At the end of April 1998, a few days after the Mao Dun Literary Award ceremony was held in Beijing, I asked Bai Ye to finally inquire about the home address of literary theorist Chen Yong, and the two of them went to pay a visit.

A wide gate that is rare in the usual residential area. There are soldiers standing guard at the door. When Bai Ye was about to show his ID, a little girl came out from inside and led us into the door. She is the nanny of Chen Yong's family, a native of Ankang, Shaanxi, and my little township party, which is really a coincidence. Walking to the middle of the inner courtyard, the little girl said that the uncle himself had come. A short and chubby old man smiled faintly, saying that he was not worried about the trouble of checking when he entered the door. A dark, half-worn clip overcomes that at first glance looks like an idle retired old worker.

This is an old-fashioned unit with a study room and a small one-room house. The sofa is outdated, and the wooden coffee table with purple and red paint is piled with books and newspapers. The three of us sat down and chatted. Chen Yong speaks very calmly, his ancestral home is Guangdong, and there is a wisp of local accent in his language. I suddenly had the illusion that listening to him talk about literary creations was like listening to an old farmer talk about farming and mulberry when I was working at the grassroots level in the countryside many years ago.

In the sweltering heat of 1997, I heard a message from a friend in Beijing in Xi'an, Chen Yong believed that "White Deer Plain" did not have a "historical tendency", and it was undoubtedly the most expressive breeze for me. It was not until the official opening of the Mao Dun Literature Award in late October that Chen Yong officially stated this crucial point at the meeting. As for the "problem of historical tendencies" in "White Deer Plain", I have been confident that it is a certain misreading or misunderstanding for several years, but I have not detached myself to the point of not being troubled; I believe that this misunderstanding or misunderstanding will eventually be explained by Kuang Zheng, but I did not expect it to happen in 1997, and it was completed by an elderly man Chen Yong. Although I have long admired the Mao Dun Literary Award, the correction of this misunderstanding is the most fundamental result I am looking forward to first. When these two results were formed at the same time, I was not only aware of the old man Chen Yong, but also sincerely admired him.

The old man Chen Yong told me that because of his impression of reading the book "Bai", he became interested in my novel creation, so he went to Xinhua Bookstore to find my collection of works, bought two short stories and novellas in the three-volume "Selected Novels of Chen Zhongzhong" published by Huaxia Publishing House, about 1 million words, and finished reading it, and wrote a long review of more than 20,000 words on my novel creation, which was submitted to the "Literary Review" magazine.

I immediately said, you should call me, I asked Chen Zeshun of Huaxia Publishing House to send you a set of books, how can I let you go to the street to buy books. Chen Yong smiled and waved his hand, how can I cause trouble to you! Bai Ye and I looked at each other and were silent.

The impression I have in the literary circle is that Chen Yong is a Marxist literary theorist. In today's literary world, where various literary theories converge, people may not all agree with Chen Yong's certain point of view, but almost all of them say that Chen Yong is a decent person. That's enough, enough admiration for people, including me.

December 2001