Zhiqing Zhang Baohua drank, but did not smoke, according to his words: "Smoke this thing, every wisp hurts people, don't smell it." One box at a time is harmful, far aside. ”
In fact, Zhang Baohua was a smoker when he joined the queue, and two things that happened later, one happy and the other sad, made him completely away from cigarettes.
In 1969, the school organized junior high school students to go to Qingpu, a suburb of Shanghai, for a short time, a total of three months, and then went home for two weeks of rest at the end of each month.
At that time, the students were very happy, and regarded this kind of temporary labor as a stepping green, and no one expected that this was actually a "preventive shot" for them to go to the countryside, and at the end of three months, the group of children would go to the northeast thousands of miles away.
The rural production team did not have dormitories and asked the students to live in the homes of peasant households, and the teacher said: "When you go to the countryside to work, you are not going to look at the flowers, but to transform yourself, and you must achieve the 'five sameness' with the poor and lower-middle peasants, eating, living together, working together, studying together, and criticizing the same." ”
Rural life is different from the city, mostly learning the art of harvesting, Zhang Baohua learned labor skills that he had never seen before, such as picking burdens, ploughing the land, cutting rice, and building stoves.
Of course, the children in the city are not a blank sheet of paper, they also have their own strengths, such as repairing semiconductor radios and helping the production team install electric lights in the mushroom room.
The life of eating and living together made the compatriots and students quickly familiar, and each other's habits were transplanted to each other's bodies, and Zhang Baohua's classmates took the lead in learning to smoke.
Every night when it is cool in front of the door of the hometown, the villagers take the initiative to hand over cigarettes, and the students do not see outside, and they take it and smoke it.
Zhang Baohua had not yet learned at that time, but looking at his classmates of the same age skillfully smoking, the sophisticated look made him very envious, after all, children have the impulse to imitate adults, in the eyes of many naïve children, smoking is a sign of "growing up".
After a while, someone handed Zhang Baohua a cigarette: "Xiao Zhang, come on?" ”
Zhang Baohua did not hesitate, and after taking it, he lit it, and he regarded this moment as a ritual, symbolizing that he had become a "smoker", and at the same time, he was also accepted by the men of the production team.
In a flash of three months of labor, at the thank-you meeting to bid farewell to his hometown, the teacher mentioned the "five sameness", and Zhang Baohua whispered to the students: "It should be 'six same', and 'same smoking'." ”
Later, when recalling this experience, he thought that the last thing he should learn during three months of going to the countryside was smoking, because when he joined the team in Heilongjiang, this hobby became a heavy burden.
Young people have limited self-control, do not know how to exercise restraint, Zhang Baohua does not leave his hand, and the cost of smoking has become the biggest daily expense. Within weeks of going to the countryside, he went to the production captain and asked for an advance salary.
"Captain, can you advance your salary to me?"
"What do you want money for?" The production captain was very puzzled, he knew that Zhang Baohua was not a gluttonous child, in the Northern Wilderness, money was not much use except for buying biscuits with food stamps.
"I'm going to buy a cigarette." Zhang Baohua answered.
The captain paused: "You can only advance 27 yuan per quarter." ”
"It's not enough, if you smoke a little better, 27 yuan is not enough to buy a cigarette, I have to buy other things." Zhang Baohua was embarrassed.
"Then you can't smoke dry tobacco, why, your mouth is made of gold, you must smoke well?"
The captain's sarcastic remarks finally became Zhang Baohua's helpless move.
He learned to smoke dry tobacco with his fellow villagers, but he was particularly unaccustomed to it, and the difference in taste was secondary, mainly the paper used for dry cigarettes, newspapers and magazines printed with ink, and even textbooks that children did not use.
Every time a homemade dry cigarette is lit, Zhang Baohua is worried, the tar in this tobacco leaf plus the ink of the cigarette paper, is ignited and inhaled into the lungs, and finally enters the bloodstream, flowing throughout the body, this toxin...
He slowly became a little resistant to smoking.
Something happened soon after that made him start thinking about quitting smoking.
Mr. Zhang's production team is surrounded by forests, so they sometimes have to cut wood. Generally speaking, the forest is the property of the state and cannot be moved unless it is allowed, but there is a dead wood called "standing dry" that is not in the supervision and can be disposed of by the people at will.
The so-called "standing stem" is actually a dead tree trunk. Some large trees can have deep roots, stand firm after death, have no skin and no leaves, and become a light pole after being dried by the wind, so it is called standing stem.
The production team has regulations, the dry logging station is not considered to be illegal logging, because it occupies the growth space of small trees, felling down is actually beneficial to the forest, many people are worried about the station dry, because it dried the water, is the best firewood.
In the winter, Zhang Baohua and another Zhiqing went to the mountain to see the forest, and the mangy forest was dependent on each other, but they did not feel lonely, but had a sense of carefree ease.
Still, a phone call disrupted the leisurely pace of their lives.
"Xiao Zhang, you prepare two big saws, I'll drive a truck up the hill in a moment, and you'll help cut the point and stand dry." A cadre in Yamashita's office called and did not ask about the situation, but asked for work.
After hanging up the phone, Zhang Baohua's face was pulled down, and his companion asked: "Do you want to cut down the station again?" ”
Zhang Baohua nodded, that cadre likes to get a little cheap, but he is stingy, and everyone is reluctant to help him work.
"As soon as he came up, he used an unquestionable command tone, how old he was!" Zhang Baohua was indignant.
"That is, we are always allowed to do private work, even if we are not invited to dinner, we always come up empty-handed." Companions also complained.
Zhang Baohua felt a cigarette from behind his ear, lit it and smashed it, and said slowly: "Or shall we hide?" ”
"Where to hide?" The companion looked around, "We have a few tents from the beginning to the end, there is no place to hide." If you go up the mountain, people will find you by following the footprints. ”
The two men were discussing ways when they heard the rumbling of cars.
"Broken! People are coming! Zhang Baohua pointed to the kitchen and said, "Go here." ”
The two people hurriedly hid in the kitchen, which was the only brick house on the mountain, Zhang Baohua saw that there were two rolls of grass mats in the corner of the wall, standing taller than their heads, he said with a clever move: "Let's wrap up the kang mat, stand in the corner, hide the best, but jump out and joke with him." ”
The two men wrapped themselves sharply in kang mats and buried themselves in the corner of the wall, waiting for the cadres' "search."
They could hear the man walking back and forth outside, and after a while the kitchen door opened and the man muttered, "Where have the two boys gone?" ”
He walked around the house, ready to go out, when he suddenly stopped and said, "Oh, how come there is a smell of smoke?" ”
Zhang Baohua sweated coldly, and scolded in his heart: the dry smoke is strong, the smell is rushing, let people smell it, it is really a smoking mistake!
The man walked toward the corner, his footsteps stopping in front of the kang mat, obviously observing what was in front of him.
Zhang Baohua thought well, if he reached out and pulled the kang mat, he would jump out with a loud laugh and pretend to be joking, of course, this unpaid hard work would definitely not escape.
"Oh, it's dirty." The man whispered, turned and left.
After a while, hearing the truck start, Zhang Baohua and his companions came out of the mat, and the two looked at each other with a black and gray face, smiled, and were glad to have escaped the disaster.
That night, when lying on the bed, Zhang Baohua turned over and over to think about what happened during the day, whether the person really did not find them, or found that the two of them were reluctant, for everyone's face, did not open the mat, anyway, everyone smelled the smoke, this smoking is probably really bad and superfluous benefits.
Although his heart was more and more repelled by smoke, his hand was still not broken, until he experienced a journey of life and death, Zhang Baohua made up his mind.
In 1978, Zhang Baohua took the college entrance examination and was admitted to the university in Harbin as he wished. After entering the school, the ages of the students are uneven, there are many middle-aged people in their thirties and forties, everyone is an old smoker, Zhang Baohua is in it, naturally can not quit smoking.
After a few months of class, a young intellectual from the previous production team called and asked, "Xiao Zhang, is your mother working in a hospital in Shanghai?" ”
"Yeah, what's wrong?" The other party had helped himself a lot before, and Zhang Baohua guessed that this time he was afraid to return the favor.
"I have something I want to ask you. In my original factory, there is a master who treats me well with lung cancer, can you contact your mother to help coordinate the operation in Shanghai? ”
A few years ago, Zhang Baohua once had a high fever in the middle of the night, fortunately, this Zhiqing carried him to the infirmary under the mountain to retrieve his life, and at that time he secretly decided that no matter what people asked for in the future, he would repay it once.
The other party stressed on the phone: "I just arrived at this factory a few years ago, thanks to learning a lot of crafts with the master, and later won the prize in the skill competition and was promoted to the current superior unit, and now that he is sick, I can't help." ”
"I have inquired, and it may take a month or two to operate locally, in that case, my master may not be able to survive."
Hearing this, Zhang Baohua said: "If you open your mouth, I will help no matter what." You can rest assured that I'll contact you right now. ”
That night, he rushed to the factory's staff hospital and met the master of the zhiqing.
This man was very haggard because of the disease, the flesh of his cheeks had a tendency to sink, and after listening to Zhang Baohua's self-introduction, he coughed twice and said, "Thank you, and thank you for my apprentice, thanks to your worries." ”
He trembled and took out a pack of cigarettes, handed them to Zhang Baohua, and said shortly: "My illness is probably because of smoking, and I have not smoked after being hospitalized. ”
Zhang Baohua wanted to refuse, but looking at the patient's earnest expression, he knew that people just wanted to express their gratitude, so he took it.
The two men chatted for a while, said some personal information, and Zhang Baohua left the ward.
He stood in the hospital corridor, drawing a stick from the somewhat weak cigarette pack, and sighed in his heart, this man was not yet 40 years old, he had a terrible lung cancer, which was probably related to him saying that he had at least two packs of cigarettes a day.
Thinking of this, he threw away his cigarette and put it out with his feet.
Early the next morning, he went to the telephone room to hang up the long-distance telephone in Shanghai, and there was no direct dial at that time, and the long-distance telephone had to wait for the transfer.
From eight o'clock in the morning until two o'clock in the afternoon, he waited outside the telephone room, and several times he took the cigarette case out of his pocket and looked at the few cigarettes left inside, but never clipped out.
I don't know why, he was dizzy and nauseous when he looked at the cigarette box, and for the first time in his life, he had a physiological rejection of cigarettes.
I don't know how long later, someone in the telephone room shouted: "Zhang Baohua, phone!" ”
He agreed: "Oh, here it comes." "At the moment of entering the door, I took out a cigarette case from my pocket and threw it in the trash, ending the ten-year smoking history from the age of 15 to 25.
After the operation, the master stood up for a while or left, Zhang Baohua deliberately went to send the last journey, saw the deceased who had been thin enough to take off the appearance of a person, he could only sigh, and from then on completely bid farewell to the smoke.
Decades later, when his peers had more or less health problems, Zhang Baohua was still alive and well, and he attributed his state to quit smoking earlier.
Looking back on the past, the slightly comical comedy hiding in the mat made him think of quitting smoking, and later experienced a life and death as a bystander, and finally made up his mind to quit smoking, he said: "Those two things, probably the most touched experience when I was young, thank fate for giving me another chance." ”
(Image from the Internet)