Writer 1978: I Need to Give the Literary World a Lesson

Chapter 148 Zhu Lin's Injection and the Smoke and Fire Incident

In December, the temperature in Lushan is slightly higher than in Beijing. Currently, the temperature in Beijing has dropped below zero.

However, the temperature is several degrees lower in the mountains, and the temperature difference increases as you go higher. Liu Yimin estimates that it will snow on Mount Lu in about half a month.

Mount Lu has evergreen broad-leaved forests, as well as deciduous broad-leaved forests and coniferous forests. The variety of tree species is extensive, and from a distance, the yellow is interspersed with red and a few greens, creating distinct layers.

"Yimin, are you cold?"

"Not cold, what? Are you cold?" Liu Yimin raised his camera and pointed it at Huanglong Temple next to him. Not far from Huanglong Temple is Lulin Lake, and there are traces of great people who have been there.

"I'm not cold either. If you are, I brought a scarf." Zhu Lin's bag was bulging. Liu Yimin was curious when they arrived, but he didn't expect it to contain a scarf.

The two of them basically followed the filming locations of "Romance on Lushan Mountain" and kept walking uphill. When they saw Lulin Lake, Zhu Lin seemed to remember something and pointed to the lake, saying, "If you come in September, I can teach you how to swim in this lake."

Liu Yimin scoffed: "It's all talk and no action!"

After being mercilessly exposed by Liu Yimin, Zhu Lin said awkwardly, "There are just too many people at the Summer Palace."

Liu Yimin remained noncommittal and continued walking upwards. Mount Lu was simply too vast; starting from this route, they wouldn't be able to reach Bailudong Academy and Zhenliushi today.

The two happily took all sorts of photos, with Zhu Lin humming "Our Life is Full of Sunshine".

When singing "Oh dear one, let's move forward hand in hand," she sometimes stares intently at Liu Yimin.

Liu Yimin asked with a smile, "Comrade Zhu Lin, why are you staring at me? Is there something on my face?"

"Teacher Liu, how do you know I'm looking at you if you're not looking at me?" Zhu Lin said with a grin.

"Why are you calling me Teacher Liu again?"

“Sometimes you speak like a teacher, with a whole set of jargon.” Zhu Lin took the camera, pointed the lens at Liu Yimin, and behind him was a rock with a yellowing ginkgo tree and a layer of red leaves on the ground.

"Call me whatever you want, it's still me no matter what! It's just the two of us, so feel free to look if you want, there's no need to sneak around."

Zhu Lin blushed as she walked up the mountain. The mountain path became increasingly steep, and the advantages of Zhu Lin as a sports school student became apparent. She climbed the mountain with a calm and collected demeanor, and every now and then she would reach out her little hand to help Liu Yimin.

"None of the crew members can climb as fast as me. When we got to the filming location, before we even started shooting, we had to sit down and do some panting." Zhu Lin stood on a protruding rock with his hands on his hips, looking down at the clouds and the colorful forests of Lushan Mountain, and a sense of pride welled up inside him.

Liu Yimin, also looking down the mountain, said, "Looks like I'm not bad!"

"Teacher Liu, you are quite excellent!"

They played until about 3 p.m. before starting to walk down the mountain. At noon, the two of them ate some steamed rice cakes and walnuts and peanuts given to them by Mr. and Mrs. Zhu.

The downhill path was bumpy, making his legs ache. Sweat poured down his face, and Liu Yimin slightly unbuttoned his shirt to let the mountain breeze blow on him. Zhu Lin walked briskly, though it was hard to tell if he was faking it.

Back in the courtyard, Zhang Mengzhao looked Liu Yimin up and down: "It's good to be young, you have good stamina! Old Huang's legs were trembling from exhaustion on his first day down the mountain."

Huang Zumo awkwardly lit a cigarette and exhaled a puff of smoke tinged with sadness.

After a day of rest, the crew resumed filming the indoor scenes as usual. Huang Zumo thought Liu Yimin was joking, but to his surprise, he didn't go to the set in the following days and instead spent his time wandering around Mount Lu.

That day, after Liu Yimin came down from the mountain, he simply nodded to the crew and returned to his room. Huang Zumo and Zhang Mengzhao exchanged a glance, assuming that Liu Yimin was tired.

When it was nine o'clock in the evening, Zhu Lin noticed that Liu Yimin had not come out to eat yet, so he asked Huang Zumo to go in and check on him. What he saw was alarming: Liu Yimin was burning up with fever.

After Huang Zumo finished speaking, Zhu Lin was shocked and rushed into the room. He placed his hand on Liu Yimin's forehead to feel the temperature, and then ran upstairs to take out the thermometer from the medicine box to take his temperature.

"He must have caught a cold from sweating and being exposed to the mountain wind," Zhu Lin calmly analyzed.

Zhang Mengzhao hurriedly asked what to do, and Zhu Lin confidently took out a syringe and medicine from the medicine box, preparing to give Liu Yimin an injection.

In a daze, Liu Yimin felt someone pull down his pants, followed by a sharp pain and then a slap.

When it was time to give the injection, Zhu Lin asked everyone to leave.

Liu Yimin vaguely heard her mutter triumphantly, "I knew it! I could give you the injection!"

"Luckily, I brought a lot of cold medicine with me. Old Huang, you're so experienced; it's easy to catch a cold when filming in autumn and winter. Zhu Lin, are you alright?"

"It's alright now, he should be fine by tomorrow. Give him some more medicine in a bit, his fever is too high. Director Huang, could you help him lower his temperature with physical methods to prevent anything from getting worse?"

"Okay, teach me how to do it!"

The next day, when Liu Yimin woke up, Huang Zumo was lying on the other side of the bed. The noise of him getting dressed woke Huang Zumo, who asked with concern, "Yimin, how are you feeling?"

"I feel much better, thank you so much, Director Huang!"

Huang Zumo looked relaxed and teased, "It's okay, your butt is really white."

"Oh dear, Director Huang, please tell me in detail what happened last night!" Liu Yimin unconsciously covered his buttocks with both hands, feeling a bit of pain.

The good news is that the injections don't hurt.

"Haha, I just used physical methods to lower your temperature. You should thank Comrade Zhu Lin; she gave you the injection."

In his later essays, Liu Yimin jokingly referred to it as a modern version of "not hesitating to brave ice and snow for your sake".

As she stepped out of the room, she encountered a worried Zhu Lin: "It seems that giving a stronger dose of medicine was the right thing to do!"

Two days later, when it was time to leave, Zhu Lin stood in front of the jeep and said in a low voice, "Teacher Liu, when I return to Yanjing, I have something I want to say to you."

When Liu Yimin returned to Yanjing, the biting northwest wind, mixed with yellow sand, almost blew him back to Mount Lu. Even stronger than the current situation was the rise of negative sentiment following the announcement of the premiere date for the play "Wolf Smoke Over Beiping," which began to be viewed with skepticism and pessimism. When "Wolf Smoke Over Beiping" was first published, many people were already stirring up trouble and spreading rumors. Their main attack was that the character of Xu Jingge, a KMT spy, was portrayed too positively and given excessive credit.

Even during the period when they were secretly fighting, they overshadowed our comrades. However, thanks to the voices of many people and the support of Cao Yu, this farce was finally quelled.

With the premiere of the play "Wolf Smoke Over Beiping" just around the corner, criticisms are springing up again as quickly as crops that have been watered with manure.

Cui Daoyi gave Liu Yimin a detailed analysis of the current criticisms and their reasons. He believed that the China Youth Daily's coverage of the "Smoke and Fire in Beiping" seminar also had a stimulating and promoting effect.

A tree that stands out in the forest will surely be felled by the wind. Some people are eager to find fault with Liu Yimin, who is holding seminars at such a young age.

"I'm not afraid. The GMD did indeed carry out a lot of anti-traitor work behind enemy lines at the time, and the sacrifices of these people cannot be denied. Those who died in the anti-traitor work are also heroes of our nation. In addition, I was a member of the underground party inside, actively gathering intelligence, and I also saved Xu Jingge by setting aside my prejudices."

Cui Daoyi laughed and said, "People's mouths are just two sides of the same coin! What they want to say is just a roundabout way of asking questions. There's more to this than meets the eye. What did you say at the youth forum?"

"What did you say? Did you tell some truths?" Liu Yimin asked with a smile.

“You’ve already been categorized as a pro-Soviet faction!” Cui Daoyi said to Liu Yimin, as if he had seen through everything.

Liu Yimin then realized that it also carried a flavor of factionalism and exclusion.

If the Xichun faction considered him a supporter of the minority faction, they would definitely attack him. After the literary conference, the Xichun faction was at the height of its power, and the supporters of the minority faction had no choice but to bow down under the general trend.

“You didn’t say anything, but sometimes not expressing your opinion is an expression of your opinion, and not taking sides is a side. Old Zhang told me to tell you not to take it to heart, the argument will gradually dissipate.”

Zhang Guangnian was a proponent of the "cherishing spring" faction, and his statement was a way of expressing his own attitude.

Cui Daoyi continued, "Our People's Literature and Art magazine will publish a commentary in the newspaper to support you. Besides, after 'The Flames of War in Beiping' is performed, I don't believe those critics won't rush to see it."

Liu Yimin smiled faintly: "Let him be strong as he may, the breeze still caresses the mountain ridge, what can a few rumors do to me!"

"Yes, that's exactly the attitude we need. The most important thing is that the premiere of 'The Flames of War in Beiping' is a success. Also, I showed you a two-courtyard siheyuan (traditional courtyard house) in Nanluoguxiang, next to the Beijing People's Art Theatre and the Forbidden City. It's perfect for your requirements. Would you like to go take a look?"

Cui Daoyi specifically sought out Liu Yimin, not so much to discuss "The Flames of War in Beiping," but primarily to talk about the courtyard house. It's also close to "People's Literature and Art" magazine, making future submissions much easier.

"Two entries? Senior brother, do you have any three entries?" Liu Yimin asked.

"Three purchases? Didn't you say that buying three purchases was difficult?" Cui Daoyi asked, puzzled.

“The People’s Literature Publishing House recently paid me a lot of royalties, which is enough now. I want to do it all at once. So many letters from readers need a place to go. Senior brother, don’t you think so?” Liu Yimin said with a grin.

The combined sales of the three standalone books, "Romance on Lushan Mountain," "Smoke and Fire over Beiping," and "Mr. Donkey," reached around 100,000 copies in a month. The publisher paid the royalties for this portion first, and I received a total of 1,500 yuan.

"Romance on Lushan Mountain" sold the most, but unfortunately it was a short story, so the basic royalties were low, and the print run royalties were also low. If it were a novella, the total would have exceeded two thousand.

With 5,700 yuan in hand, that should be enough for three rounds of writing. Even if it's not enough, I'm sure I'll still get royalties from my writing.

I used to only want a two-courtyard house, but now, a three-courtyard house wouldn't be bad either.

"You're making money faster than the northwest wind is blowing!" Cui Daoyi exclaimed, his heart growing increasingly uneasy.

After thinking for a long time, he said, "I've been writing for decades, but in front of you I'm like a greenhorn."

Liu Yimin rode his bicycle to the Beijing People's Art Theatre. Rehearsals for "The Flames of War in Beiping" were in full swing. Ouyang Shanzun and Lan Tianye were also aware of the current turmoil in the public and some newspapers.

As the premiere approached, the sound became increasingly shrill.

“Yimin, some people say that ‘The Flames of War in Beiping’ is a complete imitation of Lao She’s ‘Teahouse’. Isn’t that utter nonsense?”

Even someone as old as Ouyang Shanzun rolled up his sleeves and started swearing.

“Let’s let our work speak for itself, you two veterans! After the premiere is a success, let’s see what those people have to say then,” Liu Yimin said with a smile, trying to comfort them.

So Zhi gently smoothed out the white banner on his long gown and said, "Yi Min is right. The two of you are not as good as a young man. Yi Min, how was your trip to Lushan?"

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Ouyang Shanzun and Lan Tianye began to direct the actors to rehearse.

After looking around the room, Liu Yimin clapped and said with a smile, "Comrades, I've invited some colleagues from the China Youth Daily to come and do an interview. Don't remove your makeup yet, they'll be here soon. We'll take some photos then."

Ouyang Shanzun and Lan Tianye came over and asked what was going on. Liu Yimin said, "Everyone has worked hard in rehearsals. The reporters want to know about the rehearsal of our play 'Wolf Smoke Over Beiping'. The bigger the controversy in society, the more they want to report on it."

Liu Yimin put his arm around Ouyang Shanzun and Lan Tianye's shoulders and explained the situation to them.

After a while, the gatekeeper, Yu Jiajia, arrived. The two shook hands: "Comrade Yu Jiajia, thank you for your trouble!"

"I should thank you for giving me the opportunity to interview you. This will definitely be an excellent interview for our China Youth Daily," Yu Jiajia said happily, her hair still damp with sand, looking quite dusty from the journey.

Yu Jiajia took many photos, interviewed actors and directors, and finally focused on Liu Yimin.

"Comrade Liu Yimin, at the symposium on 'The Flames of War in Beiping' last time, you said that there is much to be done in literary works set against the backdrop of Beiping and courtyard houses. In the face of the debate about imitating others, what do you have to say?"

"I feel there is much to write about and much to accomplish. I will not stop writing despite the rumors and gossip. I will continue to write more Beijing-style scripts. I welcome everyone to criticize my work. If they have the patience to criticize each and every one of my works, I will applaud their persistence."

After the interview, Ouyang Shanzun gave Yu Jiajia a ticket to a play so she could come and see it in person and write a report about it.

With the publication of the commentary in *People's Literature and Art*, the discussion became increasingly heated. The report in *China Youth Daily* was like adding a drop of oil to a fire, and the fire, accompanied by thick smoke, burned towards 1980.

Liu Yimin and the Beijing People's Art Theatre had no time to reflect on the year 1980 before throwing themselves into preparations for the premiere.

The educated youth selling candied hawthorns at the entrance were still there, but now they were selling candied hawthorns while reselling tickets, earning double the money. Liu Yimin bought a candied hawthorn and walked into the theater.

(End of this chapter)