Why did you write "Niedeo II"?

Ye Xin

I remember that when the novel "Wasted Years" I wrote in my youth caused a sensation, many readers asked me what happened to the protagonists in the novel. Like? Especially those educated young people who once went to the countryside and later returned to the city after many ups and downs, all told me that our experience of returning, our experience of struggling to survive when we first returned to the city, our late marriage and family, There are many wonderful stories that you can still write about. At that time, some people were just allowed and encouraged to start their own businesses and become self-employed. Some educated youths who failed to find jobs in time and sought stability went to work as self-employed businesses, and some even tasted the benefits quickly. They also said to me, it would be very interesting for you to write about the ups and downs of doing business in the city.

I know it is indeed an interesting subject, but I did not write a sequel to "Wasted Years" as they said. The main reason is that there is no "subject matter" for a generation in the wasted years to continue. Or to be more precise, their lives after returning to the city have just begun. Just like when we first went to the countryside, we were full of passion and had many stories, but we couldn't produce any works.

Perhaps due to this mentality, when the novel "The Debt" was adapted into a TV series, it once again caused a sensation across the country. , old ladies, and mothers all told me when they met, you should strike while the iron is hot and write a sequel to "The Debt", it will definitely be popular. We all look forward to it.

Faced with smiling faces full of expectation and pairs of sincere eyes, I couldn’t say anything except laughing. Why? The reason is also the same. The five children in "The Debt", or the next generation of educated youth represented by these five children, have just experienced ups and downs in their lives, and suddenly, they have to show their grown-up lives. The contrast seems too great.

To be honest, some editors from publishing houses and magazines, some directors and producers from film and television companies, and some corporate CEOs who used to be educated youth have all come to my office. Some strongly encouraged me to write a sequel to "The Debt" as soon as possible; some based on their feelings after reading and watching "The Debt", they also wrote the themes and characters that the sequel should express, and where the story should develop. There are several love couples to write about; what's more, the story outline of the series and the outline of each episode of the TV series have been drawn out; of course, there are also enthusiastic entrepreneurs who have said many times that as soon as there is a sequel, we will immediately invest in filming. etc.

I haven’t written yet. However, I have always paid close attention to the lives of the next generation of educated youth with a strong interest.

What are they thinking about, what are they pursuing, how is their current life situation different from when we were young? What's the difference between ideals? What’s the difference in how you treat life and the world?

Once, I was invited to have a discussion with some liberal arts graduate students from Zhejiang University. A young man stood up and said to me: "Teacher Ye, I am the product of debt. My mother is an educated youth from the city. , and my father is a local. But when I returned to the city, my mother did not leave the countryside and go back to Shanghai. Our family is living happily now. You should also write about a family like ours.”

A Shanghai magazine once reported on a remarkable case. According to the policy, a child of an educated youth living far away in Xinjiang can go back to Shanghai and register as a registered permanent resident. Due to financial reasons, she did not arrive in Shanghai in time to complete the procedures. A few years later, when she could finally afford the cost of going to Shanghai and went back to Shanghai to go through the household registration procedures, she found that another person had registered the household registration in her name, becoming a Shanghainese worthy of the name, and he still does so to this day. Working under her name. This triggered a small lawsuit.

Another time, a young woman who worked as an announcer in a large supermarket walked into the office of my Writers Association. She said that she was an educated youth and a "bad debtor". She and her husband are now working in Shanghai, renting a house, and have a child, and their lives are pretty good.

However, she didn’t know who her father was or who her mother was. She only knew that her mother was once an educated youth and fell in love with a man who had a job at the time, but that man had a family. When her mother had her, the man disappeared. Her mother gave birth to her in the countryside and entrusted her to a farmer, saying that she was going to the city to find a man and the father of the child. From then on, my mother was gone forever. She grew up in that peasant family. When she was about to graduate from high school, the villagers told her the truth about her birth. So her world collapsed. She could no longer study and no longer wanted to live in a remote village. She made an excuse to go to the city to find her parents and embarked on the road to work in the city, visiting several provincial capitals. , just came to Shanghai. She washed dishes, worked as a waiter, cleaner, salesperson, operator, and finally became a broadcaster in a supermarket. Her husband today is also an educated youth, and she lives with her husband and their children. But this child was not born to her, but to her husband and another migrant girl. The working woman also disappeared like her mother...

I stared at this young woman who spoke standard Mandarin with dumbfounded eyes, suspecting that she was talking to me about the novel she had conceived. Or her real experience. She probably saw my suspicion, so she said I would bring the child next time. Then, she told me about her husband's experience in the city... The experience she told was more tortuous and changeable than the plot of a novel. That afternoon, I only came away with the impression that it was actually so difficult for these educated youth children to integrate into contemporary life.

So the outline of "Debt II" gradually took shape in my mind.

Since it is "Evil Debt II", it must be unfolded with the fate of the five children in mind, and it must be closely connected with the word "Evil Debt", so it must be written accurately This generation of children has integrated into the ups and downs, confusions and collisions experienced in life.

There was a couple of educated youths who were lucky enough to be transferred to local primary and secondary schools when they settled down. They met, fell in love, got married and started a family through the same fate. They were overjoyed for the small wedding room they were initially assigned. In order to teach well, after giving birth to my daughter, I sent her to my grandmother's house in Shanghai to raise her. Years later, they both faced retirement, so they decided to return to Shanghai to live with their daughter and enjoy family happiness. But the grown-up daughter has no feelings for her parents at all, and her grandmother has passed away. Whatever grandma leaves to her granddaughter, for them, it is all natural. Although the years of using vouchers to buy things, "three years for the new, three years for the old, and three more for repairs" have not passed long ago, in their minds, it seems like a world away. Despite this, when they enter social life and integrate into various strata of the colorful contemporary society, they face various realities of love, marriage, family, business, career, and work. They will also be tempted by wealth, and they will also encounter deception. They will fall into difficult emotional choices, they will also feel aggrieved and confused, they will also have all kinds of unexpected troubles and anguish, and they will also...

"Debt II" is about five grown-up people. My child, what happened today. After clarifying this idea, everything became clear to me. The personalities of the five children are familiar to me, and the family situations and changes of the five children are always frustrating to me. I can even see the future of the five children. Ever since, starting from the autumn and winter of the previous year, the bits and pieces of harvest in the notebook gradually came together, the characters were ready to emerge in my mind, and some details were clearly displayed before my eyes. I started writing on January 1 last year, and after nine months of writing, "Evil Debt II" took shape.

Perhaps it was during the years when I joined the queue and settled down, living in thatched huts and small houses converted from earth temples and writing by kerosene lamps that left a deep mark on me. Learn the habit of cherishing time. Whenever I have time, I am willing to sit at my desk, meditate, write, and record my fleeting thoughts at any time. With a piece of time, I am willing to enter the state of writing.

Almost every night, I don’t fall asleep until close to twelve o’clock; almost every weekend, I spend it writing. Our country has implemented "Golden Week" for more than 20 years. I can honestly say that I spent every golden week writing from morning to night. Of course, writing requires various conditions and qualities, but diligent creation and hard work are the most basic conditions and qualities.

The writing of "Debt II" was no exception. I took advantage of every weekend and spent all my spare time except for the lectures that I couldn't refuse. Especially during the entire summer when the temperature was as high as 35 degrees Celsius or above, I didn’t dare to waste a single day. I hid in the small office in Room 406 of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of our city and wrote from morning to night. Maybe the air conditioner in the office was pouring air from the ceiling, so I unknowingly suffered from "tennis elbow", which has not healed to this day. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the comrades of the Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee of the Municipal People's Congress. Except for meetings where I cannot ask for leave, they exempted me from all activities, so that I can concentrate on immersing myself in the world of "Debt II".

I hope every reader who cares about me, and every fellow educated youth from back then, will also like my new book.