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Gu Xiaoxin finally decided to set off and went alone to the Alsace mountain jungle to search for the Maginot Line. In order to complete her master's thesis "World War II and the French Battlefield", Gu Xiaoxin has already visited Normandy, Dunkirk and Toulon Military Port. As for the Maginot Line, the world-famous underground military wall, French professors from the History Department of the University of Lyon 2 can tell its ins and outs, but no one has seen it with their own eyes. Just like the devout believers who walk into the church, everyone is convinced that God exists, but has anyone seen it?

As soon as the first ray of sunlight in the morning passed through the window in the south corner of the library, Professor Xin Jianye sat down at his desk, opened the address book of the faculty and staff of the Chinese Department, and prepared to make a call. Mrs. Xin followed her husband into the study, served freshly brewed green tea, and closed the address book casually: "Why are you calling so early in the morning? Maybe he Zhu Nongren hasn't gotten up yet. You have to stay calm for big things, otherwise people will think you don't have confidence in your son's thesis." The professor took a sip of tea and let out a long sigh: "Well, when Chao'er passes the defense of his doctoral thesis and gets a teaching position in a university, I really should retire. I am already 61, and my energy and physical strength are no longer up to it. I sit in a meeting with the young teachers in the department, and I look like my father. I am too embarrassed to continue."

The School of Languages ​​at University F lost three young female teachers in the past two years. The word "run away" has a specific meaning in language schools, that is, taking advantage of the public study or work opportunity to go abroad and never return, and staying abroad without returning. These three female teachers were all single and were sent to the "Confucius Institute" in the United States to teach Chinese. One of them did not want to come back after her job expired, and sent back a resignation application to say goodbye to F University. The latter two successors were even more unique. They wrote their resignation letters before leaving, and each sent an express mail to Pudong Airport. By the time the college leaders received the express letters, they had already set foot on the soil of the United States. If we go back twenty years, the behavior of these young female teachers seems easy to understand, because in those days, the word "poor" could explain many stories that were similar to this plot.

"Shanghai Polka at Night" consists of 7 novellas. These novels are mainly supported and constructed by two clues: one is the Chinese people going abroad under the call of the "overseas dream" and their life experiences in a foreign country; the other is the magical urban life in Shanghai. These two clues are sometimes cleverly intertwined, creating a certain tension and "quasi-intertextual" effect between the texts. In this collection of novels, the Chinese people's "overseas dream" is not beautiful. They suffer from the difficulties of survival in a foreign land and even encounter ruthless reality. In the end, they have no choice but to return to their motherland. In the mirror image of Shanghai, the city's endless prosperity and splendor are also wrapped up in the various aspects of the world and the ups and downs of people. There are both indifference and isolation, but also warmth and integration, just like a tango dance reaching its peak, infinite excitement and various scenery. In contemporary China, where local traditions are deeply rooted, it is not easy to tell an urban story well, because, to a certain extent, we are all "foreigners" and "foreigners" involuntarily. However, Chinese cities in the past ten years of the new century have epitomized the huge fission of the entire era. Depicting urban life and revealing human existence is the literary pursuit and potential mission of the "Stranger Novels" book series. The first five volumes focus on the concentrated and topical phenomena of current urban life, such as houses, marriage, education, medical care, academic chaos, support or not, demolition compensation, etc., Showing the "explosion and cracking" in the depths of the times. This is not only a set of contemporary ukiyo-e, but also a "history of the soul" under the tip of the pen.

Professor Gu Youjin's 55th birthday party was held at the "Louwailou" restaurant by the West Lake in Hangzhou. There were six round tables. In addition to colleagues from the teaching and research office and departments, there were more than a dozen master's students he had taught at the local business school in the past six years. Many years ago, Professor Gu was already a doctoral supervisor when he was teaching at Shanghai F University. After he was transferred to Hangzhou, the business school where he worked was unable to apply for a doctoral program, so Professor Gu had to be downgraded to a master's degree supervisor. It is really aggrieved to think about it. Now he's better. After six years in prison, his employment contract with the business school is about to expire, and Professor Gu is about to return to freedom. This birthday banquet was also regarded by Professor Gu and his wife as a farewell party with colleagues and students. The round table had already been filled with food and wine, but no one heard the host's order to open the table. Professor Gu and his wife took turns to look at the door. It seemed that there were still important guests who had not arrived.