Chapter 29
That should be in the winter of 1969, the slack season. One day at noon, Zhang's father and his educated youth partner Chen Jinguo were walking home for dinner, and the two were still discussing organizing the educated youth who had nothing to do to dig a fish pond. When passing by a large haystack at the entrance of the village, Chen Jinguo suddenly ran towards the haystack.
A stranger leaned weakly on the haystack, with his hair like a bird's nest, his clothes were covered in dust, and his torso looked increasingly thinner in the winter. He held a broken bowl tightly in his hand, lowered his head, expressionless. Seeing the passing villagers passing by him, his mouth began to open and close hard, stammering something, then leaning back weakly, obviously in a state of coma.
Daddy Zhang and Chen Jinguo quickly stepped forward and helped him sit down. After feeding two salivas, he understood a word from his vague accent: "Hungry!"
The people in that era were still relatively simple. Although they could not be righteous, were eager to be righteous, and were kind and generous, but when people were in trouble, there would always be people standing up.
When Chen Jinguo heard that the beggar was hungry, he immediately told him loudly: "Go to my house, I'll give you food!"
Hearing that there was something to eat, the beggar's eyes lit up, and he instantly felt a little energy.
Zhang's father asked Chen Jinguo: "Did you cook at home?"
Chen Jinguo was stunned and scratched his head, "Not yet!"
Zhang's father said: "Take him there, my food at home is hot on the stove. Come, let's help!" In this way, the three of them arrived where Zhang's father lived.
At noon that day, Chen Jinguo and Zhang's father, who usually eat good food, only ate one bowl by themselves, and the remaining pot of rice was eaten by the beggar.
After eating, the beggar bowed deeply at them, took his broken bowl to the door and sat down quietly, without any intention of leaving.
However, Zhang's father and Chen Jinguo didn't care about him at that time, and they began to discuss the fish pond they were digging again. In the afternoon, Zhang's father, Chen Jinguo and the educated youth who had made an appointment came together. When they walked to the fish pond to start working, the beggar also came. Looking at everyone's various ways of digging ponds, the beggar slaps Zhang's father: "Brother, you're doing something wrong!"
Zhang's father looked at him and was surprised: "You can dig a fish pond?"
Beggar nodded: "I dug at home!" After that, he took a shovel and arrived at the place where the pond was dug. It was indeed a good and stylish hand-held.
While resting in the middle, Dad Zhang thought for a while and said to the beggar, "Otherwise, don't leave. I'll help us dig a fish pond here first. I'll take care of your meals. You'll sleep here at night!"
Beggar happily agreed. Dad Zhang went back and took his own soap towel and changed his clothes, and took the beggar to take a shower. In the following days, they worked together during the day and sat in Zhang’s house at night, chatting with many educated youth.
During that time, from his accent description, everyone knew that the beggar's name was Chen Mu, who was two years younger than Zhang's father. His home is in the direction of Changfeng Yijing, which should be close to Shouxian , Huainan. They lived a hard life in those years, and there was not enough food for a year. In order to survive, a custom gradually formed later. During the slack season, the whole village went out to beg for food, with people ranging from east, west, south and north to east.
However, in that era, beggars were indeed begging for their meals when they went out. In the 1970s and 1980s, Zhang Bulun would see some of them every year before the Spring Festival when he was a child.Some were dragging the children, some were ragged and alone, trembling at the door of the house, bent down and raised the bowl, and leftovers were fine, and rice was fine without cooking. If you didn't get a meal at home, you could give me two coins. After begging for a while, I thanked me again and again, and never picked it.
Zhang Bulun went to Hefei Pedestrian Street in the late 1990s and met a beggar. He happened to have a 50 cents coin on his body that day, so he put it in his bowl. The beggar looked at it and looked up and told Zhang Bulun: "Brother, there is no one for 50 cents now, at least one piece!"
In the 20th century, once when Zhang Bulun came back from a business trip, a beggar came. Zhang Bulun touched his pocket and regretfully told him that he had no change. As a result, the beggar took out a QR code on the spot and told Zhang Bulun that he could scan the code to pay, which made Zhang Bulun very happy.
But these are all things that happened later.
On those days, Chen Mu and Zhang’s father, those educated youth, worked together and lived together. After about a month, the fish pond was dug. One day, Chen Mu suddenly solemnly offered his farewell to Zhang's father.
Chen Mu told Zhang's father that when he came out to beg for food this time, his mother and his sister were walking in another direction, and he wanted to go find them quickly. After hearing Chen Mu's words, Zhang's father stopped staying with him and returned to the house and took a lot of dry food and stuffed it to him.
Before leaving, Chen Mu held Zhang's hand and cried: "Brother, as long as I am still alive, I will definitely come back to see you!"
However, not long after, Zhang's father returned to the city and entered the factory, and Chen Mu has never heard of him since then.
The one who called Zhang's father at noon that day was Chen Mu. In his intermittent description on the phone, he also mentioned a difficult search experience in the next few decades.
Chen Mu found his mother and sister after leaving, but later her sister encountered a car accident and died a year later. His mother couldn't accept it for a while, and soon became bedridden by illness and passed away a few years later. After cooking, Chen Mu finally took a breath and remembered his promise and began his first search according to the original beggar road he remembered. Unfortunately, there was no navigation, no Baidu, only a general direction, and the villages along the way were slowly changing, and he finally returned disappointed.
Later, life got better day by day. Chen Mu's family had his own Taoyuan and his own fish pond. However, before the Chinese New Year every year, he would go to Mei Chong and walk along the villages for a few days, asking all the way, and returning repeatedly. Only once, I met a few memories of the villagers told him that all the educated youth in the village had returned to the city. In the end, even he gave up himself.
Another twenty years have passed, and Yoshii has become a famous cherry blossom town in Changfeng . The old Chen Mu still can't forget the fish pond and the educated youth from that time. So he asked his son to drive the car and began searching for villages one after another based on his memory.
Finally one day, he asked in front of a villager's home: "Brother, do you still remember an educated youth back then? I dug a fish pond here, and I lived in his house for more than a month?" The villagers thought for a long time and suddenly realized: "The educated youth you said was Zhang, right? I know, he is my cousin!"
Chen Mu nodded excitedly, asked for the number, and at the moment he connected, he burst into tears.
Chapter 30
On the phone, Chen Mu repeatedly invited Dad Zhang to stay in Sakura Town for a few days, and Dad Zhang agreed.
In Zhang Bulun's impression, his father was such a enthusiastic and generous person, so he made many friends in his life, including old and young, and Zhang Bulun knew both. Therefore, in many years since childhood, Zhang Bulun’s family encountered some things that needed to seek help at each stage, and someone always reached out to take the initiative to help.
For example, Zhang Bulun’s grandparents’ grandparents’ home needs to contact the drilling team and equipment. For example, Captain Jin held a banquet on the wedding day and needed to invite some skilled chefs to their homes. For example, later, he found a relationship and transferred the Zhang Bulun’s brothers to the city to go to school, etc., all of which were arranged by Zhang’s father.
However, as for Zhang's young father, what made him like to talk about with his two sons more was the fact that he fought against the sky and the earth when he was an educated youth.
The place where Zhang Dad was handed over is located in Hangbuhe Irrigation District, Qingshihang Project, and every village is equipped with large irrigation canals. When the village irrigation canal reaches the intersection of the road, a large cement culvert will be buried underground. On weekdays, there are trickles of water underground, and people come and go on the ground without interrupting each other.
One year, heavy rain fell for several days and the river water surged. Many dead grass floated down from the upstream, and at first, everyone didn't take it seriously. However, as the dead grass accumulates more and more, people gradually realized something was wrong. The dead grass with the mud swept down. After the impact of the water flow, the culvert opening was quickly completely blocked. After the water flowed east and west, it could not find a way out, and quickly rushed towards the village.
hurried to the irrigation canal and the educated youth, father Zhang and others, were in a hurry and helpless for a moment. The surroundings of the culvert were sealed tightly, and many methods were used. Everyone was digging and raising the tools in their hands, and the dead grass did not move at all, without any use. If we say that the grassroots cadres at that time had practical experience, the production team leader quickly shouted: "A few people need to go down, a few people need to go down, and pull the grass out little by little!" As soon as the chapter of
was finished, Chen Jinlong and Zhang's father jumped without thinking. In this way, someone took out the grass bunches from below, and someone took tools on it to cooperate. Slowly, a small opening finally appeared and began to expand little by little.
Next, a tragedy happened. Suddenly, the water flow in the leaking space was found, and it surged out with strong inertia and suction. Dad Zhang was so scared that he subconsciously hugged the upper side of the culvert tightly. Although the rushing water made his back hurt and his head was blank. Fortunately, he was successfully pulled ashore by the villagers.
However, everyone suddenly discovered that Chen Jinguo was missing.
Everyone was panicked. The water flow in the culvert was turbulent and it would definitely not be in the culvert. So, everyone accompanied him all the way, shouting Chen Jinguo's name loudly, and searching along the downstream of the irrigation canal.
just shouted like this, searching for it for more than half an hour, but it still disappeared without a trace, and life and death were unknown. There were tears in the team of
. I wiped my tears and started to keep muttering Chen Jinguo's good things, saying that you shouldn't have left so early! Everyone was a little sad.
suddenly, a black and smelly black ghost jumped up from a small ditch with deep mud in the irrigation canal. He swayed, bared his mouth and cursed: "Captain! You are not a fucking thing! I was almost killed by your bad idea! If you don't give some compensation, I will kill you today!"
slapped for a long time. The production team leader was so angry that he was overjoyed. He didn't care whether it was dirty or not, and hugged him: "I will not only compensate me, but also reward you with dozens of work points. If you want to go home recently, you will get the work points directly, and you don't have to ask for leave!"
The next day, Chen Jinguo returned to Hefei. He always looked proud when he came back after taking leave. He would compare himself with Wang Jie Ouyang Haisheng and others when he saw people.
Later, every time Zhang Bulun thinks of this story, he also remembers when he just went to work in the 1990s, he would rather not have the bonus than pay the blocked dirty and smelly gutter in the unit. For this reason, he almost fought with the leader who forced him.
Perhaps, this is the so-called generation gap between generations.
Brother Zhang and Zhang Bulun will often talk about their grandparents’ old stories.
Grandpa and grandma Zhang raised a total of seven children, and the second child died when he was very young. Zhang's father is at home for five, with three sisters on top and younger brothers on bottom. As the eldest son of the family, Zhang's father recalled that he was still favored when he was a child.
Before Grandpa Zhang went to Hefei to work in the factory, in the 1930s and 1940s, he was a famous tailor in his hometown, and he also had a nickname "The Eagle Gun Tailor". With all the skills, I traveled from village to village to households to earn some hard money, so that the family could live a life where although they were not rich, they would not have to worry about food and clothing. For a while, it seemed that he had done something for the New Fourth Army with his skills. However, after the matter was completed, because he was worried about his wife and children at home, he said goodbye to the chief of the army and resolutely declined the chief of the army's good intention to let him participate in the revolutionary work. From then on, the Zhang Bulun lost an opportunity to become a high-ranking official.
In his later years, Grandpa Zhang no longer worked as a tailor. Sometimes he would stay at Zhang Bulun's house for a few days. Grandpa Zhang, who is in his seventies, would retrieve some useless hard plastic braided belts from the workshop, and then cut them open with scissors, put them in a classified manner, and sit on the balcony every day to weave baskets, and often several can weave them a day. The basket is sturdy and practical, and the color combination is very beautiful. For a time, neighbors and workers in the factory were rushing to ask for it. However, Grandpa Zhang only gave it to him, not to sell it. He compiled it one by one according to the order of everyone's registration.
Zhang Bulun has never seen his grandmother since he was a child, because Grandma Zhang unfortunately died of work injuries in the first few years of his birth.
However, from his father's mouth, he still knew a lot about grandma. So in Zhang Bulun’s impression, grandma seems to be a very magical person.
Grandma Zhang met a Taoist nun in the village when she was young. When she saw it, she was very close to her, so the Taoist nun lived in the village and taught her for a while. What
teaches is no longer verified, but Grandma Zhang became a majiao when she became an adult. In the early years, in Hefei dialect, people who know some magic skills, both men and women were called Majiao. If a doctor at home cannot see a major disease or a minor disaster or encounter some strange things that cannot be solved, they often invited Majiao to their homes to solve the problem. Is it feudal superstition aside for the time being? However, according to the memories of some elders in my hometown, Grandma Zhang seems to be quite powerful in Taoism, and she has done a few good things for her neighbors and is very famous in several surrounding villages.
Later, Zhang Bulun read a bunch of messy books, pretending to be weird and magical gods and ghosts. Sometimes when I think of a few stories about Grandma Zhang said about Dad Zhang, an idea suddenly pops up in my mind, Maoshan Technique.
