Let me copy down a note first:

  A family had a son who went out into the world, but because of his broad stride and robust spirit, he was envied by many people. From time to time, rumors and ominous messages were transmitted back to his home. His family members covered their ears and closed their eyes, and after a long time, they thought that the prodigal son had already perished in the wilderness. They could only put aside their feelings, cut off their memories, and abandon all recollections of him. In any conversation, he was never mentioned again.

  It turned out that twenty years later, on a certain evening, there were footsteps and laughter outside the house. Family members peeked through the door gap and saw the prodigal son standing tall and majestic, with many followers behind him, solemnly standing at the door. The family hastily opened the door to hug him, wiping away tears and asking questions, only to learn that he had been wandering around the world for years, helping people all over the world, with scars all over his body, but still physically and mentally strong. The family then boiled water for bathing, cooked rice for food, cut cloth for clothes, and prepared a bed for rest...

  To me, "The Cultural Revolution" is this prodigal son who has been away from home. Its time of "going out into the world" has been longer, and the troubles it has brought to me are too numerous to count.

  All the trouble came from its extreme popularity. It inadvertently became a rare cultural phenomenon at that time, and it did not have any powerful background, so it immediately became the focus of media attacks. At that time, most domestic media were not aware that defamation and slander are criminal offenses, so they surrounded it, pouring out abuse year after year.

  In fact, most of the time it appears in public, it is not its true self. Because there are statistics, the number of pirated copies of this book is at least eighteen times that of the genuine version. That is to say, among eighteen fake versions, there may be only one real version. However, even so, they still dont let go, and many newspapers have been fabricating all sorts of "errors" about it, and at the same time, fabricating me as well, making me a fake too. I once wrote an article asking the president of a famous weekly newspaper in the south: "Your newspaper has been fabricating my life story for over twenty years, with such astonishing length, today please tell me, which sentence is true? Just one sentence."

  These media outlets, confident in their power, of course disdain to respond. As a result, year after year, even my friends have been holding onto pirated copies of my book, believing the false accounts of my life, listening to false rumors about me, yet still forgiving me. I myself feel embarrassed to even explain one sentence. Thinking it over and over again, its all because of "Cultural Revolution" that caused the trouble. Therefore, I have always wanted to cut ties with it, no matter what the occasion, I will not mention it.

  It became a masterless scarecrow, an abandoned target for arrows, slanting crookedly in the fields, not even crows or field mice would give it a glance. In the past, there have been numerous essay competitions held domestically that spanned several decades, with many books being selected, but this one was not among them. Some readers had some doubts about this, and I said, of course, it wouldnt be.

  This scene is somewhat similar to the demise of that prodigal son in the notebook.

  However, I faintly heard that outside the house there were some strange sounds, seemingly related to Lángzi. Could it be that Lángzi was up to something? I didnt dare open the door and could only "peek through the crack".

  This glimpse is not without surprise.

  Shanghai readers voted it as the literary book with the greatest influence in the past thirty years.

  The relevant department statistics show that over the years, this is the book that Chinese parents have mailed most often to their children studying abroad.

  It is among the top ten literary books in China over the past decade.

  It is on the top ten list of Chinese books worldwide for the past decade.

  Even Taiwan, with a relatively small number of readers, is celebrating its publication in the hundreds of thousands.

  Scholars even from afar also continuously refuted the mainland literatis vilification of it in local Chinese-language newspapers;

  ……

  It seems that the rogue is not dead and his aura has not disappeared. Just like the rogue in the notes, "covered in scars all over his body, but still physically and mentally strong".

  I stepped back from the door crack, speechless for a long time. Ive wronged you, child!

  When the Eastern Publishing Center, in response to my request, sent the old edition that had been printed for over twenty years to be scrapped and delivered to my office, I felt as if I saw a tired and dirty little servant returning home, and couldnt help but feel a bit choked with emotion.

  I was wrong about you, kid!

  So next, "boiling water for bathing, cooking rice for food, cutting cloth for clothes, and making a bed for rest" are the things I need to take care of.

  After more than twenty years, some things that were originally in my pocket are no longer suitable for the times and should be replaced with something more decent. The strong physique cultivated through hardships should also be shown more confidently. So I made some necessary deletions and additions to the new version of "Cultural Travels", mainly making room for travels around the world and lifes journey.

  Most of the articles in this new edition have already appeared in my large collection "Autumn Rain Collection", so this book can also be seen as a selection of my prose works. There are at least thirty or forty such selections, but this one is slightly different, compiled by myself.

  This reminds me that even now, various pirated versions of this book are still rampant in the market. Ill compile a new version to declare them all illegal, its quite interesting.

  Doing this, Im in a good mood, after all, the wanderer has returned and Im helping to tidy up. From head to toe, Ive taken a few glances and its still satisfactory. Saying "dignified and majestic" isnt excessive either - having suffered so much outside, shouldnt one be entitled to some praise?

  Friends who first read "The Cultural Revolutions Journey" have already grown old, and the many readers who came later should be their sons or grandsons. It is said that the old version became a common topic of conversation for three generations in many Chinese families, so this new version may undertake the same task. Time and words grinding away in an old courtyard is a very warm way for culture to exist. Amidst a thousand desolations, take this as a dream; amidst ten thousand wanderings, take this as homecoming.

  In the autumn night of 2013, Yu Qiuyu wrote this new preface in his hometown.