Chapter 57 Chapter 57 Part 2
The villagers, who had never seen a truly evil person, couldn't imagine how evil people could be. He Qing didn't want to scare Secretary Chen, so he stammered, "Do you remember the landlord that Old Guo mentioned when he first came here at the beginning of the month?"
The old Party secretary nodded. He'd been keeping an eye on things outside, so he'd made a point of asking around. He wasn't a particularly bad person. When he was a landlord, his rent wasn't outrageous, and he wasn't like Huang Shiren in "The White-Haired Girl," who bullied men and women. It was just that his ancestors had some money and had bought some land. He'd been cleaning toilets honestly for years, and I heard he was quite capable. He and his wife managed three streets, and they kept them very clean. Many people in the county knew him, and they didn't do anything to him.
"Dead. He died of illness from being frozen to death." He Qing sighed. "His son took off his own cotton-padded jacket to give him to wear, and it cost him his life. Those people detained him and made him stand there as punishment, and then… The old woman couldn't understand what was happening, so she killed herself with a hemp rope."
"The people in the meeting...the one named Sun even stepped on the old man and asked the photographer, Mr. Ding, to take his picture, saying, 'Let these bad guys never stand up again!'"
He Qing's eyes were red. He didn't feel sorry for the old couple. After all, they had lived to such an old age and enjoyed a good life early in life. Without them, they wouldn't have to suffer. But he felt sorry for the young man. At a very young age, he'd become a landlord's "bastard," then moved in with his parents into the gatehouse of their old house. He'd grown up under everyone's watchful eyes, cheerful and filial. He was also a classmate of He Qing's youngest son. His son had once pleaded with him on his behalf, saying he wanted to find him a better place to work in the countryside, better than staying in the city. But the boy, afraid that his parents would be left without him, had stayed and worked as a dung collector. He'd suffered a lot in the past few years, his marriage had been delayed, and now he'd been murdered. It was heartbreaking!
Lin Xinghuo's throat moved, and he felt choked.
"Someone died in a fight in our county?" The old branch secretary's hands froze. Song County had always been stable, and the students' occasional commotion was just a lot of noise with little action. The last time something like this happened was in 1966 in the neighboring county.
He Qing's smile was uglier than crying: "The working group didn't acknowledge it, and even expressed regret. It's a pity that people died but it can't be considered the result of their work!"
That team leader Qu gave a speech to the students in front of all the county leaders, saying something like, "We must seek truth from facts in our work. Bad elements died of illness or on their own... Taking this situation as one's own work achievement is a violation of the spirit of proletarian revolutionaries, because bad elements never awakened and never corrected themselves until their death!" He also used the young man as an example, saying that if he was really determined to draw a clear line between himself and the bad family, he should have poured a basin of water on his father to make his position clear when everyone was fighting against his father... Now he is dead, it is his own fault, and his death is lighter than a feather.
"The students were so scared that they didn't dare to join in the commotion, but this group of people wouldn't give up and insisted on achieving something." He Qing wiped his face and said, "Director Zhang paid for someone to take the train to get the provincial notice back." Otherwise, it would have taken a few days longer to be issued. But even so, it couldn't stop these crazy people.
He Qingzhen felt that the people in this working group were not normal. Director Zhang used his personal connections to call the Beijing Municipal Government, and the people there warned that some of the assigned working group were indeed particularly radical, and asked them to be careful. Director Zhang put down the phone and said, "This is like a coward meeting a funeral procession—extremely unlucky!"
"This is the situation now, we..."
Before He Qing could finish his words, Lin Xinghuo interrupted him, saying, "They've discussed holding a fierce criticism meeting at Hetan Farm, asking the farm residents to report on each other. Anyone who doesn't will be criticized. Then, everyone will come up on stage to make self-criticisms. Those who make thorough self-criticisms will step down, but the person who reported this person will be accused of incomplete reporting and should be singled out for criticism. Those who don't make thorough self-criticisms will kneel on the stage and watch others slap themselves in the face. Only after everyone has thoroughly reviewed their own opinions can the slappers stop..."
He Qing took a deep breath. This was too vicious. It was simply forcing people into a corner.
"No, we can't let them do this!" The old branch secretary refused at first. These 'old gentlemen' have made many contributions to the village. They said that every new clothes worn by each member was due to their efforts. Moreover, each of them can make sesame cakes and sell rice dumplings. They are all jacks of all trades!
At this time, a soldier ran out and hurriedly tried to pull He Qing over: "They're using the bricks from the house to build a platform, and the squad leader can't stop them. What are they trying to do?"
If they pass by the hairy house of the cat-headed man, they would have to have the ability to dig it up.
Lao Ning, Fang Tongjian and others inside didn't know this. They were afraid that digging up the adobe would reveal a fire path and affect the entire Bushan Village, so they used their bodies to block the earthen wall and prevent it from being dug up.
The anti-Confucius working group cursed a few times and then shouted to the grim-faced guards like Lao Guo, "This isn't our armed rebellion!"
These people had dark, troubled faces but excited eyes. Some raised their arms high, while others started kicking. Sun Tiebian, who had been injured and bullied before, grabbed a female comrade's hair and poked her in the eyes with the belt buckle in his hand.
"Old He!" Her husband was kicked by Team Leader Qu and stretched out his arm to block it for his wife.
Sun Tiebian became even more excited, and his arms swung down with the sound of wind: "Ah!"
Lin Xinghuo and others who rushed in saw Sun Tiebian wailing on the ground holding his legs. He Songlan leaned against the wall with her hands outstretched to protect the earth wall without moving. There was a bloody wound on the back of her husband's hand, from the tiger's mouth to the wrist, very long, but only a little blood came out.
Team leader Qu was also stunned. He saw it from the side. Sun Tiebian was just too excited and used too much force to stop. His hand slipped past Chou Laojiu's and went straight into her legs.
But how long can a belt buckle be? Besides, he was wearing a military coat and cotton trousers. Is it necessary to cry like this just because of a minor injury?
"That's enough, Xiao Sun!" Team Leader Qu said, "Xiao Jia, help Xiao Sun up."
The man named Xiao Jia let go of Lao Ning's collar, threw down the stick, and came over to help.
Xiao Jia frowned tightly, and while supporting with both hands, he said dissatisfiedly: "Why don't you put in some effort yourself!" It was as difficult as pulling a dead dog!
Sun Tiebian couldn't get up. She let go of her hands and everyone found that the square belt buckle had been pinched into strips by herself. It was not just as long as a copper tongue. Just looking at the end of her leg that was exposed, you could see that this thing was very sharp, not much different from a copper axe.
"How come you are so strong?" Even their own team members were surprised.
Sun Tiebian's face turned pale with pain. She didn't know when she had clenched her belt buckle into a copper bar.
"This won't work. Pull it out first to stop the bleeding." Team leader Qu asked Xiao Jia to pull it out for her in a bad mood.
Xiao Jia first used one hand, then both of his hands were covered in blood. He gritted his teeth and said, "No, team leader, it's stuck in the bone."
He Songlan's husband quickly protected his wife behind him. If she had really been poked in the eye, would she still be alive?
Sun Tiebian's grip on Xiao Jia's clothes was so tight that it became deformed. He shook his head and begged for mercy: "Don't pull it out anymore, it hurts so much!"
Team Leader Qu nodded, and Xiao Jia straightened up. His military coat ripped apart with a sizzling sound as Sun Tiebian pulled it apart. Xiao Jia hurriedly tried to cover the hole, but it was too late. Several objects fell out.
"Great! You dare to embezzle! Team leader, I've seen this pen before. It belonged to the landlord's son!" Someone reported him immediately.
Some people even wanted to pull the farmer's hand back and swing it directly at Xiao Jia's back.
…
"They are brutal to their 'enemies' and even more cruel to those inside." He Qing took a sip of water to calm himself down. He didn't know how the farce happened. Anyway, it was just a series of mutual denunciations and revelations, and each one ended up with a mouthful of fur in its mouth.
In the end, three of the ten people were injured. He Qing didn't want to get involved in their internal affairs, so he quickly asked Lao Guo to lead his men back to the city as if sending a plague god.
"We shouldn't be involved for the time being." He Qing said to Minister Guo who rushed over: "I told you a long time ago that there is no need to send people. Why don't you trust our own old comrades?" With Lin Xinghuo in Buxiantun, He Qing never worried about the use of force.
This morning, upon learning that the anti-Confucius task force had reached Buxiantun, Director Zhang, who was in charge of the work at the county level, hurriedly followed him with Xiao Chen. Minister Guo of the Armed Forces was a little late, having arrived directly in a truck with his full complement of men, fearing that He Qing would lose control of the situation and would have to resort to force.
As a result, as soon as he arrived at Bushan Village, he met his elder brother driving a mule with a dark face. The bloodstains from the sled on the snow scared Minister Guo so much that he almost fired into the air. He shouted at everyone not to move. He thought that the working group was going to kill the people on the farm.
"We have to clean up the hood when we get back!" Minister Guo was unhappy. His truck had been requisitioned by his brother, and he was worried that the sled would be too slow and the three injured people would die on the way. As a result, his own soldiers had to make room for the ten people who couldn't be pulled away, wasting his gasoline in vain!
He Qing picked up a stack of papers covered with words and tapped them on his palms. These were all the evidence of crimes that Fang Tongjian had written down. Once he handed them over to his superiors, he would probably never see this working group again.
But no one expected that the snowball would get bigger and bigger, and it actually alarmed the bigwigs in Beijing.
However, this was an internal issue among the "fighters" and had nothing to do with Lin Xinghuo and Bushantun. Even Song County only flashed by in the first few documents. No one cared about this remote small county that served as the starting point.
Until one day in December, when heavy snow blocked the mountain, Director Zhang and He Qing personally went there on a dog-drawn sled.
As soon as the two of them entered the auditorium of the brigade headquarters, they kept exclaiming, "It's so warm, so bright, and so lively!"
Director Zhang smiled and shook hands with the old Party Secretary. "You installed the lights so quickly?"
The old Party Secretary took out an old pocket watch from his pocket, carefully checked the time, and raised his index finger: "Listen!"
The familiar majestic melody of "Singing the Motherland" sounded, and "Xinhua Radio's "Capital Newspaper Summary"..."
"Wow, it's exactly nine o'clock, and you are still listening to the radio!" Director Zhang laughed.
The old Party branch secretary was incredibly proud. He reached out and beckoned Zhou Liang over, introducing him to Director Zhang: "This kid is incredibly knowledgeable about electrical appliances! The radio Xiaolin donated to the brigade uses batteries, and we were all reluctant to use it. But this kid asked the workers who were installing the windmill for advice, offering free help day and night... and he actually managed to fix it!" Zhou Liang was incredibly clever. Regardless of his wife's twelfth month, everyone treated him like one of their own, not to mention the fact that several other kids were clinging to him, eager to learn how to build even the simplest radio...
"Hey, what is Xiaolin holding in his hand?" He Qing stared ahead with wide eyes.
The old branch secretary was even happier. He brought the two leaders closer and saw Lin Xinghuo and Wei Chunfeng sitting side by side. One was embroidering pillowcases with a sewing machine, and the other was just using her hands, but the speed of the two was surprisingly almost the same.
"Isn't this pillowcase worse than the ones sold in department stores?" The old man's mouth was grinning almost to his ears. The thread and cloth were all made from scratch using the cotton in the village, and the colors were all dyed by himself!
Nowadays, when there is a wedding in the village, there is no longer a problem where more than a dozen families of parents and relatives cannot pool the cloth coupons for a quilt and pillowcase. They can make it themselves!
"Why did you embroider this kind of pillowcase?" He Qing asked. Could it be that Lin Xinghuo is getting married?
Lin Xinghuo's eyes were dull as she mechanically and quickly embroidered the mandarin duck pillowcase in her hands while discussing with Tumang about her twelfth failed attempt to build an alchemy furnace. Hearing this, she forced a smile: "How could I not embroider? I am now the aunt of everyone in the village. When there are weddings in the village, she has to be the first to attend. As an aunt, how can I not give gifts?"
At home, she wouldn't have to do anything at all. Using her object control technique, dozens of needles would fly, and she'd be done with a pair of pillowcases in two minutes. But didn't she have to reflect on the three-legged gourd censer carried to the center of the auditorium by the club members? Why, after the twelfth round, was the Bagua censer still stuck in a gourd shape?
"Wow!" Director Zhang laughed. "Everything in your brigade is new. This big stove is ugly, but it's really warm. I can feel the heat even standing here."
"That's right, no matter whether burning wood or coal balls, they will burn very thoroughly!" The old branch secretary thought to himself, there is no need for even a chimney, and there is no need to worry about carbon monoxide poisoning at all.
Lin Xinghuo's heart ached even more. While the minute hand was moving, he still had time to poke the old man, asking him to stop being distracted by listening to Mr. Fang's stories and to think carefully about their alchemy furnace!
The caracal nestled on her lap, a small embroidered scarf wrapped around her neck, thinking that she would go back and ask her friends to embroider her a replacement scarf.
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Author's Note: Lin Dongfang Bubai Xinghuo: In order to give a gift to a younger generation (older than me)...
Note:
A proverb says: A person who is afraid of death meets a funeral procession - bad luck! A person who makes sesame cakes and sells glutinous rice balls - a jack of all trades.
On March 25, 1949, the radio station relocated to Beijing with the Party Central Committee and began broadcasting under the name of Beiping Xinhua Radio Station (renamed Beijing Xinhua Radio Station on September 27). On December 5, 1949, the name was finally approved and adopted as the Central People's Broadcasting Station. On April 10, 1950, the signature program "News and Newspaper Digest," formerly "Capital Newspaper Digest," began airing. In July 1955, the program was renamed "News and Newspaper Digest." The program primarily broadcast domestic and international news and articles from central newspapers.
The program premieres daily at 6:30 AM on China Central Television (CCTV), and is rebroadcast on CCTV's Economic Voice at 7:00 AM and CCTV's China Central Television at 9:00 AM. It is also broadcast on provincial radio stations' Channel 1 and some local broadcasts. Each episode is 30 minutes long (sometimes extended). [Baidu Encyclopedia]
The two chapters describe some of the struggle phenomena, which are taken from "The Tide and the Undercurrent: Sexual Love and Marriage of Chinese Youth (1966-1976)"
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