Chapter 448 You Were Born Before I Was Born, and I Was Born when You Were Old

After lunch, Fang Minghua and Emily drove straight to Noble Bookstore in New York.

Noble Bookstore is located near Rockefeller Center and is known as the world's largest bookstore. It is said that the bookshelves in the bookstore are more than 20 kilometers long.

When the two arrived, there was already a queue at the door of the bookstore, and there was a poster at the door.

"Famous young Chinese writer Minghua's new work "Crossing Guandong" is signed and sold." There is also a long title below:

Winner of this year's National Book Critics Association Award

Winner of the 1986 Nebula Award

Author of "The Bridges of Madison County".

It seems that the book "The Bridges of Madison County" is really deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Accompanied by security personnel, Fang Minghua and his group entered the bookstore and came to the signing and selling area. There was a table in front and a huge poster in the back.

On it was his detailed resume and almost all of his works and awards over the years. ·

Wow

So complete.

It even has "Qiu Ju Goes to Court", which was recently published in China, but there is no "Snow Swordsman".

It was written under another pseudonym, and Americans seemed to be uninterested in martial arts novels.

Soon, Fang Minghua entered the working state, signing his name on each new book - in Chinese, of course.

Most of them took "Crossing Guandong", but there were still a few who took "The Bridges of Madison County" written by himself, and some even took a "Selected Short Stories of Chinese Avant-garde Works"!

This was collected and sorted out by some novels published by domestic avant-garde writers such as Liu Sola, Mo Yan, Yu Hua, etc. after Fang Minghua returned from Iowa. Then he gave it to the founder of San Francisco's "City Lights" and poet Lawrence Feringai. After being translated by the famous American sinologist Howard Goldblatt, it was published in the United States.

It includes Fang Minghua's two novels "The Sun Also Rises" and "Roadside Picnic".

The sales of this collection of novels in the United States are not ideal, after all, this type of novel is not a bestseller.

I didn't expect that someone would sign it today.

Fang Minghua looked at the fat young man, smiled and signed his name on the title page.

Emily was helping to maintain order, and what was even more ridiculous was that someone actually asked Emily to sign a novel she had written.

This.

Emily was a little embarrassed.

But Fang Minghua generously gave her some space. Since the reader had brought it, she should sign it.

Fortunately, there were not many such readers.

At this time, a girl with black hair and blue eyes came up with a brand new copy of "Crossing Guandong" and spoke not very fluent Chinese.

Mixed-race?

Sure enough, the girl introduced herself briefly and said that her name was Ally, her Chinese name was Yanli, her father was American, her mother was Taiwanese, and she liked Chinese traditional culture very much.

"Minghua, can you sign for me with a brush?" The girl made her request.

Signing with a brush?

This was not difficult for Fang Minghua, but she didn't have any brush and ink.

"Sorry, Miss Yanli, I didn't bring a brush and ink." Fang Minghua said with a smile.

"I brought them." The girl actually took out a brush and a small bottle of ink from her backpack like a trick.

Fang Minghua took a look and found that the brush was actually produced by Dai Yuexuan, and the ink was from Yidege.

My God, they are all produced by domestic time-honored brands.

Fang Minghua was very suspicious. Was this mixed-race girl named Yanli, or her mother, a calligraphy enthusiast and a good calligrapher?

Fortunately, I have practiced hard, otherwise I would have embarrassed the country today!

Fang Minghua was not polite. He picked up the brush, dipped it in ink, signed his name on the title page of the book, thought about it and wrote another sentence.

"Born as a Chinese, I will not be a slave of a conquered country"

This is a sentence from "Crossing Guandong".

The girl left happily.

Fang Minghua also smiled.

Fortunately, the girl took her brush and ink. Otherwise, it would be troublesome if the readers behind asked to use the brush.

The signing lasted from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm. Fang Minghua's arms were sore after writing for two hours.

This money is not easy to earn.

At 9 o'clock that night, Fang Minghua was about to leave and fly to Houston, Texas, and Evans naturally accompanied her.

Emily did not go.

She had her own job and flew to Vancouver, Canada to attend a literary seminar held there. The two said goodbye at the hotel.

"Emily, welcome to China. You must come to Xijing. My wife and I will definitely entertain you warmly. I will take you to climb the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and see the Terracotta Warriors."

Fang Minghua made an invitation.

"I must come if I have a chance." Emily said.

"Okay, I'm leaving. Goodbye!" Fang Minghua said.

"Wait." The girl said, and ran back to her room. In less than two minutes, she came back with a pen, ink and a few pieces of rice paper in her hand.

"Where did you get this from?" Fang Minghua was surprised.

"I bought it in a store in Chinatown. You can also write a piece of calligraphy for me as a souvenir."

"What to write?"

"Just write this sentence!"

Emily took out another book from her bag, which turned out to be the Chinese version of "Three Hundred Tang Poems"!

She turned over a folded page, and saw a line of words written in pen on it:

"You were born before I was born, and I was born when you were old. You hate that I was born late, and I hate that you were born early."!

Fang Minghua was suddenly at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

Girl, do you understand what this sentence means?

Fang Minghua was very suspicious. Emily didn't know which unscrupulous bookstore owner had cheated her.

"Minghua, is this character difficult to write? I think it has very few strokes." Emily asked in confusion.

You don't understand.

The fewer strokes a Chinese character has, the harder it is to write.

Forget it, just write it.

Fang Minghua carefully spread the rice paper on the coffee table, picked up the brush and dipped it in ink, held her breath, and wrote this line of regular script on the snow-white characters, of course, she didn't forget to sign her name.

After writing, she admired it herself.

Not bad, it can't be compared with those calligraphy masters, but it's more than enough to fool foreigners.

"Thank you." The girl looked at the calligraphy whose ink had not yet dried, full of joy: "I will post it in the bedroom of my Los Angeles home when I go back."

Fortunately, just don't post it in the living room.

After saying goodbye to Emily, Fang Minghua flew to Houston overnight, signed and sold books at the Federal Bookstore the next day, followed by Los Angeles and Phoenix. The last stop was Chicago.

The bookstore that signs and sells books in Chicago is called Miopik Bookstore, located in the Weiker Park area, and is a three-story building.

Resting in the hotel in the morning, working in the bookstore at noon, and strolling around the city with Evans in the evening and tasting local food have become a fixed arrangement every day in the past few days.

Today is the same.

It's just the last day of "working". I will be free after signing books today.

Fang Minghua was busy signing his name on books in the bookstore. Seeing that it was almost time to "get off work", he looked up and saw a black-haired and yellow-skinned oriental man standing next to him, smiling at him.

Fang Minghua also smiled.

It was his friend, Sun Lizhe.