In island nations, counties are provincial-level units and are larger than cities.

Or, to be precise, many countries in the world have larger counties than cities, such as rice countries, island countries, etc., and cities like Huaxia are smaller than counties.

Ye Yu and the others came to Niigata City, a subordinate municipality of Niigata Prefecture and the seat of its prefectural government.

"Big brother, what are we doing here?" As soon as she got out of the station, little Lori shivered, the weather here is colder than Tokyo, and the sun is not as sunny as Tokyo these days, which makes her a little uncomfortable.

"Why are you asking such a stupid question?" Ye Yu said funny.

Actually, he knows what little Lori is talking about.

The island country is not very large, so there are not many book signing sites arranged.

Originally, the company arranged a total of five stops from Tokyo, the capital of Kanto, Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture in Tohoku, Sapporo City in Hokkaido, Osaka City in Osaka Prefecture in Kansai, and Fukuoka City in Fukuoka Prefecture on Kyushu Island, starting from the capital Tokyo in the middle and heading northeast, and then turning back to the southwest after arriving in Hokkaido.

But after Ye Yu saw it, he crossed out Sendai City and changed it to Niigata City in Niigata Prefecture in north-central China.

So Ye Yu knew that Xiao Lori was actually asking - why don't you go to Sendai City, but come to Niigata City?

Since he crossed out Sendai City and came to Niigata City instead, it means that he wants to come to Niigata City more, and Xiao Lori is puzzled by this.

Ye Yu habitually reached out and wanted to touch the little Lori's head, but before he could touch it, he was slapped off by the little Lori angrily.

Ye Yu smiled and said, "This place is known as the 'Rice Country' of the island country, and it is also known as the 'Snow Town', I'll come here to take a look." ”

He came here because of one person - Yasunari Kawabata, a Japanese Nobel laureate in literature in his previous life.

In the past, there were two people in Japan who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Yasunari Kawabata (1968), Kenzaburo Oe (1994).

Yasunari Kawabata has very big eyes, and like an owl, he is a very interesting writer.

This guy has a lot of quirks, the most famous of which is his habit of eating grain.

When he learned from inside information that he had won the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature, he did not hesitate to buy a screen of Tomioka Tetsusai worth 70 million yen. I spent another 10 million yen on the head of a burial figurine from the Kofun period, and I bought a total of nearly 100 million yen of art and antiques. And he knew that the Nobel Prize prize that year was only 20 million yen.

He owed countless debts during his lifetime, and never paid them back, claiming that "whoever has money should take it out; If you don't, don't pay it back! After his death, he was found to have collected more than 200 important cultural relics of the national treasure level.

Of course, he didn't die of natural causes, or he died of illness, he committed suicide.

The night of April 16, 1972. He committed suicide by using a gas pipe.

This is inseparable from his depression and loneliness, sadness and depression, but I am afraid it is also related to the fact that he is deeply affected by the thoughts of material mourning.

He believes that mourning is "the source of Japanese beauty", that "in Japanese, the word mourning is synonymous with beauty", that "death is the highest art, an expression of beauty", and that "the ultimate of art is death".

Mourning. It has penetrated into the emotional world of the island people and affected the way of life of the island people. became part of the psychological DNA of the nation.

Even because of the mourning, the people of the island country often do all kinds of unreasonable, or extremely heroic behaviors, for example, in the previous life-

Momoe Yamaguchi retreated bravely at the most glorious moment of his acting career.

Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Osamu Dazai, and Yukio Mishima committed suicide at the peak of their literary creation.

Masaki Takemiya, Hero Otake...... In a chess game, it is better to be wiped out. I also don't want to give up the "beautiful chess shape".

Saipan was defeated, and more than 700 Japanese girls jumped off the cliff collectively by running.

The elderly in Japan would rather starve to death than receive pension relief. For these elderly people, the social pension insurance system is a virtual reality. According to a Japanese newspaper report in 1996, there were more than 100 cases of elderly people starving to death in their homes in Tokyo alone.

There are statues of the "Dancing Girls of Izu" in many parts of Japan, but the actual "Dancing Girls of Izu" (who are said to be alive in the early nineties of the last century) never appears. Because she is afraid that her old age will damage the image of a beautiful dancer in the eyes of the world.

……

"The Dancing Girl of Izu" is actually the work of Yasunari Kawabata, his autobiographical novel.

Ye Yu came to Niigata to commemorate him.

This is not his hometown, he was born in Osaka, but this is the setting of the story of Snow Country.

"Snow Country", "Ancient Capital", "A Thousand Cranes", for these three works, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968. Among them, "Snow Country" is the highest masterpiece of his artistic achievement.

……

Maybe it's the providence of the dark, or maybe it's because the bad weather in Niigata has finally been suppressed and accumulated to the extreme, and on the afternoon of the day Ye Yu and others came to Niigata City, the "snow town" Niigata began to snow.

Probably because it's already mid-March, which is probably the last snow in late winter and early spring, it's also falling particularly hard.

Goose feathers are snowing, and snowflakes are falling slowly.

In just one afternoon, the entire area of Niigata is covered in a thick layer of snow.

In addition, there is no stop at night at all, so it is expected that the traffic situation will be extremely bad the next day, and it will be extremely inconvenient to get around.

Seeing this, Gutian Publishing House and Yuye Company had to urgently release news and postpone the signing meeting originally scheduled for the next morning.

……

Warm room, floor-to-ceiling windows.

Ye Yu was lying on the sofa, staring blankly at the snow outside.

Outside the window, in the gray sky, the cold snowflakes fell one after another, and the silence was unbelievable, and he felt a sadness that could not be eliminated.

"Ye Yu, what are you looking at?" Seeing Ye Yu lying there in a daze, among the four people who were playing poker, Su Xiaomo couldn't help but ask.

"Look at the snow." Ye Yu came back to his senses, turned his head and smiled slightly, and said: "The snow of the island country is different from the snow of China, lonely, idle, empty, and even nothing, which is probably related to the cultural characteristics of the island country." Floating like a dream, for joy? ”

"Really? How can I not feel it? It's all the same! Little Lori said curiously.

"That's because you don't read the literature of the island nation." He Ru said with a smile.

The emotional problem that has been pressed in her heart has been solved, and she has been in a good mood for this time.

"Xiaoru, help me find out which well-known newspapers and periodicals do not require real names to receive articles, and only need to leave contact information." Ye Yu thought for a while and said.

The heavy snow outside made him can't help but want to write "Snow Country".

He didn't use his real name because he didn't want to be disturbed.

Besides, there are many newspapers, media, and local forces that boycott him now, and he doesn't want such a masterpiece to be implicated by him and be boycotted.

"Okay." He Ru answered, and called Gutian Publishing House to check.

Ye Yu slowly got up, picked up the computer on the side, created a new document, and knocked down the name of the novel - "Snow Country".

——(To be continued......)