Literary Master 1983

Chapter 374 When Yu Qie Begins the Trial (End of this Volume)
Upon hearing this, Gu Hua's vision went black, and he fainted on the spot.

He was then taken to the hospital for treatment.

Because it's located in Washington, D.C., and they were worried about the news getting out, they specifically drove to a Chinese medical clinic.

After a thorough examination, Gu Hua's condition was indeed quite serious. The Chinese doctor said, "This person looks like he's been hit by a car at high speed. He has extensive soft tissue contusions and four broken ribs! He'll need at least three months of rest! And one more question, was he assaulted?"

"This……"

“That person must be a boxer or a Sanda expert... If you want to prosecute the murderer, this person should be considered as engaging in armed fighting. He is trained.”

When the news reached the embassy, ​​Yuche quickly faced criticism.

Ambassador Han said seriously, "Gu Hua has made a thousand mistakes, but you shouldn't have hit him. This isn't me saying this as a leader or senior... but as your comrade! I also wanted to hit him, I also wanted to slap him, but I didn't. Do you know why?"

"We must pay attention to influencing and uniting people," Yu Qie said.

Ambassador Han sighed deeply: "You see, you've always understood the principles, it's just that you have your own ideas."

I humbly accept your instruction.

"You have a bright future ahead of you, so you don't need to focus your attention on someone like Gu Hua. What he did is outrageous and universally resented, so naturally someone will deal with him."

Wait, wait until how long? Do we have to wait until he's old and frail?

I couldn't wait until later!
Yu Qie shook his head and said, "Once he returns to China, I really can't take action. He's practically a 'non-existent person' now, not protected by the laws of any country. The embassy is an extension of our territory, and the Americans won't interfere!"

“He even has a certificate of mental illness; he was a madman to begin with… I had all of this planned out long ago.”

The ambassador clapped his hands and exclaimed, "Oh, so you've thought it all through?!"

He didn't know what to say.

You're telling me you need to consider the bigger picture?

But Yu Qie was only in his early twenties.

You're in your early twenties, so feel free to say whatever you want; no one will blame you.

But you are a professor, and one of the few writers.

Ambassador Han couldn't help but laugh—why was this strange phenomenon happening?
This has never happened before.

After the resumption of the college entrance examination, prodigies aged fifteen and seventeen or eighteen frequently appeared, and a group of young people reached the status that only old professors could achieve, hence this strange phenomenon.

It's hard to believe that Shao Qi is being considered for promotion to deputy director of the Hong Kong branch; she's only in her early thirties.

“It’s changed, it really has changed!” Ambassador Han sighed.

Seeing that he was about to bring up the impact again, Yu Qie told him about something that happened at Yenching University a few years ago.

At that time, a group of Japanese people were coming to Yenching University for an exchange program. Unfortunately, they happened to run into a member of parliament who was visiting the Yasukuni Shrine. This immediately enraged the students of Yenching University. They surrounded the Japanese people and demanded that they express their attitude towards the visit. ... This was not the end of the matter. After learning that the precious auditorium had been requisitioned to give a speech to the Japanese people, the students were even more furious.

Someone rushed into the auditorium, sobbing as they recounted how their grandparents had been mistreated by the Japanese. Their heartfelt story moved everyone to tears, eventually even bringing the security guards and the elderly professor to tears—they had come to talk about unity and reason!
Even Japanese scholars couldn't hold back and immediately distanced themselves from the politicians who visited the Yasukuni Shrine.

This is what true unity is all about.

Gu Hua is indeed a bastard!

Finally, Ambassador Han sighed, "You really can't do this again. Don't let it happen again."
-
Gu Hua slowly woke up in the hospital.

He was woken up by Paul and Nie Hualing from the University of Iowa.

"Great! You've come to see me!" Gu Hua exclaimed happily. "I've embraced freedom for a year, but you're still my true brothers and sisters!"

He was about to sit up when he was immediately struck by a sharp pain in his chest.

"What's wrong with me?" he asked with difficulty.

"Your bones are broken!"

"No wonder, no wonder!" Gu Hua laughed. "Was I in a hospital in America?"

"Yes."

“Then I will be cured soon, I trust Americans.”

Upon hearing this, Nie Hualing took a step back, her expression one of unbearable disapproval. She realized that Gu Hua had truly gone mad.

Why did they think Gu Hua was crazy in the past?
Gu Hua once said that he believed being a provincial writers' association official in mainland China was not as good as eating a donut in the United States. Even Nie Hualing thought he was probably crazy for saying such an absurd thing.

The fact that he could say such a thing only shows that after he went to the United States, he saw his old colleagues happily visiting the US and Yu Qie winning another major award—Gu Hua could not accept the facts.

He could only endlessly belittle his motherland and endlessly elevate his current country... This cycle continued, and to outsiders, it naturally seemed like he was going mad.

But even such madness has its logic.

Drooling streamed down Gu Hua's face; he was practically illogical. His life was ruined; he was left with only one breath—the last breath to prove he hadn't made the wrong choice in defecting!
however……

Paul looked at him with a serious expression, holding a piece of paper in his hand.

"What is this? Is it a lawsuit against Yu Qie?"

“Unfortunately, no. Mr. Yu asked us to bring it to you.” Paul shook his head and began to have Nie Hualing read the note aloud.

Nie Hualing then said, "...During his visit to the United States, he repeatedly violated regulations, lacked organization and discipline... He intentionally defected and made related remarks, causing extremely negative impacts... He has repeatedly refused to correct his behavior despite repeated warnings..."

Gu Hua felt it was an honor for him, and couldn't help but prick up his ears, wanting to hear a few more words.

Nie Hualing's voice suddenly stopped.

"Read it! Why did you stop reading?" Gu Hua asked anxiously.

“This is part of your personal report on your visit to the United States, written by Yu Qie. He thinks you should be stripped of all your privileges,” Nie Hualing said in a deep voice.

"So what if the benefits are canceled? I know the mainland has started implementing a royalty system too! From now on, I won't need that stipend when I write novels; I'm a writer who lives off my royalties!"

He also said that you should no longer engage in literary or artistic creation.

This is incredible! Why are they doing this?
Gu Hua was stunned: "What right does Yu Qie have to say these things? No matter how talented he is, he's still a writer. How can a writer bully another writer?"

“That’s right.” Nie Hualing stepped forward and said, “Yu Qie has already spread the word that he will no longer cooperate with any newspapers or magazines that have published your articles, including the Beijing Writers Association, where he is affiliated. Writers who have emerged from the New Reality movement and young people who have taken classes at the Academy of Literature… are all speaking out for him, overwhelmingly supporting him. This is almost half of the literary world! The entire future of the literary world!”

"Your reputation in the country is already terrible, and you probably won't be able to publish any articles. People are scorning you."

Paul joined in, saying bluntly, “What happened to you yesterday will likely continue to happen in the future. This kind of thing has happened in the West too. The poet Pushkin had a fiery temper and fought 29 duels, two of which involved real weapons… In the end, he was killed by a man named Dantes.”

"Isn't this great? America is fair. Even a nobody can shoot a famous writer," Gu Hua said.

“Pushkin was Russian, how could you not know that? You must be crazy!” Nie Hualing said aloud what was on her mind.

Paul wasn't surprised and continued to explain: "The duel continues! Many years after Pushkin's death, he still lives in people's hearts. In his later years, Dantes had a granddaughter and naturally took great care in cultivating her literary skills. One day, his granddaughter asked him—Grandpa, why does that villain who killed Pushkin in the duel have the same name as you?"

“Even my granddaughter betrayed me. So, I’ve become Dantes?” Gu Hua said. “But I didn’t kill Yu Qie. I’m about to be beaten to death.”

"What happened to Dantes after that?" Gu Hua asked again.

"Dantes, filled with shame and indignation, jumped into the river and committed suicide."

"So you wanted me to commit suicide? You actually wanted me to kill myself?"

“I didn’t say that. I was just talking about the difficulties you’ll face when you return home. Although Dantes was lucky enough to shoot Pushkin, he still succumbed to Pushkin’s ghost.”

"So you wanted me to commit suicide! You've come to harm me too!" Gu Hua felt he had seen through it all.

"Help! Someone's trying to hurt me!" he shouted, trying to pull out his IV. His ribs were in excruciating pain, but he unleashed astonishing strength. Several young, strong white interns came over and managed to hold Gu Hua down and give him a sedative.

It only took Gu Hua about ten seconds to go from gasping for breath and struggling to falling into a deep sleep.

He was as if he were dead.

Nie Hualing suddenly felt that Gu Hua was already dead at this moment. She had witnessed lethal injection, and the situation was exactly the same as now. No matter how strong the willpower, no matter how great the man, once the dosage is applied, it's all over.

Gu Hua can no longer stay in the United States, and his way back to China has been cut off. What should he do?
Perhaps after returning to China, as an ordinary worker, he could be indifferent, and Yu Qie would let him go. However, Gu Hua was not that kind of person. He would always need others to support him, but he didn't love those people.

Paul's voice rang in Nie Hualing's ears:

“His mental state has collapsed, which is why Yu Qie asked me to come and read the report. He wanted to kill him and destroy his spirit. He let us go, but he also warned us.”

Nie Hualing asked, "Paul, what do you think Gu Hua will do?"

"There will be a ragged, mad beggar, or an unidentified corpse. In 'Reunion,' there is a big shot who once held sway in Hong Kong. After falling on hard times and hiding in an American slum, he still couldn't let go of his old ways... One day, he was stabbed to death by a black man, who stole his gold watch." "Gu Hua is that kind of person. One day, he will quietly die there."

Nie Hualing felt a chill run down her spine.

She never wanted to have anything to do with Yu Qie again, and she would avoid any occasions involving Yu Qie from now on.
-
In late June, Yu Qie learned of Gu Hua's death.

The matter was simple: Gu Hua learned that he could no longer be a writer, so he did not choose to board the plane back to China. Less than a week after his surgery, he endured the pain and found a way to escape from the clinic.

On the way, Gu Hua got into an argument with a Mexican man. Whether it was out of self-destructive tendencies or because the Mexican man was too cruel, he eventually died on the streets of New York, and his twenty dollars were stolen.

He was less than 12 kilometers from Manhattan, the center of the world, and Gu Hua went straight to New York as soon as he was discharged from the hospital.

However, he didn't know that it was a notorious slum, and few writers went there.

The controversy surrounding Gu Hua vanished the moment news of his death broke.

Even Yu Qie gave up and stopped writing articles to refute Gu Hua. Ironically, this caused Gu Hua's last trace to disappear as well, and people no longer even hated him.

Of course, no one will remember him anymore.

“Yu, you did the right thing!” Marquez said.

"I never regret what I've done, so you don't need to comfort me."

Marquez shrugged: "You are indeed very carefree. It seems my words of comfort were unnecessary."

Márquez and Carmen became the last two passengers on the flight. Márquez's books are to be published in mainland China; this time, it will be an officially licensed version.

Carmen wanted to inspect this future largest book market, and perhaps also needed to mend her relationship with Yu Qie. This Spanish broker brought over a dozen fragments of oracle bone inscriptions, which he donated free of charge to Anyang in Yu Qie's name.

As for Márquez, he wanted to take advantage of the time before he lost his memory to fully appreciate the scenery of China.

“I came to China for two reasons. One is because of Castro. We were pen pals for a long time, and in his eyes there were not many places in the world with hope. China was such a place.”

"And the other one?" Yu Qie asked him.

"The other reason is because of you. I want to know what kind of place nurtures someone like you. I even want to go to Wanxian to take a look."

Yu Qie smiled and said, "I will accompany you as much as possible, but my wife is about to take an important exam, so I cannot accompany you the whole time."

"It's okay, love is always more important than literature, I mean it."

The day I returned home happened to be a sunny day. After the plane reached the stratosphere, the sunlight shone in, making the entire cabin incredibly bright.

"It's dawn!" Yu Qie exclaimed.

As is customary, Kakutani Shizuo, Watson, Marquez, and others played bridge with Yu Qie.

Marquez lost the most, followed by Watson, and Yu Qie was surprisingly tied with Kakutani Shizuo.

Watson was very dissatisfied: "Bridge doesn't reflect my level. When I was young in Cambridge, the gifted students always liked to show off their intelligence by playing bridge... Most of them didn't actually achieve anything."

Ambassador Han was also returning to China, and he temporarily filled in for Yu.

What broke Watson's defenses came next. Ambassador Han was almost invincible, always victorious. Watson suffered an even more crushing defeat.

Because the ambassador can keep track of the cards.

The ambassador was a child prodigy in his youth, possessing a photographic memory that he still retains; he can even remember the tiny creases on the back of a card. And he has never specifically practiced these things.

That's utter nonsense! I've had enough!
Watson quit. He believed that although he had lost at bridge, his research had won. He had consistently claimed that East Asians were intellectually superior, and now Ambassador Han was merely one of his research findings. All of this was within his expectations.

When Kakutani Shizuo learned that Yukichi was an economics student, he spent some time explaining the "Kakutani Conjecture" (Hail Conjecture) theorem to him.

“Write down any positive integer N, and transform it according to the following rules.”

"If it is an odd number, the next step becomes 3N+1."

"If it is an even number, the next step becomes N/2."

"You write down any number, whether it's less than ten or billions, it will eventually converge to the number 1. But that's not the most interesting part. What's interesting is that the convergence process is completely different for different numbers. Some numbers converge smoothly, while others experience huge oscillations, like the magical 27..."

Yu asked him, "What significant use does this have in the economic field?"

Shizuo Kakutani excitedly said, "This means that it is the opposite of the butterfly effect. Here, no matter how big the error is, it will correct itself. Obviously, there is a magical mechanism in our economic field. No matter how turbulent it is at a certain period, it will eventually enter a dynamic equilibrium."

Kakutani Shizuo then gave Yu Qie a few more interesting math problems on the spot, which Yu Qie solved with difficulty. Kakutani Shizuo then said, "Your math isn't as bad as you think. In fact, you definitely have the relevant numerical intuition, which is certainly enough for the field of economics."

Yu Qie didn't know if Kakutani Shizuo was teasing him or if he was serious.

Anyway, Yu Qie didn't show this talent clearly in his previous life.

Shao Qi conducted her last interview with Yu Qie that year. This interview was not included in the news, but was written in Shao Qi's diary as a future memoir.

She asked about Gu Hua.

"Why did you get into a conflict with someone at the embassy? You could have done it elsewhere."

"Because the embassy is an extension of the country, Chinese rules apply here. This is something Gu Hua has always emphasized, but I just happened to take advantage of it the other way around; I don't follow the rules."

Shao Qi laughed, “We often say that a pen can be more powerful than a thousand troops, but during the time I’ve been with you, I’ve rarely seen you kill anyone with your writing, but I’ve always seen you use your hands and guns.”

"Because 'a thousand troops' is just a figure of speech; words are always a supplementary tool. How can they possibly compare to real violence?"

Yu said meaningfully, "You must remember this."

Shao Qi remembered those words and was about to ask further questions. Suddenly, the plane began to shake and adjust its angle; it was about to descend.

We've arrived in the capital! How fast!
The passengers couldn't help but put down what they were doing and look out the window at the scenery. For the vast majority of passengers on this plane, it was their first time seeing China, and they thought it would be their last time visiting China.

That mysterious and unpredictable China, which is actively integrating into the world.

She seems not yet awake, for this land rarely voices strong opinions on various international events; yet she seems to have already awakened, and some have already taken the lead, leaving one to imagine the remarkable achievements within.

The plane began to circle, getting closer and closer to the capital. Judging from its built-up area alone, the future capital was one of the largest cities in the world. On 16,000 square kilometers of land, there was only one city. It was a megacity, and its bright lights could be seen from space.

Even by the late 1980s, it had clearly developed. After a series of renovations and reconstructions, it blended the ancient and the modern, just as Castro remarked in his astonishment during his visit to China a few years later:
China can rival Europe!
Yu Qie had been in the capital for who knows how long, and he had gotten used to all the sights, so naturally he wouldn't lean out the window to look outside.

These people are just bumpkins from the West!

Unexpectedly, an impatient Watson asked first, "What is that?"

Then came Shizuo Kakutani, who observed patiently and concluded: "It seems to be a large-scale flower. When the wind blows over it, the flowers tremble."

"no!"

"Those were people! So many people! Good heavens!!!" Márquez exclaimed in a mix of Spanish and English.

He shouted, turning to look at Yu Qie in astonishment, "—There are so many people there! They are welcoming you, Yu, your motherland is welcoming you!"

Before Yu Qie could think further, Shao Qi blushed and said, "They are elementary school students from the capital. They are rehearsing a dance... They are welcoming us!"

"Yes, we have so many Nobel laureates, and one Nobel Prize candidate!"

Yu Qie was leaning against the window, and Márquez deliberately made room for him. The silly Watson was stunned; he had never seen so many children hogging the window. Márquez elbowed him to move aside, and then Shao Qi, carrying a camera, arrived.

reporter?
Márquez recognized her.

After making a gesture of silence, Shao Qi squeezed in and pointed his camera at Yu Qie.

She sensed that the moment when the hero would finally become like a human being had arrived!

Before even pressing the shutter, Shao Qi was already excited, almost forgetting to breathe. Meanwhile, Yu Qie, peering out the window, saw only the elementary school students from Beijing forming large characters at the airport:
"China welcomes you!"

Yu Qie knew that this was a scene that had never appeared in history before.

How many people came because of me?

Yu Qie's tears welled up and he trembled involuntarily, but he was unwilling to let go of any second, so he blinked frequently and let the tears slide down his face.

Shao Qi recorded this very second.

She never thought of surpassing Liu Xiangcheng, who went to Eastern Europe to film Gorbachev, nor did she think of the Frenchman Chad, who returned to Beijing early. She was only glad that she was the only one who made it to the end.

After taking several photos, Shao Qi's image became blurry. She thought the lens was out of focus and frantically adjusted it until she felt a sudden chill on her neck and realized that she was already in tears.

(End of this chapter)