Miao Changshui, | famous figure: I was trained by the Department of Military Arts and Literature

Editor's Note

The "Famous Family Silhouette" column was launched by "Times Literature" in 1997, and was successively hosted by He Zhenbang, Bai Ye, He Shaojun and others, selecting a famous artist in each issue, and inviting several friends and old friends to chat about their texts from different angles, so that readers can more fully and deeply understand the writer's little-known stories behind the works. Over the past 20 years, more than 100 contemporary Chinese writers and more than 500 column authors have met readers with different attitudes in this time that can grow up a generation with ease, and left a bright star in the history of literature.

In view of this, the China Writers Network has re-launched the "Famous Family Silhouette" series, selecting the essence of articles and listening to the old and young in the literary world talk about literati and literary affairs.

Seedlings grow water

Miao Changshui is a veteran military writer and a member of the Qilu literary circle. Since stepping into the literary world in the 1980s, from the famous works such as "The Difference between Winter and Summer", "The Son of dyeing workshop", "Extraordinary Aunt", and "Ploughing Fangjia", which are known as the "Yimeng Series", to the long novel "Beyond the Attack" at the beginning of this century, and the reportage "The Great Attack on the Northern Front" that rushed to the earthquake-stricken areas of Sichuan in 2008, miao Changshui's creative path has been outlined, and Miao Changshui's creative personality has been highlighted.

This time, Changshui's relatives, comrades-in-arms and literary friends were invited to talk about him together, and watching his father praise his son and his comrades-in-arms praise his comrades-in-arms, people could not help but laugh heartily. It seems that Changshui's works and personalities have superhuman charm.

Interview to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Academy of Military Arts

Miao Changshui (oral) Jiang Zhaoyuan (finishing)

Our generation has almost the same experience, catching up with the "Cultural Revolution" in adolescence, life is not disciplined, very free, but academically more abandoned. My father Miao Deyu was a poet, and there were more books in the family, and most of the people I interacted with were poets and artists. But it wasn't until I was seventeen years old, when I was alive in the company, that I realized the importance of literature. My first work was a short poem, "The Little Shoemaker", which was written at that time; it seems very simple to write now, but it is because of this small poem in the enlightenment stage that I finally embarked on the road of literary creation.

Many of our classmates in this class have achieved great results before entering the military art, and I have really been cultivated by the military art. Before that, I was an editor at a newspaper, mainly engaged in some news and official writing, but there was very little literary creation. After arriving at the military art, I felt a strong literary atmosphere.

On the day that the first batch of students of the Department of Literature reported, I came with Li Cunbao and Li Quan, and arrived early in the morning. Wu Bin, secretary of the party branch of the department, slept on the bench of the department in order to pick us up on time in the General Political Song and Dance Troupe.

At that time, Liu Yiran, a teacher in the literature department, and we were the same age, that is, the author of "Rock and Roll Youth", when he went to pick up the teacher before dawn in the morning, and breakfast was too late to eat. We were engaged in creation at night, sometimes we couldn't get up in the morning, and once we went to class with six classmates, Liu Yiran cried because we fell out of class.

We cannot fail to mention Xu Huaizhong, director of our first Literature Department, who came from the war years, served as a minister of culture in the Kunming Military Region, and his works became famous in the 50s, but what really repercussions were the "Anecdotes of the Western Front" that reflected the defense war in southern Xinjiang after the reform and opening up. I think the reason why his creation can still lead the trend after the reform and opening up is that he is more up-to-date with the times than the ideas of the old writers of our time, and even enlightened enough to shock us students. Now that I think about it, it is precisely because of the innovative and bold ideas of Director Huaizhong that the Department of Literature can achieve its later brilliant achievements.

There is also teacher Ran Huaizhou, who told us about Sun Li, and his analysis was profound and thorough, and he had a profound impact on me. In the military arts, which is both a university education and an art education curriculum, we have been exposed to a field completely different from the previous military life, which has broadened our horizons, opened our minds, and enlightened our future literary paths. In order to further let us accept the influence of art, the college also actively organizes us to see a variety of excellent art performances. I still keep the instructions for going to the French ballet Giselle. It was a very simple story, but it is still fresh in my memory.

Another time was to watch ice dance at "First Body", which was the first time I saw the world's top figure skating. I remember that the students present at that time were almost stunned, and we were all impressed by the unique charm of this new art form at that moment. We also participated in French Film Week and went to see "New Wave" movies together. It is these new things that make us dizzy, which inspires our thinking and makes us go further on the road of literature.

At that time, the nascent literature department was not conformist to the old ways—what novelty came, what was hot. We listen to top-notch lectures, we watch the most avant-garde performances, we accept cutting-edge ideas. It was an era of vitality and passion, so it was inevitable that many great writers who shook the literary world were born in such a short period of time.

Reading is also very important.

Speaking of reading, I read everything when I was in the company, especially liked Chekhov, also read "Oxfly", read "The Troubles of Young Werther", and was very excited after reading it; after going to the military art, I began to dabble in the system, the domestic love to read Sun Li, foreign like Sholokhov's "Quiet Don River" and so on.

My classmates love to read. Li Cunbao gave people a very rough impression, as if he did not touch the book at all, but in fact, he would not be able to release the volume when he had time. His love for classical Chinese literature is significantly higher than his love for foreign literature, and I think this is also the main gene of his creative frank style. My interest in foreign literature and film and television works is better than that of Chinese literature, especially for contemporary Chinese literature, opening magazines and books, always feeling like a person writing, lacking the language style and originality of thinking about life. However, sometimes according to the hobbies of Brother Cun Bao, I carefully read domestic literary magazines and books, and I also gained. The most advantageous thing is to be able to choose your own breakthrough direction more clearly and find some defects that you also have. Looking at foreign works, we cannot find our own flaws.

Among the students in the first phase of our Military Arts and Literature Department, Mo Yan bought more books. He was not famous and financially embarrassed, but there were always stacks of new Chinese and foreign literature books on the bedside. If you read more than others, you will become famous faster than others. At that time, Mo Yan and Cui Jingsheng lived together, and the last time Mo Yan and I went to Shanghai to visit Cui Jingsheng's house. I said to Mo Yan that you have to call Cui Jingsheng's lover Master Mother when you see him, and Mo Yan himself admits that Cui Jingsheng has a great influence on him. He brought a lot of new ideas to Mo Yan, such as explosive literature and so on. His novels were very well written at the time. His "Soul of Water Rice" is very advanced. He was very talented, and he was a writer who was very promising at that time. Later, there were many reasons for not "rushing out", probably because his creation was too advanced, and there was a group of good novel magazines that did not dare to send him, and I think he was the most talented at that time.

Many students did not expect me to write it. I hit a lot of walls, and people always joke that your manuscript has been shot again.

Creation requires practice, and there are failures to have success. After graduation, he returned to his hometown in Yimeng, awakened the memories of his childhood, and slowly found something more suitable for himself, and was also helped by many old editors of "People's Liberation Army Literature and Art", "October" and "People's Literature". They are responsible for literature, very knowledgeable, very insightful, and many writers in the literature department are to some extent found and cultivated by these "Bole".

I think my style is still more dependent on life, and I think life is more wonderful than imagination. I have always paid close attention to the grassroots life of the troops. The troops written in Beyond Attack, I have been paying more attention to since the 80s. That unit had many accidents, could be an officer, had a relatively good character, and the leaders attached great importance to culture. He Jiqing, Xu Guixiang, and others came out of that unit.

The TV series "Seven Days that Shook the World" is part of the record of the Jinan Military Region's earthquake relief mission. The next day I received a call from my leader and followed the car. Looking back now, there are still many details of life that were not shown at the first time. I'm not interviewing, I'm on a mission, and there are a lot of things you can't empathize with just by interviewing. As I walked on the train, I chatted with the officers and soldiers, and wrote it down by the lights at any time. These are things that are needed in the rear, and we are even faster than the news reports. Communication was interrupted, and we drove around with a wireless card to look for signals, and as soon as there was a signal, we immediately sent it to the rear.

After 2008, whenever the army had a big event, I actively participated. Only by constantly going deeper into the company can you better reflect the real life of the current troops. I write a lot of things that you don't live in the army, and you can't imagine it without experiencing it yourself. It can be said that the army is the first source of my creation.

This time, write about the son

Seedlings rain

The old family of Yimeng Mountain said: "Miaojiazhuang has two names that are the best, Miao Deyu and Miao Changshui." I started it myself before I went to the anti-Japanese elementary school, and Changshui was raised by his grandmother. His grandmother said, "The grandson is a seedling watered by the Eighth Route Army, and the heavy grandson is called Changshui." Comrade Li Zichao, who later served as secretary of the provincial party committee and director of the Anti-Japanese Resistance League in my hometown, said: "Although this old lady has never been to school, she is very knowledgeable." Some people say: "Writers are not genetic, you have a writer's son, how did you cultivate them?" I said that I didn't expect my son to become a writer, how many authors I talked about creation, but I didn't talk to my son. He went from school to join the army - a time from adolescence to youth, I was unlucky, unlucky when my family "dipped", first of all, the eldest of the children, he will not forget the "lesson". I myself "planted" literature, how can I let my son "plant" again? He is a self-growing fruit. If there is an impact, it may be "unintentional willow insertion", me, my wife, his grandmother, his grandmother, the villagers, partners and the place of Yimeng Mountain. He himself is not "intentionally planting flowers", a deep accumulation of life in his heart, formed in nature. Mount Yimeng had an unusual place in his heart. In an essay, he talked about his childhood in his hometown in Yimeng Mountain, thinking of his parents and mother, and the grandmother coaxed him to say: "You go outside the house and look at it, and you see a little daughter-in-law who wants food, sitting on the slope and bathing in the dirt, that is your mother coming..." At the end, he said, "My feeling is that in your life, unconsciously, there are always some seeds planted into your soul." One by one, they are buried in the fertile soil of memory, and then they will sprout as they were when they were planted, unconsciously, and sprout; Then the branches and leaves grow, and the longer they grow, the higher..."

From 1963 to the Cultural Revolution, I was continuously wrongly criticized, and the tribulations of more than ten years made me make up my mind to "never take that road again." Unexpectedly, when he encountered "liberation", his hands itched again, and at this time, his son was already toddler on "that road". The division reporting team wrote the manuscript -- the same as when I was writing news in the Liberated Areas and writing poetry and prose, and my son wrote the performance program for the division propaganda team -- just as I wrote the script and music art for the rural theater troupe. My son was transferred to the military newspaper as an editor in the creative studio—and also with me from journalism to literature and art. Coincidentally, in the October 1975 issue of "People's Liberation Army Literature and Art", I published the first set of poems that I republished nationwide, and there was also my son's "debut work" in that issue. But what really caught the reader's attention was the novella "Season Bridge" a decade later. Among them, there have also been influential "Pure Land", "There Is Such a River", "Intermezzo", etc., that is, "Interlude". In 1984, before and after he went to military art, he wrote a group, some of which were appreciated by xu Huaizhong, the head of the department, and his classmate Yin Weixing once said in an article introducing military art that Changshui had a batch of works knocking on the door of several editorial departments, but there was no "ringing" out. A sullen for nearly two years.

This child has a characteristic, where there is no manuscript sent, he never takes it out and sends it.

In the spring of 1985, when we were watching the French Film Festival together, I wrote an essay on the fate of young women in my hometown, "Literacy Class Sisters". He flipped through the draft and said, "Dad, don't send this article first, I'll cut through the details and make a novella." It turned out that the story of Murakami's first pair of free love Hu'er and Caini eloping, gave him what triggers. When he re-writes it, it is the "bridge" that is torn down in the spring and repaired in the winter, and the "bridge" that appears from time to time. For the first time, the novel aroused the interest of young critics: "Compared with previous novels, there are scenes that are familiar, seemingly faint but never seen before, and have a unique charm." (Li Tong) This novella hometown villager may not be able to see, but in 1997, the TV station asked our father and son to go back to their hometown to shoot a feature film, and a young man in the village followed along, silently helping to maintain order.

What my son really started and made for a long time was "The Difference Between Winter and Summer", which he had been holding back for more than a year, in April 1987. This novella presents a strange brilliance. Li Guowen, an old writer who presided over the "Selected Novels" at that time, immediately launched and wrote recommended articles after seeing it, and reprinted them in Xinhua Digest, People's Daily Overseas Edition, and Literature and Art Daily. Since then, a series of novellas such as "The Son of the Dye Shop", "Extraordinary Aunt", "Plough over the Tomb", "Post-War Chronicles", "Dream of the North and South" and so on have been launched, so that young partners say that they have a sense of "overwhelmed". Many critics have written reviews from the heart. For example, Radar's "Tradition and Creativity", Niu Yuqiu's "War and the Beauty of Human Nature", Song Suiliang's "Long Flowing Water, Affectionate Money", Tan Haozhe's "Life Is Beautiful Because of True Feelings", etc., some articles I saw, some articles I could not see my son and did not tell me. Also known are the articles of commentators such as Han Ruiting, Zhu Xiangqian, and Huang Guozhu of the army. Wang Ying, Li Jingze, and Yang Dehua, who often served as editors for him, wrote many articles introducing him in some newspapers and periodicals at home and abroad. Radar said: "The emergence of Miao Changshui is a miracle, and his attempts have broadened the path of literature." An old friend Jiang Xiaotian's commentary was published in Guangming Daily. When I went to write a letter of thanks, he learned that the two seedlings were originally a family.

A few years later, several novels were launched, and the son who easily did not have a word of excitement said that he was still relatively satisfied. The friends also said that they could ring for a while, and I read "Waiting" twice, but I couldn't get out of an emotion for a long time. I said, "Just write 'waiting' that can't come." The phrase 'one hundred percent beautiful is not, but two hundred percent beautiful is', comparable to Toon's 'happy family is similar, and unhappy families have their own misfortunes'. With this discovery alone, the work will be half successful. "Dad's touch may not be calm. I lament that I don't get more acquaintances among critics.

The son calmed down. Two years, three years, five years, one cold so far. I have been "standing still". Many publishing houses asked him to compile collections, including foreign language translation collections, he was not in a hurry, and how many local manuscripts were almost not agreed to be written except for those who had to write. A long piece has been typing for four or five years, some say that it has been written, some say that it is half written, I said: "You, who belong to the little dragon, have also become a 'divine dragon' who sees the beginning and does not see the end." Deng Youmei, an old classmate, said on the phone: "This child is not impetuous, it is a rare material!"

He is a very high-quality author. There has never been a work that has been made up by fame. He has a good memory, his writing has an aura, and the manuscripts are all out in one go, clear and clear. The words are also written with one stroke and one picture, and when I read his original manuscript, I like it when I first see the words. He is not a cloud of people, going with the flow, but he is also never sharp and can get along with people. Some stories in the home are silent and carelessly picked up, and when they are "revealed" in the works, we find out.

His wife is busy at work, he thinks that he is "sitting at home", and he has been exercising since he was a child, and he has taken on more housework. Even if the computer is being inspired, don't waste time shopping, cooking, and caring for the children. Once, in the "Qilu Evening News" published a small article "My family's eating problem", saying that the wife would rather be busy with this and wait to eat the meal made by her husband; the son played steamed bread, played and forgot, saying that the guys were off work. This offended his wife and son, and his wife was virtuous and embarrassed to say; the son was blunt: "My father is the worst at writing novels!"

Now his son's son has also become a small captain in the army, he is very talented in painting, and his writing is also extraordinary, but Changshui has no intention of letting him take the road of literature, and he develops on his own growth path. Changshui told people: "A writer's knowledge can be taught by himself, but many scientific knowledge needs to be learned according to stages, and after missing it, he will not have the opportunity to learn it again." I am afraid that he caught up with the "Cultural Revolution" during his own reading season and did not learn good cultural knowledge; When I wanted to be a platoon leader or a company commander, it was again a summary of the lessons learned that were not as expected under the influence of the "Cultural Revolution".

Now my wife and I are eighty years old, and we have reached the stage of "life is rare". Next year will be my eightieth birthday and my wife's "diamond wedding" celebration. At the family gathering for my seventy-ninth birthday, the eldest daughter and the youngest daughter in Hong Kong and the United States called back to congratulate me and said that I would definitely come back for the "big celebration" next year. The three sons and three daughters-in-law and the young grandchildren discussed with us at the banquet how to do it next year, and the eldest Changshui said: "As soon as Dad arrived at the banquet, he first asked the waiter for sweet potatoes, taro, braised meat, and after eating this, he said he was full... Why don't go to the big hotel next year, find a nearby Yimeng Mountain restaurant, he must be very satisfied!" His wife, son, and daughter-in-law all laughed.

Our big family is very happy, and after a lot of tribulations, now its happiness and harmony are very united and harmonious. But just as my children and I have different habits, we also have different views on creation. Changshui often advised me not to write any more, to write brush words, dot paintings and maintenance of my body. I also often taught Changshui not to write long stories anymore, after all, he was almost sixty years old, but he unknowingly wrote another long story, and there were publishing houses rushing to come out. It seems that the road of literature has embarked on one day, and it is difficult for anyone to put it down, and I know that the children most hope that my wife and I will live a long life, and I also comfort them: "Your mother and I will definitely live to be a hundred years old." Isn't it twenty years between now and a hundred years old? ”

On that day, we went home in the snow

Li Dechang

I couldn't find what I needed when I went all over the world, and I found it when I got home.

- [England] Moore

Just after the Spring Festival, Miao Changshui, Gui Hengbin, Liu Canxiao and I from our creative studio went to Qingdao to visit li xing. The name Li Xing may be unfamiliar to many people now, but in the eyes of our generation, it is a "big name" type of figure. In the 1970s, the military would sing a song he wrote: "Walk the revolutionary road, sing heroic songs, open the iron footboard, carry a gun and walk the mountains and rivers." "(Lyrics by Li Xing) He is the old director of the Cultural Department of our 67th Army, a leader, an elder, an idol, and a teacher. At that time, several of us embarked on the creative road under his pull.

Early in the morning on the day of departure, the weather forecast was that there would be moderate to heavy snow in Jinan. We met downstairs in the hostel. Snowflakes are already falling in the sky. Changshui's face glowed red, he was carrying a box of gifts, carrying a camera on his shoulder, and wearing a short black coat coat. I praised his coat for being powerful. Changshui smiled mysteriously, "You touch it, it's mink!" An old chief gave it affectionately, but unfortunately he didn't have the chance to wear it in a winter. Looking forward to heavy snow every day! Good today, God, you have also opened your eyes! "Miao Changshui has no lack of humor in the novel, but he is a person who does not smile in life. Being able to speak like this today shows that he is in a good mood.

The Harmony from Jinan to Qingdao waited at the edge of the platform. The Spring Festival has passed, and many seats in the first-class carriages are empty. We each found a window seat and sat down. The snow fell silently outside the car window. I ordered a cup of green tea, adjusted the seat angle and lay down, listening to the music if there was none, feeling much more comfortable than sitting in the car. Thanks for the first snow. The train started silently, only to feel the scenery outside the window slowly moving backwards. The roof, the ground, and the road are all covered with a layer of white. The sky was low and looked very solemn.

The phone suddenly "ticked". Open a look, is Miao Changshui sent a text message: Dachang poems, please share. Dachang, surnamed Lü, is also our comrade-in-arms, and he transferred to work in the Jinan Army. I wanted to go with us to visit Li Xing, but I couldn't leave, and in addition to regret, I wrote a poem overnight to dedicate to the beloved director Li Xing:

Ever since I met you, I remember what you looked like. We've talked about you countless times and always wanted to paint a portrait of you. It was the first October of the 1970s, and the weather in Luzhong was particularly eye-catching. The propaganda teams of the three divisions of the Strategic Reserve Have gathered together to carry out a new round of confrontation and contest. You've come over. The face is a little dark, the teeth are a little yellow, the military hat is a little crooked, the military uniform is a little dirty, the back is a little hunched, the aisle is a little shaky, the hand is lit with a cigarette, and a pure Hebei cavity. "Who is he?" I asked Mr. Rao. "Deputy Commissioner Lai!"" Hey, this old man has a pie, playing a villain certainly doesn't have to be dressed up. "Don't talk nonsense, he is an old revolutionary of Jidong Luyi, and the bridge he crossed is longer than the road we have traveled." Under your guidance, my debut work was actually published in the "Company Literature and Art" of the Large Army District. When the pen really turned into a pencil word, I didn't dare to think about it in my dreams. Of course, this is your elaborate teaching, but the traditional characters of your graded works always make our little warriors feel extremely sad. You never think of yourself as an old revolutionary, and the troops do not live in the guest house, so you eat in the room of the division propaganda team. At most, add a scrambled egg, and Jingzhi Baigan will also have a drink. The military uniform you wear is always so ill-fitting, and the laces of military sandals are always not fastened. You are not a professional writer, and you write a mighty and majestic living drama. You are not a mentor, and the talents cultivated are elite leaders. Among them were countless writers, painters, sculptors, composers, professors, and how many generals, directors, and ministers of culture. Li Xing - the starlight before the dawn, for us to enlighten the navigation of life. Let's sing the songs you wrote and imagine the years like songs together!

Changshui got up and came over and sat down in the seat next to me. From Dachang's poems, he talks about the past. There were some things he remembered, but I was not impressed at all. Changshui said that the first time we met was in the autumn of 1972. The Jinan Military Region held amateur literary and artistic performances of various armies and divisions in Laiyang. Li Xing called me to observe, and you were there at the time. We ate at a table and came up with a plate of yellow and black flat stuff, I don't know what the dish is, you say, egg grilled sea cucumber, eat!

I thought about it, but I was still not impressed, and I wasn't even sure if I was at that show. Changshui smiled and said, At that time, you had already published several pages of lead characters in the "People's Liberation Army Literature and Art", but I was the first time to eat egg grilled sea cucumbers! That observation was also the first time I left the company after I became a soldier, took a train to Laiyang, saw Laiyang pears on the street as soon as I left the station, bought a full satchel, and ate while walking. The station was more than a dozen miles away from the military headquarters, and I wanted to have diarrhea when I entered the gate. I was in very good health, and that was the first time I had a gastrointestinal problem. The courtyard was full of female soldiers from the propaganda teams of various divisions, and they were embarrassed to inquire where the toilet was...

I shook my head, I really couldn't remember. Sigh long water remember these troubles. Therefore, recalling the past verifies not only memory, but also temperament, interest and quality. Changshui looks arrogant and tall, but in fact, his modesty, frankness and uninhibitedness are hidden deep in his bones.

The train seemed to glide through the tunnel of time, and outside the window was the land of Luzhong, which we were very familiar with when we were soldiers. Changshui said: Do you remember the time you participated in the creation study class in the military? Hengbin, Can School, we are all there. I still have some impressions of this. Probably in 1973, Li Xing concentrated the amateur literary and artistic creation backbone of the entire 67 Army in the army to write programs. One day he came to inspect and found that these amateur literary and artistic recruits who had been transferred from the army were all lying on their beds and sleeping. He scolded: These boys, I stay up all night over there, and you are so good to recover from fatigue here! Afterwards, everyone sat down to review together, and some people said that the old man criticized us for "recovering fatigue"?

Changshui said that Li Xing had great expectations for him in that study class. Li Xing heard that his father was a famous poet, and he had entered the division reporting group again, believing that he would definitely write something. Just let him write a lyric, he held back for a whole month and couldn't write it. Li Xing personally helped him change it over and over again, just like Lu Dachang said, the paper was full of Li Xing's traditional characters, and his words could hardly be seen. Finally, Li Xing was disappointed to say that Miao Changshui basically could not write.

We arrived in Qingdao at noon. Director Li of the Political Department of Qingdao Garrison District, Deputy Director Tian, and Chief of the Propaganda Section, Guo, greeted us at the hotel. They were all recruits in the 1980s and 1990s, and their enthusiasm for us veterans was more due to their love and respect for the military literature of that era and the "avant-garde writers" of that era. The literary creation of the Jinan Military Region, once brilliant for a while, reached its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, and a large number of well-known literary works such as "Wreath Under the Mountain", "On this Land", "The Last Military Salute", "The Difference Between Winter and Summer", and "Han Family Girl" appeared. A "group of avant-garde writers" represented by Li Cunbao, Li Xintian, Li Yanguo, Miao Changshui, and Zhou Daxin was formed. Miao Changshui is the youngest of them. Today, only Changshui is still stuck in the military district, becoming a lonely banner.

Miao Changshui's novels, although seemingly ordinary, are full of romantic feelings and the beauty of kindness and flexibility, with the power of dripping water through stones and soft kegang. Literature is essentially dedicated to the great souls. The spread of fame and fortune in modern commercial society has eroded people's hearts, and the great literary tradition lies in the strength of the true feelings and love it dedicates to the reader, a great personality, and a great national spiritual force. In this vision, Miao Changshui's novels are a continuation of our excellent literary tradition. It is a pity that this kind of work, which can see both human warmth and a great spiritual realm, is now becoming less and less. This may be the reason why Miao Changshui's novels have lasted for a long time, and they are still praised and highly respected.

The reason why Miao Changshui can write such a character work is not unrelated to his own personality. Don't look at Miao Changshui's dull face, but in his heart he is a person who is as tender as water. He is affectionate, gentle, delicate, and especially has a sense of family responsibility. I remember he told me that when my son was eighteen years old, he went to college in Nanjing and participated in school sports meetings, and he needed to be supported. He and his lover boiled a pot of turtle chicken soup overnight, and the next morning they delivered it to Nanjing through the "Rabbit Express". The shock to me was enormous. For a long time, I was sad when I thought of my daughter who was studying in Beijing.

After the meal, Changshui smiled and said to me humorously: "Director Li Xing is very important to my life; in fact, my real literary creation began with military art; And whether I can go to the military or not has a lot to do with you. Do you remember that in 1984, the Department of Military Arts and Literature resumed enrollment, and Li Cunbao, Li Quan, you, and I of the Jinan Military Region all signed up, but only three people were admitted to the military arts. If Minister Tian Aixi hadn't left you as the chief of the department, according to the situation at that time, you could have replaced me in the military, but I couldn't replace you as the director..."

I looked at the wide sea in the distance and did not speak for a long time. What Changshui said if, is just a hypothesis. I've never thought of it that way, and I didn't care that much. If he hadn't mentioned it, I'd almost forgotten it. I couldn't imagine this hypothesis, but it really existed in Changshui's heart for so many years.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived at the former 67th Army Dry Rest House on Yunxiao Road on time. The compound, built more than two decades ago, is now squeezed out of breath by the towering high-rises that surround it. As soon as the four of us entered the door of Director Li Xing's house, the old director shouted loudly in the bucket room and greeted us out of the door, giving us a big surprise. This eighty-four-year-old man, who was seriously ill, had such a bright face, a straight waist, and a voice so loud. Not to mention that it is far from the pathology we imagine, but it is also very different from the old image depicted in Lü Dachang's poems. The news that Li Xing was seriously ill and hospitalized was told to me by Tian Aixi, a veteran minister of the Ministry of Culture of the General Political Department, from Beijing before the festival. And I specifically called and asked Kang Xueyu, director of the health center of the dry rest center, who is the daughter of our military political commissar, saying that Director Li's illness was diagnosed through the Beijing 301 Hospital and was very dangerous. Everyone in the family knows it, but he himself doesn't know it yet.

Director Li Xing laughed and pulled us into the living room. Saying that his illness is a coronary heart disease, no big problem, the parts are aging, and it is normal to be hospitalized to "engage in oil", and there is no need to make a fuss. When he sat down in the living room, he pointed at us and said to Guo Ke chief and Xu Guan, who were accompanying us: More than thirty years ago, several of them were small recruits on the literary and artistic front in our army. I am very proud to have become a famous writer today! Then, he commented on the proud protégés who had come to visit him in recent days, one by one.

Chang shui took out his mobile phone and read Dachang's poem to him sentence by sentence. Li Xing closed his eyes and gently shook his body, just like when he was reviewing the creation, the expression on his face was like a smile for a while, and he was like crying for a while, and the change was not excessive at all. It was this strange expression that made our hearts skip a beat many times.

After reading Dachang's poem, the old director did not have the excitement we expected, but calmly pointed to the fruit on the coffee table and let us eat. Everyone held back, no one moved, only Miao Changshui did not hesitate or be polite, picked up a piece of cantaloupe and ate it.

Chang Shui is straightforward, simple, innocent, manly and childish. He especially loves to eat fruit and loves fruit as much as he wants. It is okay not to eat for a day, and it is absolutely impossible not to eat fruit. I remember that one year when the troops returned, after dinner, it was still early to board the train, and the political commissar of the division arranged for us to take a temporary rest in the reception room, and at the instigation of Miao Changshui's leadership, we swept away the high-grade fruits in the refrigerator that were prepared to entertain the head of the Central Military Commission headquarters the next day, and we did not know how the receptionist felt afterwards.

Li Xing listened to the story of Changshui and fruit, smiled, patted his shoulder to express appreciation, and said that Changshui's temperament was somewhat similar to his own, and people with similar temperaments were prone to resonance, and both of them laughed very happily.

At four o'clock, we took a group photo with the old director and said goodbye, and there was not a single tear in the whole visit. When the train left Qingdao, we were facing a vague sunset, crumbling in the orange-red twilight of the western sky. At 7:25 p.m., we returned to Jinan. One day after the snow fell in Jinan, the driver called and said that the convoy was afraid of an accident and was not allowed to leave the car. Changshui asked what to do and I suggested walking home. I haven't had this experience for a long time, and the trance is back to the past. We lined up in two rows, carefully following, reminding, laughing, and walking forward step by step. The snow was thick and creaked when stepping on it. Just like the password issued by the earth, everyone remembered the scene of the snow wild training in the past. It was cold, but the body and mind were very hot.