Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 254 Is this your room? I want it.

Zhang Chao himself didn't know why he suddenly wrote this story about a child and a shooting star.

Perhaps it was Liang Ximei and Weinze's yearning for the outside world that touched him, or perhaps it was the starry night sky of Shilei Village that gave him inspiration. Shooting stars have different meanings in different cultures.

The two most popular ones are death and hope.

So which one is this story about?

Teacher Zhang didn’t know what a “meteor shower” was, so he didn’t know if there would still be stars in the sky after the meteor shower. He could only say, “Maybe… there will be.”

Wei Xiaoliang looked a little disappointed. Teacher Zhang was already the most knowledgeable person in the village, and if even he was not sure, then there would be no point in asking others.

Teacher Zhang felt a little uneasy when he looked at her, so he asked Wei Xiaoliang: "Don't you wish there were still stars in the sky?"

Wei Xiaoliang said: "Liang Xiaoyang said that every time a star falls from the sky, a person on earth will die and go to the sky to become a new star. If the stars in the sky rain, how many people on earth will go to the sky?"

Teacher Zhang was silent. He knew that Wei Xiaoliang's mother was sick and had been sick for a long time. Her illness was very serious and she was said to die at any time.

Wei Xiaoliang then asked him: "Teacher Zhang, after the meteor shower is over, will there really be a lot of people who will turn into new stars and hang in the sky?"

"Uncle, will there really be a meteor shower in the sky?" Weinze suddenly asked Zhang Chao when he heard this.

Zhang Chao replied: "I've said it several times, call me brother - of course it will rain. On nights with meteor showers, if you look up at the sky, a meteor will fall every few moments. In one night, you will see hundreds of meteors, just like a rain."

There was a look of longing in Weinze's eyes. Yunnan and Guizhou were full of fog, but they also had the darkest starry sky. On a clear night, he had seen shooting stars streak across the sky.

I just didn't expect that meteors could rain down. And meteors have such a special meaning.

Wayne Ze couldn't wait to ask: "What happened next? Was there really a meteor shower?"

Zhang Chao smiled and continued telling the story:
Teacher Zhang also couldn't answer this question. Who told him that he was just a substitute teacher? Being able to teach children to recite texts and do arithmetic operations was all he knew.

Wei Xiaoliang asked again: "Teacher Zhang, is there any way to prevent meteor showers from falling from the sky? Can't they just drop one meteor occasionally like before?"

Teacher Zhang was even more panicked. He thought that he couldn't even stop the rain, so how could he stop the meteor shower? But he didn't want to make Wei Xiaoliang sad, so he said to him: "Let me go to the town to ask Teacher Wang. Teacher Wang knows more than me, maybe he knows how to stop the meteor shower."

Wei Xiaoliang became happy and asked again: "When are you going to the town to ask Teacher Wang? Can you take me with you?"

Teacher Zhang shook his head and said, "To get to the town, you have to first cross the mountain ridge for half a day, and then ride on a tractor for half a day. To come back, you have to ride on a tractor for half a day and cross the mountain ridge for half a day. You have to spend the night in the mountains on the way. So only adults can go, not children."

Wei Xiaoliang knew that what Teacher Zhang said was true, so he had to say, "Then Teacher, please come back early. There are only seven days before the meteor shower."

Teacher Zhang was actually worried that Teacher Wang in the town didn't know how to stop the meteor shower from falling from the sky, and was also worried that what Teacher Wang said to Wei Xiaoliang that if a star fell from the sky, someone would have to replace it on the ground was true. 】

"Wei Xiaoliang's village is really far from the town." Wei Enze sighed. Children from Shilei Village also have to go far to go to school in the town, but not this far.

Zhang Chao smiled and said, "Yes. My hometown used to be a village like this, very far away from the town. It had the same terraced fields as here, and very similar wooden houses." Zhang Chao did not lie to agree with the kid. Fuhai has hilly terrain, and terraced fields are also a major form of farming.

Zhang Chao has already conceived the outline of this story, which mainly revolves around the main line of "stopping the meteor shower and saving Wei Xiaoliang's mother."

In the seven days before the meteor shower, Teacher Zhang, the old village chief, Teacher Wang, and many caring people tried their best to prevent the child from being heartbroken.

Among them was the old wizard in the village, who, after many years, put on the Nuo dance mask that could communicate with ghosts and gods again.

A geography teacher at the town's middle school went against the scientific spirit he had always upheld and made up a beautiful lie for Wei Xiaoliang.

There was a barefoot doctor who traveled around the countryside. In order to save Wei Xiaoliang's mother's life, he took out the herbal medicine he had collected for many years.

……

As for whether the meteor shower had come, and whether Wei Xiaoliang's mother's illness had been cured, Zhang Chao actually did not have a final answer in his mind. He had just started writing children's stories, and he could not yet grasp the intensity of such emotions.

A happy ending is certainly joyful, but sometimes regrets are also part of a child’s spiritual growth.

He thought of many, many stories, especially those in the Selected Foreign Children's Short Stories (Volumes I and II) published by the Juvenile and Children's Publishing House in the early 90s.

These stories have joyous atmospheres, sad endings, childish fantasies, and cruel realities. Each story constitutes a side of a child's mind.

After careful consideration and hesitation, Zhang Chao wrote a section the night before and told it to the children the next night. Interestingly, he often found that his story was different from what he had written; sometimes, he told more than what he had written the day before.

For the first time, Zhang Chao felt the difference between written writing and oral creation. Written writing is just his own work, while oral creation often incorporates feedback from the audience.

When he was talking about something and was keenly aware that the child who was listening to the story frowned, he knew that he had to stop and explain.

When he was telling a certain plot and suddenly found that some children started whispering and lost their attention, he knew that this part was not attractive and he had to skip it quickly.

[……Wei Xiaoliang didn’t know whether Teacher Zhang had asked for a way to stop the meteor shower, nor did he know when he could return to the village. He watched his mother getting weaker day by day, and even couldn’t call out his name, and he was really worried.

So he decided to go to the town to find Teacher Zhang. When he was five years old, his mother put him in a bamboo basket and carried him there once, so he knew the way to the town. Teacher Zhang said he had to climb the mountain for half a day, then ride on a tractor for half a day, and the same thing would have to happen the same way back. That would take two full days.

He had to prepare two days of food for himself. There was not much rice left at home, so he had to leave it for his mother and brother. So he took the sweet potatoes with him. When he was hungry, he just had to pick up some firewood, dig a hole, and eat hot roasted sweet potatoes. …】

"How dare he go up the mountain alone?" Wayne Ze exclaimed, "There are wild boars on the mountain. They rush over when they see people and break their legs."

"There is also a 'change woman' who can speak human language. If you listen to it, you will be bewitched by it and led into the woods, never to come back." Liang Ximei added.

The story Zhang Chao told became more and more popular among the children these days. Not every child could come to listen every night, so many different versions were produced in the retelling.

Even young boys and girls like Liang Ximei were intrigued by her younger brother's storytelling and came to listen. In the past two days, whenever Zhang Chao told a story, there were more than a dozen people around him, making him look like the "king of children".

Zhang Chao would also record the children's "wrong versions" with great interest. These versions with personal imagination were quite inspiring for his ideas. The audience's interruptions and discussions were also quite interesting.

"'Beauty changer'?" Zhang Chao became interested.

Liang Ximei explained: "The 'Bian Po' is a big monkey, but it can stand and walk like a human. Its teeth are longer than a hunter's dagger and can bite a wild boar to death. It can imitate human speech and trick people into going to the mountains..."

Zhang Chao asked curiously, "Trick them into the mountains and eat them?"

Liang Ximei blushed and didn't respond.

At this time, a naughty little boy jumped out and shouted, "I know. The 'change woman' specializes in deceiving men. They lure them into the mountains to marry and sleep with it, and then give birth to little 'change women'..." Then he imitated the appearance of the "change woman" in his imagination, bent his knees and walked a few steps with his hands hanging down, which was very lifelike.

Everyone burst into laughter.

Wei Enze pushed the little boy and said, "Little 'Change Woman', go back and sit down quickly - Uncle, what's down there?"

Zhang Chao said, "I've already told you to call me brother - the rest hasn't been written yet, come back tomorrow to listen."

The children all complained: "Today's lesson is so short?" "Brother, can't you write more?"

"Brother, when can you speak twice a day?"

"Yes, once at noon and once at night."

The more Zhang Chao listened, the more familiar it sounded. He had a sense of déjà vu and said quickly, "Not very often? No. I actually combined the content of both times and will tell you all of them tonight."

"Really?" The children were skeptical.

At this time, Village Chief Wei came over and rescued Zhang Chao. With just a few words, he made the children disperse and go back to their homes and mothers.

Zhang Chao finally breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't expect that even after coming to this small village, he still couldn't escape the pressure to update his work.

Village Chief Wei smiled and said, "Tomorrow the village's tractor will take mountain products to the town. Do you want to go with them?"

Zhang Chao slapped his forehead and suddenly realized, "It's been 10 days without me noticing! Time flies so fast in the village. Well, I just happened to stop by the town to get some money."

Village Chief Wei waved his hand and said, "Don't rush you to pay. I just noticed that your daily necessities are not in order. You get along so well with the kids. Many families told me that they won't charge you for food."

Zhang Chao came in a hurry this time and indeed forgot to bring many daily necessities, such as a razor. He hadn't shaved for more than 10 days, and his tanned skin made him look like a local rural youth.

He doesn't have shampoo, shower gel or soap yet. He has been washing his hair with water these days. Young people have a high metabolism, so his hair is still in clumps even if he rubs it with water every day.

Especially toilet paper. Even if I use it sparingly, I only have half a pack of napkins left. If I don’t buy more, I’m afraid I’ll have to cut bamboo strips to scrape my butt. (Speaking of which, less than 20 years ago, people in my hometown still used bamboo strips and wood chips…)
Zhang Chao could only appreciate the kindness of the villagers, but he did not dare to accept it. After all, the villagers' daily diet was indeed a bit too simple. If it was not a "banquet" standard, Zhang Chao would probably not be able to put down his chopsticks many times.

At night, Zhang Chao lay on his bed as usual and wrote and revised the story of "The Child and the Shooting Star". In the past few days, his manuscript paper was varied, including the original elementary school composition paper, homework paper with words written all over the front, and old account books from who knows when...

The next day, Zhang Chao was woken up by the village chief before dawn. This was the earliest time he had woken up since he came here. He saw a waning moon hanging in the sky. Zhang Chao knew that this bus was for the market and he couldn't delay it. He got up quickly, put on his clothes, washed his face hastily, and went downstairs.

An old-fashioned tractor with handrails was waiting downstairs. The rear wall of the tractor was specially raised to prevent the mountain products from being thrown out.

The only available seats were next to the tractor driver, and on one side sat the village accountant, whose surname was Liang. Zhang Chao quickly sat on the other side, holding onto the handle. The tractor spewed black smoke and rumbled out of the village.

Accountant Liang started chatting with Zhang Chao on the fairly flat road just after leaving the village. As one of the few "educated people" in the village, he was very curious about Zhang Chao's identity and specifically asked him if he was a college student and where he went to college.

Zhang Chao hesitated for a moment and said that he was from Fuhai and went to university locally.

Accountant Liang became envious and began to talk about his own experience. He said that he was the only top student in the village who could go to high school, but because the adults in his family died early, he had to drop out of school and return home.

"If I had gone to high school, I might have been a college student and now I'm working in the city..." Accountant Liang concluded with some regret.

"Don't talk anymore, the car is stuck, get out quickly and find a stone to put it under." The tractor driver shouted.

Zhang Chao and Accountant Liang quickly jumped out of the car and found that a pothole had appeared on the road at some point and the front wheels of the tractor were stuck in it and slipping.

Accountant Liang skillfully took out a shovel from the back of the truck and dug the pit down a little bit. Then he and Zhang Chao found a pile of large and small gravel from the roadside to pad the pit, and only then did they get the tractor out of trouble.

When they got back on the tractor, Zhang Chao and Accountant Liang were covered in mud and oil, but the distance between them had been shortened. The tractor driver adjusted the front of the tractor and then trudged forward again.

Accountant Liang said, "I've never seen a college student like you. You can endure a lot of hardships."

Zhang Chao asked, "Why? Can't college students endure hardship?"

Accountant Liang shook his head and said, "Studying has its own hardships, working has its own hardships, and farming has its own hardships. Everyone thinks they have a harder time than others, but in fact, they can only endure their own hardships, not the hardships of others."

These few words made Zhang Chao look at him with new eyes.

Accountant Liang said, "You are a college student, but you can work in the fields and you are not afraid of getting a tan. This shows that you can really endure hardships..."

Zhang Chao laughed and said, "In fact, I only went to the fields on the first day. I was lazy the rest of the time..."

After more than three hours of chatting and laughing, we finally arrived at Dujiang Town. Although it is called "town", there are still few flat lands. The entire "town center" is along the winding mountain road, sometimes "downstream" and sometimes "upstream".

Behind many houses are steep cliffs. The so-called "market" is nothing more than countless stalls set up on the roadside for several kilometers.

Accountant Liang had to help sell the mountain products from the tractor's back, collect the money one by one, calculate the accounts, and return to the villagers. The tractor had to be inspected at the agricultural machinery station first, and then see if there was any odd jobs in the town to earn some extra money.

The two men agreed with Zhang Chao to meet at the original place at 4 pm, and then went about their own business.

Zhang Chao came empty-handed this time. He first went to the town's credit union to withdraw 5000 yuan, then went to the grocery store to buy two snakeskin bags, and then started shopping for daily necessities.

Shampoo, shower gel, razor, towel, bath towel, toilet paper, toothpaste, underwear, all bought in excess to save the need to go down the mountain frequently. This is just one bag.

In addition, I had to buy suitable cotton clothes and trousers, and thick enough quilts and mattresses. In a month or so, the night temperature in Shilei Village would drop to single digits, and the blanket I had brought with me would definitely not be able to withstand it. This is another bag.

Oh, and there are a lot of pens and notebooks, both for myself and for the children. Instant noodles and snacks are also indispensable.

Finally, he wanted to buy a table where he could sit and write, but there was no furniture store in town, so after lunch, he bought a folding table in the restaurant that didn't look so greasy at a "high price".

After finishing all this, Zhang Chao, carrying two large bags and a folding table, followed the guidance of a fellow villager and found the only small hotel in the town, booked a room, and took a good bath.

After taking another nap, I returned to the agreed place feeling refreshed.

Accountant Liang saw his bag and table and asked in surprise, "Are you really planning to stay here for a long time?"

Zhang Chao nodded and said somewhat arrogantly: "What do you think? Now that we are here, let's make the best of it!"

Accountant Liang nodded, without saying anything more, and helped Zhang Chao load all the things onto the back of the tractor. The mountain products in the back had been sold out, and most of the things piled up now were daily necessities that the villagers had entrusted the accountant to purchase, ranging from firewood, rice, oil, salt, to small household appliances.

Zhang Chao exclaimed, "You have to account for both incoming and outgoing bills this time, so there are quite a few figures to remember."

Accountant Liang patted his head proudly and said, "Over 20 years, not a single mistake has been made!"

Zhang Chao gave a thumbs up in admiration.

Another three hours passed, and when they returned to the Shilei Village Committee, it was already dark as ink. Village Chief Wei was waiting for them at the entrance of the village.

As soon as he jumped off the tractor, Village Chief Wei did not rush to check the supplies in the back bucket, but walked to Zhang Chao's side, looking embarrassed and unable to utter a word.

Zhang Chao was very surprised. He had never seen such an expression on Village Chief Wei's face.

Just as he was about to ask, a woman came out of the village committee office, pointed to the second floor, and said to Zhang Chao in a tone that could not be denied or questioned: "The village chief said this is your room now? I want it."

(End of this chapter)