The literary era since 1979

Chapter 107 The Fiery Hawthorn Tree
"Swallow, stop looking. It's time to turn off the lights and go to bed."

In the bedroom, Fang Hong reluctantly closed Under the Hawthorn Tree. Turning around, she saw Fang Yan lying on the bed, reading with great interest, unable to take her eyes off the novel.

"swallow!"

"Sister, let me watch for a while."

Fang Yan said coquettishly: "After reading these few pages, I will go to sleep."

"That's what you said, so let's wait and see."

Fang Hong hesitated for a moment and shifted her attention back to the novel. She saw that Lao San often looked for opportunities to get close to Jingqiu, but Jingqiu always avoided her, and she couldn't help but feel anxious for the two of them.

Especially the third brother was willing to give to Jingqiu.

When he knew that Jingqiu's mother needed walnuts and rock sugar to maintain her health, the third brother immediately asked someone to send them to her. When Jingqiu couldn't buy a jersey due to financial constraints, the third brother found a way to solve the problem...

Even when Jingqiu was injured while working part-time to support the family, the third brother did not hesitate to injure himself just to take her to the hospital for treatment.

I was fascinated at once, as if I was Jingqiu, laughing and crying with her, and feeling the beauty of love together.

"Finally we're together. It's killing me."

After watching one-third of the film, Fang Hong saw that Lao San had moved Jingqiu and the two were finally together, and she immediately felt relieved.

Just as I was about to read on, Yang Xia walked in:

"Why aren't you two asleep yet?"

"Ah, it's so late!"

Fang Hong was startled, and Fang Yan was also startled, but she was smart and said, "Mom, my sister and I are waiting for you."

Yang Xia said angrily, "You are lying to me, it's true that I forgot about time when reading Yan Zi's novels."

"Hey, Mom, let me watch for another half an hour."

Fang Yan said coquettishly: "I'm enjoying it."

Fang Hong pursed her lips. Why did this sound so familiar?

Yang Xia glared at him and said, "Stop talking nonsense. Your sister has to go to work tomorrow and you have to go to school. Turn off the lights and go to bed."

Fang Hong was very surprised to see Fang Yan being so obedient. This was not like her little sister's usual style of crying, making a fuss, and rolling around.
The lights in the room quickly went out, and it was pitch black all around.

With the rustling sound of the quilt, Yang Xia gradually fell asleep, but Fang Hong's mind was full of "Under the Hawthorn Tree", Jingqiu and Lao San. The more she thought about it, the more she couldn't sleep. The more she couldn't sleep, the more she thought about "Under the Hawthorn Tree", as if she had entered a vicious cycle.

In a daze, I seemed to see my little sister wrapping herself in the quilt, then she stretched out a hand, fumbled for a while, and secretly took the novel into the quilt.

…………

The next day, school classroom.

Fang Yan yawned and walked to her seat. Last night she had hidden in the quilt and read a novel with a flashlight all night long.

Although I didn't sleep for a few hours, I was still full of energy.

Besides being young, I also enjoyed reading the novel!

I have already seen Jingqiu and Lao San make a promise at the age of 25. There is only one quarter left, and I plan to finish watching it today.

At this time, my good friend Qin Mi asked, "Yanzi, did your brother publish a new novel in the Literary Gazette?"

"Yup!"

When Fang Yan heard this, she suddenly became energetic.

"Is it this one?"

Qin Mi took out a copy of the Literary Gazette published early in the morning from her schoolbag and immediately turned to the page where Under the Hawthorn Tree was located.

Fang Yan smiled and started chatting with her deskmate.

The two little sparrows chirped and immediately attracted other little sparrows in the classroom, which surrounded Fang Yan and the others.

"Yanzi, is this novel written by your brother specifically for you?"

"Your brother is so good to you, he writes romance novels for you. Unlike my brother, he only knows how to tease me!"

"........."

"Why didn't the newspaper publish the whole thing? What happened next?"

"Didn't you see this line? It's serialized!"

"Is this novel better than Qiong Yao's?"

Faced with such a question, Fang Yan raised her voice like a child protecting her child, "Of course! It must be better than Qiong Yao's novel!"

"Really? I don't believe it?"

One by one, Qiong Yao's fans couldn't help but question it.

"'Under the Hawthorn Tree' must be good. Look at this review in the newspaper." Qin Mi pointed to the editor's note at the front.

It was written on it:

"The hawthorn tree is a very plain and ordinary tree."

"But this simple hawthorn tree witnessed a touching love story. Faced with the restrictions of the times on love, two young people explored the mines of love in their lives, and in the deepest and most difficult to reach parts of their hearts, the purest and most flawless light shone."

"This kind of love is short-lived and fleeting, but it is the best interpretation of love in the innocent era, like a shooting star."

"That's right! That's it!"

Fang Yan raised her chin and looked around.

"What's written in newspapers doesn't count. Wait until the serial is finished before comparing!"

The female classmates who liked Qiong Yao were obviously not convinced.

Fang Yan snorted and took out "Under the Hawthorn Tree" from her schoolbag. "Look at what this is!"

"Wow!"

In an instant, the whole room was in an uproar.

Everyone's eyes were focused on the full copy of the novel in Fang Yan's hand, including Qin Mi, who couldn't wait to borrow it.

In just two days, the whole book was circulated among all the girls in the class. For a time, it was more popular than Qiong Yao's novel.

There was even a relay of hand copying, with a second copy being made.

After reading them one by one, everyone shed tears, with the third brother's words lingering in their minds, "I can't wait for you for a year and a month, and I can't wait until you are twenty-five years old, but I will wait for you for the rest of my life", as well as the unsent love letter at the end.

Especially that love poem, which was like an atomic bomb in the hearts of these young girls who were ignorant of yet longing for love.

Cars, horses, and mail are all slow!
A lifetime is only enough to love one person! The destructive power is huge! The radiation area is huge!

After all, long live love! True love is invincible!

The three-day serialization in the Literary Gazette kicked off the discussion of "Under the Hawthorn Tree" about love in the innocent era, the return of love themes to literary creation, and the correct view of love among young people.

Following closely, many newspapers and periodicals including "Huaxia Youth", "Wenhui Daily", "Guangming Daily", "Wenxue Bao", "Yanjing Daily", and "Huaxia Youth Daily" joined the heated discussion.

I also brought up Qiong Yao's romance novels for comparison.

The two are discussed from different angles such as literary value and social value. In particular, the movie "The Horse Herder" is still very popular across the country. The issue of the social and literary liberation of the concept of love is facing the whole country.

It is obviously urgent to let love return to literature!

More and more newspapers, literary journals, and literary theory magazines supported "Under the Hawthorn Tree" and opposed Qiong Yao's novel.

Approve "Under the Hawthorn Tree" and deny Qiong Yao's novel.

"Under the Hawthorn Tree" is a fragrant weed, while all of Qiong Yao's novels are poisonous weeds. All of a sudden, "Under the Hawthorn Tree" and romance novels were pushed to a new climax.

A long-lost literary love storm is coming madly.

…………

“Is there any student willing to read aloud…”

In the classroom, the English teacher is standing at the podium and giving a lecture.

Suddenly, there were bursts of sobbing.

The crying sound gradually grew stronger and seemed to come from the back of the classroom. The English teacher looked in the direction of the sound and saw a girl with red eyes and tears in her eyes. Her nostrils flared and she whimpered:

"Woo woo woo, Third Brother!"

"what happened!"

The English teacher was startled and looked over when he heard the sound.

The girl cried so hard that her scalp hurt and her mind went blank. She completely forgot that she was in class. Tears welled up in her eyes: "Wow, how could the third brother die? What should Jingqiu do alone?"

The English teacher noticed the manuscript in her hand, immediately understood what was going on, and became furious.

While criticizing, she snatched the novel away, which made the girls around her angry. However, due to the English teacher's authority, they dared not say a word and could only watch her confiscate the novel.

"Look at this, all you do all day is read these books!"

"Look at these, can they help your grades improve?"

"........."

The students lowered their heads and endured the scolding. They finally held on until the bell rang. The English teacher called the girl's name:

"Tell your parents to come to me tomorrow to get it!"

"what?!"

The girl cried even more sadly and heartbreakingly.

The girls around came over one after another, all waiting in line to watch Under the Hawthorn Tree, their words filled with resentment:
"How can you let the teacher confiscate the novel!"

"She was crying so loudly, there was no way the teacher wouldn't notice!"

"Why are you crying?"

"That's right. Now we have nothing to watch."

"It's not like I can control crying."

The girl said aggrievedly: "You haven't seen it, you don't know, the third brother died later! Jingqiu is all alone!"

"Ah? The third brother is dead!"

The girls, who were spoiled, immediately burst into screams.

The sound was so loud that even the English teacher who was walking down the stairs could hear it. He became even angrier and stormed back to his office, throwing the confiscated novel on the table.

“This is the worst class of students I have ever taught!”

"what happened?"

My colleagues who teach Chinese were very curious.

"There is a girl in our class who doesn't listen to the teacher in class and actually reads extracurricular books secretly. You told her to read it and she even cried out loud."

The English teacher became angrier the more he thought about it.

"Isn't this Qiong Yao's novel?"

A colleague reminded me, "That's a poisonous weed."

The English teacher was startled and immediately flipped through the novel. He saw a striking title written on the manuscript: "Under the Hawthorn Tree".

"Hey, that's it!"

My colleague's eyes lit up, "The novel that was recently serialized in the Literary Gazette is really wonderful. It is the cleanest love novel I have ever seen. Compared with Qiong Yao's, it is simply vanilla."

"Is it that exaggerated?"

The English teacher looked at it doubtfully.

"Of course, this is the new work of the author of The Horse Herder. Just like the love story between Xu Lingjun and Xiuzhi, it is very touching!"

My colleague's tone was full of excitement.

"The author of The Horse Wrangler?!"

The English teacher immediately became interested.

My colleague flipped through it casually and was surprised to find that it was the complete version of "Under the Hawthorn Tree", with content that was not included in "Wenyi Bao" at the back.

The English teacher lent her the novel, but when she saw that her colleague was crying and tearful like that girl, she frowned.

Is it really that tear-jerking? No, is it pretty?
So, I made up my mind to criticize this book "Under the Hawthorn Tree" carefully in the evening.

As a result, the next day, the girl followed her mother to the teacher's office timidly, but unexpectedly found that -

The English teacher's eyes were red, his nose was slightly red, his throat seemed hoarse from crying, and he looked listless.

I had already prepared myself for a scolding and punishment, but I didn't expect her to not scold or punish me, but just ask that it shouldn't happen again:
"No more reading novels during class!"

"Thank you, teacher!"

The girl was overjoyed and couldn't help wondering why the usually strict teacher suddenly became so gentle and let her off the hook!
(End of this chapter)