Huang Fanglan drove a motorcycle past the east shore of Mulan Lake while delivering mail. Photo by Jin Wenbing, a reporter of the Yangtze River Daily
On Mulan Mountain, there is a strange tree with leaves like laurel and flowers like lotuses. Every year in March, the trees bloom with red flowers. The old man on the mountain said that this red flower is called magnolia flower, soft and rigid, tenacious and persistent.
Huang Fanglan, a 34-year-old postman at the Ta'er Post Branch in Huangpi District, is known by the elderly as the "magnolia flower" on the postal road.
Cross the bus, rush the hillside, enter the village, and deliver a copy of the mail to the villagers. Huang Fanglan rode a motorcycle in front, and we followed behind in a small car. Our interview with Huang Fanglan was done on the march.
The interview process of 70 kilometers a day is a bit like shooting a mountain village road movie.
Huang Fanglan is in charge of Wuhan's longest postal route, with a total length of 140 kilometers: there are more than 3,000 residents in 12 administrative villages along the way, passing through four ferry ports and hundreds of lakes.
In the past four years, she has delivered about 240,000 mails, with a 100% delivery rate and no complaints.
140 kilometers, she rode on the longest mountain village postal road in Wuhan
Huang Fanglan delivered the package to Hou Yunmei, a villager in Yaowan Village. Photo by Jin Wenbing, a reporter of the Yangtze River Daily
At 8:20 a.m. on October 2, in front of the Wuhan Post Ta'er Branch Bureau. Huang Fanglan moved more than 40 packages of more than 50 kilograms to the side of the motorcycle, and placed and bundled them in turn according to her delivery habits, the weight of the mail and the route of travel.
After straightening out her postal green storm jacket, Huang Fanglan, who was 1.55 meters tall, raised her legs and stepped onto the motorcycle and headed for the Mulan Steam Ferry Terminal on the west bank of Mulan Lake.
After greeting The sailor Fang Cheng on the ferry, Huang Fanglan leaned forward, pressed her hands tightly against the handlebars, and pushed the motorcycle onto an iron springboard with a slope.
When pushing the motorcycle onto the boat, Huang Fanglan's hands bulged with green tendons.
Fang Cheng, 48, was impressed by the petite postmaid: "Every time I watch her push the boat on the boat and look at the packages piled high, I am always worried that she will fall." Fortunately, she can use her ingenuity and control the car. ”
The boat went to the temple shop on the east shore of Mulan Lake, and Huang Fanglan turned the motorcycle around on the ferry and pushed the cart off the boat.
Here, it is the starting point of HuangFanglan's 140-kilometer postal road.
The postal route on the east shore of Magnolia Lake began to be opened in 2001. Huang Fanglan said she was the seventh postman on the postal route.
The postal road on the east bank of Mulan Lake is divided into "upper pieces" and "lower pieces" of about 70 kilometers each along the lake in the shape of "8", and the two areas each include 6 administrative villages.
Huang Fanglan will complete the mail delivery work in these two areas in two days.
Huang Fanglan called this postal route "Shanshui Postal Road", whether it is "upper film" or "lower piece", it needs to cross Mulan Lake by car, and also ride about 70 kilometers of rugged mountain roads.
In 2017, Huang Fanglan's predecessor Wang Daoquan was retiring. Who will take over this postal route in order to pass on this spirit of taking root in the grassroots and serving the villagers wholeheartedly? After inspection, probation, and a period of time by Wang Daoquan, the Ta'er Post Office hired Huang Fanglan, a foreign woman.
Huang Fanglan became the first female postman on this postal route.
Huang Fanglan said that after following Wang Daoquan's "trial work" through this postal route, she saw the beautiful original ecology of the east bank of Mulan Lake, and also felt the difficulty of the postal route, and she could feel the joy of the local villagers when the mail was delivered. "My work is important to them, and they are very kind and affectionate to me."
In the middle of nowhere, she once met a group of wild boars on a narrow road
Mulan steamed up, and Huang Fanglan took a breath on the boat. Photo by Jin Wenbing, a reporter of the Yangtze River Daily
Huang Fanglan said that the postal route she was responsible for, there is an 8-kilometer mountain road, deserted, and the mobile phone signal is not good.
Along the way, she encountered a herd of wild boars.
Huang Fanglan said that one day last autumn, she passed through Tsubaki Hill and rode along an uphill road when she suddenly saw a group of wild boars of all sizes coming out of the forest and walking slowly down the slope.
When narrow roads meet, "you can only stop and resign yourself to fate." Huang Fanglan said that one of the larger wild boars "kept staring at me, and I felt like my hair was going to stand up." Fortunately, this group of wild boars did not hurt Huang Fanglan, they hummed and chatted, walked and stopped, and passed by her.
"When they were done, I quickly put on the throttle and ran, feeling a chill in my back." Huang Fanglan's narration made the reporter also break out in a cold sweat.
The mountain road is difficult to walk, and the reporter has a deep experience in driving and following the interview.
The village road in Xiaojiawan twists and turns, and only one van can pass in the narrowest place. One section of the road, winding between three houses arranged in the shape of a "pin", requires a "Z" shape. On one side of the road is a stone staircase, on the other side is a sewer ditch, and on the right is an uphill with a sewer ditch in the middle. Huang Fanglan stabilized the front of the car, kicked the accelerator, and drove smoothly.
In the area of the Whirlwind Temple near Hong'an, the road was damaged in many places, and she flexibly grasped the front of the car with both hands, relying on the strength of her hands, and let the front of the car jump up and down like a chicken pecking rice. "The key to riding across this kind of road is to control the strength of the hand, and riding this kind of road has become a muscle memory." Huang Fanglan said.
Although the car is skilled, it is still common to fall into the ditch, especially on rainy and snowy days.
Huang Fanglan said that after riding on the mountain road for many years, her arms and knees have been broken and bruised countless times.
"One year on my daughter's birthday, I promised her to finish the mail early and go home early." Huang Fanglan said that on the way back that day, she chose a short path that she had not walked, and as a result, she walked on a one-foot-wide field. At the end of the road, there is a steep ridge about 1 meter high.
On the left is the paddy field, on the right is the high ridge, and there is no place to step on it. Huang Fanglan spent half an hour trying to find a way to support the motorcycle stand frame, and then moved stones from all over to give this steep slope to cushion the steep slope.
There was no shop in front of the village, and it was getting dark, and her family called to urge her to go home.
Finally, Huang Fanglan spent more than 3 hours to pad out a slope.
Huang Fanglan, who was covered in muddy water, returned home and smiled and accompanied her daughter to blow out the birthday candle.
After eating the cake, Huang Fanglan turned her back to go, her eyes were sour, and her tears were not stopping.
Seeing these old people, she often thought of her parents
Huang Fanglan delivered while talking warmly with the villagers. Photo by Jin Wenbing, a reporter of the Yangtze River Daily
Huang Fanglan's Huangpi dialect was endorsed by Chen Xianxun, an old man left behind in the mountain village: "Speak well, we can understand." ”
In 2007, When Huang Fanglan from Guigang, Guangxi Province, was working in Guangdong, she met and married Liu Fangchun, a young man from Huangpi.
After the birth of two children, she no longer accompanied her husband to go out to work, on the one hand, she took the children at home, and on the other hand, she worked odd jobs everywhere to subsidize the family.
At the beginning of becoming a postman, Because of the language barrier, Huang Fanglan had difficulty communicating with the villagers, and she repeatedly imitated the pronunciation of the locals. Nowadays, Huang Fanglan, who has a Mouth of Huangpi Cavity, has become an authentic "Huangpi daughter-in-law".
Chen Xianxun, 82, is a retired teacher who lives with his wife in ChenJiatian, a village of Fujiazhai.
On the day of our follow-up visit, Huang Fanglan delivered a package of medicines weighing about 2 kilograms to the elderly.
Chen Xianxun was on the back of the old man's ear, and Huang Fanglan leaned over to his ear and loudly told the old man where it was sent, repeating it many times word by word. The old man nodded and smiled.
Chen Xianxun's old partner Zhang Dazhen stepped forward and took Huang Fanglan's hand and let her sit in the house, drink water, and talk.
The children of the old couple work in the field and usually rarely return to their hometowns, but they often send back some items to their parents.
Every time she sees these old people, Huang Fanglan thinks of her parents, who live in rural Guangxi.
"I especially understand these old people." Huang Fanglan said that they have not been out of the mountains for a long time, and when they meet younger people, it is like seeing their children, and there are always endless words. "I would love to accompany these old people, but I have a delivery job, and it's rare to have a lot of time with them." As she spoke, the corners of Huang Fanglan's eyes were slightly red.
"On August 26, my father was injured while doing farm work in his hometown, and the farm tools broke six of his ribs." Huang Fanglan said that when she got the news, she was sending an email, and the leader gave her a week's leave after learning about it. "It's the only time I've taken a leave of absence in years."
Although I took a leave of absence, the mail of the villagers did not break for a day. Huang Fanglan called her husband back, who was working outside, and delivered mail on behalf of the shift. "The villagers are waiting with their eyes, and these emails can't be stopped."
Seeing Huang Fanglan's motorcycle riding in front of the door, Peng Silan of the QiliChong Village Clinic got up and went out of the house, enthusiastically helped her sort, and contacted the receiving villagers on her behalf.
The village clinic has a postal collection point. "Xiaohuang always puts herself in the shoes of the villagers." Peng Silan said that not long ago, there was an oil mill owner in the village who bought 100 oil pots online, "according to the regulations, she can actually let the boss go directly to the post office to pick up the pieces." Seeing that the boss was busy, she took a few pieces to the village at a time, and the boss was very grateful. ”
"Overcame difficulties and won word of mouth." Huang Fanglan's colleague Chen Dong said this about her.
Huang Fanglan has her own happiness and satisfaction: "The local villagers are basically left-behind elderly people, they are remote, every time I deliver the mail on time, they will be happy, I am also happy." ”
(Yangtze River Daily reporter Jiang Liqing, Jin Wenbing, correspondent Xiao Fang)
【Editor: He Equation】