Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 374: This Thing Is Most Longing

At the launch of Zhang Chao’s new book, the protagonists are not Zhang Chao, but these kids?
The readers and reporters at the scene were still confused, thinking that Zhang Chao had lost his mind and mistook the new book for the "Star Chaser" series released at the beginning of this year.

However, Zhang Chao at the scene did not panic, but calmly said: "My novel this time is a little different from the previous ones. It is a science fiction novel with "rural" as the theme."

As soon as Zhang Chao finished speaking, exclamations came from the audience.

"Rural" and "science fiction" - these two words don't seem to fit together, especially not with the author Zhang Chao.

There are works that combine two contrasting elements. Liu Cixin, who is currently serializing "The Three-Body Problem" in "Youth·Grand View", once wrote a short story "The Rural Teacher".

This work links the aftermath of the extremely grand cosmic war with the extremely tiny fate of rural teachers and students. Before reading this work, no reader would have thought that the fate of the earth could be so fragile and tenaciously tied to a teacher, a few children and a few formulas.

In recent years, with the serialization of "The Three-Body Problem", Liu Cixin's fame has grown, and his previous works have been frequently brought up for discussion. Some people even think that some of his excellent short stories should be included in Chinese textbooks, among which the most popular one is "The Rural Teacher".

Could it be that Zhang Chao was also influenced by the authors under his command and began to try this contrasting combination?
However, Zhang Chao on the stage did not rush to explain, but said calmly: "Describing "hometown" seems to be a curse that Chinese writers cannot escape, so I was once very resistant to doing related creations.

I think no matter how much I write, I can never write about the countryside as richly, profoundly, and delicately as Xiao Hong, Zhao Shuli, Zhou Libo, Liu Shaotang, Mo Yan, Chen Zhongshi, Lu Yao, and other predecessors...

It seems that all tragedies and comedies can be contained by that land.”

Zhang Chao's words resonated with many people. No matter how much modern readers dislike Chinese writers for writing about villages and fields, thousands of years of farming tradition have indeed made "hometown" an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

Therefore, if we have to say which literary subject matter the Chinese literary world has explored at a world-class level, it can only be "local".

But this also created a huge dilemma - the urbanization trend in China is irreversible, and the demise of traditional villages is already a countdown. The "rural stories" that have been narrated over and over again have finally been questioned and even abandoned by readers.

"Only able to write about the countryside" has almost become a curse hanging over the heads of a group of China's best novelists.

Why did Zhang Chao take the initiative to put on this tight hoop?

Everyone listened to Zhang Chao continue to say: "But this year I went to the United States, saw Chinatown, saw the history of Chinese immigrants, and suddenly I understood - it turns out that it is not that the writers look back to the past again and again, looking for materials in the "homeland"; but the "homeland" stands in front of the writers again and again, forcing them to climb over it.

You can avoid it this time, but you can’t avoid it next time. So after I had a Sichuan meal in Chinatown, I decided to touch on this subject.

It’s just that my "homeland" is different from others - I don’t write about the countryside or farmers, but a group of people who have left their hometowns and forged a new "homeland" in a foreign country with their memories, expectations and obsessions.

After writing this novel, I suddenly thought of Shilei Village, the terraced fields, rice, corn, and children there; I thought of the first time I harvested rice, the first time I drove a hand tractor, the first time I rode... a horse..."

I don't know why, but when I got to this point, the media workers in the front row seemed to see the children grinning at the same time, and then they restrained their grins with great effort, as if they were holding back something.

Zhang Chao did not expect that he was so "deeply emotional" that he almost let it slip. He saw Wei Enze beside him looking up with his little face, about to laugh out loud, and his old face could not help but blush, and he hurriedly said: "...I just realized that it turns out that what makes people miss about "hometown" is not actually - or not just those memories;
It is also the feeling that seeps into the muscles and blood. Weinze, tell me, this is your first time leaving Shrey, how do you feel? "

Wayne Ze didn't expect Zhang Chao to name him first. He muttered in his heart, "Why is it different from what we agreed?" But he quickly adjusted his mentality and said, "I just feel that the world outside is really big."

The innocent words caused a burst of good-natured laughter. Weinze mustered up the courage to continue: "It's really big! I used to not believe what the textbooks said, that there are houses in the world taller than the "Old Mountain God" - oh, the "Old Mountain God" is a tree of ours, very tall.

Later, the village committee bought a TV, and I saw on TV that there really were big buildings much taller than the "Old Mountain God", and I really wanted to go and see them. Last time, I watched a train rumble past on TV, and I stared at it for half the night. The village chief said that when the road is repaired, we can take a bus to the county train station in four hours.

But our town is so far away, my parents have never been to the county. My grandfather said that you can go to the county after you finish high school. In the past, some people in the village went to study outside the mountains, and they had to carry a basket of corn as tuition.

This time we came by plane. As the plane was flying in the sky, the tall buildings, wide roads, and so many people all became very small - later the people could no longer be seen, the buildings became dots, and the roads became lines.

After that, I could only see the mountains. This is what the mountains looked like for the first time. Some were coiled like snakes, some were like the backs of buffaloes, and some were stretched out like the claws of roosters...

I asked the uncle who came with us, which mountain our Shilei Village was in? He didn't know either. I panicked and looked carefully to see if our Shilei Village was in these mountains.

But the plane was flying too high, and soon all I could see were clouds. It was my first time looking at clouds from above the clouds, and it felt so fresh… But I also felt a little uneasy, wondering how Shi Lei was doing, and whether my parents would see the plane I was on when they looked up.

After flying for a long time, Liang Ximei suddenly asked me to look out the window, so I looked out the window. There were no clouds outside the window, and I could see the ground. But it was very different from where I was. The ground was flat, as if it had been rolled by a stone mill.

I was thinking, the land here is so flat, we can’t make terraces, and we can’t bring water down from the mountain pits, so how can we get water to irrigate the fields…”

Weinze's narration was rather messy at the beginning, with a hammer here and a stick there, mixed with dialect slang from time to time, but it became smoother and more and more people were immersed in his narration.

Unlike the "good kids" that have appeared on TV before, Weinze is full of simplicity that has not been "disciplined" by any media. As he tells his story, people seem to be able to touch this child who is less than ten years old. In this "unexpected" journey, he first realized what "homesickness" is.

"Hometown" is indeed something that only exists when you leave your hometown.

At the end of his speech, Wei Enze suddenly said to Zhang Chao: "Uncle Zhang Chao, I miss Shilei Village a little bit, my yellow dog, and the chili peppers made by my mother..."

Zhang Chao touched his head and comforted him, "We will be back in two days. Chili...I'll take you to eat some in the evening." Wei Enze said "um" and nodded.

At this time, Liang Ximei spoke up—she was the oldest among the children, so she should have spoken first—she joked, "Wei Enze, you said you wanted to study in Yanjing in the future, and go to the same university as Uncle Zhang Chao, but how come you can't stand it after only two days?"

Wei Enze turned his head away, indicating that he didn't want to pay attention to her.

Liang Ximei did not change her cheerful style. She first said to Zhang Chao: "Brother Zhang Chao, I am not like him. I really like the outside world. Whether it is Yanjing or Guangdong where my parents work, I think both are good."

She turned to the audience and said in a girlish voice with a slight accent but clear and moving: "Last year when we were harvesting rice, Zhang Chao squatted on the ridge and asked me: 'Xiaomei, have you ever thought about leaving Shilei and going out?' I held the sickle tightly for a long time without being able to answer.

That night, I slept with my brother in my arms, listening to the mice running around and calling under the floor, and suddenly I realized that I wanted to go out and not stay in the mountains forever. When I was a child, I didn’t dare to eat all the fruit candies my parents brought back from Guangdong at once, so that I could eat one when I missed them after they passed away.

Later, the red and green candy wrappers melted in my pockets. When I peeled them open, the sugar stuck to the cloth. They were sweet when melted in my mouth, but tasted bitter in my throat when I swallowed them, like drinking rain water from drying rice.

We Shui people don’t celebrate the Han Chinese New Year, but my parents can only come back during the Han Chinese New Year. So every year on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, I would squat at the entrance of the village waiting for the tractor. Sometimes, I would wait until my toes were swollen like carrots before I saw them get off the tractor carrying snakeskin bags.

In the summer, when the iron chain bridge was completed, I ran back and forth on the bridge. The iron chain swayed more violently than a swing. The bridge builder said that this bridge could lead to the world outside the mountain, but I touched the cold iron chain and thought, how great would it be if the bridge could lead to Guangdong?
For me, hometown means waiting and waiting, waiting for the rice in the fields to turn yellow and then green, waiting for the firewood in the fire pit to crackle and emit sparks, waiting for my grandma to say to me by the fire pit, "Little sister, let the moon shine on your face" - the moon here is two times bigger than that in the city!

I don’t want to wait anymore, I want to go out too. Home is where my parents are.”

After Liang Ximei finished speaking, it caused another commotion at the scene.

No one thought that such a little girl from the mountains would have such courage. "Hometown is where the relatives are" is not a new saying. There are similar sentences in many rural prose, and they are almost like chicken soup for the soul.

However, Liang Ximei said this not because she read it in the book, but because she summarized it from her own life experience and emotional experience, which is very valuable.

Wei Enze and Liang Ximei, both children from Shilei Village, have completely different ideas about "hometown-outside world", which made people at the scene realize that Zhang Chao's new book may really be different from previous "hometown literature".

The complexity of the Chinese people's feelings towards their hometown are concretized at this moment.

At this time, another little girl who was about the same age as Wei Enze spoke up. She was Liang Dianmei: "It's not that good outside. My brother is working outside and hasn't been back for many years. I miss him so much. I asked my father when my brother would come back, and my father said, 'He's dead. He died outside.'

I don't believe it. My brother is so tall and his arms are so strong. No one in the village can beat him. How could he die outside?

I still remember when the river was flooded and the bluestone slabs were submerged, my brother asked me to lie on his back while he crossed the river barefoot on the slippery stones. I said, "Brother, I'm scared," and he turned his head and smiled at me, "Hold on tight, I'm more stable than an old buffalo."

The sweat on his neck was salty, and I counted the scars on the back of his head scratched by branches, one, two... When the sweet potatoes were roasted in the ashes of the fire, my brother always gave me the sweetest end; when we went to the market, he braided my pigtails, but I always braided them crookedly when I did it myself; and when the roof leaked during a rainstorm, my brother scooped up the water in a fertilizer bag and said, "Look, little sister, these are the stars that I picked for you."...

The last time I saw him was in Sister Xiuxiu's cell phone, which was full of machines, making so much noise that he had to strain his throat to speak. I said to Sister Xiuxiu, "Next time, let Brother sing a song," but Sister Xiuxiu said singing was not allowed there.

But now, even Sister Xiuxiu is not coming back. Sister Xiuxiu’s parents also said, “She is dead.” Brother, if you see this, please come back to see me, my parents, and me.”

Liang Dianmei even started to cry at the end of her speech.

Her words made everyone silent, only Zhang Chao squatted down, turned off the microphones on their collars, and whispered to comfort the little girl.

At this time, everyone realized that the relationship between "homeland-outside world" is not simply a "leave-return" binary. To some extent, the "outside world" has plundered the emotional relationship of the "homeland".

This kind of "plundering" may bring joy or sorrow to individuals, but for the "homeland", it has indeed accelerated its collapse.

Why did Liang Dianmei's brother not want to return to Shilei Village? The reason is not something that can be explained in a few words. But what prompted him to make this decision was probably the "local" deprivation and control of "those who leave" in a hidden or open way.

This cycle has been going on for who knows how many times on this land. Where will it end? No one can predict.

As these three children spoke, the other children also relaxed.

Liang Housheng was talking about his own kite-flying story: "The teacher said that children in the county town have remote-controlled airplanes to play with. I had never seen an airplane before, but now I have ridden one. I don't think all children in the county town have ridden one, right?

But I've ridden in an airplane before, and I still think that remote-controlled airplanes are not as fun as my kites. On the first day of spring, my grandfather would go to the back mountain to cut the oldest bamboo, roast it straight, and tie it into a kite. I used homework paper to make wings, and my grandmother scraped the ash from the bottom of the pot to make ink to draw the eyes.

Letting out the kite line along the mountain wind, the kite can fly into the clouds to fight with eagles. Last year, the line broke, and my grandfather said, "The line broke in the clouds, which is a message to our ancestors." ...

Wei Zecheng talked about how he bought clothes for his parents in Yanjing yesterday, and Liang Guangnian talked about what he saw and heard when he went to the county town last year...

As the children told their stories, everyone was "eye-opening" and at the same time, they became more and more curious about what the content of Zhang Chao's new book was.
Only Lu Jinbo in the background realized one thing with mixed feelings:

Zhang Chao is not holding a new book launch, it is actually a large-scale emotional interactive show! It has directly raised everyone's expectations!

(End of this chapter)