"Hundred Flowers" searches for his father's footprints

Look for your father's footprints

Shi Weiping

When I was a child, I remember my father often carrying luggage out, every time I left home was about two months to come back, listening to my mother say "Daddy worked", young and ignorant I did not understand my father's "work". Later, when I grew up, I learned that my father was working in the water conservancy department at that time, and often went to the countryside to solve the problem of the people's draft. At that time, many villages were not accessible by road, and my father and his colleagues could only walk, often wherever they lived, and many villages in the province left their footprints.

Years later, with the vague thoughts of my youth, I longed for the opportunity to look for the footprints left by my father. At the beginning of 2018, as a party member and cadre, I was assigned by the unit to carry out help and support work in the village of Baleng Rural Banshan Village in Zhouqu County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, and embarked on the road that my father had walked.

There are two natural villages under the jurisdiction of lower mid-levels administrative villages, with an average altitude of 2,000 meters, 84 villagers, a total of more than 300 Tibetan people, including 40 poor families, and 133 poor people. The local people are mainly agricultural, due to the lack of arable land, the villagers mainly grow wheat, corn, potatoes and barley, etc., do not grow any vegetables; most of the villagers over the age of 30 are uneducated and can only speak a few simple Chinese.

Life in the village is relatively monotonous and lonely, and it is often possible to be on duty alone in the village on weekends and holidays. Initially, due to language barriers, it was difficult to communicate with villagers, and they were not used to work and life. Whenever this happens, my father's figure appears in front of my eyes. Thinking of the hardships and difficulties when my father went to the countryside, and thinking of my father's back every time he went out, I suddenly felt that these difficulties in front of me were nothing.

In order to integrate into the work in the village faster and grasp the actual situation of the villagers, every morning and afternoon, I insisted on walking back and forth to the two natural villages, greeting the villagers and lala homely. At the beginning, some villagers would always ask me "where did I come from?", and I replied, "I am a poverty alleviation cadre appointed by the unit." The villagers all shook their heads, so I used my hand to compare and said, "New Year's noodles and oil, are you divided in your family?" "Walnut saplings, medicinal seedlings, potatoes, have you planted them at home?" "These things are distributed to everyone by our unit..." After a long comparison, the villagers suddenly nodded their heads and said, "Oh, I know." He also gave a thumbs up and boasted: "The Communist Party is good, your unit is good." "Whenever this happens, a sense of pride arises in my heart, and I vaguely feel that my father is also looking at me with approval.

After the Dragon Boat Festival that year, the leaders of the unit came to visit and comfort me in the lower mid-levels village, and I was greatly encouraged by the organization's concern.

In that summer, the TV series "The Most Beautiful Youth" showed that in the fiery years, the predecessors bloomed the most beautiful youth in Saihanba, and those stories inspired me.

In the hot summer, I worked with the villagers in the lower mid-levels and felt the coolness and joy brought by the "Intimate Spring" to people. Autumn came, and I shared the potato harvest with the villagers in the fields. Winter came, and I participated in and witnessed the renovation of the road through the village with the villagers.

In the summer of 2019, we raised 350 sets of new underwear worth 117,000 yuan and donated them to all the villagers in lower Mid-Levels Village. It was also that summer that I, together with the village cadres and a group of 7 members of the help team, went into the house to visit the help object, and when I passed a steep slope and laneway, because the road surface was wet and slippery after the rain, I accidentally fell to the ground, resulting in a fracture of my right wrist. As soon as my injuries improved, I hurried back to the lower half of the mountain village.

In the two years of helping in the village, I have been following my father's back in my heart, although I have sweated and been injured, I have no complaints or regrets, and whenever I feel that I am close to my father.