Literary Master 1983

Chapter 401 An Unforgettable 1988
Christmas Day 1987 should have been a day of celebration for the birth of Jesus, a day when darkness was cast out and light returned to the world. However, under the bright lights, many who watched the ending of the Lisbon Maru sighed deeply.

Because in this ending, Yu Qie interweaves recollections and interviews with fishermen he recently researched in Zhoushan. This makes the novel feel like a long war correspondent's report that should have been published forty years ago.

Moved by the sailors' songs, the judge decided to accept the testimony and classify the Lisbon Maru incident as one of the major war crimes committed by the Japanese army during World War II.

But that's far from enough, because those people are long gone.

The Englishman is dead, and the fishermen have grown old. They should have had a reunion many years later, but now there is only endless silence. Because no one in the world knows.

Therefore, Yu Qie had to post the interview, which means that all the stories he wrote are true.

For the most part, readers assumed that the stories of the fleeing British soldiers, the trials at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and the Chinese fishermen who stood up were largely fictional. But at the last minute, they discovered it was entirely based on historical material, complete with photographs and lists. Readers were shocked to discover that this fantastical adventure had indeed happened.

Gu Bin from the University of Bonn in Germany witnessed this scene. He only saw Yu Qie write:

"These British soldiers, though captured, were no pushovers!" recalled one of the Chinese fishermen we interviewed. When they went to rescue the people in their small sampans, each sampan could only carry three British soldiers. The British soldiers were very disciplined; one, two, three... as soon as everyone was on board, the rest of the people lying on the sampan would automatically make way, showing great integrity.

However, when the fishermen returned in their boats, they found that some of the sailors had sunk. The remaining men desperately wanted to get back on board, but once the boat was full, they would let it go.

"These British soldiers were quite tough; they died without uttering a sound," the fishermen said.

The British Army is a large bloc, but the Navy is still worth mentioning and retains its aristocratic air.

Gu Bin commented in his mind after reading it.

He immediately recommended Yu Qie's novel to the audience in "Dragon Boat": "This interview has the effect of traveling through time and space, and has a very strong appeal, comparable to the classic opening of 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'."

"Among the Chinese novelists I have encountered, only two have such rigorous yet romantic language. One is Lu Xun, who said at the beginning of 'Call to Arms', 'When I was young, I also had many dreams,' and this 'also' contains a huge change in time between the past and the present."

“The other one is Yu Qie. He used the word 'we,' so we also became witnesses to the event. We went through the difficult investigation of the truth together with Yu Qie.”

Heading west, in neighboring Spain, King Juan Carlos was also watching the Lisbon Maru:
"I felt so sorry for them. A man took off his wedding ring and gave it to me. It had his fiancée's name on it. He said he wanted me to keep it as a token of his love! He said he would come to China to visit us one day! But he never came back. Maybe he's dead?"

“Me? I soon started fleeing too, and sold the ring two years later. I felt so sorry for him.”

“Maybe that British sailor doesn’t need that ring anymore!” I asked.

"Really? He's quite pitiful."

This is what a Chinese fisherman said.

Sigh! Yu Qie just loves writing these kinds of things!

Was he implying that the British sailor's wife had run away and wasn't waiting for him?
World War II caused tragedies far beyond the small area around Zhoushan. Perhaps it would have been better if some people had drowned.

During World War II, most divorce petitions were filed by British women because they learned that their husbands were missing limbs and had not achieved any fame or fortune, and that the British were clearly no match for the Germans. After the war, two-thirds of divorce petitions were filed by husbands because soldiers returned from the war to find that the women left behind had had relationships with American soldiers and were pregnant.

This resulted in 180 million illegitimate children, accounting for one-third of all babies born in Britain during the war. 1945 was the year of the complete victory in World War II, but it was also a "shameful year" with a peak in births and divorces in Britain. In order to control the rampant sexually transmitted diseases, the government passed a special law.

Yes, the British men won, but what did they gain?
That's why Franco's dictatorship was so valuable; he fooled the shampoo boy and kept Spain out of war!
Overwhelmed with emotion, Carlos gave the order: "This year, I will go to the Valley of the Fallen in Guadalajara to pay my respects to the soldiers of the Civil War. And, incidentally, I will quietly offer a bouquet of flowers to Uncle Franco."

As the New Year's bells rang, London hosted a grand fireworks display. Many paper lanterns were hung along the Thames.

"For just five pounds, you can write your wish on a piece of paper and send your blessings."

God bless you!

Princess Diana, traveling incognito, strolled along the Thames with her husband Charles.

Both of them wore hats to conceal themselves, and it was late at night, so not many people recognized them.

They also brought their son, William.

As Diana walked down a street, she heard a vendor hawking his wares. She thought to herself, "I can't buy a paper lantern; Charles certainly won't like it."

As they passed another street, Diana's eldest son, William, innocently said, "I see paper lanterns that people have released all over the Thames. I want to buy one too."

“William, you shouldn’t be doing these things. A man should do what a man should do!” Charles was displeased upon hearing this.

This only made Diana unhappy: "Why not? I'm going to buy it anyway."

Charles stormed off in a rage. "You have utterly disgraced the Royal Family! With people like you around, no wonder the British have always lost; now they're even inferior to the Chinese!"

William, not knowing why his father was angry, began to cry. Diana had to comfort him, saying, "Your father isn't angry with you, but with Dongfang Yu."

"Who is Dongfang Yu?" William was only five years old, so naturally he didn't know Yu Qie.

"A Chinese writer has gained some fame in Europe in recent years. After coming to the UK, he conducted research and wrote a novel about a British sailor being rescued by Chinese fishermen. Because of him, many people are nostalgic for that incident."

"The British have been saved, isn't that a good thing?"

Yes!

Isn't this a good thing?

Diana shook her head: "Charles doesn't like Chinese people; he's a bitter nationalist."

William was too young to understand such terms: "What is a nationalist?"

Diana could only sigh.

"I can't explain it to you. I just hope that you won't be that kind of person in the future."

The public had a good impression of Charles, seeing him as a romantic prince who dared to marry a commoner, a peace-loving figure, and an ideal representative of the nation. But only Diana knew that Charles secretly dreamed of a "Greater British Empire."

What he was particularly displeased with was that the Iron Lady had backed down in the negotiations and returned the port to the great Eastern power, causing Britain a great humiliation.

Charles expressed his deep dissatisfaction in his diary, lamenting the decline of the British Empire. Yu Qie's novel, *The Way Out*, had been shown to the British by the Chinese negotiating team, overwhelming them with its authoritative tone. Upon learning this, Charles sought it out and read it, exclaiming, "A whole novel filled with wishful thinking and falsehood! Hypocritical Chinese, hypocritical Yu!"

Diana, however, had a good impression of Yuche. This was because Yuche had translated Neruda's love poems, and Diana loved romance literature. Yuche's willingness to rehabilitate such a renowned Peruvian love poet demonstrates his true aristocratic spirit.

The mother and son bought a paper lantern and then encountered a group of university students releasing paper lanterns. After a brief conversation, they learned that they were students from the London School of Economics and Political Science. They were preparing to offer their blessings to the British sailors who had died in China.

"Are you talking about those sailors who were rescued by the fishermen?" William asked curiously.

The group of college students were overjoyed that their child knew about it, and immediately introduced the ending of the novel "Lisbon Maru".

"This is a non-fiction novel written by Dongfang Yu. I originally thought it was an adventure novel similar to 'Shangri-La', until I read to the end and found out that it was about historical events that our government has never publicized."

"Shangri-La is a place that doesn't exist, but the small island near the shipwreck is a real place! That's the new Shangri-La, the Shangri-La by the sea!"

The students all showed their longing.

Suddenly, someone exclaimed, "Thank you, Mr. Yu! Without him, we wouldn't know any of this!"

Others immediately echoed, "Thank you, Mr. Yu!" Their voices were loud and filled with youthful passion, infecting the citizens who heard them, who then came to inquire about "Yu of the East." Soon, someone recognized Diana, exclaiming, "Our Princess is here..."

Diana had no choice but to quickly leave with William.

On the way, William thought the college students' behavior was very cool, and he even murmured, "Thank you, Dongfang Yu!" He then begged Diana to buy him a paper boat, "Mom! I want to write my blessings for those people on it."

“Aren’t you afraid of angering your father?” Diana asked.

"As long as you don't tell him, Mom!"

“I must say, your father will not allow you to do such a thing, William,” Diana tried to dissuade her.

“But I have my own ideas! Besides, if I’m not willing to tell the truth, my brother will do the same, so let me do it.”

Yes!

Diana's rebellious nature was triggered. She thought to herself: Charles is a gloomy madman, a control freak. He not only wants to control her, but also his son.

If he continues like this, his own tragedy will also befall his child.

Diana immediately went back, bought a paper boat, and wrote the names "William" and "Diana" on it, along with "God bless the British Royal Regiment – ​​in tribute to their bravery in the East China Sea in 1942."

At this point, there were still some blank spaces on the paper boat, and she asked William, "What else do you want to write?"

William blurted out, "Thank you, Dongfang Yu."

Diana actually wrote that sentence down, and she threw the paper boat into the Thames, watching it drift away.
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The ending of "The Lisbon Maru" had a profound impact, with many European media outlets serializing the novel in its entirety. Various celebrities wrote their comments on the Lisbon Maru incident in newspapers and magazines.

Several of Latin America's top stars have spoken out, and Márquez believes that "this is another bombshell news story like the airport massacre, only this time it is not so late, and it has not completely plunged into darkness."

He also took the opportunity to promote his new book, "The General in the Labyrinth": "Like Yu Qie, I also wrote a book of non-fiction, but there's too little space here, so I don't have time to post it here."

Allende, the niece of the former Chilean president, once again wrote in The New York Times: "Yuche is reaching new heights. He is no longer focused on technique, but on confronting the real contradictions of this society and uncovering the real secrets."

There is a Spanish writer named Camillo José Cela, whose mother is British. He wrote uninvited in the local Spanish newspaper El País: "Yucé is the kind of person I want to be; he is energetic and dares to fight."

The media frenzy created by Latin American writers has had two shocking effects.

One was Vargas Llosa, far away in Peru. Because the matter involved people of Japanese descent, he chose to remain silent, which broke the tacit understanding among Latin American writers, leading many to sever ties with him. This also marked a significant shift in Vargas Llosa's political spectrum, moving him from the left to the right.

This may seem harmless at first glance, but Vargas Llosa's shattered presidential dream was inextricably linked to his astonishing transformation. He was no longer a trusted writer.

Vargas Llosa's reputation, built up over many years of writing, was shattered.

Márquez also experienced such moments of being "condemned by everyone".

He wrote to Yu Qie: "In the 1960s, we founded the magazine 'Home of the Americas' together and boldly expressed our opinions on social issues! After the Cuban Revolution, Castro wanted to close 'Home of the Americas'. The writers wrote a joint letter against Castro, but I did not sign it. I thought everyone's reaction was too strong... So I was ostracized, and they didn't say a word to me."

"It wasn't until I won the Nobel Prize that I felt that kind of adulation again, and my reputation was washed away as a result."

Yu Qie has not yet experienced the moment of being "condemned by all". He can only infer from Márquez's words that "as long as you win enough, even the worst infamy can be washed away".

This is a world of winning.

If you win enough, even your enemies will sing your praises. Who would have thought that several future US presidents would be fans of Márquez's books?
Another is the rumored establishment of a new "power order".

As is well known, there is a loose organization in the Spanish-language writers' circle, in which Carmen likes to play the pope, Márquez is the "alien" and he is the GOAT; Vargas Llosa is the "class leader" and he is the vice GOAT.

The other writers, based on their respective influence, were categorized as "cardinals," "archbishops," "priests," and so on. Although it was a joke, it also revealed who among the writers truly commanded a large following and who had real authority.

If Watson's previous act of racism didn't reveal much, the appearance of the Lisbon Maru this time has thoroughly proven Yu Che's position in this camp.

Jin Jiepu, a well-known Yu Qie, excitedly said: "We have seen Yu's true influence. If I were in this mysterious organization, I would see him at the forefront. Considering that Vargas Llosa has collapsed and Márquez is suspected of semi-retirement... Yu Qie has begun to become a spokesperson for Third World writers."

Jin Jiepu felt that he hadn't followed the wrong person.

Yu Qie is good at fighting and dares to fight. He is also willing to take the position when given the opportunity.

Shen! Don't come with me to the Great Wall anymore, I'm afraid Yu Qie will misunderstand!
Unlike the introverted Shen Congwen, Yu Qie embodied the opposite of the Chinese virtue of "humility": "chivalry." Both of these are Chinese qualities, and Jin Jiepu, having studied Chinese literature for many years, was naturally aware of this. That ancient spirit was awakened within Yu.

But none of these were the most shocking things about the New Year.

In 1988, at the beginning of the new year, a shocking news broke: Princess Diana and her children did not express their New Year's wishes to Prince Charles in their New Year's greetings, but instead sent those wishes to a completely unrelated person, "Yu from the East."

(End of this chapter)