespeare's hometown is in the small town of Stratford on the Avon River. When the two arrived at Stratford by car, it started to rain again. The raindrops fell on the water, stirring up layers of ripples. The falling raindrops and the willow leaves dancing in the wind added a poetic touch to this quaint town.

The center of the town is Shakespeare's former residence, and the entrance is located at the Shakespeare Exhibition Center, which displays the life of this great writer, his manuscripts and his commemorations.

The garden in the backyard of the former residence is planted with many flowers and plants mentioned in Shakespeare's plays, including violets, roses, forget-me-nots, rosemary, etc., as well as statues of Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare donated by China.

lifelike.

According to the staff, Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu were born in very close years and died in the same year (1616), which is why Tang Xianzu is called the Shakespeare of the East.

"How's it going? Does it feel good?"

"It's okay." Fang Minghua nodded.

"Minghua, are you a party member?" Li Li suddenly asked.

"Yeah, what's the matter?" Fang Minghua didn't understand why she suddenly asked this question.

"Then you should go to Marx's former residence."

Ah?
Don't tell me, I really have such an idea.

I heard that many Chinese tourists traveling to Germany will visit Marx's former residence in the ancient German city of Trier, and most of the tourists here are Chinese.

It's like when you go to the former Yugoslavia, you have to go to the Tara Valley Bridge to see the bridge.

Unfortunately, Fang Minghua has a British visa and cannot enter Germany directly. He also needs a Schengen visa.

"Next time, next time we will go to Germany and France together." Fang Minghua said.

"Yes, and my cousin too. She said she has wanted to travel to Europe for a long time, but she was too busy with work to leave." Li Li said.

Ah?
Threesome?
This picture is too beautiful to look at.

After traveling around the UK with Li Li for another three days, our 15-day tourist visa was about to expire, so we boarded a plane and left the UK for San Francisco.

After nearly 12 hours of flight, they finally arrived in San Francisco at around o'clock the next day. It was around : when the two of them took the airport bus to the city and then took a taxi to the villa.

"Where is Xinxin?" Fang Minghua asked, looking at the deserted house.

"He's in kindergarten. It's almost time to get out of school, and the nanny has gone to pick up the child," said Li Li.

It turned out that Li Li's father came to San Francisco to visit his daughter during last summer vacation and lived here for more than half a year.

Originally, Fang Minghua planned to buy a villa in Los Angeles. He knew that Li Li's father liked it there. However, since Li Li wanted to teach and was unwilling to move to Los Angeles, Li Li's father had to give up.

Before the Chinese New Year this year, seeing that their granddaughter had turned three and was going to kindergarten, the couple decided to return to China to live for a while.

They can rest assured knowing that there are nannies to pick up and drop off the children, as the young children are in the community, just a few minutes' walk away.

Now Fang Minghua became alert when he heard Li Li say that her daughter would be home from school soon.

"I'm going to pick up my daughter." After saying that, he put down his luggage and walked out.

"Hey, do you know where the kindergarten is?" Li Li asked quickly.

"I know. I took Xinxin there two years ago."

"Don't worry, take your cell phone with you." Li Li hurried upstairs and took out a Motorola and handed it to Fang Minghua.

This is the mobile phone he bought in the United States, so he naturally uses a local SIM card, otherwise the sky-high international roaming charges would be heartbreaking.

(End of this chapter)