This article is a novel story, some of the plots are fictional, if there are similarities are purely coincidental, the picture comes from the Internet, invaded and deleted.
Text | Zero Seven Story Meeting
Edit | Zero Seven Story Meeting
At my retirement ceremony, I stood in front of everyone with tears in my eyes and announced my decision to return to my hometown to retire.
I am Uncle Zhang, a retired teacher, who once dreamed of being able to live away from the hustle and bustle of the city and return to the familiar countryside of my childhood.
I cherish fond memories of my hometown and fantasize about the peace and freedom there. Hometown has always been a place in my heart full of warm sunshine and green fields, where there are my roots, where I ran carefree in the wilderness of my childhood.
On the day of my retirement, I was full of anticipation and longing for the future life, and I thought that I would find a spiritual home there. On the first day I returned to my hometown, I was fascinated by the wide sky and the fresh air.
Everything seemed as rosy as I remembered. My wife and I accosted us in the village, and we were warmly welcomed as if we were really back at home.
The old guys sat around and we talked about the fun of our childhood, and the happiness of that time did not seem to have been eroded by time at all. But this freshness was soon replaced by the inconvenience of reality.
We have found that living here entails a lot of difficulties that we never imagined before. The first thing that inconvenienced us was the traffic. The village is beautiful, but every time you go out, you have to go through a long drive.
The nearest market is in a small town 16 kilometers away, and it takes half a day to buy some daily necessities. My wife and I drove back and forth, and we were tired from the bumps on the road.
Soon after, my wife had a heart attack, which made our lives even worse. It was late at night when she suddenly felt chest pain, and the doctors at the village health clinic were poorly equipped and the doctors were helpless.
The picture comes from the Internet
We hurried to the county hospital, and the helplessness and anxiety filled the entire drive. After this incident, my wife became more and more worried about her health, and we were deeply disturbed by the medical conditions here.
At the same time, the interpersonal relationships in the village are not as simple as I imagined. I started tidying up my parents' old house and backyard, but unexpectedly, it caused dissatisfaction among my neighbors.
They thought I was violating the land tenure they had been accustomed to for years, and a quarrel over boundaries inevitably ensued. The face-to-face arguments and cynicism made me realize that even in my hometown, relationships between people can be so complex and acute.
These setbacks in my life made my wife and I start to reconsider our decisions. Life in the city, although noisy, is at least convenient and safe.
And this beautiful countryside, while refreshing, can be stressful due to the inconveniences and sudden challenges of life.
We began to wonder if it was really the right choice to leave the city with all the facilities and conveniences and come to this beautiful but challenging place.
Slowly, as more inconveniences and challenges emerged, our emotions changed from initial excitement and anticipation to heaviness and apprehension.
The picture comes from the Internet
In the dead of night, I would sit in front of the window, looking at the familiar and unfamiliar countryside outside, and my heart was full of confusion and longing.
That's when I really realized that sometimes, the good memories of a place are just memories, and the reality is often far more complex than we think.
As time passed, land disputes in the village intensified. One day, the neighbor came to our house out of the blue with a couple of relatives and demanded that we stop tidying up our backyard.
Their voices were raised and their words were clearly threatening. I tried to explain and negotiate, but the other side was not willing to listen at all. The dispute caused a small commotion in the village, and other villagers began to take sides.
It made me feel that even in my hometown, I could be an outsider. Almost at the same time, the wife's health deteriorated again, and she had frequent heart attacks.
A severe seizure almost killed her. That night, she clutched her chest in pain and turned pale, and I panicked and drove her to the county hospital in the middle of the night.
It was a long journey, and I kept comforting her as I drove, feeling endless fear and helplessness in my heart. Doctors told us that if we were to be taken to the hospital a few minutes late, the consequences would be devastating.
At that moment, I realized that here, every medical emergency can be the difference between life and death. Faced with serious challenges to my wife's health and increasingly complicated relationships in my village, I began to doubt my choices.
The picture comes from the Internet
Is this nostalgia and the beautiful memory of our hometown really worth sacrificing our current safety and health? I pondered in the dead of night, looking at my pale and tired wife on the hospital bed, and my heart was filled with deep guilt and pain.
The pressures and challenges of it all came to a head. The two of us sat on a hospital bench and stared at each other. My wife's eyes were full of uneasiness and worry, and she whispered to me, "Perhaps, we shouldn't leave the city." ”
At that moment, my heart sank to the bottom, and I knew that we had to make a change. Not only for the health of my wife, but also for the future of both of us.
The hometown in the memories is in stark contrast to the reality in front of you. Those good memories seem to be overshadowed by the predicaments and challenges in front of them.
The tranquility and freedom of our homeland are nothing but idealized fantasies. Real life is far more harsh and ruthless than imagined.
After a long period of thinking and painful trade-offs, we made the decision: to return to city life. We put our hometown house in order, ready to sell, and left with some regret and relief.
On the day we returned to the city, we felt a long-lost sense of relief when we looked at the familiar streets and the traffic that extended in all directions. I shared this experience on the WeChat public account, hoping to provide a reference and warning for those urban elderly who have the same dream.
At the end of the article, I wrote: "We used to think that the tranquility of the countryside would bring us peace of mind, but the practical needs of life and the sudden challenges have taught us that the most important thing is the quality and safety of life. ”