The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China - Chapter 1026

   Zhou Hexuan was competing with Lao Jiang this time. After the publication of Ta Kung Pao was suspended, he directly wrote an article and sent it to the magazine Fei Gong.

   The editor-in-chief of Fei Gong has changed several times. The current editor-in-chief is none other than the great writer Ba Jin.

   After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Ba Jin served as the editorial board member of “Salvation Daily”, but was ordered to suspend publication by the government early last year. At the same time, he also edited “Fenghuo” (formerly known as “Scream”) together with Mao Dun, which had a great influence in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War. However, due to the impact of the war, the headquarters of “Beacon Fire” moved from Shanghai to Guangzhou, then moved to Hong Kong, and was forced to suspend publication due to the fall of Hong Kong.

  Ba Jin has since traveled all over the southwest, specializing in cultural propaganda work.

   The editor-in-chief of “Fei Gong” resigned last year due to illness, and Zhou Hexuan wrote to invite Ba Jin to succeed him. In Ba Jin’s hands, “Fei Gong” began to publish articles by many leftist writers, including Mao Dun, Guo Moruo, Yu Dafu, Yang Shuo, and others, all challenging Lao Jiang’s endurance limit.

   To tell the truth, “Fei Gong” is not far from being suspended.

   “Editor-in-chief Li, here is an article written by Mr. Zhou himself.” Luo Binji knocked on the door and entered the editor-in-chief’s room.

  Luo Binji’s real identity is an underground party, but due to the influence of the war, he has lost contact with the party organization for two years, and has been traveling to various places to engage in literary creation since then. Even if he came to Chongqing, Luo Binji could not get in touch with the party organization again, which shows how strict the CCP’s confidentiality work is.

  Luo Binji was recruited by Ba Jin into “Fei Gong” magazine, and is currently the editor in charge of the novel page.

  Ba Jin smiled and said, “Mr. Zhou hasn’t contributed to “Fei Gong” for a long time, show it to me now.”

   “This is a novella, it made me horrified and my vest got chills.” Luo Binji said.

   “It’s the real magic of “Goddess” again?” Ba Jin asked.

  Luo Binji shook his head and said, “It’s documentary.”

  Ba Jin opened the manuscript and saw that the novel was called “The City of People”.

  The protagonist’s family is a rich farmer with 30 mu of dry land.

  The novel begins with the hero and heroine complaining about the poor harvest, and then a group of recruiting teams arrives. Six people, three mules, lived in the protagonist’s house, and had to eat white flour eggs. Even the protagonist’s couple’s rations were fed to the mules.

  Due to last year’s requisition task, the protagonist’s house has been emptied of food, and this year has suffered successive droughts and locust plagues, and it is impossible to complete the requisition set by the county government.

   In desperation, the protagonist can only borrow food from his father-in-law’s house in a neighboring town. It was only when he arrived at the locality that he found out that his father-in-law had already sold the cattle and part of the land, and the grain collectors were sent away after barely making up enough grain. But the father-in-law’s family has no food rations. The rice shop is restricted from selling every day because the price of food is too low, and the price of rice on the black market is too high to buy.

   The father-in-law of a small landowner committed suicide by hanging his whole family because he was out of rice.

  The protagonist buried his father-in-law’s family hastily, and when he returned, he contacted the big landlord, sold the land to buy grain and paid for the purchase.

  The government only collects grain when expropriating land taxes, but only pays it in fiat money when it expropriates military grain, and pays it according to the official price. The requisition money received by the protagonist is only enough for the family to eat for a few days, and even if the land is sold out, it will not last for half a month, because the big landowners are severely pressing prices and taking advantage of the fire.

  The protagonist’s family began to eat grass roots and bark, but the grass roots and bark in the village soon ran out. Hearing that wild goose manure can satisfy his hunger, he picked up wild goose manure to eat, and his younger son died of illness while eating goose manure.

  The news of the death of the youngest son came out, and immediately someone came to buy the body and offered a small bag of wheat bran.

  The protagonist is determined not to sell, and quietly buried his son’s body overnight, only to find that the body was dug up the next day. He and his wife went crazy and searched everywhere, and they searched for a whole day without any clues. When they returned home, they found that their little daughter was also missing.

  The eldest son was dying and said: “My sister was taken away by the grandma Zhang from the same village, and the grandma Zhang wants to give them meat.”

  The protagonist immediately rushed into Granny Zhang’s house and found that the old woman was cooking meat and eating, and there were fragments of his daughter’s clothes on the ground. After fighting for a while, the protagonist subdued the old woman and found that the old woman was covered with bones.

  The protagonist begins to flee with his family, and the eldest son starved to death on the way. After finally taking the train to the provincial border, he was driven back by the local garrison, and he encountered human traffickers on the way.

  The protagonist wants to sell his wife to prevent her from starving to death. The wife also wants to sell herself so that she can exchange some rations for her husband and eldest daughter.

   During the transaction, the wife said, “Your pants are rotten, wear mine.”

  The protagonist put on his wife’s pants, the couple hugged each other and cried, and then said goodbye.

  The protagonist took his 11-year-old eldest daughter to continue to flee the famine and came to a county town. In the middle of the night, he felt that someone was pushing him. He immediately opened his eyes and asked, “What?”

   “I’m not dead yet, look elsewhere.” The man said to his accomplice.

  The protagonist vaguely saw those people carrying corpses under the moonlight, and was so scared that he was holding his daughter and trembling.

   The next morning, the protagonist took his daughter to beg for food in the city, and begged bitterly following a gentleman who was wearing a suit and eating buns.

  The gentleman suddenly stood up and shouted in horror, “Boss, why are there nails in your buns?”

   A few days later, the eldest daughter was starved to death, and the protagonist was unable to dig a hole to bury it, so he could only drag it to a secret place to hide. When he saw that there was still an elm tree that had not been peeled off, he immediately hugged the trunk and chewed on it, and finally had another unpleasant day.

   At night, the protagonist finds that someone is quietly moving the road and dumping the corpse. He follows up curiously and asks, “How much can the corpse be sold for?”

   The other party replied: “Children are the most expensive, followed by the prime of life. The elderly don’t want them, and neither do the stale ones.”

   So, the protagonist became a corpse mover. He is like a vulture every day, staring at the dying people, and at night he drags the corpse to the human market for rations.

  The darkest part of the novel is the description of the city of people.

  Other places are dilapidated and depressed, starving and dying, but the city is still prosperous. The people there were chatting and laughing, full of energy, and one by one was friendly and kind, and even helped each other a little, like a paradise.

  The protagonist also regained his complexion, his skin became ruddy, and he even picked up a starving and fainted refugee woman as his wife.

  The novel ends in a roar of laughter and laughter in the city of people. The protagonist is wearing the obviously ill-fitting trousers, carrying Xiaomi to his new wife who is waiting for him.

   “Mingcheng really… dare to write.” Ba Jin wiped his sweat.

  Luo Binji said with a wry smile: “Once this novel is published, “Fei Gong” should be discontinued. Should I find a job in advance?”

“It’s time to look for a job again,” Ba Jin shook his head helplessly. “This novel has about seventy to eighty thousand words, and one issue will definitely not be finished. Anyway, it’s the last issue. I suggest increasing the number of pages in the magazine. “All published.”

   “It can only be this way,” said Luo Binji.

  Ba Jin flipped through the manuscript again, and read the description of Renshi in the second half repeatedly. That paradise-like city of people is so prosperous, so noisy, so joyful, so kind and loving, so… horrifying.

  Ba Jin felt that he would definitely not be able to sleep tonight.