Carrying two large bags of old books, Lin Yi realized that it was very heavy, really heavy, and after only mentioning it for a short while, his arm became numb, and then Lin Yi began to miss Lao Huang, who used to be with him, if he was there, it would be trouble-free.

It's a pity that Lao Huang is not here, and he still has to carry these books to walk a long way, thinking of this, looking at the thick "Water Margin", "The Wizard of Oz", etc., I can't help but smile bitterly, why bother to buy so much.

There is still some distance from the way to the subway station, it is not too far, about a mile away, when Lin Yi came, he was walking on foot, and it was a stride meteor, but now it is not good, let alone a stride meteor, even if it seems to be a little faster, it is difficult, so Lin Yi decided to take the bus.

The buses in Shenzhen are all very high-grade green buses on the upper and lower floors, with no one selling tickets and automatic coins. When Lin Yi rushed over, the bus stop was already crowded with people, and before Lin Yi could take a breath, the car came, and then the crowd squeezed up, Lin Yi followed behind with a book and squeezed forward, but because there were too many people on the bus, the front door of the car could not be used, so Lin Yi had to turn around and get on the bus from the back door.

When I got to the bus, there were so many people on the bus that the driver didn't bother to ask the passengers who came up from the back door to pay the money.

Just when Lin Yi was secretly glad that he didn't have to bother to carry his handbag to put in coins, he saw a female middle school student who got on the bus from the back door with him, took out the bus card from his jacket pocket with a quick movement, smiled at the middle-aged man who was a little further forward than her, and said, "Uncle, can you please help me pass the bus card?" ”

The middle-aged man also smiled at her and replied very cheerfully: "Yes, yes!" As he spoke, he took the female student's bus card, and then handed it to the passenger who was closer to the front of the car than him, and continued to pass the female student's bus card that represented the most ordinary, basic morality, and public conscience.

Seeing the passing scene in front of him and thinking about what he thought just now, Lin Yi's heart tightened for a while. At this moment, the next stop arrived, and several middle-aged male and female passengers came up from below, just like when Lin Yi first got on the bus, with a numb and lucky expression. At this time, Lin Yi was also fighting fiercely in his heart, but he didn't expect that people in their twenties would have to make multiple choices on the life answer sheet on the bus to go left or right.

Of course, the answer is that there is no choice, as soon as the car arrives at the station, Lin Yi gritted his teeth, ran to the front door like an old book, got on the bus quickly, and finally freed up a hand, put the coin that had been held in his hand for a long time, and quickly threw it into the coin box on the bus, and then turned around and got off the bus, and walked to the subway station as if relieved.

……

After taking the subway and working all the way, I finally returned to the hotel where I stayed. Entering the room, the first thing Lin Yi had to do was to check the unexpected gain.

took out the 1979 Sanlian Hong Kong version of "Li Zicheng" from the handbag, if you guess well, this set of books is estimated to be worth three or four hundred, but unfortunately this set of products is almost 50 yuan is not bad, but Lin Yi is not concerned about this, he began to desperately rummage through the mysterious letter.

This one doesn't.

Neither does this one.

This one isn't there yet.

Lin Yi's fiery heart immediately cooled down, could it be lost? He began to tense up. When he put the letter back into the book before, the situation was so urgent that Lin Yi forgot how many volumes it was sandwiched into. Now I've found three copies and I haven't found them, and I feel a little dangerous in my heart.

But soon, when Lin Yi picked up the fourth volume, with the flipping of his fingers, a letter as thin as a cicada's wings was revealed.

It turned out to be here.

Lin Yi breathed a sigh of relief.

……

At this moment, he was alone in the whole room, without the bookstall owner who was watching him, and without those customers who were looking for books, he could take out this envelope generously and put it in front of him, and look at it as he wanted, without any scruples.

The letter is a red grid manuscript paper, soft texture, it should be the kind of old cotton paper, and the letter has the words "Wuhan Branch of the Chinese Writers Association" on the letter, which shows that this kind of manuscript paper should be a public letter paper within the Writers Association.

On the letterhead, the calligraphy is combined with the letters, the dragon flies and the phoenix dances, and a few paragraphs are written, the specific content is-

Mr. Liu Yifeng:

Hello!

Today, I received a sample book of "Li Zicheng" Sanlian Hong Kong Edition, which is very good in all aspects. My wife and I would like to thank you for your help in the publication of this book. As for my pen and ink lawsuit with Hong Kong writer Xu Su, I don't have to pay attention to it. There are too many troubles, and it is easy to disturb and heartbreak, so it is better to bury your head in creation.

If I have the opportunity, I will go to Hong Kong, and I will definitely meet with you, sir, at that time.

Here, I wish you good health and success in your work.

Sincerely:

Salute!

Yao Xueyin

December 11, 1979.

……

At the end of the letter, in addition to the signature, there is a small boxy seal, bright red as fire, with four words on the seal: Yao Xueyin seal.

The presence of a seal on the letter, which is rare in many letters, illustrates the importance of the letter and the respect that the writer has for the recipient.

Looking back, first of all, Lin Yi was full of curiosity about this recipient "Liu Yifang". This name seems to have been seen somewhere, but Lin Yi racked his brains to come up with the Hong Kong singer and actor "Liu Yida" - the "Dream Master" in "God of Food".

"Liu Yifang"? Lin Yi didn't even know how to pronounce the word "鬯". Helpless, Lin Yi had no choice but to turn on the computer in the hotel room and check it to find out that the word "chang" is a fake word, and it is "smooth". In ancient Chinese, it was a sacrificial wine.

As for this "Liu Yifang", after checking it, it turned out to be the famous "Godfather of Hong Kong Literary Circle".

Liu Yifang has edited newspapers and magazines such as "National Gazette", "Hong Kong Times", "Sing Tao Weekly" and "West Point". He was awarded the Medal of Honour by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. He has always been committed to the creation of serious literature, and his famous novel "Opposite" led to the film "In the Mood for Love" by the great Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai, and "The Alcoholic" was made into "2046".

No wonder it feels familiar, Lin Yi remembered that when he watched "In the Mood for Love" a long time ago, he seemed to have seen this name at the end of the movie, and it seemed to be a "literary consultant".

However, the reason why Liu Yifang is famous in Hong Kong and is known as the "Godfather of the Literary World" is that in addition to his high morality and qualifications, his qualifications are higher than Jin Yong, Ni Kuang, Cai Lan, etc., in terms of artistic achievements, he is more deservedly the first person in Hong Kong, and his works have won numerous awards.

"HSBC writer" means that he has written a lot of works, and he has written about 60 or 70 million words in his lifetime. said that he was a serious writer, but he did not publish many books, and many words were eliminated by him as "garbage". In his lifetime, he published only two novels, "The Drunkard" and "Ceramics", 4 short and medium-length collections, 3 collections of reviews, and translations. Why is this, because his creative attitude is too serious, "Opposite" was originally a long story, which was later deleted into a novella and published, and "Treasures" was originally a novella, but it was deleted into a short story and included in the collection. The most representative is "Birds and Peninsulas", the original work is more than 600,000 words, and 500,000 words were deleted when the book was published, leaving only 1/6.

No wonder some people have commented on him that in Hong Kong, a land of gold and silver, Liu Yifeng adheres to a pure land and "cultivates his acres of pure literature all his life".

Yao Xueyin wrote this letter to Liu Yifang, mainly because of the publication of this set of "Li Zicheng" in Hong Kong, Liu Yifang helped a lot, especially as Hong Kong's leading literary giant, Liu Yifang's help made Yao Xueyin's works blossom in Hong Kong, recommended and valued.

Every writer loves his or her work as a parent loves his children. Yao Xueyin is the same, his "children" were warmly "entertained" by Liu Yifang in Hong Kong, and of course he had to write back to thank him.

As for the "Xu Su lawsuit" mentioned in the letter, it is a "pen and ink lawsuit" in the literary circles of Hong Kong and the mainland.

This incident originated from Hong Kong professor and writer Xu Sucheng's famous work "Stars, Moon, Sun", which was suspected of plagiarizing Yao Xueyin's masterpiece "When the Spring Flowers Bloom".

Xu Su's "Stars, Moon, Sun", written in 1958, published by Hong Kong Highland Publishing House, first edition, good quality and now old books are priced at 300 yuan; 1959 edition by Taiwan Oriental Publishing House, the price of the old book is 120 yuan; 1983 Taipei Buffalo Publishing House edition, the price of the old book is 80 yuan; In the 1985 edition of China Friendship Publishing House, the price of the old book was 50 yuan.

This novel is Xu Su's famous work, which depicts three women who fall in love with a young man in troubled times, he is indecisive and does not know how to choose, and in the end he is still alone. The author treats the three women as the embodiment of truth, goodness and evil, and celebrates the noble and innocent love.

Yao Xueyin's "When the Spring Flowers Bloom", the 35th year of the Republic of China, published by Modern Publishing House, 123 volumes, good condition, and the price is as high as 1800 yuan; The 1973 Hong Kong Highland Edition, which belongs to the "Lu Bi Literature Series" series, is priced at 150 yuan.

This book tells the story of a group of enthusiastic young people who held a rescue work workshop in a small county town under Dabie Mountain in Henan Province before and after the Battle of Taierzhuang in the spring of 1938.

It can be said that the main content of the two books is very different, but they are very similar in some roles, so much so that Xu Su has always refused to admit "plagiarism" before his death; After Xu Su's death, Yao Xueyin faced reporters and answered clearly: Using the sun, moon, and stars as metaphors for three female personalities was obviously inspired by "When the Spring Flowers Bloom". But judging from the entire content of Xu Su's work, it is not plagiarism. Yao Xueyin's fair statement finally brought the curtain down on this public case.

……

First of all, the recipient is extraordinary, it is the "Godfather of Hong Kong Literary Circle" Liu Yifang, plus "Yao Xueyin", the "great god" of historical novels, the combination of strong and powerful, the value is even higher. What's more, according to this letter, it can be found that the deep friendship between these two literary giants has a strong historical research value.

Secondly, it is even more historical that there is such an important thing as the "Xu Su pen and ink lawsuit" mentioned in the letter. For historians who like to study the stories of these literati, just these words on the letter can show Yao Xueyin's attitude towards this "lawsuit", preferring to bury his head in writing a book rather than spend more effort on the lawsuit, thus showing the noble character and positive creative attitude of an old-timer in the literary world.

In the end, it was the seal, Lin Yi checked what he knew on the Internet, and there were many letters of Yao Xueyin that only had signatures and no seals.

As a private seal of a literati, seals have always been given a very important significance. It is only on very special occasions, such as when you are drawing, writing poetry, or playing games with friends. In the case of ordinary letters, it is rare to have an active seal, unless the writer and the recipient have a very special relationship.

This is the case with Yao Xueyin and Liu Yifang.

Before 1979, the two probably had never met, but they knew each other's works, appreciated each other's literary talents, and had been friends for a long time. This made Liu Yifang try his best to recommend Yao Xueyin's "Li Zicheng" to be published in Hong Kong.

On the other hand, if Yao Xueyin writes letters to ordinary acquaintances and friends, he will never put this kind of private seal, because everyone is familiar with each other, and there is no need to be so grand and formal. But writing to Liu Yifang is different, stamping this private seal can well illustrate Yao Xueyin's attitude of respecting the other party.

This is the detail of the literati interaction.

Details determine attitude, and attitude determines fate.

And the fateful friendship between Yao Xueyin and Liu Yifang also started with this letter.

It's just that what makes Lin Yi wonder is how this letter could be sandwiched in the book "Li Zicheng", and how could it end up in a used bookstall in Shenzhen?

In turn, I was relieved that Shenzhen and Hong Kong were already very close, and as for this set of books and letters, there may have been many reasons for appearing here, stolen, lost, inadvertently discarded, and so on. In short, now in your own hands, this is fate! (To be continued.) )