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

Chapter 469 Returning to Hometown with Honor
During the period of press censorship on the island, news from the mainland was strictly controlled, and ordinary people could hardly learn about it except for the upper class and those who frequently traveled abroad.

Xie Zhonghou's trip to the mainland allowed ordinary people to learn about news from the mainland.

The island's literary community has extensive international exchanges, but due to information blockades, pirated books from the mainland are not readily available to everyone. After seeing in the newspapers that Liu Yimin had won literary awards in the US and Europe, a wave of research swept through the literary world.

Xie Zhonghou's photos allowed many people to see Taierzhuang, Weishan Lake, Shandong Province, and the mainland.

Those who had left their hometowns for decades burst into tears. After reading the newspaper, they used trembling hands to cut out the photos one by one and put them into photo albums to keep as keepsakes.

After that, people gathered in front of Xie Zhonghou's house, mostly from Shandong and Jiangsu provinces. They listened to Xie Zhonghou talk about the mainland and kept looking at the Weishan Lake water that Xie Zhonghou brought back. Everyone wanted to taste the water from their hometown.

Xie Zhonghou only had one cup of water, so he mixed lake water and tap water together so that everyone could taste it.

"Sweet!" The veteran held the water in his mouth for a long time before tilting his head back and slowly swallowing it. When he looked down again, tears were streaming down his face.

When the veteran from Shandong Province asked Xie Zhonghou if he had brought back any soil from his hometown, Xie Zhonghou shook his head and caught a glimpse of the veteran's gaze shift from hope to dejection.

Some veterans' associations occasionally receive local specialties or soil brought back by Chinese Americans returning from overseas visits. The veterans carefully put the soil into water and drink a mouthful of water from their hometown to ease their longing.

Xie Zhonghou did not stay on the island for long. He simply could not bear to see those old soldiers leaning on their canes, their turbid tears bringing with them his own homesickness.

After returning to Hong Kong, Xie Zhonghou fulfilled his duties as a journalist while keeping a close eye on the film "The Battle of Taierzhuang".

Every day, Xie Zhonghou would have all the famous newspapers in Hong Kong bought and placed on his desk, and then he would pass on any useful information or news from them to the island.

His research on Liu Yimin never stopped. He bought and read "Dust Settles Down" and "Huo Yuanjia" as soon as they came out. "Huo Yuanjia" was also very popular in Hong Kong, and the standalone editions were continuously entering Hong Kong through Zuoyi Publishing House.

Xie Zhonghou slapped his forehead. Strictly speaking, there is no longer a pro-democracy faction in Hong Kong. Since the Sino-British agreement in 1984, the pro-democracy faction has lost its basis for survival.

Shaw Brothers' stance had been gradually shifting since the agreement was first signed, and the Shaw Foundation, headed by Shaw Brothers, also signed a donation agreement with the Ministry of Education in mainland China. Subsequently, "Shaw Buildings" will gradually appear across the country.

When Xie Zhonghou saw the headline in the Ta Kung Pao newspaper, he happily spun around in his office with the newspaper in hand—the mainland film "The Battle of Taierzhuang" would premiere on January 1st.

The article details how the mainland spent five million RMB to film "The Battle of Taierzhuang," striving to recreate the most authentic history through casting and set design.

At the end of the article, Liu Yimin was introduced again, referred to as a "red-hat writer" in mainland China. In addition to his outstanding achievements in the international literary field, he is good at writing mainstream literature in mainland China, and the main characters in each of his books are vivid and real.

"Send electricity to the island immediately on January 1st." Xie Zhonghou put down the newspaper and quickly went outside to notify the staff to contact the island.

At Yenching University, Liu Yimin was lecturing to students in the classroom, while Dai Jianye and a few others sat below the stage listening attentively. Half of their year of study was about to end, and the group cherished their time at Yenching University even more.

Hai Zi stared at Liu Yimin lecturing in class, unable to concentrate. As he listened, he began to envy Liu Yimin, feeling that Liu Yimin's lecturing style was completely different from his own.

When Liu Yimin lectured, the classroom was very lively. Occasionally, Liu Yimin would even crack a joke, and the students listened very attentively.

When I was lecturing, I don't know if it was because philosophy was too dull or if it was my own problem, but it felt like I was lecturing alone. However, because of my identity as a poet, there were quite a few people in the class.

The students were less inclined to discuss philosophical questions and more inclined to ask themselves how to write poetry.

After finishing his lecture, Liu Yimin walked out of the classroom, followed by several students from the Institute of Literature. Liu Yimin joked, "You want me to treat you to a meal? No way. Except for Hai Zi, the rest of you can eat in the cafeteria on your own."

Dai Jianye and his group chuckled and dispersed around the two men.

“Come on, I treated them to dinner last time, but not you. I always treat everyone equally.” Liu Yimin put his arm around Hai Zi’s shoulder and walked to the motorcycle, regardless of whether Hai Zi wanted to or not.

“Let’s go,” Liu Yimin said again.

Liu Yimin led him to the Long March Restaurant, where they ordered one meat dish, one vegetable dish, and two bowls of noodles with soybean paste. Seeing that Hai Zi didn't speak, Liu Yimin proactively asked, "Are you practicing qigong?"

"Huh? Teacher Liu, how did you know?" Hai Zi asked in surprise, then added, "Teacher Liu, do you practice too?"

Liu Yimin was amused by Hai Zi's reaction: "Practice? Practice my ass, this stuff is all a scam."

Hai Zi shook his head and said, "Qigong really exists, Teacher Liu. I'm almost able to open the Small Heavenly Circuit."

"Breaking the Small Heavenly Circuit? Tell me what you mean by breaking the Small Heavenly Circuit?" Liu Yimin asked.

Hai Zi stammered something about how when the meridians circulate to a certain level, the Small Heavenly Circuit will naturally open. His words were vague, but to outsiders they sounded incredibly mysterious.

“Teacher Liu, Qi can grant us power that is not part of our physical body. In philosophy, this is called supernatural ability. Philosophy teaches us to look at things dialectically; we cannot simply conclude whether something exists or not. Hegel also said that what is, is rational.”

Liu Yimin said, "The idea that 'existence is rational' is idealism. You've been taught materialism for so many years, have you become an idealist?"

“Teacher Liu, I still believe in materialism. Materialism says that there are substances in the world that we do not know, but there are no substances that we cannot know. Perhaps Qigong is a kind of matter, but we just don’t know it,” Hai Zi said logically.

"Then how do you come to know this substance?"

"Meditation, sitting meditation."

"If you rely on your spiritual world to perceive the undiscovered material world, can you actually discover it?" Liu Yimin countered.

Hai Zi frowned, a flicker of pain crossing his eyes. Liu Yimin continued, recounting how Columbus discovered the Americas, how they learned the Earth was round, the tectonic plate movement of the five continents, and the invention of gunpowder in my country.
"Teacher Liu, do you mean I can't just rely on meditation and contemplation, and I need to seek it out?"

Liu Yimin sighed and said, "Li Bai led Du Fu and others to search for immortal herbs, immortals, and elixirs, but they never found them in their entire lives. Can you find them?"

"..." Hai Zi, realizing he wasn't as brilliant as Li Bai, helplessly flipped his hand: "Teacher Liu, what should we do?"

"Throughout history, countless people have searched for ways to achieve immortality, which could be described as your Qigong, but none have found it, which means it simply doesn't exist."

"No, Teacher Liu, the person we found ascended to heaven immediately, so naturally we didn't know we'd found them."

Upon hearing this, Liu Yimin wanted to say that Hai Zi was right.

“Qigong is fabricated. Why am I so sure it’s fabricated? Because I can make it up,” Liu Yimin said after calming himself down.

Seeing Hai Zi's eager gaze, Liu Yimin casually made up a rhyme about transforming fighting spirit into form.

"Fighting Qi? This is the first time I've heard of this Qigong school. Teacher Liu, did you create it?" Hai Zi pressed.

Who says the later era is the best time for fantasy and martial arts novels? If someone wrote a book like "Battle Through the Heavens" in this era, it would probably fool a lot of people into practicing their fighting spirit.

Liu Yimin chuckled coldly, "Who taught you qigong?"

"Chang Yuan and Sun Ge."

"How's their training going?"

"It seems like the Great Circulation has been opened."

Do you have any special abilities?

"No, not really?" Hai Zi said, sounding unsure of himself.

“That’s right. I know you want to use qigong to improve the speed and quality of your poetry writing, but that’s not how you improve it. How fast do I write? I write fast, but does that mean I’m practicing qigong? Hai Zi, your thinking is a bit too eager for quick success.”

Hai Zi practiced qigong so much that he almost lost his mind.

Liu Yimin solemnly told him that instead of meditating, he should do more practical things, like helping the school janitors shovel snow when winter came.
“Cultivating oneself in the mortal world is also a form of cultivation. Poetry is born from the productive practices of the working people. If you want to write good poetry, you must go among the working people,” Liu Yimin earnestly advised.

Hai Zi nodded, but it was unclear whether he had taken it all in.

After sending Hai Zi back to school, Liu Yimin went home and stayed until 3 a.m. before returning to Yenching University.

Upon arriving at the office, he first called Luo Yihe, who worked in the editorial department of "October," and asked him to keep an eye on Hai Zi. "You two are very close friends who can talk about anything. Stay away from this crooked and evil thing called qigong."

“Professor Liu, Haisheng told me about it, but I didn’t quite understand. I thought he liked it, so I encouraged him a few times. But lately, he’s been much happier at the Institute of Literature and Art, saying that you and the other trainees at the institute have taken good care of him,” Luo Yihe said.

Liu Yimin gave Luo Yihe a few instructions and hung up the phone. Yan Zhen walked over to Liu Yimin and asked when the Institute of Literature's year-end meeting was scheduled.

"December 27th or 28th, I suppose!" Liu Yimin said.

“Okay, I’ll go send out the notification document,” Yan Zhen said.

After Yan Zhen left, Wu Zuxiang said, "Yan Zhen has been working really hard lately. I went to the Institute of Literature's office a few times, and he was either memorizing texts or reading literary reviews in the Wenyi Bao (Literary Gazette)."

"It's alright," Liu Yimin said casually.

Wang Yao laughed and said, "Yimin, look at how smug you are."

Liu Yimin chatted with them for a few minutes, then buried himself in his own work again.

When I got home that evening, there was a letter on the table that the postman had just delivered that day, with the name of Old Zhang, the director of the cultural center, written on the envelope.

Curator Lao Zhang invited Liu Yimin to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Ru Porcelain Museum in Ru County. Lao Zhang had mentioned this when the museum was being built, and Liu Yimin had agreed at the time.

At the end of the envelope, Lao Zhang, fearing he might disturb Liu Yimin's work, suggested that if Liu was too busy to come, it was fine to leave.

Liu Yimin checked the date and it was December 2nd. He planned to send a telegram the next day indicating that he could attend.

Hearing that Liu Yimin was going home, Yang Xiuyun was very happy and almost wanted to go home with him.

While Liu Yimin and Yang Xiuyun were discussing Ru County, Zhu Lin returned from the Beijing Film Academy.

"Old Zhang, the curator, is a good old comrade," Zhu Lin praised. The two had met twice in total. The first time was when Old Zhang delivered the large jar with the stork, fish, and stone axe design to Yanjing, and the second time was when Old Zhang traveled a long distance to attend their wedding.

"So I definitely have to go."

Zhu Lin said with a smile, "If Teacher Liu doesn't go, everyone will definitely think that Teacher Liu has become a high-ranking official and has become detached from the masses."

After dinner, while the family was watching TV, Liu Yimin asked about the progress of filming "Huo Yuanjia".

Zhu Lin explained the filming progress and the scenes to be filmed tomorrow to Liu Yimin: "However, we may have to go to Tianjin and Shanghai to film scenes in a while, so there are some scenes that can't be filmed in Beijing."

As we chatted, the conversation drifted to gossip about the film crew, such as which assistant director was the most hardworking. Currently, Li Wenhua is the most dedicated assistant director; he comes from a cinematography background, has an exceptional grasp of the camera, and aspires to be an internationally renowned director.

At 10:30, the TV program ended, and the family went to bed.

The next day, Li Shu took the comic book "Huo Yuanjia" to Liu Yimin and asked him to take a look.

"It has a total of three hundred pages, divided into two volumes, and cost three thousand six hundred yuan," Li Shu said proudly.

The cover was made of yellow kraft paper. Liu Yimin flipped through it from beginning to end. Every character was drawn very vividly, especially Huo Yuanjia, whose muscle lines and facial expressions were perfectly matched.

"This money was well spent!" Liu Yimin exclaimed.

Li Shu gave Liu Yimin twenty comic books, which Liu Yimin decided to carefully collect.

"Since the release of the standalone edition of 'Huo Yuanjia,' sales have been soaring. We plan to print another two million copies. The initial print run of three million copies is not enough given the current situation."

Liu Yimin placed the comic book on the bookshelf: "Old Li, how many copies of this comic book did you print?"

“Our two companies printed five million copies.” Li Shu held up five fingers on his right hand.

"Okay." The comic book is priced in two volumes, each costing 80 cents, for a total of 1.6 yuan.

Liu Yimin's royalties for comic books were also based on the revenue sharing ratio of individual volumes.

Of the five million copies sold, Liu Yimin would receive about 50,000 yuan, but taxes would have to be deducted, so he wouldn't get that much.

After seeing Li Shu off, Liu Yimin handed two comic books of "Huo Yuanjia" to the two little ones, Liu Yu and Liu Lin, and specifically told Liu Yu not to tear them.

On November 30th, Liu Yimin took off from Beijing Capital International Airport to Zhengzhou, where a jeep from Ru County was already waiting at the airport entrance.

"Professor Liu, we have to wait for one more person before we can leave."

"Who are you waiting for?"

"From the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Culture."

"What are they doing here? Have we unearthed another treasure?"

The driver shook his head and said, "No, the Cultural Relics Administration Bureau is going to give our curator a cultural relics protection commemorative medal."

The people from the Cultural Relics Administration came by train. They waited at the train station for about half an hour. When they saw Liu Yimin, they smiled and extended their hand, saying, "Professor Liu, if we had known you were coming back, we would have come together."

The person from the Cultural Relics Administration Bureau was named Xie Chensheng, who was an advisor to the Bureau. The two had met once, but Liu Yimin only vaguely recognized him.

Xie Chensheng introduced himself, and Liu Yimin shook his hand and said, "Old Xie."

On the way back, Xie Chensheng and Liu Yimin sat in the back and chatted warmly. Xie Chensheng thanked Liu Yimin more than once for his contributions to the protection and repatriation of cultural relics: "I also went to Europe this time, so I understand the difficulties of repatriating cultural relics."

You went to the US to receive the award, while we traveled around England, France, Germany, and other countries several times without much success. Unlike you, who are always surrounded by people wherever you go, we are met with extremely perfunctory treatment wherever we go. England was a little better; they returned a bottle, and a few overseas Chinese donated some of their treasured collections.”

“This is a long road.” Liu Yimin knew where the difficulties Xie Chensheng was referring to lay.

The jeep swayed and rattled for three or four hours before arriving at the cultural center. A banner welcoming Liu Yimin was hanging at the entrance, and the word "visit" was used in a special way.

Welcome Professor Liu Yimin, Deputy Director of the Institute of Literature and Art Research, Ministry of Culture, to our county's cultural center for guidance.

Below is a banner welcoming Xie Chensheng.

Xie Chensheng, a cadre in the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, is at the bureau level. Currently, the two are at roughly the same level, but within the Ministry of Culture system, Liu Yimin's position is undoubtedly much more important.

As soon as the car door opened, a group of people came out of the cultural center. Secretary Yang Yushan was in front, Director Zhang was beside him, and the people behind him were county officials or people from the cultural center.

Yang Yushan did not shake hands, but instead gave Liu Yimin a warm hug: "Yimin, good job! You're getting stronger and stronger. You're already a level three professor. That's impressive."

Then Yang Yushan shook hands with Xie Chensheng, and the curator, Old Zhang, shook Liu Yimin's hand and said, "Yimin, you've worked hard."

"Old Zhang, you're being too polite. It's an honor for our county to invite me."

Entering the cultural center's conference room, everyone sat together and chatted warmly. The topic they most enjoyed listening to was Liu Yimin's story of pursuing the return of cultural relics abroad; his narration wasn't as captivating as Xie Chensheng's, which read like a novel.

The meeting ended after two hours of chatting. Yang Yushan took them to the county canteen for dinner, and they didn't leave until 8 p.m.

Sitting in the guesthouse room, Liu Yimin chatted with Old Zhang about the old days. Liu Yimin hadn't been back for two years, and Old Zhang's face had even more wrinkles.

Old Zhang took a book out of his bag and handed it to him: "This is the county annals that our county has compiled. It's been printed. I'm giving you a copy as a souvenir."

Liu Yimin turned to his page, glanced at it a few times, and quickly closed it.

"They really keep up with current events, even mentioning receiving a literary award and donating to a charity gala," Liu Yimin said helplessly.

(End of this chapter)