Text/Zhang Guitang
The second brother is a tough guy who broke into kanto.
In 1970, because his family was poor and had no way out, the twelve-year-old second brother carried a burden and went alone to the countryside of Qiqihar in the northeast to earn a living with relatives. There is a former Pingtun there, and the relative's house is at the east end of the tunzi. The second brother first worked in the production team. In order to earn more work, the second brother worked desperately in the black land. The second brother is very able to bear hardships and never spares any effort in his work. For example, cutting rice and harvesting bud rice, the second brother always takes the lead in the front, and sometimes throws the northeast strong man back a hundred meters. In his words: "In order to gain a foothold in the northeast, be cruel to yourself." "As for grinding palms and spraining legs and feet, that's a common thing. But he always has a strength in his heart not to accept defeat, not afraid of suffering and suffering, and gritting his teeth to hold on!
After more than two years of tempering, the second brother is like the mature red sorghum on the black soil, and his body is more robust, and he has become a good way to do farm work. He was praised by his relatives and recognized by the whole Tunzi people.
A good opportunity, the second brother who had just Chinese was hired by the former Pingtun Brigade Headquarters as the accountant of the production team, and the second brother finally gained a foothold in the northeast.
Under the care of relatives and friends, after being introduced, the second brother married a girl in tunzi who was forty miles away. This girl is my second sister-in-law, she is a native of the northeast, tall, thick lips, simple personality, speaking with a pure Northeast accent, very good. I remember that the second brother and sister-in-law returned to their hometown in Shandong to visit their relatives in the spring of the year when they had their first child. This is the first time that the second brother returned to his hometown after breaking into the northeast. The family welcomed the second sister-in-law in their hearts and did their best to entertain the second sister-in-law. However, the second sister-in-law is a cheerful and generous northeastern woman, who resolutely does not let her family prepare meals for her, and insists on eating the same home-cooked meals as everyone every day. I remember that my second sister-in-law's favorite food was dipped in green onions and sauce, which left a deep impression on me and my family.
After the second brother got married, he lived a single door. Because the second brother has a relatively strong temperament, a wise and strategic way of doing things, the character of Shandong people, and the morality of speaking decently, he has won the support of everyone. The second brother started from the accountant of the production team, and then became the accountant of the brigade department. Later, the second brother passed the examination and was recruited as an accountant by the state-owned Jianhua Brick Factory in Qiqihar City, which was considered to be a public meal, and the family was happy for him.
Time passed to the end of the 1980s, and the economic benefits of the second brother's unit were not good. The second brother resigned and went to the sea, contracted a brick and tile factory on the outskirts of Qi City, and became his own boss, recruiting workers and operating production. As a result, the second brother entered a busy period of life, busy with production, busy with sales, busy with management. The overloaded workload caused great damage to the second brother's body.
Due to the good operation of the brick and tile factory, the economic benefits have also improved a lot. The second brother has to go to Henan Shandong and other places every year to recruit workers, because the itinerary is hurried, it is too late to return to his hometown to visit his relatives. Later, the eldest brother and the third brother once went to the northeast to join the second brother and worked in the brick and tile factory. They all witnessed the hard work and busyness of the second brother, sometimes unable to go home for nearly a month, and the three children and all the affairs of the family were taken care of by the second sister-in-law alone.
Since I was the youngest, I basically didn't have much time with my second brother until I was twenty. It wasn't until the end of the 1980s that I was admitted to a university in the northeast and had a lot of life intersection with my second brother. When my second brother learned that I had become the first college student in our family, he was very happy, and he supported me to go to college, reducing many of the burdens on my parents. There were two summer vacations, I did not go back to my hometown in Shandong, I went directly to the second brother's house to spend the summer vacation. During these two summer vacations, I ate pure Northeastern food: the brown rice ballast porridge cooked by the second sister-in-law and the pasted brown rice noodle cake were particularly sweet; the kidney bean horn stewed small fish and pork stew noodles made by the second sister-in-law were particularly depressing. And the northeast flavor of the shallot cucumber dipped in sauce is particularly crisp, and that beauty has always remained in my mind.
During the summer vacation, the second brother would communicate with me as soon as he had time. Sometimes I was driven in a carriage to a far field to mow grass and feed the family's two cows. I sat on the carriage and watched my second brother skillfully drive the carriage to the meadow, and my heart was very happy. The sky above the meadow was blue, as if it had been painted with blue paint, and the white clouds in the distance hung in the sky, quietly. The second brother wielded a large scythe to cut the grass, and his dark face reflected the mellow beauty of the man, and together with the blue sky and white cloud meadows, he outlined a vast picture. The scythe pole is two meters long, and the scythe dances from side to side with the swing of the body. In a short while, a large piece of grass more than half a meter high fell. I loaded the grass onto the carriage with an iron fork, and we both mowed the grass as we talked, and soon the carriage was full. The second brother in the middle also taught me to cut the grass with a big sickle, but I never got the gist of it, I didn't learn it, and the second brother smiled and encouraged me.
Two more times my second brother took me to the sugar beet field to pick grass. The grass in the field was half a meter high, which affected the growth of the sugar beets, and we both talked about the grass. It's just that mosquitoes in the northeast bite too hard, you have to wear long-sleeved shirts in the field, and sometimes you have to use a handful of grass to drive mosquitoes back and forth. The second brother said that in the northeast, we must learn to suffer hardships, and I understood the hardships of the second brother very well.
After graduating from college, I returned to my hometown to work, and I rarely saw my second brother for more than ten years, during which I occasionally had letters and telephone contacts. I bought a car in 2011, and the following spring, my second brother returned to his hometown from the northeast to visit his family. I drove him, my eldest brother and third brother to my niece's house in the county town for dinner. The four of us took a group photo, which was the only time our four brothers took a group photo. In the winter of 2013, I heard the eldest brother and the third brother say that the second brother's health was not very good. However, due to the long distance of the road, he has not gone to the northeast to visit the second brother's condition.
One morning in the fall of 2015, I suddenly received a call from my third brother saying that the second brother had passed away. I suddenly felt blindfolded – how did I die? The second brother is only 63 years old. Tears of sadness flowed down his face...
In the afternoon, I stepped on the train to the north and rushed to my second brother's house at four o'clock in the morning the next day. At the funeral home, my eldest brother and I saw the last side of the second brother, who was lying in an ice coffin, with a peaceful and natural appearance, as if he had just fallen asleep. I held the ice coffin in my hand, and the tears couldn't stop flowing--second brother, you have been running and working all your life, you are too tired, you should also rest. Second brother, you go all the way, rest in peace.
Although I didn't have many days with my second brother, I had a strong sense of brotherhood. Especially when I was in college, my second brother gave me a lot of care and help. When I was depressed, he wrote to me in the midst of my busy schedule to encourage me to care for me, let me cheer up, summon up the confidence in life, and walk my own life path in the wind and rain of the years.
The life of the second brother is legendary. When he was young, he bravely braved the Kanto and broke out of the world with his own shoulders. His perseverance and positive and optimistic attitude towards life have always influenced me, inspired me, and benefited me a lot throughout my life.
The Qingming Festival has arrived, and I would like to send a longing for the second brother with this article.
About the Author:
Zhang Guitang is a member of the Chinese Prose Literature Association and the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association, a member of the Henan Provincial Youth Writers Association, and a member of the Yuncheng County Writers Association. She loves writing and photography. More than a dozen articles have been scattered in newspapers and periodicals, and nearly 200 essays, novels, and poems have been published on online literary platforms.
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