"It's not that it's hard to find a true friend, Zhen'er. So many years have passed, don't you feel strange?" Lin Hai did not turn around, but continued to speak to the rockery.
"What's strange?" Shi Zhen'er asked softly.
"I wonder why I know so much and why I have so many ideas that are different from those of the rest of the world."
"It was actually quite strange at the beginning, but at that time, filling one's stomach was the most important thing. Who cares about this? Besides, everyone who comes to Qinghe has their own past. If we really investigate like this, I'm afraid many people will not be able to explain themselves." Shi Zhener replied.
"Why do you say that?"
"You still remember Old Zhang when he came down the mountain that year. He looked honest and kind, but after he came down, he took the initiative to build a thatched hut and then busied himself with clearing the land. If you spoke to him, he wouldn't respond for a long time."
"I still remember that first year, I was awarded a model worker," Lin Hai said with a smile. "But we were poor back then and couldn't give out anything. Finally, my eldest brother went to the mountains and shot a pheasant for him. He kept complaining about why it was a dead chicken. If it was alive, he could still keep it and lay eggs."
"Yes, it's him. It took several years for someone to recognize him. It is said that he was the chief clerk of Shiping County at that time, and he was a well-known figure in the county. When the Khmer army broke into the city, everyone thought he was dead. I didn't expect to see him in Qinghe." Shi Zhener said.
"Oh? That's a talent, right? Why didn't you report it? We are in dire need of local officials now, and all the newly graduated students have been sent out." Lin Hai said in surprise.
"He didn't want to. Ling Yang went to negotiate in person. He didn't deny his identity, but said that as a local official, he had the responsibility to defend the territory. If the city was captured and the people were massacred, he would die. However, he couldn't do it at the last moment. In the end, he was frightened by the massacre of the city by the Khmer army. He abandoned his family and mixed in with the fleeing crowd, hiding in the mountains, surviving as a ghost.
It's a pity that this man was once a juren, but he came from a farming family, which was not easy. Now he lives in seclusion and doesn't live with everyone in the village. He lives alone in a hut at the foot of the mountain, afraid of being recognized.
Shi Zhen'er felt a little emotional. The years of war really changed the fate of too many people.
"Forget it, let him be. Tell him that if he thinks it through and wants to do something for the people now, he can come to me. If he doesn't want to, well, as long as he pays taxes according to the law, he can farm in peace."
Lin Hai thought for a moment and said, "The experience of being a successful candidate and serving as a chief clerk is certainly valuable, but if your mentality is ruined, you're ruined too. I don't have the time to persuade others to cheer up, so I can only respect their fate."
"By the way, you haven't told me yet, what happens next?"
"After that? Have you forgotten how busy we were? We'd get up in the morning and inspect everything, then we'd divide up the work. I'd teach the kids, you'd recruit refugees, and we'd run night school. Finally, Ling Yang and the others graduated, and the industrial zone started up again. Back then, one person was like three, and I was the first person in charge of standardization."
Shi Zhen'er sighed, "But then more people graduated, and things got better. We could almost use one person as two. If we squeeze Ling Yang and the others a little harder and treat him like an animal, well, we can still rest for half a day occasionally."
Lin Hai glanced at the rockery and continued, "What's behind it?"
"Later, everyone got used to it. Although you have many and peculiar ideas, there are still people in the world who are born with knowledge. Besides, these ideas are beneficial to Qinghe. Everyone has seen the changes in Qinghe over the years. Why do we have to know where they come from?
Brother Lin, if you say you are different from everyone else, wouldn’t it be better to say everyone else is different from you?
"Oh, why do you say that?" Lin Hai asked curiously.
"If you were an ordinary person, you could be the same as everyone else, but could an ordinary person, in just a few years, overcome all obstacles and build such a great foundation? So it's normal that you are different from ordinary people. Speaking of which, whether it was the Empire or the Chen Dynasty, or even all the dynasties before it, weren't their founding monarchs, the sage monarchs who restored the country, different from the people of their time?
"Anyway, we've already agreed that we won't ask anything you don't say, and we won't let anyone pry into your thoughts. Without you, starving to death in the mountains is probably the best option for us. Since we're already living better than we imagined, why bother making things difficult for ourselves?"
Shi Zhen'er spoke slowly, she looked at the rockery, as if the past twenty years of her life passed by before her eyes, poverty, suffering, hardship, until now, the dark clouds in the sky just barely showed a crack, she greedily enjoyed the golden sunshine and would not allow any variables to happen.
"Hahahahaha, I didn't expect you guys had this agreement." Lin Hai sighed, "Although it's all coincidence, it can only be called fate."
"By the way, Brother Lin, why were you dissatisfied with Wang Zuo and the others just now?" Shi Zhen'er mentioned it seemingly unintentionally: "Speaking of which, whether it is Wang Zuo or Ling Yang, they are already considered to be very powerful."
"Didn't you just say that you wouldn't ask if I didn't want to?" Lin Hai said with a wicked smile.
"Just tell me, tell me." Shi Zhen'er said, "Anyway, I just want to ask, either act like a spoiled child or throw steel balls, you choose one."
"This... rockery is very expensive. Well, I'll tell you." Lin Hai said slowly.
"I have two friends I've never met. One is called Gao Wen, and the other is called Yun Zhao. The difficulties they faced back then were no less than mine. Well, I should say it was even more difficult than mine."
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