Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 270 Our Way to School
This is the first day of school.

It was 5: in the morning, and the sky was just getting light. The humming of night owls could be heard from time to time in the woods. Dewdrops had just slid to the tips of the grass leaves, barely hanging there. Even the big rooster in the village lay in its nest, waiting for the temperature to warm up.

Wei Enze, a third-grade primary school student in Shilei Village, has already put on his cotton coat, carried his schoolbag, and is ready to set off, holding the hand of his second-grade sister.

The teacher said that there would be an opening ceremony before class today, and he wanted to arrive early so that he could help the teacher clean the classroom and maybe even get a chance to be the flag-raiser.

As soon as they reached the entrance of the village, they saw the village chief and a young man with a big camera hanging around his neck standing there, as if they had been waiting for their arrival.

The village chief led the young people and introduced them to them: "This is Uncle Li Zhao, also a writer. He will go to school with you today."

When Weinze heard the word "writer", his eyes lit up and he looked carefully at the young man in front of him. He had long hair, black-framed glasses, and a much paler complexion, and he didn't look like that man at all.

Weinze was a little disappointed. He missed his brother who loved to tell stories and ride pigs.

Li Zhao squatted down and said to Wei Enze gently: "Zhang Chao asked me to come!"

When he heard that it was Zhang Chao who asked him to come, Wei Enze became happy, but he asked doubtfully, "Do you want me to follow you all the way to school?"

Li Zhao nodded. Wei Enze said, "Then you catch up. The road is not easy to walk on, so you have to be careful!"

Li Zhao shook his long hair in a casual manner and said, "I also came from the mountains, so why would I be afraid of such a short distance?"

Half an hour after he said this, he regretted it. Mountains are different from each other - if the mountains when he was a child were one ridge after another, stretching to the end of the earth, then the mountains around Shilei Village were one cliff after another, splitting the earth into countless pieces.

After walking a few miles along the foggy dirt mountain road, the journey became difficult.

First, you have to walk down the steep, gravel-covered slope to the water's edge. If you are not careful, you may step on the wrong place and "get there in one step." Li Zhao imitated the child, half leaning forward, and supporting the ground with his hands from time to time, and finally reached the bottom of the ditch smoothly.

Wei Enze looked at the river in front of him, turned around and said to his sister and Li Zhao: "The water has risen, we can't get through here." Then he led the two of them upstream.

There is no road along the coast, sometimes it is a shoal covered with pebbles, sometimes it is a steep cliff with large reefs piled up one after another. The reefs are covered with moss and are very slippery. Fortunately, the predecessors pulled an iron lock here. Although it is rusty, it guarantees the safety of the travelers to a minimum.

After walking for 20 minutes, we finally reached a section of the river upstream where the water flow was calm. In the middle of the river, someone had built a discontinuous bridge with large pieces of bluestone, and the uneven surface was just a palm's height above the water.

Wayne Ze led his sister and they crossed the river like two clever little deer. Although Li Zhao was an adult, tall and long-legged, and could cross two stones in half a step, he was trembling with fear and was a long time behind the brother and sister before crossing the river.

On a cold morning in the mountains of Guizhou, Li Zhao was sweating profusely. He asked the brother and sister, "Do you usually go to school like this every day?"

Weinze nodded, without saying much, but just kept walking forward, saying as he walked: "We've taken a detour. We're going to be late and won't be able to be the flag-raiser."

Li Zhao had no choice but to hurry up and catch up.

When he climbed up another beam with his brother and sister, panting, using his hands and feet, he was really troubled by the road ahead.

A narrow dirt road, only wide enough for one person, stretches deep into the mountains, with towering cliffs on one side and a deep abyss on the other. Looking down, there is the surging river and jagged rocks that are as white as teeth.

There were no guardrails, not even a small tree, only the shiny green grass in the morning sun greeting him by the roadside.

Li Zhao was a little annoyed that he was assigned such a task by the leaders of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles. He was also obsessed with it. When he heard that it was related to Zhang Chao, he agreed without hesitation. Now he was in a dilemma!

Wayne Ze did not notice the young man's entanglement and hesitation behind him. He and his sister walked onto the cliff path one after the other as usual, except that he walked behind and his sister walked in front.

The two men, one wearing a blue cotton coat and the other wearing a red cotton coat, were like two short colored pens, walking along the path, slowly cutting the mountain in half.

By this time the sun had risen very high, and the sunlight was shining on the brother and sister, coating them with a layer of golden powder, making them look so small and yet so sacred.

The light dispersed the fog, and Li Zhao suddenly saw clearly - the surrounding mountains all had such a thin line of suspended roads extending out, some of which were empty, and some of which had moving colors on them.

The end point of these thin lines is a depression surrounded by mountains. It is slightly flatter than other places, dotted with a few dilapidated houses and layers of fields.

Li Zhao suddenly understood why Zhang Chao asked him to take his SLR camera to follow the primary school students in Shilei Village to school. He immediately unscrewed the lens cap, aimed at the picture in front of him, and pressed the shutter...

……

"Look, this is the road that the children of Shilei Village take to go to school." Zhang Chao pointed at the dangerous yet charming photo taken by Li Zhao on the big screen.

Li Zhao is not a professional photographer, but just a young writer who is just starting out and is interested in photography. Therefore, the composition and color of the photos are not outstanding, but the shocking power of the pictures themselves has deeply moved all the reporters present.

This was a grand new book launch event, jointly organized by Chunfeng Publishing House, 21st Century Publishing House and Huacheng Publishing House. The event was the novel written by Zhang Chao in Shilei Village, an unprecedented "one book, three editions".

The location was in the most modern cinema hall in Fuhai City. The main creator Zhang Chao sat in the middle of a row of single sofas in front of the big screen, with the editors-in-chief and editors of three publishing houses next to him.

Last month, after more than a dozen publishing houses "fought" fiercely in the village committee of Shilei Village, only these three were left.

Among them, Chunfengshe obtained the complete novel version, titled "Star Chaser".

The book that 21st Century Publishing House got was the fairy tale version, titled "The Exiled Child of a Meteor."

The book that Huacheng Publishing House got is the youth adventure version, titled "Young Meteor".

Zhang Chao did not even intervene in the title of the book this time, leaving it to the publisher to decide. All his energy was focused on the photos that were being published.

The reporters who came to the press conference initially focused their attention on Zhang Chao's peculiar creative method this time - how could he fit two "derivatives" with completely different themes and styles into the length of a novel.

This creative method is unheard of and unseen, and it is definitely a pioneering work in novel writing. However, Zhang Chao did not answer the question that everyone was most concerned about, but instead projected 10 photos of children from Shilei Village on their way to school on the huge screen, and finally stopped at the picture of a primary school with "red and blue colored pens" dotting the mountains and countless small roads converging into the valley.

The reporters discussed it in a buzzing voice for a while before they quieted down and continued to listen to Zhang Chao speak.

Zhang Chao said: "As you all know, before the Chinese New Year, I was involved in an unexpected dispute. A 'youth and children education expert' brought his beloved daughter and had a quarrel with me.

The starting point of this dispute was that the 'youth and children education expert' liked to praise Japanese children for their ability to endure hardships and walk. I happened to have lived in Shilei Village in Guizhou for more than two months, and I know how many difficulties and obstacles the children there have to go through to go to school.

张潮一边说着一边指了指照片道：“什雷村的孩子每天要走1个半小时到2个小时才能到就读的小学，所以他们每天早上最晚6点就要出发；晚上6点甚至7点才能到家。

- Oh, let me add one more thing. The child in the photo is called Weinze. It was he who inspired me to create this very special work that you all see today. Those who can participate in the summer camp are all children from the city, and it can even be said that they come from well-off families.

They can certainly represent a part of Chinese teenagers, but they are far from all of them. There are still many teenagers and children in China who have to carry heavy schoolbags, walk long mountain roads, and even risk their lives to study every day.

This is already the 21st century. I believe this situation was even more common in the 90s and 80s. Are these young people "little emperors"? Are they the "lost generation"? Are they unable to endure hardship, or are they extravagant and dissolute?
Which of the Japanese elementary school students described by the "expert" as "all-powerful" can be like Weinze in the photo, spending 2 hours every day going down cliffs, wading through rivers, and walking on cliffs, just to learn the knowledge that can change their destiny in school?"

A series of questions made everyone in the screening room silent. Everyone looked at the photos on the big screen with a thoughtful look in their eyes.

Zhang Chao sighed and continued, "We are a vast country with uneven development. 'Youth and children's education' cannot just focus on a small group of children in developed cities. For more children, let alone attending summer camps, they have to help their families with farm work every weekend when they don't have classes.

Why does that 'youth and children education expert' only see the 'little emperor' and 'little princess', and fail to see the children who are more numerous, more widely distributed, and more in need of help? Is it because these children cannot afford his books or attend his wife's summer camp? "

After these words were spoken, the reporters at the scene were already sensitively aware that Sun Yunxiao, the "youth and children's education expert" mentioned by Zhang Chao, might disappear from the public's sight forever.

Zhang Chao did not mention his name directly, which was already the greatest kindness and restraint.

Whenever Sun Yunxiao's name is mentioned in the future, it will surely be nailed to the pillar of shame in Chinese education, with people pointing at him and saying, "Look, this is the sanctimonious, money-obsessed 'expert'!"

He might even spit after he finishes saying it.

This is probably why Zhang Chao did not respond at all after Sun Yunxiao's daughter Sun Ran made accusations against him in the media - there is no need to bother with a "dead man"...

Zhang Chao gave everyone some time to think, and then continued: "Of course, I also want to thank these 'youth and children education experts'. Without their inspiration, I would not have thought of doing this."

After saying that, he signaled to the staff at the stage to switch to the next picture - this was a web page display with a large title at the top, plain and simple: Our way to school.

Below is the series of photos that Zhang Chao just showed everyone, accompanied by the text written by Zhang Chao himself:
"It takes 5-year-old Weinze two hours to walk more than five kilometers to school. If the weather is bad, he may not be able to reach school until noon..."

Zhang Chao said: "Shilei Village is just a small mountain village I have been to. I believe that in the mountains like the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, there are many such small villages, and there are also many children like Weinze.

Because the village is too small, they can only share a school with several other villages. If they are unlucky, the school is very far away from their home and it takes a long time to walk there, and they may even encounter various dangers on the way.

This is something that anyone who is used to city life cannot imagine - going to school requires such a big risk!
I am very grateful to Shilei Village for providing me with a quiet place to recuperate my body and mind when I was most tired, hesitant and confused. I originally wanted to use part of this book to build a road for Shilei Village.

But after arguing with the 'expert', I suddenly realized that the road to be built is not just the one connecting the village and the town; the road connecting the children to the school is equally important.

So, I decided to build a new road so that Wayne and his classmates can go to class without such danger. "

At this time, a reporter raised his hand and asked, "Isn't it going to cost much more to build this road than the road from the village to the town? It goes up the mountain and down the river, and there's not even the most basic roadbed.

Why not just build a Hope Primary School in the village? In the long run, wouldn’t this be more convenient for students? ”

Zhang Chao smiled and said, "You are right. If we really build this road, it may not be enough to put all my royalties into it. This requires unified planning and investment from the country. But before that, can I take some safety measures first?

For example, wedged long spikes into the steep downhill slope to make a ladder; built a small bridge over the river to prevent it from being flooded when the water rises; built some railings on the path along the cliff... At least it won't be so dangerous for children to go to school. These can always be done.

As for the Hope Primary School, the village there is too small, there are too few children, and it is so remote, who can you let teach there? In fact, in a few years, when the road to the town is repaired, the children may gradually go to the town to study.

Besides, it took two or three years to build a school and recruit teachers in such a remote place. With these safety measures, construction can start soon. I am a short-sighted person. I only care about the things in front of me. I can't think too far ahead. "

The reporter blushed. Then another reporter asked, "So the purpose of launching this website is...?"

Zhang Chao replied: "As I said, there are many small villages like Shilei Village, and there are many children like Weinze. This website is open to everyone. You can take pictures of these special 'roads to school', upload them to this website, and share them with everyone.

We want to let everyone see that this country is huge, and there are still many unknown corners and unknown hardships. But no difficulties or obstacles can stop us from seeking knowledge.

Why do I say that the post-80s generation in Japan must be inferior to that in China? It is not because of my own success or the confidence gained from the young people who have a good life in the city, but because of the confidence gained from these children.

I believe that when I was walking on cobblestones and asphalt roads to go to school in my childhood, there must be more of my peers walking on much more difficult roads to go to school. We are standing on the land and the sky is above our heads.

That’s why I created the website Our Way to School – more people need to see them, and they need to be seen by more people.”

The reporter then asked, “So are you going to set up a charity foundation to build roads for these children?”

Zhang Chao waved his hands quickly and said, "Of course not. I told you, what they need most is to be seen by more people first. As for what I can do for them, I have already done what I can do. As for what other people who see it will do, I can't control it, and I won't set up a charity foundation to ask anyone for money."

……

After the press conference, the “Our Way to School” website was officially launched and soon caused a huge sensation and controversy!

"Zhang Chao, why do you want to expose the scars of our motherland to foreigners!" It actually dominated the mainstream of online public opinion for a time...

(End of this chapter)