The novel is not long, and Zheng Zhenduo finished reading it soon.

He stood in front of the window, took out a cigarette and smoked it, and fell silent

The story is very simple. It tells a girl named Cuicui near Chadong at the junction of Sichuan and Hunan, next to the white tower of the stream.

Cuicui's grandfather was an old boatman who made a living by carrying people across the river by ferries.

There is a boatman named Shunshun in Chadong City. He has two sons. The eldest son called Tianbao and the second son called Nuosong.

On the Dragon Boat Festival, Cuicui went to watch the dragon boat race and accidentally met the handsome young sailor Nuosong. Nuosong left a deep impression on Cuicui's heart, and the two had a good impression on each other.

At the same time, Nuosong's brother Tian Bao also fell in love with Cuicui and asked a matchmaker to ask for a marriage in advance.

Instead of judging the outcome by duel according to local customs, the two brothers expressed their feelings in a fair and romantic way of singing folk songs, allowing Cuicui to choose from it himself.

Nuosong is a good singer, and Tianbao knew that he could not sing his younger brother. He was discouraged and drove a boat to do business.

However, not long after, something happened to Tianbao on a boat and drowned.

The ship owner Shunshun at the dock became cold to the old boatman because of his son Tianbao's death, and he was unwilling to be Nuosong's wife again.

The old boatman had to return home depressedly. Cuicui asked him, but he didn't say anything.

It rained heavily at night, mixed with scary thunder.

The next day, Cuicui got up and found that the boat had been washed away, and the white tower behind the house had collapsed. Cuicui went to find her grandfather but found that her grandfather had died when the thunder was about to silence...

After burying his grandfather, Cuicui took over his grandfather's life and continued to carry people across the river, while waiting for the return of her sweetheart.

"This person may never come back, maybe he will come back 'tomorrow'!"

The novel meticulously describes the unique customs and customs of the western Hunan area, and uses poetic language to show the unique fresh and beautiful natural scenery of the western Hunan area.

And a group of native "countrymen" living there.

It is this group of country people who are simple and kind, without hierarchy or utilitarianism, and treat each other sincerely and be friendly to each other.

The love of grandfather for his granddaughter, Cuicui’s innocent love for Nuosong, the sincere love of Tianbao’s brothers for Cuicui, and the sincere love of brothers among brothers, all represent the traditional virtues of the uncontaminated agricultural civilization.

The novel describes the clarity of the natural scenery in western Hunan, and also describes the clarity of the minds of the people in western Hunan.

Zheng Zhenduo felt that this novel was likely to open up a new writing direction for new literature.

Among the new literature types, the rise of rural novels began with Luxun.

The so-called local novel refers to novels that rely on reorganization of memories to describe the life of the rural areas of my hometown, with a strong local atmosphere and local color.

When new literature first began, literary creation had a clear trend of Europeanization.

Because most of the writers who advocated new literature at that time had a background in studying abroad and often translated foreign works, they naturally borrowed the narrative methods of Western novels.

Therefore, some people called for the "local color" of literature, advocated that literature should have "a personality that grows from the soil", and called on writers to "jump to the ground, and express the earthly atmosphere and mud taste through his pulse and express it in the words."

This is actually to be nationalized.

Luxun's local novels are very contemporary. Through his description of his hometown environment and characters, he examines his hometown customs with a critical perspective, and sharply satirizes and criticizes ignorance and backwardness.

With the complex emotions of mourning his misfortune and angering his inconfrontation, he depicts the numb and ignorant hometown people in life and suffering, sympathy and criticism, satire and pity are intertwined, forming an aesthetic style that blends the comedy and tragedy in the rural novel.

Most of the new literary writers in the future imitated Luxun's writing style, mainly criticizing their hometown, and with a hint of nostalgia.

But "Border Town" is different. There is no criticism in this novel, only praise and praise.

Cuicui is a innocent, kind, gentle and pure little girl. When she comes to the world, she is the angel of love and the elves of love.

She and her grandfather depend on each other and are loyal to love. In the end, she guarded her ferry post like her grandfather, fell in love with her and waited for Nuosong's return.

Grandpa retains traditional Chinese virtues and has infinite affection for his granddaughter Cuicui.

Tianbao has a generous personality and is generous. Nuosong pursues love alone, and finally leaves alone, not knowing where to wander.

These characters all have traditional Chinese virtues, which are completely different from those ignorant villagers in Luxun's works.

Luxun looked at the people in his hometown from the perspective of enlighteners, and naturally felt that they were out of place with the new era, so he created novels such as "The True Story of Ah Q" and "Hometown".

What he saw was numbness and ignorance.

"Border Town" uses the perspective of traditional Chinese culture to penetrate into the group of rural people to understand their joys, anger, sorrow, and happiness.

Take "Hometown" as an example, the novel describes a man named Runtu.

The author compared the lively young man who caught snails under the moonlight in the watermelon field when he was a child with Runtu, who later became the master, who was haggard and full of slavery because of his life, and concluded the ignorance of the people in feudal society.

This is Luxun’s perspective on the problem.

If we follow the writing style of "Border Town", we will write about Runtu's daily life. He treats his family very well and is willing to help others. When he meets a childhood playmate who comes back to his hometown, he comes to give gifts. However, this childhood playmate has become an amazing big shot, so he seems restrained.

It fully demonstrates the honest, simple and kind side of a country man.

It's amazing. The same character, written by different writers from different perspectives, has completely different personalities.

This is literature.

Zheng Zhenduo realized that Lin Zixuan's "Border Town" is different from the novel that is now mainly criticizing farmers. This is another way of looking at farmers.

These new culture pioneers think that they represent the advanced side and play the role of saviors. They often shout out loudly to awaken the ignorant farmers.

But it ignores the kind and simple side of the people. Although this is inconsistent with the trend of this era, it is worthy of praise.

Moreover, the text of "Border Town" is extremely beautiful, which surprised Zheng Zhenduo.

Since Lin Zixuan debuted, the most criticized thing is that he has no literary talent. Most of the novels he wrote are straightforward and too straightforward. Many literati use this to attack Lin Zixuan's poor knowledge and cultivation.

If they had watched "Border Town", they would know how ignorant this kind of attack was.

Zheng Zhenduo couldn't help but chuckled. Thinking about it, how could a poet who could write such beautifully in poetry have a literary talent that he didn't understand, perhaps he just didn't want to show off.

He even guessed that the reason why Lin Zixuan wrote the novel so bluntly was to let more people understand it.

This is undoubtedly worth learning from by writers like them.

The novel you wrote wants to awaken the people, but the people can't understand it at all. Isn't this a waste of effort?
Chapter completed!