In the summer of 1968, after graduating from high school, Cai Yulin was assigned to work as a dung worker in the sanitation center, and after less than a month of work, Cai Yulin resigned and did not work, he had a bad appetite, and he really could not smell the smell of the toilet cesspool. After staying at home for half a year, he did not find a suitable job for himself, and he did not want to eat idle meals at home, so he responded to the call of the state and went to the countryside to do the work of chinching young people.
Cai Yulin came to Yanbian in the spring of 1969 to join the Red Flag Brigade to settle down, when there were eleven Yanji Zhiqing who joined the Fifth Production Squad of the Red Flag Brigade, Cai Yulin was a high school student, and everyone else graduated from junior high school.
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Because a few years ago, there were Zhiqing to the Red Flag Brigade to settle down, Cai Yulin After they arrived, Li Chunxiang, the leader of the fifth team, had already prepared a place for the Zhiqing, and the three houses in the courtyard of the team headquarters had long been cleaned up, five female Zhiqing lived in the West Room, six male Zhiqing lived in the East Room, and in the middle was the kitchen, and Captain Li's sister-in-law temporarily helped teach the Zhiqing to cook. Eleven of them were counted as a Zhiqing collective household, and Cai Yulin was recommended as the head of the collective household.
Captain Li's eldest brother had two girls, the eldest named Li Dongmei, who was nineteen years old at the time. The second girl's daughter was li Qiuhong, who was sixteen years old at the time, and these two girls were really like flowers and jade, not to mention how beautiful they were. Captain Li's sister-in-law came to cook for the Zhiqing, and the two sisters often went to the Zhiqing Collective Household to help their mothers, and when they came and went, they were both familiar with the Zhiqing, and the Zhiqing also liked the kind and beautiful sister flowers.
The natural conditions of the Red Flag Brigade are good, although they are all dry fields, but the terrain there is flat, the land is fertile, and the living standards of the villagers are not bad, which can be said to be worry-free about food and clothing, and life is rich. Cai Yulin rested for two days and then joined the production of spring ploughing and preparation. Spring ploughing and autumn harvest is the busiest season in the local countryside, the villagers are up early and late to produce, except for the elderly and children, rarely see an idle person in the village.
After the first spring ploughing and spring sowing production, the zhiqing were tanned and tired, and the blisters on their hands became cocoons, in cai Yulin's words, it was really peeled off a layer of skin. Even Cai Yulin, who graduated from high school, said so, and the degree of fatigue of the children who graduated from junior high school was even more imaginable. Fortunately, with the love and help of the villagers, although the young people are tired, they feel very warm in their hearts.
In the early autumn of the third year, Captain Li arranged for Cai Yulin and two old members to manage the vegetable field in the south of the village, and there were two garden houses (mud thatched houses, where the vegetable watchers lived) at the south end of the vegetable field, and the three of them were in the vegetable field during the day, the two members went home to eat, and Cai Yulin ate in the garden house of the vegetable field. In the evening, another member of the company came to the vegetable field to take care of the vegetable field with Cai Yulin to prevent anyone from stealing the vegetables.
At that time, the team's vegetable field was mainly turnip cabbage, and there were also vegetables such as potatoes, green onions and leeks, but there were not too many, usually Cai Yulin and the three of them took care of the management of the vegetable field, sowing, fertilizing, and watering, the captain would send other members to the vegetable field to help.
At noon on the third day when Cai Yulin was watching the vegetables in the vegetable field, he opened the pot to prepare for lunch, only to see that there were two eggs in the pot and a few pancakes with cornmeal. Who put the eggs and pancakes in the pan? Cai Yulin thought about it for half a day, but he couldn't think of the result. Uncle Zhang and Uncle Wang, who were watching the dishes together, came to the vegetable field empty-handed when they ate breakfast, and they loosened the soil for the cabbage in the vegetable field in the morning, and they did not notice that someone came to the garden house. Whatever about him, since someone has sent it, let's eat it. The eggs are cooked, the pancakes are new and soft. Two boiled eggs, two pancakes, and pickles sent by the villagers before, hot water in the warm pot, and Cai Yulin's lunch was solved.
A few days later, when Cai Yulin was preparing to make lunch, he saw two boiled eggs and a few pancakes in the rice cooker, and the pancakes were also rolled with shredded pickles mixed with oil. While eating pancakes, Cai Yulin racked her brains to guess who had sent him pancakes and boiled eggs. There are several candidates, but I can't be sure, and it's not good to ask one by one.
Since then, Cai Yulin has begun to pay attention, and when he is working in the vegetable field, he will look at the garden house from time to time. After several days, Cai Yulin finally found out, he saw Li Dongmei go to the garden house, but that day he locked the door. With this discovery, Cai Yulin's heart was like running into a rabbit, banging and jumping. Li Dongmei is the most beautiful girl in the Red Flag Brigade, and she has read books for several years, if she can find such a beautiful girl as a daughter-in-law, it can also be regarded as a blessing cultivated in the previous life.
Just when Cai Yulin was restlessly thinking wildly, the secretary of the brigade informed Cai Yulin to go to the commune to participate in the assessment, and the county would recruit a clerk and a cultural and educational cadre. Cai Yulin successfully passed the various assessments and political examinations, and he was recruited to work in the county. On the day cai Yulin left the Red Flag Brigade, Li Dongmei was waiting for Cai Yulin at the entrance of the village, and she handed Cai Yulin a few boiled eggs and a few pancakes wrapped in handkerchiefs, and said with tears in her eyes: "Brother Yulin, will you come back when you leave?" I learned to make a pair of cloth shoes, and one that was not ready, and when you come back, I want to give it to you. ”
Taking the boiled eggs and pancakes handed over by Li Dongmei, Cai Yulin couldn't say what it was like in his heart, he smiled and said, "I will come back, I will come back to see you." Thank you for sending me food many times, and I will remember your kindness to me. ”
With affection for his second hometown and reluctance for his fellow villagers, Cai Yulin left the Red Flag Brigade and became a state cadre who ate the grain of the national treasury. Although the county town is not very far from the Red Flag Brigade, Cai Yulin has just gone to work in the county, and he is very busy every day, and he has never had time to return to the Red Flag Brigade, but has only written two letters to Li Dongmei.
In the spring of the following year, when the county cadres went to the countryside to stay, Cai Yulin was unexpectedly sent to the Red Flag Brigade to supervise and guide the agricultural production of the Red Flag Brigade and help the members and masses solve the practical difficulties encountered in life.
When cadres from the county come to the squatting point, the brigade secretary and members naturally attach great importance to it, warmly welcome it, and dare not slack off at all. When the secretary of the brigade and the members of the society saw that the cadre sent by the county was Cai Yulin, everyone was relieved, and the secretary of the brigade also laughed and joked with Cai Yulin: "In the past two days, I have been worried about receiving the cadres in the county, and I am afraid that the hospitality will not be satisfactory to the cadres in the county, and I don't have to worry about you when you come." ”
At that time, the requirements of the superiors for the cadres sent to the lower points were to eat, live and work together, and the cadres sent down had to mingle with the members, understand the real situation in the countryside and the needs of the members and masses, and make suggestions for agricultural production. Cai Yulin returned to the Red Flag Brigade, and he lived in the Zhiqing Collective Household again, but three meals a day had to take turns to go to the villagers' homes to eat pie meals.
The next day, Cai Yulin was arranged to eat pie rice at Li Dongmei's house, the meal was very simple, a plate of fried eggs, a plate of oil mixed with pickle shreds, the staple food was cornmeal pancakes plus two boiled eggs. The food at Li Dongmei's house made Cai Yulin feel a very familiar taste. After eating, Cai Yulin chatted with Li Dongmei's parents and asked them what difficulties they had, Li Dongmei's mother said: "The family is very good, there is no difficulty in life, that is, Dongmei has reached the age when she should start a family, but she picks left and right, and there is no satisfaction." It is this matter, which is the difficulty of our family. ”
That day, Cai Yulin gave Li Dongmei the scarf she bought from the county town, and Li Dongmei gave cai Yulin the pair of cloth shoes she had made. Seeing such a situation, Li Dongmei's parents were stunned, they couldn't believe their eyes, Cai Yulin was a cadre in the county, and Dongmei was a rural girl, which was impossible.
After eight months of squatting in the Red Flag Brigade, Cai Yulin completed the task of going to the countryside to exercise again, and he was about to return to the county. The first night, Cai Yulin came to Li Dongmei's house, he blushed and said to Li Dongmei's parents: "Uncle and aunt, I really like Dongmei, I want to marry Dongmei in a year and a half, I don't know if your second elder agrees to disagree." "Yulin, my uncle and I are glad that it is too late, why would we disagree?" It's just that Dongmei is a rural hukou, and I'm afraid she doesn't deserve you. Without waiting for Li Dongmei's father to speak, Li Dongmei's mother preemptively expressed her attitude and expressed her worries.
Cai Yulin smiled and said, "Uncle and aunt, I like Dongmei from the bottom of my heart, and I don't care about the rest, so you can rest assured." ”
In the summer of 1974, under the strong opposition of colleagues and parents, Cai Yulin and Li Dongmei received a marriage license, Li Dongmei was still living in the Red Flag Brigade for the time being, Cai Yulin said that when the county was settled, she took Li Dongmei to the county seat to live.
Waiting for more than three years, Cai Yulin also failed to take Li Dongmei to the county town to live, may be the reason for the busy work, Cai Yulin returned to the Red Flag Brigade time is very small, sometimes two or three months do not come back once.
In the first year of resuming the college entrance examination, Cai Yulin was admitted to Jilin University with excellent results, and he quit his job in the county and stepped into the door of the university. Cai Yulin went to the provincial city to go to college, and there was gradually gossip in the village, saying that Li Dongmei would be dumped by Cai Yulin sooner or later, married for several years without a child, Cai Yulin would stay in the provincial city after graduating from college, and he would not live with a rural wife for a lifetime. For the rumors in the village, Li Dongmei and her parents are not steadfast in their hearts, and they are really afraid that Cai Yulin has become a contemporary Chen Shimei.
Three years of time is as long as half a life, in the worry and uneasiness finally survived three years, Cai Yulin graduated from college and was assigned to work in the Organization Department of the Provincial Party Committee, the second year of work, Cai Yulin took Li Dongmei to the provincial city, after more than six years, Li Dongmei finally came to her husband's side. That day, Li Dongmei lay on Cai Yulin's shoulder and cried, and she cried and said, "I thought that if you stayed in the provincial city to work, you wouldn't want me..." "Look at what you said, the old saying is that poor and unworthy friends can't be forgotten, and the wife of a chaff doesn't go to church, even if I go to the central government to work, I won't do such a thing, not to mention that you are still a great beauty, I am reluctant to lose you." Looking at his tearful wife, Cai Yulin was both distressed and uncomfortable, and these years really made his wife wronged.
In the summer of 1983, Li Dongmei sent her one-year-old son to Yanji for her mother-in-law to take care of, and she also joined the work as a sales clerk in a department store. Li Dongmei participated in the work in accordance with the relevant policies and enjoyed the treatment of the family members of Zhiqing, without any violations.
After retirement, Cai Yulin returned to Hongqi Village many times to visit the villagers, he did a lot of things for the villagers in the second hometown, the widows and the elderly and the poor people in the village have received his financial support and help, and the kindergartens and homes for the elderly have also received financial support from Cai Yulin.
At present, Cai Yulin and his wife are living in Changchun, and sometimes go to Shenzhen to live in her son's house for a few days, and their family lives very happily and happily. Whenever he talks about his career and married life, Cai Yulin is very excited, he said that although the days of joining the team are bitter, the kindness and enthusiasm of the villagers make him feel warm. Although his daughter-in-law is a rural person, she is industrious and kind, beautiful and generous, and he is very satisfied with having such a woman to accompany her all her life. His marriage began with going to the countryside to join the team.
The years of knowing youth are worth remembering, and the beautiful marriage is worth cherishing. Cai Yulin said that zhiqing's experience is an important part of his life, and he will never forget the bitter youth years, let alone the villagers in his second hometown.
Author: Grassroots writer