Chapter 23 Chapter two

Nature exerts mysterious and great power on the ruins of this ancient coal mine.The wind and sand of the Erlun Gobi in the northwest beat this black land mercilessly, quietly and quietly changing its appearance.Under the encroachment of the scorching sun, rain, snow, and wind and sand, the ruins of Heigelonggou seem to be getting smaller and smaller. In just a few years, Heigelonggou lost its old appearance, and its scale, grandeur, and majesty no longer existed.Indiscriminate deforestation of shelter forests opened the door for wind and sand to invade, making wind and sand the supreme authority on this land.The uneven land that has sunk in mining earthquakes has been flattened by the wind and sand, and the gray and black gangue that once covered the land extensively has disappeared, and the place has become a muddy yellow.When the wind blows, the boundless, grayish-yellow tiny particles connecting the sky and the ground will fly, collide, crowd, and clamor to spread to the sky.After the strong wind passed, they fell helplessly, on the broken walls, on the ruins of the mine, on the leaves and stems of the grass, and on the land that belonged to them.

These tiny particles make up the land, the land of movement, the land of expansion, the land of abusing human dignity. The left-behind people in Heigelonggou were evacuated, and the women who were nostalgic for their homeland were evacuated.A nearby town named after Heigelonggou also lost its usual indifference and numbness in the face of the expansion of the wind and sand; people felt that they had to do something. This year, a young secretary of the town committee came to the town, who was as individual as Fengsha.As soon as he took office, he showed a posture of doing a lot, and led the residents of the town to rebuild the shelter forest.He also wants to open the closed waste well, extract groundwater, irrigate the dry sandy soil, and fundamentally control the wind and sand.

The young secretary of the town committee walked into the ruins surrounded by wind and sand, and unexpectedly found a wisp of cooking smoke, an oasis, and an old man on the ruins. My God, there is an old man in this place! The old man is dry and thin, his skin is rough and dark, his face is full of wrinkles, and even his scalp with thinning white hair is full of dimples. At first glance, he looks like an old walnut that has been stored for many years. Get a glimpse of his real age.He seems to be in his fifties, but looking at him again, he seems to be in his sixties or seventies.When the young secretary of the town committee saw him, he was curled up and dozing against the door of the abandoned winch house, like a prawn slowly drying.

The winch house is the only building on the ruins that has not been blown up. The lower floor has been buried by wind and sand, and the north wall facing the original well head has been demolished. It was demolished to move the winch. Now, it is old The bricks were built.The garage is very spacious, with an usable area of ​​no less than fifty square meters.There is a bed opposite the door. Beside the bed is a cabinet with mottled paint. Radishes and vegetables are piled up in the corner beside the cabinet. The black cauldron was buzzing, and steam filled the room.There is an iron case in the center of the room, with water bottles and tea bowls on it, and several earthen jars for grain under the case.

The young secretary of the town committee walked into the house and watched for a long time, but the old man didn't notice.The secretary was pondering, walked out of the room, and coughed hard. The old man was startled, and slowly raised his thin head from his arms, and stared straight at him with two yellow eyes sunken deep in the sockets. There was no word for a long time. The old man's waist is bent, like a bow that has not been drawn.When he stood up slowly, his hunchback lifted up his sweat-stained jacket, revealing his black and red thin waist and spine.The clothes on his body have been bleached by the sun, and the sleeves, front and back are all patched. Only the word "protective clothing" can be seen faintly on the chest, which seems to be more or less proof that this is work clothes.

"Old man, are you a worker in this mine?" The old man nodded his head slightly, and began to ruthlessly dig out a greasy cigarette pouch hanging on his elbow. "Has the mine been withdrawn for five years?" The old man struck a match, lit the fire with slightly trembling hands, and took two puffs while biting the cigarette holder. Seeing that the fire in the smoke pot could not be extinguished, he pointed to a dusty wooden pier by the door and signaled The secretary of the town committee sat down.He himself put his arms around his knees and squatted down on another wooden pier.

"Are you still here?" The old man shook his head and squeezed out a few words between his teeth: "Retired!" "Oh?!" The young secretary of the town committee was a little confused.He was sure that the old man had secrets of his own; his eyes had never deceived him.Why didn't the old man leave with the coal mine?Why don't you return to your hometown after retirement and enjoy your old age in peace?Does he have no home?Don't you have a wife and grandchildren?Why did he stick to this wilderness? He didn't ask any more questions.Everyone has their own secrets, some of these secrets are to be concealed from everyone, some are to be concealed from some people, and some will be taken into the grave by the owner of the secret and become an eternal secret.He decided to talk to the old man about this wilderness, this wind and sand.

However, without allowing him to speak, the old man spoke first: "Young man, what do you do? Why did you come here?" The young secretary of the town committee smiled: "I am the secretary of the town committee just transferred here, and I want to work with everyone to cure this harmful wind and sand!" "Oh?! This is a good thing!" The old man exhaled smoke, "This wind and sand is really harmful! When it blows up, it's so dark that it can bury people!" "Is it the same in the past?"

"In the past, hey, in the past!" The old man's eyes lit up, as if a fire had been ignited, and he suddenly remembered a dream of prosperity and wealth, "It was not like this in the past. At that time, there were three plants planted in the west and north of the mine. It is a windbreak forest, and the water pumped up from the ground is poured into the flood drainage ditch day and night, wind and sand, hum! How dare it show its power? Let me tell you, boy, wind and sand are dog-like, afraid of people, there are people, there will be no wind and sand, and where there is wind and sand, there will be no one! "

The secretary of the town committee couldn't help being shocked. He seemed to see something in the old man's eyes, as if it was the answer to a riddle, a riddle that was difficult to express in words all at once.He suddenly felt that the old man's face was very familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before.However, he quickly rejected this idea in his mind.How could he have seen him?He had never been to the town, or even heard of it, before being transferred to work. "That's right, old man, I really shouldn't have cut down the protective forest back then!" "Who can stop it? Heigelonggou is going to be withdrawn, just like the earth is about to explode. Who wouldn't be jealous? At the beginning, they cut it secretly. Later, the wood factory in the town drove a truck to cut it! Alas, At that time, what happened at that time..."

"Old man, please tell me well!" On this day, the young secretary of the town committee had a very happy chat with the old man. At noon, he had a meal with the old man and drank half a bottle of Xihe Daqu.The secretary talked to the old man about his ideas and plans for controlling sandstorms, and suggested that the old man be a pumping station administrator when opening the abandoned well in the future. Speaking of opening the abandoned well, the old man got excited and shouted in a hoarse voice: "Why do you only pump water and not mine coal? There is coal underground, and there are many, many scattered coals! Large coal mines are not easy to mine, and small coal mines If I can pick, I can pick another ten or twenty years. If I am twenty years younger, I will start to do it!" The old man's face was full of blood, blood veins protruded from his neck, and the hand holding the cup trembled. "There are ready-made tunnels underground, existing ventilation and drainage systems, inclined shafts and vertical shafts for discharging and transporting materials... Heigelonggou is not dead, it can still live for many years!" "Good!" The young secretary of the town committee jumped up, "Old man, you pointed out a future for our declining town, a future that is more promising than selling big bowls of tea. After the big coal mine is withdrawn, our town The town lost its backing, and gradually declined. We have no technical strength and no raw materials to engage in weaving industry; we have no energy to engage in small industries, but we have to survive on this earth. What about digging out the earth?" The secretary of the town committee filled the glass with wine again: "Come on, old man, let's drink to your old suggestion and to the prosperity and rejuvenation of our town again!" The old man drank the wine and said with a smile: "Don't call me old man, I'm not old yet, I'm not even sixty years old this year!" "Well, hurry up tomorrow, this Heigelongou small coal mine has opened, and I invite you to be the first mine manager, and lead our unemployed young people to work hard." The secretary of the town committee laughed heartily, "Come on, old mine manager, I offer you a toast!" The old man froze for a moment, tried to stand up but couldn't stand firmly, shook his body, and sat down again.He stared blankly at the young secretary of the town committee, his eyes dimmed for a moment, and after a moment, he shook his head slowly, his black and blue eye sockets became moist. "Don't call me mine manager, I... I can't be!" "Old man, what's the matter with you?" The young secretary of the town committee was a little stunned. "It's nothing, have a drink!" The old man raised his face and drank the glass of wine in front of him. "Oh, by the way, I forgot to ask your old daimyo!" "Oh? Hey, call it whatever you want, old man, old man, old guy, old tree root, whatever you want!" "Just don't call me the mine manager! This strange old man!" The secretary of the town committee said to himself. "Well, old man, one day, when our small coal mine opens, I will ask you to be an old consultant; you must help me with this favor, right?" "Of course!" said the old man, "I don't believe that Hei Ge Di Gou just died like this; I'm just waiting for this day!" In the evening, the young secretary of the town committee left, and the old man sent him down the long slope of the west inclined shaft.The young secretary of the town committee turned around and waved to him, and suddenly found that there was a kind of persistent expectation in the tearful eyes of the old man.What is he expecting?Is it just to re-exploit this abandoned coal mine?He may have worked here all his life, and his youth, ideals, and dreams are buried here. He is looking forward to developing his dreams?He's looking forward to restarting the good old days of being a man? A lot of jubilant alcohol surged in the veins of the secretary of the town committee, and many strange ideas smelt of alcohol flew out of his hot head.He suddenly discovered that he had some artistic sense, and he seemed to be able to be a writer between second-rate and third-rate.Which ruin does not have its own story?The story of a coal mine ruin must be the story of a man or a group of men.But what kind of story would this be?Where did this story begin? The old man was still standing on the long slope, with a round of blood-red sunset hanging behind him, as if he and the sunset had both stopped and solidified at this moment, forming part of the ruins. A few lone geese flew in the sky, adding a bit of loneliness, a bit of desert, and a bit of sadness to the ruins...