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Teacher Zhang Xinyi is an old intellectual, she once settled in a small mountain village in Zunyi District, Guizhou Province for nine years, and finally was admitted to university and left Guizhou. Teacher Zhang Xinyi said that she and a male intellectual, named Chen Jiahe, were the last "sisters and brothers" to return to the city, and this younger brother named Chen Jiahe eventually became her husband.
According to the materials provided by Mr. Zhang Xinyi, I wrote this article and shared it with dear readers and friends, which can be regarded as a memory of Mr. Zhang Xinyi's past of the educated youth.
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In the spring of 1969, Zhang Xinyi, who had not graduated from high school for a year, also responded to the call of the country, left Shanghai on the special train for educated youth, and came to the mountainous areas of Guizhou to settle down in a queue to receive re-education for poor middle peasants, when Zhang Xinyi was eighteen years old. At that time, Zhang Xinyi and his family were assigned to a small mountain village called Yangjiawan in Zunyi area, and ten Shanghai educated youths (five boys and five girls) became the educated youths of the fourth team of Yangjiawan, and they temporarily lived in the abandoned primary school next to the brigade headquarters. This abandoned primary school has become a temporary youth spot for the fourth team of Yangjiawan.
Yangjiawan is a typical small mountain village, Tongzi River flows at the foot of the mountain, there are mostly hillside land, there are also some paddy fields, only accounting for one-tenth of the cultivated area, the villagers have a year of rice, per capita is less than ten catties, can only be a festival or something festive, in order to eat a meal of rice dry rice. The usual three meals a day are basically sorghum flour and sweet potato noodles, and wheat, millet and corn are also grown there, but the planting area is not large.
The place where the educated youths lived was the earliest primary school of the Yangjiawan Brigade, and later the school had more students, and the brigade built a new school at the entrance of the village, and the original school was idle. Because it has been uninhabited for a long time, the doors and windows of the house are very dilapidated, and it is difficult to shield from the wind and rain, so Captain Yang Fangming of the fourth team had to take matters into his own hands, find some wooden boards and nails to repair the door, and also bring old mats from home to block the windows for the educated youth. At the beginning, the educated youths slept on the floor, and five people lived in a house, which was not crowded, and the most worrying thing was that it would be windy and rainy, and the roof would leak when it rained.
After settling down in the place where he lived, Captain Yang asked his mother-in-law to help teach the educated youths to learn to cook, because it was about to be spring ploughing and spring sowing, and Captain Yang asked the educated youths to learn to cook as soon as possible. Learning to cook is the first lesson in receiving the re-education of poor and middle peasants, and if you can't cook, you can't get through life.
Among the ten Shanghai educated youths assigned to settle in the four teams of Yangjiawan, Zhang Xinyi is the oldest, and she often helps her mother cook together when she is at home. After the spring ploughing and spring sowing production began, Captain Yang's mother-in-law also participated in the production labor to earn work, and Zhang Xinyi took on the obligation to cook for everyone.
At the beginning, Zhang Xinyi did not work and stayed at the educated youth point to specialize in cooking. Later, he slowly mastered the skills of cooking, and he was able to cook easily and save time, so Zhang Xinyi went to work with everyone, and after finishing work, everyone cooked together, so that they could earn an extra job.
Later, everyone learned to cook, and a female intellectual, named Lu Xiaomei, made a suggestion, she suggested that everyone take turns cooking, one person a day, just like taking turns on duty at school, which is fairer. Everyone also agreed with this proposal, and let Zhang Xinyi cook for everyone every day, and everyone couldn't help it.
There is a male intellectual, Chen Jiahe, who was not yet 16 years old at the time, and he was not tall, and he was clumsy in his work, and the most frightening thing was the steamed nest, and everyone laughed at him that the steamed nest was the most ugly, and it didn't look like a nest at all. When it was his turn to cook, Zhang Xinyi took the initiative to help him mix noodles and steam his nest head for him. Chen Jiahe was very moved, but he was not good at expressing it, so he could only blush and say: "Sister Xinyi, thank you for helping me!"
Before coming to Zunyi to settle in the queue, Chen Jiahe didn't know Zhang Xinyi at all, they were not classmates, and they were not studying in the same school. Lu Xiaomei and Chen Jiahe were classmates, but they almost never spoke. Although Chen Jiahe is a boy, he is introverted and shy, and blushes when he sees a girl. Because he doesn't take the initiative to talk to girls, and no one takes the initiative to talk to him.
It was because Zhang Xinyi helped Chen Jiahe cook that she became the first girl to talk to Chen Jiahe. Although Chen Jiahe is young, he is very diligent, no matter whose turn it is to cook, he will rush to fetch water and help light the fire. Especially when it was Zhang Xinyi's turn to cook, Chen Jiahe rushed to carry water and firewood. When Zhang Xinyi was washing clothes, Chen Jiahe filled the water tank with water, and stored two buckets of water, he always blushed and said: "Sister, you don't have to carry water yourself when you wash clothes in the future, I have the strength, I will help you carry water." ”
Because the villagers often hear that the Chen family is called Sister Zhang Xinyi, the villagers are quite puzzled, one is surnamed Zhang and the other is surnamed Chen, but they are like sisters and brothers, and even they look very similar. Anyway, in the eyes of the villagers, Zhang Xinyi and Chen Jiahe are sisters and brothers.
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In the autumn of 1972, the commune wanted to send an educated youth to the Yangjiawan brigade to be a clerk, and considering that Chen Jiahe was the youngest, the secretary of the brigade wanted Chen Jiahe to go to the commune as a clerk. Chen Jiahe said to the secretary of the brigade: "Secretary Yang, I am a boy, and I have the strength to work, so you can let my sister go to work in the commune. In order to allow Zhang Xinyi to work in the commune, Chen Jiahe also bought two bottles of sorghum wine for the secretary of the brigade.
Unexpectedly, when she went to the commune as a clerk, she also had to be politically examined, because Zhang Xinyi's family had problems, she failed to pass the political exam, and she missed the opportunity to work in the commune, and Chen Jiahe also missed the opportunity to work in the commune.
It was also after the autumn of that year, for unknown reasons, seven or eight staff members of the commune and the Educated Youth Office suddenly came to the Yangjiawan Brigade to search the educated youth points of various production teams, and as a result, a forbidden book was found in the four teams of educated youth, saying that it was a "poisonous book". Tie Qing, director of the Commune's Educated Youth Office, asked: "Whose book is this? Don't you know if this is a 'yellow book and poisonous book'? Whose one is it, hurry up and admit it, don't let everyone be affected by it!"
Educated youth, you look at me, I look at you, no one speaks. Seeing that the director of the Educated Youth Office was about to get angry, Chen Jiahe stood up, and he whispered: "Report Director Luo, this book is mine, I don't know it's a poisonous book, I haven't read it yet......" "This book is yours? Where did you get it? Why is your book in the girls' room?" Director Luo was a little unconvinced, and asked Chen Jiahe loudly. Chen Jiahe scratched his scalp with his hands and said: "I really didn't know it was a poisonous book brought from Shanghai, I lent it to them......
Later, when I heard that the commune cadres had come down to track down an anonymous letter, some intellectuals wrote an anonymous letter to their superiors with reactionary remarks. As a result, the anonymous young people who wrote the anonymous letters were not found, but dozens of prohibited books were searched in multiple intellectual youth points. Because of this incident, Chen Jiahe left a case record in the Commune's Educated Youth Office. Whose book it was, in the end, no one admitted it, and even he didn't know who the Chen family was carrying for him. He only knew that before that, Zhang Xinyi had read this book, and that book must have been for girls, and male intellectuals had never read it.
In the autumn of 1973, when the Zunyi Chemical Factory recruited workers, Chen Jiahe also received a recruitment approval form, but the commune's Educated Youth Office refused to stamp it, saying that he still needed to stay and continue to receive re-education. The four teams of educated youths recruited three people to go to the city, Zhang Xinyi and Chen Jiahe, who usually performed the best, failed to go to the chemical factory to be workers, Zhang Xinyi failed to pass the political examination because of family problems, Chen Jiahe Gen Hongmiaozheng, he couldn't go to the chemical factory to be a worker, because of the "poisonous book".
In the spring of 1977, eight of the ten Shanghai educated youths who settled in the four teams of Yangjiawan left Yangjiawan one after another, four went to work as workers in chemical factories, one went to the commune as a cadre, one went to work in the county department store, and one recommended to study in Guiyang.
Considering that it is inconvenient for a boy and a girl to live in a young spot, Captain Yang said to Zhang Xinyi: "Zhang Xinyi, or you can come to my house to live, my Erni lives in a room alone, and you two can be companions." "Thank you, Captain Yang, I don't feel at ease to leave my brother alone in the Zhiqing Point, and there is nothing inconvenient for me and my brother to eat and live in the same courtyard. Zhang Xinyi declined Captain Yang's kindness, in her heart, the Chen family was no different from her own brother.
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Soon after, Chen Jiahe sent a letter to the post and telecommunications office of the commune, and by the way to the commune Educated Youth Office to inquire about whether there was any information on recruiting workers to enter the city, Director Luo of the Educated Youth Office told Chen Jiahe: "Xiao Chen, there is no recruitment quota for the time being, but you can rest assured, next time there is a recruitment index, I will let you recruit workers into the city, the previous book has been lifted, it is not a 'poisonous book'." ”
Immediately afterwards, Zhang Xinyi also got good news, her father's problem has been investigated clearly, and she will resume work immediately, she is no longer a child who can be educated well.
In the early summer of that year, Yang Jiawan got a recruitment quota, and Captain Yang directly gave the recruitment approval form to Chen Jiahe, and Chen Jiahe didn't think about it, so he filled in Zhang Xinyi's name on the recruitment approval form. As a result, only boys were recruited that time, not girls, and a recruitment quota was blind.
In the days that followed, Chen Jiahe cared about Zhang Xinyi everywhere, carrying water and chopping firewood, cooking and washing dishes, Chen Jiahe rushed to do it, even Zhang Xinyi got up at night, and Chen Jiahe also used a handpower station to give Zhang Xinyi courage in the yard. Sometimes Zhang Xinyi would say a word of thanks, and Chen Jiahe smiled and said: "You are my sister, are you still polite to my sister and brother?"
In the autumn of 1977, the fourth team of Yangjiawan got another recruitment quota, which was to work in the restaurant of the commune supply and marketing cooperative. For the sake of fairness, Captain Yang came up with a good way, and he decided to let Zhang Xinyi and Chen Jiahe catch lots to stay.
As a result, Chen Jiahe caught "go", and Zhang Xinyi caught "stay". Looking at such a result, Zhang Xinyi was very pleased, she smiled and said to Chen Jiahe: "Brother, you can rest assured to work in the supply and marketing cooperative, if you leave, my sister will rest assured." You don't have to worry about me, after you leave, I will go to Captain Yang's house to live with Er Ling (Captain Yang's second daughter) sister. "Okay sister, I'll listen to you. Chen Jiahe said with a smile.
After breakfast the next day, Chen Jiahe said to Zhang Xinyi: "Sister, don't go to work today, accompany me to the commune health center for a physical examination, I don't want to go alone." "Okay, sister will accompany you. Zhang Xinyi readily agreed to Chen Jiahe's request.
There was nothing to say all the way, and when he arrived at the door of the commune health center, Chen Jiahe handed the physical examination form and the recruitment approval form to Zhang Xinyi, Zhang Xinyi took the approval form and the physical examination form and looked at it, only to see that Zhang Xinyi's name was filled in on it. At that moment, Zhang Xinyi burst into tears, she didn't say anything, and walked directly into the health center.
Soon, Zhang Xinyi went through the relevant procedures and went to the commune supply and marketing cooperative's hotel to work as a waiter.
One day after dark in the early winter of that year, Zhang Xinyi suddenly rode a bicycle back to Yangjiawan and came to the educated youth point of the fourth team. At that time, Chen Jiahe had just finished dinner, he was reading high school textbooks under the oil lamp, Zhang Xinyi said to Chen Jiahe with some excitement: "Brother, sister tells you a good news, the country has decided to resume the college entrance examination, you and I will go to register tomorrow, and we will take the college entrance examination together." "Sister, I'm a junior high school student, can I do it?" Chen Jiahe was not confident, and his voice was very small.
Zhang Xinyi encouraged him and said: "Brother, you can do it, there is still a month before the exam time, during this time, you should seize the time to review, if you don't understand, go to the supply and marketing cooperatives to find me, and we will discuss together." ”
In December of that year, Zhang Xinyi and Chen Jiahe took the college entrance examination together. The exam questions are not too difficult, but both of them made mistakes, and they didn't have much hope for this college entrance examination.
Shortly after the Spring Festival, Zhang Xinyi was the first to receive an admission letter from Shanghai Normal University (later East China Normal University), and then Chen Jiahe also received an admission letter from Shanghai Institute of Technology. After settling down in Guizhou for nine years, Zhang Xinyi and Chen Jiahe returned to Shanghai together. Among the Shanghai educated youths who went to Guizhou to settle down in the queue, Zhang Xinyi and Chen Jiahe were lucky, most of their classmates stayed in Guizhou, but they returned to Shanghai.
After graduating from university, Zhang Xinyi was assigned to work in the education department, and Chen Jiahe was assigned to work in the Heavy Industry Bureau. After the job stabilized, Zhang Xinyi introduced an object to Chen Jiahe, but Chen Jiahe didn't take a fancy to it. Zhang Xinyi asked him: "Brother, what kind of partner are you looking for? "Sister, I want to find someone like you......" Chen Jiahe finished speaking, and lowered his head embarrassedly.
Zhang Xinyi blushed and paused for a long time before she said: "Brother, my sister is older than you, I think you should find someone better than your sister......"
In this way, Chen Jiahe became Zhang Xinyi's husband, and the "sister and brother" who went through ups and downs finally held hands on the red carpet and formed a happy family.
After getting married, Zhang Xinyi and Chen Jiahe went back to Yangjiawan and invited Captain Yang and the villagers to drink happy wine.
After retiring, Zhang Xinyi and Chen Jiahe returned to their second hometown many times to visit the villagers and offer love to the villagers. When it comes to Shanghai educated youths Zhang Xinyi and Chen Jiahe in Yangjiawan, there is no one who does not give a thumbs up.
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The past and emotional life experience of Zhang Xinyi and Chen Jiahe will be shared with you, and the "sister and brother" who returned to the city at the end of the year performed a legendary love story, which is really moving. Here, I sincerely wish these two old intellectuals and eldest brothers healthy and happy! Happy old age! I also wish all the intellectuals and elder brothers and sisters all over the world to be healthy and happy! Smile always! Spend every day in peace and happiness.
Author: Grassroots Writer (Thanks to Ms. Zhang Xinyi for providing materials)