The literary era since 1979

It was noon when everyone arrived at the Xiangshan Hotel located in a remote park. The whole hotel was built on the mountain, with uneven heights, winding paths, and courtyards interspersed. There were eighteen landscapes inside, including rocks, lakes, flowers, trees, and the main building with white walls and gray tiles.

We ordered a table full of delicious dishes, which was equivalent to a dinner party for the editorial department of "Mystery World".

After eating heartily, Fangyan said while picking his teeth:
"I'm going to write a story about a police officer who lost his gun and is looking for it."

"Looking for a gun?"

Wang Shuo, Yu Hua and others looked at each other in surprise, as they were really surprised by what they had seen so rarely.

As an old policeman, Lu Haiyan is well-informed. "The loss of a service gun is no small matter. For a policeman, his entire career is over. For the public security bureau, it is undoubtedly a huge stain and hidden danger. If it falls into the hands of someone with ulterior motives, it will cause serious social panic and may even cause loss of life. Therefore, once a gun is lost, it must be reported immediately and the search must be started immediately..."

"good."

In Fangyan’s impression, there are a total of 3 movies related to “seeking roots”.

One is Akira Kurosawa's "Stray Dog" and the other is Du Qifeng's "PTU".

Another one is "Looking for the Gun" starring Jiang Wen, which is exactly the story he wanted to write. To be honest, this movie doesn't look like something that Lu Chuan, who made "749 Bureau" and "Nine-story Demon Tower", can make. It has the flavor of a "Jiang Wen movie" inside and out.

It tells the story of Ma Shan, an ordinary policeman in a small town in the southwestern mountainous area.

He had a pistol that he carried with him all day long. Although he had never used it, one day when he sobered up, he found that his pistol was missing. What made Ma Shan even more mentally collapsed was that there were still three bullets in the gun. What he was most worried about was that the person who stole the gun would use it to kill someone.

After careful recollection, he attended his sister's wedding yesterday, got drunk and was sent home.

All of a sudden, all the people attending the wedding became the objects of his suspicion. Ma Shan was like an anxious ghost, walking through every corner of the town, looking at everyone around him with suspicion. However, Liu Jieba, who sold "mutton noodles", stopped stuttering when he saw Ma Shan.

"Is it this 'Liu Jieba' who stole the gun?"

Wang Shuo couldn't help but interrupt.

"Why are you in such a hurry? Let Teacher Fang finish the story first."

Yu Hua rolled his eyes in annoyance.

Seeing Wang Shuo's embarrassed smile, Fang Yan didn't get angry and continued the story that had just been interrupted.

Liu Jieba became a suspect of Ma Shan, but just as he and his colleagues at the police station were preparing to investigate further, the first murder case occurred. The victim was Li Xiaomeng, who happened to be Ma Shan’s old lover. She happened to die in the home of her current lover, Zhou Xiaogang. The murder weapon was the gun that Ma Shan had lost. Ma Shan was immediately detained as a suspect in the murder of Li Xiaomeng..."

After investigation and analysis, the police felt that Zhou Xiaogang had a motive for murder and that his purpose in stealing the gun was to make Ma Shan take the blame.

Ma Shan, who was detained at the time, believed that the murderer was targeting Zhou Xiaogang, and Li Xiaomeng was killed by mistake, and died for Zhou Xiaogang. The bullet's landing point confirmed his analysis, and Ma Shan was released. Then he followed the clues and found Zhou Xiaogang's fake wine den, but there was no trace of the gun. The focus was once again on Zhou Xiaogang, and the murderer would come to seek revenge on Zhou Xiaogang.

Ma Shan then risked his life, put on Zhou Xiaogang's clothes, and went out dressed as Zhou Xiaogang.

As expected, the murderer appeared and shot him. It turned out that the one who stole the gun was Liu Jieba. He hated Zhou Xiaogang for making fake wine and killing his relatives, so he chose revenge by stealing the gun and killing people. The only way for Ma Shan to make up for his mistake was -

Let Liu Jieba shoot himself again and use up the third bullet in his gun.

At the end of his speech, Fangyan raised an intriguing smile:
"While firing the gun, Ma Shan handcuffed the murderer Liu Jieba to himself."

"But when the police found him, they only found him with a gunshot wound and his service gun. Liu Jieba and the handcuffs were nowhere to be found." "Did Liu Jieba take the key to open the door and then abscond?"

Wang Shuo frowned.

"Probably."

While they were discussing this, Lu Haiyan said bluntly, "Teacher Fang, I think this story about finding a gun is a little inferior to "The Mistake by the River" directed by Yu Hua. It doesn't have that amazing reversal, nor does it have the absurd black humor."

"Indeed, to be honest, this plot is a bit bland."

Shi Tiesheng said frankly: "It would be nice if it could be like "A Mistake by the River", with more unexpected developments."

Fang Yan smiled and said, "Do you really think that Liu Jieba killed someone?"

"Is not it?"

Lu Haiyan, Shi Tiesheng and others were greatly shocked.

"The fake wine factory case was solved by Ma Shan and his colleagues. Before that, it seemed that Zhou Xiaogang was the only one who knew about the fake wine factory."

Fangyan methodically pointed out the various doubts about the gun search in Mashan.

"If Teacher Fang says so, then Ma Shan becomes the biggest suspect. He was the one who staged the entire gun-losing case."

Lu Haiyan said seriously, "He pretended to be a policeman to catch the fictitious criminal, Liu Jieba, and then hurt himself in the fight in his imagination, so the gun could be found naturally. That's why he laughed wildly in the end, because he knew he could get away with it, truly free."

"What's the purpose?"

Like Wang Shuo, Yu Hua, Shi Tiesheng and others, he still couldn't figure out Ma Shan's motives.

"It's a murder of passion! Have you forgotten that Teacher Fang spent a lot of time talking about the emotional entanglement between Li Xiaomeng, Zhou Xiaogang and Ma Shan?"

Lu Haiyan analyzed: "It is very likely that Liu Jieba was fabricated by Ma Shan from beginning to end. There may not have been such a person from beginning to end, or there was such a person, but Ma Shan secretly killed him with the second bullet in order to make him a scapegoat..."

"Teacher Fang, is that so?"

Everyone turned their eyes to Fangyan.

“The answer is actually very close.”

Fang Yan said: "According to Fromm's "Escape from Freedom", people will kill their own freedom with their own hands because of the mechanism of escape, and will have hallucinations. Liu Jieba can be seen as the other side of Ma Shan after he killed Li Xiaomeng. He stopped stuttering after killing Li Xiaomeng."

"So Yanzi, you want to write "Looking for the Gun" as a black humor novel of hallucinatory realism?"

Shi Tiesheng looked at Fangyan, Fangyan looked at Shi Tiesheng, and the two of them smiled at each other in tacit understanding.

If "The Hunt" is just the beginning of illusion realism, then with "The Story by the River" and "Looking for the Gun", illusion realism novels will be carried forward. If they can set off a creative boom, they can be like the root-seeking literature and establish a new school. (End of this chapter)