1985, the year of the great writer, began with Infernal Affairs!

In the summer of 1985, a rumor was circulating throughout Shuangshui Village in Liaobei Province. The rumor was so shocking that the village clerk, Li Hanwen, stood at the village entrance several times and angrily cursed, "Which bastard spread this rumor?"

The message reads: Xie Lu, the second son of the Xie family, has been admitted to Wuhan University!

Good heavens!

That's Wuhan University!

Although it was Wuhan University, and I wasn't directly admitted to Peking University, it's still a well-known university.

But how many years has it been since a student from Shuangshui Village was admitted to university? Nobody remembers.

Li Hanwen checked the records and found that the last time was probably a hundred years ago, when Wuhan University was still called Ziqiang Academy, founded by Zhang Zhidong.

While the villagers were still reeling from this explosive news, another rumor began to circulate.

Li Hanwen refused to let Xie Lu come to collect the notice, because five years ago Xie Lu's father, Xie Youshan, beat Li Hanwen up and insisted that he bring fifty yuan to apologize.

They even went so far as to say that many people in the village are of school age, and if Xie Youshan doesn't want his son to go, there are plenty of others who do. After all, there are many people who impersonate others to go to university these days, so it's up to Xie Youshan whether he wants to let his precious son be tarnished.

The small village of Shuangshui was thrown into chaos.

......

Clang.

Xie Youshan pulled back the curtain with a sullen face, placed the freshly boiled kettle on the stove, glanced at the gray kitchen, and went out with a worried expression.

Wang Yufen, who was tending the fire, quickly chased after him and asked:

"What's going on? Li Hanwen still won't budge? He won't even give ten yuan?"

Xie Youshan didn't want to talk and shook his head.

"Li Hanwen has gone too far!"

Wang Yufen said angrily, "Back then, he was the one who harassed women, and you beat him up out of a sense of justice. Now he's trying to trip us up! Our son worked hard for three years to get into university, and we can't let him take that away from us!"

After saying that, she went inside to get her bicycle, shouting, "I'm going to the county to file a complaint. If I can't get it there, I'll go to the city. I refuse to believe there's nothing I can do about it!"

"Give me a break!"

Xie Youshan pulled his wife back in a bad mood. She looked at him with red eyes, and the words of scolding she was about to say immediately stuck in her throat.

If it were useful to appeal to the county or city level, wouldn't he have gone there already? But these days, everything requires a legitimate reason. What can he say when he goes to the petition office? "My son can't get his admission notice because he's been impersonated."

Are you kidding me? Do you think people will trust the village clerk or an illiterate old farmer like you?

After a long silence, Xie Youshan said in a low voice:

"If all else fails, I'll go and apologize to him. We're all from the same village, so he can't go too far."

"How can that be?"

Wang Yufen raised her eyebrows, displeased: "The police station made its decision back then, why should you apologize to him? I don't agree!"

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

Xie Youshan, growing impatient, retorted, "I'm trying to find a solution, but you disagree. If you're so capable, why don't you come up with your own solution?"

Wang Yufen's eyes reddened again. The two stood frozen at the doorway, speechless. Occasionally, villagers would pass by and ask a few questions, to which they would force a smile and reply that nothing was wrong.

......

in the room.

Looking at his young and naive self in the mirror, Xie Lu was overwhelmed with emotion and could not calm down for a long time.

Parents arguing is probably a required course for all rural children, and Xie Lü grew up in such an environment.

He studied with a smile when his parents were getting along, and he studied with his ears covered when they were arguing. Finally, when he was about to leave, he was still worried about whether his family would argue again.

After his success, Xie Lu recalled these experiences several times, even though he was already a full professor at Peking University at that time (he went from Wuhan University to Peking University for graduate studies and then stayed on as a doctoral student).

Even after having countless students, and having published an article in Qiushi, he still felt that these experiences were not a treasure, but rather real pain.

"They actually came back."

Xie Lu couldn't help but grin. In the mirror, he sported a convict-style haircut with a wispy mustache above his lip, looking almost identical to Zhu Yilong's look in the 22 drama "Life's Big Events"...

At this moment, Xie Lu remembered that he had asked to buy his own razor several times, but Wang Yufen refused, saying that it would make his razor harder and uglier the more he shaved.

"I'll buy one when I go back to school."

Xie Lu washed his face and pushed open the door.

The rustic atmosphere of the 1980s immediately comes to mind, and childhood memories flood back.

The same thing happened back then. Li Hanwen wanted his nephew to impersonate him and go to university in Wuhan, but somehow the news got out, so he had to settle for extorting fifty yuan from his own family.

Two hundred yuan! The Xie family can't even save two hundred yuan in a whole year.

Xie Youshan tried to pull strings everywhere, but couldn't even get a meeting with Li Hanwen. In the end, he gave the village chief twenty yuan before he agreed to mediate.

The reply was: Add another 20, making it 220 in total. If you don't have that, then forget it!

Left with no other choice, Xie Youshan had to kneel down and beg for mercy from Li Hanwen.

A farmer who had stood tall his whole life was forced to kneel down for his son's dream of going to university—what a bitter pill to swallow!

Unfortunately, he wasn't smart enough at the time and didn't stop his father. Otherwise, Xie Lu would rather repeat a year of high school than let his father do such a thing.

"They're arguing, and Li Hanwen refuses to back down?"

Xie Lu smiled and went to the vegetable garden to pick a cucumber. Without washing it, he rubbed it on his clothes and took a bite. It was crisp and sweet.

"You should call him Uncle Li!"

Xie Youshan scolded, "Don't listen to adults talking, go back to your room and read!"

If it were Xie Lu back then, he would probably have gone back to his studies by now. At that time, he was a bookworm who didn't care about the world and thought that studying was his mission as a human being.

I later realized that learning is just one part of life.

"Are you planning to kneel down and apologize?"

Xie Lu said it bluntly.

"I......"

Xie Youshan's face flushed red, looking very uncomfortable. This was too shameful, and it was even more shameful to have his own son point it out!

"What are you thinking?!" Wang Yufen exclaimed anxiously. "A man's knees are worth gold, how could you do such a thing?"

"I had no choice..." Xie Youshan's voice trailed off.

Looking at his parents' still youthful appearance, Xie Lu thought to himself that his father had aged rapidly in his previous life because of this incident. A person's life is all about vitality and spirit; once that vitality and spirit are gone, a person will quickly decline.

I can't live like this again.

Now that he was back, Xie Lu thought to himself that he had studied Chinese literature his whole life, and even if he hadn't memorized all of the literature from ancient and modern times, both Chinese and foreign, he had at least memorized a large part of it. It would be a real waste not to use it.

Xie Lu thought for a moment and then lied: "I'll go to the county town to ask Liu Zhenyu. It seems like his family has connections in the Education Bureau. I'll go and ask if it was really me who got into Wuhan University."

"Really? Does his family really have connections in the Education Bureau?" Xie Youshan looked at him hesitantly.

"real."

Xie Lu said with a smile, "He brags to me every day that he can get into university without taking an exam. I'll go and see if it's true."

If I told Xie Youshan that I was planning to submit articles to make money, I'd probably get my legs broken.

As he spoke, he touched the old-fashioned bicycle parked at the door. This bicycle had accompanied him for six years of middle school, and he only put it at home to use after he went to college.

"When will you be back?" Wang Yufen asked.

"Three days, I guess." Writing a short story or novella, plus polishing it, will take at least three days.

"Don't go too far when you visit them."

Wang Yufen hurriedly brought out about twenty eggs from the room, weighing a total of three jin (approximately 1.5 kg), and said nervously, "We are guests, and they have helped us so much, so it is only right to give them a gift."

"..."

"Alright."

Xie Lu was defeated. He put the eggs in the basket of his car and drove off unsteadily.

Xie Youshan and Wang Yufen watched Xie Lu's departing figure, their eyes shifting from gentle to worried. After a moment, Xie Youshan said, "I'll go ask the other three and see if they can help me raise some money."