Chapter 14 1. Two girls are hidden in a remote mountain village, one is 3 years old and the other is disguised as a man

In a blink of an eye, the season has entered the bleak winter, with cold winds blowing in the mountains and fields, and the gray Shangku Village in Yudu County is busy in a strange way: every household is trying to find ways to accommodate the wounded soldiers of the Red Army sent from the other side of the mountain . After lunch that day, a mysterious figure appeared in the village. He was not injured, but the complexion on his face was not very good.His name is Zhang Dewan, he is tall and under 30 years old.Accompanied by village cadres, they walked around the village. Yo, a little girl's head sticks out from behind him.Such a fair face, a pair of big eyes flickering, revealing strangeness and curiosity.Tut tut!The man in the army also brought a little girl... What, the little girl is not Zhang Dewan's own?So, who are her parents, don't even you know?

When asked about this, Zhang Dewan kept silent, but said in his heart: "Of course I know that her parents are senior cadres of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. What can I say? No one can tell!" What's the matter... oh, "Yaping"... what, it's called wrong?how come?Parents don't know who it is, isn't it just a wild child?Just call her "Yiping"!Lai Wansen's son, 5-year-old Lai Puen, could not have imagined that a 3-year-old sister would suddenly be added to the family. As usual, after lunch that day, he and his 9-year-old brother went to pull pigweed in the pit opposite the door. When they came back, the sun was about to set.The eldest brother is busy unloading grass in the pigsty.Like a loach, Lai Puen swayed his body and got into the humble house, and an irresistible fragrance came to his face.Probing your head, you can see tea oil rolling in the steaming pot, and a plate of scrambled eggs on the stove, it smells so delicious.He stretched out his hand involuntarily.

"Slap," as soon as his hand came out, he slapped his mother on the back of the head first, "Smart people, don't let people lose face like ghosts. You don't see a distinguished guest at home." Lai Puen swallowed before he realized : "There must be a big guest." There is only an old hen at home. Unless the big uncle comes, my mother is reluctant to add oil to the cooking, let alone fried eggs. Turning his head, there were indeed several figures in the dark inner room.His father, Lai Wansen, was tapping his long pipe, and the village cadres were chatting with a tall, thin man who was unfamiliar to him.The tall and thin man sat on a low stool, with his head bent around his left arm, but he was a slender girl looking around.Hey, Lai Puen got excited all of a sudden and hurried forward.

The tall and thin man talked less, but Lai Wansen and the village cadres talked a lot. He understood that the tall and thin man brought the little girl to live with him.During these days, on the other side of the mountain, many wounded Red Army soldiers with missing arms and legs were brought over and distributed to live in various households.At the uncle's house next door, a brother from the Red Army was also assigned to live there. "Are you the Red Army?" Lai Puen asked quietly. "Yes, but I'm a cook." The tall, thin man answered him unequivocally.He reached out and stroked his head, and said, "Little brother, how old are you?" Over there, the father immediately scolded him: "Small devil, don't talk too much." Little Pu En quickly shrank aside.It wasn't until night when the lamp was lit that little Poon could see clearly the tall and thin face, with high cheekbones, pointed chin, gray face as if coated with a layer of vegetable juice, and a pair of pod eyes that were very alert.The cub being held by him tilted her head from time to time, her big and dark eyes slid around, turned around, snuggled into the thin man's arms and shouted: "Good mother, I'm hungry." "Ouch, fair and clean girl!" The cub looks like a porcelain doll!" Little Puen's mother, Hua Zaonu, took off her waist scarf and hugged Yeping affectionately in her arms: "Come, let me feed you." But before the Lantern Festival, the village became busy again.There are constant reports that the white bandits are coming.The wounded had to be scattered and transferred to other places.Zhang Dewan had to leave too.

For several days, he looked at the child with a melancholy expression... After careful consideration, he finally brought the child to the landlord Lai Wansen and Hua Zaonu and his wife: "You two old men, I was entrusted by someone to bring this child. I am by my side. I am wandering now, and my future is uncertain. Please adopt this child! You are a loyal and kind family, and I am relieved to entrust the child to you... There is a small metal box here, which was left by her mother There are some clothes inside..." The Lai family is a poor peasant family.Lai Wansen and his wife have three sons and two daughters. They are still young and their livelihood is very difficult.

Nevertheless, with tears in their eyes, they generously accepted Zhang Dewan's request: "Don't worry, eat the chaff and swallow the vegetables, we will raise the child!" On the morning before leaving, Zhang Dewan took the child by the hand, They went door to door and told each other: "Neighbors, folks, this child, this child without father and mother, is staying here with you. Please take care of me, take care of me!..." The sky began to rain. Rain, bitingly cold.Zhang Dewan wore a top hat and set foot on the misty Zhonggong Peak. he's gone.A child was left behind, but the child's life experience was concealed. During the special period of white terror, this was done to save the villagers and children from being involved, but it also left people with a mystery.

The family of Lai Wansen's elder brother Lai Weiqing (village cadre) in the same village also adopted a child left by the Red Army.It was a girl eight or nine years older than Ye Ping, named Qiu Lan.She held a Soviet certificate, and when she was evacuated to the village, she disguised herself as a woman and changed her gender and name to the public.Her hair was shaved clean, and her public name was Qiu Decheng, and she was dressed like a boy. Before the evacuation, Qiu Lan was the youngest actor in the Central Blue Shirts.Every day, she followed the team of the Blue Shirts to promote popularity everywhere, and when performing, she played the role of a child in the show.Sixty or seventy years later, she still remembered such a show: in the play, a reactionary was stealing something, and she found out that she sprinkled lime into the eyes of the reactionary, and then shouted loudly in all directions: Catch the bad guys, catch the bad guys—— As a result, people from the Peasant Association came after hearing the news and arrested the reactionaries...

At that time, the blue shirt troupe often went to the mountain to perform, and then went back to the camp after the performance at night. When they returned to the camp, they were cold and hungry, and went to bed on an empty stomach. Hunger is common, almost every day. Xiao Qiulan, who was used to being hungry, couldn't remember how many times she had been hungry, but instead remembered a few times when she was very full. Once, a wounded horse was killed in the team, and the unloaded horse meat was mixed with taro and boiled in three large pots.All the people in the blue shirts ate with their hands open. If they couldn't eat any more, they each carried a few pieces of horse meat on the road, eating as they walked.The horse meat was delicious, but the heat was very poisonous. Qiu Lan developed rotten sores, which were itchy and painful.She ate horse meat for four or five days, but developed sores for more than 20 days.

Another time, the Blue Shirt Troupe performed in Ruijin for Chairman Mao, Zhu De and other central leaders. After the performance, they entertained everyone for a dinner. There were 9 bowls of food on the table, which was quite sumptuous.After the meal, Chairman Mao called the guards to carry Qiu Lan to his residence, and gave her toothbrush, toothpaste, pens, clothes and many other things... Qiu Lan remembers: Before the Long March of the Red Army, the Central Blue Shirt Regiment was disbanded. When she was evacuated, many Red Army uncles from the regiment came to comfort her, saying that they would come to pick her up after three years in the farmer's house.

Qiu Lan's boy's name was given to her by Chairman Mao.Hearing that Qiu Lan wanted to stay, Chairman Mao thought for a while and said: The revolution will surely succeed, so change your name to Qiu Decheng! "Isn't that a boy's name?" Qiu Lan asked. Chairman Mao said: Yes, you can’t say it’s a woman, it’s dangerous for a girl to be alone. Since then, she has had a boy's name.In order to guard against bad guys, Qiu Lan carried a small knife on her body every day. Pulling pigweed, chopping firewood, growing vegetables, feeding pigs... Qiu Lan disguised herself as a man at home and in the village, living quietly, becoming an unknown and unobtrusive child.

Before the age of 16, she had never undressed or used the toilet in front of others.Everyone really thought it was a boy. However, Qiu Lan envied those girls so much, whenever she saw other girls wearing red or flowered clothes, she imagined herself in red or flowered clothes. She knew that Ye Ping was also the daughter of the Red Army.From the perspective of the Lai family, Ye Ping is her cousin, so she often asks Ye Ping to go up the mountain to collect firewood and pull pig vegetables. Once, Ye Ping was sweating all over, took off her clothes and draped them on the branches. When Qiu Lan saw it, her heart skipped a beat. When she was resting, she quietly clung to her, looked left and right, couldn't help herself, and put the flowery clothes on herself. It was too small to fit, so she tried it on herself for a long time.As soon as she raised her head, Ye Ping was standing in front of her, looking at her strangely, her face turned red to the base of her ears... It is really difficult for a woman to disguise herself as a man. Qiu Lan has a "ghost" in her heart, and she is always in fear all day long.Day by day, she counted the days, how could three years be so long.Finally, after three years of hope, the Red Army did not come to pick her up. Another three years passed, and the Red Army still did not come. Women disguise themselves as men, and they can no longer pretend. That year, 16-year-old Qiu Lan had grown up and suffered from stomach cramps. A large pool of blood suddenly flowed out from her body, soaking her trousers and flowing all the way to her ankles.She thought she was wounded or seriously ill and was about to die, screaming, her face white as lime with terror. The abnormal hemorrhage caused panic among the family members. When the adoptive father and adoptive mother were in a hurry and were about to help her take off her trousers for inspection, there was a sound of "Boom—" and the sharp knife tucked into her body fell down and shone brightly in the sun. The cold light suddenly startled everyone. Qiu Lan disguised herself as a man, and the secret was discovered. When Ye Ping was 10 years old, there was a famine in Yudu, and her eldest brother died of illness. In order to avoid the famine and harvest the late crops, the second elder brother Lai Puen straightened his bony chest and led his young wife Yeping to work as a small kiln worker outside Huichang City through the autumn frost.Two people worked hard for half a year, and they could earn two baskets of grain money to go home and make up for the lack of rice. What a toil!Although they are child laborers, they do the hardest and dirtiest work.During the day, under the scolding of the master potter, the two were busy making tiles, brushing tube tiles, turning over tiles, and installing kilns. The thin single clothes were wet and dry, dry and wet again.Watching the kiln fire at night, I fell asleep amid exhaustion, drowsiness and insect bites. In the night, there are no stars, no moon.The cold rain was woven into a dense net by the hands of the devil, covering the sky and covering the earth.The cold wind was like a gust of wind, passing by them with raindrops.Their hands and feet were red, cracked, and bleeding. In order to resist loneliness, they raised a few ducklings.Every night, the ducklings nestled obediently at their feet, comforting their loneliness.The two of them depended closely on each other in the light arc of a kiln fire, resisting the bitter wind and rain together, and endured the endless cold and endless winter. "Second brother, ducklings have parents, why don't I have them? I'm so tired, I'm so hungry, I'm so cold, where is my mother?!" Ye Ping's heart was always stirred by this question.She would never have imagined that thousands of miles away, her father, Lu Dingyi, was also concerned about this daughter who had lost her mother since she was a child. How many past events, soaked in tears...