Chapter 23 1. Last summer, I started to go to the New Year's Eve

The Spring Festival in 1956 is coming soon, are you still living in this deserted home?Chen Ming proposed an idea: go to the hometown of civil servant Xia Gengqi, a village in Quyang County, Hebei Province, to celebrate the Spring Festival.Ding Ling was very happy to go to the countryside. Her book was written in the countryside of Hebei, and "In the Frost Days" was also written about farmers in Hebei. Maybe she can collect some more materials. The train is a slow train, stopping at each station. There are many people on the train, many of whom are farmers, some with chickens and ducks. The carriages are noisy and the air is not good. They arrive in Ding County at 8:00 pm.That day was the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month.They stayed in Ding County for one night, and the next day they rode a rubber-tyred cart for more than five hours, and arrived at Xia Gengqi's home in Xia Zhaoqiu Village, Quyang County at noon.This day is New Year's Eve.

Xia Geng wrote a letter to his family at first, saying that there are guests coming, so the house should be cleaned up and the kang should be hotter.The family members only come as new friends.Seeing that it was Ding Ling and his wife who came, the whole family was surprised and happy.On the evening of the 30th, according to local customs, more than a dozen relatives of the family came, each family brought a dish, gathered together to eat, drink and talk. "Old Jiang" story, the more she chattered, the happier Ding Ling listened to it with relish, interjecting a few words from time to time, she was thinking about which story could be written into "In the Frost Days".Sometimes when talking about the cadres in the village, Ding Ling said, we don't talk about right and wrong!Sitting on the hot kang, eating dumplings, eating melon seeds, chatting about homework, facing the simple and sincere smiling faces, Ding Ling's mood is much better, and her headache no longer hurts.

On the fourth day of the first lunar month, the wind was very strong and the weather was very cold. Chen Ming left first, and he had to rush back to write the inspection.He rushed to Ding County at 1:00 p.m., and when he went to the train station to inquire, all the cars with soft seats were full.I temporarily added a bus from Dingxian County to Beijing, and the queue for buying tickets was lined up at the bus station. They were all people returning to Beijing to go to work after full leave.Chen Ming stood in line for more than two hours to buy a ticket, and stood in line for another hour to enter the station.I drove at seven o'clock in the evening, stopped at each stop, and returned to Beijing at four o'clock in the morning the next day.

Chen Ming's departure made Ding Ling think of the cold Beijing again.Xia Zhaoqiu Village is just an illusion, and Beijing is her reality; no matter how nice the people in Xia Zhaoqiu Village are, no matter how many smiling faces she is, she is just passing by. Still waiting for her!Chen Ming took away Ding Ling's short-lived joy, and her good mood disappeared all of a sudden. She didn't go out for a day, and sat on the kang sullenly.The next day, the fifth day of the first lunar month, it was still very cold, and the room was only eighty-nine degrees. Except for Xia Gengqi and his family eating "broken five" dumplings, Ding Ling sat on the kang all day long, reading, and giving Chen Ming I wrote in a letter and said: "It was very windy outside the window. I sat on the kang and my hands were cold. I was thinking about you, thinking about how you lived yesterday and how you are today. Write to me! My life is like this. Can't say good or bad, I am a person without a heart, sometimes painful, sometimes numb, without you, the heart is even more empty. Tolstoy wrote "The Living Corpse", I am A living corpse. Maybe I can write some works in the future. Oh, write your 'big novel' well. I don't want to disappoint you, but I can't satisfy you either. How miserable I am!" she said "Long and great work" refers to the inspection materials that Chen Ming wants to write.

Three days later, Chen Ming received Ding Ling's letter, and immediately replied: "I can understand your feelings. But I think we should overcome it, use party spirit to overcome it, and it can be overcome... After returning, I I am indeed thinking seriously, checking myself, and occasionally suffer from insomnia at night, but it doesn’t matter, it’s not severe. I am very calm. I am going to think maturely and start writing next week.” Chen Ming also encouraged her, saying: “I often think that Communist Party members are special materials You should have the courage and ability to work in any environment. Mistakes in your work are unavoidable, but you can rely on the help of the Party. No matter how big a mistake is, you can correct it. I respect your will and Perseverance is what I believe in." It happened that Xia Gengqi's elder brother was in Beijing, so Chen Ming bought ten catties of charcoal and asked him to bring Ding Ling to keep warm.

In the next few days, the wind in Xiazhaoqiu Village became less windy. Ding Ling walked around several nearby villages, talked with township and village officials, and learned about the local agricultural planning and economic accounting. Qiu Cun took a look at the entire accounts last year and calculated the details for several companies.With Chen Ming's "send charcoal in the snow", the room she lives in is also much warmer. It snowed again on the 26th, and Ding Ling sat in the cold room and wrote to Chen Ming: "I received your letter on the 23rd, you asked me to stay, and then you asked me to come back, which made me uneasy. I How can I stay here?... But I know it’s useless to wait when I come back. I only have anxiety, but I have to wait in Beijing! The only way is to come back! If I can’t come back, I don’t want to come back. If I can leave you, I will I am willing to leave you. If you haven’t seen me, do you really want to see Zu Hui? If the weather is bad, I am impatient to stay any longer. I may come back the day after tomorrow! I want to live in the Summer Palace to recuperate after I come back, because I The encephalopathy is not healed, they can call me if something happens. Maybe I can write some articles. (I have lost all confidence in writing articles, I can’t write, I have no emotions!)” It’s not only the Her own grievances, as well as the harm she caused to her lover and children, she implicated them.