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Mr. Liao Zhiwen is an old intellectual, who has lived in Zhentai County in Baicheng District, Jilin Province for more than 40 years, and only returned to Beijing in the autumn of 2013 with his daughter-in-law from Northeast China. Regarding Mr. Liao Zhiwen's past and emotional life experience, according to Mr. Liao's narration, I have compiled this short article to share with my dear readers and friends.
According to Liao Zhiwen's recollections, in mid-March 1969, he and several Beijing educated youths went to Jilin Province to settle down in the queue to receive re-education for poor middle peasants. At the beginning, Liao Zhiwen also wanted to go to the production and construction corps or farms to be an educated youth, but because Liao Zhiwen's father was under organizational review, he belonged to the kind of children who could be educated well, and his application to the corps failed to pass the political examination, so he had to come to a remote rural village in Jilin Province to settle down.
At that time, there were not so many Beijing educated youths who went to Jilin Province to cut the queue and settle down, and after coming to Zhentai County, Liao Zhiwen and his five male educated youths were assigned to Suolongtun in Heiyupao Commune, and the five of them temporarily lived in two dilapidated houses at the team site, and Captain Ge Dali's daughter-in-law temporarily helped them cook on the fire.
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Suolongtun is a small village with only about 20 households, 21 of which are Han people, 4 Mongolian families, and 3 Hui families. The population of Suolongtun is not large, but the water system there is developed, the arable land is abundant, and the life of the villagers is relatively rich.
In the middle of March, the weather in Jilin was still very cold, the rivers and water bubbles were still thick and frozen, and the minimum temperature at night could reach more than minus 10 degrees. Liao Zhiwen's first dinner was quite hearty, and Captain Ge grinded tofu by himself, and also chiseled the ice and caught a lot of fish. The first time I ate sorghum rice in the Northeast, several of them thought it was delicious.
At that time, although it was already mid-spring, because the soil had not yet thawed, there was no farm work in the field, and Liao Zhiwen and they had nothing to do.
I remember that one day at the end of March, Liao Zhiwen and a few of them went to the commune supply and marketing cooperative, and on the way back, they saw a few children playing on the ice at the edge of a blister not far from Tunzi.
watched Liao Zhiwen play on the ice, and other educated youths also followed him to the ice. Liao Zhiwen saw that everyone had come to the ice, so he took the lead and walked into the bubble. But just after walking a short distance, I only heard a click, the ice suddenly collapsed, and Liao Zhiwen fell into the ice cave.
Seeing this scene, everyone was frightened and shouted for help, and the children who were playing on the ice were also frightened by this sudden scene, and they all ran home in fright.
At this moment, Captain Ge, who had gone to the river to dig ice and catch fish, went home and passed by this bubble. He hurriedly put down the basket of fish, pulled the hammer that chiseled the ice, and ran to the ice. But just when Captain Ge was lying on the ice and was about to pull Liao Zhiwen onto the ice, Liao Zhiwen sank underwater. Captain Ge hurriedly smashed the nearby ice surface with a hammer, jumped into the deep ice water, and grabbed Liao Zhiwen.
It took a lot of effort for Captain Ge to get Liao Zhiwen ashore with the help of other villagers who came later. Liao Zhiwen fainted due to excessive fright. Captain Ge also choked on several mouthfuls of water because of his lack of physical strength.
That accident fell into the water, although Captain Ge's daughter-in-law boiled half a pot of small fish soup for the educated youths and put a lot of chili peppers, Liao Zhiwen still caught a cold, and Captain Ge also froze and caught a cold, and it took several days to recover.
After that narrow escape, Liao Zhiwen was grateful to Captain Ge from the bottom of his heart. It was also the blister that almost lost his life, and Liao Zhiwen never dared to skate on the ice again.
In a flash, it was May Day, the ice and snow melted, the soil thawed, and the annual spring plowing and spring sowing production began. The members who had been idle for a winter and spring all picked up their labor tools and began to work in the field under the leadership of Captain Ge.
The spring neck in the Northeast is short, and the spring plowing and spring sowing time is very tight, Captain Ge led the members to transport soil and fertilizer to the field, and at the same time let several veteran ploughing rakes prepare for sowing, from morning to night, except for lunch time, there is almost no rest time. Don't look at Liao Zhiwen, they are all sixteen or seventeen-year-old boys, but they can't do as well as fifteen or sixteen-year-old girls. Captain Ge's daughter Ge Ling saw Liao Zhiwen walking back with a burden in both hands, and asked him what was wrong, he said that his shoulders were swollen and he didn't dare to use his shoulders to carry the burden.
Ge Ling filled Liao Zhiwen's two baskets with soil and manure, handed the shovel to Liao Zhiwen and said, "Brother Zhiwen, you are here to fill the basket for everyone (fill the basket with dung), and I will pick up the dung for you." Before Liao Zhiwen could react, Ge Ling picked up two baskets of miscellaneous soil and manure and walked away.
Ge Ling is two years younger than Liao Zhiwen, less than sixteen years old at the time, because Captain Ge's daughter-in-law helps the educated youths cook, and Ge Ling often follows her mother to the team site to help light the fire, so the educated youths are familiar with her. That time Liao Zhiwen skated and fell into the water, and his wet clothes were washed and dried by Ge Ling.
After a training of spring ploughing, spring sowing and autumn harvest labor, Liao Zhiwen and his family gradually learned to do all kinds of farm work, and gradually adapted to the heavy production labor, and felt that their bodies were stronger. Although life in the countryside is very hard, the villagers are very kind and enthusiastic, and they also care for Liao Zhiwen and them, and they feel very warm in their hearts.
After the autumn of that year, the team built three new houses for Liao Zhiwen and them, and established a collective household for educated youth, and Liao Zhiwen and his family no longer lived in the team site. The newly established collective household of educated youths is not far from Captain Ge's house, and if Captain Ge's family makes something delicious, he asked Ge Ling to send some to the educated youth, and the educated youth like the lively and cheerful Ge Ling
I remember that after the autumn of 1970, two classmates who cut the queue in Chatai Commune came to visit the door, and they also bought two bottles of wine. At that time, in addition to the radish, cabbage and potatoes distributed by the team, their collective households did not have any rare vegetables.
Thinking that there were tofu sellers in a neighboring village, a young man named Zhang Zhaofeng went to buy tofu with an enamel basin. But when I got there, I realized that the tofu shop didn't make tofu that day, so Zhang Zhaofeng had to go happily and go home. When he came back, he happened to pass by Captain Ge's house, and saw that there were a lot of dried fish drying in the yard of Captain Ge's house, including small fish and big fish with heads removed.
There are no rare dishes, Liao Zhiwen and they stewed cabbage, fried shredded potatoes, set up a fire, put a few dried fish that Zhang Zhaofeng brought from Captain Ge's house on the fire and roasted them, and the seven people drank a bottle of high liquor, and the two classmates who came to the door were very satisfied, and they also took out two yuan to ask Zhang Zhaofeng to help buy some dried fish to take back.
After getting dark, Zhang Zhaofeng quietly slipped into the courtyard of Captain Ge's house, regardless of the size, groped for half a pot of dried fish and ran back to the collective household. The two classmates took the dried fish that Zhang Zhaofeng wanted to come, and happily went back to the fork.
After breakfast the next day, Liao Zhiwen and the others were about to go to the cowshed to pick up soil and pad the cattle pen, Ge Ling suddenly came to the collective household, stood at the door and said with a smile: "I thought that my dried fish was taken away by the old cat, but it turned out that you brought it, and the yard was full of the smell of grilled fish." "Actually, the first time Zhang Zhaofeng went to Captain Ge's house to get dried fish, Ge Ling saw him, but Ge Ling didn't squeak.
Although Ge Ling was not angry at all, Liao Zhiwen and the others still felt embarrassed, the five of them, you look at me, I look at you, no one spoke. At that time, Liao Zhiwen was the head of the collective household, so he ran into the house and took out two yuan and handed it to Ge Ling and said: "I'm sorry, two classmates came yesterday, and there was nothing rare to entertain them, so I went to your yard and took some dried fish for them to roast and eat. "Brother Zhiwen, you are too foreign, you can squeak if you want to eat fish, and you don't need to spend money to buy it." After Ge Ling finished speaking, she went home with a smile.
In the days that followed, Ge Ling often sent fish to the educated youth, and when Captain Ge went fishing, he would also call Liao Zhiwen. Liao Zhiwen not only learned to fish with Captain Ge, but also learned to pickle fish and dry fish with Ge Ling. In this way, Liao Zhiwen gradually fell in love with the simple, kind, cheerful and generous Ge Ling, and Ge Ling also liked Liao Zhiwen from the bottom of her heart.
In the spring of 1972, the commune wanted to send a few cadres from among the educated youths who had been sent to various brigades to study and train, and to eat, live and work together with the villagers, and play a supervisory and guiding role. Liao Zhiwen was also among the personnel who were transferred that time, but in the end he failed to pass the political trial because of his father's problems. Only at this time did Captain Ge know that Liao Zhiwen's parents were both cadres, and his father was still in quarantine for review.
In the next few recruitments, Liao Zhiwen failed to pass the political examination, and the recruitment of cadres was frustrated one after another, Liu Zhiwen was hit hard, and his mood was obviously very low. During that time, Captain Ge was very concerned about Liao Zhiwen, often called him to his home for dinner, took him to the big river to catch fish in his spare time, and also enlightened him: "Zhiwen, if you can't recruit workers into the city, you can be a farmer in our place, you see how good we are, the land is fertile, the water system is developed, the corn ballast sorghum rice can be eaten, you can eat fish all year round, and you can also share dividends at the end of the year, which is not much worse than in the city."
In the autumn of 1975, Liao Zhiwen still failed to recruit workers into the city, Ge Ling was twenty-one years old at that time, and she was getting more and more beautiful. Captain Ge saw Liao Zhiwen and Ge Ling sticking together every day, but he just didn't mention the engagement and marriage. Captain Ge and his daughter-in-law are anxious, because the girls in the team who are the same age as Ge Ling are all married, even if they are not married, they are all engaged, and their daughters have reached the age of marriage, so it is impossible to drag it out like this.
After the autumn harvest, Captain Ge called Liao Zhiwen to his house, stewed a big fish, and bought a bottle of wine. After eating, with the strength of wine, Captain Ge asked Liao Zhiwen: "Zhiwen, you see that Ge Ling is not young, you two are often together, and there is no shortage of gossip in the tunzi, what are you going to do? You have to tell me the truth, if you really want to be good with Ge Ling, you can get married as soon as possible, if you don't want to marry Ge Ling, I have to find Ge Ling a mother-in-law......
Liao Zhiwen pondered for a moment and said to Captain Ge: "Captain, I will write a letter to my parents and ask for my parents' opinions. ”
Twenty days later, Liao Zhiwen received a reply from his parents, whose opinion was that they respected his choice and that they could not recruit workers to the city, so they would get married in the countryside. His parents also said that marriage is a lifelong event, and you should think about it before making a decision.
In the winter of that year, Liao Zhiwen and Ge Ling received a marriage certificate and held a simple wedding. In the second year after Ge Ling got married, Ge Ling's sister Ge Xiaoying also got married.
In the spring of 1977, Liao Zhiwen was the only one who settled in Suolongtun, and the other educated youths were recruited to enter the city. That summer, Liao Zhiwen's father resumed his job, but because he married a rural girl, he lost the treatment of recruiting workers to the city, so he had to stay in the countryside as a farmer.
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At that time, Liao Zhiwen's mood was extremely low, and he even had thoughts of suicide. Captain Ge also told him that he really didn't want to take root in the countryside for the rest of his life, so let him divorce Ge Ling and let him go back to Beijing. Captain Ge also said: Zhiwen, no matter what, you can't do stupid things. It was because of Captain Ge's magnanimous words that Liao Zhiwen never had any emotions, let alone the idea of divorce.
After the resumption of the college entrance examination, Liao Zhiwen applied for the examination for two consecutive years, and the result was twice defeated by Sun Shan. Later, he also wrote a letter to his parents, hoping that his parents would use their connections to transfer him, his wife and children back to Beijing. His parents said that there are many cases like him, and although they are state cadres, they cannot take the lead in opening this hole.
In the summer of 1980, Liao Zhiwen was recruited to work in the commune supply and marketing cooperative, because he was not good at writing, and he was transferred to the commune as a propaganda cadre in the winter of that year. Later, Liao Zhiwen applied for the University of Electrical Engineering, and was transferred to work in the county in the spring of 1986. It was also that year that Ge Ling enjoyed the treatment of the family of educated youth, she was recruited to work as a worker in the county grain and oil processing factory, and she was also transferred to a non-agricultural household registration.
In the fall of 1993, Liao Zhiwen's son Liao Kai returned to Beijing to study in high school, and his hukou also moved back to Beijing and fell on his grandparents' hukou book. Three years later, Liao Kai was admitted to the Beijing Institute of Technology, and after graduation, he was assigned to work at the Aerospace Research Institute.
In the year of Liao Zhiwen's retirement, his parents-in-law died one after another, and after taking care of his parents-in-law's funeral, Liao Zhiwen took Ge Ling back to Beijing, lived with his parents, and took on the obligation of taking care of his parents' daily life. Ge Ling is particularly filial, treating her in-laws more than her own biological parents, and later Liao Zhiwen's mother was bedridden and could not take care of herself, Ge Ling took care of her mother-in-law for three and a half years, until her mother-in-law left peacefully at the age of ninety-three, she never disliked her mother-in-law. Because of this, Liao Zhiwen respects his wife from the bottom of his heart.
I would like to share with you the past and emotional life experience of Mr. Liao Zhiwen, and sincerely wish Mr. Liao Zhiwen and Sister Ge Ling, the troubled couple, a happy life in their old age, and spend every day safely and healthily.
Author: Grassroots Writer (Narrator: Mr. Liao Zhiwen)