The sound of firecrackers bids farewell to the old year, and the dragon travels to celebrate the New Year! At this moment of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, the last Spring Festival spent in northern Shaanxi was like a movie, and it clearly appeared in my mind.
I left Beijing in mid-January 1969 to settle in northern Shaanxi, when our educated youth in Haidian District were assigned to Yanchuan County, and nine of our classmates were assigned to the second production team of the Fangjiagou Brigade.
The second team of Fangjiagou is located on the north slope of a flood ditch, and more than 20 families are scattered on the slope of the ditch, like a flock of sheep running away. The low and dilapidated earthen cave tells the poverty and backwardness of Fangjiagou, and also makes the educated youth from Beijing feel sad, Fangjiagou is really too poor.
At that time, the life of the villagers was very hard, and we ate pie rice at the villagers' house, and we could eat one meal of stewed sauerkraut with artichoke a day, and pickles in the morning and evening. We educated youths eat three meals a day, and fellow villagers eat two meals a day. We ate dumplings mixed with cornmeal and sorghum flour (like a nest, but there was no nest at the bottom), and the villagers ate vegetable dumplings in every family.
After eating the first round of pie rice at the villager's house, it is almost the New Year. On Chinese New Year's Eve, I ate a pie meal at Captain Zhang's house. White bun and pork stewed sauerkraut for breakfast, potato stuffed dumplings for lunch. The dinner was more sumptuous, with fried oil cakes, stewed meat, tofu noodles, and Captain Zhang also asked me to accompany him to drink a cup of soju. After coming to northern Shaanxi for nearly a month, we finally ate white flour steamed buns and pork.
After the Spring Festival, I learned that Captain Zhang's family steamed a total of more than a dozen white flour buns, cut two catties of pork, and fried oil cakes were also for the sake of the ancestors.
After the Spring Festival, we still eat black dough and pickles, and the villagers still eat vegetable dumplings. We feel that life in the rural areas of northern Shaanxi is very hard, but we have never heard a word of complaint from the villagers in northern Shaanxi. Captain Zhang often said that as long as you can eat a full stomach, you will not be called suffering.
After the spring plowing and preparation production began, the first time I went to the mountain to pick up dung, I walked less than half the way, I was a little overwhelmed, carrying two baskets full of cow and sheep dung swaying left and right, feeling like walking a tightrope. When I went up the slope, I slipped and fell on the slope, and the basket of dung behind me was scattered on the slope.
Captain Zhang, who was walking behind me, quickly put down his burden and stepped forward to help me up, seeing that I was fine, he was relieved. Captain Zhang used both hands to hold the cow and sheep dung I scattered on the ground into the basket little by little, and the remaining bit into his basket, and then held the cow and sheep dung in the basket in front of me into his basket two big handfuls, and then said to me: "Next time, pick a little less, you can't walk too fast, your strength must be even, and the mountain road in front of you is difficult to walk." ”
I had to walk the five-mile mountain road to pick up dung, and I rested several times along the way, but I was still tired and panting, and I was sweating profusely. After picking dung for a few days, I understood the profound meaning of the phrase "there is no light load on the long road", and I also understood why the members of the club picked up dung unhurriedly and slowly. Carrying a burden of nearly 100 catties and walking five miles of hillside roads, it is really tiring. Only by holding your feet steady can you take it easy.
After more than three years of labor training, we have basically tasted all the hardships of the peasants in northern Shaanxi, and have learned to do all kinds of farm work. After more than three years of settling down in northern Shaanxi, our biggest change is that our bodies are stronger, our tanning is rough, and our dressing is similar to that of our fellow villagers in northern Shaanxi.
We have gradually adapted to the hardships of labor, but it is still difficult for us to adapt to the hardships of life in northern Shaanxi. At that time, it was the time to grow the body, and I couldn't eat meat a few times a year, and the stewed vegetables on weekdays were basically boiled vegetables, and there was hardly a single oil flower in the vegetable soup. At that time, I was looking forward to the New Year, just to eat a few meals of white bread and two meals of meat. There is always no oil and water in the stomach, we can't stand it, and the gluttonous worms in the stomach will also have opinions.
At that time, not only our Beijing educated youth were looking forward to the New Year, but also the villagers in northern Shaanxi were looking forward to the New Year, even if the family was poor, that Chinese New Year's Eve meal was indispensable, in addition to eating white buns and meat, they could also rest beautifully for a few days. In the days after the year, even before the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the team did not arrange farm work, and the villagers did not go up to the mountains to collect firewood. In the words of Captain Zhang, after a year of hard work, that is, in the few days after the New Year, they visited each other's relatives, one is to deepen family and friendship, and the other is to have a good meal. The most bitter are the mothers-in-law, relatives come to the house, they are busy cooking, when eating, they can't go to the table, the relatives finish eating and leave, there are leftovers, they eat a bite, there is no leftovers, they can only eat pickles.
In the spring of 1973, the superiors had a document stating that factories and mining enterprises should give priority to recruiting workers among the educated youth. I didn't want to go to the coal mine as a worker, so I gave up the opportunity to recruit workers, which made Ma Wenwu, the secretary of the brigade, unhappy.
In the spring of the following year, the county wanted to send a propaganda cadre from our Beijing educated youth, because I was a high school student, and Secretary Ma gave me this opportunity again. I participated in the cultural class assessment and physical examination arranged by the county, and I passed both of them, but I failed the political examination. The letter sent by the county was quickly replied to, and my father was suspended in the spring of 1971 because of the route.
After the recruitment of workers, even if Secretary Ma recommended me, I would not dare to rashly occupy the recruitment quota. I failed to pass the political examination in recruiting propaganda cadres in the county that time, and I was blind to a recruitment index, not only Secretary Ma and his classmates felt a pity, but I also felt a pity myself, causing other students to lose an opportunity to work in the county.
In the summer of 1977, I was alone in the Beijing educated youth who settled in the second team of Fangjiagou, and the last three educated youths of the educated youth point, one girl went through the procedures for sick retirement and returned to Beijing for physical reasons, and the boy on the other side went to the coal mine as a worker, because my parents did not agree with me to be a worker in the coal mine, and I didn't want to be a coal miner, so in the end I was left alone in the second team of Fangjiagou. Afraid that I would be lonely and lost, Captain Zhang often came to the educated youth to talk to me, and comforted me that after the autumn, there would be a recruitment quota in the county.
At that time, I had been living in northern Shaanxi for more than eight years, and I had adapted to the harsh living habits of northern Shaanxi, and the hardships of life and labor were already commonplace for me. Every day after dinner, sitting under the kerosene lamp to read and study is the happiest thing for me, and I don't feel lonely and lost. That year, my father's problem had been implemented, he was about to resume his job, and if there was an opportunity to recruit workers, I was not worried about failing the political trial.
After the autumn harvest, the weather turned cooler, and there was no important farm work in the field, Captain Zhang saw that I was depressed, so he said to me: "Yu Qinghai (my name is Yu Qinghai), if you are homesick, go back and have a look, anyway, there is no important farm work in the team at the moment." ”
Actually, I was depressed at that time and I was not homesick, because the first year I spent the Spring Festival in Beijing, and that time I went back to Beijing, I stayed at home for a month. In those days, I was in a bad mood because I had a toothache and a sore throat.
A few days later, I suddenly received a letter from my parents, in which they told me that the college entrance examination would resume soon, and asked me to take time to review my homework and prepare for the college entrance examination with all my might.
I was really ecstatic to get the news suddenly, although the college entrance examination has been interrupted for more than ten years, but my college dream has not been shattered, I always feel that maybe one day I will be recommended to go to college or pass the exam to go to college, my college dream is really about to come true.
Ever since I received the letter from my parents, I have been working hard day and night to review my homework, not to work, and not to go to the ditch to collect firewood. Captain Zhang also supported me to go to university, seeing that I didn't have much firewood, Captain Zhang picked up two bundles of firewood for me from his house, and later led two juniors to fetch firewood for me for a day. He squeaked when he said anything, and he would do his best to help me and let me review my homework wholeheartedly. The villagers also sent me pickles and spicy sauce, and an aunt often helped me push and grind Luo noodles and help me cook steamed dumplings.
In December of that year, I went to the county to take the college entrance examination. At that time, a total of three Beijing educated youths from several brigades around us took the college entrance examination.
After the college entrance examination, I could have gone back to Beijing to wait for the results of the college entrance examination. But I really didn't know what I would do in the exam, and I was afraid that my relatives and friends in Beijing would ask me how I did in the exam, and I couldn't answer.
After careful consideration, I decided to wait for the admission results of the college entrance examination in northern Shaanxi, and in case I failed the examination, I would continue to prepare for the next year's college entrance examination.
When the Spring Festival was about to pass, Captain Zhang told me that I should go to their house for the New Year, considering that it would cause trouble to his family and the villagers, I decided to spend the New Year alone at Zhiqing Point, and no one would go to anyone's house. Captain Zhang and the villagers invited me to their house for the New Year, but I declined them one by one.
When I had breakfast on Chinese New Year's Eve, Captain Zhang brought me a bowl of meat dishes and two white buns, and the breeder Uncle Wu also brought me half a bowl of meat dishes and two white buns. Uncle Wu is a single, with a disabled leg, the team only gives him six points a day, his life is very hard, unless it is a New Year's holiday, he is not willing to eat a meal of white flour cakes on weekdays. With the white buns and meat dishes sent by Captain Zhang and Uncle Wu, I also have lunch, and I won't be going to make dumplings at noon. The main reason is that making dumplings is too troublesome, my kitchen knife is too blunt, and it is difficult to chop the filling.
After breakfast that day, I walked around the small mountain in the south of the ditch. First, I am homesick for the New Year, stand on the mountain and look in the direction of Beijing, and send my thoughts and blessings to Beijing. Second, I am afraid that Captain Zhang will drag me to his house for the New Year, and I really can't bear to cause trouble to his family again.
When the sun was in the west, I returned to Zhiqing Point with a small bundle of thatched grass on my back. Pushing open the door, there was only half a pot of dumplings in the enamel basin on the stove, with white flour, soba noodles, potato noodles, and white flour mixed with cornmeal. There are also several kinds of dumpling filling, with carrot filling, potato filling, and sauerkraut vermicelli filling. Seeing this scene, I, who have always been strong and open-minded, still couldn't help but burst into tears.
When I was about to eat on the kang with half a pot of dumplings, I found that there were still two bowls of dumplings on the kang table, and the dumplings in the bowls were still warm.
When the sun was about to set that day, Captain Zhang suddenly came to the Zhiqing Point and pulled me to their house. Captain Zhang said that on Chinese New Year's Eve, everyone eats reunion dinner, and let me order a cold pot and cold stove in Zhiqing alone, which is not like that.
The Chinese New Year's Eve dinner I ate at Captain Zhang's house was the last Chinese New Year's Eve dinner I ate in northern Shaanxi, and that Spring Festival was also the last Spring Festival I spent in northern Shaanxi. It took several days before I returned the two empty bowls to the villagers. Who brought me dumplings on Chinese New Year's Eve, and I still haven't figured it out.
Just a few days after the Lantern Festival, I suddenly received an admission letter from Peking University. I didn't believe that I could be admitted to Peking University, I always thought that the admissions office or the school had made a mistake, I didn't perform well in the college entrance examination, and I did a big math problem wrong, and I didn't have much hope of being admitted to Peking University.
As if in a half-dream, I left my second hometown of northern Shaanxi, where I had lived in the queue for nine years, and returned to Beijing and stepped into the door of the university.
After graduating from university, I was assigned to work in a ministry agency. By the time I returned to my adopted hometown, it was twenty years later. At that time, the breeder Uncle Wu had passed away, and Captain Zhang and the old branch secretary (Secretary Ma) were also in their seventies. I want to repay the love and care of the villagers for me, and I want to repay the kindness.
In the days that followed, as long as I could spare time, I would go back to northern Shaanxi to see the villagers, see the old captain and the old branch secretary. Later, the old captain and the old branch secretary passed away one after another, and I went back to northern Shaanxi less often.
It has been more than 40 years since I left northern Shaanxi and returned to Beijing, and I have gradually forgotten some of the things I experienced when I settled in northern Shaanxi, but the last Spring Festival spent in northern Shaanxi, I still remember it deeply and will never forget it. The folks in my second hometown will be a concern that I can't let go of in my life. That small mountain village in northern Shaanxi will be the place I will love for the rest of my life. There are not only the footprints of my youth, but also my warm and touching memories.
Author: Grassroots writer (based on Mr. Yu Qinghai's narration).