After many years, Mo Yan finally came to the center of the world and said the most painful thing in
my memory : "The most painful thing in my memory was to follow my mother to the collective field to pick wheat ears and guard the wheat fields. The people came, and the people who picked the wheat ears fled. My mother had small feet and couldn't run fast and was caught. The tall guard slapped her. She shook her body and fell to the ground. The guard confiscated us. The picked wheat ears whistled and flew away. My mother was bleeding from the corner of her mouth, sitting on the ground, and the desperate look on her face I will never forget. When
Mo Yan's mother was caught, the moment the guard walked forward and raised her arm, a hungry tiger should rush out of the forest and bite the guard to death. Of course there was no tiger in reality, otherwise there would be no Mo Yan afterwards. In reality, there was no sudden strong wind blowing off the sand and rocks that fascinated the watchman so that Mo Yan could save his mother. In reality, there was no sudden earthquake with a magnitude of seven that taught the watchman to break his leg but made Mo Yan's mother rescue him. In reality, there is no Xiao Mo Yan who ran back to stand in front of his mother and yelled at the guardian to hit me. In reality, it's not even that Mo Yan's mother suddenly turned into a hare and disappeared. There is only cruelty, cowardice and regret in reality. Reality, the reality that exists in Mo Yan's memories, in it, I can only see the helpless mother, and Mo Yan's helpless gaze, not Mo Yan.
So we suddenly understood why people want to tell stories, why stories always go back to the scene of the most painful memory, why stories are magical and true, cruel and naive, arrogant and cowardly. The most important thing is that we suddenly understand why we have no right to ask the storyteller to change the world. Even if the world is unified and everyone becomes tame like a lamb, what happened in the wheat field that day will eventually happen and freeze. No matter how beautiful the world will be, it will not help. It is impossible for the pain to disappear because of revenge or liquidation in reality, just like Mo Yan’s mother said many years later: "Son, the one who beat me, and this old man are not alone." The story is for the past. Said by the suffering self and mother, in order to heal and calm the soul.
Suddenly I understood Mo Yan's speech, just after watching the movie "Boy School". These two cultural events were staged almost at the same time, confirming each other, complementing each other, and bringing wonderful enlightenment. To me, this is a miracle in life. The miracle in life, it often comes on the winter night of the journey.
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