"Literary Sky" online magazine first published original excellent works, is the literary bimonthly "Qintai Literature and Art" and other magazines selection base, mainly publishing youth, feelings, local, urban, family affection, left-behind themes of novels, prose and poetry works.
Window of Prose:
Mr. Yi Hongchang is a teacher I met when I graduated from normal school forty-one years ago and joined the work force. He was medium-sized, with a large head attached to a round, slightly purple-red face, and a sharp and slightly hoarse voice. He was about forty-four or five years old at the time, but he had already gone through retirement. Because at that time, the state had a special policy, that is, the state employees retired, and the children could replace the placement work. But at that time, that particular policy will soon be abolished. Therefore, many staff members in their forties and fifties have to retire early so that one of their children can replace the "iron rice bowl". At that time, Mr. Yi's eldest son was in high school, and in order to replace him, he had to terminate his studies and replace his father's job and become a teacher in the central school.
Although Teacher Yi applied for retirement, due to the lack of teachers at that time, the above decided to leave all of them who had not reached retirement age and continue to teach to solve the problem of serious shortage of teachers. Mr. Yi continued to stay in the village where he had settled, and also taught at the school where he used to work, and continued to be in charge of the school's work. Teacher Yi is warm and kind, and can take care of people in particular. Especially for young people like me who have just joined the work and are very far away from home, they are more caring and considerate, like their own children.
At that time, I graduated from normal school and was assigned to teach at the primary school in their village, and there was nothing but half a box of books, a quilt, a rice bowl and a washbasin and other extremely necessary daily necessities. After I arrived, Teacher Yi saw that I was a child of a poor family in the countryside and lacked a lot of daily necessities, so he brought me a large number of daily necessities from their home, such as small iron pots, shovels, small axes, chopping knives, fire tongs, and even two clay pots, one pickled pickles and one containing salt vegetables. Everything that is more important in life than I have, he has given special consideration.
Before me, there were four teachers in that school, three of whom included Mr. Yi from the village, and an old teacher who had gone through the retirement procedures like him but continued to stay and teach far away from home. Each teacher has a share of the campus land to grow vegetables. After I went, Mr. Yi, who was in charge of school work, did not take back some campus land from several other teachers to share with me, but gave me all of his own campus land. Several plots also grow greens and potatoes. Because it was spring, the greens were the harvest season, I asked him to harvest the vegetables, but he did not collect anything, must be left to me, he also helped me harvest, and taught me how to dry. Dried and helped me make salt dishes. When he saw that I had no tools for labor, he brought from his house tools for growing vegetables such as hoes, spoons, and buckets of dung.
I was admitted to the teacher training school in the 1970s when the "ten years of turmoil" ended and the college entrance examination was resumed, and since I entered in the spring in March, of course, graduation was also in the spring. Teacher Yi saw that I and the teacher Zhang, who lived in the school, were short of fuel for cooking, so he organized a spring tour of the whole school to visit the pine forest slope near the school. On the one hand, let students get close to nature and cultivate their love of nature. On the other hand, it is also to arrange for students to pick up a bundle of dry firewood and bring it back to the school during the spring tour to solve the "lack of firewood" worries caused by our two residential teachers to cook. The school has five classes from the first to the fifth grade, nearly two hundred students, a spring swim down, a bundle of dry firewood piled like a hill, at the end of a semester, only to burn a small part.
Teacher Yi saw that I was far away from home and could not go home on Sundays, but The teacher Zhang, who lived in the school, went home and felt that I was a little lonely and lonely at school alone, so he asked me to go to his house to help him with farm work. In fact, I understand in my heart that Teacher Yi's family does not need people to raid the farm work at all, their family of six people, his family member Aunt Zhang is a middle-aged woman who is particularly capable and capable of running the family, four children, the eldest goes to work, close to home, and Teacher Yi is the same as "open school", sooner or later there is more time to do housework and farm work, the second year reads junior high school, the third reads the fifth grade, the old man reads the third grade, and several children together with Teacher Yi can help the family do something sooner or later. Their family contracted not much land, and their family was enough to take care of it. Teacher Yi specifically told me to go to his house, so that I would not be lonely and bored. More importantly, it is to make me food. If you tell the truth and are afraid of hurting my face, I will use this as a pretext. At that time, grain, oil and meat were supplied by ticket, to be honest, less than thirty pounds of rations per month, one pound of vegetable oil, half a pound of pork, like me, a young and strong young man in his twenties, this supply of grain, half hunger and half fullness are not counted, that hunger and serious lack of nutrition, Teacher Yi is like a kind father, that is in the eyes, pain in the heart!
When I went to Teacher Yi's house on Sunday, most of the time there was nothing to do, but when the farmer was busy, I helped to raid the farm work. Went to his house, but he was busy with Aunt Zhang. Every time I went, she had to make me a lot of good food. Dumplings, buns, dumplings, bacon, pork ribs, sausages... Every time it feasted on me. At their house, I ate a lot of delicious foods that I had never eaten before, such as steamed dumplings and elbows, which were eaten for the first time in their house, and were made by Teacher Yi himself.
Teacher Yi looked very ordinary, as if he didn't have any great ability, but in fact, there were many special skills in him. In the case of cooking, people who don't know don't believe he can cook, let alone have any "cooking skills". In those days with him, I can be said to have learned Mr. Yi's superb cooking skills. He makes steamed dumplings, which is different from what other people do. The general practice is to use cold water to adjust the dough, and the noodles will feel very laborious, to knead hard for a while, the dough will appear soft. Teacher Yi, he uses boiling water to add some cold water soup noodles, and noodles are very easy, or a few clicks can knead the dough very softly, the dough skin wrapped dumplings will not be broken, steamed dumplings are very soft and very strong, especially delicious. He wrapped the bun dumplings very fast, six or seven people ate the bun dumplings, from the noodles, making traps, to wrapping well, the whole process, he alone, but also half an hour to get it. The shredded potatoes he cut could be threaded with needles, which I had seen with my own eyes.
Don't look at Teacher Yi's short and fat appearance like a weightlifter, he is a master swimmer. Listen to other teachers, before I went, there was a year when the whole school district teachers held a swimming competition, more than forty teachers participated, most of them were young teachers in their twenties and thirties, at that time Teacher Yi was already forty years old, when registering, many teachers looked at Teacher Yi's figure and his age, and advised him not to sign up, Teacher Yi just smiled and said, "Try it, the emphasis is on participation." "No one would have thought that the result of the game, the championship actually fell on him.
I went to Teacher Yi's house as a guest and found a very strange phenomenon. Their family was in a large courtyard, about seven or eight families lived, except for him, the rest of them were surnamed Zhang. It turned out that the six or seven families were all handed down from an ancestor, and even two of them were his mother-in-law's family, one was his mother-in-law's brother-in-law, and the other was his parents-in-law with a brother-in-law who had not yet started a family and a sister-in-law who was not married. The whole courtyard saw Teacher Yi and called him "Lao Yi", even his brother-in-law and sister-in-law. I have heard people say that Teacher Yi was originally from Quxian County, and after graduating from the normal school, he was assigned to Nanjiang, and then he was assigned to the county education bureau to the township where he is now located, and finally he was assigned to teach at the Liangjiaping Village Primary School where he is now settled. It is equivalent to his home in the place where his mother's family lives. The people of the whole courtyard, it should be said that they are his closest relatives, call him "Lao Yi", and I can't accept it. Of course, it is understandable that elders or peers who are older than him, such as father-in-law and mother-in-law and brother-in-law who are older than him, call him that. The other younger ones or juniors called him that way, but I couldn't accept it. For example, the brother-in-law and sister-in-law should also call him "brother", "sister brother", or call him "Teacher Yi". Call him "Lao Yi", I can't understand why. When I first arrived at Teacher Yi's house, I thought about it, and finally found a reason, thinking that it must be that Teacher Yi's appearance is too general, and her personality is also too gentle, gentle to be a little weak and even cowardly, and his wife Aunt Zhang is particularly outstanding regardless of her height and body, or her ability to run the family and the ability to treat people. It must be that his mother's family felt that Teacher Yi was not worthy of the girls of their Zhang family at all, and they were not worthy of being called "uncles", "son-in-law", "brothers-in-law" and so on. Calling him "Lao Yi" has a complete sense of contempt and contempt. But over time, I slowly discovered that my understanding was completely wrong. Because everyone in the courtyard saw that Teacher Yi had returned from school, Lao Yuan would greet him, "Lao Yi, is school out?" "Old Yi is back?" ", and a smile on his face. Even many times, the people in the courtyard also unreservedly asked him some difficult problems they encountered, such as the problem of children filling in the college entrance examination, how to design the house renovation and so on. Whenever others ask difficult questions, Teacher Yi will always go through some serious thinking and unreservedly tell his opinions or ideas to the other party. Also, on summer evenings, after dinner, almost every adult and child will take out a stool and sit in the courtyard to cool off. At this time, Teacher Yi will put a large pot of strong tea he brewed during the day on a small table, and sometimes bring out a tea plate of melon seeds for everyone to enjoy. A courtyard of people drinking tea and chatting with melon seeds, the atmosphere of happiness and harmony is simply a warm and harmonious big family. Seeing this, I finally understood that the people in the courtyard called Teacher Yi "Lao Yi", which was not what I thought, with the meaning of contempt and contempt. This is called entirely because Teacher Yi is amiable and respectable, does not put up a shelf, and his sincere enthusiasm. The word "Lao Yi" seems to be a little contemptible, but in fact, all the most simple and beautiful feelings such as sincerity, trust, respectability, etc., are included.
Teacher Yi is not only particularly sincere and warm to others, but also has no ambiguity in his teaching work. In order to prepare for class and correct homework, it is usually necessary to stay up until most of the night before resting. I've heard other teachers say that the classes he teaches, the final exam or the junior high school exam, are often among the best in the entire school district, especially in math, at least in the top three, and several times also took the first place.
In Teacher Yi, I learned a lot of knowledge about teaching and educating people and how to treat people.
Unfortunately, I worked with Mr. Yi for a semester and I was transferred. That was because there was a shortage of teachers at a village-run junior high school in this school district, so I transferred there.
When I left, I wanted to return all the things that Teacher Yi had given me, including daily necessities and labor tools, but he didn't want anything, he said that I arrived at the new school, there was also no canteen, I needed to cook for myself, I also had a campus, I needed labor tools, these were all used, you didn't have to spend money to buy, just joined the work, the money is not rich, you can save a little. I repeatedly resigned, but he insisted that I take it away, and there was no way, I had to stay.
It was the day the fall started. Because there were no roads between my school at that time and the school where I was new, I had to rely on manpower to "move". Asking those adult laborers in the countryside to pay for their work, Teacher Yi found seven or eight of the five-grade students he taught and helped me carry them under his leadership.
The new school is not far from Mr. Yi's house, about half an hour away. During the two years I taught there, I was bored on Sundays, and I visited his house a few times. Somehow, I went to Teacher Yi's house, and I really had a feeling of coming home. He and his wife, Aunt Zhang, treated me like my own biological parents. That kind of sincerity and enthusiasm, it can be said, is not half coping, but is completely a kind of care and care like treating one's own children. And his sons and daughters, who were as sincere and enthusiastic as they were, almost regarded me as their big brother. Every time I went, they would treat me with the most delicious meals as before, care about my "personal problems" and ask them to connect me with the tower bridge.
The village-run junior high school where I taught was suspended after two years due to a serious shortage of students and teachers. I was transferred to a township middle school. Due to the long distance between the two places, coupled with the tiredness of teaching work and family affairs, since then, I have rarely been to Teacher Yi.s. At that time, there was no communication tool such as a mobile phone, so there was almost no contact.
After many years, I inquired about the situation of Teacher Yi's family from Teacher Yi's relatives, but I heard a news that surprised me particularly, Teacher Yi had died of liver cancer. This news was nothing less than a thunderbolt on a sunny day, and I was particularly shocked and deeply saddened. In my impression, Teacher Yi's strong body, such a good person, more than sixty years old, is the best time for children and daughters to grow up, carefree and carefree, how did they get cancer, how did they leave so early?
During that time, whenever I thought of the death of Teacher Yi, I was particularly sad. Teacher Yi cared and cared for me so much, and before I could repay it, he left in such a hurry. Even when he was sick and hospitalized, because he didn't know, he didn't go to see him, let alone send him on his last trip. These will become my regrets for the rest of my life.
Teacher Yi, my first important leader, mentor and colleague on the road of life, although we have not been together for a long time, but the care he gave me and the impact on my life is extremely important. I feel that I have been able to treat people sincerely, work hard, and be helpful all my life, all thanks to his influence.
I should be deeply grateful to Teacher Yi. However, Teacher Yi had already left me. It would be an irreparable regret that this gratitude can no longer be realized. And the only thing I can do is to turn this regret into a deep nostalgia for Teacher Yi forever, and I believe that he will be able to feel it in another world!
About the Author:
Liu Hanlin, a native of Nanjiang County, Bazhong City, Sichuan Province, is a retired middle school teacher. Occasionally write some text after retirement to pass the time. In recent years, he has published nearly 30 works in the literary magazine "Ginseng Flower", "Bazhong Daily" and "Bazhong Evening News" supplement.