Xu Chaoqing and Liu Guojiang
"Taohuayuan" records a village located in a paradise, the people in the village seem to have forgotten the time, do not know anything about the outside world, "but do not know that there is a Han, regardless of Wei Jin", in 2001, the expedition team in the mountains of Chongqing, found a couple who have been isolated from the world for more than fifty years.
The couple, named Xu Chaoqing and Liu Guojiang, has been hiding in the mountains and forests since the 1950s in order to escape the gossip of the world, which has been more than 50 years. In the deep mountains, Liu Guojiang, for his wife, had to dig out 6208 stone ladders with his bare hands, and such a love was reported by the media and triggered widespread discussion from all walks of life.
The beginning of the story is in 1942, one day in this year, Chongqing Gaotan Village is very lively, it turned out to be the only son and daughter-in-law of the old Wu family at the head of the village, and the new daughter-in-law is Xu Chaoqing, a famous beauty in the next village, who just turned 16 years old. The palanquin entered the village with the sound of gongs and drums, and a group of children ran behind them, including Liu Guojiang.
The bride touches her teeth
At that time, Liu Guojiang was just 6 years old, just arrived at the tooth replacement period, in their place, there was a superstitious saying about children who were in the tooth replacement period, that is, let the bride touch the front teeth, and it would not take long to grow new teeth. Therefore, Liu Guojiang wanted to see the bride more than anyone else and rushed forward.
When Liu Guojiang stood in front of the palanquin, the bride reached out a thin hand through the window and touched his front teeth, 6-year-old Liu Guojiang was naughty, opened his mouth and bit the bride's finger, looked up, and found that the bride had reached out and was waiting for him with anger. At that moment, Liu Guojiang, who was only 6 years old, may have felt what was falling in love at first sight, and after the flower car walked away, he was still stunned in the same place.
Liu Guojiang
The adults around me saw the situation and jokingly asked: "What kind of son, is it difficult to grow up and marry such a beautiful daughter-in-law?" Who knew that Liu Guojiang nodded emphatically. Since then, he has always had Xu Chaoqing's lingering face in his heart, but whenever someone asks him what kind of daughter-in-law he will marry in the future, Liu Guojiang will say solemnly: "I want to marry someone like Aunt Xu." This sentence seems absurd to adults, but Liu Guojiang has never given up.
Xu Chaoqing gave birth to 4 children after marriage, but unfortunately, in the tenth year after marriage, her husband died of acute meningitis, and Xu Chaoqing became a widow at the age of 26. Even more unfortunately, the mother-in-law has always attributed her son's death to her, saying that she is a husband and no longer caring about her.
In those years, Xu Chaoqing's life was very difficult, living alone with 4 children, going up the mountain every day to find wild vegetables to fill his hunger, and earning a small amount of money by selling his own straw shoes. All this, 16-year-old Liu Guojiang looked at the pain in his eyes, but he never got a chance to "shoot".
The two lived in the mountains
Perhaps it was heavenly pity, or perhaps it was fate, Xu Chaoqing's accidental accident gave Liu Guojiang a chance. That day, she took her child to fetch water by the river, and when she lost her footing and fell into the river, she saw that she was about to lose the strength to struggle, Liu Guojiang rushed to the river, plunged into the river, and rescued the mother and son duo to the shore.
Since then, Liu Guojiang often went to Xu Chaoqing's home to help her work and take children, and gradually, Liu Guojiang began to express his heart, but Xu Chaoqing rejected him with "widows in front of the door". Sure enough, the village began to circulate gossip about the two of them, how ugly it was to hear, but how could Liu Guojiang, who had set up "lofty ambitions" since childhood, care about the words of others.
One day in August 1956, Liu Guojiang walked into Xu Chaoqing's home and solemnly expressed his heart to Xu Chaoqing again in a firm tone that he had never had before: "I want to marry you", looking at this man who was 10 years younger than himself, and then looking at his 4 young children, Xu Chaoqing's psychology finally collapsed.
On the second day, people found that Xu Chaoqing and her four children disappeared, along with 19-year-old Liu Guojiang.
The two fled the village with their four children and came to the mountainside at an altitude of more than 1,500 meters, where Liu Guojiang had been chopping firewood before, knowing that there were two houses that had been abandoned for many years and where they would spend the rest of their lives.
Husband and wife in farming
After that, the two were no longer accompanied by the gossip of the villagers, but the quiet mountains and forests and the hustle and bustle of birds and animals. Before long, the grain brought out by the two was exhausted, Liu Guojiang went to the river to fish, Xu Chaoqing went into the mountains to dig wild vegetables, and later the two looked for wild walnuts and dates in the mountains, and then ground these into flour in case of emergency.
Half a year after going up the mountain, the house where they lived was washed away in a torrential rain, and Liu Guojiang had to withstand the cold storm and rain to transfer the small amount of grain and utensils to a cave at the top of the mountain, but what frightened them most was not the cold wind and rain, nor the hunger and cold, but the wild beasts that appeared from time to time in the deep mountains.
According to Xu Chaoqing's later recollection, she couldn't remember how many nights there were, and the roar of the beast came from her ears. In order to solve the dilemma of life in the cave, Liu Guojiang decided to build a tile house, and at dawn the next day, he and his family crossed the mountains and mountains, carried mud in the mountain pass a few kilometers away, and then built a simple kiln with the stones he picked up on a vacant lot, and began to burn the tiles to build a house.
A tile house built by two men
This "big project" lasted for two years, and two years later, a simple but very solid tile house was completed in the open space on the mountainside, Xu Chaoqing no longer had to be frightened in the cave at night, this small tile house was not only a home for them to shelter from the wind and rain, but also a harbor to accommodate the mind and body.
Liu Guojiang called Xu Chaoqing "old mother", the latter called him "young man", the two have given birth to 4 children, the original 4 children, the youngest died unexpectedly at the age of 5, so that the family has 9 people, although often hungry, but also happy, not happy.
In the days on the mountain, the two have to wade several kilometers every day to collect the ingredients needed for a day, and on the mountainside where they live, there is no mountain road to go, in order to make his wife travel safer, Liu Guojiang took a hammer and a chisel knife, from the year of the mountain, began to excavate the ladder, this chisel, that is, more than 50 years.
Liu Guojiang is driving on the ladder
On weekdays, as long as he has time, Liu Guojiang will take the tools and take a few taros to set off, and in more than 50 years, he has used more than 20 shovels and more than 40 hammers, and as for the chisels, there are countless chisels. From the beginning of the excavation to the media report, Liu Guojiang excavated a total of 6208 steps, and his hands were covered with thick calluses.
In order to keep the ladder from growing moss and become wet and slippery after the rain, after any rain, Liu Guojiang will walk on the ladder and rub it carefully with his hands. "I was heartbroken, but he always said that when the road was repaired, it would be convenient for me to go out of the mountain." In fact, I have never been out of the mountains several times in my life," Xu Chaoqing said in a later interview, touching the calluses on his wife's hands.
Long ladder
Time flies like an arrow, half a century of time has passed quietly, the children of the two have also become a family, the daughters have been married to the mountain, the son has also become a door-to-door son-in-law, the second elder has gradually had contact with the outside world because of the children's reasons, but it is only limited to going down the mountain to see the children, the third Liu Mingsheng lives at the foot of the mountain, often going up the mountain to help them do some work.
In 2001, an expedition team traveled a long way to this barren mountain, and when they reached the middle of the mountainside, they overheard the sound of creeping in the grass, and at first they thought it was a beast, and they were too frightened to move, until Liu Guojiang and Xu Chaoqing came out of the grass, and in the face of this outsider, Liu Guojiang asked: "Chairman Mao and his old man's body?" "
Husband and wife in the field
This sentence turned the faces of the team members to ask, and after a long conversation, they realized that these two sons had been living in the mountains for more than 50 years, had no concept of time, had almost no contact with the outside world, and did not know that Chairman Mao had been dead for nearly 30 years.
In 2006, the Chongqing Evening News made the two people's love affair public, and for a time they became the focus of society, tens of thousands of tourists came to visit, and the previous quiet life was a little more noisy.
Ladder of Love
With the increasing number of tourists, The almost illiterate Xu Chaoqing gradually learned the words "tourism", "camera", "air conditioning" and so on, and even started a local egg business: "Buy or not buy our native eggs, it is really a native chicken", Xu Chaoqing often for tourists on the mountain. The more than 6,000 steps dug by the husband and wife were named "Love Ladder" by the public and became a famous local tourist attraction.
Liu Guojiang was also invited by Jiangsu Television to participate in the program, and soon after, their home on the mountainside was electrified, and a well-wisher sent them a television set, so the novelty was so unreal in Xu Chaoqing's eyes, and the lives of the two gradually moved closer to "modern".
Liu Guojiang thought that he could finally live a good life with his wife, but perhaps he was jealous and completely separated the two. One day in December 2007, Liu Guojiang got up in the middle of the night to see if there were any wild beasts to waste the crops, and as soon as he returned to the house, he fell to the ground.
Amiable Liu Guojiang and Xu Chaoqing
In a panic, Xu Chaoqing dragged him to the bed, picked up the flashlight, and went straight to his son's house under the mountain. At about 5 o'clock in the morning, she finally knocked on the door, and then, Liu Mingsheng and others rushed to the top of the mountain to carry Liu Guojiang down the mountain, and after the doctor's diagnosis, Liu Guojiang's cerebral blood vessel rupture caused cerebral congestion, which was very critical.
Six days later, in the afternoon, as Liu Guojiang was resting in his wife's arms, he raised his hand with difficulty, pointing to those "love certificates" and portraits made by enthusiastic people, as well as the hammer and shovel placed in the corner, Xu Chaoqing suddenly understood.
At 4 p.m. on this day, Liu Guojiang closed his eyes forever, surrounded by witnesses of their love, and when he died, his hands were still tightly clasped with Xu Chaoqing, and people dragged hard for a long time and could not be separated.
Xu Chaoqing on the day of the funeral
On December 15th, at the foot of the mountain, at the beginning of the ladder, in the empty valley, the mourning music echoed, and Liu Guojiang's funeral was being held. As the funeral procession drifted away, two lines of clear tears involuntarily slid down Xu Chaoqing's face and rippled on the ground.
Five years later, on October 30, 2012, 87-year-old Xu Chaoqing also passed away, and after five years of solitude, the "old mother" and the "young man" finally reunited and never separated again.
"Although I have experienced the baptism of years, my sincere feelings have not been erased, life is short, and love is eternal, and there is a person who can be missed, that is, happiness."
Smiling Xu Chaoqing
Maybe now we are always in a hurry to miss, may wish to think about it, how long have you been, did not put aside your troubles, in this fast-paced life to slow down their pace? Listen to the sound of life, feel the natural outpouring, to discover the hidden beauty.
Meet someone and fall in love. In this era when everyone is busy running, we may as well turn off the mobile phone to pour a glass of red wine on a rainy night, turn on the radio to listen to the emotional radio, and maybe there will be a different taste in the heart.