1967, I think that was a better year. Although the society is relatively turbulent, the people are not living a hard life. Now I am 24 years old. Although the growth process has been bumpy, it is not miserable. At least a few years ago, when the country was short of food, I could still afford to eat every day in my uncle's teahouse. After following Master, although the simple diet made my stomach irritable, at least I was not hungry.
Maybe it’s because I’ve experienced both comfort and hardship. My material requirements are relatively low, so I feel very puzzled by the behavior of some young people in the village.
This incident begins in the second half of 1967.
Since Master didn't return to the village with me at the beginning of the year, he hasn't appeared in the village for more than half a year. During this period, he sent me several letters, saying that he was currently traveling in eastern Sichuan and Hubei. I think this may be the way the old Taoist priests chose to escape from the mortal world after they suffered a sudden setback in their middle and later years after living a carefree life.
That year, probably in August or September, seven or eight young men and women came to the village. They are all educated young people who responded to the country's call and went to the mountains and countryside. Since most of the people in the village are older, even a 24-year-old like me is considered young. So when these young children come to the mountain village, no matter where they go or what they do, they will become a crowd of people around them.
They like to sing, and often while they are doing farm work, a head will suddenly pop out of the rice field and start singing as if in heat. This is nothing, if his singing is heard by another educated youth, he will also join the ranks of singing. Suddenly, in the small farmland, singing came and went, showing a happy life style.
When the educated youth came to the village, they had to have a place to live, so they were placed in the homes of the so-called "poor and lower-middle peasants" according to households.
Aunt Xu's family is poor and lower-middle peasants. An educated youth who jumped in line was a girl of seventeen or eighteen years old. She was quite good-looking, but I always felt that she was too uncomfortable with the life here. Aunt Xu specially allocated a room to her, so I had to put a few stools together into a bed to sleep after cleaning the main room every night.
As I said, I have endured hardship, so this hardship is nothing. But I often hear the girl crying from her room at night, which makes me a little upset. Since you want to miss your home and your parents, then why do you leave your home and your parents to respond to someone who you know and he doesn’t know you, and come to this remote place to ask for abuse?
The most outrageous thing is that because these educated youths are of similar age, they often go out in small groups. The food and drink in the village are very simple and they only eat meat during the Chinese New Year. On weekdays, even the egg drop soup can be used as half a meat dish. How can children from Quncheng adapt quickly? Forget about girls, they only have so much appetite, and maybe they won’t eat as much as Aunt Xu’s big yellow dog. But those male educated youths were no longer fuel-efficient, so within a month after they came to the village, several chickens and ducks were lost one after another in the village. I was so scared that Aunt Xu could only drive the chickens and ducks into the house at night and share a room with me in the main room.
I would often be awakened by the sound of chickens and ducks flapping their wings above my head, and when I went to the ground after waking up, I would always step on a pile of chicken and duck excrement with my bare feet.
Perhaps because she knew I was unhappy, Aunt Xu would often comfort me, saying that these educated youths would only stay in the village for two years at most, so just hold on. I have lived in Aunt Xu's house for more than a year. During this period, we have already regarded each other as our own relatives. And whenever she sees me depressed, the female educated youth who cuts in the queue at Aunt Xu's house will tease me sweetly to make me stop being angry.
Her name is Meng Dongxue. It is said that this name was given by her grandfather. The reason is that on the day she was born, there was an unreasonable heavy snowfall in her grandfather's hometown. I grew up in the city and received a new education. She went to middle school at a girls' middle school in the city. She also has a little sister at home. In response to the country's call, non-only-child families need one of their children to go to the mountains and countryside. In addition, she herself has studied, is educated, and can do anything when her brain is hot. Came here.
Maybe it was because I was enlightened relatively late, maybe because of my sensitive identity, or maybe because most of the women I have come into contact with over the years are older people, and suddenly a young, energetic and good-looking girl came to my family. , I actually have a good feeling in my heart. But in that era, most people were conservative, and anyone who acted a little frivolously would be regarded as a hooligan.
So after Meng Dongxue jumped in and came to Aunt Xu's house, I paid more attention to my behavior. Fortunately, the mountain village was small and there weren't many things to do. My identity was not discovered. Occasionally, when villagers needed help, I would secretly go there quickly. Done without any fanfare. Meng Dongxue asked me one morning why I like to sit in the yard and read some ancient books as long as I finish my farm work. I told her that it was because I had never gone to school and I wanted to learn something. Meng Dongxue is a considerate girl. She said that as long as she has time in the future, she will teach me cultural knowledge.
As I just said, the material conditions in the village were so poor that the hungry male educated youths couldn't steal chickens and ducks, so they started to take advantage of the village cats and dogs. Among them was a male educated youth who overestimated his abilities. He tried to steal Aunt Xu’s big yellow dog at night. I found him and beat him up. From then on, I became an honorable villager who protects cats and dogs in the village.
Meng Dongxue, like me, became good friends with the big yellow dog. Not only that, even the cat who often fought with me was obsessed with her. After a few months, the village was peaceful. Meng Dongxue and several other female educated youths would teach the children in the village about culture during their off-farm breaks, and I was forced to sit in the last row to listen.
Among them was a female educated youth named Ji Youan. Maybe it was due to my incompatibility. She always disliked me and always found fault with me in class. She would even ridicule me for not even being as good as a kid, which then triggered this group of bears. The children laughed at me.
In fact, I don't hate her at all, I just feel that she is just looking for a sense of presence in me. Who knows if she encounters menstrual problems every day, and it is inevitable that she will be in a bad mood. So I often laugh it off and even pretend to be silly to make everyone laugh. Originally, all this was fine, and I was quietly enjoying the life of a mountain village without fighting against the world, but until one day, Ji Youan came to the house to look for Meng Dongxue, and when passing by my main room, he knocked over the door in the house. A bamboo basket on the back.
The bamboo basket not only hides the books I usually read, but also many tools that I don’t need for the time being. For example, peach wood swords, small paper figures, and various spells that I had practiced before but wrote too many spells.
I was sitting on the edge reading a book. When Ji Youan knocked over the bamboo basket, he repeatedly said sorry to me and helped me pick up the things. When she picked up the stack of charms I had tied with a rope, a look of fear suddenly appeared on her face.
In fact, the person who should be afraid is me. Such an educated young man has received an ideological education based on the book "Das Kapital" and is a true materialist. After getting along with each other for several months, she discovered that there was such an idealist living in the village, and he even made a career out of it. Will she report me?
Although I didn't say anything at the moment, I kept paying attention to her expression. She looked pretending to be calm, as if nothing was wrong, but her panicked hands and feet, as well as her behavior of not looking for Meng Dongxue even though she walked into the house, made me realize that it was over and the danger was coming.
I told Aunt Xu about this that night. Aunt Xu was the one who had made a promise to my master, so she must keep me. Aunt Xu was not familiar with Ji Youan, and people might not listen to her advice, so Aunt Xu called Meng Dongxue to me that night and tactfully confessed my life experience.
Meng Dongxue and I have lived under the same roof for several months, but she didn’t know that I was a Taoist until now.
Since we usually have a good relationship with each other and we all rely on others, Meng Dongxue told me that she would talk to Ji Youan about the situation and hoped that she would not make this matter public or report me. In fact, several hours had passed since Ji Youan saw all this. These few hours were enough to spread the news throughout the mountain village. But I still thank Meng Dongxue for doing this for me, because if she was accused of protecting me, then I would owe a huge debt.
Paper can never cover fire. It is said that when Meng Dongxue found Ji Youan that night, my story had already spread among the female educated youth. The male and female educated youth in the village queued up at the front and back of the village, not in the same area, probably to prevent some immoral things from happening. Ji Youan probably never thought about reporting me, but she had no intention of hiding this matter. So when Meng Dongxue begged her for mercy, she instead advised Meng Dongxue to keep a distance from me, saying that I was a cancer of the old society and the four olds that the leader was determined to overthrow.
After some hard work, Ji Youan agreed not to spread the matter further, but from now on I would not be allowed to attend their small classes again. I'm far from satisfied with this way of handling it, but I have nothing to say. As the saying goes, careful sailing can sail a thousand years, but in the final analysis, all this was because of my carelessness. Although I don’t know if Ji Youan really did not tell anyone about me as promised, but what I can guarantee is that the other female educated youths may have told the male educated youths a long time ago.
It's easy to tell the difference just by looking at their expressions when you walk by them. The village chief owed me a favor, and the Wang family also vouched for me. After hearing the rumors about those educated youths, a rough man like the boss of the Wang family even led the villagers to argue loudly with these educated youths.
Suddenly, I became the trigger. I felt guilty but there was nothing I could do. Meng Dongxue was ostracized by other educated youths because she protected me, but she never said this after she returned home. She still called me Brother Situ, which made me quite happy.
About a month after I was discovered, at the end of November 1967, another strange thing happened in the mountain village. The protagonist of this incident was Ji Youan.
