Chapter 4 Chapter Four

"Let's drink the soup!" Shuqin put the dish of pickled garlic moss on the table, and went to scoop the porridge into the pot.People in my hometown call having dinner soup, and Shuqin looked at him lovingly, "After pulling wheat all day, eat early and rest early." "Don't worry, let me wash it," he said. "It's so painful and itchy." "Well, then I'll boil warm water for you." "No! I'll wash in the river, and have a good time." "The water in the river is cold!" "It's okay!" "Then I'll drink the soup after you come back." Shuqin said meekly, "Don't soak it for too long, be careful of catching a cold!"

"Let's go together!" he said. "You should wash too." "I wash it with warm water in the house." She smiled sheepishly, "The kids are grown up, let the kids watch him go down the river together..." "Old feudalism!" He didn't force it, smiled and took off the towel from the basin stand, put it on his shoulders, and walked out the door. "Go and wash in the lower river!" Shuqin rushed out, and said, "The women in the upper river bay wash at night! Don't run away..." As soon as summer comes, the small river is a natural bathing place. The men wash in the lower river, and the women wash in the upper river. They do not invade each other. It is customary and customary, although the men can hear the women laughing and laughing from the upper river. The sound, but the night guards their respective territories.It was inconvenient for the husband and wife to go down the river together, and Shuqin was embarrassed to go down the river with him.

Following Shuqin's reminder, he walked along the embankment to the lower river. Under the dim starlight, he could see a group of figures swaying in the waterway of the river bend, and there were laughter and chatter.Judging from the voice, most of them are young people.They love cleanliness and hygiene. After a day of work, they wash off the sweat and dirt in the cool river water.Farmers above middle age wipe their hands and faces in the water basin early, and lie down to rest early after drinking soup.They are afraid of the cold water, so they only take a dip in the water to cool off when it is hot in the dog days.Zhao Peng realized that he was past middle age, and he was embarrassed to be with these young people, so he walked to the river a little further away, and took off his clothes and pants.

The river is so cold!The moment he entered the water for the first time, his whole body tensed up, and goose bumps appeared. He swam his arms and swam in the clear water as deep as his belly, and the coldness disappeared.He washed his hair with soap, rinsed his dusty hair in the river water, and his scalp felt refreshed.He wiped his skin vigorously with a towel, and it was a joy to wash.He touched the shallow water on the bank and lay down on a piece of smooth sand as his pillow. The cool river water flowed over his chest, gently stroking his sore arms and legs.The sky is full of stars, bright and dark, twinkling and twinkling, and the sound of croaking birds comes from the reed garden on the opposite bank.River beach, willow grove, melon garden, canal bank, in every corner of the river, there is no place where his childhood footprints are not left.Fishing in the crevices under the embankment, climbing and breaking frozen branches in the willow forest to burn firewood in winter, and stealing melons from the melon garden on the beach...

He followed the teacher on the road across the river, got up at some unknown time, with some black buns in his pocket, and was about to go to the city to take the middle school exam.He was only twelve years old, the youngest in the class. He walked through strange villages one after another. When the sun was setting and was about to fall into the river bank, they came to the big plain.The flat land without the edge and the mounds can't be seen at a glance, and the sky suddenly becomes boundless, open and far-reaching.For the first time, he walked out of the Xiaohechuan road where he had lived for twelve years. The blue sky between Nanyuan and Beiling is just such a narrow strip.Walking out of the small river, he saw the open sky for the first time, and he felt that he was so small that he didn't know what to do.

It was the first time for him to travel far, and for the first time he walked 40 miles with his feet. His feet were blistered, his legs hurt and he couldn’t move. His mouth was dry and astringent. Dude, the heels of the shoes have been worn out by the sand and stones on the road, and the heels rubbed against the road, making them burn and hurt. Suddenly, an earth-shattering roar came from behind the woods, accompanied by rumbling sounds.As soon as he raised his head, a long green snake-like train galloped and roared from west to east, galloped over from the woods, and went into the distant woods again, white clouds of smoke rose from the treetops.

"train!" More than 30 male and female students who were traveling with him stood by the roadside and saluted the speeding train.This group of students in the ravine, like him, was probably the same as him. It was the first time they went out of the mountain, saw the train for the first time, and knew for the first time that there was such a huge monster that could run faster than human legs.He stood there, staring blankly at the woods where the train passed by. The white smoke above the woods drifted leisurely, filling the distance... Outside the small rivers and streams he was familiar with, there was such a vast world!

"Zhao Peng—" the teacher shouted, "Let's go!" The students followed the teacher who was the leader, and he had already left. His feet didn't hurt anymore, and his legs became stronger. He started to run and caught up with the classmates and the teacher. Everyone surrounded the teacher, asking this and that, how could the train run automatically?What if two trains are coming in opposite directions?The teacher smiled and answered one by one. He seemed to understand... The teacher introduced them to the buildings they saw along the road. This is a factory, that is the train bridge, and the tallest chimney in the distance is a power plant...

"The country is entering the first five-year plan, and it needs to build talents. You should study hard, go to junior high school, go to high school, graduate from high school to go to college, build trains, planes, cannons, and machines for the country... Hurry up! Peng Peng!" Sure enough, according to the teacher in charge of the primary school, he finished college and is now an engineer in a factory that manufactures machinery... Zhao Peng put on his clothes, sat by the river, lit a cigarette, and sat quietly.The first time I walked out of the narrow river on the loess plateau slope, I still have a fresh memory in my mind.For more than 30 years, he went to school in the city, and later worked in the city. Every Sunday, he returned to the countryside, spent a Sunday in the valley, and hurried to work again.He flew out of the ravine, his parents and younger siblings are still living under the slope of the loess plateau, and his wife and children are still living on the land of their hometown.His roots are still stuck in the yellow earth!

Now, to be precise, after the wheat harvest, he will move his whole family from here to the city.The factory may assign him a two-bedroom, one-living room, which is a measure to take care of him as an intellectual. The newspapers clamored to rescue middle-aged intellectuals. After getting married, a younger brother also lived apart.After his family of four moved away, he had nothing to worry about; in the future, maybe he would only come back to the countryside to burn a handful of yin paper on the grave of his deceased parents on Ching Ming Festival... "Uncle Zhao Peng! Are you taking a bath too?"

As soon as he looked up, two young men had already come to him, wearing only vest and shorts, shirt and trousers folded in the crook of his arms, smoking cigarettes at the corners of their mouths, and sat down on the beach.These are two junior youths. Although they look familiar, they can't remember their names.He hurriedly said: "The wheat awns have gotten into my body, and it's uncomfortable to prick. It's really comfortable to wash." "There is no such good water in the city!" said the one with long hair. "As soon as I entered the bathhouse in Xi'an, I felt dizzy and wanted to vomit!" "Of course, where is there such good water!" Zhao Peng echoed, "There is no such good water in the suburbs of the city. Our place is remote, and the pollution of modern industry has not yet spread here..." "Uncle!" the other one with the gourd head called him kindly, "Is there any work in your factory? We want to go out and do some work." Before Zhao Peng could answer, the one with the long hair added: "Both of us have worked in the construction team of the commune. We built houses and built walls. There is no Ma Da! The money given by the construction team is too little, and wages are not increased. It's boring! We want to do the work ourselves!" "I didn't ask about it..." Zhao Peng was full of thoughts, and couldn't bear to be disappointed by the two lovely young people. "After I return to the factory, I will ask the infrastructure department to see if there is any work to repair houses and walls..." "Okay!" Guang Hulu said, "Uncle Zhao Peng, if you find us a job, I won't treat you badly!" "What..." "It's called information payment—a new term." The long-haired guy didn't mind, "It's nothing! It's also paid according to work!" He smacked on a cigarette and looked at these two lovely young people. They were all graduates of junior high school or high school. They didn't pass the college entrance examination, and now they are making money with their craft.They are no longer satisfied with the relatively low wages of the commune construction team, but rely on their own craftsmanship to contract projects and earn a lot of money. "The wheat is harvested, the autumn is planted, and there is nothing to do in the village." The long-haired boy said, "I have to find a way to make money!" "We have no acquaintances in the city." Guang Hulu said, "Now we don't have acquaintances, it's hard to move an inch!" They are not very old, but they seem to be very well-versed in the world, which is completely different from those middle-aged and old peasants.When Zhao Peng was chatting with them, they had no scruples, spoke loudly, and expressed their new life concepts, completely disdainful to be like their parents who only knew how to grope in the loess, how much they could earn by planting summer and autumn grain. money!They scolded people loudly, ignored everything, and scolded the cadres in the village. They were simply bandits.They gave examples at random: the price of the tractor was extremely low, and the captain took it for his son to drive; the six new warehouses, Zhuangji was spacious, and the accountant and the captain each occupied three rooms, and the combined price was not even enough for wood. ...and so on. "Go get it! Anyway, this time is left." The long hair said, "The land is divided, the house is sold, and if he wants to get money again, there is nothing to get..." "Hee hee! The real corrupt officials..." Guang Hulu scolded. Zhao Peng listened, noncommittal.He had heard about this kind of thing for a long time. During the six months of the village's implementation of the division of land to households, Shuqin had told him more than one angrily when she came home on Sunday. Forget it.Now, listening to the swearing words of the two young people, a wave of injustice arose in his heart, thinking that he would leave here soon, there was no need to argue about these things, so he smoked silently. "You went to work, ask me in the infrastructure department..." "Don't forget! Uncle..."