Chapter 11 Section Eleven

A family of three had breakfast around the square table left by the ancestors. Runsheng was really hungry. The steamed buns brought to the beach by his mother had been frozen into lumps of ice lumps because they were busy with drawing lots for everyone; I got up and down the river beach until now, my stomach is rumbling, and my belly is already tightly attached to my spine.He swallowed the soft and tough steamed buns, chewed the crisp and juicy shredded radish, and drank the sweet and greasy buns. It was so delicious!The hunger caused by heavy physical labor is so unbearable, and chewing and swallowing five grains is simply a supreme enjoyment.

The mother stopped the chopsticks from time to time, looked at the way her son was wolfing down lovingly, and seemed to say that he was eating like a man. Father lost all his teeth, and the flabby muscles on both sides of his cheeks were tensely moving. He still ate very slowly. The one steamed bun he held in his hand never seemed to decrease, but Runsheng had already eaten three.He glanced at his father chewing food with difficulty, and suddenly realized that his father was old.His sunken cheeks due to the loss of teeth, his skin covered with large and fine wrinkles, his dim and dull eyes all showed that he was old.Looking at his father's expression, Runsheng suddenly thought of a rubber rope, a tired rubber rope that had lost its elasticity.Yes, the old father, who has exhausted all his strength, is like a rubber rope that has been constantly pulled and pulled. It has finally lost its elasticity and vitality. Now it has become loose and tired, and it is difficult to bear the pull and pull of gravity up.

Runsheng suddenly remembered that from morning to night, his father was busy from the house to the field, and then from the field to the trough, and he was rarely seen for a moment of idleness in a day.He seldom gossiped in the den, and seldom went to the fair. The cowshed and pigsty were his entertainment palaces.His greatest pleasure is to squat in front of the cattle’s hind legs while biting a dry tobacco pipe, watching the calf spread its four hooves, raise its mouth, and suck milk on the cattle’s fat teats… …He knew all of this in the past, but he never cared about it, it seemed that it was like this, and there was nothing to think about or say.Now, suddenly, he strongly realized that his father was so old, that loose skin and tired body could no longer burst out with strong strength.

His heart was churning, and there was an impulse churning. He should take over from his father. With such an aging body, it was impossible for him to do anything big.He is the youngest and only boy in the family. Six older sisters, like swallows with hardened wings, left the old nest one by one. Back to their village, busy with their sun and moon.He is the real master of this small courtyard.The house is too dilapidated and old, and the beams and rafters have been blackened by smoke and fire, and insect-eaten powder is constantly falling down. On rainy days, black-red drops of water often drip down.Square wooden tables, chairs with straight backs, some with broken legs, and some with missing corners, all tried their best like my father, old and old.There should be new housing and new-style furniture. All of these have been completely changed. Many people in the village have built new houses and added new-style wardrobes and desks. Young people have dismantled the earth kang and replaced it with steel spring beds .Changing and renewing the house and equipment in this small courtyard, and living a comfortable life, can no longer rely on my father, it has to be done by him.

"Runwa, I heard that you have become a 'chairman'?" The father had already lit the cigarette pot, and asked slowly, "Is there such a thing?" "Yeah." Runsheng nodded. "Hey! None of our ancestors have ever been an official in the past three generations. You have changed our family style!" The father said half joyfully, half teasingly, "Our baby is talented!" "It's a folk labor association, not an official." Runsheng explained to his father, "After the implementation of the responsibility system, various forms of alliances have taken place between farmers to adapt to the development of production..."

"Whether you're an official or not, you always have the word 'long' with you!" the father said lazily, "I've hung the word 'long' once in my life... I'm so scared..." Runsheng smiled and didn't say a word. His father had been the captain once, and it was already a cliché for him.When Runsheng was not yet born, his father became a production team leader in the agricultural cooperative. He drove to the countryside and asked him to release satellites. Everyone else did, but he ran away from the meeting in fright and hid in his aunt's house, not daring to return. Cao Cun is here.When he returned home in fear, the Caocun Agricultural Cooperative had a new captain in charge.He entered the farm, and it was not until the year before last that the livestock left the house that he returned to his house with the roll of bedding.He became famous because of his timidity. The anecdote of his being the captain has long remained in the memory of the people of Cao Village. Of course, he himself can't forget it. Too timid and too honest, to be so scared...

"Do you want to do it or not?" asked the father. "Everyone... forcefully recommended me..." Runsheng replied. "Of course, everyone has their eyes on you. Let me ask you something—" my father said seriously, "Compared with the village chief, who leads whom?" "Of course...the village chief leads me..." "If that's the case, don't do it as soon as possible." "What's wrong?" Runwa asked hurriedly, "What are you afraid of?" "You're not going to end well." "Why?" "In a word, that person is not a straight guy. Don't ask any more questions." My father said, "I have been in the same team with him for thirty years, and I still can't see a person? If you believe what Dad says, let go as soon as possible." "If you don't believe me, try it."

"He's his village chief, and I'll get my rocks. As long as he pays taxes according to the national law, it has nothing to do with him!" Runsheng couldn't imagine what kind of crooked village chief he was, "Are you afraid that he will trip you up secretly? son?" "That man..." My father shook his gray head, set his toothless mouth, and said no more. The worry was deep-rooted, and all his difficulties were contained in that silent shaking of the head and sigh.He seemed very reluctant to mention the village chief, and quickly changed the subject, "Besides, it's hard to predict that this policy will remain unchanged..."

"Don't worry, farmers are allowed to make a fortune, and the central government has red-headed documents." Runsheng has long been used to those worried words, and said indifferently, "All the old people have the next disease: fear of change!" "Your child has no experience of world affairs. You don't understand world affairs without going through the 'Four Cleans' and the 'Cultural Revolution'." My father sighed deeply, "The work team who came to Cao Village at that time also took red-headed documents..." Runsheng couldn't open his mouth anymore, looking at his father's wrinkled face, he couldn't find out how much worry was hidden in his father's deep and shallow wrinkles?He could neither estimate nor convince his father.He was only 18 years old. When the "Four Cleansing" Movement was vigorously carried out in Cao Village, he had not yet come to this remote village in Xiaohechuandao! The "Cultural Revolution" was also a blank for him.In his opinion, all kinds of anecdotes about the "Cultural Revolution" in movies and people's oral stories are as absurd as the stories in the film. How could such absurd things happen in our lives? Have they all become neurotic?There is no way, he has never seen it before!Without personal experience, it is always difficult to appreciate its historical and realistic, subjective and objective factors.At his age, it is easiest to use the life he is experiencing today to imagine a life that has passed and has never been seen before.He said indifferently: "It's nothing. Dad, this 'chairman' is not an official title. If I can do it, I will do it. If I can't do it, I will fail you. Don't worry about it."

"Can you sell all the stones for everyone?" My father asked the most specific question, "There are many people fishing for stones, and the stones are not easy to sell. Now you are too excited to go through the back door. Why are you?" "Runwa, Mom heard from your long-term aunt that one of your classmates billed tickets at the management station." The mother suddenly interrupted, "They said they sent you a car..." "En." Runsheng couldn't help but shuddered, and lowered his head to drink. "Your eldest son-in-law is nagging me, wanting to get married to you..." The mother pretended to be indifferent, and asked, "I said our baby is a farmer, I'm afraid it won't work..."

"That's not the case!" Runwa immediately blushed and said dead, avoiding her mother's inquiring eyes, and said to her father, "There are people who sell stones through the back door, and there are people who don't use the back door to sell stones. Let's establish' The Stone Fishers Association' is to establish an organizational relationship with the sand and gravel management station, make reasonable arrangements, and follow the right path without going through the back door." "Everyone believes in you, just do it." The father had already stood up, and turned his head when he walked to the door, "Don't let people point your back and scold your ancestors in everything, you have grown up. That's what I said!" Runsheng put down his chopsticks and watched his father walk out of the room, feeling a surge in his heart. He has grown up.Yes, eighteen years old!Everyone has entrusted him with the important task of "President"!In any case, today is an important day. In the eyes of everyone, he is no longer an ignorant plush doll, but a young man who is hoped by more than a hundred peasants fishing for stones.From being ignorant to sensible, from yesterday to today, for the first time in his life, he took responsibility, and it was everyone's responsibility.For the first time, he clearly realized that his father was old, and felt his responsibility in this small courtyard strongly.The first important post in the journey of life, he is about to ride a horse and gallop. Runsheng walked out of the house, feeling a heavy sense of responsibility in his heart for the first time.What a wonderful, what an important first awakening in life!