A widower's entertainment

Chapter 237 [That Book] (Subscription Request)
Lin Youcheng was deeply touched after receiving Cha Hailing's letter.

Although in the letter Cha Hailing was lamenting that things were changing too fast, the love written by Lin Youcheng was still as touching, beautiful, and poetic as ever, without any change, but perhaps it was because Cha Hailing felt the changes around him.

Lin Youcheng knew that Cha Hailing truly belonged to the "generation" of "the night gave me black eyes, but I use them to look for light", and that he had personally experienced the social transformation process from the 1960s and 1970s when material desires were stifled and only spirituality was emphasized, to the early 1990s when spirituality was abandoned and material desires were rampant.

Faced with reality, the idealist poet has begun to feel confused, and later he truly feels that his hopes are shattered and that he can no longer "live poetically in the world." Compared with blindly indulging in the happiness of enjoying material life, Cha Hailing feels more pain from the division and contradiction in his heart.

Lin Youcheng thought about Cha Hailing’s choice in that time and space. He didn’t know whether it would happen again, but it was obvious that he didn’t want that to happen.

He hoped that the young man would still ask him with a smile, Comrade, do you read poetry?
Lin Youcheng must write a reply to Cha Hailing, but he didn't know what to write in the reply, and he didn't know whether Cha Hailing would receive the letter. After all, Cha Hailing was still traveling and no one knew where he would go next.

This made Lin Youcheng fall into deep thought for a moment.

"Dad, what are you thinking about?"

Lin Zhaomei walked in and saw Lin Youcheng looking at the letter on the table in a daze, as if he was thinking about something.

Lin Youcheng glanced at Lin Zhaomei and said, "Your uncle Cha sent a package from Qinghai and also wrote a letter. I was thinking of writing him a letter in reply."

Lin Zhaomei smiled and said, "Then please also thank Uncle Cha in the letter for me. I really like the dried meat he sent me. It's delicious."

"Ok."

Lin Youcheng smiled and nodded, then suddenly thought, "Why don't you guys write a letter to Uncle Cha to thank him?"

Lin Zhaomei opened her mouth, as if she was very surprised, and asked: "Are we going to write letters too? But I haven't written a letter yet?"

Lin Youcheng smiled and said, "There's always a first time. You can tell your Uncle Cha in the letter that this is your first time writing a letter. He will definitely be happy when he receives the letter."

Lin Zhaomei was also very excited when she heard what Lin Youcheng said. With a look of anticipation on her face, she nodded repeatedly and said, "I'll go talk to Zhaoman and the others."

After saying that, Lin Zhaomei turned around and ran out.

Lin Youcheng looked at Lin Zhaomei's slightly excited back and couldn't help but shook his head and smiled. After all, he was still a child.

After laughing, Lin Youcheng's eyes fell on the letter on the table again. Although he asked several children to try to write letters to Cha Hailing to thank him for the gifts, Lin Youcheng also knew that he also had to write a reply letter.

Lin Youcheng didn't know what Cha Hailing's current mentality was. He just planned to tell Cha Hailing about the script he was writing now, about family, about brothers and sisters. Of course, he also told Cha Hailing that if he wrote another romance novel in the future, he hoped to get a good evaluation from Cha Hailing.

The letter written by Lin Youcheng was not long, and the letters written by the children were also very short.

Although the children were very excited about writing letters for the first time and felt fresh, they did not have much to say to Uncle Cha Hailing and only expressed their gratitude.

The shortest one was by Lin Zhaole, who had no idea what to write, so he just wrote five short words - Thank you Uncle Cha.

Even this was written by my sister Lin Zhaohuan.

Lin Youcheng naturally read these letters and couldn't help laughing. The words were childish and full of childishness. Such thank-you letters were truly from the heart.

"Okay, I'll send your letters to Uncle Cha later."

Lin Zhaomei smiled and said, "Dad, I want to write another letter. I want to write to my uncle." "Me too! I want to write to Zhaoping, Zhaoan and the others!"

"I also want!"

"Then I'm going to write a letter to my classmate Liu Xiaojun!"

……

Several children could not wait to write letters to their eldest uncle Lin Youcai in Decheng. Seeing that the children were still in high spirits, Lin Youcheng naturally would not refuse. Anyway, with a writing father like him at home, there was no shortage of grid paper.

Lin Youcheng put away the letter written by his child and turned his attention to the letter he had written.

Lin Youcheng did not write anything powerful because it would be abrupt. More importantly, he knew very well what Cha Hailing understood, but it was precisely because of his clarity and understanding that he felt pain.

Just like when Cha Hailing wrote "Facing the Sea, Spring Flowers Blooming", he knew that he had to be a happy person, but when this poem was written, it was only more than two months away from his suicide by lying on the railway tracks in March of the same year.

"I have a house facing the sea, with flowers blooming in spring" is obviously a reflection of Thoreau's "Walden".

In the first half of the 19th century, when the industrialization of the United States was booming, Thoreau went to Walden Pond alone to start his experiment on simple life. He was worried that people would be so immersed in material enjoyment, social status and the desire for money that they would ignore the original purpose of life. The value of simplicity lies in eliminating things that are unnecessary for the growth of human inner life. Faced with the spiritual dilemma of human beings in industrialized society, Thoreau's solution is to return to nature. Only in nature can human beings gain spiritual freedom and restore the vitality that is increasingly exhausted in civilized society.

It is obvious that Cha Hailing was deeply influenced by Thoreau and even wrote a poem "Thoreau is a Man with Brains" to praise Thoreau.

It can be said that "Facing the Sea" is Cha Hailing's "Walden Pond", his spiritual residence.

At this moment, Lin Youcheng thought of the book "Walden" among the four books Haizi carried with him on his way to Shanhaiguan to commit suicide at that time.

This thought made Lin Youcheng stunned for a moment.

When he came to Beijing for the first time to receive a literature award, the book he brought with him on the green train was Walden.

"I love this book too."

"I particularly like what it says: from now on, don't live the life you should live, live the life you want to live!"

Lin Youcheng recalled that when Cha Hailing talked about the sentence in the book, he was full of emotion, with ups and downs, and every word came from the heart.

The scene came to his mind. He and Cha Hailing had discussed this book on the train.

Lin Youcheng felt mixed emotions. He hoped that Cha Hailing would not make the same choice again with the book, but he also knew that these were not things he could decide, especially the thoughts of a poet like Cha Hailing.

All he could do was post the letter.

When a butterfly flaps its wings, it has no idea that it will cause a hurricane in a distant place. It should be said that the butterfly also has no idea what will happen in the next second.

The butterfly just flapped its wings.

That's it.

(End of this chapter)