Speaking of old friends from Jingshan County, the only ones I still keep in touch with are Lin Hong and her husband, and Li Jianguo's family.
After graduating from teachers' college, Lin Hong was assigned to teach at the best high school in the city.
She and Zhou Zi'an lived apart.
Fortunately, the city and the county are not too far apart, so the whole family can reunite during holidays.
Finally, with Zhou Zi'an's efforts and the help of both sets of parents, he was transferred to the Municipal Public Security Bureau, and the couple and their family were finally reunited.
Life is pretty good now.
Both husband and wife are full-time employees with good benefits.
Lin Hong's older brother, Lin Feng, was admitted to the provincial university, majoring in mechanical manufacturing. After graduation, he returned to the machinery factory and became the director of the factory's design department within two years.
The machinery factory is still thriving, especially in the last two years, and has begun manufacturing the combine harvester that Jiang Zhiyuan designed back then.
Orders kept pouring in, and they couldn't keep up with the demand.
The factory is thriving. Although everyone's wages are still fixed, there are more overtime pay and other benefits, so even if the employees work hard, they are happy and willing to do so.
Most people still remember that this was designed by Jiang Zhiyuan, although they don't know what Jiang Zhiyuan's status was in ancient and modern times.
But he also vaguely knew that Jiang Zhiyuan was a high-ranking official in the capital.
When he bragged to the workers or apprentices who came to the factory later, he would say that he had once worked with high-ranking officials in the capital!
A few more tidbits of gossip from back then drew gasps of surprise from the new apprentices, who lamented that they hadn't been born a few years earlier and hadn't come to the factory sooner.
Such childish remarks naturally made the veteran employees burst into laughter.
A few years ago, the machine factory wouldn't have hired so many people.
Lin's father has retired and is at home, but because he can't stay idle, he occasionally goes to the workshop and design department.
Occasionally, when Lin Feng and his team were unsure about something, they would have to consult Lin's father.
So I didn't feel too disappointed. Apart from being a little more relaxed after retirement, life wasn't much different from before.
Meanwhile, Li Jianguo had become the director of the Jingshan County Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
The entire county's supply and marketing system was under his jurisdiction.
Li Jianguo is now considered a prominent figure in Jingshan County. After his eldest son graduated from junior college, Li Jianguo used his connections to find him a job in the city.
They can be considered city dwellers now.
Li Jianguo and Lin Hong now only keep in touch with Xu Ningyan through a few letters a year, and also send him some local specialties during holidays.
It hasn't stopped all these years.
Xu Ningyan had also invited them to come to the capital for a visit.
Unfortunately, something always comes up and I can't make it.
Li Jianguo joked that he would only have time to go to Beijing after he retires, and he only hoped that he would still be able to walk around by then.
The biggest change in the Tuanjie Brigade was the distribution of land to individual households; it was no longer the collective cooperation model of the commune and brigade.
Now that everyone has their own land, they are putting more effort into it. After all, the land doesn't lie; how you treat it is how it will treat you!
Those who diligently tended their fields, after paying the public grain tax and surcharges in the autumn harvest, would keep the remaining grain for their own rations and then sell it as state-purchased grain or grain sold at negotiated prices.
The price of grain purchased under the unified purchase system was low, but it was something that had to be sold.
However, the price of negotiated grain is higher, and a family's livelihood depends on the money earned from selling this negotiated grain throughout the year.
If you are diligent and hardworking, and take good care of the land, you will generally be rewarded.
It's much better than the old days when everyone worked together in the same production team and earned work points.
However, those families who used to be lazy or didn't have enough able-bodied workers are having a harder time.
After all, even if a family didn't have enough work points, the production brigade was there, and they couldn't just watch you starve to death; they would at least help people with famine.
But that's not possible now. If you're capable and hardworking, you can still make a living in the countryside.
Those educated youth from back then gradually returned to the city.
Some went to university and returned to the city, while others were allowed to return to the city later when the policy for returning to the city was introduced. Those who performed well were allowed to return to the city first.
Later on, all the educated youth who hadn't married locals were allowed to return to the city.
However, some of the educated youth who married locals and had children chose to abandon their wives and children and leave heartlessly.
Some chose to stay in the countryside, either because they couldn't bear to leave or for other reasons.
For the local women who were abandoned by the educated youth, life was more difficult, especially for those with children, who struggled to raise their children in the countryside.
Several people were so distraught that they jumped into the water or hanged themselves, resulting in fatalities.
When the adults leave, leaving behind innocent children, even if the mother's family helps with adoption, the mother's family still has a hard time. With a few more mouths to feed, life is naturally difficult.
Although men may be laughed at, most of them will quickly marry a new wife and make a living.
The captain mentioned this matter in his letter to Xu Ningyan.
He had nothing to say to those educated youth who abandoned their wives or husbands; after all, everyone has their own ambitions, and there's nothing you can do if the sky wants to rain or a mother wants to remarry.
But how could those educated youths who already had children bring themselves to be so heartless?
I think they are really inhumane. Back then, when they couldn't survive in the countryside, or wanted an easier life, they married locals. Through marriage, they became half-locals and were able to make a living.
Upon hearing that he could return to the city, he immediately abandoned his wife (or husband), his children, his reputation, and his conscience, and ran away without a second thought.
Those with a conscience will say a few nice things, saying they'll send money back after they return to the city.
What a heartless bastard! He ran away, but before he did, he took all the money from his family, completely disregarding their well-being.
When Xu Ningyan saw the brigade leader's letter, she remembered a very old TV series she had watched in her previous life called "The Debt of Sin," which told the story of the children of educated youth sent to the countryside who were abandoned by their parents and went to the big city to find their biological parents many years later.
Xu Ningyan still remembers those lyrics vividly: "Dad has one family, Mom has one family, and I'm all alone, feeling like I'm superfluous..."
When I first heard this song, I felt heartbroken. It perfectly captured the suffering of countless children abandoned by their parents, who were sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution.
Having experienced and participated in this era, I understand that those educated youth also faced much helplessness and pain. However, for them, the desire to return to the city far outweighed their feelings for their children and spouses.
It can be described as a tragedy of our times, with everyone swept along by the tide of time, and perhaps more so by the selfishness of human nature.
However, such matters are like drinking water; only the person drinking knows whether it's hot or cold, and no one can make the decision for them.
At the end of the letter, the brigade leader asked Xu Ningyan if these educated youth returning to the city really couldn't bring their wives and children back from the countryside, and if they really couldn't support them.
Looking at the captain's resentment, heartache, and confusion in those few questions, Xu Ningyan could only sigh.
Perhaps the captain actually knew all of this, but just couldn't understand it!
There was only one such letter. After that, the brigade leader wrote back, but never mentioned the matter again.
They did mention a few interesting things, like the combine harvester from the machinery factory, which is particularly famous in their town, now called Hongqi Town.
I heard that harvesting crops is very convenient. You can drive to the field and harvest several acres of land in no time. The rice is even threshed and dragged directly to the threshing ground to dry.
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