Chapter 4 4. Yanzhitun

In the past few days, Xia Wentian was in a very bad mood. He received a letter from the masses titled "My Dream of Buying a House". The person who wrote the letter was Gu Yunchang. The letter wrote: "Mayor Xia, my name is Gu Yunchang. I am a laid-off worker from the Dongzhou Aluminum Products Factory. I rely on tricycles to support my family. My wife Li Xiuzhi and my fifteen-year-old daughter are in a six-square-meter apartment. I have lived in the bungalow for fifteen years, and I have been looking forward to buying a set of affordable housing tens of meters away. I am an ordinary worker who has worked in a company for more than 20 years, and my family’s monthly income is only 2,000. But I believe that the party and the government will not ignore the housing difficulties of our low-income families. My wife often complains about me, so I comfort her, I say you have to be patient, one day the sun will come from From the west. Mayor Xia, the party and the government are my sun, as the mayor of a city is my sun, but when I see people line up all night long to buy affordable housing, and some people drive BMW, Mercedes-Benz's fake poor people live in luxury affordable housing of 120 square meters or even 200 square meters, and some fake poor people even own multiple sets of such affordable housing. , all say that tomorrow will be better, is this true?"

Xia Wentian had kept this letter in his bosom for several days, and whenever he was free he would take it out and read it. He did not know how many times he read it, and every time he read it, his heart felt sour.Twenty-five years have passed since the reform and opening up. There are more than 100,000 families like Lao Gu in Dongzhou. They can no longer expect the sun to come out from the west. Facts have to prove that the sun rises in the east and shines brightly. On Saturday evening, the sky was full of orange-red sunset glow, and the Heishui River breathed a long sigh of relief from its broad and soft chest, like a kind mother looking at the black land like a father.Sitting in the Audi car, Xia Wentian's eyes were moist, and he couldn't help but think of a line of Ai Qing's poem: Why do my eyes often contain tears?Because of my deep love for this land.

In addition to Xia Wentian and the driver, Xia Wentian's secretary Long Xiaobo and the director of the Municipal Construction Committee Wu Zhiqiang were also in the Audi car.After a few days of thinking, Xia Wentian decided to visit Gu Yunchang's family privately via Weibo, in order to learn more about the situation. Although Gu Yunchang's family lived in a shantytown, it was located in the city center, only one kilometer away from the Heishuihe Stadium. It was an absolute diamond treasure, and it had a nice name, Yanzhitun. Yanzhitun has a history of more than 300 years. According to legend, before the Qing army entered the customs, this place was the territory of a certain prince. The people who lived here were the servants and slaves of the prince. The flowers of "Fendou" are ground into powder with the seeds of the flowers and developed into cosmetics. People call this place Yanzhitun.During the Japanese Puppet Period, it became the largest worker's village in Dongzhou.By the 1990s, the residents of Yanzhitun had reached more than 20,000 households, forming the largest shantytown in Qingjiang Province.Most of them are laid-off workers who make a living by setting up street stalls and doing small businesses.During the era of Xiao Honglin and Jia Chaoxuan, some renovations were carried out one after another, but there are still nearly 5,000 households living in the shantytowns, with a per capita living area of ​​less than eight square meters, and many residents live in one house for several generations.Dongzhou people vividly call this place a "worker's village". In recent years, more and more laid-off workers have been laid off, and Dongzhou people also vividly call this place a "resort".

Less than one mile away from Yanzhitun, Xia Wentian asked the driver to pull the car to the side of the road. He wanted to walk to Yanzhitun to see the actual living conditions of the people. This was the first time since he became the mayor of Dongzhou City. It is also the first time to visit Yanzhitun privately. The Heishuihe Stadium in the distance has become ruins. The waterfront flowers where the richest people in Dongzhou live are hidden in the green willows and red clouds beside the Heishuihe River. The future city that is about to be capped will rise from the ground, overlooking the Heishuihe area Dozens of high-rise buildings.Xia Wentian said with emotion: "Director Wu, I really don't know if I don't leave. It turns out that this place is the place with the biggest gap between rich and poor in Dongzhou."

"Yes, Mayor Xia, as the director of the Municipal Construction Committee, every time I come here, I feel sore in my heart. I have been calling for the complete eradication of shanty towns for many years, but there is always thunder and rain. Seeing people living in Rouge Residents of Tun, I think of the word "living", "living" is full of power in our Chinese language, its power does not come from shouting, nor from attacking, but endure, endure for the sake of endurance, To live for the sake of being alive, not to suffer for anything but to endure, not to live for anything but to live."

Wu Zhiqiang said deeply. "Director Wu, your words remind me of a poem by Rilke, "Serious Moments." Long Xiaobo interjected. "Xiao Bo, tell me, Rilke is a lonely person in the noisy world, and he has been looking for his spiritual hometown all his life." Xia Wentian said with interest. "Someone is laughing somewhere in the world right now, laughing in the world for no reason, laughing at me; someone is crying in the world for no reason, crying for me; someone is walking somewhere in the world right now, walking in the world for no reason , come to me; someone is dying somewhere in the world at this moment, dying in the world for no reason, looking at me."

Long Xiaobo shook his head and finished reciting Rilke's poem, Xia Wentian's face suddenly became solemn, "Xiqiang, Xiaobo, this poem is the best interpretation of the living, but we can no longer describe it as being alive." The people in Yanzhitun are dead, and the party and the government have the responsibility and obligation to let them live a happy life.” At this time, the three of them passed by a sports lottery distribution station, and the host's angry words came from the tweeter: "There has never been a savior in the world. We can change our lives only by our physical strength, intelligence and technology. Let's buy lottery tickets! Smoke, Hurt the lungs; drink alcohol and hurt the stomach; go to karaoke bars and spend a lot of money...buying some lottery tickets is economical and affordable!"

When a golden and incomparably magnificent sunset covered the narrow window lattice, Gu Yunchang and Li Xiuzhi had just set up a small dining table in the shed on the patio when they heard someone knocking on the door. Gu Yunchang thought it was his daughter who came back from school. He hurried to open the door, but was stunned there for a while. His wife Li Xiuzhi asked, "Yunchang, is that my daughter?" while setting the meal on the small dining table, but she didn't see Gu Yunchang's answer. stunned. "Why, brother Gu, sister-in-law, don't you invite me in?"

Only then did the couple regain their senses, "Mayor Xia, it's really you. I said that I had a dream last night, and the sun came out from the west. This dream really came true!" Gu Yunchang said at a loss. "Old Gu, what nonsense are you talking about, and you still haven't invited Mayor Xia in." Li Xiuzhi said in embarrassment. "Mayor Xia, please come in quickly. My house is really too small. Leaders, please forgive me." Gu Yunchang said helplessly. "Brother Gu, sister-in-law, this is Director Wu of the Construction Committee, and this is Secretary Long. I have received the letter you wrote to me. To tell you the truth, I feel very ashamed after reading your letter. Anyway, I I have to come and see you, otherwise I, the mayor, feel uneasy!"

Xia Wentian said earnestly. "A family of three eats in this shed?" Wu Zhiqiang interrupted and asked with concern. "In the third year after the housing reform, my daughter went to elementary school. I put a small desk for her in the living room. She does her homework here every day. The house is too small, so I had to build this shed in the courtyard. We cook here." While talking, Gu Yunchang invited Xia Wentian and others into the room. The room was so small that it was almost occupied by a bed. "Old Gu, it's too crowded for three people to sleep in one bed, how can you sleep well?"

Xia Wentian asked helplessly. "If it's hot, I'll sleep on the floor. To be honest, Mayor Xia, Director Wu, my daughter is fifteen years old, and she still sleeps with us. I feel really uncomfortable. She already has a little feeling when she is eight years old. .To be honest, my wife and I haven't had that for seven years. Nothing between husband and wife, this is one of our biggest, biggest lives, . . . in an unpleasant environment, we have almost nothing Yes, this is our biggest and biggest obstacle. Thinking about it, I feel sorry for my wife and myself." Gu Yunchang lowered his head while talking. Xia Wentian patted Gu Yunchang's shoulder in shame, "Sister-in-law, how do you spend winter?" Xia Wentian is a native of the south. After graduating from university, he stayed at the school to teach. Until he was promoted to the principal of Qingjiang University, he never thought about how the people living in the shanty town survive the winter. After becoming the governor of Qingjiang Province, he was in charge of the industry of the whole province. At that time, what he saw most were the machines in the factory, the huge hooks, the hot molten iron, the moving vehicles, the dense fog, and the workers walking among them. It is easy to handle and easy to handle.Xia Wentian did not know how many large and medium-sized enterprises in Qingjiang Province he had inspected. However, when the country’s economic center of gravity moved southward in the 1990s, traditional industries, while ensuring high tax payments, dragged down the heavy burden of welfare that should have been borne by society, including welfare housing, while facing the prospect of unavailability after the release of raw materials from the market. Unguaranteed supply, this is equivalent to a giant who is constantly being sucked out of blood, but still can't get enough to eat, no matter how strong his body is, he can't stand such a toss, and it will be a matter of time before he falls down.At that time, China's industrial development level did not reach the level of letting go of the old and absorbing the new. Xia Wentian is a Ph.D. in economics. He is well aware that the decline of state-owned enterprises is a controversial and sensitive topic.As a practitioner of the Chinese economy, he has asked more than once why state-owned enterprises have shrunk sharply and collapsed so quickly?Why throw it away in a hurry?Xia Wentian knows that these questions cannot be answered now, and these big question marks can only be left to history.It's just that the workers as a class, the large industries on which they depended for their survival, collapsed, first the factories, then the homes.The joint fall of social responsibility and individual destiny has created a huge ruin, the material ruins are shocking, and the spiritual ruins are desolate and hopeless.People who have been abandoned by the times become coveters of life leftovers and beggars full of luck. Is this a dark humor arranged by God with ulterior motives, or is it an absurd blunder of fate?Thinking of this, a strong sense of mission arose spontaneously in Xia Wentian's heart. "I heard that Mayor Xia is from the south. We northerners who live in one-story houses have to hammer coal billets in winter. That is, we can mix the coal face with appropriate loess, and then the coal billets can be hammered. For ordinary people, one or two thousand catties will be hammered. The coal slabs will be burned until the autumn of the next year. In the autumn, every family will buy hundreds or even thousands of catties of Chinese cabbage and radishes, a vat of sauerkraut, and two bundles of green onions, which can be eaten until the spring of next year.” Just after Li Xiuzhi finished speaking, Gu Yunchang interrupted and said: "There is a jingle in describing the houses in Yanzhitun, 'I am afraid of wind in spring and rain in summer, and I am afraid of severe frost in autumn and snow in winter'. Although the people in Yanzhitun have a difficult life, but the people here Simple, bold and unrestrained, with a folk custom of having fun while suffering, someone made up a jingle to tease us, saying that there are four monsters in Yanzhitun, who ride a donkey forty miles backwards, wear shirtless ties, only drink and don’t eat food, and take a taxi with their heads facing outside." Faced with Gu Yunchang's humor, Xia Wentian couldn't laugh. At this moment, a huge shantytown renovation plan had already formed in his mind. "Brother Gu, have you received a purchase permit for affordable housing?" Xia Wentian asked with concern. "Not yet. Right now, the number of affordable housing has been resold for 100,000 or even 200,000. Some rich people bought affordable housing in luxury cars. Many ordinary people, in order to get an affordable housing number, Regardless of the scorching sun and heat, we lined up day and night. My wife and I waited in line for half a month for the house in Dongxinyuan, but we didn't get a room number. More room numbers were divided up by those who have connections or connections. Mayor Xia, I will be 60 years old in ten years, and I will enter the elderly class. I don’t know if my daughter will be able to realize my dream of buying a house before my daughter graduates from high school at the age of 18.” "Brother Gu, I will guarantee you with party spirit that within two years I will guarantee that you will be able to live in affordable housing. Not only will you be able to live in it, but the residents of Yanzhitun will be able to live in it." As soon as Xia Wentian finished speaking, Gu Yunchang's eyes were moist. He held Xia Wentian's hands tightly and said with sobs: "Mayor Xia, the sun really came out from the west!" When Gu Yunchang and Li Xiuzhi sent Xia Wentian, Wu Zhiqiang and Long Xiaobo out, they were stunned by the sight in front of them. The residents of Yanzhitun filled the small street in front of Gu Yunchang's house. On the third floor, Xia Wentian had just walked out of Gu Yunchang's house. An old man in his seventies said with tears in his eyes, "Mayor Xia, I have lived in Yanzhitun all my life, let alone the mayor. The section chief has never been to Yanzhitun before, you are the first mayor to come to Yanzhitun, you are worthy of applause just for coming here!" Xia Wentian excitedly held the old man's hand and said: "Master, I have been in office for more than half a year, and I only came to Yanzhitun to visit you. I feel very ashamed. I promise everyone that within two years, everyone will be moved to a new house!" The audience burst into warm applause.At this time, the sound of car horns came from the street, and people spontaneously gave way. The No. 2 car slowly drove over. Xia Wentian didn't get in the car because there were too many people who wanted to shake hands with him, and he was unwilling to let the enthusiasm Disappointed, the common people held out their hands sincerely, as if seeing a long-lost relative!