1979: My fiancée is a goddess

Chapter 320 Peaceful Days, Invitation from Peking University

Xiaowei Hutong, Wutong Courtyard.

"Uuuuuu——"

The howling north wind swept through the yard and made a howling sound as it passed through the gaps between the houses. It was somewhat scary in the morning when it was just dawn.

The kitchen built in a plastic shed in the east wing also rustled along with the leaves on the sycamore tree.

Although it was very noisy, the whole yard gave people an exceptionally quiet atmosphere.

"crunch..."

The window of the main room on the left side made a teeth-grinding wooden sound, slowly opened a crack, and a tired face slowly appeared in front of him.

"It will be Chinese New Year soon."

Cheng Kaiyan yawned and spoke with a slightly changed voice.

The cold wind blew on his face, dry and sharp like a knife. His upper and lower teeth chattered, and the remaining sleepiness was instantly extinguished.

"Clang."

Close the window quickly.

He picked up the vanishing cream on the table, unscrewed the cap, put his fingertips into it, picked up a lump, and wiped it on the palm of his hand to clean it.

Then put your palms together and make circles until emulsified, then apply evenly on your face.

The vanishing cream slowly moisturizes the dry and tight face, bringing a hint of coolness and fragrance.

I feel a lot more comfortable after applying it.

Outside the main room, the sound of the TV came.

"Good morning, listeners! It is 7:00 Beijing time now. China National Radio is broadcasting the national weather forecast for you."

"Affected by the southward movement of cold air from Siberia, North China will experience strong winds and cooling weather from tonight to tomorrow afternoon. The lowest temperature in BJ, Tianjin, Hebei and other places will drop to minus eight degrees Celsius. People in all regions are requested to pay attention to keeping warm and rural communities should do a good job in preventing livestock from freezing..."

Comrade CCTV announcer, the weather forecast is being broadcast.

The new program TV Weather Forecast has just started its trial broadcast during this period.

Cheng Kaiyan knew that next year it would be fixed as the daily broadcast of weather conditions across the country after the news broadcast.

It will continue to provide weather forecasts for cities and rural areas.

"Mom, what do you want to eat this morning?"

Cheng Kaiyan wrapped himself in his coat and walked out of the room, shouting casually.

Mother Xu Yuxiu was sitting on the sofa, patiently watching the weather forecast, holding two plastic rods wrapped with black wool in her hands, and next to her was a small paper bag filled with wool balls.

Apparently knitting.

Xu Yuxiu looked up when she heard Cheng Kaiyan's words, "Sweet potato porridge with pickles."

"Tsk tsk..."

Cheng Kaiyan couldn't help but smack her lips in amazement, the living standard has dropped by more than one level!

He probably knew the reason.

It’s nothing more than tightening your belt and saving money to buy a house.

have to……

Sweet potato porridge is just sweet potato porridge.

"Look at you. I've just stewed beef and white radish for you. I'll send it to Xiaoli and your aunt later."

When Xu Yuxiu saw him like that, she knew what he was thinking.

So he snorted and gave the order.

"understood."

Cheng Kaiyan nodded, and then curiously looked at the sweater prototype that was obviously a few sizes smaller than her own and asked, "Who did you knit this sweater for?"

"I knit it for Xiaoli."

Xu Yuxiu answered in a calm tone without even raising her head.

Cheng Kaiyan: “…”

She wants me to deliver the soup to her and knit her a sweater!

Just pamper her!
But at least I don’t have to worry about the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

……

After breakfast in the morning, Cheng Kaiyan returned to her room.

The coal stove next to the desk was emitting faint heat.

Xu Yuxiu was worried that he would be cold in winter, so she put him in his room.

It can be used for heating and also for making tea to keep warm.

When not in use, just cover the air inlet under the stove, and there is no need to worry about carbon monoxide poisoning.

However, when the process is in use, it is better to open the window a little.

He boiled a pot of tea and poured Dahongpao into it as if it were free.

At the children's literature exchange meeting a few days ago, Cheng Kaiyan was in the spotlight and the old man was very proud.

So, I was so happy that I rewarded him with a whole box of Wuyi Mountain mother tree Dahongpao.

After brewing the tea and leaving it in the teapot, Cheng Kaiyan took out some snacks such as candies and preserves and placed them on the table.

Sit down and think about your next schedule.

These days, the University of Pennsylvania has ended its visit to Beijing Normal University, and they are currently conducting exchanges at Tsinghua University.

Because Cheng Kaiyan had attended several exchange meetings, she no longer felt interested in them and did not join in the fun.

His life became peaceful again.

In these two days, all courses in the writer's class have been completed, leaving only one graduation task, which is to complete the graduation thesis.

A long paper on literary appreciation or literary theory with a word count of no less than 10,000 words.

After submission and review, your diploma will be issued and you will graduate.

Therefore, during this period, Jiang Zilon, Ye Xin, Wang Anyi and others were either looking for information to write papers in the school library, or in the dormitory of the Institute of Literature in Chaoyang.

Cheng Kaiyan’s daily tasks are also quite full.

First, he had to continue studying the professional books for the Chinese Department postgraduate entrance examination and complete the homework assigned by his aunt.

Second, because we reached a research cooperation with Professor Ansel, we each had our own assigned tasks.

As the proposer of the theory, Cheng Kaiyan's tasks mainly focus on structural difficulties such as the core ideas of the paper, secondary arguments, and building a theoretical framework.

Not as much work, but harder and more obscure.

Isn’t it because of the theoretical framework that Professor Ansel’s paper progress has stagnated?

But Cheng Kaiyan is obviously not an ordinary person, because...

He has hung up.

Therefore, it is estimated that these tasks can be completed in more than a month.

As for the detailed tasks such as filling in the paper and the argumentation process, they are Professor Ansel's.

In addition, Cheng Kaiyan also planned to fill in a minor argument while completing the task and use it as a graduation thesis.

This is actually a very common operation in academia, called salami slicing.

That is: split multiple valuable parts of a paper and publish them as multiple independent papers.

This is usually done to inflate the number of papers and create a paper bubble.

However, Cheng Kaiyan wanted to kill two birds with one stone and graduate successfully.

In addition to exams and papers, he also remembered that he had not finished writing a fairy tale, "My Neighbor Totoro".

“Ah… the task is arduous!”

Thinking of this, Cheng Kaiyan shook his head and continued to complete the thesis framework that he had not completed yesterday.

Thesis title: On the Impossibility of Children's Literature

Core point: Children's literature is essentially an ideological construction of the concept of "childhood" by adults and a psychological projection of adults, rather than a text truly created for children.

Theoretical framework:

1. Psychoanalysis.

2. Power criticism and deconstruction of duality.

The theoretical framework in the original work actually includes far more than these two.

It also touches on gender and colonial criticism. Cheng Kaiyan only takes two of them to analyze the nature of children's literature and the relationship between adults and children.

First, the structure of the paper is clearer.

Secondly, these two points are heavy enough.

Psychoanalytic theory was originally used in psychology research, but is now often used across disciplines in the international literary community to analyze characters in literary works and the authors behind them.

In this paper, Cheng Kaiyan will borrow Freud's "family romance" and Lacan's "mirror stage" concepts.

Analysis shows that children's literature is a fictional projection of the "ideal childhood" by adults, and the child characters become a mirror image of the adult's desires and psychology.

This step is to reveal the essence of children's literature.

……

Power criticism and deconstruction of duality.

The former uses sociologist Foucault's theory of power discourse to criticize children's literature for defining children as disciplined and controlled others, and the power structure hidden in it.

The latter deconstructs the binary opposition between people and children, exposing the fictitious nature of the boundary between the two.

Adults establish their own subjectivity as adults in the process of educating children.

Writing children's literature is a means of education.

……

Even though the theoretical framework is so clear, academic papers are not easy to write.

After all, Cheng Kaiyan only knew the theory and framework, and did not read and memorize the entire paper.

While Cheng Kaiyan was sorting out the theoretical framework, she gradually had some ideas about her graduation thesis.

He plans to write a graduation thesis based on his own novel "The Alchemist's Alchemy" and use psychoanalytic theory to elaborate on the analysis.

"Click click click..."

The hands of the clock on the wall kept turning, making regular, soft sounds that echoed with the whistling wind outside the window.

The whole room was like a calm lake with ripples, and the figure in front of the desk was particularly quiet.

Unconsciously, time passes quietly at the tip of the pen.

In a blink of an eye, it was eleven o'clock in the morning.

Cheng Kaiyan put down his pen, took a sip of water from the enamel teacup, leaned back in his chair, stretched, and took a rest.

I don't know when the sunlight came in from the window, and it felt warm on my body.

It makes people want to close their eyes and enjoy the beauty of this moment.

At this moment, the sound of a bicycle chain turning came from outside the courtyard.

Suddenly, a call was heard.

"Is Comrade Cheng Kaiyan here?!"

……

As you enter Wutong Courtyard.

Professor Ji Zhenhuai, the head of the Chinese Department of Peking University, was pushing his bicycle in the yard, looking around.

The two small rooms on both sides, which were once used for growing flowers and storing sundries, have now been converted into bedrooms.

The iron bed and the wooden table, with only the wooden door on top left, looked particularly shabby.

There are several pots of flowers under the jade-white screen wall, but it is winter now and they look a little withered.

"This small courtyard is well preserved. The white marble screen has only a few cracks on it."

Director Ji commented with interest.

This is Comrade Cheng Kaiyan’s residence. He must have come to the right place.

He came this time just for Cheng Kaiyan, the young man who has been stirring up the literary world during this period...or should I say, this year.

For no other reason than to invite him to join Peking University.

If it were before, Director Ji would definitely not have rashly come up with this idea.

Cheng Kaiyan is not so important that Peking University would invite her.

Even though he is a leader of the younger generation in the literary world, a pioneer in the field of children's literature research, he is even called a master of children's literature.

Peking University would never condescend to invite a young person with only a high school education to come to Peking University.

But now it is different. In this China-US Children's Literature Exchange Conference, Cheng Kaiyan can be said to have made a stunning debut and won a great victory for the country.

Director Ji specifically sought advice from scholars at Peking University who study children's literature, and only then did he understand the importance and value of Cheng Kaiyan's theories and viewpoints in the field of international children's literature research.

Even Professor Ansel of the Center for Children's Literature Research at the University of Pennsylvania was conquered and said frankly that with him, China's children's literature research will reach world-class level.

Everyone knows that having Cheng Kaiyan is equivalent to having a professional discipline with world-class potential in one's own school.

not to mention……

"What's more, Comrade Cheng Kaiyan and Professor Jiang Ting were wronged in your Beijing Normal University. Haha, it's your own fault that you couldn't control yourself. You can't blame me for that."

Director Ji said secretly.

It was only after he asked someone a few days ago that he found out that Professor Jiang Ting had been suspended from teaching and Cheng Kaiyan had been denied access to the postgraduate examination at the end of the year.

When he heard the news, Director Ji almost laughed out loud. He really didn't expect that there would be someone so stupid in Beijing Normal University.

Even if there had not been this academic visit and this exchange meeting, Comrade Cheng Kaiyan would definitely be a signature figure.

It's too late to support him, so who would take the initiative to offend Comrade Cheng Kaiyan?

Right? Xiao Jianshan?

"Ha ha!"

Director Ji pushed the cart into the house and laughed out loud.

Beijing Normal University must be holding a meeting to deal with this matter and trying to make amends.

But Director Ji came this time just to take advantage of this gap to poach people.

Take advantage of his illness and kill him.

This time, Beijing Normal University surpassed Tsinghua University and made a big splash.

Will you get it again in the future?
Director Ji snorted coldly, walked quickly into the hanging flower door, and shouted loudly:

"Is Comrade Cheng Kaiyan here?"

After waiting in the yard for a while, the window of the main room opened and a familiar young man appeared in front of him. "Who are you?"

"Haha, I'm Ji Zhenhuai, the head of the Chinese Department of Peking University! I was the one who approved your thesis last time, Comrade Cheng Kaiyan!"

Ji Zhenhuai explained with a smile.

……

The two of them went into the house and sat down.

Cheng Kaiyan poured a cup of tea for Director Ji.

"Tsk——"

Ji Zhenhuai picked up the teacup and took a big sip.

However, there was an unusual smell spreading out. He subconsciously licked the slightly bitter yet sweet tea on the tip of his tongue. His eyes suddenly opened a little, and he said with a somewhat surprised expression: "Comrade Xiao Cheng is drinking Wuyi Mountain Dahongpao?"

"A gift from someone else."

Cheng Kaiyan smiled and added some more, barely reaching two-thirds of the cup.

"I see."

Director Ji nodded. After all, he was a great writer, so it was normal for people to cater to his preferences.

The two drank tea and started chatting.

"So you specially came to invite me to be a teacher at Peking University?"

When Cheng Kaiyan learned the purpose of the old man's visit, she was surprised.

What's happening here?
Peking University came knocking!
"Of course, with your attainments in children's literature, Comrade Cheng Kaiyan, you are more than qualified to be a professor, let alone a teacher."

Ji Zhenhuai praised with a smile. He had been observing the young man, trying to see some flattered or delighted expression on Cheng Kaiyan's face.

But unfortunately, apart from being a little surprised and surprised at the beginning, Cheng Kaiyan remained very calm during the rest of the conversation.

I can only say that she is worthy of being Cheng Kaiyan.

Ji Zhenhuai was undoubtedly more looking forward to getting this young man.

(End of this chapter)