In the early morning of New Year's Day in 1962, the train stopped at Maoshan, a small station with only a row of yellow houses.

Jiang Lesheng traveled north alone along the road leading to Maoshan Farm. There was a small black dot wriggling on the vast snow field between heaven and earth.

The red sun erupts from the eastern horizon. The proudly standing cone-shaped Maoshan Mountain, the undulating hills, and the sparse cottage woods are covered in ice and snow, just like the ice and snow kingdom in a fairy tale. Smoke curled over the village, and a rooster crowed.

Although it is the season of dripping water and ice, due to the sunny weather and no wind, and the rush to the road does not feel too cold. There were ice bumps on the soles of his shoes, and he had to walk in the thick snow on the side of the road. After two small tuns, go downhill and go to work again, several red tile houses and large thatched huts appear in front of you.

A flock of white geese quacked and staggered majestically over the passage of the house. Two red scarves with spinning tops led Jiang Lesheng and shouted through the fence: Teacher Jiang, your family is here!

After nearly three years of separation, my sister and brother hugged each other and cried.

My hair has not been washed for many days, and it exudes an unpleasant rancid smell. The third sister helped him wash his hair, stroked the broken eyebrow scar on his forehead, and said distressedly, "You are so stupid", and the tears couldn't stop rolling down again.

The next day at work, Jiang Lesheng and the third sister came to the personnel department. Section Chief Xue was very satisfied with the graduation certificate: he graduated from high school at the age of sixteen, which is very good! Shaoqing asked thoughtfully: You are also in the 60s? In 60, if you have one to take one, why don't you take the university entrance examination? My younger brother was admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology that year, and he was a junior in the second half of the year, and his future is immeasurable!

Jiang Lesheng was poked in the sore spot, and his face was red with embarrassment. So far, he only vaguely knows that the reason for the failure is "bad ingredients", and the details are unclear. In the face of the question, he said perfunctorily: I took the test, but I didn't take it.

The third sister Jiang Lehua hurriedly solved the siege: My younger brother's grades were very good, and he fainted from malaria in the college entrance examination. Section Chief Xue, have you heard of it? Malaria is a very serious disease in the South. Alas, luck!

In the past, my colleague was concerned about her brother's admission, and she also made up this reason to deal with it.

Section Chief Xue responded: Well, that disease is indeed serious. I also had to be stationed in Anhui in the army. Seeing that Jiang Lesheng's eyes were red, he hurriedly comforted him: After all, there are few people who can go to college, and they are the pride of the sky! Not going to college doesn't mean you don't have a future.

Section Chief Xue asked him to fill out the "Volunteer Registration Form" on the spot. And said that it was the last one, and it was specially reserved for him.

Section Chief Xue looked at the filled out form and nodded in praise: It is said that the south produces talents, and the text is like its people!

He patted the young man on the shoulder and encouraged: The target of the dictatorship of the farm is the prisoner of the labor camp, followed by the second labor reform who has been employed. Family composition doesn't affect you much. The pony is a technical cadre, you are a relative of the cadre, eat more food to grow stronger!

Jiang Lesheng's heart was warm. The identity positioning of "cadre relatives" means that the burden of birth that has been carried for many years is about to be unloaded! Like a man who has lived in a cave for a long time, he returns to the sun-drenched ground.

The turn of fate came so quickly, so suddenly! A sense of happiness rises in the chest.

Volunteer visitors are nicknamed "blind streams". Five conditions are set for probation: the employee's immediate family member; 16 to 25 years old unmarried; Elementary school education or above; Good moral character and no criminal record; In good health and disease-free, 30 people were selected to form a probationary team and concentrated on working at the improved seed station. During the probationary period, five cents a day for living expenses and a pound of food stamps in the field.

Among them are Ren Wei Renwu, the nephew of the head of the finance department, the younger brother of Guan Dazhuang, the captain of the car, Lan Rong, the sister of Lan Lepu, the agricultural technician, Feng Yonghou, the son of the old Feng Tou, the husband of the guest house, and the children of employed agricultural workers such as Liu Ya, Liu Zhi, Lu Kuan, and Wanshan. Ye Xiaona, an orphan girl in Zhejiang, was specially approved by Secretary Sun to join Niu Qiushi, an uncle who was a doctor and an employed farmer.

Wang Huaju, an instructor of the improved seed station, was appointed to manage the probationary team. He has made rapid progress in the transfer of the armed police, and has been listed as a reserve candidate for deputy section chief.

The probationary personnel are arranged to live in a large warehouse. Everyone worked hard to bake the frozen soil, mix wheat straw and mud and smooth it around, and build a stove and fire wall to live in.

Wang Huaju asked Guan Erzhuang to lead the people to separate the warehouse from it. The young woman lives in the east and the hill is newly opened; The man lives at the west end and walks through the original door. Erzhuang stammered and said: Don't, Fei that thing, separate, separate, what to do?

The crowd was puzzled. He explained with a stiff face: Warm, thinking, thinking, this, years, hungry to walk, walking and shaking, who, have, that leisure? No, no, no.

Jokes are jokes, and Erzhuang's work is not ambiguous. Bury a few pillars nailed to the cross brace, and the tree strips will not be smeared with mud: this is called covering the eyes and ears, not seeing and hearing, and blocking the gentleman and not the villain.

With a place to live, the probation team began to work: one group went up the mountain to collect firewood, the second group plowed manure, and the third group selected seeds indoors, which were rotated every three days.

To collect firewood, you have to go up to Qipan Mountain, which is called a mountain, but there is no towering mountain. On the rolling wasteland, a number of small hills are scattered and bulging. Birch trees and poplars are all over the mountains, and the shrubs under the trees are overgrown. In the snow in the low-lying area, the towers formed by the roots of the grass are dotted, like steamed buns on the cage drawer; A mound pokes into a depression, and the graves on it are densely packed, and there are buried labor prisoners who have no relatives to take care of the aftermath and the "second labor reform", which the Maoshan people call "Peninsula Garden".

Counting nine is naturally hard to collect firewood in winter. Every day, I go out early and return late, and I will roast pickles on the head of the nest at lunch, and drink some snow water on the mountain. The cold wind is biting like a knife, and there is still heat on the dry head when you take off your cotton clothes. The snow got into the cotton rubber shoes, melted and frozen. In the case of large smoke bubbles, it is enough to walk without working.

It's not easy to plow manure either. Cow dung and horse urine were frozen like stones, and many people were shaken and bleeding, but fortunately, they did not brave the wind and snow to walk a long way, and heated the soup and hot water at home at noon.

Indoor selection should be said to be beautiful, and it is not easy to dry: wheat, soybeans, and millet are selected one by one, and the small diseased grains are broken and picked out, and they are as careful as embroidery, and the eyes hurt after a long time, and the neck and waist are sore and numb. When I close my eyes when I sleep at night, the seeds are densely arched in my brain.

As the saying goes, there are only endless blessings, and there are no sins that cannot be endured. Since the "volunteers" come to the field, and there is work to pay living expenses and food stamps, where can I find this good thing? What's more, after the expiration of the three-month probationary period, you will be assigned to do long-term (period) temporary (timely) work, and you can become a regular until the recruitment index is down! Therefore, no matter how hard and tired everyone is, there are no complaints, some people propose that one day off in two weeks is too much, and even if one day off in a month is not resting, we have endless strength!

Jiang Lesheng received two letters addressed to the third sister's family. A letter from the public security duty office at 3Trees Station said that the robbery case was solved on December 29, but the food had been eaten up by the criminals, and the empty bag could be retrieved at Maoshan Station with this letter.

Another letter was written by Le Tian. The letter said that after his brother left, Wang Huaibing, Gou Xiaofeng, and Wang Xiaosi came to the door every day like a marquee, asking where the people went. I said that the legs are long, how do I know? They threatened her mother to confess her whereabouts or hang her up! Seeing that she couldn't get out of bed and couldn't speak, she hated it for fear of her life.

Before leaving home, two packs of cigarettes stabilized Wang Huaibing, and it seemed that it was a good move. Xu Qihu's family peeked through the back window every time, and Jiang Lesheng was suspicious when they didn't see it for a few days: Did the fish caught in the basket escape?

Called Wang Huaibing to ask, and replied that he would give a few days to prepare farm tools. Wang Huaibing said confidently: The lazy cow has a lot of and urine on the field, and he is afraid of going to work if he has never done a job. He escaped the first year of junior high school and the fifteenth?

On the afternoon of the last day of 1961, Xu Qihu called the commune's people's security team and learned that Jiang Lesheng had not gone to declare his settlement; Check the stub of the county household registration migration certificate again, which is valid until December 31.

Damn it! Ran away? Xu Qihu bit his lower lip with his upper teeth, called Wang Huaibing and Wang Xiaosi to Xiong, staring at them with awl-like eyes: Brain in water? Not at all hostile to the point of view? Order the station docks to split up and look for them. Tie it up when you find it! If you don't return home, I can't cure you if I don't believe it!

Look at it, believe him, have mixed feelings, like a clay statue.

The third sister, Lehua, had hepatitis, her face was yellow, her hands were yellow, her eyes were white, and she couldn't go to work after two weeks of rest. The office specially approved one pound of sugar, three pounds of eggs, and ten pieces of tofu to supplement nutrition. Ma Shukui, who doesn't know how to do housework, is busy and anxious: in addition to going to work on time, decocting medicine, cooking, sawing wood, raising the stove, burning the kang, washing diapers, feeding pigs and chickens, and pouring vegetables into the cellar...... The room was as cold as an ice cellar, and the towels were frozen hard overnight. The frost on the window panes grew thicker and thicker day after day, and the day was hazy.

The clay kang is only hot in the middle, the kang mat is almost baked, and the rest of the place is cold. Jiang Lesheng opened the kang noodles and found that the kang hole was stuffed with garbage, and it was estimated that the bricklayer deliberately made it bad.

He opened the kang head slightly, tied the sack pieces with iron wire, and cleared out the two baskets of garbage and debris. Cover the bricks and mud plastering and light the fire, and the full kang is steaming! The third sister said that she would do it herself, and Lesheng would learn to work as a bricklayer!

Lan Lepu, an agricultural technician, is half-sister Lan Rong, who is in a similar situation to him.

Her family was also a rich peasant. Lan Lepu lost his mother at a young age, and his father continued to give birth to Lan Rong. The brother and sister are eight years apart, and their fates are very different: the elder brother was admitted to the technical secondary school in five or five years, and was assigned to be an agricultural technician after graduation; My sister graduated from primary school and could only go half-farming and half-studying.

A few boys in the class who were not admitted to ordinary middle schools, seeing that Lan Rong had a good face, and her brother often bought clothes for her, and her clothes were not as shabby as other girls.

One afternoon plucking grass in a cornfield. The labor commissar shared her most of her clumps of grass, and she was exhausted and still fell last. Before finishing work, a person suddenly appeared behind her and hugged her. Just as she was about to cry for help, the man covered her mouth and clenched her chest with one hand. Turning his head to see that it was the labor commissioner Niu Er, who was stunned!

Commissar Niu is the only seedling of the director of the supply and marketing cooperative, and he is tall and tall at the age of 16. Lan Rong was ashamed and annoyed, scratching with both hands, kicking and kicking with both feet, and struggled to move without much effort. Niu Er was stunned by the blue tendons on his forehead, his eyes were red, and he lowered his voice and said: You depend on me, and you will not be separated from your hard work in the future. Saying that, he stopped kneading and tried to undo her trouser belt.

Lan Rong took advantage of Niu Er's unpreparedness, and turned her head with all her strength to bite the middle finger covering her mouth. Niu Er was so stunned that his feet jumped, and he freed his hand to untie his pants and break her chin, and the more he broke her, the tighter she bitten, just like the mussel shell clamping the bird's beak in "Sandpiper and Clam Fighting".

When it got dark, the two men were at a standoff in the thick cornfield. Niu Er was so stunned that he broke out in a cold sweat, and begged Lan Rong to let him get out: If you don't fall down, why are you biting?

Tears swirled in Lan Rong's eyes. She didn't dare to let go and couldn't speak, for fear of letting go of the biting finger, Niu Er was stunned and went crazy again, who would save her in the wilderness?

Niu Er was stunned that he was still tender after all, and knelt down and begged for mercy: I admit my mistake, please forgive me.

Lan Rong still refused to let go. Realizing that the stalemate was not the way to go, she pointed in the direction of the field and motioned for him to follow her out of the cornfield. Lan Rong bit Niu Er's fingers tightly, and only let go of them until she reached the ground, spit out red spit, raised her hand to shake his mouth, and shouted, "Get out!" ”

Niu Er was stunned and looked at the exposed fingers, and scolded with a crying voice: I don't know how to lift, what's so great about a rich peasant woman?

Lan Rong did not report the terrible experience to the teacher. She decided that there would be no results - the agricultural middle school started from scratch, with rakes and hoes, iron pots and buckets, kerosene and soap, all of which were turned to the supply and marketing cooperatives controlled by the Niu family. Moreover, once it is publicized, it is she who is hurt by the spit star. What's more, Niu Er was stunned and couldn't do anything to her, so put up with it.

If you can't provoke it, you can hide. The evil eyes of the other "second stunned" people in the class were equally terrifying, and she was worried that something terrible would happen again, so she quit school after not finishing a semester.

After dropping out of the "farm", her brother Lan Lepu often sent her books, including crop cultivation and livestock and poultry breeding, encouraging her to learn by herself, and the more knowledge she has, the more powerful she is. Helplessly, she couldn't read the culture, she was tired and half-dead from working during the day, and she was sleepy when she opened the book at night. Every day from sunrise to sunset, the work earned cannot support himself.

received a telegram from her brother "The farm collects people quickly", Lan Rongxi descended from the sky! I walked forty miles to the train station overnight, and rushed to Maoshan day and night, for fear of missing the opportunity to change my fate.

Lan Rong's neighbor is called Ye Xiaona, with a slender figure, yellow face, thin muscles, rarely speaking, and her eyes are dull and full of melancholy. Her uncle gave her a broken military blanket, so she didn't sleep on the kang mat.

Ye Xiaona suffered a huge disaster last year. Before and after the Qingming Festival, her parents died of edema and illness one after another, and her cousin helped her demolish the house, sell everything that could be exchanged for money, and hastily take care of the aftermath. At that time, she was studying at the health school in Jinhua, and the medical class was only one year away from graduating. During the summer vacation, I lived at my cousin's house and lived in tears.

The district health school was closed, and more than 200 students were forced to go home. The admission line of health schools is 20 points higher than that of ordinary high schools, and they have the dream of "eating public meals" after graduation, but now they are out of school!

Ye Xiaona is lonely and desperate. The only relative, Uncle Niu Qiushi, served as a Kuomintang military doctor, and was later captured and sentenced to labor reform.

Cortana wrote to her uncle that she had come to an end and had no hope of being rescued.

I can't imagine a desperate place to survive. Niu Qiushi once finished the orthopedic technique for Secretary Sun Junhu, and with the psychology of trying his luck, he talked to the secretary about his homeless, the orphan of his only deceased sister, who is now out of school and homeless. He pulled out Cortana's long letter with a look of pleading in his eyes. After reading the letter, Secretary Sun immediately said: Call her to come! After two years of secondary school, I followed you to practice, and soon became a useful talent. There is a shortage of people with professional skills on the farm!

The head of the personnel section called the health center and told Niu Qiushi that he agreed to accept his niece. He was so excited that he couldn't speak, and he was on the phone, heh, good, good, good, thank you, thank you!

Wang Huaju likes the name Feng Yonghou very much. His father, Lao Fengtou, was a rural handlebar type. At the beginning of the establishment of Maoshan, it was he who drove a carriage to pick up the field director and other cadres to step into the wilderness. Last year, a guest house was set up on the farm, and Lao Feng Tou was transferred to work on the shift. He is the only official worker in the guest house, cleaning the room and washing the bedding for the families of peasant workers, so people call him Director Feng. The old man was embarrassed to agree at first, but later he got used to being unhappy if he didn't call the director. His son Feng Yonghou is honest and honest, and has a pleasing baby face. His ideal is to study electrician at the end of his probationary period and rely on technology to earn a living in the future.