1979: My fiancée is a goddess

Chapter 147 Writers' Class and Qingming Festival
Friday, April 4th.

Today is Qingming Festival and the weather is gloomy.

As the saying goes, "During the Qingming Festival, the rain falls heavily, and the pedestrians on the road are heartbroken."

But today is not a holiday.

There are only four legal holidays these days: one day for New Year's Day, three days for Spring Festival, one day for Labor Day, and two days for National Day.

But Qingming Festival has always been a special day in the hearts of Chinese people. His mother Xu Yuxiu had told him early yesterday to come back early to burn paper.

In the morning, Cheng Kaiyan went to work as usual and slacked off to write the script. After a whole night of thinking and decision-making yesterday, the creative direction of the second act of the love letter drama was finalized.

Now that we have started, it is expected that the script will be completed in a few days.

For the entire morning, Cheng Kaiyan basically stayed in the office writing scripts, except for getting water and going to the toilet.

Jiang Ting is similar to him and is writing a thesis.

"Kaiyan, get me a glass of water."

There were more than a dozen reference books piled on Jiang Ting's desk. She kept recording the necessary information with a pen in her hand and gave instructions without even raising her head.

The woman's tone was quite direct, as it should be.

Over this period of time, the relationship between the two has become more familiar, and they are no longer as polite as before when talking about things.

In addition, Jiang Ting is just like Cheng Kaiyan. If there is nothing to do outside, she basically does not leave the office. She is either reading books, writing lesson plans, or writing papers.

A typical socially awkward person.

Jiang Ting is currently writing a thesis on the "invasion" of Western culture under the reform and opening up.

She is a top student who returned from studying in Germany. She has been abroad and witnessed the completely different material environment and concepts abroad and at home. Recently, she has focused on this topic and is now searching for information on a large scale, filling in arguments and writing a proposal report.

"Why don't you find a graduate student to help you? Wouldn't it be nice to have someone to serve you when you need to serve tea, run errands, and do odd jobs?"

Cheng Kaiyan had just finished the water in her cup, so she stood up, picked up the two cups, and asked casually.

Which teacher at the level of associate professor doesn't have a bunch of graduate students helping him with work?
Just give an order and someone will do it.

However, Jiang Ting is an exception. She only has Cheng Kaiyan under her command, and Cheng Kaiyan is just doing nothing and can't be of much help.

"I don't want to find it."

Jiang Ting replied indifferently that she was qualified to supervise graduate students, but perhaps because of her personality, she was too lazy to do so.

In the current academic environment, supervising graduate students is basically a teacher-student relationship.

A little too close.

Thinking of this, Jiang Ting glanced at him and said leisurely, "It's a pity that I am not very ambitious and only have a high school degree. If you were a college student, this professor would be able to guide you in academic research. In this situation, I will inconvenience you to run errands."

"Hahaha!"

Hearing this, Cheng Kaiyan laughed, did not refute, and turned around to go out to get some water.

This floor is full of students from the Chinese Department. There are many teaching assistants passing by in the corridor, as well as students who have been called into the office by their teachers.

"Cheng Kaiyan, good morning."

"Good morning, Xiao Cheng."

When they entered the water room, they saw Lin Xiaohong, a middle-aged female teacher, standing in front of the faucet, collecting water from two or three thermoses. When they saw Cheng Kaiyan, they waved enthusiastically.

"Good morning, Xiaohong, Teacher Niu."

Cheng Kaiyan greeted him with a smile, feeling a little emotional.

During this period of time, he has become a celebrity in the Chinese Department and even the entire school. Everyone is very enthusiastic about him. Maybe great writers have a special charm for people who study Chinese and engage in literature?

"I heard from students that you are writing a play recently?"

The middle-aged woman, Teacher Niu, asked curiously. She also heard it from her students.

There is a boy in their class who joined the drama club. During the break today, he promoted the club's new play "Love Letter" in class. Many students were interested in the news that the love letter was adapted into a play and asked about it.

"It's like this, Teacher Huang Huilin has been quite busy lately, so the drama club asked me to go over and help out, and we simply adapted the love letter into a drama." Cheng Kaiyan explained.

"The love letter has been adapted into a play?! Can I go and see it then?"

When Lin Xiaohong heard this, she also became interested.

"Of course, we'll start our first rehearsal the day after tomorrow, Sunday, but don't you have to review for the college entrance exam? Don't you have free time now?"

"Well... sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of wood."

Lin Xiaohong scratched her head a little embarrassedly.

The three of them chatted for a while while fetching water.

"By the way, Director Fang said that there will be a meeting before get off work ends at noon. He said that there is something important to announce. You and Professor Jiang should remember to come." Lin Xiaohong reminded.

"understood."

……

After getting the water, Cheng Kaiyan returned to the office and continued writing the script.

In a blink of an eye, the noon school bell rang, and he and Jiang Ting went out and walked towards the meeting room.

There were several strangers, both men and women, standing at the door of the conference room.

Cheng Kaiyan saw a familiar man among them. He was wearing a grey gown with a double-breasted collar and leather shoes. It was Jiang Zilong.

Jiang Zilong also noticed Cheng Kaiyan, a surprised smile appeared on his face, and he waved at him, "Comrade Kaiyan!"

"Jiang Zilong? Why are you here?"

"Team Leader Xu from the Institute of Literature and Art is here for a meeting. We came here to visit the school building. The Institute of Literature and Art will be moving to Beijing Normal University. When I came here, I was wondering if I would meet you at Beijing Normal University. I didn't expect to meet you. We are really destined to meet!"

Jiang Zilong walked over, patted Cheng Kaiyan's shoulder enthusiastically, and explained.

"I see."

When Cheng Kaiyan heard the three words "Wenjiangsuo", her heart moved.

The full name of the Literary Institute is the Chinese Writers Association Literary Institute. It is a higher education institution for the Chinese Writers Association to train writers. It was later known as the "Whampoa Military Academy" in the literary world and was later renamed Lu Xun Academy of Literature.

The Institute of Literature can be traced back to 1950, when the Central Literary Research Institute was jointly founded by the Ministry of Culture and the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

In 1954, it was renamed the Literary Institute of the Chinese Writers Association. It was closed in 1958 due to problems involving Ding and Chen.

Literature has been revived in the past two years, and Director Xu Gang of the Literary Institute has always wanted to restore the system.

It was not until the end of the 13th Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China this year that the higher authorities officially approved the restoration of the school as the Chinese Writers Association Literary Institute. However, due to the lack of a fixed school building and insufficient funds, the school had to rent houses everywhere.

The School of Literature and Art started classes on April 1st and rented an empty building from the D School in Chaoyang District to serve as a school building. The teaching conditions were very poor.

Are they going to move to Beijing Normal University to run a school?
Thinking of this, Cheng Kaiyan remembered that the Institute of Literature would later open a writer class with Beijing Normal University. Many well-known writers obtained their academic qualifications in this way. For example, Mo Yan, Yu Hua, Chi Zijian, Wang Gang and other well-known writers all graduated from here.

The two families have a deep connection.

"Oh, right! Let me introduce you to this person, Comrade Cheng Kaiyan, who won the first prize in the Children's Literature Award not long ago. The romance novel Love Letter published by People's Literature a few days ago is his work."

Although Jiang Zilon won the National Short Story Award and was considered a great writer, he was also a student of this session of the Institute of Literature. He pulled Cheng Kaiyan aside to introduce her to the other students.

"Hello, hello. I've heard of you for a long time. So you are Cheng Kaiyan, the author of "Submarine at Night". You look really young. I am Wang Anyi, also a writer of children's literature."

The person who said this was a thin young woman with a calm temperament, a pair of crescent-shaped eyebrows, and a pretty face. There was a rhythm in her voice, like the soft Wu dialect, soft and moving.

Wang Anyi is particularly interested in Cheng Kaiyan, probably because she, like Cheng Kaiyan, is a writer of children's literature.

The only difference is that Wang Anyi worked and contributed to "Childhood" in Shanghai, while Cheng Kaiyan contributed to "Children's Literature".

"Hello, I'm Zhang Kangkang. I didn't expect that Comrade Cheng Kaiyan really has the appearance of a great talent." A middle-aged woman with a somewhat hoarse voice stretched out her hand and said with a smile.

"Hello."

Cheng Kaiyan responded to the two people's greetings indifferently. He no longer had the novelty of meeting the historical celebrities that he had at the beginning, and his mood was quite indifferent.

This is Zhang Kangkang. She, Wang Anyi and Tie Ning are known as the three great contemporary female writers, but she is also the lagging one.

The most impressive one is her second husband Jiang Rong, the one who wrote "Wolf Totem".

The emotional entanglement between Jiang Rong and his first ex-wife caused a lot of controversy.

In her work "Falling into Desolation", Jiang Rong's first ex-wife Zhang Hongjun created a fictional character based on herself and Jiang Rong, in which she denounced and tearfully accused Jiang Rong.

Later, another female writer, Zhang Hua, who was also sent to work in Inner Mongolia, also wrote a book called "Sheep Oil Lamp" to support Zhang Hongjun.

This incident caused a lot of uproar, and after Wolf Totem was published, "Falling into Desolation" and "Sheep Oil Lamp", two works that focused on the emotional life of educated youth and exposed the true human nature, were submerged in "Wolf Nature".

Zhang Kangkang, who claims to write for the sake of humanity, turned a blind eye and kept silent about the matter.

What’s interesting is that Wang Anyi later wrote a book called “Uncle’s Story”, which tells the story of how her uncle, a writer, deceived a young literary woman, used his suffering to lure the young woman who admired him into his arms, and then cruelly abandoned her. It is an accusation of this kind of thing.

At the strong invitation of Jiang Zilon and Wang Anyi, the few of them talked about Cheng Kaiyan's new work "Love Letter".

Soon the meeting was about to start and everyone dispersed and returned to their seats.

"Humph! This young comrade Cheng Kaiyan is a bit arrogant."

Zhang Kangkang snorted coldly, very dissatisfied.

This year she joined the China Writers Association, and her novels "Summer" and "Light Morning Mist" both won the National Excellent Short Story Award.

Now, at the age of just 30, she is already a nationally renowned writer. It can be said that wherever Zhang Kangkang goes, she is a guest of honor and no one will be cold to her.

Originally, she had some feelings towards this extremely handsome young man, but Cheng Kaiyan was somewhat cold towards her.

"Isn't it normal for young people to be a little arrogant? Zhang Kangkang, you are a little sensitive. Comrade Xiao Cheng may be a classmate of yours in the writers' class in the future."

Jiang Zilong didn't take it to heart. In his opinion, it was just because Cheng Kaiyan was a little cold towards Zhang Kangkang. It was normal for her to be cold since it was their first meeting.

"I don't feel it's arrogance, but a kind of pride that stands out from the crowd and won't bow down to anyone. If you've seen "Night Submarine", you'll understand, it's very admirable."

Wang Anyi shook her head and expressed her feelings.

"Yo yo yo."

Zhang Kangkang suppressed her dissatisfaction and teased Wang Anyi a few words.

……

After a while, the meeting began.

Director Fang introduced everyone, "Everyone is here, right? Let me introduce you, this is Mr. Xu Gang from the Literature Institute."

"Hello everyone, I'm Xu Gang from the Institute of Literature. I heard that the famous talent Cheng Kaiyan is at your Beijing Normal University. I wonder where this talent is?"

A middle-aged man with a refined face who appeared to be in his fifties stood up and greeted the teachers and professors of Beijing Normal University.

"Here it is, Team Leader Xu."

Someone pointed out Cheng Kaiyan's location.

Cheng Kaiyan waved, "Hello, Teacher Xu."

"Hello, hello, Comrade Cheng Kaiyan, do you want to come to the Institute of Literature to study?"

Xu Gang looked at Cheng Kaiyan with concern and asked.

This session of the Institute of Literature and Art was very difficult to run, so all the students in this session were invited by him personally through letters.

It was obviously his mistake to omit the talented Cheng Kaiyan, but it was also related to the fact that Cheng Kaiyan rose in the literary world too quickly.

"Cough cough!"

Upon hearing this, Director Fang coughed twice to interrupt Xu Gang's words, and then announced: "Today's meeting is mainly about one thing, about co-organizing a writers' workshop with the Wenjiang Institute.

Last week, the school leadership held a meeting and unanimously decided that our school and the Literary Institute will jointly run the fifth writers' class, and at the same time, award the Beijing Normal University diploma to outstanding students..."

After listening to Director Fang’s introduction, the teachers and professors were all very surprised at the news. Everyone knew about the Literature Institute and what it was all about.

"Does Director Fang need a teacher from Beijing Normal University to teach you?"

A female teacher asked worriedly.

Director Fang explained that classes are entirely voluntary and people can attend or not.

This cooperative class is more like a class enrolled by a liberal arts college, with Beijing Normal University providing the class location and the diploma after completion of the course.

It's that simple.

As for why the degrees are not issued as undergraduate or postgraduate, it is because Beijing Normal University cannot make the decision on its own. It needs to report to the superiors and undergo research before it can be approved, and it will take several years.

This writer class is similar in nature to a correspondence course.

The Institute of Literature is still doing the preparatory work and it is expected that formal teaching will begin in May.

After the meeting, Cheng Kaiyan was about to run away, but was stopped by Jiang Ting.

"These are all done. They will help you realize your dream of going to college."

"Hey hey hey."

Cheng Kaiyan laughed. It was true that policies came to him while he was still at home.

If he remembered correctly, the fifth literary workshop lasted less than half a year, which means he got a college degree in half a year, which was a great deal.

"Don't be so cocky. I signed you up for a class."

Jiang Ting opened her hands and placed them in front of her eyes, as if looking for the slender fingers, while speaking nonchalantly.

"No! Auntie!"

"Let's go to Peking University to watch a drama performance tonight. Don't forget, I'll come to see you in the evening."

"understood."

Jiang Ting knew that today was Qingming Festival and Cheng Kaiyan wanted to go back to burn paper and worship, so she waved goodbye and let him go.

……

on the way home.

A drizzle began to fall from the sky. The drizzle was carried by the breeze from afar and blew towards my face. It fell on my clothes, leaving wet marks, and hit my face, leaving a faint feeling of wetness.

In addition to the wet rain, the wind also carries the smell of burning paper and incense, which evokes memories in the hearts of passers-by.

Cheng Kaiyan was riding her bike on the way home. When she passed the entrance of an alley, she saw an old man squatting at the entrance with a blackened copper basin in his hand, burning paper money in the drizzle. The faint blue smoke dissipated with the wind, as if an invisible big mouth was opened to inhale.

When I got home, the main room was filled with smoke.

Xu Yuxiu had been waiting for a long time, her eyes were red and swollen, and her voice was a little hoarse. "Burn some paper for your father, let him see what you look like now. You have made a difference now, and he can rest in peace in the grave."

"Don't be sad, Mom."

Cheng Kaiyan walked closer, put his arm around her shoulders and comforted her.

While telling funny stories to amuse Xu Yuxiu, he squatted beside the brazier and burned paper.

After Cheng Kaiyan burned the paper, she cleaned the house, took out a string of short firecrackers and set them off. That was the end of it.

Thanks to Han Tang Feng Hua for the 100-point reward

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(End of this chapter)