Chapter 164: The Righteous Path in the Human World Is the Vicissitudes of Life

"One Whampoa school, half of modern history."

While visiting the canteen and dormitory of the Whampoa Military Academy, Chen Pingyuan knew the talents and deeds of the people who came out of the first six terms of Whampoa like the back of his hand.

For Wei Lin, these names were also deafening, and these people also profoundly influenced the development of modern history.

However, because of the later KMT-CCP cooperation, the relocation of the school site, and other reasons, there were no famous figures after the sixth term.

Here, one could still see the student list of the first six terms. Wei Lin found the name of his Great-Grandfather Wei Muchun in the list of the sixth term, and with him were Director Dai, General Luo, and others.

Afterward, Chen Pingyuan took Wei Lin to visit the armory and touch those guns and cannons with his own hands.

To write a novel about that era, Wei Lin also had to systematically learn knowledge about weaponry. Many subjects had to be self-taught. Now that there was no internet, the difficulty was indeed not small, which was also the reason why he had prepared for several months and had not yet started writing.

To prepare for this novel, he had filled two large notebooks, but he still felt it was not enough.

He hoped that as long as he started writing, he could write it smoothly in one breath, without stopping, writing, and revising, as that would be slower in efficiency, and he might have to spend several years on this book.

At noon, they had a simple meal on Changzhou Island. In the afternoon, Chen Pingyuan took Wei Lin to visit Sun Yat-sen University. Wei Lin focused on visiting the library and found some works about that era that were not available at Peking University.

Because of these books, Wei Lin decided to stay in Guangzhou for one more day.

On the night before Wei Lin decided to leave Guangzhou, Manager Liao of Pacific Audio & Video invited Wei Lin to eat at Beiyuan Restaurant again and put the famous dish of roasted suckling pig, which required a reservation, on the table, with the pig's head facing Wei Lin.

Keeping the pig's head facing the main guest was the serving etiquette for this dish.

Because Chen Pingyuan had become familiar with Wei Lin, he was also able to attend. That oily pig skin was too attractive to this poor student.

Not to mention him, even Wei Lin, who usually ate meat at every meal and was not short of oil, dipped the pig skin in white sugar, added a pancake, put on scallion shreds dipped in sweet bean sauce, and swallowed it in one bite—tsk, perfection!

In the future, he must create a work about Chinese cuisine and then use the opportunity of research and investigation to eat his way through the whole country!

Today was the third night Wei Lin stayed at the Bai Yun Hotel, and also the last night. He estimated that Seeing Biaozi and the others had already boarded the train back, and he couldn't contact them, otherwise, he would really want to let them come over and experience it.

Early the next morning, Wei Lin got the photos he had developed from the hotel front desk. This was also a business in the hotel, and it was all put on Pacific's account.

Afterward, he took a taxi to Guangzhou Station. However, just as he was about to enter at the ticket gate, he suddenly heard someone calling him.

"Brother Ming!"

As soon as Wei Lin turned his head, he saw the dirty Seeing Biaozi and Xiao Mei. He was pleasantly surprised: "You also bought this train!"

As he spoke, Wei Lin changed positions with the person behind him and sat next to them.

"That's right!" Seeing Biaozi's face was glowing, it seemed everything went smoothly.

Wei Lin asked again: "Why did it take so long this time?"

Mei Wenhua said: "We didn't catch the last train yesterday, so we just made do at the train station for the night."

No wonder the two of them looked so sloppy. Thinking of his own comfort at the Bai Yun Hotel and the bath he took, Wei Lin felt a little unbearable.

And he had bought a sleeper, so Wei Lin let them make up for their sleep on his bed during the day.

Seeing Biaozi: "Are we sleeping together?"

Wei Lin: "Do you want to sleep with Xiao Mei?"

Seeing Biaozi quickly said with disgust: "I'll sleep in the afternoon!"

Mei Wenhua yawned: "Then I'll take the morning."

On the train, Seeing Biaozi and Mei Wenhua told Wei Lin about a smuggling act they witnessed. Back in the day, Ah Long's father went to Hong Kong like this, and he didn't know if his Grandfather had met him.

Wei Lin couldn't go all the way with Seeing Biaozi. They separated when they reached Wuhan. Wei Lin still had some investigation work to do in Wuhan, and then he had to go to the Magic City and Nanjing.

When getting off the train in Wuhan, Seeing Biaozi and Xiao Mei were reluctant to part with Wei Lin, mainly because they were reluctant to part with his sleeper.

Mei Wenhua said to Seeing Biaozi: "Next time we have more capital, let's buy a sleeper too!"

Seeing Biaozi: "Right, buy a sleeper, let's enjoy it too!"

Mei Wenhua: "It's not mainly about enjoying it. I found that the sleeper isn't checked strictly, so we can bring more goods then, and won't the sleeper money come out?"

Seeing Biaozi's eyes suddenly lit up. That makes sense!

Wei Lin didn't have many connections in Wuhan. Thinking about it, he only knew one screenwriter and writer, Bai Hua.

That was the screenwriter of "Bitter Love," who now worked in the Cultural Department of the Wuhan Military Region. Wei Lin had met him at the Literary Congress and had taken a photo together.

So Wei Lin went directly to find him. Hearing that it was Wei Lin who came to find him, the 50-year-old Teacher Bai Hua came out to welcome him personally, appearing very enthusiastic.

Having someone to entertain him, Wei Lin was very happy. So, taking more photos with people is still beneficial, right? Bai Hua was also very happy, not expecting that this popular young writer in the literary world still remembered an old man like him.

Wei Lin explained his intention. Bai Hua indicated that Ma Xiaowei could stay in the military region guesthouse, and besides, he could personally take Wei Lin around.

Although he was from Henan, Bai Hua had also lived in Wuhan for more than ten years. After clarifying the subject Wei Lin wanted to write about, he roughly knew where it was worth going.

"Oh my, then thank you so much. Teacher Bai, what are you busy with recently?"

"You came at the right time. I just returned from the crew of 'Tonight the Stars Are Bright,' and now I have taken on a script with a mythological theme."

Directed by Xie Tieli, "Tonight the Stars Are Bright," starring Li Xiuming and Tang Guoqiang, was Bai Hua's work. In addition, his new mythological script was called "Princess Peacock," adapted from a puppet film by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio and a Dai ethnic myth. If nothing unexpected happened, it would still be starred by these two people.

Although the controversy over "Bitter Love" had continued from last year to now, the times were different after all. Bai Hua was not affected by this because his level was there, and the scripts looking for him were still endless. One script cost thousands of yuan, so life couldn't be more comfortable.

The conditions of the military region guesthouse were not as good as the Bai Yun Hotel, but they were much better than the train sleeper, especially for a big guy like Wei Lin. Tonight, he could finally stretch out and have a sound sleep.

The next morning, Bai Hua came to find Wei Lin. The two first went to the Whampoa Military Academy site.

This site could be traced back to the Lianghu Academy founded by Zhang Zhidong, but now only three brick-and-wood bungalows remained, and there was not much left to study.

Bai Hua focused on taking Wei Lin to visit the Governor's Office of the Hubei Army. After the success of the Wuchang Uprising, the revolutionaries established the Governor's Office of the Hubei Army of the Republic of China here. Because the building had red walls and red tiles, the people of Wuhan called it the "Red Building."

!

The later Xinhai Revolution Memorial Hall was established on this basis.

Afterward, they visited the office location of the Wuhan Nationalist Government. Many resolutions of the Second Northern Expedition were born here.

This was a quasi-European style building, now used by government agencies, but with Bai Hua leading personally, they could still enter and exit freely.

Bai Hua was not only responsible for bringing Wei Lin in but also knew the history of that year like the back of his hand; he was a qualified tour guide.

Although Wei Lin had read it all in books, combining book knowledge with historical objects gave him a different feeling.

However, Teacher Bai Hua was also a little worried about Wei Lin's novel: "This novel of yours should have a lot of KMT content, involving many high-level KMT and CCP generals. Have you thought about how to shape these historical figures?"

Wei Lin: "I hope to create according to historical truth, and I don't want to write some stereotyped and formulaic characters."

But there was no absolute historical truth. When referring to materials, one could only try to remove those things that were too false, and try to visit some people who were still alive to analyze problems dialectically.

Hearing this sentence, Bai Hua knew that the young man was very courageous. In this point, the two were like-minded.

"Then I wish you a successful publication."

"Thank you, Teacher Bai. Even if it can't be published now, it can always be published in a few years." Wei Lin laughed.

Now the KMT and CCP were too much at odds, but in a few years, "Blood Battle at Taierzhuang" could be filmed. Writing some non-stereotyped KMT figures naturally wouldn't be a problem.

Because there were several stops later, Wei Lin didn't stay long in Wuhan. He stayed for one night and didn't even go to the Wuhan Song and Dance Theater to watch a dance. He prepared to go to the Magic City that day.

Wei Lin had many things to do in the Magic City and had to stay for a few days. He first found the editorial department of "Harvest" in a familiar way and asked Sister Li Xiaolin to arrange a guesthouse for him.

This time it was not for revising the manuscript, so there was no subsidy, and he could pay for the guesthouse himself, as long as there was a place to stay.

"Besides, I don't know if 'Harvest' is willing to accept the full-length novel I am preparing to create..."

"Willing!" Li Xiaolin said excitedly, finally waiting for this day!

"Please listen to me finish first," Wei Lin laughed, "I will write a plot outline first. You can decide after reading it. If 'Harvest' feels the risk is relatively large, I can find another platform."

At this time, the most courageous one was "Flower City" in Guangzhou, after all, it was the bridgehead of reform.

Li Xiaolin was surprised: "What exactly do you want to write this time?"

"Nothing much, just the story of three brothers and sisters. The older brother and sister are in the KMT, and the younger brother is in our party. From the Xinhai Revolution to the founding of the country, the story line is relatively long, and a large proportion is about sensitive plots like the struggle between the two parties."

Li Xiaolin was very surprised: "How did you think of touching this subject at such a young age?"

Isn't it good to write about educated youth novels and scar literature? To think of this, this was indeed a subject full of minefields everywhere.

Wei Lin explained: "Because my own family is in this situation. My Grandfather is in our army, and my Great-Grandfather was in the sixth term of Whampoa, and later went to the other side with Old Chiang."

"Oh, so that's how it is." Then Li Xiaolin was not surprised. In those years, there were many such things, not only brothers but also fathers and sons. Such a setting naturally had dramatic tension.

Ma Xiaowei choosing such a subject to create was indeed very good at writing novels.

That night, Wei Lin wrote a 3,000-word outline in the guesthouse and wrote the name of this novel at the front: "The Righteous Path in the Human World Is the Vicissitudes of Life."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 165 =====