Back to 80: My Literary Life

But soon, Song Tangtang's face returned to calm. She looked at Tang Na and said, "Love has no borders. Everyone has free choice and equal rights. As for whether they yearn for heaven or hell, Buddha said: Heaven and hell are all in the thin line." "

Tang Na was slightly surprised.

He didn't expect that the beautiful and elegant oriental woman in front of him would react so quickly and cleverly avoid the hidden traps twice in a row.

"OK, let's get back to business. Let's talk about your husband: Mr. Minghua." Tang Na immediately changed the subject: "Miss Song, Mr. Minghua's "Trilogy of Love" is so beautiful and romantic. In daily life, he Is he a very romantic person?"

After hearing this topic, Song Tangtang couldn't help but smile.

"No, he is not very good at expressing himself. Like ordinary Chinese, his romance may only be in the words he writes."

"Then there's nothing romantic happening between you?" Donner asked.

"Yes, we had just met at that time. I was still a soldier in the Southern Xinjiang Art Troupe and was still on the front line. As a writer, he went to the front line to collect stories. We have experienced life and death together. One night under the moonlight, on the path outside the camp , he asked me to dance for him. I thought it was the most romantic dance in my life.”

Song Tangtang said with a happy smile on his face.

"Oh my god. Ms. Song, are you still a soldier and have participated in the war?" Tang Na looked shocked.

"Yes, I come from a military family. My grandfather, my father, and my brother are all soldiers. My grandfather participated in the Anti-Japanese War and the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. My father participated in the Sino-Indian Border Self-Defense Counterattack. As for me, I went to southern Xinjiang. "

"Oh we were enemies, now we are friends," Donner joked.

Song Tangtang smiled: "Yes."

"Well, thank you for sharing the unique romantic story between you and your husband, but I heard that Mr. Minghua is very close to our country's beautiful writer Miss Emily. He wrote "Covered Bridge's Lost Dreams" and "The Ghost Story" was inspired by playing with Miss Emily. Have you heard of this rumor? "

"I heard it."

"How did you feel after hearing this?"

"It's nothing. I met Emily when I came to the United States. She is a very warm and beautiful woman. We are friends." Song Tangtang smiled.

Next, Song Tangtang talked about the simple and warm life of herself and her husband, and what her husband has done in China, including the ongoing call for submissions for the World Chinese Literature Award.

"He thinks it's a very meaningful thing, and I'm proud of my husband."

Talking about the domestic creative environment, Song Tangtang said that it is very free now. As for what you asked about, there is a saying in China that "seeing is worse than hearing a hundred times." Welcome to China to see it.

An hour later, the show ended.

The two shook hands politely.

"Ms. Song, you are the most beautiful and smartest lady I have ever interviewed. I welcome the opportunity to cooperate next time."

"Thanks."

When Song Tangtang came out of the studio, Li Li hurriedly greeted him: "Cousin, you are really amazing. You can calmly answer Tang Na's tricky questions, but I can't."

"Okay, don't praise me. In fact, I was very nervous at the time." Song Tangtang said, "Let's go."

"Well, cousin, let's go drink coffee. I know you like coffee." Li Li said again.

"OK."

The two of them left the building and found a nearby coffee shop called Birch Coffee. They sat at a table by the window, each ordered a latte and a buccaccino, and drank slowly.

The coffee shop was quiet, except for a saxophone song.

Song Tangtang recognized it, it was "Go Home".

She glanced at Li Li, who was sitting opposite and was drinking coffee, and asked softly: "Lili, how is your relationship with Chen Jian now?"

"What can we do? It's the same as usual." Li Li raised her head and looked at her cousin: "Let's go our separate ways and don't disturb each other. At most, we can go to his parents' house together sometimes on weekends and just pretend. It's pretty good."

"fine?"

"Yes, I prepare lessons now, attend classes, read books and translate articles when I get home, and occasionally ask Demi to go shopping. It's no different from my life before getting married. This is good."

"But you can't live like this forever, right? You are lonely after all. You like children very much."

"Yes, I like children, but I can't just find a man to have one, right? Although no one in America cares about you."

"Hey" Song Tangtang sighed, not knowing what to say.

"Okay, cousin, don't worry about me." Li Li said with a smile: "I'm really doing well. What's the status of the Chinese Literature Award that my brother-in-law is organizing now? There are so many submissions. not much?"

"Minghua called me two days ago and briefly explained the situation. There are about thirty novels and about two hundred novellas and short stories combined." Song Tangtang said.

"Last year, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in the United States, I heard that the jury received about 500 literary works. There are still a few entries for the Chinese Award, but the call for submissions has not ended yet, and there will definitely be more entries in the future. Choosing works, besides, the results in the first year were pretty good, I think the next one will be even better!”

"Ha, call your brother-in-law and tell him about this." Song Tangtang smiled.

"No need, I think my brother-in-law is more confident than me." Li Li smiled and asked, "How is Lele and Ruirui going to kindergarten now? Is Ruirui very naughty?"

"Yes. Oh, it's a headache." Thinking of her baby daughter being naughty in kindergarten, Song Tangtang had a headache.

Originally, she wanted to cultivate her into a lady, but it seems that it is not easy.

"Hehe. Cousin, it's up to you. You were like this when you were a child, and I like you very much."

"Ruirui is still thinking about you, asking why aunt didn't come back during the holidays and didn't play with her. Lili, will you come back during the winter vacation?"

"I haven't thought about it yet." Li Li said, picking up a small spoon and stirring the coffee gently.

Song Tangtang knew that Li Li didn't want to return to China, but was afraid that her parents, especially her mother, would always ask her about her and Chen Jian, and she really couldn't answer if there were any.

"Li Li, you should come back. As for the second aunt, I will cover for you when the time comes." Song Tangtang said.

"Well, okay then."

Li Li flew back to San Francisco after staying in New York for only three days. She had to go back to school, and Song Tangtang had to take care of the crew.

Time passed so quietly, and soon it was mid-November. The filming of "Yanjing People in New York" entered its final stage, and it was expected to be completed by the end of November.

At that time, only the editor, sound engineer and other production staff and Wu Tianmin would return to Los Angeles for post-production, and the rest of the crew would return to China with Song Tangtang.

As for Fang Minghua, the Chinese Literature Award submissions have also entered the later stage, and the number of manuscripts sent in has obviously decreased. Now the focus of the jury office is to contact the members of the reading classes in various places, grasp their respective review progress, and actively prepare for the preliminary review meeting to be held.

According to Fang Minghua's plan, the preliminary review meeting of the works will be attended by all members of the reading class, and the location will be in Xijing, after New Year's Day, and the meeting will last for about 20 days.

Originally, Fang Minghua was going to Yanjing to report the matter to Wang Meng and Feng Mu in person, but suddenly received a notice from the Chinese Writers Association that he would go to Huacheng to hold a board meeting.

Just go, just take this opportunity to report the progress of the jury's work to Wang Meng and other bigwigs of the Writers Association.

That is, why hold the meeting in Huacheng?

It's so far away.

Fang Minghua complained in his heart, but still bought a train sleeper ticket and rushed to Huacheng with Hu Cai and others, and stayed in the Friendship Hotel.

The meeting of the board of directors was meaningless. Anyway, he just listened to speeches, discussed and raised his hands. His mind was on this award work.

He found a time to report the progress to the bigwigs. Overall, he was quite satisfied. The next focus was how to ensure the principle of fairness and justice in the reading class, and preliminarily select excellent works to lay the foundation for the judges to finally promote this year's award-winning works.

After staying in Huacheng for three days, Fang Minghua was ready to return to Xijing.

The night before leaving, I wanted to call my wife to see if she had returned to China.

Generally, hotels cannot make international long-distance calls, but although the Friendship Hotel is only a three-star hotel, the telephone in the room of a foreign-related hotel has international long-distance calls, so I called my wife at around 10 o'clock in the morning. According to the time difference, it was 10 o'clock the night before in New York, and she should be in the hotel.

Fang Minghua just dialed the number, reported his identity, and was about to ask when Song Tangtang would return to China, but the anxious voice of his wife came from the microphone.

"Minghua, I called home several times, but you didn't answer. Aren't you in Xijing now?"

"Yes, I'm in a meeting in Huacheng, what's wrong?"

"You are in Huacheng? That's great! "You should go to Haikou quickly and persuade the Red Army, he is crazy!"

Oh my God

Crazy?!