Chapter Eighty-Three: The Difficulty of Returning Home
The suppression of the Korean traitors has passed, and everything is almost normal. Liang Guocheng also returned to the village, but he usually did not leave the courtyard of Yingji's family. The people in the village also know that Yingji's family has a volunteer soldier, and Yingji is in and out of pairs, as if they are husband and wife. Finally, looking forward to the hard-won peace, the villagers are working hard to develop production, and they have long forgotten whether Liang Guocheng is a volunteer or a people's army. Yingji doesn't have to go to the field at night now, and no children dare to bully her, the only thing that hasn't changed is that there is still no one to talk to her, and she is happy like this, Liang Guo can't inquire about the volunteers, and hopes to keep him in North Korea for a few more years.
When there is peace, there is no war, and God also cares for those who have suffered from war. This spring was warm early, and there was more rain in summer and autumn than usual. With the help of Liang Guocheng, Ying Ji put a few more loads of farm manure in the first year than in previous years, and this year's corn cobs are significantly longer than in previous years. The long yellow cancan is gratifying, and it seems that the two of them have a surplus in addition to eating. She thought about keeping enough rations for the two of them, picking some food to make money, and making a new dress for the New Year. She wants Liang Guocheng to feel her care, and she also wants to make herself beautiful.
When the whole village was immersed in the joy of the harvest, three people from the village came to the village and notified the whole village to hold a meeting at the grain field. Ying Ji heard all the news, and the first thing she thought of was to protect Liang Guocheng's safety. In a panic, he ran back and told him not to come out of the house, just in case he was sent to the mountain at night.
Ying Ji came to the grain field, and some people had already come one after another. Roughly divided into two teams to sit, the men in one team smoked cigarettes and talked a little, and the women in one team, some doing needlework and some watching the children. It didn't feel like something was going on, and it didn't look like it was going to arrest someone. Because the villagers' faces were relaxed, the women did not show any signs of panic. Young-hee avoided everyone and found a corner to sit down. At this time, two young soldiers carried a table, and the female soldier behind them came to the center of the meeting hall with a stool, and the three of them sat down around the table. The village chief was a member of the Labor Party after the country's recovery, and when the people who reported to them arrived, one of them stood up to speak, and the village chief took the lead in applauding, and only then did there be sparse applause from below.
The document of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party was read out, and collective farms should be built in all rural areas of the country. These three people are the director, deputy director, and accountant of the collective farm, and all farmland, farm tools, livestock, poultry, and grain will be owned by the collective in the future. Young-hee didn't understand everything, she just knew that everything was going to be done. If you can only receive food rations for one person, you will not have enough food for two people. Moreover, these three people want to live in the village for a long time, which poses a greater threat to Liang Guocheng. It's no secret that he lives at home now, and it won't take them tomorrow to find out, and they don't dare to think what the outcome will be.
I didn't hear anything clearly, so I went home in a panic. Liang Guocheng saw her serious face and wanted to ask her what was wrong, she lowered her head and went back to the house, pulled the quilt to cover her head. Her mind was a mess, and she didn't know how to protect Liang Guocheng. She wanted to quietly come up with an idea, but no one in the village had paid attention to her for so many years, and she was used to thinking alone.
Liang Guocheng thought she was uncomfortable, so he came over and touched the temperature of her forehead, wanting to comfort him. Yingji grabbed his hand, and he could feel her hand tremble slightly. For a long time, she was most worried that one day Liang Guocheng would find the army and leave her to return to China. Although it was dangerous to keep him in the past, I felt safe when I returned to the village. Although Liang Guocheng was arrested, he always felt that the danger was temporary, and these soldiers had to leave after all, and it was impossible to live in the village for a long time.
Now the situation has changed greatly, the village will be converted into a collective farm, and all the private property of individuals will be owned by the collective. The two men and one woman who came claimed to be the field manager, deputy field director, and accountant, and wanted to live in the village for a long time to lead production and construction. Soon it will be known that Liang Guocheng's existence is only an expedient measure to hide in the cave, and people cannot be alone in the mountains for many years like beasts. For the safety of his life, the only way to send him back to China was to find a way. Young-hee sat up and told Liang Guocheng what she thought.
Now that Liang Guocheng can understand most of the Korean dialect, he heard that Yingji took the initiative to send him back to China, and his eyes widened with surprise and joy. This is the first time that she has been at Yingji's house for three years, and she has taken the initiative to say it in her mouth to send him back to China. Usually, as long as she sees him inquiring about the route back to China, she shows dissatisfaction and worry. He also knew that she was lonely in the village, but he had always confessed to her that he could not be in a foreign country all the time.
The strong homesickness made Liang Guocheng excited. Yingji is very disappointed in her heart, she once tried her best to keep him, and now she wants to send him away. She got up and went out to chop wood and make a fire, to make as much dry food as possible, and who knows how many days it would take to walk by walking?
That night, Young-hee lit an oil lamp for the first time. In order to save lamp oil, poor families rarely have lamps at night. Liang Guocheng and Ying Ji sat face to face, wanting to say something grateful, but when the words came to their lips, they felt that the excessive thanks were too hypocritical, Ying Ji was so sincere for him, and he was worried about her heart. But they can't sit all night without talking, although they have a strong desire to return to China, and the two of them will live together as husband and wife. Although there is no husband and wife, Ying Ji takes care of her more than his wife. He also has a lot of gratitude to Young-hee, and if it weren't for Xiaoyu sitting like a god in his heart, he might have discussed bringing her back to China.
Although Young-hee sat face-to-face with him, she secretly wiped her tears with the faint light of the oil lamp on her back. Emotionally, women are more emotional, and Yingji has treated him as a husband, and she has indeed fulfilled her responsibilities as a wife. In the past few years, Liang Guocheng has lived with her like a husband and wife, which has made her regain the dignity that a woman should have. Although no one has spoken to her yet, she can feel that the eyes of the villagers are changing. Send him away, she will lose her spiritual support, have no one to rely on, and worry about going back to the past.
She looked into Liang Guocheng's eyes, how she wished he could be her husband. Liang Guocheng reached out to hold her hand, reluctant and couldn't find a suitable language, and the British marriage fell into his arms. Every girl is full of longing for love, Yingji has lost her relatives for too long, and she hopes to get the rain and dew of love in her adolescence. Since her grandfather died, the villagers regarded her as an ominous monster, and she knew that love was gone from her forever.
Since Liang Guocheng came to her house, her desire for love has been ignited. She did not have the luxury of expecting to be a husband and wife for the rest of her life, knowing that he was a volunteer and a neighboring country, and that sooner or later he would return to his own country. I only hope that he can leave her a child before returning to China, so that she can be a complete woman, and she will have something to rely on when she is old. But Liang Guocheng is a righteous gentleman, although the two sleep in the same room, Liang Guocheng never wanted to violate her intentions, although she also made hints, but he was always indifferent, which also made her like Chinese from the heart and fell in love with Liang Guocheng.
Liang Guocheng just took Yingji's hand emotionally out of gratitude. Unexpectedly, Yingji fell into his arms, and he was a little helpless in embarrassment. He smelled the body fragrance of a woman he hadn't seen for a long time, and Yingji's hair tickled his face and itched his heart. In his youth, his heart was rippling, and he hugged Yingji's soft body, and Yingji's hot coaxing lips pressed against his mouth.
The two talked all night this night, as if they hadn't spoken so much for a few years together. In the era when there was no watch, the peasants were accustomed to watching the stars at night and the sun during the day to grasp the time. Ying Ji controlled the time, they were going to leave the village before dawn, and after dawn, many people in the county took the opportunity to pass through the county seat.
Ying Ji found out the traditional old clothes of her grandparents, Liang Guocheng carried a half-bag of crutches on her back, Ying Ji was born with a disabled leg, put on old clothes and prepared a wooden stick as a crutch, wrapped her head with a turban, and only showed two small eyes like three shuttles, no matter how you look at it, they are two beggars. When they went out, the village was quiet, and the two of them smiled knowingly and walked out of the village quickly.
The war has made the already poor country even worse, with few pedestrians on the road to the county seat, and occasionally homeless beggars. They passed through the county seat along the way, and it was already dawn. At that time, supplies were scarce, and most of the daily necessities had to be supported by China and the Soviet Union. North Korea's Songun policy is already insufficient to distribute to the people, and the government has cracked down on black market transactions, so the market is very withered, and there are few people on the streets.
Although there were soldiers patrolling, the two of them, the beggars on crutches, did not arouse the suspicion of others, and smoothly crossed the main street and left the county seat.
The frost-free period is short, the autumn harvest is already earlier than that of Chinese mainland, and the freezing period is about 20 days earlier than that of northern China. The two of them walked for half a month, and they took the nest to eat as sparingly as possible, but there was still no food, and the weather began to freeze again. They had to rummage through the cornfields along the road to pick up all the old corn, and also try their luck in the sweet potato fields or turnip fields, the poor Koreans had almost nothing left in the fields, all they could find was not very ripe, and the local farmers accidentally dug up during the harvest, and took the large pieces and took the remaining small sections with roots, although there were not many parts to eat, but there was food that would not starve to death. Find a sheltered place at night and build a fire to keep warm and cook food.
After another half a month, it began to snow, and the ground froze deeper and deeper. The orange stalks of the peasants were also burned, and the ground was frozen and could no longer be dug by hand. They are in a desperate situation, and Young-hee begins to beg along the streets.
North Korea has a lot of snow this winter, and it rains one after another. In such a cold season, the snow barely melts, and layers are covered with layers. Liang Guocheng and Yingji first froze their ears, first swollen and then bleeding sticky yellow water, and then their hands and feet were also frozen like steamed buns, and their toes hurt when they walked. If you don't eat this kind of food and go forward, you can't eat high-calorie food, and you may fall asleep one day and never wake up again.
Passing by another village, Yingji went to beg as usual, and Liang Guocheng found some wood fires and prepared to make a fire to rest. Hardly anyone came out of the village on a snowy day, and he walked along the village streets all the way to the end. There is a tall and magnificent temple at the east end of the village, and from the outside, you can imagine that the incense must have been vigorous. I wanted to go in to shelter from the snow, but I walked to the gate to get to the inside and made a livestock shed. The idol has been taken out and thrown by the gate, and the main hall is inhabited by people who feed the cattle, and the yard is tied to the cattle. He had no choice but to walk back along the wall, but he didn't expect that this temple still had a backyard. From the dilapidated fence, I saw that there were dozens of sheep inside, and I felt that it was impossible to graze on such a cold day anyway, and it was warmer to huddle with the sheep at night than in the field. He returns to the village to find Young-hee and tells her what he thinks.
After the Korean War, the people were so poor that Yingji moved half of the village and only got half of the nest. She doesn't know what high calories are, she only knows that there is no food in her stomach, and she may freeze to death if her breath drops on such a bad night. Liang Guocheng told her what she thought, although she felt funny, there was no way to avoid being frozen to death.