Chapter 47: That Day, Han Han Drove a Big Truck

The next day, before Wang Tong had left, the "Xinmin News" published the manuscript he had faxed back.

"Han Han: I Am a Loner"

The front-page headline of the social section, with a photo, and put the article "The Added Value of Studying" in the literature section again.

The heat, which was already high, added fuel to the fire again, burning half the sky.

How to describe that kind of rampant situation?

There is no way to describe it accurately. Anyway, the people scolding him became more and more intense, and the people supporting him slapped the table and cheered.

The two sides fought at close quarters and completely fought out a real fire.

After seeing it, Wan’s father doted on his daughter: "You keep asking me what kind of person Han Han is. Look, now he has given the answer himself."

Wan Bao'er felt that this Han Han was most in line with her imagination and was deeply proud of it, but she had to argue: "Han Han wouldn't care what others think of him! I don't care either!"

Well, it tastes a bit like the fan following the master...

Then, after a classmate deliberately sourly said "Han Han’s essays are not as long as Han Han’s, and his looks are not as good as Lu Yi’s," she immediately teamed up with a good friend and had a fight with the other party.

Han Han really doesn't care, but Han Fans really do.

Cute~~~

Wang Yali suddenly threw down the newspaper and slapped the table: "Loner? Asking blindly, writing blindly!"

She turned to call Zhao Chunhua, but was rejected.

Zhao Chunhua rushed into the office area with a loud voice and started directing: "Don't stare at the Xinmin News, it has no direct competition with us! Follow 'Added Value' and dig deep for me. Don't take the loner angle. Write about his loyalty to friends, write about the softness and warmth deep in his heart!"

Good work!

Chunhua, you understand traffic.

Feng Yuanzheng went to the theater to go to work, smiling and bowing to everyone he met, revealing the Xinmin News tucked under his arm, but never took the initiative to mention Han Han.

My good friends, please be conscious.

The most sensible He Bing was very supportive: "Oh, I was just looking for the Xinmin News. Old Feng, how is your student’s new article? Is it exciting?"

Feng Yuanzheng’s

"This one is just so-so; the arrogance is a bit excessive, I personally don't like it very much..."

Wang Gang and Song Dandan had originally been about to come over, but upon hearing this, they were left speechless. They pointed their fingers at him in the air twice, turned around, and slipped away.

Want to act high and mighty in front of us?

Heh, I just won't give you the chance!

Chen Danya went to her brother to request a piece of calligraphy: "A gentleman is cautious when alone." But after thinking about it, she held onto the piece, not intending to mail it over so rashly.

Hoping he becomes a gentleman is, of course, the most beautiful expectation, but the problem is, if the 14-year-old boy himself does not want to be a gentleman, then what?

Let's just wait a while longer.

On the other side, Yu Hua and Liu Zhenyun went together to visit Shi Tiesheng. As the three brothers chatted, they naturally and inevitably began talking about Fang Xinghe; Shi Tiesheng and Liu Zhenyun asked, and he answered.

Shi Tiesheng: "Is Fang Xinghe easy to get along with?"

Yu Hua shook his head vigorously: "Not at all, not at all, he stings!"

Liu Zhenyun: "How so? You have times when you're intimidated by someone?"

Yu Hua shook his head again: "It’s not intimidation; it’s that the kid has made it clear he doesn't want to play with us."

The two became even more curious: "How did you figure that out?"

"We belong to the Confucian, he wants to belong to the Dao."

Yu Hua then recounted the casual conversation from the drinking session that day to them, repeating Fang Xinghe’s words almost word for word.

Look, in fact, "Sloppy Puppy" is also a person with a crystal-clear mind. He sees everything, but that still doesn't stop him from continuing to appreciate Fang Xinghe.

And Shi Tiesheng and Liu Zhenyun were silent for a long time, eventually both letting out a sigh.

"A loner, indeed..."

"Youth is truly wonderful—so clear-headed, so free-spirited, so wild, so arrogant!"

Yu Hua looked full of annoyance: "He’s a pure little swindler. The more I ponder that drinking session, the more I feel something is wrong. Damn it, I was intimidated by him that day!"

"Normal. Your courage is no greater than a mouse's."

After the mockery, Liu Zhenyun said as if casually: "Our Liu Yulin also likes Fang Xinghe. If he plans to publish a book, help me ask for a copy. In return, I can write a preface for him."

Yu Hua pointed at him and laughed out loud; Shi Tiesheng couldn't help but laugh either. The abacus beads were practically flying into their faces; it was worth a laugh.

Liu Zhenyun wasn't annoyed, either, and argued forcefully: "I’m just curious. I want to know what kind of things this special young man will write. I don't have any other intentions."

"Fine, I believe you. Tiesheng, do you believe him?"

Shi Tiesheng didn't echo him, but instead lamented: "It’s not just Zhenyun who is curious; I am curious too. That child is truly outrageous. Just looking at the interviews, I feel he is outrageous."

"Illiterate, are you trying to say 'unorthodox'?"

"No, just outrageous."

Shi Tiesheng explained earnestly: "People who are unorthodox exist in every era, but they are generally still within the same framework. One can roughly judge where they come from and where they are going.

Take Wang Shuo, for example. He is unorthodox enough, right? But he is actually quite easy to understand.

But Fang Xinghe is different. When I look at him, everything feels awkward. How can a 14-year-old child be like this?

I don't know how to describe it either, so I’ll just summarize it broadly as 'outrageous'."

"Damn! You really know how to summarize!"

Yu Hua let out a strange cry and held up his pinky finger.

Liu Zhenyun, however, became serious and talked about his personal feelings quite sincerely.

"I’ve read all his interviews. Through those articles and interviews, Fang Xinghe has very successfully established a completely mature literary persona, but that persona is too distinct. There is an indescribable disconnect with his external image—physically still a child, mentally truly self-sufficient; contradictory yet abrupt, profound yet heavy.

So I think the expectations of Wang Meng and Mr. Ba Jin are reasonable. The kid is truly worth looking forward to."

"Maybe this is what genius is..."

Just as Yu Hua finished sighing, he turned back to see Shi Tiesheng and Liu Zhenyun staring at him with eager eyes.

"So... can we see the draft in advance?"

"Write a preface?"

"Are you two making wishes to me?" Yu Hua was so scared he hurriedly waved his hands. "I might not even get to see it myself! The kid isn't a friend!"

"You can become friends!"

Liu Zhenyun looked completely unconvinced, while Shi Tiesheng was thoughtful: "He seems to be under a lot of pressure right now? You should put in some effort and help him out..."

Yu Hua widened his eyes in astonishment: "You two want to see someone else's draft and are instigating me to go out and fight?!"

Shi Tiesheng was righteous: "You’re the one who moved me in front of the goal to defend it!"

Old Tie had been paralyzed in his legs for many years and could only sit in a wheelchair, yet he had been pushed onto the soccer field by this dog, Yu Hua, to defend the goal with his face. A soccer ball as big as that whistled past his head, scaring him so much he nearly jumped up.

Mentioning this, Liu Zhenyun immediately laughed uncontrollably, so Yu Hua rolled his eyes and pushed him out.

"Anyway, I’m not doing it. Zhenyun is the most curious, tell him to go."

Liu Zhenyun was an even more devious and reserved character who didn't like to offend people, so he immediately refused: "Forget it, actually I’m not that curious."

The three middle-aged children rambled on without end, and in the end, they didn't get anything out of it; they just wore out their tongues.

However, they saw through this matter very clearly.

Liu Zhenyun asserted: "Fang Xinghe’s remark about 'human blood buns' is too offensive. There must be a lot of people who hate him now."

Shi Tiesheng echoed: "Those who curse the layoff policy and those who promote quality education are the same group of people. Their main job is stirring up trouble, and their side job is cursing their mothers. How would normal people have the energy to waste on them? The kid doesn't know the gravity of the situation, slapping left and right; he’ll have no small amount of trouble in the future."

Yu Hua, however, was unexpectedly calm: "The media has been turned into a foul mess by them; it’s time someone dealt with them."

Liu Zhenyun and Shi Tiesheng were immediately stunned.

"Wait, who is dealing with whom?"

"Isn't that backwards? I don't even know how Fang Xinghe will survive."

Yu Hua puffed on his cigarette, hands on his hips, looking cocky and full of himself: "Pfft, survive? You guys are underestimating Fang Xinghe too much."

Liu Zhenyun immediately realized there was gossip and perked up: "What’s going on? Is there inside information?"

Shi Tiesheng sniffed, taking a deep breath of his secondhand smoke, then reached out greedily: "I’ll join you for one, tell us slowly..."

Slap!

"Get lost, why are you smoking!"

Yu Hua swatted away Old Tie’s hand and then revealed a bit of the truth to them.

"What you see is Fang Xinghe through the lens of the media, so you two, like the readers outside, feel he has potential and talent, but for now, that’s about it—not worth more attention.

We judges are different; we see more.

Let me ask you two a question: looking only from the perspective of the works, how would you rank Fang Xinghe’s articles and interviews?"

Liu Zhenyun pondered for a moment and said slowly: "For me, 'Small Town Test-Taker' is first, 'Knowing Without Following' is second, 'Reading' is third, but it’s still above that piece by Little Han, 'Peering at People in a Cup.' The conception and structure win by more than just a little."

Shi Tiesheng added: "As for the interviews, 'I Have Fought with Fate' has the most power, 'The Universe is Not Yet Settled' is the most arrogant, and 'The Loner' is the most wild."

Yu Hua chuckled.

"The ones that have been made public can be ranked however you want, but in our hearts, he has two more articles that are even more awesome!

One is called 'Damn Youth, Damn It All,' so wild you wouldn't dare believe it.

One is called 'Sex, Violence, and Lies,' which is absolutely number one in my heart.

So you see, normal contestants only have one judge’s review, and Han Han has two, but Fang Xinghe has a full seven—the ones published were from those seven, but actually, there were more than seven who wrote reviews at the time; it’s just that some felt they didn't write well enough and gave up."

"Ah?!"

Dumbfounded, completely dumbfounded.

"Really, it’s that exaggerated!"

Yu Hua spread his hands, contributing a tilted-head meme that said, 'I’m also speechless, damn it.'

"When we first looked at the manuscripts, we concluded Ding Yan was a genius, then we thought Han Han was a genius—that kind of spirituality can really be seen at a glance. By the time we saw Fang Xinghe later, we were all damn stunned.

That wasn't just spirituality anymore; the level at which he thinks about problems is already far above all young writers.

Do you know what he wrote in 'Sex, Violence, and Lies'?

I made a copy and read it often after getting home; I can even recite certain paragraphs."

He wrote: 'The repression or overflow of sexual desire has never been a moral issue, but an economic one. Men and women are all damn promiscuous once they have money; even eunuchs living a slightly comfortable life want to find a palace maid to pair up with. Imagining this bit of "pussy business" or "dick business" as too sacred or too vulgar is a sickness. If you’re sick, damn well go get it treated.

Conversely, giving birth without raising is not an economic issue, but the liberation of the dark side of human nature after neoliberalism is studied and abused without bottom lines.

This liberation not only destroys the already precarious moral bottom line of certain humanoid creatures but also constructs a new firewall in their self-consciousness—is responsibility really more important than freedom?

In the demonic paradigm where freedom is above all else, everything beautiful in the world can be repriced.

How to price it? Subjective judgment, depending on my mood.

This doesn't sound like it’s rotten to the core; it seems there is still room for discretion.

But what is truly terrifying is that this firewall only blocks others, not themselves; they will only become more and more insane.

Then you will gradually discover that what they crave is never spiritual freedom, but the wantonness of external demands; it is the arrogance of "I can do it, but you can't talk about it," the hegemony of "those who benefit me can be forgiven again and again, those who harm me are all criminals."

Freedom seems like a cesspit where anything can be dumped.

In essence, this is having no shame.

But they will find many reasons to beautify this point; the decent ones are called lies, the indecent ones are violence...'"

You listen to that—what do you call a damn genius?!

You think Wang Meng, Yi Ning, and Ye Xin—three dignified vice-chairmen of the Writers Association—and that group of top professors like Wu Zhipan from Peking University and Chen Sihe from Fudan, why haven't they spoken up until now?

They’re all holding back something big!

Indeed, there is no love without reason in the world, but for Fang Xinghe, it’s not just one or two people willing to bear this pressure to help him.

If it weren't for respecting the kid’s cold personality of "the Dao lies in the Confucian," people would have already stepped forward.

So don't worry blindly. Not to mention he has the ability to out-curse a whole crowd himself, even if he needed help, we wouldn't necessarily get a spot even if we wanted to.

When the time comes, if you want to join the fun, just beat the drums on the side; if you’re too lazy to move, just watch the show peacefully. He won't have any problems."

"Hiss..."

Shi Tiesheng and Liu Zhenyun looked at each other, momentarily losing all ability to express themselves.

Outrageous, and getting more and more outrageous.

But this result was also logically surprisingly correct.

As top writers themselves, they could understand the gold content of those few angry curses all too well.

Let’s put it this way: any top literati who writes such sentences could use them to support the core of a Mao Dun Literature Prize-level work.

This kind of transparent insight, this kind of essential return to truth connecting top and bottom, this kind of critique of the bottomless overflow of neoliberalism, this kind of unconstrained connection of elements—it is almost a world-class exposition.

And what makes one’s scalp tingle the most is another layer of contradiction—

If it were a top writer of the same generation who wrote such text, then fine, you’re awesome, I’ll give you a thumbs up, is that enough?

After I go home, I’ll still nag to my wife about where you wrote poorly, and then spread out the paper, swearing to write something even more awesome to kill you off.

Hey, don't say it, once the inspiration comes, it’s not certain I couldn't write it.

But, when these words come from a 14-year-old boy...

Damn it, that’s a huge problem!

Criticize him? Not only can I not bring myself to do it, but I also truly can't find fault with the kid;

Praise him? It doesn't feel right in my heart, because this isn't a level you can brush off by condescendingly commenting "the younger generation is to be feared." You either don't open your mouth, or if you do, you have to give him enough face, otherwise, it just makes you look blind and low-level.

So it’s really better to shut your mouth, don't get involved, and pretend you didn't see it.

But then again, you can not open your mouth outside and lie to yourself, but after you go home, your heart is still restless!

Damn, the kid is only 14, do you want us old folks to live or not?!

"Damn!!!"

Liu Zhenyun rubbed his face hard and muttered to himself: "Truly damn awesome..."

"This damn thing is getting more and more outrageous..."

A flash of intense bewilderment appeared in Shi Tiesheng’s eyes, and he asked with little confidence: "Also, is it my illusion? Why does Fang Xinghe’s 'Sex' match the current situation so well?"

"It does match. As long as anyone dares to pivot toward freedom of speech or freedom of individual will, 'Sex' will inevitably be a blow to the head."

"Whoa, once this is published, won't that bunch of demons and monsters go crazy?"

"They will go crazy." Yu Hua nodded solemnly. "Anyway, when we first saw it, almost no one dared to believe it. Li Qigang didn't even stay in his office; he ran to the reception desk and guarded him for three days..."

Shi Tiesheng was puzzled: "Then why didn't anyone mention it? I looked at your reviews, they were all quite restrained and general."

"We discussed this."

Yu Hua explained: "'Sex' is not suitable for release, while 'Youth' and 'Growing Up' are written specifically for teenagers. If we praise him too much now, I’m afraid it will be hard to convince the public, so everyone decided to hold back for a while and wait until his long novel or essay collection hits the market."

Liu Zhenyun suddenly discovered a blind spot and exclaimed with a 'wow': "Wait! Doesn't that mean that none of the people cursing Fang Xinghe now know that all of you judges are standing behind him?!"

"Uh-huh~~~ That’s right!"

Yu Hua spread his hands and let out a series of wicked laughs, both sleazy and cute.

Liu Zhenyun and Shi Tiesheng felt goosebumps all over; they sucked in cold air, completely numb.

"Good heavens, are you guys vicious or what?!"

Yu Hua wouldn't take the blame and spread his hands innocently: "What are you saying! Did I tell them to chase after Fang Xinghe and curse him? Isn't it all self-inflicted~~~"

The two thought about it, and that was true, so they let go of their unnecessary worries and began to look forward to it with Yu Hua.

"Well, this bunch of idiots has kicked a steel plate; how unlucky for them..."

"They deserve it!"

Shi Tiesheng pushed his wheelchair to the window, Yu Hua stood to the side with his hands behind his back, and Liu Zhenyun crossed his arms and joined them; the three lined up like cell phone signal bars.

In the courtyard, the vegetation was deep, and even the corners that never saw the sun all year round were covered with nameless wild grasses and flowers.

"Full of vitality..."

"Yeah."

"We are all old..."

"You certainly are, but I’m not."

"Old Yu."

"Yeah?"

"When exactly is Fang Xinghe releasing his new book?"

"You’re asking me? I’m more anxious than you, okay? Damn, just thinking about it makes me itch."

"Same, want to see it."

The three like-minded brothers scratched their ears and cheeks, wishing they could fast-forward to that day.

It would be a beautiful, sunny day, and Fang Xinghe would be driving a heavy-duty truck, slamming on the gas pedal in the ruins of civilization, charging forward and smashing all the demons and monsters on the road to hell...

Thereby announcing his official arrival.