Chapter 7 7. "In the Frost Days"

It was Zhou Yang who kept Ding Ling in Beijing, but she didn't want to follow Zhou Yang's path; Zhou Yang pushed her forward again and again, but she desperately backed away. She and Zhou Yang had different ideas and chose different paths.She is going to write a good book, and the weight of this book should exceed.This is a lofty goal, because she has already stood on a very high level.The subject matter is crucial to the success of a book, so what to write about?Ding Ling was thinking about it.Before coming to Beijing, she planned to go deep into the factory and write about industry, but industry is a completely unfamiliar field to her, and it contains many scientific and technological factors, so it is very difficult to really go deep into it.Just at this moment, a group of sparks flashed, like a flash of inspiration in the dark, Ding Ling caught the inspiration all at once.

She received a copy of the October 1953 issue of "People's Pictorial", which published a group of photos taken by reporter Song Xueguang reflecting the changes in Wenquan Village. Those photos immediately aroused her memories of the land reform work in those years. The memories of her comrades-in-arms, the changes in Wenquantun made her extremely excited and pleasantly surprised!She immediately contacted Song Xueguang, asked him to come to his house for dinner, and took up a pen to write a letter to Cao Yuming, the director of Wenquan Village and an activist during the land reform.She said in the letter: "I looked at many photos again and again. Aren't those the places I walked seven years ago - the scenery, life, and people around Wenquantun by the Sanggan River? These photos aroused my many thoughts. Indescribable feelings... What an old scene! The rushing river, the rubber cart, the river beach, the sorghum field, the sheep, the orchard, the bountiful harvest of gourd ice and grapes Heh... Besides, I have an acquaintance! When I saw the photo, I laughed. Isn't that Cao Yuming? He hasn't changed, he's still the same. Big boy! Do you remember, we once told you that we were joking, hoping that you would treat us to a wedding wine before leaving. We didn’t eat it after all.”

Ding Ling's heart skipped a beat: Why don't you continue writing, write the story of protecting the ground team!This is also a long-cherished wish in her heart, an old account, a novel that has been planned long ago. When she started writing at the end of 1946, the original plan was to write in three stages, the first paragraph was about struggle, the second paragraph was about land distribution, and the third paragraph was about joining the army.But in the final book, she only wrote the first stage, which is the part about the struggle.In her preface to this writing in June 1948, she said: "In the process of writing, I got some materials about the struggle of the land guards in the area of ​​the Sanggan River after the Japanese Occupation. They are very vivid materials.... I fantasize about going back there again, Then I will write the second part of the novel, so I often want to leave some foreshadowing while writing."

Ding Ling has accumulated a lot of vivid materials about the struggle of the land protection team. She always felt that it would be a pity if it was discarded, so she always wanted to write a sequel. From a group of photos taken by Song Xueguang, and from a letter written to Cao Yuming, Ding Ling recalled the unforgettable life in Wenquantun and the land protection team that made her worry about that year. A novel about the struggle of the ground troops, the name of the novel is "In the Frost Days".She still needs to go deeper into life and search for more materials, so she returned to Wenquantun, revisited Sanggan River, and visited the folks who forged a deep friendship back then.In addition, she also went to experience life at the construction site of the Guanting Reservoir, which is in full swing in the suburbs of Beijing. It is the only place to go to Zhuolu County, and one of the important water sources of the reservoir is the Sanggan River.

On the third page of "People's Daily" on November 20, 1953, Ding Ling's new work "Director of Grain and Fodder-Guanting Reservoir One" was published, and the work was later published in "People's Literature" published on December 7. On the number.This small article of less than 9,000 words has extraordinary significance to Ding Ling. It is Ding Ling's first real literary creation after liberation.Before that, although Ding Ling kept publishing new works, those articles were either prefaces and postscripts, or reports or speeches, or works in response to the occasion, and there were also some essays on visits to the Soviet Union, but they were only by-products of official activities, not in-depth life. Crystallization is not a "creation" in the true sense.Therefore, it can be said that "Director Liang Mo" is the first sign of official Ding Ling's return to writer Ding Ling.