Lu Mengdi, a junior high school graduate of the 68th class, lived in the northeast frontier for nine years before returning to Shanghai to take over her mother's job. Nine years of living in the queue, the second hometown has left Lu Mengdi with many sour memories and touching, she said that she will never forget the villagers in the second hometown, and will always remember the kindness of the villagers.
In the autumn of 2018, Lu Mengdi and several good sisters who had settled in the northeast together returned to their second hometown to visit the villagers, and met her first love in the second hometown. She always felt sorry for him, and there was always a vague sense of guilt in her heart.
On March 9, 1969, Lü Mengdi and dozens of Shanghai Zhiqing came to the Longyuan Brigade in the northeast border, and she and fifteen Zhiqing were assigned to settle in the longyuan third team to receive re-education from poor and lower-middle-class peasants. Because the three teams of Longyuan did not have a place for more than a dozen Zhiqing to live together, Li Longhai, the leader of the third team, divided the Zhiqing into four groups, a group of four, and temporarily borrowed them to live in the homes of the members. Lü Mengdi, Zhang Yuemei, Wang Mengyao, and Zhao Xiurong, four female Intellectuals, were in a group and temporarily borrowed to live in the West Wing of the family of Li Wancheng, a member of the society.
Li Wancheng's family of four, a girlfriend and a small child, the girlfriend's name is Li Chunhong, who was eighteen years old at the time. His son's name was Li Chunshan, and he was sixteen years old. Li Chunhong had never read a book, was an illiterate, Li Chunshan had been reading for four years, and began to participate in production and labor at the age of fifteen. Because he had read, the captain made him a clerk in the team, and he earned seven divisions of labor a day, as much as a woman earned. Sixteen-year-old Li Chunshan has reached a height of more than one meter and seventy meters, and he is also good-looking, and he smiles first when he speaks, and the members of the team like him quite a bit.
Lü Mengdi and their four female Zhiqing are all sixteen years old, although they all look as tall as adults, but they have not done anything at home, and they do not understand the cooking of Kang at all, and for the time being, they can only rely on Li Wancheng's daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law to help Cook Kang. Seeing that Li Wancheng's daughter-in-law was warm and kind, and also sent pickles to the zhiqing and sent sauerkraut, Lu Mengdi was very touched, and they all called Li Wancheng's daughter-in-law Aunt Li and Li Chunhong sister.
Since Lü Mengdi lived in Li Wancheng's home, Li Chunshan took the initiative to take on the problem of water for the female intellectuals. Female zhiqing love to be clean, there are many places to use water, and picking two trips a day is not enough for them to use. Fortunately, Li Wancheng's home is not far from the three teams of cattle sheds, there are foreign wells (pressurized water wells) in the cowshed, and it takes ten minutes to pick up water for a trip, and you can go to fetch water at noon or in the evening.
In addition to the problem of draft water, there is another problem that is difficult for young women to solve on their own, that is, burning firewood. Although the courtyard of the three teams has corn stalks, the yard is quite far from Li Wancheng's home, and the young people can only burn it for one day to carry a bundle of corn stalks. Corn stalks are not resistant to burning and are willing to plug the kang hole, and the local members do not use corn stalks to cook in addition to igniting fires.
Seeing that the Zhiqing were facing difficulties in burning firewood, Li Chunshan volunteered to borrow a large yellow cow from the team and led four female Zhiqing up the mountain to collect firewood. At that time, the mountain fields were still covered with a layer of ice and snow, the road surface was full of unmelted ice and snow, the cattle pulled the climbing plow, and the four girls sat on the climbing plow, leaning on it, feeling nervous and excited. Because the village is quite far from the place where the firewood is collected, it leaves at 9 o'clock in the morning and returns at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and can only play firewood once a day. This climbing plough can be pulled a lot, let alone six or seven hundred pounds.
After pulling firewood for three days with the big yellow cow in the team, the breeder would not let the cow be summoned, and the breeder said that others had opinions, and the captain was also embarrassed. Without the cattle, Li Chunshan and they pulled the plough up the mountain to fetch firewood for three days, and when they saw that it was enough to burn for a while, they would not go to collect firewood. Don't look at Li Chunshan is only sixteen years old, but he has strength, what is he like, he is also very concerned about the four female Zhiqing, the four female Zhiqing have a very good impression of him, they all appreciate him from the heart, everyone learns Li Chunhong's appearance, calling Li Chunshan an old brother, calling him very kind.
In the days that followed, Lu Mengdi and the Li Wancheng family went to work together every day and went home together, they talked and laughed, like a happy and happy family.
In the winter of 1972, at the construction site of the dam diversion project, Lu Mengdi was hit in the leg by a stone rolling down the river embankment, causing her to cry in pain. The captain saw that Lu Mengdi was injured, so he asked the two male Zhiqing and Li Chunshan to take her to the hospital. The two male Zhiqing supported Lu Mengdi, and Lu Mengdi did not dare to take a step, and cried vigorously. Watching the two male Zhiqing dodge and dodge, only using one hand to pull Lü Mengdi's arm, Li Chunshan did not say a word, bent down and carried Lü Mengdi on the river embankment, and pulled Lü Mengdi to the county hospital with a row of cars.
After X-ray examination, Lu Mengdi's right ankle bone was slightly cracked, the foot surface was abrased, and the thumb bone of the big foot was cracked. The doctor at the hospital prescribed some bruise medicine and told her to go home to recuperate. In the hospital examination, it was Li Chunshan who carried Lu Mengdi in and out on his back, and Lu Mengdi, who was moved, burst into tears. The two male Zhiqing may be too shy and a little embarrassed, and rarely have physical contact with Lu Mengdi.
The person responsible for the accident (two male Intellectuals who fought on the river embankment and caused a stone to roll down the embankment) were punished, and Lu Mengdi rested at home for more than two months before she basically recovered. During the recuperation period, Li Wancheng's family gave Lu Mengdi meticulous care and care, and Lu Mengdi felt warm in her heart, and she was grateful to Li Wancheng's family from her heart. In particular, Li Chunshan also used his free time to go up the mountain to set rabbits, play roe deer, chisel ice to catch fish, and get a lot of nutritious things for Lu Mengdi. Lu Mengdi couldn't see Li Chunshan one day, and she had a feeling of emptiness in her heart.
In the summer of 1973, Lu Mengdi left Li Wancheng's family and moved to the brigade's newly built Zhiqingdian. Soon after Lü Mengdi moved away, Li Chunhong got married, and she became the daughter-in-law of the secretary of the brigade. Also that summer, the Longyuan Brigade got two recruitment quotas to work as a worker in the Baoshantun Chemical Fiber Factory, And Lu Mengdi hesitated, and finally gave up the recruitment indicators to other Zhiqing. In the autumn, the lumber factory under the county forestry bureau recruited workers again, and after hearing that the work of the lumber factory was very tired, Lu Mengdi missed another recruitment opportunity. By the spring of 1975, nine of the sixteen Shanghai Zhiqing who had joined the longyuan third team had left one after another, one of them joined the army, one went to the commune to become a primary school teacher, one was recommended to go to university, and the others became workers.
During that time, Lu Mengdi was very lost and confused, she did not know where her way out was, she had the idea of taking root in the countryside for a lifetime, but her parents resolutely opposed, even in the local area through the recruitment of workers, her parents did not support, her parents' biggest wish is to find a way to let her return to Shanghai. During this period, Li Chunshan sent a courtship signal to Lü Mengdi, and Lü Mengdi agreed without hesitation, and they had the act of holding hands and kissing. Lu Mengdi wrote to her parents about her love affair with local rural youth, and her parents said that if they got married in the countryside, they would not return to Shanghai in this life, and we would not give birth to your daughter. For their parents' resolute opposition, Lu Mengdi and Li Chunshan did not know what to do.
Fast forward to the spring of 1978, Lu Mengdi suddenly received an urgent telegram from her parents, asking her to quickly return to Shanghai to go through the procedures for returning to Shanghai. It turned out that Lu Mengdi's mother had gone through the retirement procedures in advance and asked Lu Mengdi to take her mother's place and go to work at the station.
The day before returning to the city, Both Lü Mengdi and Li Chunshan wept into tears, and Lü Mengdi choked and said, "Chunshan, don't hate me, I can't help myself." I'm sorry for you, you forgot about me. After I leave, you find a good girl to marry, I hope you live a happy and happy life. "You go, don't worry about me, I don't hate you, as long as you are well..." In nine years, Lu Mengdi was the first to see Li Chunshan crying like a child.
With guilt, with reluctance, with the blessings of the villagers, Lu Mengdi left her second hometown where she had lived for nine years and returned to Shanghai. On the day of leaving, Li Wancheng said with tears in his eyes: "Mengdi, you go, don't write a letter to Chunshan after you leave, let him slowly forget you, I said at the beginning that we can't keep the people in the city in the poor ravine..." The tough guy who has always been strong can't say it anymore.
After returning to Shanghai, Lu Mengdi only wrote a letter to the three Zhiqing of Zhiqingdian (at that time, there were three Zhiqing of Shanghai Zhiqing) and asked them to ask Aunt Li how the family was, she was not interested in writing a letter to Li Chunshan, and she did not know how to write this letter. In addition to the guilt in her heart, there are also endless thoughts and pains, and after nine years of living together, their feelings for each other have been very deep.
After joining the work, Lu Mengdi spent all her energy on work and study, she soon became the backbone of the unit's business, transferred to the Railway Bureau three years later, and then had a happy family, and her thoughts about Li Chunshan gradually faded.
In the early autumn of 2018, The four sisters who had settled in the northeast and lived together in Li Wancheng's family got together again, and Zhang Yuemei suddenly proposed to go back to the second hometown to have a look, to see the villagers, to see the landscapes and rivers there.
All four agreed to this proposal, saying that they would leave, and Lu Mengdi and the four of them came to Longyuan Village with their longing and concern for their second hometown and brought local specialties from Shanghai. How much the village has changed is not described one by one, the four of them at first thought that they had gone to the wrong place, and when they saw Li Chunshan with gray hair, they found a little feeling, the mountains and waters still had traces of the past, the village was no longer what it used to be, the dilapidated houses were no longer traced, and all of them had become new houses (white walls, blue tiles and plastic windows). After some conversation, everyone learned that Li Chunshan's parents had long passed away, and he had always lived alone and had never started a family. Lu Mengdi choked up and asked him, "Didn't you promise me to find a good girl to marry and start a family and live a good life?" Why? "I live a very good life alone, I have a responsibility for the field, and there is a low guarantee, there is no difficulty in life, you don't think about me." Li Chunshan was very calm and happy, and on the surface he could not see the slightest sorrow and pain.
Lu Mengdi visited the old people in the village, went to the cemetery to worship Li Chunshan's parents, and left Longyuan Village the next day, and they also went to the provincial city to visit their sister Chunhong. When they left, Lu Mengdi and the four of them took out five thousand yuan and secretly put it in the drawer of Li Chunshan's TV cabinet.
Returning to Shanghai from the northeast, Lu Mengdi's heart is difficult to calm down, she always feels sorry for Li Chunshan, and there is always a vague sense of guilt in her heart. Lu Mengdi has been thinking about a problem, how to make Lin Chunshan's later life happier and happier.
Author: Grassroots writer