My job at the Civil Affairs Bureau was easy and easy.

At that time, the Social Affairs Section was very simple, and there was not much to do.

For example, at that time, our small city had not yet implemented the funeral reform, and the funeral affairs were almost zero; At that time, the state had not yet formulated a preferential treatment policy for the elderly, and the work for the elderly was almost zero.

So the only thing I really have to do in this department is marriage management.

I was working with a clerk named Hong Xiaofang at the marriage registry office.

At that time, I felt that I didn't pay much attention to whether the marriage was close relatives and whether the young people had a marriage test, and the most important thing was whether they were unmarried and pregnant.

So the most I did was give birth test strips to the women who came to register for marriage, and then led them to the bathroom.

Of course, I also have to monitor whether they cheat or not. People who are pregnant will find ways to cheat, because unmarried pregnancy is fined.

My first reaction when I received the specific task assigned to me by the leader was: Don't, don't do everything possible to find my brother and can't find it, but one day my brother led a girl to appear in front of me in my office.

Everybody knows what that means.

Maybe I have obsessive-compulsive disorder, and I've been thinking about this for quite some time. I imagine how much you and I would be amazed if there was such a plot.

Like, will you and I both stay there? Your girlfriend called you and you didn't respond, and my leader called me and I didn't respond.

For example, will you and I call each other's names at the first time, and then, and then be so excited that we can't say a word again.

For example, will this be the case, I recognized it as you at a glance, I called my brother, but you were at a loss, "Call me?" Are you calling me? Oh, you're Hao Junqi, Kiki, right? Oh, look at my memory. It's also that you've changed too much. All of a sudden, she became a big girl. ”

Of course, there is also such a possibility, you recognize me, turn around and say to your girlfriend, "This is the hair Xiao I mentioned to you, Hao Junqi, I didn't expect her to work here, just let her take you to check, now you can rest assured?" ”

Then you said to me, "Kiki, this Sunday we have a wedding wine, at the Yangjiang Hotel, you must come." By the way, Kiki, you're married too, aren't you? Got kids? Grandpa Hao, Uncle Hao, and your mother are all right? ”

"Grandpa Hao, Uncle Hao, and your mother", what does this mean? This means that the brother has never been to the East Gate since he left the East Gate. My brother who has been to the East Gate must know that Grandpa Hao and my mother are no longer here.

I'm going to be there, I'm going to be there. Because, my world collapsed at that moment.

But I don't believe God would torture me like that. It must be the most brutal torture in the world. Much more than a sarcasm.

I'd rather never meet in my life than in this way.

But the end result was that God did not torture me so much, but used a more cruel way.

I don't know who said: God will never be the cruelest to man, only more cruel.

……

Of course, I have not forgotten the main purpose of my visit to Yangjiang.

I came to this place where I have no relatives but my hometown mainly to find my brother.

My brother may not know that my grandfather and grandmother fled to the east gate. In the fifties of the last century, there was a famine, and I couldn't survive anymore, so my grandfather and grandmother fled with my father.

Although Yangjiang County is a small county, there are many mountains and fields, and although the people are not rich, they at least have food and clothing. As soon as my grandfather arrived in Dongmen Village, Tangwu Township, he was reluctant to leave, so much so that he lost contact with everyone in his family.

My grandfather never took my father to his birthplace. My father didn't even know where his ancestral home was. It's not an exaggeration at all, my father didn't go to school for a day.

Then, after they "left me" one by one, even if I still have any relatives such as grandfather, uncle, or uncle and uncle in this world, I am still alone after all.

Because, for them, I am equal to nothing.

Brother may find it strange and say Kiki, how are you talking about these things.

I said these things to show that if it weren't for my brother, I wouldn't have had any reason to come to Yangjiang, and I wouldn't have come to Yangjiang at all.

Even if my father couldn't escape that catastrophe and went to another world for other reasons, I would be better off in Qijiatun than in Yangjiang. At least in Qijiatun, there are uncles and aunts, junior high school classmates, and familiar people like Qi Caihong.

Take a step back, at least my father's grave is still in my mind.

So how could I forget that the main and only purpose of my coming to Yangjiang?

The days went by day by day. In fact, no matter what situation you are in, no matter whether you are happy or sad, whether you are happy or angry, whether you are happy or sad, the days always go by like this.

There is no news from my brother, and I can't receive any news from my brother from any direction.

People always lament that the world is very small, in a very remote small restaurant, or in a small farm away from the hustle and bustle of the city, or in a certain KTV, you may meet fellow villagers or acquaintances.

At this time, you must be very surprised, "Hey, why are you here?" ”

But why is it that the world I live in is so big, so big that it is so vast and boundless that I can't find the person I am looking for even if I try to find it?

After my job was stable, I asked around for news from Zheng Qihang. Although I didn't get to the point of asking people whenever I met them, I would inquire whenever I had the opportunity or possibility.

For example, when I have dinner with a leader or staff member of a certain unit, I always ask the other person at an opportune opportunity, "Do you know a person named Zheng Qihang?" ”

Or, "Is there anyone in your unit named Zheng Qihang?" ”

Another example is to chat with a person who has never known all your life, and it is natural to change the topic to this aspect, "Which unit do you work in?" ”

"In the supply and marketing cooperative."

"Oh, do you know someone named Zheng Qihang?"

"Who are you?"

"Not anyone? Just ask. ”

"I don't know Zheng Qihang, but I know someone named Wu Qihang."

"Are you sure your name is Wu Qihang?"

"I'm sure, I'm familiar with it, I'm not even fifty years old, and my hair is all white."

Qi Zhengzhe has not forgotten his promise, he always squeezes time to accompany me to investigate.

But, disappointment, disappointment, disappointment. The education department, the health department, the industrial and commercial department, or even some small stores, there has never been a person named Zheng Qihang.

Ah, ah, I'm not mistaken. Don't think I'm mistaken. I know my brother is in Hua'an. Brother is in Hua'an, how can I find it in Yangjiang? But I'm not afraid of my brother's jokes, I fatally think that my brother is in Yangjiang. My brother will come to Yangjiang like me.

If we miss each other, if we still miss each other after thirteen years, we will all come to Yangjiang.

Regardless of whether my brother is studying in a junior secondary school or going to university like me, he will choose to come to Yangjiang after graduation. This, I always fatalize. And, firmly, I believe so.

I often think that if my brother is in Hua'an, if I can only meet my brother unexpectedly in Hua'an, then my waiting, years of waiting, can only be in vain. There is still a gap between me and my brother that cannot be crossed - he is still from the city, and I am a country girl, although I work in a small county town.

However, there is a path of exploration that I did not take - I did not go to Zhu Jinshan. I have long thought that if my brother had been to the East Gate, if he saw the East Gate submerged in the vast waters, he would definitely find Zhu Jinshan, and he would contact Zhu Jinshan at any time.

If this is the case, as long as I find Zhu Jinshan, there will be news of my brother. But I can't go to Zhu Jinshan. Secretly, I think that's what my father doesn't want. "You—actually—don't ......", my father's unfinished words mean that you won't actually go to Yangjiang, and the implication is that you won't actually go to the East Gate.

He even has concerns about me working in Yangjiang County, so how can he allow me to go to Dongmen? I let my father die prematurely because of my decision, how can I bear to go against his will?

I wishfully decided that my father still had this concern, even if he died, the old village chief would not let him go if he knew that he was buried in Qijiatun, which would disturb him in the other world. People who can't read a word are more likely to believe in the existence of another world.

My father may have another concern. The old village chief would take revenge on me, his only child. There is such a possibility. For more than ten years, the old village chief's family has been looking for the enemy who killed his son, and they don't want their son's enemy to be dead, and they will inevitably transfer this hatred to the enemy's children.

If this is the case, how can I go to the East Gate? How can I go to Zhu Jinshan?

Qi Zhengzhe also supported my approach.

"Maybe Zheng Qihang didn't find Zhu Jinshan either. A village is flooded, and the people in the village are scattered to various places, who knows where Zhu Jinshan's family has gone? Qi Zhengzhe comforted me like this.

But how I wish I could go to the East Gate. That's where I really dreamed of it.

There is my most romantic childhood, there is my happiest time, there are traces of my growth, and there are the people I miss the most.

But you can't go!

What a painful thing it is.

Of course, based on the previous feelings, I would rather hope to meet my brother unexpectedly in Yangjiang, perhaps, that can better prove what love is. Even if the cape is at the end of the world, even if it is a thousand years later, like a song sings, "There is a fate to meet thousands of miles away, but it is difficult to hold hands on the other side, ten years of cultivation can be crossed in the same boat, and a hundred years of cultivation can be slept together, if there is a thousand years of creation, the white head is in front of you."

I was disappointed again and again, but I didn't despair.

I have many reasons to comfort myself. My best reason to rely on time calculations is to do so.

The worst I could do was to go to college, and I would go to a two-book or one-class university for four years. Then, the year my brother was assigned to work in Yangjiang should be the deadline of my "two-year appointment".

My brother was thirteen years old when he left Dongmen, in the fourth grade, and he was twenty-five years old after four years of college.

If so, why should I be in a hurry? It's not like my brother is studying at a certain university, and I can still find him in Yangjiang County.

If the brother is studying for three years, then if you want to find the brother, you have to be a year later.

You see, if I can make such a calculation of time, how can I despair?