It was another night when the north wind roared, and it was cold everywhere in the hut. I pulled the quilt up hard and turned to look at my partner on the opposite bed. I saw Fengyun curled up under the bed in a thick cotton hat and cotton-padded clothes. I laughed to myself, but I think I'm dressed like this, isn't it? It's too cold, the heatable adobe sleeping platform has collapsed, so I can only sleep in cotton-padded clothes and cotton caps.
It has been more than a year since I came to the foot of Guanshan Mountain in Liupanshan. At the beginning of the new year, the production team built a row of adobe houses with special funds for the placement of educated youth, and Fengyun and I were assigned to a cabin.
Although the cabin is small, it is better than living in the brigade's supply room. With your own private space, you can also make a fire and cook, which is also a "home".
Seven or eight students from the production team jumped in line to live in this row of new houses. Like members, I go to work every day, make a fire every day, and sleep every day. Only one thing is different from members, that is, lighting up late, chatting and reading, and sleeping late in the morning.
One day, in my dream, my father came to me and said happily, "I'm back, so you don't have to stay in the countryside." Go home! " "
"Going home" is an irresistible temptation for us. We dream of going back to our hometown, to our mother and to work in the city, even if we are a sanitation worker who takes a shit.
The row of bungalows we live in is located in a small yard, and the owner of the pile foundation in the yard is the private postman of the commune.
My roommate Yun Feng is only two or three years old. He is a high school student in the school. He has a nickname "Henan", which may be because his ancestral home is in Henan, or because he has strong self-care ability. At that time, his impression of Henan people was hard-working, smart and capable, and strong viability.
We have a good relationship with the college postman and Fengyun, and we often ask him for help if we have any difficulties.
I remember that once it rained, the outside of our hut was covered with mud. I put on a pair of high-waisted liberation shoes that I don't usually want to wear. I walked out of the door less than ten feet and got stuck in the mud, so I tried to lift my feet. I didn't expect my feet to come out of my shoes. In desperation, I had to take off my other shoe and come back barefoot.
It has been raining. For several days, Fengyun and I chatted happily in the cabin. The cupboard is empty and there is no food at all. I want to borrow some food from the battalion chief, but I can't go to the neighboring village to grind noodles. I am really hungry. Fengyun said, "Let's borrow some noodles from the postman's house." I have never borrowed flour from others. Fengyun picked up a porcelain basin and went out barefoot. Soon I came back with half a basin of flour. We make pancakes and eat sweet cakes, thinking: what shall we do tomorrow?
One winter day, it snowed for several days, and thick white carpets covered the whole hill. At that time, the fire was made with firewood, which was divided into hard firewood and soft firewood. Soft firewood is wormwood stalks and corn stalks. Hard firewood was cut into small pieces by the whole tree. Soft wood is mainly used for lighting or burning kang, while hard wood is used for cooking.
We can't go out to cut wood in the snow. Members have a lot of reserves at home. We are lazy. We all went to the mountains or ditches to find some firewood. Looking at the white outside the door and the distant hills, we regret not saving more firewood. Without firewood, there is no energy for cooking, that is, there is no way to cook.
It was getting dark, and Fengyun and I sat on the collapsed kang and sang "A winding path leads to a secluded fog". It's far away ... "My stomach is growling and my body is shaking with cold.
In this way, I sat until midnight when Fengyun suddenly said, "Let's go out and find some firewood." I said, "Where can I find it?" Fengyun smiled and didn't answer. We put on cotton trousers and big cotton shoes and walked south against the north wind and snowflakes.
Fengyun said that firewood can only be found in the neighboring village, not in the village. I don't know why, but I have a vague feeling that I'm going to steal something.
In the dead of night, there was silence everywhere I followed Fengyun to the gate of the primary school in the neighboring village. There seems to be a crack in the gate. Fengyun probe went in to have a look, made a gesture for me to follow, and then flicker in.
After walking around the campus for a while, there was no firewood at all, only a ladder leaned against the wall of the classroom. Fengyun said, "That's it!" "I wonder why I need a ladder.
The two of us walked back with this ladder. I walked in front, Fengyun walked behind, and he wiped his footprints as he walked. He walked for a whole hour before returning to the hut.
After closing the door, Fengyun cut the ladder into small pieces with an axe, added water to the pot and prepared some corn flour paste.
I asked Fengyun, "How can I make a fire without soft wood?" I saw Fengyun unhurriedly put a few ladder blocks in the fire hole of the stove, polished a match and easily lit the ladder blocks. Looking at the burning flame, my heart is on tenterhooks. What the hell did we do?
There are many ups and downs in this yard.
I remember one time when I went out to work, Captain Ji Cheng thought we were young and weak, so he ordered the female captain to take us around. I'm not impressed with ring powder. All I know is that it's shoveling up animal excrement, putting it on a rickshaw and transporting it to the designated place where excrement is piled up.
Fengyun and I took a group of women in circles. Looping is a light job, and only eight divisions of labor are recorded in a working day. If we pick fertilizer or hoe the ground, we can get a division of labor of 10, which is about five cents.
When I arrived at the labor site, I was a little confused. In front of me is a big cesspit, which turned out to be a circle in the cesspit.
This cesspit is tens of square meters in size, which is estimated to be as high as most people. People who turn around need to jump down, and they will be drowned by shit below the knee. This scene is really unheard of. If you don't go down, you will be laughed at by women. It's really hard to do it.
Fengyun jumped up first, waved a shovel and began to work. I have no way out, so I have to jump, not to mention the smell!
After this lap, no matter how dirty and difficult it is.
After work, Fengyun and I often go to the river next to the village, sit on the big rocks, watch the trickle, watch the birds flying high, watch the smoke from the kitchen not far away, miss the distant relatives, miss the lost time, miss the short campus life, and our eyes radiate dull light.
2
Not long ago, I had the opportunity to go to our production team, the small village where I went to the countryside. After leaving this small village, I never went back to see it.
According to the navigation, I drove to the head of the village, stopped and looked around, vaguely showing the shadow of the village in those days, indicating that great changes have not taken place here because of the reform and opening up.
I asked a young couple standing at the head of the village to confirm that this was where I cut in line, and asked some fans who were basking in the sun (as women call them here) where the postman's home was. I didn't expect the postman to come from the front, so I recognized the neighbor at a glance.
He asked me doubtfully, "Who are you?" I put my name in the newspaper, and he remembered my baby (only 16 years old) and warmly invited us to sit at his house for a while. I proposed to see my old yard and meet the old captain, so he led us to the depths of the village.
After crossing a dirt road and a small slope, he pointed with his hand and said, "Look, this is where you lived."
There are also two abandoned adobe houses in the old yard, which belong to the postman's family. The row of cottages where we live has become ruins, and only a long back wall still stands there.
Looking at the dilapidated old yard and hut, I can't help seeing the scene in my mind. ...
At dawn in the east, the morning star is still high in the sky. Captain Ji Cheng rang the bronze bell on the old pagoda tree. The sound of "Dangdang Dangdang" woke me up from my sleep. I cover my head with a quilt and want to sleep. I looked up at the wind and cloud on the opposite kang, only to hear his snoring, or Henan people can just hold their horses!
The members heard the hurried bell under the old locust tree, and Captain Ji Cheng began to allocate the day's itinerary. Someone said, "Those two students haven't got up yet." Ji Cheng looked at the door of the hut. The door is closed. He ran to the door, kicked the door and shouted, "The chicken crowed! Still not up? "
I asked Fengyun, "What should I do? Get up? " Yun Feng replied, "No! See what he does? ! I just want to sleep late today! "
Ji Cheng kicked the door for a long time, put his ear to the door and listened. There is no movement at all. He shouted a few more words and waved helplessly. "Hey, these children are so lazy!"
After listening to Ji Cheng's report, the old captain led the players to the field without saying anything.
That year, that day, that scene seems to be yesterday, fresh in my memory.
The postman then took us to the home of the old captain. Through the gap in the gate, I saw an old man waving a machete vigorously, cutting hard wood under his feet and pushing the gate open. I shouted, "Hello, old captain!" The old man gave me a dull look, slowly put down his machete and asked, "Are you …" I quickly reported my name, but I didn't expect the old captain to hear my name, bent down and quickly came over and held my hand tightly.
Sitting under the eaves of his house, I can't wait to talk about what happened in those days. The old captain was in tears and kept wiping his eyes with his arm. "You were very sad, you were very sad ..."
The old captain seems to be from a poor family, but he still lives in the old yard, only decorating one house, and the others are adobe houses; The old captain looked in poor health, bent to sixty or seventy degrees, and had lost his strength and strength.
After bidding farewell to the old captain and postman, I am ready to return. I sigh:
Goodbye, old yard!
Goodbye, postman!
Goodbye, old captain!