Remembering the mentor and friend - Teacher Yang Sumei
Text/Hu Meixia
On the evening of May 4th, Sister Cao Shuping sent an article signed by Chang Liushui entitled "Mourning the Death of Mr. Yang Sumei, a Famous Female Writer in Zhuolu County", and she couldn't help but chuckle in her heart, and hurriedly asked her sister for verification. Sure enough, it was my mentor and friend, Teacher Yang Sumei, who passed away suddenly due to liver and kidney failure at 8:10 on May 3, 2024.
I was overwhelmed with grief and tears streaming down my face.
I have known Mr. Yang for more than 30 years, and we are both teachers and friends. The last time I saw her was in mid-October last year. Her complexion is not very good, her liver palm, qi and blood deficiency, she wheezes when she walks, her face is dark, and she takes 9 meals a day, which is more than food. I sighed in distress, she didn't think so, saying that birth, old age, sickness and death, the laws of nature, can be treated correctly.
Every year during the Chinese New Year, I would call Mr. Yang to pay New Year's greetings, but this year, because my father-in-law and my father passed away one after another, I was riddled with trivial matters, so I didn't care about fighting. Unexpectedly, in just a few months, I suddenly heard bad news, and I couldn't help but regret it.
The first time I met Mr. Yang was at the Zhuolu County Cultural Center. I didn't know what it was like to be sad, so I went to meet Mr. Yang, who was the editor of Zhuolu Daily. When I met her at the top of the stairs like a fawn, I was so flustered that I couldn't open my mouth. The moment she stepped in, she mustered up the courage to shout out to her and said that I liked literature and hoped to get her help. Teacher Yang is very tall and dressed frugally, and she said coldly that she likes literature only when she is neurotic.
I was puzzled, but I didn't give up. Every once in a while, I went to the cultural center to find her, and asked her to correct her childish clumsiness. Every time I saw her, she either crouched down at her desk and worked hard to write, or she was reading with a thick book. She never annoyed me, always put down what she was doing, and patiently guided me. She told me that literature is a hard journey, and that you must be able to endure poverty, loneliness, and read more. Say that the article should be touching, not a pile of flowery words. Let me not be afraid of failure and submit boldly...... With the help and encouragement of Mr. Yang, I was able to keep the clouds open and see the moon, and the words I worked hard gradually appeared in newspapers and periodicals such as "Zhangjiakou Daily" and "Zhangjiakou Evening News".
After more contact, I realized that Mr. Yang was like a hot water bottle, cold on the outside and hot on the inside. The reason why she said that people who love literature are neurotic is because most people are impetuous and anticlimactic.
Mr. Yang regards reading and writing as the whole of his life. She never bothered to cook well, she always dealt with it simply, and she didn't spend a lot of time shopping for clothes, fashion, or trends. She has been without makeup all her life, and she has poetry and books in her belly. Decades of immersion in the world of words, enjoying themselves, switching freely between writing and reading. Her novels, essays, poems, and non-fiction literature have been featured in newspapers and magazines such as "Chinese Women", "People's Daily", "Women's World", "Youth Years", "Great Wall Literature and Art", "Zhangjiakou Daily", "Zhangjiakou Evening News", etc. "Five Flavor Bottles" and "The Holy Land of the Ancestors - Zhuolu" are her collections of essays. "Dream of Red Mansions", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "Resurrection", "War and Peace", "Confucianism", "Zizhi Tongjian", "General History of China" and "Guwen Guanzhi" are the books she has read. She also wrote "Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor Historical Records Collection", which played a strong role in promoting the history, culture and research of Zhuolu County.
Although he is full of achievements, Mr. Yang never shows off. She is low-key and humble like a ripe ear of wheat. I have never been told what works I have published, what awards I have won, or what works have been reprinted. knew that her poem praising her mother won an award, she was invited by CCTV to participate in the March 8th Women's Day party, and she was still seen answering the phone at her home.
Teacher Yang and I are very much like teachers with whips in their hands. She sorted out the books that she thought would be helpful to me many times and called me to pick them up. The bits and pieces of life sometimes make me tired, and I have been put on the shelf several times when I cook words and talk about life. When Ms. Yang saw that I didn't contact her for a while, she took the initiative to call and care about me. When I told her about her troubles, that she was unhappy at work, excluded, and isolated, she told me that she was disgusted with people in the office and applied for a person to work in the warehouse. She says work is not about being gregarious, it's about making a living. She said that she didn't want to be bullied, so she had to become stronger. Sure enough, as my business skills improved, my colleagues became gentler towards me.
During the Spring Festival holiday in 2020, Ms. Yang called and said that there were books for me, when the epidemic was raging and I couldn't go to my home, Ms. Yang carried 5 or 6 books to the door of the post office, which was only more than 600 meters from her home to the post office, but she was out of breath. I haven't seen her for half a year, she is faltering, old and vicissitudes, her once black and thick hair is dry like a pile of weeds, and her face is full of tiredness, which makes me feel distressed and sad to see. Before Gu Xi was old, he was tortured by illness and became old. Even so, she didn't forget to care about me, asked me to pay more attention to my body, and repeatedly told me not to forget to read and study, saying that she was not in a hurry to ask for the book, and when to finish reading it and when to return it to her. My husband and I joked, Teacher Yang is like a teacher with a whip in her hand, urging me to hurry, as soon as I don't leave, she will catch up and whip a few whips. Even though I didn't make any achievements in literature, I didn't deviate in life, and I didn't suffer from the bad habits of being lazy and lazy, drinking and rubbing hemp.
Now, Mr. Yang is gone, and no one will send me books to help me guide me through the maze. I can no longer see Teacher Yang, confide in her the trivialities of life, and listen to her earnest teachings. The books she lent me could only be used as collections.
Separated by two places, the only thing I can do is to send my condolences with a handful of tears: I wish my dear Teacher Yang all the best.
About the Author:
Hu Meixia, female. The pen name is Hu Die, and the screen name is on the water side. In June 1970, he was born in Zhuolu County. On May 28, 1994, he published his debut essay "Keep Your Happiness" in "Hebei Workers Daily". After that, he successively published more than 50 essays in newspapers and magazines such as "Zhangjiakou Daily" and "Zhangjiakou Evening News". Won 5 newspaper essay excellence awards.