Volume 1: Gathering Storms Chapter 7: The Word Assassin (Part 1)
Tianran was working in the municipal party committee office, specifically in the secretarial department. The main task of this department was to draft speeches for the municipal party secretary, also known as preparing major materials.
Drafting materials was a tedious job. When Tianran worked in the Baihe County Party Committee Office, a deputy director who was skilled at drafting materials once said that if he had to choose between writing materials and drinking a cup of urine, he would rather drink the urine. However, Tianran didn't think this way. Writing was nothing to him, which is why others called him a professional word assassin.
He naturally loved reading and writing from a young age. At first, he read comic books, such as "Tunnel Warfare", "Landmine Warfare", "Southern Campaigns and Northern Wars", "Shajiang Village", "The Red Lantern", "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy"... He had them all. Most of these books were bought for him by his father when he was on business trips. Other children often came to borrow books from him, and he became the "king of children" at that time. In elementary school, he accumulated a whole box of comic books. These childhood companions have been kept by him until now. Nowadays, he still has a hobby of collecting comic books, with over 600 volumes so far. According to friends in the collection circle, this is also a considerable wealth. Because comic books are no longer published today, they have been replaced by various cartoon readings. When he entered junior high school, he began to read extensively, not only China's four great classical novels but also works of French writers such as Jules Verne's "Mysterious Island", "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"; Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo", "The Three Musketeers"; Victor Hugo's "Notre Dame de Paris", "Les Misérables"; Honoré de Balzac's "Eugénie Grandet", "Père Goriot" and so on. These works stirred up waves in Wu Tianran's young heart, and his dream at that time was to become a famous writer. His love for reading affected his studies, and he ranked 5th in the entrance examination from primary school to junior high school in Bahe County. However, in the entrance examination from junior high school to senior high school, his mathematics and foreign language scores were not qualified. The full score of mathematics was 100 points, but he scored only 49 points. The full score of foreign language was 50 points, but he scored only 18 points. Nevertheless, his other subjects were still good, especially Chinese, politics, history, and geography, in which he almost scored full marks. In the end, he was admitted to the key class of the first high school in the county with high scores.
In high school, he not only read a lot of books but also started his own writing path. At that time, many of his articles were published in the literary supplement of local newspapers, and he also organized a "Baihe Literary Society", which naturally became a sensational young writer at the time. In his third year of high school, his novella "My Youth My Master" was published in a well-known domestic youth magazine, becoming one of the best stories of that year's literary world. When taking the college entrance examination, Tianran was also very lucky, he was favored by Beijing Normal University and was admitted to the Chinese Department as a specially talented student.
The four years of university were easy and beautiful, when many people were talking about love, he was studying hard. Of course, this is not to say that Tianran had not yet opened his eyes to the so-called romance between men and women. He also had his own goddess in his heart, who was the class study committee member Bai Shasha. Bai Shasha was a Beijinger, with the unique temperament of a big city girl. She was tall, with fine skin, black hair, and bright eyes, and was recognized as the school's "campus belle". What's more, she didn't look down on outsiders like Wu Tianran, she studied hard, spoke humbly, and was the dream lover of many male students. Tianran felt that he was too far away from Bai Shasha, he needed to work hard, stand out, in order to have an equal conversation with her.
During his four years in college, he didn't write much naturally. His main energy was spent reading books, and the school library became a place he had to visit every day. His scope of study was very broad, and he basically followed the order of the books on the shelves in the open-stack reading room. Philosophy, history, geography, literature, sociology, psychology, art, martial arts, film, and even many popular science books, he studied them all. Of course, reading still had a focus, that is, literature. Ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, various schools, he compared and analyzed them, and took notes on more than 30 books. His favorite authors included Yasunari Kawabata, Stefan Zweig, Ernest Hemingway, Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, Franz Kafka, etc. Of course, his favorite reading was still the works of Lu Xun, and he had read the entire "Complete Works of Lu Xun" twice during college.
Speaking of "The Complete Works of Lu Xun", it really has a natural affinity with me.
At that time, Tianran was reading the complete works of Lu Xun and had a habit similar to that of great men - he liked to draw lines and make notes in the margins. The librarian must have noticed him long ago, but it wasn't until he was about to finish the last volume that he was caught red-handed. According to the rules at the time, drawing one line would result in a fine of 0.1 yuan. Tianran's handwriting was unique and couldn't be denied. The librarian was a young man who had just started working and was full of enthusiasm and patience. Starting from the first volume, he spent an entire day searching through all 16 volumes of "The Complete Works of Lu Xun" and found 2053 instances of Tianran's handwriting. After deducting the smaller amounts, Tianran was required to pay a fine of 200 yuan or buy a new set of "The Complete Works of Lu Xun" as replacement. This happened many years ago when Tianran's monthly scholarship was less than 20 yuan. In order to find the book, he had to return to his hometown. He searched through libraries of all sizes in government agencies, schools, and factories, and finally found a set of "The Complete Works of Lu Xun" with the same edition at the county party school. When he found it, the book was covered in dust and had been left untouched for years. The content of the book was brand new, without any folded corners or marks. Perhaps no one had ever read it since it arrived there. The principal of the school was a kind-hearted old man who agreed to exchange this set of "The Complete Works of Lu Xun" with the one from Beijing Normal University Library after learning about Tianran's situation. This principal's open-mindedness helped Tianran get through his difficulties. After starting work, Tianran's first savings were used to buy a set of "The Complete Works of Lu Xun" (16 volumes, hardcover, published by People's Literature Publishing House in 1981, Beijing First Edition, and reprinted for the fifth time in 1991). The total price of the entire set was 165.45 yuan. He treated it like his lover - reading it when he was happy, reading it when he was sad, reading it when he was proud, and reading it even more when he was disappointed. Each time, he would have a new feeling, a new warmth. Tianran sometimes thought that Lu Xun's genes might be present in his blood.
During his university days, Tian Ran had a hobby, which was to visit bookstores and buy books. He bought books almost to the point of madness, willing to cut back on food and clothing in order to get his hands on the books he wanted. When he found a good book, he would spend the whole Sunday walking along Xidan Street outside the university gate all the way to Xihai Park, sitting under a willow tree by the lake, quietly burying himself in reading. Sometimes he would read for a whole day, forgetting to eat lunch and not feeling hungry at all.
Whenever he walked past the school motto written by Mr. Qi Gong on campus, he would slow down his pace. The eight characters "Learn to be a teacher, set an example for the world" always stirred up waves in his heart. He often encouraged himself, saying that as a poor boy from a remote small county town in Henan Province, he must make full use of these four years at university and not waste a single moment.
He also often recited Mencius' famous quote: "Therefore, Heaven will entrust great responsibilities to this person. He must first be made to suffer in his heart and mind, labor his muscles and bones, starve his body and skin, empty and exhaust himself, and disrupt his plans. Only then can he move his heart and temper his nature, increasing what he cannot do." Born with a purpose, a man must make the most of this life and achieve something.
A real man must stand tall and accomplish great things in this lifetime.
