The literary era since 1979

Chapter 224 Pork Ribs Rice Cake
The most eye-catching works in the literary world in October are "October" and "Huacheng".

A series of pure literary works such as "My Distant Qingping Bay" received a warm response once published, allowing "October" to take the lead in landing and occupying a piece of territory in pure literature.

As the first magazine to publish "pure literature" literary and artistic viewpoints in dialect, Huacheng also took the lead.

Not only did it organize writers to write novels in classes that produced a number of novels that directly addressed human dilemmas and took a share of the pure literature pie, it also published dialect-advocating literary and artistic creation viewpoints that explored national and regional cultures, such as "Lingnan Literature" and "Cantonese Novels."

For a time, the Guangdong literary army was in the limelight.

And General Fang, who had come up with the plan, immediately became Tang Monk's meat.

All major literary journals want to take a bite. Who can resist the temptation of progress?

The newspaper and periodical publishing houses in Yanjing were close to the water and immediately sent their editors, some of whom rushed to the courtyard houses in Nanluoguxiang.

One group rushed to the editorial office of October, and five hundred swordsmen lay in ambush, waiting for General Fang to show up, and vied with each other to ask for his manuscripts.

However, all efforts were in vain.

Fang Yan followed Wan Jiabao, Wu Zuxiang and others to Shanghai and checked into the Hengshan Hotel which had been arranged in advance.

Just after settling down and before he had time to call Gong Xing, he was called by Wu Zuxiang to visit everyone's relatives and friends.

Wang Chaowen, Wang Kunlun, Zhu Jiaqi, Jiang Hesen, Wu Shichang, Zhou Ruchang...

Fangyan tried hard to show off in front of all the big names in Redology, and when he met Qi Gong, he was having breakfast.

"Hello, Mr. Qi."

"You are Mr. Mao's disciple, Xiao Fang."

Qi Gong looked him up and down, with a kind look in his eyes.

Fangyan responded and looked at him. This was Qianlong's younger brother, the eighth-generation grandson of the absurd Prince Hongzhou.

Wu Zuxiang asked Fangyan to sit down and sat opposite Qigong. He found that Qigong was not wearing socks and his ankles were a little swollen.

"What's wrong with your feet?"

"Just like this steamed bun, it ferments."

Qi Gong shook his toes, smiled, and put the remaining half of the bun into his mouth.

Wu Zuxiang didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "How's your health lately?"

"It's a bird."

Qi Gong winked at Fang Yan mischievously.

Fangyan was amused, but Wu Zuxiang was confused and laughed and scolded: "Why is it a bird?"

"It's just a bird, it almost died!"

Qi Gong smiled and said, "Xiao Fang, isn't that right?"

Fangyan looked at this walking comedian, smiled without saying a word, and handed over the supplement of "October" with both hands.

When Qi Gong heard that his article was in the book, he raised his eyebrows, changed his humorous expression, and began to read it seriously.

Wu Zuxiang said, "Come and taste it."

Qi Gong withdrew his gaze and started discussing "Dream of Red Mansions" with Fang Yan, like a spring breeze and silent drizzle.

"Cao Xueqin used the 'hiding of the truth' skillfully, applying truth to fiction and using magic to cover up reality."

The dialect said: "Just like the comments in the Zhipi version, the events are real, but the narrative is also well-structured, with twists and turns, smooth and rough, reflections, hidden and visible, regular and intercalary, even with subtle clues, empty valleys, one strike and two sounds, openly repairing the plank road, secretly crossing Chencang..."

"A clue to a snake's existence can lead to a thousand miles of hidden veins."

Qi Gong said with great satisfaction: "This kind of deliberately evasive, magical realist narrative can be seen everywhere in the work and is not uncommon. It is only in the last forty chapters that the flaws are revealed, which is also criticized. It is far less than the first eighty chapters."

Wu Zuxiang smiled and said, "What do you think?"

Qi Gong asked, "Have you shown this version to Brother Ruchang and the others?"

Fangyan nodded and couldn't help feeling fortunate that he had brought a lot of sample issues of the October supplement with him.

"In my opinion, it would be better to take advantage of the opportunity of Redology researchers from all over the country gathering at this seminar to discuss it."

Qi Gong said seriously: "Then publish it as a result of the conference."

Wu Zuxiang smiled and said, "Your idea has gone a step further than mine. I was only planning to reprint it in the Journal of Red Mansion Studies."

"It's conservative, it's conservative. If Redology is to be carried forward and inherited, it still depends on young people like Xiaofang."

Qi Gong waved his hand and cast a meaningful look.

Fangyan could see some expectation in their eyes.

After all, when the National Redology Society was established in 1980, the first honorary president was Shen Yanbing and the first president was Wu Zuxiang.

One is my mentor.

One is the teacher who teaches "Dream of the Red Chamber".

General Fang’s position in the Redology Society is actually a bit like “Jin Chanzi” before Tang Monk’s reincarnation, the second disciple under the seat of Tathagata Buddha!
………………

After bidding farewell to senior colleagues such as Qi Gong, Fang Yan finally had some free time and went to the public telephone at Hengshan Hotel.

According to the address written in Gong Xing's reply, she was called while she was experiencing life at Jiangnan Shipyard.

"You came to Shanghai?"

"Are you surprised? Are you surprised?"

"Why didn't you tell me about this?"

When Gong Xing received Fangyan's call, he was surprised and happy.

Then, she noticed that people passing by were looking at her strangely, her cheeks turned slightly red, and she pursed her lips.

Fangyan briefly explained the situation, "Tomorrow I will go to Shanghai Normal University to attend the opening ceremony."

"You are in Xuhui, and I am in Luwan. It's quite far away."

Gong Xing poked the wall with his finger.

Fang Yan said, "How does it compare to the distance between Yanjing and Shanghai?"

"That's right." Gong Xing's downward-looking mouth corners instantly rose up, his eyebrows curved, "What, you want to come to me, to join my group?"

Fang Yan said: "Can I ask you out?"

"Good... bad!" Gong Xing drew circles on the wall. "It's not easy for me to ask for leave now. If you don't have a good reason, hehe..."

The dialect says: "'In the mountains and in the sea, in the water and on the shore, two trees are not a forest, and under the field there is a heart', don't you want to know what the second half of the sentence is?"

"Hmph, you can say it if you want."

"But I want to say the second half of this sentence in front of you."

"Then you, you come and find..."

Gong Xing hesitated for a moment, "No, I'll go find you. You're unfamiliar with Shanghai, and it would be bad if you get lost."

"Then I will be at Hengshan Hotel, waiting for you."

When Fangyan heard the words "lost", he almost laughed out loud.

Gong Xing's tone was full of excitement. "When the time comes, I will take you to eat delicious food, just like when we were in Yanjing, you took me to eat delicious food."

Fangyan said in a joking tone: "What delicious food are you going to take me to eat? I am very picky."

"If you want to cut it, I will cut it~"

Gong Xing blurted out.

Fangyan said, "When you were in Yanjing, you kept saying that the pork ribs and rice cakes in Shanghai were delicious. I want to try some."

Gong Xing's eyes lit up, "Okay, no matter how delicious the food outside is, it can never compare to pork ribs and rice cakes."

Fangyan listened quietly to her talking about the taste of pork ribs and rice cakes, when suddenly a sigh of regret came from the phone.

"What a pity! If you want to eat the most authentic and delicious pork ribs and rice cakes, you have to go to Xian De Lai."

"Fresh?"

"Yes, there is a saying in Shanghai, 'If you want to have fun, go to the Big World; if you want to eat, go to Xiandelai.' The food is really delicious!"

Gong Xing was talking about the "Xian De Lai" dim sum restaurant in Huangpu.

The two of them continued chatting about "pork ribs and rice cakes". If Zhao Jing hadn't asked her to participate in the script reading session, they would have probably continued chatting.

Zhao Jing was very curious: "Sister Gong Xi, who were you talking to on the phone? Why did it take so long?"

"My brother!"

Gong Xing remained calm, "He told me to go back home this week. I'm going to ask Director Song for leave later."

Zhao Jing narrowed her eyes and glanced at Gong Xing's fingers that were stained with white lime from the wall. Something was wrong, very wrong.

………………

On October 10, the national academic discussion meeting on "Dream of the Red Chamber" was held as scheduled at Shanghai Normal University.

In addition to the 6 official representatives, this six-day Redology event also attracted 108 special guests.

Among them were the crew of "Dream of Red Mansions" formed by CCTV, and Dai Linfeng, Wang Fulin and others came to the scene.

With the introduction of Redologist Hu Wenbin, I got to know the members of the Redology Society.

"Mr. Zhou is here!"

"This is Master Qi, he's here too!"

"Hey, who is that young man following Mr. Wu and Mr. Jiabao?"

"You don't even know him? Teacher Fang Yan Fang!"

Accompanied by waves of discussions, Redologists entered the venue one after another.

In the crowd, there was a northern man with a square face and a crew cut. He was tense and visibly nervous.

"Jie Yu, don't be so nervous."

Feng Qiyong, as a guide, patted him on the shoulder.

"Mr. Feng, I'm sorry to have embarrassed you."

Ling Jieyu gave an awkward but polite smile.

"You will gradually get used to it in the future."

Feng Qiyong waved his hand and said that after all he was still young and was the second youngest representative attending the meeting.

Ling Jieyu was curious about who was the youngest representative in this Redology Conference. When he asked, he found out that it was Fangyan.

"I'll take you to meet him as soon as the opening ceremony is over."

Feng Qiyong said, "He has a lot of knowledge on Dream of the Red Chamber. You two young people should have a good exchange of ideas."

Ling Jieyu nodded excitedly and looked at the figure sitting in the front row through the gap in the crowd.

Fangyan glanced around, and everyone returned to their seats, and the scene became quiet.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa."

Amid applause, the opening ceremony was hosted by Feng Qiyong, the current vice president of the Redology Society.

The first item is to invite the president of Shanghai Normal University, the organizer of this event, to deliver the opening speech.

“Comrades,

On behalf of Shanghai Normal University, I would like to extend my warm congratulations to this conference and wish it a complete success..."

"A Dream of Red Mansions is a well-known classical novel in my country."

"It uses extremely exquisite and accurate words to describe the social life of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong eras in a very rich and profound way. There are more than 400 characters in the Dream of the Red Chamber, and a considerable number of them have very distinct personalities. After reading the Dream of the Red Chamber, you will know what China's feudal society is, how it was corrupt, how it degenerated, and how it finally declined."

"Some people may say that if we want to understand feudal society, isn't it enough to just read history books?"

"However, most history books use general narrative language, while Cao Xueqin's writings allow people to see typical, real and vivid social life, and vividly understand what feudal society is, how feudal emperors, bureaucrats and landlords maintain their rule, and how the majority of people support a few aristocrats who are extravagant and spend money like water..."

The whole place was silent except for the voices.

The waiter held a kettle and poured water into each cup.

Fangyan took out a can of wolfberries from his bag and poured them out while thinking.

I wonder if "The Grandmaster Huang Feihong" has been sent?
The supplement of October will be distributed nationwide in two days. We should make good use of the National Redology Conference as a platform...

(End of this chapter)