Back to 80: My Literary Life

The weather was nice today, the sun was warm. Fang Minghua squeezed onto the bus and rushed to the vicinity of Western University. When he got off the bus, he saw Li Li standing in front of the school.

Waving, Li Li also saw Fang Minghua and ran over.

"I thought you wouldn't come," said the girl.

"How could it be? Keep your word, I don't have the habit of letting others go." Fang Minghua said casually.

"Letting pigeons? Whose house are you letting pigeons for?" The girl was very curious.

"No, what I mean is that words don't keep their words and they break the promise."

"Then why is it called letting go of pigeons?"

"This stems from the fact that there was a lottery in old Shanghai, commonly known as the "white pigeon ticket". Generally, there is no return, so letting the dove out, by extension, means breaking the promise."

"How come I haven't heard of it?"

"Classmate Li Li, of course you, a student, don't know this kind of slang and slang, but I also learned about it from reading some miscellaneous books and found it very interesting." Fang Minghua said seriously.

Seeing Li Li still asking, he quickly said: "The car is coming, follow me and squeeze up!"

Looking at the group of passengers preparing to get on the bus, Li Li temporarily gave up her questioning, followed Fang Minghua closely, and bravely squeezed into the bus.

Xijing Foreign College is near Xiaozhai. The two got off the car at Xiaozhai and entered the foreign college to inquire about the teaching building where the French and Spanish Department was located.

Unfortunately, the staff told them that Professor Mi Ruizhe suddenly received an emergency meeting notice yesterday and was on a business trip to Yanjing. He only left this morning.

This is a bit embarrassing.

Li Li stood in the corridor of the teaching building, looking at Fang Minghua and feeling a little embarrassed.

"It's okay. The weather is nice today. Let's go out for a walk." Fang Minghua said, "Let's go."

The two of them left the teaching building, and Li Li suddenly said: "Fang Minghua, are you asking Professor Mi Ruizhe to let go?"

Learn and use it.

"Forget it, forget it," Fang Minghua said with a smile.

After leaving the school gate, Fang Minghua was about to go back, but when he saw Li Li standing still, he asked, "What's wrong? You're not going back?"

"The weather is so good today, there's nothing to do when we go back, why don't we go to the botanical garden?" Li Li said.

"What is there to see in the botanical garden in winter?"

"I heard that the wintersweet is blooming in the botanical garden, it's very beautiful."

Yeah?

Fang Minghua looked at the street under the sun, and thought that when he returned to his work, he would probably sit on a chair in the yard or bask in the sun at the door of the duty room. He might as well go shopping, so he agreed.

The two of them walked towards the botanical garden together.

The outer courtyard is not far from the Old Botanical Garden, less than one stop away. When she got to the door, Li Li rushed to buy a ticket: "I'm treating you today! I'll buy the tickets as compensation for your wasted trip!"

The girl is quite generous.

Then I won't be polite.

Tickets cost 20 cents each, which was not expensive. After entering the botanical garden, the two of them wandered around casually.

In fact, there is not much to visit in the botanical garden in winter. Except for a wintersweet forest in full bloom and several greenhouses where unknown green plants are planted, the rest are bare.

But there are not many people visiting the botanical garden.

It is somewhat similar to Xingqing Park. There are several universities near the Botanical Garden, such as the Foreign Languages ​​Universities, Normal University, and Xijing University of Finance and Economics, so there are quite a few students visiting here, and you can even see students reading seriously with books.

Coming and going, the school badge on the chest is particularly eye-catching.

The two chatted while walking.

"I have a high school classmate who studies at Normal University and was at the same table as me in high school. We have a good relationship," Li Li said.

"Boys or girls?"

"Of course it's a girl."

"This is very close to the Normal University. Why don't you go find her?" Fang Minghua asked.

"No, I'm staying with you in the botanical garden."

Why do you want to accompany me?

You obviously want to go shopping, right?

As the two of them were talking, a pair of young men and women walked towards them. The school badges on their chests identified their identities.

"Li Li!"

"Ma Xiaojuan!"

The two girls greeted each other.

The girl named Ma Xiaojuan, who had two pigtails, looked at Li Li and smiled happily: "Li Li, are you coming to visit the botanical garden?"

"Yes, I told my friend just now that I have a good friend who is studying at the Normal University, and I didn't expect to meet you by such a coincidence.

"Your friend?" Ma Xiaojuan looked at Fang Minghua who was standing aside.

"His name is Fang Minghua, and he works in the security department of a confidential unit in the urban area." Li Lida generously introduced: "He is not the writer who wrote "Youth", but he also likes literature very much. Today we are specially visiting foreigners from the outer courtyard. The teacher, Professor Mi Ruizhe, unfortunately he is on a business trip."

"Are you visiting Professor Mi Ruizhe?" The young man wearing glasses who was standing next to Ma Xiaojuan interrupted.

He looked a few years older than them.

"Are you from the Foreign College? Do you know Professor Mi Ruizhe?" Li Li noticed the school emblem on his chest: "Xijing University of Foreign Languages"

"I am a student in the Department of French and Spanish. My name is Zheng Quan. I once listened to Professor Mi Ruizhe's public class. He taught very well and was very kind. He didn't have the airs of a professor." The young man said.

"Yes, we are indeed amiable. We met at the English Corner." Li Li briefly explained the situation that day.

Ma Xiaojuan and Zheng Quan looked at Fang Minghua with different eyes.

Especially Zheng Quan, a look of admiration suddenly appeared on his face: "I am majoring in French, so I often read some French literature. For the book "In Search of Lost Time", it is too obscure and difficult to understand."

"Yes, that's why I had a headache after reading it and didn't finish it." Fang Minghua was also very honest: "The novel of stream of consciousness is just like this, with the order reversed and intertwined, and the plot structure is loose and changeable."

"When I was taking the course "Introduction to French Literature," the teacher also talked about stream-of-consciousness novels, saying that this was a style of novel that emerged in the 1920s and is now very popular abroad, especially in Europe and the United States, but no one seems to be writing it in our country now. "

"I guess it will be soon." Fang Minghua said with a smile: "Scar literature is now popular in our country's literary world, but this subject matter will eventually be replaced by other subjects. People can't always indulge in the past, right?"

"What you said makes sense. Our teacher said that although the consciousness of tragedy reappears in the works of scar literature, its tragic spirit has superficial weaknesses. The deepening of tragedy should have two levels: first, It is to express disaster; secondly, it is to show sublimity in disaster. And "scar literature" only stays at the first level of tragedy, and the works blindly focus on the narration of tragic stories and ignore the portrayal of personality.

The two young men were chatting while walking, and the two girls behind were also whispering.

"Li Li, is Fang Minghua really not a college student?"

"Why did I lie to you? He is currently taking a correspondence course run by our school."

"Listening to what he said, I felt that he was very knowledgeable, much more than the average college student."

"Yeah, I admire him for that."

"Isn't it just admiration? The two of us who came all the way to the botanical garden together are just admiration?" Ma Xiaojuan showed a sly smile.

Thanks to Jianglang Shanxia Dachenzi and Langlilangjian for their rewards, and thanks to Guan Hamburg, Book Friends 20191006120132077, Xia Xiangchen, and Book Friends 2023051470_de for their monthly votes.