(xv)

Summer passed quietly. After the start of the new semester, Zhong Shan was promoted to junior high school, and he grew a lot taller.

Zhong Shulin's life has changed a little, he often returns late from work recently, and once he didn't return all night.

This autumn, a new female clerk named Zou Jingzhi came to the office of the Cultural Affairs Bureau. Early in the morning, clerk Zou Jingzhi knocked on the door to deliver a newspaper to Deputy Director Zhong, and as soon as Zhong Shulin looked up, he was immediately stunned, with a round baby face, short ear-length hair, and a long-sleeved shirt with white market cloth, wasn't that Fang Zihui back then?

"Are you new here? What's your name? ”

"I was transferred from the third middle school, my name is Zou Jingzhi."

"Where is your hometown?"

"The county seat of Antai."

"Who are you Zou Baochen?"

"My grandfather!"

"You're a big ...... Oh, Fang Zihui's daughter? ”

"Yes, yes, you know my mother?"

"Well, I first learned to read from her."

Zhong Shulin stood up from the chair, motioned for Zou Jingzhi to sit on the chair opposite his desk, and asked about the situation of the young grandmother.

Zou Jingzhi is a woman who doesn't like to talk much, and when she heard that Zhong Shulin was a fellow villager with her, and she used to work in her house, she talked a lot. She said that her grandfather died of a sudden illness in 1948, the year of the land reform, and that her grandmother also died the following year. My father is a dentist in the county hospital and has worked hard to see the people, and my mother is a primary school teacher who is meticulous in teaching and is now retired. Her mother often told her that she couldn't choose her background, but she could choose her path. Zou Jingzhi studied in a normal school, and after graduation, she was assigned to teach music in the third middle school, she actively asked for progress, joined the party in the school, and the Cultural Bureau selected her who could sing and dance, she said that she cherished the trust of the organization in herself, and she must work hard.

Zhong Shulin said: "Your mother is a good person, she never took me as a person and taught me to read and write, and she introduced me to the photo studio in the city as an apprentice, otherwise, I would not have embarked on the revolutionary road." ”

Zou Jingzhi said: "I also heard my mother talk about you, saying that there was a big cadre in our county, and I saw that you were a person who could do great things. ”

In the future, every time he sent documents, Zou Jingzhi liked to stand in Deputy Director Zhong's office for a while and chat a few words. Sometimes there was no one else in the house, and when Deputy Director Zhong didn't have any urgent affairs at hand, he simply sat down and listened to Zhong Shulin tell the story of him fighting devils and participating in the battle of crossing the river, and looked up with a baby face and a very pious look.

From the first time he talked to Zhong Shulin about family affairs, Zou Jingzhi had a strong impression of the deputy director. Although he is in his early fifties, he does not look old at all, his hair is fresh and refreshing, his two thick sword eyebrows are full of heroic spirit, and a pair of ringed eyes have a smile on his own, which makes people feel very approachable. Later, she found out that Deputy Director Zhong, who was born in the military, was still a versatile person, writing beautifully, playing and singing everything, especially playing the organ well.

On the National Day, the bureau organized a theatrical performance, and Deputy Director Zhong performed the accordion solo "Volunteer Army Song" and "I am a soldier". At the end of the song, applause rang out, and Zou Jingzhi sat in the audience, so moved that he shed tears. Zou Jingzhi, who is 35 years old, seems to have returned to her budding girlhood.

Because of the high composition, Zou Jingzhi married a furnace worker in an iron factory, and she followed her mother's advice to marry someone who must marry a good seedling. Her husband, Ma Hongguang, went to work in middle school, came home every day while she was asleep, and then he was so angry that he vented his residual strength on her after eight hours of work in front of the ironworks furnace, and each time she felt that she was oppressed and almost out of breath, like a crucifixion female prisoner.