Chapter 17 (Thirteen)

On August 14, 1962, we moved to a newly built dormitory in Ganmian Hutong. There were four rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom (including a toilet and shower room), and a balcony.We bought more furniture and lived comfortably. During the "Three Difficulties" period, Zhongshu often ate high-end meals with foreigners because he selected manuscripts for the English translation of Mao with foreigners.He and I each have a special supply.We also often eat out in restaurants.We live well.As for the "young people" of Ah Yuan's generation, they live in far smaller houses than we used to; their wages are very different from ours.We have hundreds, they only have dozens. "Young people" are intellectuals in New China. "Old gentleman from the old society" and "young man" live very differently, and "old gentleman" is unavoidably eye-catching.We have tasted the taste of poverty ourselves, seeing that the vast majority of "young people" live in poverty, while our lives are so prosperous, we are very disturbed, sorry, and ashamed.Whenever there is a movement, the "old gentleman" is always the object of criticism from the "young people".This is natural and inevitable.

Our wages have been frozen for more than ten years and have not changed.Most of the so-called "young people" are no longer young. "Old gentleman" and "young man" are two kinds of people treated differently. In 1964, my colleagues in the institute went to the countryside for the "Four Cleanups", and I also signed up.But I, an "old man", was not allowed to participate, and I was left to edit articles for a small group of "young people".I heard occasional sneers and felt uneasy. In 1963, Zhongshu completed the finalization of the four-volume English translation of Selected Works of Mao, and in 1964 he became a member of the "Five-Member Group for Translating Chairman Mao's Poems".In December 1963, Ah Yuan went to the Lixian Commune in Daxing County for the "Four Purifications". He did not go home for the New Year, and returned to school in April 1964.In September 1965, he went to Chengguan Commune in Wuxiang, Shanxi Province to "clean up the four", and returned to school in May 1966. His achievements were outstanding, and he was immediately introduced by team members Jiang Hengjun (school) and Ma Liuhai (commune), " join the party".

She couldn't tell what "Joining the Party with FireWire" meant, nor could I.Anyway, from then on, every time there was a "movement", she was "a white top who was drawn into the party".It goes without saying that she works hard and diligently; as for the heavy work and hardship of the "Four Cleanups", she didn't tell me a story until more than ten years later.At that time, I supported her needs and bought many New Year pictures and flowers for her to send.She brought back a whole body of lice, and I helped her clean up all her clothes. Not long after Ah Yuan returned to Beijing from Shanxi, the "Cultural Revolution" began.A group of revolutionary teenagers from a school in Chengguan Commune in Shanxi came to Beijing to connect with Teacher Qian Yuan and discussed how to win the principal.Ah Yuan reasoned with them and presented the facts, explaining that the principal is a good person and shouldn't fight.They were very convinced by Teacher Qian, so they did not "make a revolution" against the principal.Ten years later, the principal came to Beijing to thank Qian Yuan for saving him from this disaster.

In August, Zhongshu and I were "dug out" by the revolutionary masses one after another and became "monsters and ghosts".Ah Yuan hurried home to visit us, but she belonged to the "revolutionary masses".To go home, she had to walk through the compound where everyone was watching.She first wrote a big-character poster, drew a clear line with the parents of the "ghosts and snake gods", pasted it on the wall downstairs, and then went home and told us that she had just posted the big-character poster to "draw a clear line" with us——she emphasized Say "draw the line mentally"!Then without saying a word, she leaned against me and sat next to me, took out the unfinished needlework from the schoolbag, and sewed it stitch by stitch.She bought a piece of rayon, cut and sewed it herself, and made a set of pajamas for her mother; because she wanted to compare whether the sleeve length was suitable, she left a few stitches unfinished.After she sewed the last few stitches, she folded the clothes and trousers and put them on me, and took out a large bag of candies with fillings that Papa loved to eat from her schoolbag.She found a glass vase and unwrapped the candies one by one. She put the candies in the glass and then neatly folded the wrappers together and put them back in her bag—this way the revolutionary masses would not get out of the trash. Candy wrappers were found inside.She said that now that she is getting a salary, she can save money to supplement her family's income, except for her monthly meal expenses.Both of us, husband and wife, are "ghosts and snake spirits". We only pay a few yuan for living expenses every month, and our deposits have been frozen. Our living expenses are really tight.Ah Yuan tried to hold back the tears, I could tell she was swallowing tears.After seeing Ah Yuan, our hearts ached.

In the revolutionary camp, Ah Yuan was a "white top who was drawn into the party", and any revolutionary group would not want her; and she could not be a "free and unfettered faction" or a "swimming fish".After the national series, she went to Yan'an, the holy land of revolution.She drew a picture of the tower in Yan'an and sent it to her mother. After the "Cultural Revolution" ended, she told me that she worked alone, claiming that "navigation depends on the helmsman", and she sponsored whichever faction was justified, and she was quite valued.It's hard for her, alone, to have made no mistakes during the decade of the "Cultural Revolution".

We paid our wages after a few months, and a year later, the two of them "went downstairs" one after another—that is, they walked out of the "cowshed".But we are still the most bully people.We can't get along with strong neighbors, so Ah Yuan suggested "run away"; we felt that it was not only the best policy, but also the only way out.We fled to Beijing Normal University on December 9, 1973, around 4:00 p.m. We hired a three-wheeled car (this kind of car has long since been phased out), and arrived at Beijing Normal University with bumps and bumps.Ah Yuan took us into her dormitory when she was a student. It was the room she lived in for many years. It was on the third floor, facing north.When she took out the key to open the door, the neighbors came out to greet Qian Yuan.Before we entered her cold and dirty room, many people in the corridor came out to see Qian Yuan's parents.When they learned about our situation, they all extended a helping hand.Quilts, quilts, and pillows were sent from various houses; pots, pans, kitchen knives, spatulas, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, as well as monosodium glutamate, coal stoves, and coal cakes were sent from all directions, not limited to this building.Ah Yuan had so many friends and was so kind, we felt comfortable and warm, put down our things, and prepared to scoop up water to wipe the dust.

I suddenly had a nosebleed, and the handkerchief was completely stained red.I asked to know that the bathroom was on the fourth floor, and said that I needed to wash my hands, so I rushed to the fourth floor.Zhongshu hurriedly took a small washbasin "clumsy and clumsy", and filled it with half a basin of water under a tap in the corridor to wash my hands.I reasoned that my hands were too dirty and half a basin of water was not enough, so I rushed to the fourth floor.All I heard from Ah Yuan's friends was that "Uncle Qian has a good working attitude".I am very grateful to him in my heart, but I don't want him and Ah Yuan to worry about me.In the bathroom on the fourth floor, I iced the bridge of my nose and forehead with cold water, and washed the bloody handkerchief in between.The nosebleed stopped, I slowly went downstairs and returned to Ah Yuan's room.

When Ah Yuan saw me enter the room, he put his hands behind his back and said, "Ah! It's not good! It's exposed!" Her room was so dirty and messy, I never dreamed that my mother would come to clean it up here. . I love tidiness; Ah Yuan often forms a gang with his father and secretly opposes his mother's tidiness.For example, I set up towels, side to side, corner to corner, neat and tidy.The two of them thought that it would be more convenient to take a casual ride.But we are very compromised, they put the towels casually, and I re-lay them neatly.I'm not demanding, and they're not openly defiant.

Ah Yuan's dormitory has three bunk beds.The old classmates in the same room have all dispersed.After graduation, she and two colleagues took a lunch break here after dinner, and no one cared about cleaning up.The weather is currently cold, so only Ah Yuan can sleep in this room.The bookshelves were full of dust, and there was a mess under the bed.A Yuan is a member of the art team, good at color adjustment.All the bowls, saucers, cups, and plates in her house have been used to adjust the color and have not been washed.I watched "Big Exposure" and laughed happily, and the nosebleeds stopped safely.

We tidied up the room and washed the dishes.The corridor is the kitchen of each room, and we also have a coal stove.Before dinner, Ah Yuan went to the cafeteria to buy rice and vegetables, and I cooked them.In the room, the bed is along the wall, and there are two pairs of tables in the middle.We enjoyed sitting down for dinner, because we had so many friends who sympathized and cared for us, we were so grateful, and our hearts were relaxed and happy.The three of us live in the same room, so Ah Yuan doesn't have to worry about his parents being bullied, and we don't have to worry about our daughter having to commute in the car every day.Although the room is cold, we feel warm.

The winter solstice is approaching, and the wind in the north window is getting colder.There are frequent power outages in the school dormitory.The electricity went out, and so did the heating.We only had our clothes with us and had to go home to get our winter clothes.I dare not go back alone, for fear that I will not be able to tell what happened.The old Hou in my institute is a demobilized soldier, politically strong, and tall and strong.I asked him to be a bodyguard to accompany me home to pick up two large bags of clothes.He hired a car for me, and I went back to Normal University with cold clothes. Ah Yuan has a colleague who is about to move into Xiaohonglou.His overseas Chinese friend had just moved out of Xiaohonglou and gave up the house to him after he went abroad.Xiaohonglou is a dormitory for faculty and staff, which is better than student dormitory.That colleague knew that we lived in a dormitory facing north, so he gave us two rooms in the Xiaohong Building and kept the same place for himself. One of the two rooms faces south and the other faces east, and the sunlight is very good.We moved to Xiaohonglou to live.There are also some school furniture over there, such as beds, tables and chairs.The original large cabinet was removed, leaving a thick layer of soil under the cabinet.The quilts and all daily necessities we borrowed from Ah Yuan's friends had to be moved there.The move was busy, and poor Zhong Shu really had a "good working attitude". He couldn't get his hands in other places, so he "clumsily" cleaned the pile of old soil.I saw it and hurriedly stopped him, he had already eaten a lot of dust.It has been cold for several days, and he has caught a cold, which has triggered the asthma that has plagued him in recent years. Every time he gets sick, he can't lie down to sleep, he has to use many pillows and quilts to prop up half of his body, and sometimes he can't even lie in bed and can only walk around.Our medical relationship has been gradually downgraded from the first-class hospital before "Ming Fang" to a small hospital on the street.The doctor gave me some medicine and didn't care about it.He had an asthma attack, breathing like a whistling.I don't know the seriousness, and I jokingly called him "Wuthering Heights". The school hospital of Normal University is very close to Xiaohonglou.Ah Yuan took us to the school hospital to see a doctor and get injections.But he was very ill, and despite taking medicine and injections, he still screamed at night.The Xiaohonglou also cut off electricity and heating.The winter clothes I brought back from Ganmian Hutong were not enough.One night, he was walking around the house in a thick woolen coat that was heavy and not warm.I have been lying in bed with all my clothes on for several nights, staying with him.Suddenly, I couldn't hear him whistling, I saw him lying on the table without making a sound.I jumped up in fright.I touched his hand, and he squeezed mine immediately. It turned out that he was extremely tired, and after taking a nap, he immediately continued whistling.I regretted waking him up, but I knew he was still breathing when I heard the whistling. On the afternoon of January 18, 1974, I had just cooked a pot of porridge, and we had dinner together when Ah Yuan came back.The movement of "criticizing Lin Piao and Confucius" in the school is at its climax.I heard Zhongshu's whistling was different from usual, it was almost out of breath.Thanks to the two neighbors, they told me to send "grandpa" to the hospital for emergency treatment.Ah Yuan just came back from get off work, hurried to the hospital to find a doctor, and then found the driver on campus.A driver said that he was about to take a certain teacher to the Third Hospital of Peking University and promised to take us to rescue patients.Because according to the school's rules, the school car does not serve family members. I dressed Zhongshu in clothes, cotton shoes, hat and scarf, and wrapped a pot of porridge tightly in a thick quilt, waiting for the car to take us.Waiting and waiting, the car never comes.I asked anxiously, "Will the car wait for us at the gate of the hospital?" A good neighbor braved the cold wind and ran to the front of the hospital to look for it.Sure enough, the car stopped there and waited.The neighbor beckoned the driver to drive the car to Xiaohonglou.Several neighbors supported Zhong Shu and pushed him into the car.Ah Yuan and I sat on both sides of him, and another patient sat in the front seat.On the way to the Third Hospital of Beijing Medical University, I heard Zhongshu's rapid whistling as if it would stop at any moment. I was so anxious that the capillaries in my left eyeball ooze blood—this was discovered after returning to school. When we arrived at the hospital, the driver helped Zhongshu into the wheelchair and sent him to the emergency room.The doctor gave him injections and oxygen.After nearly four hours, Zhongshu's breathing slowed down.His medical relationship does not belong to the Third Hospital of Beijing Medical University. If he saves his life, the hospital doesn't care.Zhongshu had no choice but to rest on the wooden cover of the radiator. The driver who took us was also really nice.He said to Qian Yuan: He had to send the teacher who was seeing a doctor back to school; whenever Teacher Qian called him, he would be there whenever he was called.Zhong Shu rested on the radiator cover that was only wide enough to accommodate him, and it was twelve o'clock in the middle of the night.Ah Yuan called and asked the driver to pick him up.The driver is not obliged to get out of bed and pick us up in the middle of the night in winter.If he doesn't come to pick us up, we really don't know how to get back to Xiaohonglou.There was nowhere to rest in the hospital, and the three of us were starving. The pot of porridge wrapped in the quilt was still hot, and the three of us ate dinner together, and Zhongshu stopped whistling this time. The school infirmary was really willing to take care of us, and the nurses came to our home to give Zhongshu an injection.After being diagnosed and treated by the school infirmary, Zhongshu gradually recovered, and he was able to get up and lie on the recliner, and he was able to go to the hospital with the help of me to ask the nurse for an injection. We share this group of houses with two other families, sharing the same kitchen and bathroom.The family name is Xiong and the family name is Meng.Everyone goes to work or school on weekdays.Those who are often at home are our husband and wife, a five-year-old son and grandson of the Meng family, grandma of the Xiong family and her little grandson.The three meals are cooked by Lao Xiong, Meng’s housewife (I call her Little Chang Bao), and me.The three of us talked about homework or exchanged cooking experience, and we also exchanged information, which was very good.The little brother of the Meng family played in our house all day long.At first, the Xiong family boy could only jump on the bed, but gradually he was able to walk with his support on the wall and come into our house. At that time, Zhongshu's hair grew so long that he couldn't go out for a haircut, and his face was sickly. He was a real "prisoner with dirty face".But the younger brother of the Xiong family is very fond of him, and smiles at "grandpa" as soon as he enters the door.When Zhongshu went to the bathroom, he had to pass by their door.When the younger brother saw him, he stretched out his little hand to be hugged by grandpa.Zhongshu was flattered.Grandma Xiong often comforted me and said, "Look! He is absolutely smiling at Grandpa! Grandpa's illness must be cured soon." But Grandma Xiong observed vigilantly that Zhongshu was staggering when he walked past his house to go to the bathroom.The house is small and the aisles are narrow, so I can't fall down even if I wobble here and there.Grandma Xiong told me to pay attention.Zhongshu has been rescued, and his asthma has obviously recovered.But when I accompanied him to the hospital, he asked me to support him, leaning his whole body on me, and gradually I couldn't support him.He was lying in the chair to read and write notes, but his hands were out of focus, and the words flew crookedly out of the grid.Gradually, his tongue got bigger and he couldn't speak clearly.I'm afraid there's something growing in his head.The doctor at the school hospital said that it should be checked. I asked my relatives and friends to go through the back door, and got registered in two major hospitals in Beijing.He spent a lot of thought in advance and asked the nearby barber shop to take extra care; Zhongshu was helped by the young man who often came to take care of him to have his hair cut. Zhongshu went to two hospitals to see a doctor and had an EEG.The diagnosis was the same: he suffered from asthma and hypoxic sclerosis of the cerebral cortex, which could not be cured, and he could only see if he could recover after a year of rest.But the brain was not damaged, and there was no tumor. I let go of half my heart and hang half of my heart.Zhongshu had to rest for a while.At that time, the houses of various units were very tense.I have already lived in the cold winter in Xiaohonglou, and the weather has warmed up. I can't keep occupying other people's houses and not return them.I went to the academic department to ask the little soldier from the Literature Institute for an office, and I asked Lao Hou to escort me. I went home to pick up my things, and arranged the office.On May 22, 1974, we bid farewell to many old, middle-aged, and young friends of the Normal University, and moved to the office at the west end of Building No. 7 of the Admissions Department.