Will anyone believe in fate? Remember the little boy who once appeared in each of our junior high school textbooks—"LeapIng Earth"? Under the pen of the great writer Lu Xun, the leap earth has such a cute and simple image. "Round purple face, wearing a small felt hat on his head and a dangling silver collar around his neck."
In the eyes of the young Lu Xun, Yan Tu was like a well-informed, courageous and knowledgeable little hero. However, after the vicissitudes of the years, the middle and late years of the earth are gray and yellow, the body is rickety, no longer as full of vitality as when he was young, and even before his death, he is desolate and bleak.
The life of the leap earth can't help but make people sigh, perhaps from birth, everyone has a fate of good or bad.
In everyone's life, there will be three or three pairs of close friends, regardless of the balance of interests, only look forward to this life to be long. And Yan Tu is such a precious friend in Lu Xun's life.
The image of Yan Tu appears in Lu Xun's short story "Hometown", although it is a story character, it is Lu Xun who creates it based on real-life stories. The prototype of Yan Tu in real life, named Zhang Runshui, is the only son of Zhang Fuqing, a helper of the Lu Xun family.
His father, Zhang Fuqing, lived in Dupu Village, an ordinary rural farmer with several acres of thin land to make a living as a farmer. In addition, he often relied on the skills of bamboo craftsmen and helpers in the Zhou family (Lu Xun) family to earn commissions to subsidize the family.
Zhang Fuqing loved his son very much, even if the family did not have any spare money, but he still pieced together and saved a long time to buy a bright and dangling silver collar for Yan Tu, hoping to protect Yan Tu's life under the protection of the gods and Buddhas.
At that time, Lu Xun's family was a large local family, and the family was big, and every busy month or major festival day, many croppers from surrounding villages would be invited to help.
Although he was a helper who would come when the Zhou family was busy, he also won the trust of Lu Xun's father Zhou Boyi and played the role of the Zhou family's housekeeper for a long time.
Because he loved his son very much, Zhang Fuqing always hung up on the leap soil, which caused the teenager Lu Xun to be very curious about this child who had never appeared. Fortunately, when the Zhou family had only arrived once in more than thirty years, and many people were needed, Zhang Fuqing proposed that his son come over to help take care of the sacrifice vessels.
The next day, Zhang Fuqing came to Lu Xun's house with a leaping earth. Looking at the felt hat and the round reddened purple leap earth, Lu Xun felt very happy, and immediately pulled the leap soil to a place where there were only two people. Yan Tu told Lu Xun about all kinds of strange things he had seen, such as the five-colored shells on the seashore, the dangerous experience of watermelons, and various animals in the field, which attracted Lu Xun's obsession for a time.
After introducing each other to their strange things, Lu Xun and Yan Tu quickly established a deep friendship, Lu Xun admired The bravery and shrewdness of the Land, and the Land of The Land worshiped Lu Xun's "Zhi Hu Ye".
Happy days always pass quickly, Lu Xun and Yan Tu have not played together enough, and Yan Tu's father will take Yan Tu home with him, because the Zhou family's great sacrifice activities have ended.
The two sympathetic children said goodbye to each other, but they still couldn't stop the thoughts that had already poured in before they were separated. Lu Xun cried urgently because of the imminent departure of Lu Tu, and Lu Tu also hid in the kitchen corner because he was reluctant to give Lu Xun and cried.
Even if you don't give up, you still have to separate. Lu Xun could not resist the thought of writing a letter to Yan Tu, and invited Lu Tu to go to Shaoxing City to see the beautiful scenery together during the winter vacation.
The agreed time slowly came, and the two long-awaited teenagers arrived in Shaoxing City as promised, and they climbed the Yingtian Pagoda together, looking at the outstanding scenery at the moment.
Although the city of Shaoxing in winter is always cold and windy, Lu Xun and Yan Tu do not feel tired at all, but cherish the time they can spend together.
At the end of the game, the leap earth returned home. Because he was infected by Lu Xun, Yan Tu proposed to his father that he also wanted to go to the academy and become a talented reader in the future. It is reasonable to say that the vast majority of rural children like Leap Earth do not need to read, and it is better to learn more about the technique of leaning over.
But Yan Tu's father was not willing to directly break the beautiful expectations of Yan Tu, and he was working as a housekeeper in the Zhou family while farming, and he could fully afford to go to school, so after a brief consideration, his father Zhang Fuqing agreed to Yan Tu's request.
Seeing his father so cheerful, Yan Tu was naturally overjoyed, because in this way, the distance between him and his good friend Lu Xun seemed to become a little smaller. As everyone knows, things are far from being as simple as they seem on the surface. Before Leap Earth could really enter the academy, his father fell ill.
The rural people of that era did not have money to see a doctor, so it was not long before The father of the leap soil died in a hurry, and the previous desire to go to school was also lost with the death of the father.
The strange thing is that the death of his father made the situation of The Land become cramped and bleak, and Lu Xun, a close friend on the other side, quickly ushered in the Waterloo of his life. Lu Xun's grandfather Zhou Jiefu was imprisoned for official affairs, and his family's situation was suddenly much worse than before.
His father, Zhou Boyi, fell ill with malaria because he was worried about the safety of his grandfather and the family, and not only did not support the family's size, but he was already depressed before his grandfather was released from prison. Since then, Lu Xun has suddenly become the backbone of the Zhou family, responsible for the joy of the family's life.
Two childhood friends, almost at the same time, ushered in the changes of their respective families, and the burden on their shoulders suddenly increased a lot, so there was no longer the time to play freely.
Yan Tu did not inherit his father's errands - a fairly good job as a helper for the Zhou family, and could only guard a few acres of thin fields at home, racing against the clock to go out fishing, picking up burdens, and taking boats to support his family. With the continuous increase of labor force, Yan Tu slowly suffered from many diseases, especially a piece of abscess on his back, which was painful every day, but he could only endure to rely on his daughter to rub some ointment to maintain the status quo.
Not only did he not have money to see a doctor, but he also had to work hard to support the family's five or six children, and the life of the leaping earth became more and more cramped and painful. On the other hand, Lu Xun's situation was much better. As the saying goes: "The skinny camel is bigger than the horse", Lu Xun's family fell in the middle of the road, but he was full of poetry and books since he was a child, full of talent, and he could still exchange knowledge for money.
In the winter of 1919, Lu Xun returned to his hometown to pick up his mother to go to Beijing, and met with Yan Tu again, but he did not expect that the ruddy and full teenager of that year had become the picture in front of him.
Yan Tu's face was gray and yellow, and his body was rickety, and he met Lu Xun as a "master" by adhering to the etiquette.
Lu Xun looked at the leaping earth in front of him, his heart was sour and he couldn't even say a word, and he relaxed for a long time before he came back to his senses. Before leaving, The Leap Earth came to say goodbye, and I did not expect that this farewell was a lifetime.
In 1934, the condition of The Land continued to deteriorate. In the past, when he was tired, Yan Tu could still temporarily alleviate it by smoking dry tobacco, but this year, no matter how he tried to think of it, he was always sleepy, coupled with the increasing pain of illness, Yan Tu finally left his family forever in the afternoon of one day.
Lu Xun, who was far away, also found a bad disease in 1936, and after several months of struggle, he finally died in a hurry.
Yan Tu and Lu Xun were born into two worlds, but their fates were always inextricably linked in the underworld, and until after their deaths, they had never been completely disconnected.
The eldest son of Yan Tu is named Qi Sheng, under the leadership of Yan Tu, Qi Sheng is like a young Yan Tu, with a lively and resolute personality, all kinds of playing the flute, beating the drum board, playing the huqin, doing farm work, and can also be regarded as a "capable" person in the village.
However, due to bad luck, in time for the plague epidemic in 1940, although he was careful, he was still killed by the disease early.
The daughter's name was Zhang Ahua, and she had gone with her when She bid farewell to Lu Xun in The Land. After the death of his father, Ah Hua's life also plummeted, and he could only rely on the surrounding neighbors and relatives to support him, and when he reached the age of marriage, he grasped the matchmaker to find a down-to-earth family, although life was poor and hard, but fortunately he could still live safely, and he was satisfied.
There are also several children who either wander through a life of misery or die in the ensuing calamities.
Qisheng, as the eldest son who was very concerned about The Land, failed to live a good life and died early, but the son Zhang Gui left by Qisheng, that is, the grandson of the Land, trusted the blessing of the Land, and after the ordinary years, ushered in a turning point in life.
Like his father, Zhang Gui lived a poor life from an early age, did not go to school for a few days, and when he grew up, he could only rely on helping others to do chores to maintain his life. In the face of such a life, Zhang Gui is very content, but he never thought that one day he would usher in a new and beautiful life because of his grandfather's origins.
In 1954, Zhejiang Shaoxing Lu Xun Memorial Hall recruited staff, there is no doubt that here more need for relevant cultural literacy of intellectuals, but because Zhang Gui and the great literary hero Lu Xun have irreplaceable, inextricable origins, so even if Zhang Gui is a rough person without culture, the memorial hall still extended an olive branch to Zhang Gui.
The memorial hall invited Zhang Gui to work at the Lu Xun Memorial Hall, and spared him any worries, indicating that relevant knowledge can be learned slowly, after all, there is no one in the world who can be the same as Zhang Gui, as long as he stands there, let people see Lu Xun's deep love affair with The Land at a glance. Zhang Gui resigned, but had to accept it, and began to report to the night school to work overtime.
In 1976, Zhang Gui was invited by Lu Xun's son Zhou Haiying to Japan, and the two of them traced their family's love affair, although there was a huge difference in generations, they still formed a deep friendship.
Since then, Zhang Gui has slowly embarked on the road of cultural undertakings from the previous croppers, and has also received various knowledge education for his children, and no longer has to be with the land all his life like his elders.
If The Land Can See This, He will be very pleased that his "reading" wish, which he failed to realize at the beginning, has finally become a reality here for future generations.
The life of Yan Tu was painful, and although he was a child as a servant, it was already the happiest time of his life.