Chapter 44 Chapter Thirty-eight

The setting sun shone through the window, fiery red, giving people the sultry heat of summer.Xiao Li stretched out her hand and closed the curtains, but the scorching heat was still coming through the blue curtains.It's just suffocating.She couldn't stay in the room with the windows and curtains closed during the day, and she couldn't see the outside world, she was like sitting in a cage.She stood up, stretched out her hand and opened the curtains, and the sun was hot on her again. She put down her pen, pushed away the draft of the novel she was writing, stood up and walked around the room.She lives alone in a room in the small courtyard of the county party committee. There is a bed against the wall, a table by the window, a bookshelf, and three beautiful large suitcases. It is simple, and it should be said to be neat and clean.But right now, she is looking confused.

She sat down angrily.He spread out the letter paper, intending to write a letter to his father.What to write?She wanted to write about Li Xiangnan.She hoped that her father would understand the situation and not deal with the subordinate cadres rashly.She wrote a few times to look up, crumpled a few pieces of letter paper, but still couldn't start.Write your opinion about your uncle?What does she think?She didn't want to speak ill of her uncle.Write her evaluation of Li Xiangnan?What is the relationship between her and Li Xiangnan?She didn't know what she was going to write.Absently scribbled on the letter paper.A lot of names of "Li Xiangnan" were written in disorder, and what was drawn in the end was a messy and irregular noise curve.

I can't write a letter.Simply give Dad a long-distance call.She stood up at once, looked at the switchboard room diagonally opposite the small courtyard, and hesitated again.The girl on duty now is a "smart eye" who likes to spy on Xiao Li's secrets, she will eavesdrop.Xiaoli is vigilant enough to people. I can't make phone calls, so I might as well go back to the provincial capital.It's best to say it to your dad.She had the most influence on Dad's opinion.She knows the wisdom of speaking to different people.But what did she say?Does Li Xiangnan need to help himself?

Go find Li Xiangnan.But how would he treat himself?Still like the day before yesterday in Fenghuang Ridge? "Why are you here?" Li Xiangnan turned his head and asked with a trace of criticism. "I've sent you a letter." Xiaoli quickly glanced at Huang Pingping who was standing beside Li Xiangnan, and said. "What's the rush?" Li Xiangnan frowned slightly, and took the letter, "We'll be going back tomorrow." "The matter in this letter may be urgent." Li Xiangnan looked at the envelope and stuffed the letter into his pocket casually.

"Look at it now." Li Xiangnan's indifference to her delivery of the letter by bicycle for dozens of miles hurt her, she looked at Li Xiangnan a little aggrieved, and said carefully. "Stay for a while, I can't take care of it now." Li Xiangnan said with a gloomy face, and then led the Standing Committee members to walk forward slowly.Xiao Li bit her lip and stood there, looking at the backs of the crowd, she almost shed tears. Her self-esteem has been hurt, who has been so indifferent to her since she was a child? She let go of the hand holding the doorknob and sat down on the bed again.The calendar on the wall beside the bed was tilted to the right, and an actress looked at her with a crooked face and a smile.She stretched out her hand angrily and pulled it to the left, and it tilted to the left again.She jerked it to the right again, and it tilted to the right again.Angrily, she swung her hands left and right, and the calendar swung left and right like a pendulum, and it swung higher and higher.The more she pulled, the more angry she became, and the harder she pulled, the more fierce and aggressive emotions surged in her heart.The wall calendar was placed like a swing that was about to go up to the sky, and the actress was swinging upside down for a while, and upside down for a while.Lily was satisfied.She gave it a final push, and the calendar swung to the highest point, flipping somersaults and falling on the bed.

Lily lost her temper.But when she looked again, the actress looked at her with a faint smile, and there was a kind of contempt in her eyes that looked at her and saw through her at the same time.This gaze immediately stimulated Xiaoli.She thought of Lin Hong.She tore off the page of the calendar at once.Fold it in half and tear it apart, throwing the pieces hard on the bed. "Xiao Li, what are you doing?" Gu Rong came in at some point, and asked standing behind Xiao Li. Xiaoli turned around and sat down, and said angrily, "I don't like this beauty's head." "Don't tear it up if you don't like it, this month has passed, it's over if you turn her over."

"I find her annoying. She looks at people coldly, as if she is better than others. I don't want her to look at me." "Hey, you are too domineering. No one else can see it?" Gu Rong teased, and sat down on the chair beside the table. "I don't allow her to look at me. What is she. What's so great about it." Gu Rong looked at Xiao Li appreciatively.He heard something else in Xiaoli's words.He put his hands on the back of the chair and smiled: "Don't allow her to see you, uncle will come to see you, you must allow it?" Xiao Li flicked her hair and laughed.

Gu Rong saw the messy letter paper on the table: "Dear Mom and Dad" on the head, except for the messy curves, Li Xiangnan's name was written all over it.Gu Rong smiled with deep meaning: "Xiaoli, I heard that you went to Fenghuang Ridge to deliver a letter to Li Xiangnan the day before yesterday?" Xiao Li was taken aback for a moment, then replied, "Yes." Gu Rong took out a cigarette and lit it slowly: "There are some things, uncle, I don't know if I should talk to you or not." "Let's talk." "...Xiao Li, what do you think of Li Xiangnan?"

"I think he's quite talented." "He has some political experience and some methods. That's all?" "I think he's a man of value." Gu Rong was silent for a while, and took a puff of cigarette: "Do you have any more specific opinions?" He looked at Xiaoli, "You know that our small county is not as feudal as a big city. Now, people have already treated you differently. There were all kinds of discussions." "I don't care. They can talk as long as they want." "There is public opinion, of course I'm not afraid. The question is whether it's worth it? The main thing is, do you have that special attitude towards Li Xiangnan?"

"So what if you have it, so what if you don't have it?" Xiaoli was a little annoyed. "Of course it's different from not having one. At least uncle should reconsider my relationship with him, right?" "I think he is very good, I would like to be with him." The matter is clear.After a pause, Gu Rong asked again: "But does he have such an attitude towards you?" "have no idea." Gu Rong looked at Xiaoli and was silent for a while: "This kind of thing is not wishful thinking." "He treats me very well." Xiao Li said with her head bowed.

"What's the good thing?" Gu Rong asked with concern. "It's just fine. I think he'd like to be with me, too." Gu Rong nodded slightly with deep meaning: "He is a very scheming person, and the city is very deep. Does he have any political considerations for his kindness to you? You are the daughter of the first secretary of the Provincial Party Committee after all." Lily's heart skipped a beat.She is a politically minded person, she can understand Gu Rong's words as soon as she hears them, and she can associate them as soon as she understands them. "I didn't see it," she said stiffly. Gu Rong shook his head slowly: "Feng Yaozu told me that you went to Fenghuang Ridge to deliver a letter to Li Xiangnan, but he didn't even talk to you, and left you cold on the spot." Xiaoli became angry all of a sudden: "Feng Yaozu, should I use him to meddle in my own business? Do I need him to worry too much?" "People also care about you." "I don't want it, what right does he have?" Gu Rong paused slightly in embarrassment, and smiled gently: "Uncle, please take care, you always have the right?" Lily lowered her head. "You are the only girl among me and your father's descendants. You are in Guling, as an uncle, I must fulfill my elder's responsibilities, right? Have you ever thought about why he must take the initiative to ask to come to Guling to be the secretary of the county party committee?" "He was here when he was a kid." "Is there any other more realistic reason, could it be related to someone else being in the ancient tomb?" Gu Rong looked at Xiaoli and asked, "Of course it's not because of you, he didn't know you before. " "I don't know. I don't want to know." Gu Rong tapped the table lightly with his fingers, and sighed to himself: "After all, our Xiaoli is a child, and her heart is too kind." After a pause, he said slowly: "You should understand this kind of thing first. the other party." Xiao Li picked up the torn calendar and threw it into the wastebasket: "I can treat him whatever I want, I don't care what others say, and I don't care how he treats me." "Okay, Xiaoli, I won't say much about this uncle. After all, you are still young." Gu Rong stood up as he spoke, "Xiaoli, tomorrow is Sunday, come to my house for dinner, huh? Tomorrow, Secretary Zheng of the prefectural committee may I have to go back to the ancient tomb." Gu Rong left.Xiaoli became more and more upset.She is not a child, she understands some things better than Gu Rong and Li Xiangnan.She is fully aware of the complicated conflicts between Gu Rong and Li Xiangnan, and she also knows the special position she occupies in this political contest.However, she is now being impacted by her own pain, and she can't care about seeing everything calmly.If you are confused, you will be ignorant.But she couldn't sit there and sort out her thoughts.She never meditates.She wants to act, and only in action can she move her mind forward through chaos.She stood up again.But what is she going to do?I can't write a letter to my father, and I can't make a phone call.Hit, and now I'm so upset that I don't know what to say.What should she do?Let's go out first.Anyway, I can't sit in the house. As soon as she went out, she knew what she should do: go find Li Xiangnan. She has many things to tell him.Didn't uncle just say that secretary Zheng of the prefectural committee will come tomorrow? When we arrived at Li Xiangnan's office, both houses were closed.The courtyard was deserted.She finds happiness. "God of Liberty, are you looking for Li Xiangnan again? You are too interested in our county party secretary." Kang Le sat at the door, washing clothes with soapy foam in his hands while joking carefreely. "I didn't look for him." Xiao Li casually denied for some reason. Kang Le looked at Xiao Li wisely: "What are you writing, Xiao Li?" "Me? I want to write a novel about the land, about the different attitudes of generations of farmers towards the land." "Different attitudes?" "The older generation of farmers takes the land as their life and believes that the land will give them everything. They rely on the land and are attached to the land. The younger generation doesn't value the land so much. They all want to leave the land and go to the city." "There's bound to be conflict between the two generations, isn't it?" "may be." "Hey, didn't you want to write about Boss Shi who has been digging wells for several lifetimes?" "I wrote and wrote, but I couldn't continue writing, so I put it aside. I wanted to write Li Xiangnan, but he himself refused." Kang Le smiled: "What right does he have to prevent you from writing? Xiaoli, it's because you gave him a special power." "What special powers have I given him?" "You gave him a power to control your freedom of writing or freedom of movement." Xiaoli blinked and was stunned for a moment. "Do you think, if you don't give him this special power, can he control you? Can he unreasonably interfere with a female writer's freedom of writing? Without your obedience, where does his power come from? The God of Liberty has become Not free." Xiaoli blushed: "What nonsense are you talking about?" "I'm not talking nonsense." Kang Le still looked at Xiao Li amusedly, "My analysis just now is absolutely accurate. Xiao Li, don't be hypocritical between us, do you agree with my analysis?" "So what if you admit it?" "Not very good." Kang Le rubbed his clothes twice, stopped his hands, "Xiaoli, I am not sympathetic to this kind of thing," he said jokingly, "it is because you are noncommittal to Li Xiangnan's special attitude. At your age, you often Seriously play some small games emotionally, making jokes with yourself and others. But," he paused, "I want to tell you, Li Xiangnan's life is going to be hard." Kang Le said, shaking I took off the foam from my hands, wiped it off with a towel, and stood up. "Why are you having a bad time?" "It's not obvious that he, the Secretary of the Guling County Party Committee, may not be able to work for long." "why?" "Why, your political mind still can't understand this? You are a special person, and you have first-hand information." "I just don't know. All I know is that Li Xiangnan's father sent a letter to my uncle, made a long-distance call to my father, and also sent a letter to Li Xiangnan." "That's not the latest information. Your uncle had a phone call with Secretary Zheng of the prefectural committee all morning. This is not true. The public opinion that Li Xiangnan is likely to be dismissed and transferred has already spread." "Who said this?" "Who do you see?" "My uncle?" "Isn't that easy to analyze?" "He's talking nonsense." Kang Le glanced at Xiaoli carefully, and took a large basin of dirty soapy water and poured it into the yard: "This is not nonsense. Li Xiangnan's way of doing things violated vested interests, traditional concepts, and those interests and traditions Let’s unite and defeat him in one morning. If he wants to end up like this, I don’t think he can stay anywhere in the province. At that time, I will persuade him to simply transfer back to Beijing, and he will be fine.” "That won't work." Xiaoli was anxious. Kang Le glanced at Xiaoli, and put down the big basin with a bang.What's wrong with this?This is often the case with politics. "Where's Li Xiangnan?" Xiaoli asked. "Aren't you not looking for him?" "Why are you still kidding me?" "Me?" Kang Le laughed at himself, "I can't change my casual attitude at the most serious moment." He raised his finger and pointed, "He went for a walk on the west cliff to worry about it." Xiaoli started to leave.Xiao Hu and Zhuang Wenyi hurried into the yard with a somewhat serious expression.They looked at Xiao Li and stopped in front of Kang Le. "Kangle, have you heard the rumors all over the city?" Zhuang Wenyi said angrily. "I heard that, after rumors become facts, they can no longer be counted as rumors." "It's outrageous." Zhuang Wenyi said. "Aren't Secretary Zheng going to Guling to solve the problem tomorrow? Let's put the truth on the table." Xiao Hu also said a little excitedly. "Xiao Hu, even though you and Secretary Zheng can talk, it's not very useful. You don't know the power of traditional concepts." Kang Le said, "This matter is probably a foregone conclusion. It will be very difficult for Li Xiangnan to get it back. " "The area is not good, go to the province to file a lawsuit." Zhuang Wenyi said. Kang Le looked at Xiao Li, Xiao Hu and Zhuang Wenyi also looked at Xiao Li. "Xiao Li, I have never met your father, so I don't know about it. However, according to my experience, as the secretary of the provincial party committee, your father is likely to adopt an attitude of supporting the opinions of the prefectural party committee. Do you believe it?" Kangle said. "I don't believe it." After saying that, Xiao Li turned around and left. She was going to find Li Xiangnan, and she was going to tell him not to be afraid of anything. Passing through the county party committee compound, walking through the steep uphill street, bypassing the land piled with bricks and soil under construction, passing the Guling Traditional Chinese Medicine Factory, and then passing through the gap in the dilapidated earthen city wall, the front suddenly opened up.This is West Cliff.The earthy cliffs falling straight down for more than ten feet, and the river beach below.Across the wide river beach, on the opposite side is a hillside covered with layers of terraced fields, and behind it is the undulating West Mountain.The blood-red sunset was sinking down the mountain little by little.She hurried along the path.Where is Li Xiangnan?He must be worrying alone.She wants to tell him, don't be pessimistic, don't be disappointed.Any passive situation can be reversed.She wants to help him find a way. However, Xiaoli suddenly stopped behind a few pine trees.Her heart beat fast, and blood rushed to her face.Across the pine tree, Li Xiangnan was walking side by side with Lin Hong.The two stopped and walked, talking about something.The two walked slowly under the sunset glow, looking so harmonious and intimate, with beautiful outlines.This picture suddenly hurt Xiaoli. Beautiful, and sometimes terrible, cruel. They approached slowly and heard their conversation. "Do you have anything else to do?" Li Xiangnan asked. "No." "How did you find here today, see Kang Le?" "No. The old man in the reception room told me." "If there is no such specific thing, will you still come to see me?" "I don't know." Lin Hong raised her head as she said, "I'd like to chat with you, but I also don't want to make your situation in the ancient tomb more complicated." "I'm not afraid." He is not afraid.Lily gritted her teeth angrily. "It's not whether you are afraid or not. You have your career. Didn't you just say that your current situation is a bit complicated?" Li Xiangnan nodded: "I'll visit you again in Chencun in two days. I haven't finished talking with you." "No." "I'm going to Chencun, to see my nanny, and to see the place where I stayed when I was a child." The two stood still. "Remember our little Long March team?" Li Xiangnan looked at Lin Hong and asked. "Of course I remember. We walked thousands of miles together and worked in the countryside for ten months." "Several of them asked me to say hello." "What are they doing now?" "The big man is now an expert on agricultural strategy, the fat man is now a graduate student in dialectics of nature, and has published papers abroad, and Wenwen is a female Ph.D. in economics." "Thank them for me, I'm leaving." Lin Hong said flatly. "Lin Hong, you..." Lin Hong looked at Li Xiangnan quietly, and said softly, "Thank you for your kindness." "I'll take you a few steps." The two saw Xiao Li standing by the pine tree head on.Lin Hong glanced at Xiaoli indifferently. "Goodbye." She said to Li Xiangnan. "Okay." Li Xiangnan held out his hand to her. "When are you going to Chencun?" "Three to five days." Lin Hong let go of Li Xiangnan's hand, looked at Xiaoli again, turned and left. "Little Li, why are you here?" Li Xiangnan asked with a smile. It's the same as Fenghuang Ridge, and it's another "Why are you here".Xiao Li's face flushed red: "I have something to do with you." "Let's talk as we go, okay?" Li Xiangnan said kindly like a county party secretary to a young doll. "I don't want you talking to me like that." "What's wrong with me?" Li Xiangnan asked. "I don't want you to put on airs like the secretary of the county party committee." Xiaoli was so wronged that she almost cried. Li Xiangnan glanced at Xiaoli and understood everything in his heart, "Okay, I think I'm putting on airs, let's correct it. Is that okay?" He coaxed him to take two steps slowly and asked, "What are you going to say?" Xiaoli's heart was so confused that it almost went blank: "I don't want to talk about it." "Okay, I don't want to say it, and I don't force it." Li Xiangnan still said with a smile. "I don't want you to be angry with me." Xiaoli stomped her feet and said, tears streaming down her face. Li Xiangnan suddenly felt troubled, and looked at Xiao Li who was in tears, and was also emotionally impacted. "What's the matter, Xiaoli, what happened?" He comforted with a smile.For a moment, he felt the special content of mutual relationship contained in his comfort to Xiao Li.How did it happen?He was almost caught off guard. Xiao Li lowered her head and cried for a while, then shook her head and stopped crying. "Why am I mad at you?" Li Xiangnan pointed to the cliff in front of him, and slowly stopped, "Have you seen this cliff? When you cry like this, I get scared, and I will jump off here if I can't keep it." "Who wants you to dance? You jump, you will be relieved if you fall to your death." Xiaoli couldn't help but smiled through her tears, stopped again, wiped her tears, and calmed down. "Let's sit down and talk." Li Xiangnan pointed to a large bluestone on the edge of the cliff and said. "I don't want to sit here," Xiaoli saw the imprint of Lin Hong's women's sandals left by the soft soil beside the stone, and shook her head capriciously, "I don't want to sit behind others." "Okay, let's understand the people's sentiments, be open-minded, and sit in another place. Come, these two big tree stumps, one for each person, face each other, okay?" Xiaoli glanced at Li Xiangnan angrily, and sat down. "Say it." "I don't want to say it now." Li Xiangnan nodded half-jokingly and half-seriously: "Even our Xiao Li doesn't want to talk to me anymore, and my situation is even more dangerous." After a pause, Li Xiangnan looked at her calmly, "Xiao Li, come here, yes Want to tell me something?" "I have no news." "I heard that I'm in a bad situation. If you come to see me in a hurry, you always want to care about me, don't you?" "There are plenty of people who care about you. How can I be used?" Li Xiangnan was silent for a while: "Little Li, you don't need to be angry with me. I can tell you that I have made all preparations for the matter of Gu Ling and my end." Xiaoli looked at Li Xiangnan.Her excitement passed, and Li Xiangnan's expression became serious again.Xiaoli felt her willingness to obey again. "Have you seen this earth cliff?" Li Xiangnan pointed to the cliff that fell straight down. Lily took a look.Below the earth cliff is a wide river beach, patches of green rice fields and corn fields, and then there is a meandering and gentle river; on the opposite side rises an earth cliff far away, and above it is a loess hillside, with layers of terraced fields, and the wheat is already yellow and ripe. "It took thousands of years for the water to rush out of this landform, and there is such a flat land that is not wide. Looking at it, I thought, life is actually very short. I want to be like this river, to be in the human race. There are traces of hard work left on the social landscape of society. Do you understand what I say, Lily?" The sun had already sunk into the western mountains, and the sunset was gradually dimming on the mountains, and the distant mountains were peaceful. "I want to go back to the provincial capital." Xiaoli lowered her head and kicked the dirt with her toes. "What are you doing?" "I'll go talk to my dad." Xiaoli raised her head. Li Xiangnan looked at Xiaoli: "Go and speak for me? ... No need. If you want to find him, I will find him myself. I don't want you to go to activities. It's not good to take the upper-level route like this. It will only increase trouble." "What's the trouble? My father will listen to me when I talk." "It's not that simple." "I have the art of talking to my dad." "Art?" "For example, if I want my dad to hate someone, I won't just call him bad. That way, my dad won't believe it easily. I just need to say that he has a close relationship with the person my dad hates the most, and my dad will be sure." will have an opinion on him.” "What kind of art is this?" Li Xiangnan looked at the youngest daughter of the secretary of the provincial party committee, feeling a little queasy in his heart. "exactly." "I don't need your help." Li Xiangnan said seriously with lowered eyes. "why?" "I don't like this kind of art." "How can politics be so simple? As long as the goal is achieved. Don't you also pay attention to tact?" "I don't do your tricks." "It's not that I want my father to hate anyone. I won't speak ill of my uncle either. He is mainly surrounded by villains like Feng Yaozu." "Forget it, I can't bear if you corrupt me in the future." Li Xiangnan said with a hint of sarcasm. "Hmph, spoiling you?" Xiaoli pouted mischievously, "It's the easiest. Just say you and a..." "And a what?" Xiaoli took a look at Li Xiangnan's face: "It's enough to say that you dated a bad woman." Li Xiangnan's face turned gloomy. "You don't want to hear it?" "Little Li, you shouldn't talk like that." "I'm going to say it. Bad woman, bad guy." "Xiao Li," Li Xiangnan stood up suddenly, furious.But he stared at Xiaoli and slowly restrained himself, "Let's go, I don't want to hear you talk like that." Xiaoli was stimulated at once.She thought of the indifference she had received and the enthusiasm Lin Hong had received from Li Xiangnan, and jealousy welled up in her heart: "She is a bad woman." "Little Li, why are you being so mean to people? It is understandable for a woman to have had misfortune in life and marriage. You are also a woman, so why are you so lacking in compassion?" "What kind of marriage misfortune is she? She's a broken shoe." "Little Li, I don't agree with you insulting a person like this for no reason." "Why do I have no reason? Why did her husband divorce her? Just because she was not decent in the past." "how do you know?" "Her husband is my brother." Li Xiangnan was stunned: "It's your brother, why haven't I heard of it?" "Of course you won't hear about it. No one in the county knows about it. She and my brother divorced and came to Guling." "Your uncle doesn't know either?" "Of course he knows now." Li Xiangnan stared blankly at Xiaoli, unable to say a word. "I don't agree with you to associate with her." Xiaoli said. Li Xiangnan slowly turned his gaze and looked elsewhere. "You have no right," he said darkly. "You know her details, why are you still in contact with her?" "I already knew that." "You already know?" "Except that I don't know it's your brother." Li Xiangnan looked at the distant mountains and said sullenly. Xiaoli was stunned: "You...you like her?" "I think she should be understood and respected. There was a deep friendship between me and her, and I haven't forgotten it." "you……" "Also, I think you should respect her too." "I never want to see her in my life." "Xiao Li," Li Xiangnan turned his head to look at Xiao Li, "Can't you be kind to others? Can't you put yourself in others' shoes and understand them better?" "I only understand myself." Xiaoli said fiercely. Li Xiangnan looked at Xiao Li silently. "Lily," he said, "sometimes you are lovely; but other times you are simply unbearable." Maybe this is all his emotional conflicts with Xiao Li? Xiaoli looked at Li Xiangnan motionlessly.She bit her lower lip, her jaw trembled, and tears trickled down her eyes.She lowered her head, turned and left. Li Xiangnan stared at her receding figure. With the daughter of such a provincial party secretary, things are even more complicated.