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

Chapter 355 The Real Malan

Inside the courtyard, Yuan Weimin introduced the new generation of key players of the women's volleyball team to Liu Yimin. Liu Yimin shook hands with each of them, and Zhu Lin took out his camera to take pictures of everyone.

"We started training in Chenzhou in July, partly to prepare for next year's Olympics and partly to prepare for the third Asian Women's Volleyball Championship."

"Before we leave, we came to see you and thank you for your contributions to our volleyball team," Yuan Weimin said again.

"Coach Yuan, you're too kind. I wish our volleyball team the best of luck in winning the Asian Volleyball Championship and the Olympic Games," Liu Yimin said.

Zhu Lin said, "Teacher Liu, Coach Yuan, you two don't need to thank me anymore, please sit down and chat!"

"That's right, we're all on the same side," Lang Ping said with her hands on her hips and a smile.

In the second courtyard, the ginkgo and crabapple trees were in full bloom, and with the addition of fans and chilled watermelons, everyone sat in the courtyard chatting very comfortably.

Lang Ping and several other female volleyball team members listened to Yuan Weimin and Liu Yimin chat while fiddling with the barbecue grill and charcoal.

"We can have barbecue and hot pot at the same time." Zhu Lin brought out the copper pot and continued, "We don't have much else, but we have a full range of food. Teacher Liu likes to eat here with her friends, so we have all the ingredients and seasonings."

"There are also fresh vegetables as soon as you enter, picked and cooked right on the spot. There's absolutely nothing fresher than this," Liu Yimin joked.

"Comrade Liu Yimin, you are living a truly comfortable life. I would like to ask how you maintain your creative passion, publishing one novel after another."

Lang Ping, who was fiddling with the barbecue grill, turned to look at Liu Yimin, and the other team members, equally curious, chimed in.

Liu Yimin smiled and said, "The main reason is that I don't have any other survival skills, so I can only make a living by writing."

"what--"

The group of people laughed and turned to get busy. Liu Yimin's words were really infuriating.

“People don’t believe me, but I’m telling the truth,” Liu Yimin said with a smile.

Yuan Weimin patted Liu Yimin on the shoulder and said, "I believe you. I'm the same way. I don't have any other skills. I played volleyball when I was young, became a coach in middle age, and have been dealing with volleyball all my life. So far, I've only won two world championships."

Liu Yimin thought to himself, "You really managed to fool me."

When the team members learned that Zhu Lin was pregnant, they all offered their blessings. Lang Ping stood up and said, "Comrade Zhu Lin, leave these tasks to us. You just wait to eat."

"No way, it's okay, I'll do whatever I can."

Liu Yimin took out a tape recorder and played "The New Generation of the 1980s" in the yard, singing and performing at the same time.

The singing accompanied the aroma of meat, and everyone was having a great time.

Liang Yan asked, "Comrade Liu Yimin, have you had any new works recently?"

"Several essays about my trip to the United States will be published in People's Literature next month."

Lang Ping continued, "The United States, we're going to the United States next year to play in the Olympics, in Los Angeles. Comrade Liu Yimin, after the Olympics, I want to go and visit that Asian Art Museum."

"Comrade Yimin, I hope you can go to the Olympics."

Liu Yimin said with a wry smile, "If I could get a ticket, I would definitely go to watch your game, but there's a high chance I won't be able to get one."

"Comrade Liu Yimin, do you have any novels coming out lately? I enjoy reading novels."

"The novel will have to wait a while, but it will definitely be released this year."

"Then we'll wait!"

As everyone was talking, there was a knock at the door. Liu Yimin opened the door and saw that it was Aunt Liang.

"Aunt Liang, what's wrong?"

"What are you doing in the yard? Singing and dancing all the time," Aunt Liang asked curiously.

Liu Yimin stepped aside and said, "It's nothing, we weren't dancing, we were just eating. Would you like to come in and take a look?"

Aunt Liang went straight into the second courtyard and was relieved to see that they were indeed eating. She had been listening outside, thinking Liu Yimin was hosting a "dance party" at home.

Zhu Lin picked up a bunch of meat skewers and handed them to Aunt Liang, saying, "Aunt Liang, please try some!"

"No, no, really no. Oh dear, how could I accept this?" Aunt Liang was about to leave with her meat skewers when she saw Lang Ping stop. She looked at the others and asked uncertainly, "Are you the ones who play ball? The ones who beat the Japanese?"

Lang Ping laughed and said, "That's volleyball."

"Yes, yes, volleyball, you guys are on the volleyball team! Oh my, oh my, I can't believe I've met you here."

Aunt Liang went to each of the women's volleyball team members and looked at them one by one. Her face was all smiles, and every inch of her body seemed happy.

Upon seeing the camera nearby, Aunt Liang asked shyly if she could take a picture of herself and the women's volleyball team members.

The women's volleyball team members were standing in the yard with their arms around Aunt Liang, and Zhu Lin took a picture of them.

As she was leaving, Aunt Liang said with reluctance, "You all did a good job. I also donated money last time, but it was only two yuan. I'll donate again whenever you need it. Oh, today was really worthwhile."

Liu Yimin escorted Aunt Liang to the door: "Aunt Liang, please keep it a secret that the women's volleyball team is here."

"I understand, you should go back and eat!" Aunt Liang left the courtyard with the meat skewers, her sturdy legs almost jumping up.

Upon arriving at the courtyard gate, I saw an old man resting under a tree. I approached him mysteriously and said, "Guess who I saw?"

The moment Aunt Liang uttered the words, she quickly covered her mouth, chuckled as if she had just realized what she had said, and said, "I forgot, I forgot, I can't say it, I can't say it."

After saying that, he ran quickly towards his home, laughing all the way.

"Hey, you're from a small town, you still haven't gotten rid of your habit of only saying half of what you mean."

After the group finished their lively discussion, it was already evening. Liu Yimin gave each of them a signed copy of "The Green Book".

Yuan Weimin gave Liu Yimin a team uniform, and Liu Yimin invited everyone to sign their names on it. Most of these team members were key players who won the gold medal at the 84 Olympics.

After seeing everyone off, Zhu Lin walked into the courtyard and pointed to the room next to the study, saying, "Teacher Liu, from now on, we should treat this room as a memorial room. We should fill the walls with photos and mementos of the gatherings in chronological order. When we get old, we can walk around this room and piece together our entire lives."

“Great, you’ll be the head of the memorial room,” Liu Yimin said with a smile.

Zhu Lin readily agreed, officially taking office as the head of the household starting today. After returning the tables and chairs, the two left the courtyard. That evening, Liu Yimin put his arm around Zhu Lin's shoulder, patted her belly, and said, "While I was gone, you were all alone at home. If you need anything, wait for me to come back."

"Don't worry, Teacher Liu, you're making me feel quite distressed. It's just the two of us in our family, and we don't have much to take care of. It's not like what's described in books, where there's an eighty-year-old mother to take care of and a crying baby to educate."

Zhu Lin smiled and lay down in Liu Yimin's arms. After a while, she reluctantly told him, "Be careful on the road."

Before leaving, Liu Yimin visited his teacher's wife, Li Yuru, in Muxidi. Li Yuru held Liu Yimin's hand and said, "Living in the Overseas Chinese Apartment is inconvenient, so I can visit my teacher's wife less often."

"Master's wife, I heard you've been quite busy lately?" Liu Yimin peeled a banana and handed it to her.

Li Yuru laughed and said, "I'm surrounded by playwrights, writers, editors, and directors. I've been influenced by you all, and I want to write something myself. Otherwise, I'll be embarrassed to say that I'm your teacher's wife when I go out in the future."

"What did you write? Let me see it."

"I won't let you see it yet; this is just an idea," Li Yuru said mysteriously.

Cao Yu, who was standing next to Liu Yimin, said, "It's also a story with a bit of supernatural elements. If time and space are deliberately disrupted, it will definitely be considered a magical realism script."

After your explanation last time, it seems that magical realism isn't actually that profound.

"definitely."

After dinner, Cao Yu called Liu Yimin into the study: "You're leaving tomorrow. The Gobi Desert is very windy and dusty, and I've heard that some places have nuclear radiation, so please be careful."

"Teacher, don't worry, they definitely won't let me go to places with nuclear radiation." Liu Yimin looked at Cao Yu's solemn face and knew that he was overthinking it.

"You have no idea how much of a shock the atomic bomb caused us back then. When I heard about the events in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I was momentarily incredulous."

That evening, I received a call from the old leader's bodyguard secretary: "Comrade Liu Yimin, the departure time has been changed from 7:00 AM to 8:00 AM. The old leader and another leader are also going. We will take a special plane together and meet at Ji'an tomorrow."

"it is good."

The next morning, Liu Yimin set off with Zhu Lin. Zhu Lin dropped him off at Ji'an Suo Hutong behind Jingshan Park before going to work.

Ji'an was once the location of the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs during the Ming Dynasty, and during the Qing Dynasty it was the place where palace women held funerals. The old man once lived in courtyard No. 8 here when he was a librarian.

The old leader's residence was an ordinary courtyard house. The guard and secretary led him inside, and they could hear the old leader talking to someone in the living room.

"Commander, Comrade Yimin has arrived."

"come in!"

When Liu Yimin went inside, he found that the person talking to the old leader was also an elderly leader, only a little younger than the old leader.

"Comrade Yimin, you don't know him, do you? He's our first-generation nuclear expert—Comrade Zhang, now the deputy director of the Science and Technology Commission. Let's go to Malan together and take another look at our base. You come with us; the special plane will fly directly to the Malan base," the old commander said with a smile.

Liu Yimin quickly said, "Hello, Comrade Zhang!"

"Comrade Yimin, don't make a fuss. I'm happy that the old leader asked you to tell us our story."

"You two can talk on the plane. Tell your stories properly so that Comrade Yimin can hear them."

Liu Yimin hesitated and said, "Sir, how about I fly to WLMQ myself? I want to start from there and travel a part of the way to Maran."

After thinking for a moment with his hands behind his back, the old commander said with satisfaction, "It's rare that you have such a kind heart. We'll land at WLMQ, and you can ride to the base with my bodyguard and secretary. We're getting old, so we won't accompany you."

"That's what a writer should be like, not resorting to opportunism," Comrade Zhang praised.

"Commander, it's time to set off."

"it is good."

Upon arrival at the airport, everyone boarded the special plane ready for takeoff. This special plane had been specially modified to suit the travel needs of high-ranking officials, unlike commercial airliners.

The staff inside are all dressed in military uniforms, and there is a square table in the middle of the seating area where people can sit face-to-face to chat and rest.

Comrade Zhang spread out a map and said to Liu Yimin, "I just returned to China and received orders to build a base."

Back then, the Soviets helped select a base in Dunhuang, but it was too close to Dunhuang, lacked water sources, and the soil was loose and sandy. If an explosion occurred, the dust would be carried by the wind, easily spreading pollution. Besides, the site could only support a yield of 20,000 units.

"Back then, it was Old Zhang who argued forcefully and got the base cancelled. If we were going to do it, we had to do it to a capacity of one million tons. So he led his team from Dunhuang, heading west, and finally found Lop Nur." The old leader also joined in, recounting the story from back then.

"The journey to the west was difficult, even more difficult than Tang Sanzang's pilgrimage to the West. There was only yellow sand and no water. When a sandstorm came, there was nowhere to hide!" Comrade Zhang still felt lingering fear when he talked about the hardships of the journey to the west.

Comrade Zhang dedicated his life to the nuclear cause, except for fighting. On his deathbed, he kept repeating two sentences.

The first sentence is: The Japanese have surrendered! The second sentence is: Is three million tantamount torpedoes enough?
After the plane landed in WLMQ, Liu Yimin and his guard secretary got off the plane. The local military had already sent two jeeps to wait for them. Liu Yimin and his guard secretary sat in the first jeep, while the soldiers protecting them sat in the second jeep.

"Hello, I am Staff Officer Ye Pingqiu."

"Hello, my name is Liu Yimin."

The security secretary nodded slightly: "My surname is Li."

Staff Officer Ye Pingqiu glanced at Liu Yimin and thought Liu Yimin's clothes were strange, not military uniform. However, seeing the guard secretary's attitude, he smiled awkwardly and did not ask the question that was on his mind.

Those from Yanjing are all extraordinary!

We arrived in WLMQ around noon. Since we had already eaten on the plane, we drove straight out of the city from the airport toward the Maran base.

Starting from WLMQ, head southeast to Turpan, then from Turpan southwest to Malan.

After leaving WLMQ, the road became bumpy, and after passing Turpan, the road became even more bumpy.

“The railway from Turpan to Korla is under construction. In the past, we relied on trucks to transport supplies there, but we won’t need to anymore. A railway station has been built next to the base, and it’s called Malan Station.”

Lop Nur is a combination of saline-alkali land and desert, with gravel and withered grass on both sides of the road.

"Even the grass in this godforsaken place is malnourished!" Staff Officer Ye cursed, pointing at the grass beside him.

"Let's stop and take a look," Liu Yimin said.

Staff Officer Ye directed the driver to stop. Liu Yimin stepped on the gravel and hard soil by the roadside. There were some bushes on the flat areas on both sides of the road, but the mountains in the distance were completely bare, with not a single ordinary dwarf tree in sight.

(End of this chapter)