Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 395: Zhang Chao rewrote the healing system?

With Zhang Chao's delicate brushstrokes, "Xiao Yang's" past is pieced together through his own memories, his uncle's cold words, and other people's gossip.

No father; mother ran away; raised by grandmother; dropped out of junior high school; worked in Shenzhen... The growth experience of a "left-behind child" is all too common. Apart from the unknown situation of his parents, there seems to be nothing special about it.

After reading this, most readers feel sympathy for "Xiao Yang", after all, "a child without a mother is like a weed"; at the same time, they also wonder if this theme seems a bit "mediocre", after all, everyone has been tortured by Xu Lizhi.

At the same time, the technique is relatively traditional and cannot be compared with the skills of "The Last Lesson" that integrate the past, present and future.

The future scenes that appear in the novel - mobile payment, video calls, facial recognition... have also been shown in "The Last Lesson", so there is nothing special about them.

But since he is Zhang Chao, readers still have the patience to read on.

Then everyone's concept of "working" was shattered by a memory of "Xiao Yang" -

【The air conditioner from the Internet cafe was still sticking to his neck, so he squatted under the iron fence of the talent market, counting ants carrying cigarette filters. A middleman in a faded suit used a loudspeaker to shout "Ten yuan an hour for film pasting at the electronics factory", and the crowd rushed over like ants seeing a rotten banana peel. He deliberately waited until the end, waiting for the words "Three more idiots are needed to move the frozen meat", before slapping his ID card on the other party's sweaty palm. He gave him twenty yuan first, and then a hundred and twenty yuan a day, which would earn him twenty yuan more than working in the electronics factory. The electronics factory requires five consecutive days of work, and only real idiots go there. ...】

[The pork swayed and collided on the iron hooks, like countless naked corpses dancing ballet. The foreman from Northeast China scolded him for moving too slowly. He stared at the fat flesh where the gold chain was stuck in his collar, imagining that underneath was a neck that had been cut open like a pig. For ten hours, he survived by counting the ears of frozen pigs: the left ears with odd numbers were thrown into the blue plastic basket, and the right ears with even numbers were thrown into the red one. …]

[After his salary was exchanged for a few crumpled bills, Xiao Yang went to buy a pack of six-yuan Blue Wolf. He picked up the lighter when he was sleeping on a park bench. A beautiful woman in a bikini was printed on the plastic body. As long as he lit the lighter, the swimsuit of the bikini beauty would fade a little bit as the flame swayed, revealing her graceful and sexy body. He would stare at her body, not taking his eyes off her, until he suddenly remembered to use it sparingly, otherwise he would not be able to see it in the future. …]

[When the Internet cafe's overnight hours began, his soul was truly relaxed. The holey sofa was still warm from the previous person's body temperature, and the roar of the computer mainframe drowned out the noise from the next door. He never played games, but just watched the movie "Young and Dangerous" over and over again - when Chen Haonan was slashing people in Temple Street, he used his fingernails to scratch the cigarette scar on the armrest, imagining himself holding a meat knife and rushing towards the Northeast foreman wearing a gold chain. ...]

"Is this still a job? Work one day and take three days off? The money you earn is not saved or sent, but all used for surfing the Internet?"

"And what's up with this cheapest Shaxian set meal? White rice with marinated sauce and soup for 3 yuan. Where can I find cheap food in Shenzhen?"

"Only 5 yuan for a whole night? This is 2024? You must be kidding! In our small county, a whole night costs 10 yuan now."

"Who is Zhang Chao looking down on? Young people may be poor, but how can they be so hopeless?"

Almost all readers find the "future" described by Zhang Chao incredible.

Although the assembly line workers described by Xu Lizhi were exploited and ignored, they at least showed a kind of unwillingness and anger, which still contained the inexhaustible power of humanity.

But in this article "Letter from a Stranger Woman", this "Xiao Yang" has completely lost all vitality and energy, and lives like a walking corpse.

Working is just a way for him to stay alive under the minimum conditions. "Xiao Yang" has no hope for the future and almost devotes his entire spiritual world to the Internet.

In the novel, he occasionally gives gifts to a type of professional women called "online female anchors." He only looks for the "live broadcast room" with the least number of viewers and gives the cheapest gifts, usually no more than the price of a pack of cigarettes.

In order to hear the "online female anchor" sweetly shout: "Thank you "Longhua Black Cannon" brother..." The readers can understand the rest of the words, but what the hell is "boss 25 centimeters"? Is Zhang Chao's imagination so wild? Is there really someone who would say such shameless words?

"Xiao Yang" was absolutely unwilling to spend even one dollar more on gifts, because he had spent all his money and could only survive two days of starvation. On the third day, he would have to go to the gate of the urban village and wait for work.

Just when "Xiao Yang" was about to leave his hometown, his uncle handed him a thick envelope.

He thought this was the funeral allowance given to him by his uncle - although he did not pay for the funeral, "Xiao Yang" felt that he still had the right to do so.

But his uncle's cold words shattered all his fantasies:
【“This is something your mother sent you. She asked me to give it to you. Please keep it.”

Xiao Yang's hand shrank as if it was burned, and the yellow envelope fell to the ground, and was soon soaked by the accumulated water. Xiao Yang glanced at his uncle, and the man turned around and walked away as if he had completed an important task, as if he did not see the envelope fall to the ground, nor did he see his nephew.

Xiao Yang had no choice but to bend down and pick up the envelope. He couldn't find a tissue to wipe the water stain, so he stuck it on his T-shirt. But the T-shirt was made of synthetic fiber and couldn't absorb water. He shook it twice, and the thick stack of letter paper in the envelope made a "quack" sound, like a noisy duck. Fortunately, the kraft paper used to make the envelope was somewhat waterproof, so it didn't soak through.

Xiao Yang took the envelope and looked at the unfamiliar words "Stone Bell Flower" on it, as if a primitive man looked up for the first time and saw the deep and boundless night sky and the eternally twinkling stars. He was as lonely as the fossil of the Yellow River elephant he had read about in elementary school textbooks. He soon discovered that the seal of the envelope was wide open, revealing the white teeth inside.

"Finally, it's time for "Letter from a Stranger."" The readers couldn't help but get excited, and the novel began to get into the "main topic."

Unlike Zweig's original novel, which "mystifies" the woman's identity, Zhang Chao's novel directly points out the identity of the letter writer - "Xiao Yang's" mother.

To "Xiao Yang", she was the sporadic spit mixed in the string of obscene words sprayed out by grandma and uncle when they quarreled and cursed, the fragments of swear words that her childhood friend said when he lost to her in a game of glass marbles, the weird eyes and contemptuous smiles of neighbors in her peripheral vision...

Apart from knowing that she was a woman and that she was frivolous, nothing else was known.

"Xiao Yang" was a little confused and didn't know what to do, so he decided not to read the letter first, but took it on the train back to Shenzhen.

Although he did not have much affection for his grandmother, whom his uncle called the "immortal old woman", the "immortal old woman" finally died, and he completely became a rootless duckweed.

The train journey back home is long, taking 12 hours. But for "Xiao Yang" who often has to sit on the low-quality sofa in the Internet cafe all night, it doesn't feel painful.

Most passengers on this route choose the "maglev high-speed rail" with a speed of over 500 kilometers per hour, which allows them to complete a 12-hour journey on a green train in less than two hours.

The ticket price for the "Maglev High-Speed ​​Rail" is very expensive, but "Xiao Yang's" time is not valuable.

The car was empty, and the mountains outside the car window turned into dark gray blocks of varying shades. In the middle of the night, he finally couldn't help but take out the letter from the back pocket of his jeans.

[He first took the letter out of the envelope, but did not rush to read what was written. Instead, he flipped through the dozen pages of letter paper until he confirmed that there was indeed no money inside - he could not be sure whether "Mom" did not send it or it had been taken away by his uncle. He firmly believed that it was the latter for no reason. ...]

Xiao Yang unfolded the letter with slightly trembling hands. The handwriting on it was neat and beautiful, just like the one written by the study committee member he had a crush on when he was in junior high school.

[Dear Maomao: I have torn up this letter several times and rewrote it several times to avoid people. But some things will rot in my stomach if I don’t say them now. Your father said that my belly is the softest, softer than the most expensive down pillow. He likes to sleep with my belly as a cushion. Later, when you were born, he said that my belly was flat and it was not comfortable to use as a pillow. Of course, you may not understand all this. What am I talking about? Let me start from the beginning. No, maybe I should start from the end. You may hate me, just like I hate that Taiwanese. No, I shouldn’t mention him. Your family must have never said anything about him, right? She is always right. That year, when she hid me in the attic of her hometown to wait for the birth, she stuffed a rag in my mouth, saying that it would not hurt if I bit it. When I fainted while working in the electronics factory in Guanlan, the team leader scolded me for pretending. He didn’t know that I had just had a miscarriage a few days ago. I went to the hospital to do it. The child was so small that it was not even as big as a fist. The child was your sister. No, I can't say it anymore. You will feel disgusted, but you drank my bloody milk when you were a child. The left nipple was infected and festered after you bit it. Now there is a scar, like a shriveled date. My mother-in-law refused to let the two children I gave birth to drink my breast milk. She thought I was dirty, but you were crying with hunger at that time. What can I do? When you were a child, you liked to sleep with one of my pillowcases embroidered with "Labor is Glorious". It was issued by the trade union when I worked in Dongguan. But what can I be glorious about? A child died in my stomach. What am I talking about? By the way, the Taiwanese took me to Shangri-La for a buffet. I stuffed five boiled eggs into my bag, but he threw them into the trash can. He said, "Azhen, you are so embarrassed." Your uncle should be rich now, right? He always says that I am cheap, but the 200 yuan dowry for his wife that year was saved by me on the assembly line. He is a money-grubber. I stuffed yuan in the letter, and he would give you the letter after he got the money. After you were born, the Taiwanese man returned to Taiwan the next day to report on his work, and I never saw him again. …】 (It’s great not to have paragraphs) This letter was written in a chaotic manner. Although there were many corrections, it was still full of typos, and there were not even paragraphs. It gave Xiao Yang, who was only in the second grade of junior high school, a headache.

"Maomao" is his nickname? Xiao Yang only vaguely remembers that someone called him that when he was a child. But this memory slipped through his fingers before it could become a fossil in his hippocampus.

However, "Xiao Yang" still sorted out the life trajectory of this strange "mother" in the first half of her life:
Like him, he dropped out of junior high school to work in Guangdong; he lived in Dongguan, Zhongshan, and Shenzhen; when he was working at an electronics factory in Shenzhen, he became the mistress of a Taiwanese supervisor who had a family; the Taiwanese supervisor’s surname was Yang; he lied to the woman that he would divorce her, but when he gave birth, he was transferred back to the Taiwan headquarters; his “mother” raised him in her hometown until he was 4 years old, and suddenly abandoned him and left her hometown in 2009; the reason for his “mother” leaving home was to meet her online lover in person; her “mother” never returned to her hometown again…

Now this "mother" has a complete family and has given birth to two children, a boy and a girl.

"Xiao Yang" suddenly thought of the sister mentioned in the letter who had miscarried in the toilet - his "mother" really had the destiny of having both a son and a daughter.

The story of "mother" is not uncommon, and there are several different versions in every factory. The only difference is that the women have different names and places of origin, different weights and sizes, different beauty and ugliness, different numbers of children aborted or born, and different identities and statuses of men.

"Xiao Yang" can name a few more legendary women - some drove away the original wife to take the position, some fought to the death with their mistresses, and some built a big business with their children and finally helped their lovers in trouble to make a comeback...

"Xiao Yang" likes to listen to such stories, and likes to read such stories even more, and of course is willing to be the protagonist in these stories.

The story of "Mom" is really too mediocre. While watching, "Xiao Yang" outlined his own unique features and features for this strange woman.

According to the letter, compared to my uncle’s age, “Mom” is less than 40 years old now. If she takes good care of herself, she should still be beautiful, right?
She must be beautiful. If she is not beautiful, how can she be the wife of my father, the Taiwanese man?

She now has two children, a boy and a girl. Her family must be well off. Maybe each child has his or her own room? Is there an air conditioner in each room?

There must be air conditioning, because they have delicate skin and flesh, and they can't stand the summer heat. There must be very few mosquitoes in the house, and there is no need to light mosquito coils.

There are so many people in her family, the dining table must be very big, right? If it is not big, there will be no room for everyone to sit. A "mom", a "dad..." ... "uncle", a younger brother, a younger sister...

What should we call the parents of "uncle"? Should we call them grandpa and grandma?

Do you need to change your surname to the family you marry into? "Xiao Yang" was reluctant to change his surname. He had never met the man who gave him this surname, and he didn't even know his name.

Maybe "Uncle"'s surname is also Yang? "Yang" is a common surname.

……

As he thought about it, a special feeling grew in his body.

【Perhaps because he was sleepy in the second half of the night, Xiao Yang vaguely saw lines of words flowing like blood, forming a trickle, flowing along his fingers holding a corner of the letter paper, and gurgling into his body. These trickles first flowed through the capillaries on his fingertips, then twisted into streams and rivers, following the beating of his heart, constantly washing even the most marginal corners of his body, nourishing his skin, muscles, bones, and internal organs. Just like a dead red willow in the Gobi Desert, the underground river where it took root was suddenly filled with floods, so even the smallest branches showed a few green spots.】

After reading this, the readers all had a smile on their faces.

One of the four great joys in life is "rain after a long drought". This kind of joy can arouse people's most instinctive empathy and cheer for the lucky ones from the bottom of their hearts.

Although Xiao Yang's behavior of "working one day and playing three days" is undesirable, it is also related to the environment he grew up in. His pale soul has never been nourished by family affection, and he grew up like a little beast. It is good enough that he did not become a bad person.

Now his mother wrote him a letter. Although the words and logic were confusing, it showed the mother's sincerity towards her son. Regardless of whether she was willing to accept this son or not, this letter was always a good start.

Especially when you see the conclusion written by this "strange woman" at the end of the letter, it makes everyone feel as if the softest part of their heart has been gently touched -

[Maomao, Mommy was wrong. Mommy is sorry for you. Mommy misses you. Mommy wants to kiss your face again. Mommy wants to...]

Each "mother" is written into the readers' hearts.

Especially readers who are of the same age as Zhang Chao or older than him, have watched a movie called "Only Mom is Good in the World" when they were young. That movie was simply a tearjerker at the time. The line "A child without a mother is like a weed..." when the song sounded could make half of the children in the school cry.

The train slowed down, and the sound of the iron wheels rolling on the seams of the rails suddenly became louder; when the sound hit the eardrums like a hammer, Shenzhen East Station arrived. Xiao Yang got off the train wearing the same clothes as the day he left, and was led out of the station hall by the crowd and stood on the side of the road. The sun in Shenzhen was still scorching, and everything here - the smoke and dust from the subway construction, the hurried crowds, the vehicles shuttling back and forth - had not changed at all, as if they were frozen on the day he left. Only Xiao Yang knew that he was the one who had changed.

He is going to find his mother. 】

"Zhang Chao writes brilliantly here!" Yu Hua and Su Tong were sitting in a teahouse, each holding a copy of Contemporary Chinese Literature. Su Tong happened to see this passage and exclaimed, "Great!"

Yu Hua quickly came over, and Su Tong pointed at the description and explained: "Zhang Chao wrote this sentence very well - 'Xiao Yang' himself felt that Shenzhen was frozen on the day he left. This sentence describes his change of mentality vividly and subtly, which is wonderful!"

Yu Hua reads things quickly and is sometimes a little careless, but Su Tong understands it all: "Indeed, this is a typical "protagonist mentality" - the world only changes when I observe and intervene.

The world I can’t see is frozen and unchanging. After being nourished by a letter from his mother, this ‘Xiao Yang’ came alive and felt like the protagonist of his own life again.”

Su Tong praised: "There are not many young people with such writing skills."

Yu Hua smiled proudly: "Not many? Go find another one." Then he showed a mischievous smile and said with a smirk: "Hurry up and continue watching. Zhang Chao has prepared 'good wine and good food' waiting for us."

Su Tong was confused. Could it be that Zhang Chao had changed his personality and rewritten the healing series this time?
He continued to flip through the pages, and keenly saw the first "hidden arrow" shot by Zhang Chao -

[Xiao Yang found Hei Lao San and spread out his palm. Inside was a small card. He asked with a smile: "I heard you accept ID cards? I have never sold this one before. How much do you want?"]

Su Tong took a breath of cold air. This was clearly the prelude to torture!

(End of this chapter)