I once wrote an essay called "Gratitude."

In this essay, I spoke with gratitude about the care given to me by the teachers of the Chinese Department at Fudan University. In the special context of the times, their care for me was also reflected in a kind of self-evident and sincere protection. It is not what people say nowadays, but the care of teachers for students can include. In those days, that protective care was engraved in a student's heart, and it was dignified whenever it was recalled.

I also talked about another teacher who was not a Chinese teacher.

So which department of Fudan is he?

More than 30 years later, I can't remember it exactly.

All I remember is that in 1974, he was ordered by Fudan University to enroll students in Heilongjiang. Two places in the Department of Chinese are also within his scope of work. It is said that that that year, Fudan University recruited a total of more than 20 young intellectuals from the Heilongjiang Production and Construction Corps, and he shouldered a sense of responsibility for five or six majors at Fudan University. And one of the two places in the creative major fell on my head.

The thing went something like this—in order to recruit a student who might be able to engage in literary creation in the future for the creative major of the Department of Chinese, he went through all the collections of literary creations of young people at the Corps headquarters. In that year, the XPCC headquarters held a literary creation study class every two years, and the results of the creation were compiled into six collections: poetry, prose, novels, reportage, newsletters, and current political commentary. In 1974, the XPCC had cultivated a contingent of more than 100 intellectuals for literary creation, scattered in all divisions, regiments, and even grassroots companies. I was one of them, carrying wood in the grassroots company. Of the six types of collections edited by the Corps Headquarters, only one of my short stories, "The Guide," has been included in the collection of novels. It was the only one I had ever included in a collection, and it was published in the Regimental Soldier Daily.

The content of the "Guide" is as follows: a class of educated youths went into the mountains to cut trees under the leadership of an old worker. In the eyes of the intellectuals, the old worker is lonely and arbitrary - this forest is not allowed to be cut down, that forest is also resolutely not allowed to be cut down, in short, not a single tree that has been grown and is easy to cut down. So under the leadership of this old "guide", the educated youth got farther and farther away from the company, until it was dark, and they barely managed to scrape together enough ploughs and cut wood, all of which were crooked and twisted, and it was difficult to split them into burning wood even if they were pulled back to the company. Moreover, in order to protect the life of an educated youth, the old "guide" himself was injured by a fallen tree. Even though he was so self-sacrificing at a critical juncture, the intellectuals did not have any respect for him in their hearts, but thought that it was his own evil consequences. Logging pulled the company to the company, and accusations arose. Many people asked, "What kind of wood is this pulling back a plough, how difficult is it to split, how can you be a guide?"—but he pointed with his hand to show everyone that the mountains and forests in the distance had been cut down to the east and the west. He said: "It's only been a few years? Don't just try to save trouble today, but what we will leave behind is bald mountains for future generations! That will be scolded by future generations......

Such a short story was quite special in those days. The theme of "environmental protection" is clear. At that time, the word "environmental protection" did not exist in the dictionary of the Chinese. I don't have it in my own head. It's just that the phenomenon of indiscriminate deforestation that I have seen can't help but feel distressed.

And this short story, which is only 3,000 words, resonated with the admissions teacher of Fudan University, so he wanted to meet an intellectual young man named Liang Xiaosheng. So he took a 12-hour train from Jiamusi to Harbin, and then took an eight- or nine-hour train from Harbin to Bei'an, which was the terminal of that railway. The journey would take three days at the earliest.

On the morning of the fourth day, Liang Xiaosheng, an intellectual youth, was carrying a big wood in the company, and the regiment headquarters informed him that there was a guest in the guest house who wanted to see him.

When I heard that the other party was a teacher at Fudan University, I didn't have any surprises in my heart. Thinking that it was just a passing scene in the admissions process, according to today's parlance, it was a show. Moreover, I am ashamed to say that I, a Harbin educated youth, had never heard of Fudan, a famous university. A young man from the north would never have been interested in what kind of university there was in the south. But I was glad that someone talked to me about literature.

We talked for nearly an hour and a half.

I "let loose words" about the "literary and artistic" phenomenon in "**", and I feel cathartic.

He took out a "model book" of "revolutionary literature" from his bag, "Niu Tianyang", and asked me if I had read it and how I felt after reading it.

I actually said, "That kind of book should be put down after a minute, it's not literature in any sense!"

And in that book, dozens of paragraphs of "Supreme Instructions" were printed in bold letters on the entire page.

If he had the popular "left" in his mind, I would not have become a student of Fudan at all. If he left a bad impression of me to the group before leaving, such as "Liang Xiaosheng, a famous young intellectual, has a big problem with his thinking", then my life will be even more difficult in the future.

I remember very well when we broke up, he said, "Don't tell anyone what you said to me, it will not be good for you." It's caring. In those days, it was also protective. Later, I learned that he did go to meet with the leaders of the regiment and expressed his attitude in person that if Fudan University decided to recruit the educated youth, then the quota could not be replaced. Without the seriousness of this teacher, I would not have been able to become a Fudan student back then. A few years after I entered the school, I was isolated on the second floor of the health center because of excessive aminotransferases. He once stood under the platform of the health center and looked up at me and comforted me for more than half an hour. Three months later, I was transferred to Hongqiao Hospital, where he went to see me off...... So far, I think about it, bit by bit, I feel warm. Then I thought that the former college student (who seemed to have stayed in 1962) was so different from the current college student. Although I no longer recognize which department or major he is, I know for sure that he is not a teacher in the Chinese department. In the guest house of our group, he, who is not a teacher of the Chinese department, talked to me about so many writers and works in ancient and modern China and abroad. This is intriguing.

The world is full of living beings. Everyone has a life, it is a birthday. But some people are lucky enough to have a second birthday. University scholars, reborn in the world also. The term "alma mater" has a profound meaning. Fudan is a century-old famous school and a high-level university, and the peach and plum cultivated are all over the world. It was Fudan that seriously gave me a kind of luck in life. I think the seriousness of the admissions teacher she sent is one aspect of Fudan's traditional spirit! I am grateful and I am grateful for the spirit of Fudan. Therefore, the title of my crude reminiscence is "Fudan and Me", not the other way around, let alone frivolous. I would love to meet the teacher who went to the Heilongjiang Production and Construction Corps in 1974 to recruit students at the Fudan Centennial Celebration Ceremony.