1967, I think it was a better year. Although the society is relatively turbulent, the common people are not living a hard life. I'm 24 years old now, and although I grew up stumbling, it wasn't miserable. At least a few years ago, when the whole country was short of food, my uncle's teahouse could still afford to eat every day. After following the master, although the coarse tea and light rice made me impetuous, at least I was never hungry.

Perhaps because of my comfort and suffering, my material requirements are relatively low, so I am very puzzled by what some young people in the village do.

It all started in the second half of 1967.

Since Master didn't go back to the village with me at the beginning of the year, he hasn't been in the village for more than half a year. During this period, he sent me several letters, saying that he is currently traveling in eastern Sichuan and Hubei. I think this may be the way the old Taoist priest chose to escape from the mortal world after suddenly encountering a setback in his middle and late years.

That year, probably in August and September, seven or eight young men and women came to the village. They are all young intellectuals who have responded to the call of the country and gone to the mountains and countryside. Since most of the people in the village are older, even a 24-year-old like me is considered young. Therefore, when these young children come to the mountain village, no matter where they go or what they do, they will become a crowd of people around them.

They love to sing, and often when they are doing farm work, they suddenly have a head coming out of the rice field and start singing as if they were in heat. This is nothing, if his singing voice is heard by another educated youth, he will also join the ranks of soaring songs. All of a sudden, in the small farmland, the singing came and went, and there was a happy and harmonious style of life.

When the educated youth came to the village, they always had to have a place to live, so they went to the homes of the so-called "poor middle peasants" according to their households.

Aunt Xu's family is a poor middle peasant. A young man who came over in the queue was a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl, who was quite good-looking, but she always felt that she was too uncomfortable with life here. Aunt Xu made a special trip to give her a room, so I had to put together a few stools to sleep in a bed every night after cleaning up the hall.

As I said, I have endured hardships, so this is nothing, but often at night I hear the sound of whining and crying from the girl's house, which makes me a little troubled. Since you miss your parents at home, why do you want to leave your home and your parents, to respond to someone you know who he doesn't know you, and go to this poor country to find yourself abused?

The most outrageous thing is that this group of educated youths is often in groups of three or five because of their similar age, and they often go out to play in groups, and the food and drink in the village are very simple, and they will only eat meat during the New Year. Forget about the girl, she only has so much food, maybe she doesn't eat as much as Aunt Xu's big yellow dog. But those male intellectuals are not fuel-efficient lamps, so since they came to the village, in the past month, several chickens and ducks have been lost in the village. I was so scared that Aunt Xu could only drive the chickens and ducks into the house at night and share a room with me in the hall.

I was often woken up by the sound of chickens and ducks fluttering and flapping their wings overhead, and when I woke up, I could always step on a pile of chicken and duck droppings barefoot.

Maybe it was because she knew that I had unhappy emotions in my heart, and Aunt Xu would often comfort me, saying that these educated youths would stay in the village for two years at most, so stick to it. I have lived in Aunt Xu's house for more than a year, and during this time, we have long regarded each other as our own relatives. And whenever I see me depressed, the female intellectuals who cut into the queue at Aunt Xu's house will tease me very sweetly, making me angry.

Her name is Meng Dongxue, and it is said that this name was given by her grandfather, and the reason is that on the day she was born, it snowed in her grandfather's hometown without reason. Growing up in the city since childhood, he received a new education. The middle school is in the city girls' middle school, and there is a little sister at home, corresponding to the call of the country, the family that is not an only child needs one of the children to go to the mountains and the countryside, plus she herself has studied, is educated, and comes here as soon as her brain is hot.

Maybe it's because I'm late in enlightenment, maybe it's because of my sensitive identity, or maybe it's because most of the women I've been in contact with over the years are older people, and suddenly there is such a young, energetic and good-looking girl at home, I actually have a good impression in my heart. But in those days, people were mostly conservative, and anyone who acted frivolously would be regarded as a hooligan.

So after Meng Dongxue cut the queue to Aunt Xu's house, I paid more attention to my behavior, fortunately, the mountain village is small, there are not many things, my identity has not been discovered, and occasionally there are villagers who need help, I secretly went to do it quickly, without any publicity. Meng Dongxue asked me one morning why I like to sit in the yard and read some ancient books as long as I am busy with farm work, and I told her that it was because I had not gone to school and I wanted to learn things. Meng Dongxue is an empathetic girl, she said, then in the future, as long as she has time, she will teach me cultural studies.

As I just said, the material conditions in the village are so poor that those hungry male intellectuals can't steal chickens and ducks, so they start the idea of cats and dogs in the village. Among them, there is a male intellectual, who wants to steal Aunt Xu's big yellow dog at night, and I found out and beat him, and since then, I have become a glorious villager in the village to protect cats and dogs.

Meng Dongxue, like me, became good friends with the big yellow dog, and not only that, but even the cat that often fought with me stuck to her. After a few months, the village was uneventful. Meng Dongxue and the rest of the female intellectuals would teach the children in the village to learn culture when they were not working, and I was forced to sit in the last row to listen.

Among them, there is a female intellectual, named Ji You'an, who may be in a bad relationship, she always looks at me unpleasantly, always finds fault with me in class, and even ridicules me for not even being as good as a child, and then causes this group of bear children to laugh at me.

I actually don't hate her in my heart, I just think that she is just looking for a sense of existence in me, who knows if she encounters menstrual problems every day, and it is inevitable that she will be in a bad mood. So I often laughed it off, and even pretended to be stupid to make everyone laugh. Originally, all this was very good, and I was quietly enjoying the life of the world in the mountain village, but one day, Ji Youan came to the house to look for Meng Dongxue, and when he passed by my hall, he knocked over a bamboo basket in the house.

In the bamboo basket, not only the books I read on a daily basis, but also many tools that I can't use for the time being. For example, the peachwood sword, such as the little paper figure, and all kinds of charms that I practiced before, but wrote too much.

At that time, I was sitting on the side reading a book, and when Ji Youan knocked over the bamboo basket, he repeatedly said sorry to me and helped me pick up my things. As she picked up a stack of charms that I had tied with rope, a frightened look suddenly appeared on her face.

In fact, the person to be afraid of is me, such an intellectual youth, who has received a kind of ideological education based on the name of Capital, and is a real materialist. After a few months of getting along, she found out that there was such an idealist living in the village, and even a person who made it a profession, would she denounce me?

I didn't say anything at the moment, but I kept paying attention to her expression. She looked pretending to be calm, as if she was fine, but her panicked hands and feet, as well as her behavior of walking into the house but not looking for Meng Dongxue again, made me realize that it was over, and the danger was coming.

That night, I told Aunt Xu about it, and Aunt Xu was the one who made a promise to my master, so she had to keep me. Aunt Xu is not familiar with Ji You'an, and people may not listen to her advice, so Aunt Xu called Meng Dongxue to me that night and tactfully confessed my life experience.

Meng Dongxue and I lived under the same roof for a few months, but I didn't know that I was a Taoist until now.

Since the relationship is usually very good, and they are all sent under the fence, Meng Dongxue told me that she would go to talk to Ji You'an, hoping that she would not make this matter public and not report me. In fact, several hours have passed since Ji Youan saw all this, and these few hours are enough to spread this matter throughout the entire mountain village. But I still thank Meng Dongxue for doing this for me, because if she is accused of protecting me, then I will owe a lot of debt.

Paper can't hold the fire. It is said that when Meng Dongxue found Ji Youan that night, my news had already spread among the female intellectuals. The male and female intellectuals of the village were in line on the front and back sides of the village, not in the same area, probably to prevent some immoral things from happening. Ji Youan probably didn't think about denouncing me, but she didn't plan to hide this matter. So when Meng Dongxue pleaded with her, she instead advised Meng Dongxue to keep a distance from me, saying that I was a cancer of the old society and the four olds that the leader was determined to defeat.

To put it mildly, Ji Youan promised not to continue to spread the matter, but from now on, he will not let me take their small classes again. I am not satisfied with this way of dealing with it, but I have nothing to say. As the so-called careful sailing of the ship of ten thousand years, all this is because of my carelessness in the final analysis. Although I don't know if Ji Youan really did as promised, and didn't talk about me everywhere later, what I can guarantee is that the rest of the female intellectuals may have already told those male intellectuals.

It's easy to tell the difference, just look at their expressions when you walk past them. The village chief owed me a favor, and the Wang family also vouched for me, and after hearing the rumors of those educated youths, the boss of the Wang family led the villagers to argue loudly with this group of educated youths.

All of a sudden, I became the trigger. I felt guilty, but there was nothing I could do. Meng Dongxue was rejected by other educated youths because of her relationship with me, but she never said these things after she went home, and still called me one by one, which made me quite gratified.

About a month after I was discovered, at the end of November 1967, a strange thing happened again in the mountain village, and the protagonist of this incident was Ji Youan.