Exclusive|Serialized novel: Things in the village (1)

Exclusive|Serialized novel: Things in the village (1) Accidentally, the earthen robe is added to the body. I am afraid that the gods will not be kind and the earth will not support me. The most afraid of hearing&…

Afraid of God’s failure

Afraid of the failure of the earth

The most afraid of hearing” what political commissar Cheng said”

Culture is not for showing off

It’s not clear who the class enemy is

Wandering between yin and yang

Confused between red, black and white

Nowadays, when we talk about history, we talk about the secrets of the palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, or about heroes and heroines, killing Japanese pirates, etc. What happened in the past few decades makes people forget it lightly. History is like a little daughter-in-law who is willfully smeared by future generations. Even those who have experienced it doubt the authenticity of her existence. When he was in power, he refused to tell the truth, destroyed evidence, and warned that all secrets about leaving office should be kept in his stomach and not be spread out. Fortunately, ordinary people do not belong to that group, and they still have the opportunity to leave a record of the era of educated youth, filling in the missing people who walked with the magnificent history.

Every era has its pursuits, and there are heroes or bears of different eras. Just like Jack Ma suddenly pops up nowadays, the rare one at that time was Jiao Yulu. My brother is not talented. He worked as a production team leader for several years when he went to the countryside. He has never seen the demolition of houses to force taxes, or the arrogance of having a curettage performed like that of the current township supervisors. He has not been promoted to the party in his turn. Instead, he cried a lot, had a lot of things to do, and smiled to put things in perspective.

Accidentally, the native robe is added to the body

According to convention, it is impossible for a student like me who grew up in the city to become the captain of a rural production team, but who told us that we happened to be born in an era that did not follow conventions.

After a few days of reading the book, all students stopped classes to start a revolution. All universities, middle schools and primary schools across the country stopped attending classes and focused on reading quotations. Later, I realized that it was not a problem for the country to go through such troubles. With a wave of his hand, those who had not read a few books were all sent to the countryside to "receive the re-education of poor and lower-middle peasants." So I became one of those tens of millions, canceled my urban household registration, and went to the Jinggangshan District of Jiangxi Province to work in the countryside.

Jinggangshan was a famous place in China at that time. Although it was not as good as the holy land of Shaoshan, it was after all the place where the current Chinese authorities made their fortune. The Red Army stood firm there for several years by blocking the National Army's attack. So being able to go there and jump in the queue to go to the countryside felt a bit like a fairy. Writing letters and chatting with my classmates seemed to give me a little more confidence. Although my team was at the foot of the mountain, I heard that every family on the mountain was a martyred soldier (who joined the Red Army and died in battle), so I still felt admiration and piety. Therefore, even though I am a city student, I still work hard and do not want to lose to the farmers. Over the past few years, I have learned all kinds of farm work, including work on the mountains (there are mountains on all sides, and my ancestors planted Camellia oleifera trees in the barren hills). But in rural areas, to make farmers look at them differently, they must be strong and precise. To give a few examples:

The most important thing in farm work is strength. There are two types of strength. One is endurance. Although it is not heavy or difficult, if you persist for a long time, it depends on whether you have enough concentration. All the friends and farmers can do this. Although you don't like it but you have no choice but to do it, the force is greater, forcing you to cultivate it with determination; the other is to bear gravity, which requires enough physical strength and will. There is a young man in the village who is very powerful and has a big mouth. He is called "Big Mouth". He is young and vigorous. He behaves in front of us educated youths all day long. Once when I went to work to pick up dung from the cattle pen and carried it from the cattle pen to the field, my mouth was raised to the sky, laughing at the educated youth's lack of strength. Although my manpower was not strong at that time, I still had some energy, so I answered the challenge and weighed two three-hundred-jin burdens and carried them to the fields one by one. As a result, one person weighed about 250 pounds, walked a few steps crookedly with a wide mouth, and fell down. He lost his previous arrogance and just panted and squinted at me for making a fool of himself. Seeing that my opponent had fallen, I gained a little more confidence. As a result, I increased my load to 290 kilograms and sent it to the field in one go. Although the burden was so heavy that my eyes were almost exposed, from then on, the fellow farmers no longer dared to ignore us. I also secretly felt proud of "being able to stand at the top and see all the mountains and small mountains at a glance."

In addition, the work in hand must be done meticulously and convincingly. The place where we jumped in line had a lot of rain and rice had always been grown, so plowing, transplanting and cutting rice were all routine farm work. It's a bit difficult to do it at first, but if you do it for a long time, the memory you developed while playing there will become the ability to beat the others. For example, plowing a field means turning the soil into water and smoothing it out so that people can plant rice. In fact, it is a bit like playing in mud and running water when you were young. The feeling of being alive comes over, and the dirt nook becomes like a mirror of water. There is also a more detailed method of sowing seeds and raising seedlings. Generally, only senior farmers are treated like this. They sow seeds and grains on a rice field that is even more watery than a mirror and wait for the seedlings to be born. The old farmer was careful and treated the rice fields as if they were his own daughters, making the roots look like hibiscus. But there are also times when the hand fails. One day the wind and sand are too strong and the sense of control in the hand is lost. When the seedling is born, it is like thin hair and dysentery, which makes the woman who pulls the seedlings complain endlessly. But from our point of view, it is just like spreading sand on the lake in the park when we were young. The sand splashes and the water splashes all the way over. So I said all my good words and asked the old land to let a novice like me do it for a while. Because I had the experience of being naughty and playful as a child, I spread the grain in a cool and stylish manner, and was praised by the old people. Since then, with the support of old farmers, young adults have also appeared in this most delicate work.

However, transplanting rice is my shortcoming, which is also related to my childhood experience. My parents were good teachers and always taught us not to juggle and neglect our studies. Therefore, the brothers played cards and dealt cards like Liu Qian, and bent down to plant rice like a chicken pecking at rice. I, who couldn't deal with cards, had to be pulled down or locked in the middle when we were planting rice seedlings side by side, sweating and muddy, without any friends. Fortunately, the peasants judge people based on their strength and do not judge heroes based on success or failure, so they are not discriminated against. At that time, my back was extremely sore, especially on the left side, and I had to hold my knees to hold on. Watching the girls hip-hop passing by like a gust of wind, I often blamed myself for a long time for lack of exercise. Later, when I went to the United States for a physical examination, the doctor was shocked. He said that in his many years of medical practice, he had never seen a person with strong muscles on the right side of the lumbar spine, but no muscles at all on the left side. He asked why. No wonder my left waist is always sore and I can't keep up with others when planting rice. Why, can you explain it clearly to me? After ten years of shouldering the burden, my muscles have grown to one side. I'm afraid they haven't even seen the burden.

Although farmers are sometimes stingy, the ancient custom of helping others and showing loyalty is still deep in their hearts. This brings us back to the broad-mouthed brothers in front of us. This brother showed off his strength, but he was often laughed at by his fellow farmers for not being good at handwork. Moreover, this brother is unsteady on his feet. He probably has splayed feet. He will trip over himself when he walks for no reason. His feet are too messy. That year when I went to carry wood on the mountain, a group of young and middle-aged people all went together, except Brother Kuozui, who had no one to accompany him. Because tree carrying is not only a physical job, but also a careful job. Usually two people carry a piece of wood. The person in front carries the big head, and the person behind has to carry it closer to the middle of the tree to reduce the weight of the person in front. When walking on a winding mountain road, the people behind you have greater responsibilities. In addition to seeing the road ahead clearly, you must also consider whether the tree tails you carry on your shoulders will hang on the rock wall. Otherwise, even the man and the tree will end up at the bottom of the ditch, and the danger will be great. No one likes the company of this messy guy.

I am a novice and have no one to accompany me, so I finally paired it with Kuo Zui. This broad-mouthed man really deserves his reputation, and he is very serious. I can see the sweat on his back from behind, but I cannot praise him for his footwork. Not only did he not dare to compliment him, but he was frightened to see Kuozui dancing at his feet. In Shanghai dialect, it is often said that the foot bones play the pipa, which is probably the state of play. You know, we were carrying the same piece of wood on our shoulders at that time, and any mistake would lead to life and death for both of us.

But whatever you are afraid of will come. When crossing a ravine, Kuozui's feet were not just playing the pipa, but the guzheng. There are no roads in the mountains. If you can cross the thorns with a machete, you can cross it. When you encounter a mountain stream, you can knock down a few small trees side by side and still tremble, which is a bridge. Crossing this bridge also requires skill. You have to step on two trees with your feet horizontally before you dare to exert force. Kuozui had such courage. He dared to use force even before the outer horoscope was crossed. He stepped on it and the whole person and the wood on his shoulders fell between the two trees. Only Kuozui's head and the wood on his shoulders were left on the bridge.

Have you ever forgotten that the person on the other end of this tree is me who has not yet crossed the bridge? If I couldn't withstand the powerful shock and lost the wood, I would be safe. Although I was blameless, the career of Brother Broadmouth might have ended due to the wood bouncing back again. I held on tightly to keep the tree from falling off my shoulders, and let my friends who came after hearing the sound rescue Kuozui. The wide mouth stretched out even wider in fear, and it didn't close for a long time.

In this way, when I elected the captain in the future, the villagers chose me. In addition to my strength and skills, one of them brought up this topic and said that I had responsibility, which in today's terms means responsibility.

However, being chosen as the captain was also accidental. Historically, it has not always been possible to become an official in China. Every era has to follow its own procedures. For example, even if people in ancient times had a lot of knowledge, they still had to conduct imperial examination selection, starting with scholars. But at that time, I don’t know what kind of wind came, and it was said that the people in the village could elect the captain by themselves. In today’s terms, it was popular election. If you have the old man's official background, you can join the party and the league, and you can also sit in the position of secretary of the brigade. I have no background, and I am not a party member. Even if I have all kinds of thoughts in my heart, I never dare to have such extravagant hopes. But this small village with more than 20 households and a population of more than 100 is a different kind. Although it has the same surname as Wu, it has many things to do. If you don’t obey me, I won’t obey you. As a result, at the election meeting, an educated youth like me won the most votes and became the captain.

If a good city student doesn't go to school, becoming a team captain in the countryside doesn't rely on knowledge. It seems to be the most incredible now. But it all happened like this. When I was in it, I could only feel flattered, instead of having the doubts I have today. (To be continued)

About the author

Shang Huiming, currently living in Tucson, Arizona, was born in Shanghai and went to the countryside in the Jinggangshan area of ​​Jiangxi, China from 1968 to 1978. After resuming the college entrance examination, he entered East China Normal University to study. After graduation, he worked in schools and publishing houses. He was the editor of the Chinese Dictionary, edited "My Name is China" and "Shanghai Life Yearbook", and published dozens of professional papers and millions of words of articles.