Wedge storytellers

Liu Yufei wiped his sweat and stood on the ridge.

As far as the eye can see, the distant mountains and trees are in full view.

The silhouettes of the mountains in the distance rise and fall gently under the firmament, like the waves of the sea, and the mountains closer are much steeper. Most of the mountains are covered with forests, and in late autumn, the autumn leaves are yellow like gold, red like fire, and red and yellow complement each other. Under the shade of yellow and red autumn leaves, there is occasionally an upright stone wall, which shines in the autumn sun, like a sharp sword piercing the sky.

"What a picture of late autumn with rigidity and softness!" Liu Yufei sighed involuntarily.

As a person who works in the city museum, Liu Yufei is somewhat different. He graduated from a second-rate university in China, majoring in archaeology, which was an unpopular major, and there were very few people who applied for the examination that year, and after four years, even fewer people graduated and found employment -- some dropped out of school, some changed their majors halfway, and some people changed their majors when they graduated. In time to recruit people from the city museum, he casually submitted a resume and actually got the job. Whether you like this job or not is not said for the time being, at least it solves the problem of survival. After graduation, I'm embarrassed to reach out to my parents again.

Work unhurriedly, but there is also a lot of free time, Liu Yufei can use these free time to do what he likes to do.

Liu Yufei likes to make up stories, or write novels.

When he was in college, when the teacher was cautiously talking about a brick that was said to be left by the Qin Dynasty, Liu Yufei sat intently, looking like a good student, in fact, he didn't listen to a word, he was thinking about how the handsome and dashing and affectionate male protagonist in his story broke through the siege with a long sword and rescued the beautiful heroine...... Frankly, his novels have also garnered a high number of hits on the school website.

Of course, this is not the most important thing.

On top of that, there are always a dozen girls who come to him after reading his novels, looking for the same excuse and knocking on the door of their dormitory to see what the man called "Liu Yufei" looks like. After the girls saw Liu Yufei's deity, they always unabashedly wrote their disappointment on their faces, and then left stupidly, of course, if you don't count the girl with braids, she is emotionally fragile, she is crying and leaving.

After being harassed countless times in their dormitory, the dormitory boss finally couldn't help it, and he had a heart-to-heart talk with Liu Yufei.

The boss said to Liu Yufei earnestly: "Yu Fei, it's not your fault that you're ugly, but it's your fault to be ugly and so angry, it's your fault to seduce the girls in batches to our dormitory!" ”

At the end, the boss added: "The key is to seduce so many girls, but you can't catch any of them, if this is going to be spread, how can you save face?" I'm the boss, and it's not easy to mix in the rivers and lakes! ”

This is a heart-to-heart talk, this is a knife into my Liu Yufei's chest! Liu Yufei thought, where am I ugly.

Frankly speaking, Liu Yufei is not too ugly, although his nose is a little collapsed, his eyes are a little smaller, and he often stares at two swollen eye bubbles. If he washes his hair like a chicken nest well, dresses his clothes neatly, and his eyes won't be bloodshot if he stays up late at night, pay proper attention to his expression when he sees a girl, and don't drool at every turn, in fact, he can get by.

Since then, Liu Yufei has stopped writing.

After working in the museum, the surrounding environment has undergone earth-shaking changes, and Liu Yufei has taken up the profession of writing novels again. There are only dozens of people in the museum, and even fewer women, only a dozen, and they are all over forty or fifty years old, Liu Yufei no longer has to worry about a woman knocking on his door with hope...

Liu Yufei made up the story very carefully, and sent the story to major Chinese websites and publishing houses very carefully.

The paradox of this world is that if you do something unintentionally, it may attract applause, but when you do it very seriously, you find that it is completely unexpected. The novels written by Liu Yufei very seriously are drowned in the sea of words on major websites, almost no one pays attention to them, and the click-through rate is extremely low. The manuscript sent to the publishing house is also like a stone sinking into the sea, and there is no news.

The value of Liu Yufei lies in his persistence, since he regards writing as his only hobby, he persists. He insisted that his inability to become a blockbuster was not a matter of his writing skills, but of not encountering good material, so he paid special attention to what was happening around him, from wars around the world to elementary school students leading their grandmothers across the street.

He wanted to find great material and create a first-class work.

"Today you ignore me, tomorrow I will make you unattainable! Looking for me to make an appointment? Well? Say what? Lao Tzu rests, you wait. How long to wait? Like Yang Guo, sixteen years..."He squinted at the teacup on the table, as if it were the editor of a website or a publishing house.

But he didn't find any great material to use until one evening he passed by an abandoned place called "Liberty Square".

It is said that there is a building called "World Trade Center" to be built here, many years ago the surrounding area began to be demolished, most of the buildings around the square have been demolished, but there are still some nails that cannot be demolished, so the demolished and demolished fell into a strategic stalemate, the square is full of rubble, overgrown with wild grass, it has become a paradise for scavengers, a paradise for stray cats and dogs.

The building called the World Trade Center looks like it's going to be stillborn.

But when Liu Yufei passed by there, he found that construction had started again. Excavators and bulldozers roared loudly, stirring up mountains of rubble from the ground.

In the rubble, a marble sculpture about two meters high was revealed.

Liu Yufei looked closer and found that it was a sculpture of a middle-aged man, very delicately carved, but very old, stained with some dirt and weeds.

Liu Yufei found a torn towel nearby, soaked it in a nearby puddle, and then slowly wiped the sculpture.

After a busy cup of tea, the sculpture was finally cleaned of dirt and weeds.

It was a man in military uniform, but he had no rank on his shoulders.

His face was angular, his eyes were burning under his thick eyebrows, and he looked ahead, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly, as if revealing a trace of disdain, as if he was smiling warmly.

At this moment, an old man in his sixtieth year came over, he stood in front of the statue, stared at the statue for a while, and sighed.

"Old man, do you know who this is?" Liu Yufei put a cigarette on the old man and asked. He always misses the opportunity to collect written material.

"Young man, don't you know him, do you? More than 30 years ago, he was a famous general of the People's Liberation Army, commanding that short but fierce war! The old man took a puff of his cigarette and said lightly.

"Yang Yunfeng!" Liu Yufei blurted out that he still knew something about that history.

"Yes, people built this sculpture in his honor. At that time, people often came to the statue to offer flowers..."The old man sighed faintly, "Legend has it that someone saw a beautiful girl in the dead of night, and she put her red lips on the cold stone statue with tears streaming down her face... I didn't believe it until that time, when I saw it for myself, and it was really a very beautiful girl, with a big braid, and her face pressed against the chest of the stone statue. I just looked at her, and when she turned around, I saw her burst into tears by the moonlight... Success or failure is empty, merit and disgrace, leave it to future generations to comment... It's just that people are busy making money now, and who cares about the old things that happened around 2037. ”

The old man snuffed out his cigarette butt and left.

Liu Yufei stood in front of the statue and looked at the statue.

As the sun sets, the fiery red afterglow shines on the statue's face, and his angular face is full of coldness, but his eyes seem to reveal the warmth of the veins.

At a certain moment, Liu Yufei had an illusion that those roaring were not excavators and bulldozers, but whistling chariots, and those red ones were not the afterglow of the setting sun, but the raging flames of war!

This man stood alone under the sky illuminated by the flames of war, calmly directing the war...

It was already late when Liu Yufei returned to his accommodation, and he decided to check it out the next day. If you dig it out, maybe it's a great material to create.

The next evening, he rushed there as soon as he got off work.

By the time he got there, it was flat.

He stopped an excavator and shouted at the people in the cab, "What about the statue?" I was still here yesterday! ”

The man in the cab shook his head impatiently, "Clear away, who knows where it went!" ”

Liu Yufei left the construction site in a daze and returned home. Thankfully, he took a picture of the sculpture with his phone.

At night, he tossed and turned and couldn't sleep, and finally fell asleep, and the statue always appeared in front of him, standing alone under the red sky illuminated by the flames of war, calmly directing the short and fierce war that was related to the fate of the Chinese nation... His grim face and slightly warm eyes were so clear!

For several days in a row, the same scene would appear in Liu Yufei's dreams.

Finally, he decided to investigate and understand the war, not from the history books, but from the people.

He visited many people, many especially young people, who did not even know about the war! Only a handful of older people can name something about the war, and even if they occasionally meet people who have lived through it, they only have vague memories of the battle.

Our compatriots are really good at forgetting, and they only have the tall buildings rising in front of them in their eyes, as if they represent power, but few people think about which powerful country in the world is strong by building houses?

Just when Liu Yufei decided to give up, he actually met the old man on the street, in the abandoned Freedom Square, in front of that statue, the old man who had a relationship with him!

Liu Yufei was very surprised, and he confessed to the old man that he wanted to write a book about that war and some of the people in that war, hoping that the old man could tell him some material.

The old man nodded, then shook his head again.

"I have not experienced that war," the old man pondered for a moment, "but I know a man who should know a lot about this war, and he may know more stories than you think, depending on whether he is willing to tell you. He lives in a place called Flower Creek..."

So, on this sunny weekend, Liu Yufei followed the path pointed out by the old man, came to the mountainous area northwest of Chengdu, and followed the river called "Huaxi" to come here.

Liu Yufei climbed over the ridge and walked through the red and yellow autumn leaves, and in a short time, the terrain in front of him became gentle, and on that flat land, a small wooden house was built against the mountain, and in front of the small wooden house was a semi-circular vegetable field.

A man bends over, and his face cannot be seen, but his snow-white hair is like a reed swaying in the autumn wind. He was concentrating on picking the peppers, and his basket was red and almost full.

Liu Yufei cautiously walked into the vegetable patch, picked a Chaotian pepper, and put it in the basket.

The man then looked up.

His face was furrowed, as if telling of the vicissitudes of a century, but his eyes were bright and deep.

This old man must be in his seventies, right? Liu Yu didn't want to.

"Old man, do you know Yang Yunfeng, do you know anything related to that war? I'm not talking about the ones in the history books! Liu Yufei asked.

The old man didn't make a sound, just paused for a moment, looked up at Liu Yufei, and then continued to silently pick his Chaotian pepper.

Liu Yufei didn't make a sound, and also helped the old man pick those Chaotian peppers that were as red as fire.

After a while, the basket was full, and the old man straightened up.

Although he is old, his waist is straight, his eyes are sharp, and his eyes are fixed on Liu Yufei.

"I'm a storyteller, and I saw a statue in Chengdu, supposedly named Yang Yunfeng, who commanded the war between China and Japan in 2037." Liu Yufei looked at the old man, paused, and said, "I want to write about that war, some of the people in that war, those heroes..."

"What year is it?" The old man finally spoke.

"2075."

"Heroes? What a hero! The old man lifted the basket and walked towards the hut, "Besides, this is not the age of heroes. The heroes you mean are young people who win championships in singing, dancing or other games, right? ”

Liu Yufei hurriedly followed, followed the old man into the wooden house, the house was clean and tidy, and the old man motioned for him to sit down on the wooden chair.

"Yes, this is not the age of heroes, this is the age of heroes hibernating. A lot of so-called "heroes" disgrace the word hero. However, the spirit of heroes does not hibernate forever! The young man looked eagerly at the old man's face, "If the hero disappears and the hero's spirit dies, then, when the next war comes, who will defend the country?" ”

The young man seemed to be in a bit of a hurry.

The corners of the old man's eyebrows twitched, and he steadily poured the boiling water into the teapot, and then closed the lid.

"You look like you should be a young man who has no worries about food and clothing, isn't it a bit unfounded to think about it so much?" The old man seemed to be smiling, and his eyes looked out the window, where the frost leaves were red.

"You're right, I'm a public servant with little money but enough money to live a simple life, and when I'm bored, I use code words as a pastime. However, I remember that the sages said that if you live in a temple, you will worry about the people, and if you are far away from the rivers and lakes, you will worry about the king... I've always wanted to carry forward some spirits and call out some voices... If I wanted to write something that made money, maybe I would be a BMW mink by now. "The young man is a little anxious and seems to be confident in his talent.

"Really?" The old man glanced at him, and a smile appeared on his cheek, "So, what do you want to promote?" ”

"Loyalty, integrity and heroism!" The young man replied without hesitation.

"You're a persistent person. In 2075, this kind of person seems to be very rare. So, let's not talk about heroes, I'll tell you a story. If you can write this story well and the book sells well, how about you give me a pack of the best West Lake Longjing as a reward? ”

"High five!" The young man seemed to be afraid that the old man would regret it, so he hurriedly stretched out his hand.

The old man smiled and held out his hand.

The afternoon sun pours in through the window, and the cabin is warm and peaceful.

The old man placed two small cups on the small wooden table.

"Let's have a cup of tea first, I grow it myself and make it myself, although it is not as warm as the color of West Lake Longjing, but it is just as fragrant and pleasant." The old man lifted the teapot and tilted the spout slowly, and the tea flowed towards the teacup, and the faint moisture rose in the pillar of light of the afternoon sun.

"2037 is a distant era! However, kid, the real battle has already begun! For decades, I don't know where to start, I seem to have forgotten many things, but those people have never been far away, they have always been in my heart, their faces are so clear..."The old man stared out the window, his gaze distant and serene.

The smell of tea spreads out in the cabin.