Some people are born to do something different, but after they have achieved fame, they feel that the clouds are light.
But there's no denying that the world has changed something because of these people who have done different things.
At ten o'clock today, I would like to recommend a very mysterious person to you.
At the age of 23, he had just graduated from college and published the novel "Red X", the essay short story collection "The Man Who Was Treated as a Ghost", and the collection "Three Years of Li Silly".
Later, he was written into the History of Modern Chinese Literature by scholars.
In 2005, at the age of 24, he was featured in Time magazine as "China's youngest best-selling author."
His name was Pu Lizi, but at that time his pen name was Li Silly.
In the same wave of young writers after the eighties, he is considered one of the most talented authors.
"His appearance has overshadowed almost all post-80s writers!"
During that time, the most prominent places in Taiwan's major bookstores were plastered with posters with this sentence printed on them.
At that time, Chun shu and Han Han appeared in Time magazine as representatives of China's alternative rebellious youth, while Li Silly received attention because his works brilliantly depicted rural China and the situation of rural people going to the cities to make a living.
Time magazine wrote that Li Silly represented the dreams of Chinese: poor boys studying diligently and becoming the only children in school to go to college.
He focuses more on those who don't achieve their dreams: countless farmers who have given up their land to flock to the cities to work, including his own parents, whom Li Silly has dubiously called the "ghosts of the city."
"They build cities that Make China proud, but they don't have to be treated as equals."
Li Silly decided to write about the dilemmas faced by this group of people in social change. In fact, his description of rural life resonated with Chinese readers.
He was also dubbed a "ghost writer" by Time magazine.
△ Screenshots of the "Time" special report and domestic media reports
But as he was called a "ghost," he suddenly disappeared from sight at the height of his writing career.
Yes, he didn't write anymore.
So the books he once published entered people's memories with the breath of that era, and more people were asking, where did Li Silly go?
Although Li, who did not write, was stupid and did not waste his talents, in the 10 years after he was far away from the hustle and bustle, he worked as a reporter at The Southern Newspaper, a children's Internet, a public relations, and an art park operation... He did everything very well.
But when it comes to his heart, he still has some panic and irritability.
Regarding these 10 years of experience, he later wrote in the book,
I've also been through a long period of muddled nightmares, and I've had a drunken dream of dying... Go with the flow, splurge, and drink all night. The countercurrent repels me, and I go with the flow. I almost gave up writing, and whenever someone asked, I said, and I'll talk about it later. Paired with a silly smiley face.
Finally, late one night, after smoking one cigarette after another, he made a list of about 30 things he wanted to do. Delete them one by one, leaving two:
Writing, or making a product that is compelling and profitable.
In September 2015, he left the post of general manager of the Southern Press "289 Art Fashion" and founded the social homestay platform APP - Friends' Home.
After starting his business, he also learned how to be a product manager, "Like writing a novel late at night, I drew a prototype of an APP in the middle of the night. ”
In If One Day..., he writes: "The first time I became a product manager... It felt like meeting a strange girl who unbuttoned the three buttons of my blouse to me; a world that was magical enough to give one a feeling of being swallowed up in happiness. ”
Perhaps he has always been such a person, for the things he identifies, he strives to do every detail to the extreme.
As a writer, Li Silly is undoubtedly successful, otherwise in the ten years of his disappearance, not so many people will still think about him.
As an entrepreneur, Pu Lizi was also successful.
Fortunately, in addition to starting a business, he has been silent for 10 years, but he re-mentioned his pen last year and launched his latest collection of essays this year, "You Are My Vanity".
There are 30 stories in the book, which not only retain his long-standing famous works "Firelight", "Woman", "The Man Who Was Treated as a Ghost", "Fiction: Copper Drum Pond", "Dakou Ancient Capital", etc., but also add new chapters written in this decade, "I don't know if anyone has written such a love letter to her", "I have seen the day and night in Guangzhou" and so on.
In this book, we can see the growth from Li Silly to Pu Lizi, but also see the youth commemoration of a generation, and more importantly, we can see ourselves.
Pu Lizi uses these 30 stories to express 30 emotions and 30 exits of memories, whether it is writing about women, writing about friends, writing about youth, or writing about dark psychology, embarrassing situations, warm details, and finally want to express, into a sentence:
Love is emptiness, love is glory.