First snow

In early winter, the wind and snow drift.

Ward 206 of the North Town Hospital.

The ward was full of people, silent, and every pair of eyes looked affectionately at the bed.

Lying on the bed was Teacher Zhang Yitao. At this time, his hair was all white, and his face was pale and bloodless. The eyes are open and the gaze is glazed. The cheeks are sunken and the cheekbones are prominent, like the majestic Kunlun Mountains and the low Junggar Basin. He muttered to himself, unable to make out what he was saying. There are tears in the corners of his eyes that fill in all the wrinkles, and these wrinkles are the rings of the years, engraved with the vicissitudes of his life: eating bran when he was a teenager, being bullied as an adult, being tortured when he was a rightist, and fighting all day long during the "special period"......

Looking at such a miserable old man, people's expressions were worried and painful. Teacher Zhang's second daughter Zhang Hong and third daughter Zhang Qing stood at opposite ends of the bed, their eyes red and swollen like upside-down wine cups. Tears are still flowing. Suddenly, a woman's cry came from outside the door - Teacher Zhang's eldest daughter Zhang Lan helped her mother in (this old man was crazy on weekdays, and people's hearts hung when they saw her coming).

Mr. Zhang's family background is not good, his father-in-law is old, his daughter is young, his wife is crazy, his housework is heavy, and his life is difficult.

At this time, Teacher Zhang's wife was not crazy, she walked straight to the hospital bed and cried: "Old Zhang, you can't go." You have to have three long and two short, how can we orphans and widows live......" This cry was heartbreaking, heartbreaking, people were sobbing, Teacher Huang Shulan cried the most, she squeezed to the bed, hugged Teacher Zhang's wife and cried: "Teacher Zhang, sister-in-law Zhang, I'm sorry for you!" ”

Huang Shulan's move, people understand what's going on.

Six years ago, on a sunny summer day, all the teachers were studying in their offices. "Smack!" A crisp sound came from the language group. People's hearts fluttered. Then, there were shouts, beatings, persuasions, and denunciations. Colleagues didn't know what was going on, and they ran to the language team.

Everyone pushed the door and saw that they were all stunned, and Mr. Zhang fell to the ground, covering his nose with his hands, and blood flowed from between his fingers.

It turned out that two female teachers, Huang Shulan and Li Yaoguang, quarreled over some trivial matter. Teacher Zhang and the team members are so angry, Li Yaoguang is silent, Huang Shulan is still unreasonable and quibbly, her mouth is not careful, Li Yaoguang really can't listen to it, and said: "You are really an old shrew!" Huang Shulan was annoyed and angry, jumped up and hit Li Yaoguang. Teacher Zhang hurriedly went to pull, and Huang Shulan played a scoundrel: "You old spy (When Teacher Zhang was young, he was the director of a radio station of the Kuomintang. On the eve of liberation, he secretly provided information for the Communist Party, and later led the people to revolt and made meritorious contributions, but during the "anti-rightist" and "special periods", he was branded as a rightist and Kuomintang spy because of "historical issues", and later rehabilitated Zhaoxue. ）！ Pull the deviation frame, drag me to protect her. What do you have to do with her? Yes? Teacher Zhang was angry and shouted: "Nonsense, it's too unusual!" Huang Shulan jumped up more like a dominatrix and knocked Teacher Zhang down with a fierce palm.

In fact, Huang Shulan beat Teacher Zhang mainly because she lost the competition for the head of the Chinese teaching and research team this semester, although she is the wife of the chairman of the school trade union, and has done "work" behind her, but the school still arranged for Teacher Zhang to be re-elected, so she has always been angry, jealous of her ability, looking for opportunities to make trouble, and today she finally found an opportunity to vent on the topic.

After this quarrel, Huang Shulan played right and wrong, saying that the relationship between Teacher Zhang and Li Yaoguang was not proper, and she also went to Teacher Zhang's house to make up some hazy stories. Teacher Zhang's wife didn't believe it at first, and she couldn't stand Huang Shulan's starling mouth, so she was suspicious, and fought with Teacher Zhang, causing a storm in the city. As a result, my wife got schizophrenia. Later, the leader came forward to make things clear and severely criticized Huang Shulan, and Teacher Zhang did not hate Huang Shulan because of this, but helped her do a lot of things. Teacher Zhang is such a person, he doesn't seek crimson, he only seeks white. When he was cleared of the charges of "rightists" and "spies" and paid back his salary, he didn't want to say a penny: "It's enough to give me back my innocence." ”

The cry of his wife, Mr. Zhang did not respond, and he still "murmured" non-stop. My colleague Xiao Zhou was very sad, and held Teacher Zhang's hand tightly: "Teacher Zhang, you can't go!" My sister can't do without you, and everyone can't do without you, I still want to ask you to help me revise the draft! Speaking of this, Xiao Zhou's face showed a look of surprise, and then he shouted: "Teacher Zhang, Teacher Zhang!" Teacher Zhang's eyes suddenly flashed with a light, and his hand also stretched out to Xiao Zhou, Xiao Zhouleng: "What?" Teacher Zhang said with difficulty: "Draft." Everyone was very strange, Xiao Zhou was at a loss, and Teacher Zhang raised his voice: "Revise the draft." Xiao Zhou stammered: "I, I ......" Teacher Zhang was angry, Xiao Zhou subconsciously pinched and touched, and really took out a manuscript from his pocket, and gave it to Teacher Zhang hesitantly. Teacher Zhang struggled as if he wanted to sit up, and Xiao Zhou and Zhang Hong hurriedly helped him up.

The corners of Mr. Zhang's mouth twitched in pain, he gritted his teeth, sat against the bed, ticked and changed the poem "The Girl of the Black Land", and his hands kept shaking. The pen seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, and Mr. Zhang held it with the last strength of his life, tightly, tightly, and no one could take it away. Teacher Zhang revised word by word, and beads of sweat rolled down one by one. Everyone in the room held their breath, all eyes were fixed on this earth-shattering scene, and all their hearts beat with this tear-jerking feat!

The manuscript of the poem was finally corrected, and Mr. Zhang lay down weakly covered in sweat. "Teacher Zhang, are you tired?" The Vice Principal for Teaching and Learning stepped forward. When Mr. Zhang saw that it was him, his eyes were strange, and his mouth "muttered" again. The vice principal was embarrassed, he lowered his body and put his ear to Teacher Zhang's mouth, and the expression on his face was particularly ugly. Xiao Zhou felt very strange and asked, "Principal, what did he say?" The vice principal squeaked, "Didn't say anything." As he spoke, he turned around, and everyone wondered, Mr. Zhang's voice was loud but his speech was slurred, and it seemed that there were four words: "money", "teaching", "yes", and "life", and no one knew what it meant. The old teacher Wang chewed on four words, and his eyes suddenly lit up.

Mr. Wang and Mr. Zhang have worked together for more than 30 years and have a deep friendship. He knew that Mr. Zhang had been engaged in education for many years and had been working diligently to cultivate talents for the country. The lectures are thorough, vivid, innovative, and well-known. But at the beginning of the new semester this year (the third year of high school starts on July 20 every year), the school did not arrange classes for Mr. Zhang and let him take care of the books. Everyone is very strange, and some people speculate that it may be that Mr. Zhang is old and has a heavy family burden. Mr. Kezhang is a backbone teacher with outstanding teaching performance, as we all know, although he is a little older, he is healthy, energetic, and fully competent. Moreover, he has been standing on the podium with students for most of his life, and once he is not allowed to lecture, it is tantamount to depriving him of everything. At this moment, there was another gossip that Mr. Zhang's class was not good, and the students were not welcome, which affected the results of the college entrance examination, so he didn't need to give a lecture. Everyone was very surprised to hear this, and finally let Mr. Zhang hear it, like a thunderbolt from the sky, he was so shocked that he couldn't speak for a long time, he found the vice principal in charge of teaching (the principal went to study in the province), and the vice principal explained with a smile on his face: "Oh, Lao Zhang, don't listen to rumors, let you take care of the book to take care of your age." The library is also important. As for your class, it's a good one. Teacher Zhang was puzzled.

For a few days, people found that Mr. Zhang seemed to be really old, and he talked less, always thinking and meditating. Later, people saw that he was either looking for a teacher or a leader, but the school never arranged for him.

In August, the results of the college entrance examination were announced, and the results of the class taught by Mr. Zhang were among the best. In September, in the evaluation of the teaching performance of various schools in the district, Mr. Zhang's results were the first in the district. People suddenly realized, but at this time, Mr. Zhang had already fallen ill, and he was in a trance all day long, muttering to himself.

At noon, the people who had been in the ward all morning refused to leave, when there was a sound of hurried footsteps outside the door, and someone shouted: "Principal Teng is back!" Zhang Lan dragged and cried, "Dad-Dad-Principal Teng is here!" Principal Teng rushed to the bed to take a look, tears streaming down: "I haven't seen you for half a year, why are you sick like this?" Old Zhang, Teacher Zhang, wake up! Teacher Zhang slowly opened his eyes and saw that it was the principal, and he was very excited: "Teng-Principal, when are you ......?" Principal Teng said: "When I received the call, I left, and I just arrived." Principal Teng raised his voice: "Teacher Zhang, don't think too much, I know everything, I will deal with some things, you are an excellent teacher, I can trust you!" Teacher Zhang burst into tears, shook Principal Teng's hand at once, and said intermittently: "Thank you, principal, I don't want anything, I have you...... This sentence...... And my heart lit up. I...... There is only one request, etc...... I'm cured, and let me ......" Before he could finish speaking, he closed his eyes and hung his head. Principal Teng shouted in a straight voice: "Old Zhang! Teacher Zhang—"

In the funeral home, mourning music is whispering. Principal Teng delivered a eulogy: "Mr. Zhang Yitao has been teaching for more than 30 years. Proficient in business and dedicated to their duties. Be a teacher and be highly respected. When he was dying, he was still revising. Don't forget to go to the podium. The spring silkworm is to the end of the dead silk, and the wax torch turns into ashes and tears begin to dry. He did not seek fame or profit, but only cultivated talents for the revitalization of Chinese education, selfless dedication, and died. We have to learn from his qualities, his spiritual ......"

In this deep mournful music, the "final evaluation" Teacher Zhang couldn't hear it, inside the glass coffin, he was wearing a white suit, coupled with the silver hair and pale face, he looked so white and pure, and so peaceful and peaceful. In their weeping, people unconsciously remembered what he often said: "Not for crimson, but for whiteness." ”

White snowflakes are flying all over the sky, and this is the first snow of early winter, and when it falls on the campus, the ground becomes clean.

(December 2002)