The literary era since 1979

Chapter 142 It is your blessing to be taught by Teacher Fang

Early in the morning, an old man rode a tricycle with tools on the back, walking through the streets and asking who needed a haircut.

"Master Jing!"

Fangyan invited him to the courtyard and said, "Let's stick to the old rules."

"Move one finger up from the head and two fingers down from the back, and align both sides."

Uncle Jing was called "Jing Kui". He was a famous barber in the city during the Republic of China. He attended a private school, learned Kung Fu, and was good at both literature and martial arts. Later, he opened his own barber shop. His customers were all well-known figures, such as Tan Xinpei, Mei Lanfang, Fu Zuoyi...

The craftsmanship is extremely sophisticated. Not only can they shave and cut hair, but they can also trim the face, chop the face, and shave all in one machine, all for only 1 cents.

"Gulu gulu."

He added some hot water to the enamel bowl filled with soap foam, stirred it thoroughly, and then wiped it on Fangyan's chin.

Then shave with a razor and apply a hot towel.

“It’s so comfortable!”

Fangyan touched his chin and asked about the old man's recent situation.

"I am semi-retired now, and I mainly serve my old customers. They are old and their legs and feet are not very flexible, so I have to provide door-to-door service. If I meet a new customer on the way, I will take some time to shave them."

Jingkui packed up his tools and said, "If you want a haircut in the future, let's make an appointment in advance. When the time comes, I'll come to your house."

"Okay, then we have a deal."

Fangyan made an appointment with the old man for his next haircut, then pushed his bicycle, humming a tune, and leisurely went to work.

When I arrived at the door, I saw a thin, sturdy man with a childish look parking his bicycle aside and chatting with Uncle Dong.

Fangyan walked by with a backpack on his back, smiling, and asked Uncle Dong what this man did.

"My novel will be published in October soon!"

Wang Shuo pointed at the building, not without pride, and then looked at the man in front of him who was about his age with curiosity, "What about you, buddy?"

"He is about to change the dialect of your manuscript."

Uncle Dong was happy, "Teacher Fang!"

Wang Shuo was stunned for a moment. He heard from Uncle Dong that Fangyan was young, but he didn't expect him to be so young.

At this time, he was not thick-skinned. He raised his right hand and greeted shyly: "Teacher Fang, Teacher Fang, it's nice to meet you."

"Hello, you are Wang Shuo, right?"

Fang Yan shook his hand and said, "Come with me."

When Wang Shuo heard the voice, he felt it was strangely familiar.

Suddenly, Uncle Dong's voice came from behind:

"Young man, follow Teacher Fang and learn from him. It is your blessing to be guided by him!"

"Thank you, uncle."

While going upstairs, Wang Shuo secretly glanced at him and studied his face. He vaguely felt that he looked like that man.

"Don't be nervous, sit down."

Fangyan sat down, took out The Story of the Seagull from the drawer, and immediately got into the mood, "I've read this manuscript, the story inside is very detailed, is it your own personal experience?"

“The time when I injured the seagull and recovered from the injury was my experience.”

Wang Shuo put down the glass of water.

"So, you made up the part about the young woman?"

Fangyan was very curious about how he came up with the idea of ​​writing a pure love novel.

Wang Shuo said unnaturally, "Originally I just wanted to write a story about taking care of a seagull injured by a sailor, but after reading Under the Hawthorn Tree, I suddenly changed it to a love story."

"You are quite honest."

"To be honest, I actually thought about giving up. This is all true, not a bit fictional. It's dishonest to make up a bunch of stories. It's a bit like deceiving yourself."

"So you want to be the kind of author who writes about yourself."

"Your words are brilliant! Just like you said, write about yourself!"

"But to become such an author, you still have a long way to go. The first problem lies in the writing."

"Hey, I noticed that too."

Wang Shuo said self-deprecatingly: "It's a bit like a middle school student's composition."

"It's good that you can see it yourself."

Fangyan smiled and said, "The second thing is the structure and technique. You designed the seagull as an opportunity for a man and a woman to meet, and then they get to know each other, get to know each other, and fall in love. This is very good, but the emotional treatment as a whole is not progressive. Especially the ending, which is obviously the climax, but it is written like singing a high note, which is stuck in the throat and can't go down or up. It's suffocating."

"Yes, yes, that's what it feels like."

Wang Shuo nodded wildly, "Teacher Fang, you are absolutely right. So, how do you think we should sing this high note?"

“The imagery, the atmosphere, the emotion.”

"Combining the real and the imaginary, if you write too much about the real, you need to add some imaginary to offset it, and then the taste of love will come!"

Fangyan stretched out three fingers, broke them apart, and crushed them. After saying a little, he took back one finger and continued to explain patiently.

"Ouch, ouch..."

When Wang Shuo heard this, he scratched his ears and cheeks, feeling excited and agitated. He vaguely understood the meaning, but there was just a thin layer of window paper missing.

Inspiration seems to come, and in the future, it can be called "Tathagata".

"For example, 'I wish to be a pair of wings in the sky, and a pair of branches on the ground', at the end, can the love between the sailor and the young woman be set off by seagulls and waves?"

Drink some water to moisten your throat.

"You mean to give the little seagull a mother seagull?"

Wang Shuo slapped his forehead.

"It's a rough statement, but that's what I mean. Think about this picture yourself: the waves, the sea breeze, the sunset..."

Fangyan almost spit out the water he had drunk.

Wang Shuo followed his thoughts, the waves, the sea breeze, the sunset, the seagulls soaring in the sky, and the young men and women on the ground.

This picture, this artistic conception, my teacher Fang is so amazing!

"It is not necessary to have a little fiction in realistic works, adding some vivid and mysterious images, so that the whole work has a romantic temperament. And there is another benefit to doing so."

Fangyan handed over the manuscript and said, "I remember that soldiers are not allowed to date young women stationed there, right?"

Wang Shuo said: "That's right, but I've seen some people deserting their posts, sneaking around..."

"Even if you know it's true, you can't say it."

Fang Yan said: "So the ending cannot be so explicit. It should be pointed out implicitly through imagery and fiction, and stop there. As for whether there is a romance or not, it is only for the readers to imagine for themselves."

“I didn’t expect that literature has so many doors.”

Although Wang Shuo didn't understand everything, he was deeply shocked.

Fang Yan said seriously, "You have good talent, but you haven't received much literary training. The next revision may require repeated requests for revisions. You'd better be mentally prepared for this."

Wang Shuo felt more and more that he was like the guy in the movie theater, absent-minded, and even when he was asked to start revising the manuscript, he didn't hear. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Fang Dialect said playfully.

"Teacher Fang, I have had this question since I saw you just now. Have we met somewhere before?"

"You feel that way too?"

"You have it too?!"

"Seeing you reminded me of the premiere of the movie 'The Horse Herder', where there was a guy who claimed to be a salesman from a pharmaceutical company..."

"It's really you!"

Wang Shuo shuddered and his face turned pale.

I never expected that the enemy I had always wanted to settle the score with was actually right in front of me. It was really a narrow road for enemies to meet!
"Looking at your expression, it seems that you are the one who got it. What a coincidence." Fang Yan stared at him with a teasing look.

"Yes, what a coincidence, what a coincidence."

Wang Shuo kept looking out the door, wishing he could run away.

No wonder he refused to give up his seat even though he evaded the ticket. Turns out he is the author and screenwriter of “The Horse Shepherd”. I’ve run into the real deal!

Now it’s good that he has delivered himself to my door.

"Now do you understand why I did that?"

Fangyan crossed his legs.

"Know, know."

Wang Shuo said awkwardly: "Have you recognized me a long time ago?"

"What do you think?

"Then you just now..."

"What the cinema has done in terms of criticizing education is already done."

Fangyan waved his hand and said, "My job is to edit, discover authors, and guide authors. This is my job. Do you understand?"

"I understand, Mr. Fang. How about we revise the manuscript tomorrow?"

"Well, seeing your condition, you can't revise the manuscript today."

"Thank you, Nei."

Wang Shuo agreed on a time to revise the manuscript, and then, like a mouse seeing a cat, he slipped away without looking back and went straight back to the training headquarters compound.

"Ye Jing! Ye Jing!"

Climbing the stairs, calling out the name of my childhood friend.

Ye Jing's family and his family were neighbors, living on the upper and lower floors. The two of them spent their childhood, adolescence and youth together.

"Hey, our great writer is back."

Ye Jing joked: "What's the matter, did you see Fangyan?"

"I saw it, I saw a ghost!"

Wang Shuo said with lingering fear: "Remember the person who didn't give me a seat and got me caught when I evaded the ticket at the cinema last time?"

"I know. You've been thinking about settling scores with him every day. Now that you've found that person, do you want me to go with you to vent my anger?"

Ye Jing raised an eyebrow.

"That person was Fangyan, and he recognized me."

"What? Really fake!"

"How can I joke about this?"

"Then you, no, did he do anything to you? Did he retaliate against you on purpose?" Ye Jing was very curious.

"No, he's quite nice."

Wang Shuo said: "He has been guiding me in writing diligently and conscientiously. I have made an appointment with him to go to the editorial office tomorrow to start revising the manuscript."

"Maybe he will deliberately make things difficult for you when he is revising the manuscript."

Ye Jing started joking.

"He dares!"

Wang Shuo showed off his arrogance as a kid from a big family.

Ye Jing teased, "Teacher Ren Fang is no pushover. He is a well-known figure in the literary world. Unless we rely on our father, we will be invincible."

"Daddy competition?"

Wang Shuo smiled bitterly and said, "Don't you forget what my father used to do? He intercepted and deciphered enemy messages. He is a serious fan of Teacher Fang's books. He reads spy novels whenever he has free time. A few days ago, he heard that my manuscript would be guided by Teacher Fang, and he was so happy."

"Hey, how could I have forgotten about this? Your dad even went to drink with my dad to show off."

Ye Jing slapped her thigh and said, "That's right, our dad asked you to get Teacher Fang's autograph. Have the two copies of Lurk signed yet?"

"Oh no, oh no, I was so busy running away that I forgot about it."

When Wang Shuo was panicking, he heard footsteps outside the house, and then he saw his father standing upright at the door.

Ye Jing said hello and ran away immediately.

"You bastard!"

Seeing his childhood friend leaving him behind, Wang Shuo cursed inwardly.

Wang's father said sternly, "Didn't you say you were going to revise the manuscript for October? Why are you back so early?"

"Today we are just getting acquainted. We can change the appointment tomorrow."

When Wang Shuo saw that his father was standing, his son didn't dare to sit down.

"Have you met Mr. Fangyan?"

"I saw it. I was so excited that I forgot about the autographs. I will definitely go and get them from you two tomorrow."

"There's no rush for this." Father Wang stared at him. "During the time you're revising the manuscript, listen carefully to Teacher Fang. Don't be as careless as usual. It's your blessing to have his guidance."

"It may be his honor to be able to guide me."

Wang Shuo muttered softly.

"What nonsense are you talking about? Do you know who his teacher is?" Father Wang said seriously, "It's Mr. Shen Yanbing!"

"Ah? Where did you get this information?"

Wang Shuo's shoulders were shaking, and his heart was trembling with them.

He is obviously about the same age as me, but the real person never shows his face!
"Do you think your uncle Ye and I are the only fans of Mr. Fang's books among the several courtyards?"

Wang's father said, "You must follow Teacher Fang and make progress. Do you hear me? Don't miss this rare opportunity!"

"Eh."

Wang Shuo was startled and saluted subconsciously.

A myriad of questions slowly converged into one question:
Teacher Fang, this is our first time as a human being, why are you so awesome?

(End of this chapter)