Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 253 The Stars in the Sky Don’t Speak
[Once upon a time, there was a big forest, where all kinds of animals lived. There were naughty little squirrels, honest big buffaloes, and larks that sang every day. And the little rabbit Shanshan was the most curious of the animals...]

"Ss ...

Besides, telling animal stories to mountain children is like showing off your knowledge in front of an expert. If you make some common sense mistakes by accident, it will become a joke.

So Zhang Chao wrote a new beginning:
[There is a little boy in my class who gives me a headache. His name is Fang Fang Fang. He looks just like his name, with a square head and a square face, and is very naughty. He also has a deskmate named Yuan Yuan Yuan, who has a round head and round eyes, and is a well-behaved girl. …]

"Sssss." Zhang Chao wrote half a sheet of paper and tore it up. Then he flattened the paper with a look of concern and carefully put it back into the manuscript paper. The village chief only gave him 10 wrinkled sheets of 300-grid composition paper used by elementary school students, which were left at home by his grandson when he returned to the village for the summer vacation this year.

"What the hell did I write..." Zhang Chao threw down his pen, rolled over and collapsed on the bed, feeling extremely frustrated. Most people stop reading children's literature after entering adolescence, and Zhang Chao is no exception.

So there is no point in copying even if you want to!
If there is one type of literature in the world that is the most difficult to write well, it is undoubtedly children's literature.

If there is another kind of creation that is more difficult than writing good children's literature, it must be telling good fairy tales.

There was no desk in Zhang Chao's room, so he lay on the bed, biting a pen, and thought for half the night. He came up with a few beginnings, but in the end he couldn't even finish reading it, let alone telling it to the children here.

If he had been asked to write a novel for adults and teenagers, he would have finished writing these thin sheets of draft paper long ago. But writing a story suitable for the children here and being able to tell it to them was simply too difficult.

Isn’t it better to have "Snow White", "The Little Mermaid", or "The King of Sloppy", "The Foolish and the Unhappy", "Calabash Brothers" and "Black Cat Sheriff"?

Of course not. But these stories are either too far away from the children of Shire Village, and the large amount of explanations will constantly interrupt the narrative; or they are contrary to their life experience. For example, the children of Shire Village and the children in the city obviously have different understandings of what is "sloppy" and why they are afraid of mice.

There were also some cartoons they had already seen, such as "Huluwa". As soon as Zhang Chao started talking, the children shouted "We've seen them", which made him blush.

But if Zhang Chao really wanted to write a children's story out of thin air, he would have no idea where to start. After all, he didn't know what children wanted to hear or know.

Children are not polite or worldly-wise. They will not have any filter or respect for Zhang Chao just because he wrote "Youth Like You" and "Young Babylon" at the age of 19, "The Vanishing Lover" at the age of 20, and "The Great Doctor" at the age of 21.

All of Zhang Chao’s fame and achievements were reduced to zero in this small mountain village.

When he is stammering and cannot tell a fresh story, he is just the "uncle who can't tell stories" in the eyes of children, rather than a "famous young writer" or "Internet opinion leader".

Children's literature, especially works aimed at children under 10 years old, is about using the simplest vocabulary and the most concise expressions, in an almost "unskilled" state, to create a story full of childlike innocence and fun that children will not only love to read, but also love to listen to.

The requirements for loving to listen are one level higher than those for loving to read. There is no tolerance for any obscure language, and even slightly longer sentences must be written with caution.

Therefore, excellent children's literature writers are actually more scarce than top literary writers, because the innocence and interest of children is a psychological state that is too easy to lose and difficult to regain.

Zhang Chao couldn't help but feel sleepy as he thought about it, so he fell asleep...

"Knock-knock-knock." The dull knock on the door woke Zhang Chao up.

He rubbed his eyes and sat up from the bed, and found that it was already daybreak. It was the village chief who knocked on the door. He said outside the door: "Xiao Zhang, your phone is calling."

After Zhang Chao settled down in Shilei Village, he found that his cell phone had no signal, so he told a limited number of people where he was through the village committee's landline to avoid worrying them. However, he also told them not to contact him unless it was something very important.

He just wanted to escape from the busy life for a while, not to become an immortal.

Zhang Chao put on a coat and went downstairs. He picked up the phone and just said "Hello" when he heard Huang Jiefu's excited voice on the other end of the line: "Boss, do you know how much our movie box office is? It's already..."

"I don't want to know." Zhang Chao said in an emotionless tone.

"...Boss, Wang Zhongjun from Huayi contacted me and proposed..."

"I don't want to know - you decide."

"...Boss, Warner Bros. sent me the script for Gone Girl. Do you want..."

"I do not want to see."

"…Royals from the first part of The Great Doctor…The ratings of The Romance of Three Jins…Miss Xing's novel…The second part of The Three-Body Problem…"

"...You decide... It won't be any different... Let Lao Ma handle it... Da Liu can write it himself..."

Huang Jiefu rolled his eyes when he heard the constant chatter. Although Zhang Chao was a hands-off manager before, he was still personally involved in the development direction and key nodes of "Tide Culture", especially in media publicity.

Now Zhang Chao really doesn't care about this group that has condensed so much of his efforts. Huang Jiefu called Zhang Chao this time, not because he had to ask Zhang Chao for instructions because of some urgent matter that he couldn't handle, but because he wanted to persuade Zhang Chao to return to Yanjing as soon as possible.

After all, when Zhang Chao was there, "Tide Culture" almost crushed its competitors in publicity and marketing. This also made Huang Jiefu's business expansion unstoppable, and the feeling of this seamless cooperation was simply too great.

As soon as Zhang Chao "rested", Huang Jiefu could clearly feel that the attitudes of his partners had changed subtly. Although it was fine to be independent, who wouldn't want things to go more smoothly?

Zhang Chao also heard Huang Jiefu's frustration and said gently, "I'm not in a good condition, so I may not be able to make the right decision. I'll go back when I'm ready.

You can do just fine without me! Well, if there's nothing else important, I'll hang up first. I still have to help with the cooking."

On the other end of the phone, Huang Jiefu, who was in his office in Yanjing, put down the phone dejectedly and slumped in his chair. He couldn't understand how anyone could give up the joy of seeing their enemies beg for peace, the joy of having their wealth soar overnight, and the joy of standing on the top of a mountain and looking down on all living things.

Then he took out a 10-yuan bill from his pocket, handed it to Ma Boyong and Shuang Xuetao beside him, and sighed, "I lost."

Ma Bo lazily put the money into his pocket and said with some pride and emotion: "I'm right, right? He will definitely not come back in the short term."

Shuang Xuetao nodded in agreement: "After all, Zhang Chao is still a writer at heart."

Huang Jiefu glanced at the two of them with resentment and said, "Okay, okay, you writers are noble and great, but I am vulgar and I love money..."

Ma Boyong said helplessly: "Xue Tao, you explain it to him. I'm going to work on the publication of "Crazy Favor..." " Although he had been helping Miss Xing revise the novel for half a year, his teeth still got sore when he mentioned the title of the book, so he quickly skipped it.

Shuang Xuetao was more cautious and said to Huang Jiefu earnestly: "It's not a question of whether one is noble or not - think about it, Zhang Chao has walked the path of others for many years in just over two years..."

The same conversation also took place between Zhang Chao's parents in Changfu County. Knowing that her son had suddenly gone to the mountains of Yunnan and Guizhou to "retreat", Zhang Chao's mother almost wanted to bring pots and pans, firewood, rice, oil and salt, and follow him to "accompany his studies".

Zhang Weiguo, who also graduated from the Chinese Department, could understand Zhang Chao's current state and quickly calmed his wife's anxiety: "My son has grown up and encountered so many things. It is normal for him to feel tired. He is trying to find the meaning of life again. Don't stop him.

When he finds it, he will come back naturally. "Zhang Chao's mother glared at him fiercely, and finally sighed and said: "You feel tired, why do you have to go to that remote place, isn't it better to go home?"

Zhang Weiguo said, "You don't understand us writers!" But he was thinking that his son was coming back. Wouldn't Zhang Chao have to go to cut the ribbon for the opening of the barber shop of his third aunt's eldest son-in-law's cousin? It's better to hide away, it's better to hide away.

No one knows a man better than his wife. Zhang Weiguo almost broke down with his wife's words: "'We writers', there is another writer in our family? How come I don't know?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Weiguo could only look at the calligraphy of the word "忍" on the wall again and again, and then went back to his study without saying a word to continue writing his "I Teach My Son to Write Compositions".

Zhang Chao didn't want to bother guessing what people far away in Yanjing or somewhere else were thinking or doing. He just wanted to cook the stove in front of him well.

Although he paid, he didn't want to sit in front of the fire pit with his paws drooping and start eating every day. Being able to participate in the process can make every meal taste sweeter.

So he came to the home of today's "guest" in advance to help. He naturally couldn't help with the steaming, frying, cooking and frying on the stove, so he was sent to do the simple fire.

Although it is called "burning fire", in fact, the flames in the stove have already been ignited. He only needs to add firewood and blow air with a blower to keep the fire from weakening. Zhang Chao did this job when he was a child, but at that time there was a small blower next to the stove at home, so there was no need for a blower.

There are also skills to burning firewood on the stove. It is not enough to just put firewood in. Instead, you need to use iron rods or fire tongs to move the burning firewood from time to time, so that they can be used to their full potential and burn more fully.

There are also skills in selecting firewood. There only needs to be one hard firewood in the stove as the "main force"; before the "main force" is "eliminated", only dry firewood and twigs need to be added. This can not only ensure that the fire in the stove will not be too strong, but also save firewood consumption.

Seeing Zhang Chao becoming more and more skilled in using the hair dryer, moving the firewood pile, and adding firewood, the hostess, although she could not speak Mandarin, still gave him a thumbs up.

As the temperature rose, the water under the steamer began to boil, and soon white steam came out of the chimney, interweaving with the smoke from other houses, making the entire Shilei Village shrouded in peace and tranquility.

After lunch, Zhang Chao wanted to help wash the dishes again, but the host wouldn't let him, so he had to give up.

After returning to the village committee and taking a nap, Zhang Chao ran to find Wei Guangli's younger brother Wei Enze and asked him to take him to the nearby woods to pick mushrooms.

Wei Enze was doing his homework with a sad face, but when he heard that Zhang Chao wanted to pick mushrooms, he happily threw his homework aside, shouted into the house, and without waiting for anyone to respond, he picked up the basket and set off with Zhang Chao.

When they reached the edge of the village, Weinze looked back at his home and found that his mother had not chased him out. He breathed a sigh of relief and said to Zhang Chao, "It's almost winter. We won't be able to pick mushrooms for a few days or a few species."

Zhang Chao smiled and said, "Then teach me which mushrooms are poisonous and which are edible."

As if he had received great recognition, Wayne Ze took Zhang Chao into the woods, saying, "As for mushrooms, I can't recognize all of them, so I usually only pick the ones that my grandfather taught me.

In fact, you can tell whether it is poisonous or not by eating it once! There are several kinds, and I have always wanted to try them. "

Zhang Chao: "..." I really want to go back, what should I do...

But now that he was here, Zhang Chao silently sang: "Red umbrellas, white poles..."

However, the kid still suppressed his urge for adventure and only took Zhang Chao to pick the most common types of mushrooms. Most of them looked simple and honest, with neither the enchanting red umbrellas nor the tempting white stems.

After dinner, Zhang Chao saw the children running towards the village committee, so he followed them.

It turns out that every weekend night, the village chief would put the TV in the office outside for the villagers to watch together. Although some villagers have already bought TVs at home, there is no doubt that everyone still prefers the lively feeling of sitting together to watch programs.

The 6 o'clock TV series, the 7 o'clock news broadcast, and the 7: focus interviews are always on, but the children are mostly yawning or playing with each other while watching them. The adults are also mostly chatting among themselves.

Only a few adults who could understand Mandarin looked more carefully.

At 8 o'clock, the village chief turned on CCTV-10. Before Zhang Chao could react, he heard a familiar music, followed by a familiar commentary:

【Travel all over Shanxi and see all the famous people. Welcome to watch the large-scale cultural travel documentary "Shanxi Fengliu". In this episode, we came to YC City, which connects the east and the west, connects the north and the south, and radiates the Central Plains. ……】

After the village chief changed the channel, he saw Zhang Chao standing there in a daze, and said a little embarrassedly: "We can't receive many channels. I was watching TV recently and thought this program was good. It allows everyone to see what other places are like...

If you want to watch a program, you can tune it yourself." Then he handed over the remote control.

Zhang Chao quickly waved his hand to refuse, saying that he would just watch it with everyone. In fact, this was also the first time he saw the complete film of "Sanjin Fengliu". The schedule had been agreed with CCTV10 a long time ago, but he was just busy.

Soon, the landforms of Shanxi, which were completely different from here, attracted the attention of several children, especially the vast plains, which shocked them as they had never seen a mile of flat land since they were young.

Wei Enze quietly pulled Zhang Chao's clothes. Zhang Chao looked at him and asked in a low voice, "Where is this place?"

Zhang Chao thought about it and roughly described the distance and transportation between the two places to him. However, "more than a thousand kilometers", "separated by three provinces", and "taking several days and nights by train" were obviously beyond his imagination.

In particular, Zhang Chao added at the end: "I came here from the county town, a total of 40 kilometers."

Wei Enze had been to the county seat before, and it took him half a day to get there by foot, tractor, tricycle, and bus. But this "Yuncheng" was dozens of times farther than the county seat.

He used to watch TV, but he only paid attention to the tall buildings and colorful clothes, and no one could explain these strange things to him. Although the teacher at school talked about the vast territory of our motherland, he had no specific concept of it.

Zhang Chao's words made him feel for the first time that the world could be so big, and confusion and yearning appeared in his eyes.

Zhang Chao asked with a smile: "Want to go?"

Weinze nodded and said, "I want to go... but it's very far."

Zhang Chao said: "If you want to go, it's not far. The place I came from is even farther than 'Yuncheng'. But if I wanted to come, I came; if you want to go, you can definitely go."

Weinze shook his head and stopped talking.

Zhang Chao stopped talking and watched TV quietly with them.

The night in Shilei Village was still as black as ink. The few lights and the fluorescent light of the TV screen failed to illuminate the night sky here.

At 9 o'clock in the evening, the village chief turned off the TV and everyone went home.

Zhang Chao went upstairs, took out a pen and paper, and wrote a new beginning on a new page:
"Today, Wei Xiaoliang suddenly asked Teacher Zhang a question that stumped him - "Teacher, I heard on TV that there will be a meteor shower. After the meteor shower, will all the stars in the sky fall to the ground and never be seen again?"..."

(End of this chapter)