A love story

The story I want to tell takes place in the 1970s, in a village in the Fenhe Valley in southern Shanxi Province, the seat of the commune at that time, a large village of more than two thousand people and eight production teams, the whole village was surrounded by high and thick loess walls on all sides, and in the cold winter, the crops in the wild were harvested and sparsely populated, and only the sour date trees and dry thatch on the city walls trembled in the wind. In the silent night, "Bang! A loud bang woke people up from their dreams, and then the news that "Minister Hao has killed people" spread like this fierce northwest wind throughout the village and continued to spread rapidly to the whole commune.

Minister Hao's name was Hao Jinsuo, and he was the commune armed minister who had returned from the Xinjiang army three years ago and was in charge of the militia building, conscription, and military training of the whole commune. At that time, the military had a high status, and the soldiers were very popular, and because of the many movements, the militia often cooperated with some patrols, vigilance, arrest, custody, escort and other tasks, so they also fired guns at the militia, so the minister of armed forces was also a real power figure in the commune, and Minister Hao was often a guest of honor at various meal bureaus.

At that time, Minister Hao was about forty-one or two, and because he did not stay up to join the army, his wife and children had been living in the village. He has three children, the eldest is his daughter named Hongmei, eighteen years old, working as a farmer at home; the second is also a daughter named Hongying, fifteen, in the eighth grade in the village; the third is a son named Hongsheng, twelve years old, going to elementary school. Minister Hao could not take care of his family when he was in the army, even the annual family leave may not be able to take a break, it is really not easy for his wife to take three children alone, although it is said that the status of the soldiers was high, and the village also tried to take care of him, so that his wife did not have to work in the field, but the heavy physical work of feeding pigs and chickens, grinding rice and grinding noodles, pulling coal and fetching water also made her a woman's family do not know how many difficulties. As the saying goes, distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors, fortunately, they have a good neighbor in their family stall, this family name is Chen, the old Chen family three children have no daughters, the family style is thick, each honest and willing to work can bear hardships, but such a family structure in that era is the most disadvantageous, because the labor at that time is not valuable, a working day at the end of the year can be counted to 1, 2 cents even if it is a good year, not to mention that it is often impossible to cash. Therefore, the old Chen family often lacks food and flowers, and now the eldest and the second have reached the age of marriage, although the two young men have thick eyebrows, big eyes, tall and strong, but they can't find a suitable object. But their help to the old Hao family is sincere, from the children were young to their family's heavy work to the package, of course, Minister Hao's wife is not a stingy person, her family conditions are better, always doing something delicious, and every New Year's Festival, send the big girl Hongmei to the old Chen family to send some gifts and food. Later, Minister Hao returned from another job, and the relationship between the two families remained the same, enabling Minister Hao to devote himself to his work, quickly gain a firm foothold, and open up the situation. Minister Hao also repaid the favor and sent the Chen family's sons to become soldiers.

Because Minister Hao has been away for many years, he has gathered less with the children, coupled with the origin of the soldiers, the tone of the conversation with the children is mostly preachy, in addition to the younger son can also talk to him, the two daughters do not like to talk to him more. Hongmei thirteenth and fourth did not go to school, came back to help her mother support this family together, she and the second son of the Chen family have a good feeling for each other, the second child of the Chen family is one year older than her, when she went to school, she protected her, did not let others bully her, and then they both did not go to school, and the contact was more and more, as they grew older, this good feeling became more and more intense, very natural, and it was impossible to talk about who confessed to whom first, and they understood each other's intentions, and they fell in love. At that time, private life was a great act of rebellion, it was subject to moral condemnation, and it was not long before the rumors reached Lao Hao's ears, and he found that he had not had a good meal with his family for a long time, and he had not spoken well with the eldest daughter for a long time. He slapped his daughter twice, cursed the bad manners, and turned around and went to the old Chen family. He was angry but polite and polite to tell the Chen family about Hongmei and the second child, reiterated the preciousness and difficulty of the deep feelings of the two families for so many years, and clearly stated that in order to avoid people's jokes, the two families would not have too much contact, so that they could watch the second boy and not meet with Hongmei again. After that, Lao Hao quickly did two things in the style of a soldier, one was to entrust people to ask for an indicator, and arranged Hongmei to work as a salesman in the supply and marketing cooperative, although he had not yet been formally organized and had to earn work points, but it was still very enviable to avoid the wind and the sun, and the most important thing was that he would no longer work with the second son of the Chen family. The second is to let the armed forces communications officer stay at home every day, helping the family while watching and not letting them meet. In the days that followed, the topic of them gradually subsided, and Lao Hao gradually resumed his previous life of wind and fire and busyness, and began to linger between various banquets and feasts.

Three months later, the cold winter had arrived, and it was the annual conscription season again, and Lao Hao was too busy to go home again. One night the drinking place was not far from home, so I thought about staying at home for one night tonight, and I didn't ask anyone to send it, so I walked back. Entering the courtyard to see, the houses are dark, the wife and children are sleeping, there is no word, quietly go inside, walking through the window of the daughter's room, but heard the voice of a man speaking softly, Lao Hao ran to the daughter's room, pushed open the door and pulled the lamp, the second son of the Chen family was crawling with Hongmei in the bed to chat. Old Hao was angry and angry, and kicked and beat the second boy of the Chen family from the kang, the young man got up and ran into the courtyard, and Old Hao was angry, and pulled out his pistol (at that time, the commune armed forces minister had a gun) and pointed it at him, Stop, dare to run and shoot you! The young man who had experienced this battle knelt down at that time, crying and begging for forgiveness to Lao Hao, saying that uncle you spared me this time, and I will not come again. Old Hao was angry, coupled with the rising of alcohol, he took the pistol and pointed at his head and scolded away, suddenly "bang", the gun sounded, the young man pounced on the ground, and the brain plasma came out. Hongmei, who had just rushed out to prepare for intercession, suddenly fainted, and her mother sat on the ground with her legs soft. At this time, Lao Haojiu was also frightened to wake up, he just wanted to scare this boy, let him completely die of heart from then on, that thought he drank too much and forgot to turn off the insurance, let the gun go out of fire and kill people, his future must be over, the old Chen family can't explain it there! Fortunately, Lao Hao's revolutionary consciousness for many years was still excellent, and he immediately sobered up and said to his wife, I will immediately go to the commune and surrender myself, and after I go out, you will close the courtyard door, and no one will let you in, waiting for the public security bureau to come. After saying that, he pushed out his bicycle and rode to the commune office. When I arrived at the gate of the commune organ, Deputy Director Li of the Revolutionary Committee, who was on duty that day, was awakened by his knocking on the door, and said that Old Hao du had come back in the middle of the night. Lao Hao said, Old Li, I shot and killed people, I came to surrender. Deputy Director Li was shocked, and from the crack in the door of the gate, he saw that Lao Hao's eyes were wide open, his face was miserable, and he looked nervous, holding the handlebar in one hand and carrying a gun in the other, he did not dare to directly open the door and let him in, saying Lao Hao, you first threw the gun in from the wall, Lao Hao threw the gun in from the wall, Deputy Director Li was not at ease, so he let Lao Hao take off his coat and throw it in, Lao Hao did so, Deputy Director Li felt that he could not have a weapon, so he opened the door and put Lao Hao in, and then called the county public security bureau. It is said that because Lao Hao was killed with a gun and had a bad influence, he was sentenced to life in prison despite manslaughter. About four or five years later, in the early eighties of the last century, I heard that the sentence was reduced to eighteen years. That is to say, Lao Hao can still return home in his lifetime, but how does he face his daughter who is deeply traumatized by him? How do you deal with the neighbors who once gave his family selfless help?

Hongmei is said to have found a family in a foreign county to marry, and has not heard from her since. But what is certain is that in this life, she does not dare to hope for love!