Zhang San sat on the small stone bench in front of his house, looking at the continuous fields not far away, his eyes were a little distracted. It was early summer, and the waves of wheat were rolling, and the golden ears were gently swaying in the breeze. Zhang San took a deep breath of the aroma of the soil in the field, and a long-lost warmth welled up in his heart. 
This warmth brought Zhang San's thoughts back to his childhood. At that time, Zhang San was still a childish little boy, living in this small mountain village that has now become dilapidated. At that time, the village had not yet implemented the household contract system, and all land and resources were collectively owned. Every family is required to participate in collective labor according to their duty, and everyone eats a simple but hot pot of rice provided by the village public canteen. 
Zhang San still remembers the scene of himself following his parents to the collective field every morning. The smell of earth in the fields and the smell of sweat from his parents still haunt his memory. When eating in the canteen at noon, the villagers were lively, talking and laughing, and the scene was warm and beautiful. Everyone has access to basic old-age security, and there is a special nursing home in the village for the elderly with limited mobility. Although the old people lived a simple material life, they never worried about hunger and cold. 
Zhang San couldn't help but sigh that in that simple era of collective economy, everyone was like a big family. Now that I think about it, that time was so pure and warm. When Zhang San fell into the memories of the collective economic era, a noisy sound came from not far away, pulling his thoughts back to reality. It turned out that a few young people who had gone out to work went back to the village to visit relatives, driving brand-new motorcycles and whistling past, kicking up dust all the way. 
Zhang San took a closer look, only to find that the village had long been unrecognizable. In the old days of collective economy, there were only dirt roads and simple bungalows in the village. Nowadays, many families have built two- or three-story tiled houses, and every household has a TV, refrigerator, washing machine and other electrical appliances. It all stems from the reform of the household contract system more than two decades ago. 
After the reform and opening up, the state decided to implement the household contract system, and the collective land was allocated to each family for operation. Zhang San's family got 5 acres of thin fields, although it was not much, but they overcame many difficulties, worked tirelessly to cultivate and plant, and their lives gradually became more comfortable. Many people in the village are like Zhang San's family, starting a business on their own small piece of land, and the village economy has developed rapidly. However, this reform also gradually changed the relationship between the villagers. In the past, everyone worked collectively, but now each family toils in their own fields, and they are drifting away from each other. What saddened Zhang San the most was that the nursing home in the village was abandoned because no one took care of it, and many elderly people had no children or children to go out to work, so they could only live in dilapidated thatched huts, living a difficult and depressed life. 
Zhang San couldn't help but sigh that the household contract system has undoubtedly liberated the productive forces, but it has also changed the traditional collective welfare relationship. The situation of many elderly people who have been abandoned in this transition is poignant. Zhang San's parents are the victims of this change. As the only child in the family, Zhang San shouldered the heavy responsibility of taking care of his parents. Zhang San's father was over the age of six, and his mother also suffered from back disease and had difficulty moving. Zhang San finished his farm work during the day, and at night he went to his parents' residence with food and carefully served them to eat and bathe. His parents are old, short-tempered, and often unreasonable, but Zhang San always gritted his teeth and endured. 
In order to make more money ** The illness of his parents was that Zhang San went to the county seat to work as a construction worker, working the construction site during the day, and dragging his tired body home to take care of his parents at night. He watched his father's gray hair grow more and more, and his mother's calluses became thicker and thicker, and he felt guilty and distressed. Until one day, Zhang San received a family member** and said that his father had died of a sudden cerebral hemorrhage. When Zhang San hurried home, his father had already lost his breath. Later, my mother also passed away in loneliness and grief. Zhang San cried bitterly, and he sent away the most beloved person in his life. 
After his parents passed away one after another, Zhang San lived alone in this deserted mountain village. In order for his son and daughter-in-law to work in the county, he took on the task of farm work and taking care of his grandchildren alone. What Zhang San remembers most clearly is the busy farming season in the year when his parents died. At that time, he was alone, busy working in the hot weather. Pushing the hard plough to dig a ditch in the field, covered in sweat, his hands blistered large and small. At night, I ate a cold meal alone, fell asleep, and continued to get up early the next day to work in the fields. 
Such days went on all summer. Zhang San felt that time had passed extraordinarily long. When the wheat was harvesting, he was alone with the heavy sheaves of wheat, bending over, standing up, and bending over. His back hurts, but he knows that there is no one who can replace him. Year after year, Zhang San's hair became grayer and grayer, and the wrinkles were as deep as the ravines in the field. He began to feel powerless, but the development of science and technology was too fast, and he was an old peasant with low education who could not keep up with the pace of the new era. This made him feel abandoned by this era, and he was very lonely and melancholy in his heart. In Zhang San's eyes, the idyllic scenery of the small mountain village has gradually lost its joy and beauty. 
Whenever Zhang San sprinkled pesticides and insects alone, bent down to pick up stones in the ground, he always felt that time passed extraordinarily long. The sun was shining on my body, and sweat soaked through my clothes. Every time you finish a bunch, you have to stop to take a breath and rub your sore back. When it was harvest season, Zhang San had to be alone in the fields. With a sickle in hand, he cut the ripe crops over and over again, and then tied them into bundles. As I bent over and straightened up, I heard a creaking sound from my spine. Even if he was dizzy, he didn't dare to stop, for fear that a sudden wind and rain would destroy all the crops.
After labor, Zhang San ate a cold meal alone. Looking at the empty house, I thought of my son and daughter-in-law, and my parents, and I felt an inexplicable sadness and sadness in my heart. The harvest in the fields is also far from enough to pay the insurance premiums. Zhang San regretted why he didn't save more money and pay some pension insurance when he was young. Now that I'm old, my bones are about to fall apart, and it's too late to think about my pension problem. One day, Zhang San had a whim and went to see the former nursing home alone.
The nursing home was in a dilapidated state, with peeling walls, glassless windows and overgrown weeds. Zhang San stood in front of the courtyard gate, the courtyard full of laughter in his memory was now empty, only the sound of the wind whirring between the broken walls. He remembers that when he was a child, the courtyard was always bustling. The old people sat in the sun chatting, playing chess, and singing, and the scene was warm and happy. Now that they are all in ruins, Zhang San can't help but redden. Thinking about it, if it was still the era of collective economy, the issue of self-pension would not be so unresolved. Compared with the current situation, Zhang San couldn't help but sigh that in that era of collective economy, people were stronger than Jin, but now they are quietly separated.
Although the land is allocated to individual management, small farmers like Zhang San can hardly achieve prosperity by relying on those few acres of land. Zhang San knows that he is destined to be a small farmer in this life, and he has to rely on self-cultivation to make a living. But there is so little land that the annual harvest is only enough to feed and clothe. With chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the crops planted have to be sold to the market, and the money earned is not enough to buy agricultural materials for the next season. Zhang San also thought about raising a few pigs and chickens, but when the pig disease and chicken plague broke out, he often lost all his money. It's hard to sustain a small business, let alone build wealth. If you want to get rich, you don't have the technology, you don't have the capital, it's just a fantasy.
What's more, this kind of small-scale peasant economy can't solve Zhang San's pension problem at all. With the income of his few acres of land, he can't pay the pension insurance at all, let alone support an old man. Looking at those in neighboring villages who made money by planting greenhouses and breeding farms, Zhang San was very envious. But he didn't have that kind of money and ability, so he could only spend his old age in this shabby hut. Zhang San understands that if we want to truly change the face of the countryside, we must have the support policies of the state. To solve the problem of providing for the elderly of hundreds of millions of peasants, it is powerless to rely on individuals alone. But the problems of this society seem to be out of reach, and Zhang San, as an ordinary person, can only reluctantly accept the reality.