Father's Land Mother's River

Chapter 25 The First Staggering Step

After the Spring Festival, Liu Xiaonan wrote his first "novel" in more than 3000 words.

This is the longest article he has written so far. He feels that the writing is smooth and full of words, which appropriately expresses his thoughts and thoughts in the past six months: the confusion and hopelessness of the future; the backwardness of the countryside and the barbaric ignorance of farmers ; The conflict between dreams and land; being incompatible with the environment, it is difficult to find a confidant.
The No.1 title is used, with narration and discussion, as if seeing a real depressed and hesitant self, and after finishing writing, I was moved to tears secretly.

I revised it several times with my heart, copied it carefully, and couldn't wait to send it to the address on "Haiyan".Worried about accidental loss during the mailing process, I did not hesitate to spend an extra dollar and sent it by registered mail.

Waiting patiently, anticipating intensely.After the manuscript was sent out, Liu Xiaonan's mentality underwent a major change. He felt that everything in front of him suddenly had a fresh and practical meaning.

In the evening, there is a fixed column of literature appreciation on the semiconductor radio, which plays previous award-winning works of national excellent short stories and novels.No matter how tired the day's work is, he is the most loyal listener.

In the sound of reading aloud, he absorbs nutrients and strength, and immerses himself in a sweet dream: How he hopes that he can also write such an influential work, and it is best to make it into a movie, so that Change your own destiny.

Not without such examples.A novel caused a sensation, became famous all over the world in one fell swoop, and also got the opportunity to study further.

Liu Xiaonan's greatest wish is to one day be able to step into the university campus, study literature knowledge systematically, realize her dream, and stand in front of Gu Yu with a new attitude.

This goal is within reach.Liu Xiaonan thought that the novels she wrote were not bad, as long as they could be published in journals, it would be a crucial step towards her dream.

The hallucinations stimulated his nerves, making him extremely excited and active.

The beginning of spring is the dry season, and the water level in the pond drops sharply.The fourth brother had an old fishing net, and he took Liu Xiaonan to fish in the pond.The fourth brother stood on the shore, holding the fishing net in both hands and arms, and opened a posture of looking back at the moon, twisting his waist and raising his arms, and threw the fishing net out.

The fourth brother is strong, and the fishing net is thrown far, but the level is a bit poor. The fishing net sinks in the water not in a regular circle, but in an irregular oval shape.After the fishing net completely sank to the bottom, the fourth brother began to close the net. The water surface was turbid and there were huge splashes churning.

Liu Xiaonan reminded loudly on the shore: "Fourth brother, pull slowly, there are big fish."

The fourth brother didn't bother to look back, his eyes were fixed on the gradually retracting fishing net, and he lowered his body and said, "I know, it's heavy to pull, probably a few big catfish."

The fishing net was put on the shore, the fourth brother shook the fishing net a few times, and stood there in a daze, while Liu Xiaonan couldn't stop laughing.

There are a few small crucian carp in the net, but there are also more than [-] toads with the mouth of a bowl, and some are in pairs, hugging each other tightly.No wonder the net felt very heavy when it was pulled in, and I mistakenly thought it caught a few big catfish.

Unconvinced, the fourth brother dumped the toads in the net on the bank, and cast the net again in another place, but in the end he still caught a net of toads.After hitting a few nets, the fourth brother was covered in water and mud, and he didn't catch a few fish. The breeding toads were disturbed by him.

The water surface of the pond is open, covering hundreds of acres, and the bottom of the pond is flat and there are many aquatic plants. It has been in a natural state for many years.Liu Xiaonan had a whim, if he used this idle water surface to raise fish, it must have a good development prospect.

Uncle Guan Deyu recently served as the village party secretary. He told Murakami that the contract should be fine, and Xiaoyun would definitely support it.

Fish farming is something he likes to do. Not only will he be able to support himself, but he will also have more free time to read and write.

After thinking about it, he was ready to do it, and when his father came home, Liu Xiaonan confessed all his thoughts.He saw that his father had a deep affection for the land, and he believed that his father would encourage him to do it boldly.

After hearing this, Liu Zhixin glared at his son, and said unexpectedly: "You want to raise fish, what else do you want to do? Don't just think about those far-fetched things. If you can grow the few acres of land at home into something famous, even if you have promising."

Liu Zhixin has his own reasons, and he won't tell anyone about it.One is that the risk is too great, and a flood will lose everything; the other is that the policy is unstable. Although everyone is encouraged to become a millionaire household, who knows if his son will be labeled as a middle peasant in the future.

His blood was filled with cold water poured down his head, Liu Xiaonan simply stopped talking, he knew it was useless to say anything.

Liu Zhixin said: "Sights are high and hands are low. I can't do small things well, but I still want to do big things. The fields beside the garden are full of grass, why don't you clean it up?"

Liu Xiaonan said: "There are a few grasses growing on the ridge of the field, and it doesn't get in the way."

Liu Zhixin said: "It's not a problem, but that's not how a real farmer behaves. Only lazy people let grass grow in the field."

Liu Xiaonan stopped talking, went out and picked up a hoe to weed.Cautious, stubborn and conservative, with such a father oppressing him, he would not be able to do anything.For the first time, he moved away from his parents to get rid of the restraint.

Spring sowing has already started, and Liu Zhixin has followed the mature farming mode of last year.Guan Deyu wanted to spread his experience, but no one responded.People think that planting potatoes between cornfields is troublesome and requires a lot of investment, so can they be sold if all potatoes are planted?

The facts are there, but the villagers are just unwilling to change the inherent farming mode.

Unrepentant!Liu Xiaonan felt that there was not much difference between her father and these villagers, but in different degrees and in different ways.He looked forward to the publication of his novel more and more strongly, and responded to his father's contempt with facts.

More than a month later, Liu Xiaonan received a larger mail from the editorial department, the kraft paper envelope was heavy.Novel published?It can't be so fast, can it?
Inexplicably nervous and excited, he hesitated to open the envelope, and his manuscript slid out first.My heart sank, my eyes blurred, all expectations and illusions returned to zero, leaving only a void and a loss.

After stabilizing my emotions, I poured out all the contents of the envelope. There were three publications and a rejection letter.This was an accident, at least it showed that the editor valued himself and didn't treat his manuscript as garbage and throw it into the wastebasket.

Liu Xiaonan picked up the rejection letter and read it carefully with awe.

The letter reads: Hello, author!First of all, thank you for your contribution to this journal and your strong support for this journal.Frankly speaking, your handwriting is unique and you have a certain level of writing skills.But your manuscript is not a literary work, but an accumulation and release of bad emotions. It is not difficult to see that it has obvious traces of high school students' argumentative essays.

Novels are written about people, and they reveal the complexity of people's inner world by depicting the characters' image, character and destiny in detail.Do you really understand the land beneath your feet?Do you really understand the inner world of those farmers living around you?
I recommend a book to you, Sholokhov's "The Quiet River on the Don", I hope you can read it several times carefully and ponder it carefully.Attached are several internal literature publications, which contain a large number of articles written by famous writers, writers and critics, explaining their thinking on literature and writing process and creation experience, hoping to be helpful to you.

Experience life with your heart, observe everything with your heart, accumulate more, and write about the people and things you know that can touch your soul the most. I wish you open the door of literature as soon as possible!In addition, please use squared manuscript paper for future submissions.

Signed by Zhao Guangzhi.

After reading the rejection letter, Liu Xiaonan couldn't help but burst out laughing.Just relying on a little girl's nonsense, just relying on the confidence that she was a Chinese class representative in junior and senior high schools, and her compositions were often regarded as model essays by teachers, she recklessly wanted to break into the sacred palace of literature, which is too overpowering.

If you don't even understand the most basic common sense, it's ridiculous to write and submit manuscripts on lined letter paper.

How far is the distance between dream and reality?Can I continue on the path I have chosen?How far can we go?
Overnight fame is mostly a dream.After the calm, the rejection letter from editor Zhao Guangzhi made Liu Xiaonan re-establish hope and clarified the future direction.He made a long-term plan for himself: don't write a word for the time being, read more literary classics, improve literary quality; live a down-to-earth life, absorb nutrition from real life, and accumulate necessary materials.

The book recommended by the editor should be the first choice. Liu Xiaonan went to Fuzhou City several times, but failed to buy that book.The salesperson told him that he had never seen that book, or even heard the title for the first time.

He remembered that his father had said that there was a library in the mine, and he asked his father to borrow books for him to see if he could find the "Quiet River Don"

His father really lent him back the "Quiet River Don".My father said that the librarian had never heard of this book. After consulting the previous catalogs, he found out that such a book had been entered in the early days of the library, and it took a lot of effort to find it in a corner.

There is a thick layer of dust on the book, and it seems that no one has ever borrowed it.There are two volumes in total. After reading the first volume, I will borrow the second volume.

My father also said that the librarian laughed at him, didn't you study agricultural technology, why did you change your career?He said he borrowed it for his son.The librarian said, both of you are good enough.

Liu Xiaonan thanked his father for borrowing this literary classic for him. After reading only a few pages, he was deeply attracted and plunged into it, not wanting to get out.But the busy spring has already begun, so he can only read intermittently, not quenching his thirst.

The long straight furrows consume energy and physical strength indefinitely.Holding a hoe in his hand, Liu Xiaonan yawned and walked along the furrows, weeding like a snail crawling. After a while, he looked up at the ground, and the distance of 300 meters still felt out of reach.

I read too late last night, and I didn't wake up in the morning.When his mother was about to leave the house, he woke him up. She went to the mountain to pull out the seedlings, and asked him to weed the cornfield after eating.After his mother left, he counted one, two, three before struggling to get up, grabbed a few mouthfuls of rice, and quickly put on the hoe and went to the field.

He knew that his mother had a characteristic that she only said things once, and if you didn't do the work she asked you to do, she would quietly do it by herself.A ridge of land has reached the end, the sun is already hanging above the head, and it is time to pick up the hoe and go home for lunch.

When is it a head.

Fortunately, it rained lightly for two consecutive days, and Liu Xiaonan was able to finish the first volume of "The Quiet River on the Don" coherently.Wait for his father to go home and give it to his father, and ask his father to lend him the second volume.After waiting patiently for half a month, his father let him down again.

Liu Zhixin took out a few books about farming from his bag, and put them on a prominent place on the top of the cabinet intentionally or unintentionally, as if he forgot to borrow the second volume of "The Quiet River Don", without mentioning a word.

Liu Xiaonan had no choice but to take the initiative to ask, Liu Zhixin said: "You don't want to work when you read the book, and I will lend it to you when there is no work in winter. I went around the mountain and there are more than a dozen seedlings missing from the peanut. You don't know how to get the seedlings." make up."

Liu Xiaonan only felt that she had fallen into a deep well, and her whole body was completely cold.With a sullen face, he grabbed a handful of peanut seeds, picked up a load of buckets and left.

Jiang Changling shouted behind him: "It's time to eat lunch, and I'll go to replenish the seedlings in the afternoon."

Liu Xiaonan pretended not to hear, went to the well in the back street to fetch a load of water, and went straight up the hill without looking back.

The peanut planting also adopts the film covering technology, which is made into high ridges according to the width of the film and arranged in two rows.Liu Xiaonan checked the lack of peanut seedlings and found a thick bean mouse hole under the platform. The lack of seedlings must have been eaten by bean mice.

Liu Xiaonan poured a bucket of water into the bean mouse's hole. The hole was very deep, but it didn't work. Then he poured another bucket of water, and the hole was full.After a while, a string of bubbles popped out first, and then a gray soybean mouse popped out timidly.

He grabbed the wet and fleshy soybean mouse, found a thin hemp rope and tied it to its hind legs, and tied the other end of the hemp rope to a small tree next to it.

He wanted Pea Mouse to see how hard it must be to carry a load of sixty to seventy catties of water over two hillsides to fill the peanut seedlings.

When Liu Xiaonan returned to the village and carried another load of water up the mountain, the bean mouse had already chewed through the hemp rope and ran away.He stood there looking at the half hemp rope and smirking, a little envious of the bean mouse: it is quite capable of pursuing freedom.

(End of this chapter)