——Read Alai's juvenile novel "Three Cordyceps"

Liu Xuyuan

In recent years, many famous writers who used to write for adult readers have been actively involved in children's literature, and they have created works that are broad and bring a unique breath of freshness to the field, which is very gratifying. Ah Lai's novella "Three Cordyceps" is one such work.

As soon as I opened the novel, there was a fresh breath in my face. For example, write about the air of early spring: "In the winter that just passed, there was only the smell of freezing in my nose, the smell of dust in the wind. What filled his nostrils was the smell of the vapor that melted snow had spread into the air, the smell of frozen soil awakening, and the smell of grass that had just sprouted. Another example is the Cordyceps that I first saw: "What a grass sprout is that!" It's not green, it's brown, a shiny brown color that secretes a little bit of viscous substance from within...... Jelly-like brown grass sprouts. In the winter, a beef bone is boiled and left in the soup overnight, and the next morning it condenses like this: a little transparent, delicate. It seems to shatter at the touch of a button. In the past, there were not many such depictions in children's literature. As far as I can remember, I have seen this kind of subtle and unique description of feelings and experiences in Yasunari Kawabata's long story about Snow Country.

Blindly writing scenes in a static way is a bit taboo in children's novels, does Alai not understand the appreciation habits of children's readers? Not. The first two chapters of this book are very smooth to read, because although the author writes more scenes, but all the scenes are love words, he puts the scenery in the psychological process of the child to unfold, this is a child who skips class in suspense in the distant school roll call, he writes the scene in front of him and the scene in his heart alternately, and accompanied by a vivid introduction to the child's family, experience, and character. The pen and ink here switch smartly and freely, relaxed and sophisticated, allowing us to see the literary skills of a mature writer.

The one who skipped class was an excellent student, almost a Tibetan child with a bit of genius. The word "genius" is not exaggerated at all, and the writer does write a teenager who is full of childishness and has a strong desire for knowledge. He asked the teacher, "What is philosophy?" and the teacher said, "I don't know this either," and he said, "I know, this I don't know what I can't say, it's not that I don't know." The teacher was touched by his words, touched his head and said, "Soon, soon, I won't be able to teach you." The tall, tough, bearded teacher had tears in his eyes. The child's sister is in middle school in the city, and it costs a lot of money to buy clothes, and his parents said that they have spent all the money for his grandmother's treatment, and he feels very uncomfortable when he hears it, but he knows that his sister's clothes and skirts must be bought. When his sister came home, he said to his sister, "Girls should dress up in fancy ways." My sister smiled and hit him and said, "It's a derogatory term." He immediately flipped through the dictionary: "The dictionary doesn't say it's a derogatory term...... It's a nice and beautiful word! When the teacher said "tangled", he was a little puzzled, but when he saw his mother wrapping around the wool yarn and the threads were stirred together, he called "tangled", which startled his mother, but he was happy for his discovery.

At that time, the pastoral area had been retired to raise grass, and only during the cordyceps season could you still make some money. He is determined to dig Cordyceps well in the "Cordyceps Fake", he wants to earn 2,000 yuan, 1,000 to buy medicine for his grandmother, and 1,000 to buy clothes for his sister. This matter has been thinking about this in his heart for a long time, and when the school suddenly notified him that there will be no cordyceps holiday this year, he was stunned all of a sudden, and all his plans were about to be ruined, so he skipped school. On the first day he went up the mountain alone, he dug up fifteen cordyceps, and when he got home, he divided them into two parts, seven for his grandmother, seven for his sister, and one more for himself. In this way, he left himself three cordyceps. He kept thinking about how useful they were: a pair of gloves for his cousin in prison, a shaving foam and shampoo for two of his favorite teachers...... The most touching thing about this novel is the heart of the little protagonist Sanchi.

Later, the Cordyceps season officially began, and their family had a bumper harvest. But there are also often troubles, the lamas who start the ritual practice keep coming to take a cut, and they have to take a lot; Although the researcher from the county paid for Cordyceps, he also took away the small boxes carefully made by Sanji and his father. The box also had Sanchi's fist heart, he was reluctant, so he went to ask for it back, the researcher embarrassed him, he was in a hurry, and proposed to exchange his three cordyceps for the box. When the box was returned, he was very sad. The researcher actually liked him very much, and when he left, he told him that he would give him a set of encyclopedias. From this day on, his heart was tied to the encyclopedia. When the researcher came again, he stared at the book, and the book was brought, but he couldn't give it at this time, saying that he would send it to the school and let him go to the school to pick it up. He couldn't wait, he was going to watch it now, the researcher asked him to watch it in the car, and he actually wore the researcher's coat to watch it all night, and he was really fascinated. He was in a hurry to get back to school, but the principal said that the book was for the school. Sanji immediately burst into tears, and went through hardships to find a researcher in the county in order to get the book back, but in the end he still didn't want to return. This process of looking forward to books, reading books, and begging for books is tear-jerking. From his desire to make money for his family to his dedication to this set of encyclopedias, this is an expansion and sublimation of his fist heart. The knowledge and vision that the encyclopedia, which he had only flipped through a few volumes, helped him resist the sacred temptations of religion. He was bent on the wider world. When he was admitted to the key middle school of the autonomous prefecture, the first thing he did was to go to the library to borrow an encyclopedia. Today, when more and more people regard books as dispensable (the researcher in the book said, "No one reads these books anyway"), Sanchi's story has a strong spiritual shock to us. The character and psychology of this talented boy are very full-bodied, he is higher than the average teenager, but he is a real "familiar stranger".

There are two lines in the novel, one fictional and one real: the real is Sanji and his family and school, and the virtual is the local officialdom. This officialdom has been permeated with corruption, and Cordyceps's "officialdom travels" are full of irony. But the novel does not make people pessimistic and depressed when it reads, for three reasons: first, satire itself is criticism, and this criticism is positive; The second is that the corrupt officialdom is not a label, not a dark atmosphere rendering, although the characters are fictional, they are still flesh and blood and credible, such as the investigator is not evil in nature, but after being trapped in the unspoken rules of officialdom, he will only follow, so if the institutional problems can be solved, everything is not irretrievable, and at this time, the anti-corruption momentum has risen, and the "central inspection team" has also come; The third is that the novel focuses on writing a positive image of a teenager, and the weight of this positive image is much higher than that of negative officialdom, which makes people see hope for the future.

For young readers, in the process of aesthetic enjoyment, they can see the dark side and the bright side of life at the same time. This is actually a treasure given by a responsible writer, so please cherish this opportunity to read.

(The author is a theorist of children's literature and the former editor-in-chief of the "PEN" supplement of Wen Wei Po)