The officer raised his eyebrows: "No."
Cheng Rushan: "Then I choose to refuse."
The officer didn't do anything, but the prison instructor next to him couldn't take it anymore, his face darkened, "Cheng Rushan, are you confused?"
How dare you refuse such a good thing? Are you out of your mind?
"Hey, why are you so fierce?" The officer smiled. "You may not know the treatment of our 518th Army. Come, let me tell you. For someone like you who has been selected by the death squad, and then entered the special agent company to carry out missions, and finally passed the test and was selected alive, the monthly allowance for the first year is 126 yuan, and you will be given enough food, and 44 kilograms of food coupons, and all the other things you should have."
He was sure that no one could refuse such good treatment.
Who knew that Cheng Rushan on the opposite side glanced at him, then lowered his eyes and said slowly: "Sir, I... don't have the awareness to become a soldier."
"Huh?" The officer looked at him curiously. "You don't have awareness? You came from the suicide squad and carried out missions in the special forces company. You don't have awareness? Come on, young man, tell me what's wrong with your awareness?"
Cheng Rushan pursed his lips and said nothing.
The instructor next to him whispered to the officer, "Composition."
The officer said, "That's OK. We don't look at class background, we only look at loyalty. If you have passed the test and are a loyal soldier, you are qualified."
"No." Cheng Rushan still refused, but didn't say much.
"You guys." The officer pointed to the door, "Go out first. I'll talk to him."
"Captain Cen, this is against the rules. I have to record it." The clerk was a little embarrassed.
Captain Cen tapped him on the head and said, "Why are you recording anything? He didn't say a few words from beginning to end. What are you recording?" He pulled the notebook over and saw that it said: Cheng Rushan, born in a landlord family, capable in business, but not very good in thinking.
He tore off the page of paper, crumpled it up and stuffed it into the clerk's pocket, and said, "Go out and have a cigarette."
Clerk: "Captain, I don't smoke."
"Learn!" Captain Cen stuffed a pack of cigarettes wrapped in white paper into his pocket and said, "You can smoke as much as you want."
After the clerk and the instructor left, only Captain Cen and Cheng Rushan were left in the room.
"Come, tell me. Don't be afraid. There is no political struggle here. No one cares about class background. I studied in the Soviet Union. They said I was suspected of being a Soviet revisionist."
Cheng Rushan thought for a moment and said, "I joined the death squad not to serve the country, but to take off my hat and live a clean life like a human being."
At that time, the old branch secretary said he would recommend him to join the army, but he was rejected because of his background. However, a military cadre said he was a good candidate and asked him if he was willing to join the death squad.
He didn't care too much at the time. He just asked if joining would free him from the labels of his grandfather and parents as landlords, gangsters and bad elements.
The cadre hesitated for a moment and told him, "If you can survive, it won't be a problem to take off your hat."
So he joined the Suicide Squad.
In the autumn of 1970, his term in the death squad ended. He changed the status of his grandfather and grandfather-in-law who were shot from landlords to rich peasants, and his uncle and father also became rich peasants.
For people who have no connections or bad ingredients, it is harder than climbing to the sky to change their ingredients.
When he went back that year, his mother asked him to get married, but he didn't want to. He thought it would be best to change his class status to middle peasant, or even upper middle peasant, so that his children would not have to repeat his childhood path.
The Cultural Revolution is creating new landlords and new rich peasants, and there's no telling when it will launch another movement. People from these backgrounds are like frightened birds.
But he couldn't hold back his mother's tears, and finally compromised. But he didn't expect that he would be taken away by those people again two days after the wedding and joined the special duty company. He still asked, "Can you take off our hats? Can you let us live upright like normal people?"
Not being suppressed by policies, not being bullied by others, standing like a human being instead of kneeling, holding your head high like a human being instead of being dejected, being free like a human being, instead of being a bad element who always reflects on himself and confesses his crimes and dares not laugh.
In the past, people talked about etiquette, filial piety and brotherly love, and their character was used to determine whether they were good or bad. But now, people’s goodness or badness is determined by their background, and some people are born with sin.
What crime is that? Are all those with property and education bad? Are all landlords, bad elements, and rightists?
Captain Cen stared at him for a moment, his expression becoming more and more solemn and serious, and he nodded slightly, "I understand. Congratulations, from now on, your family is a patriotic and promising people, no longer a landlord bad element, someone will vindicate you."
There were many patriotic people outside the Party in society, and no matter whether they were landlords or capitalists, they were still the targets of unity. Many of them were overthrown at the beginning, but were later rehabilitated.
Cheng Rushan smiled, but he didn't look happy at all.
It took him 12 years and several life-and-death experiences to get this sentence.
At first he was looking forward to this day very much, but when the day finally came, he felt nothing.
After all, my grandfather is dead, my maternal grandfather is dead, and my uncle is dead, and the living people also feel a thorn in their hearts.
"Thank you." He said, "But I still refuse."
"Do you have any resentment in your heart?" Captain Cen's eyes were sharp.
Cheng Rushan shook his head: "Hate? Who do you hate? It's not against our family. Although Cheng Fugui took the opportunity to retaliate during the movement, even if he wasn't there, our family would still be persecuted."
He didn’t understand it when he was a child, but as he grew older and became more knowledgeable, he thought a lot and finally figured it out: their family was not harmed by anyone, but they suffered from the times.
Without the support of the policy, Cheng Fugui could not have touched his family at all, and those revolutionaries who had received favors from his family would also support them. But later they could only save their uncle and father from death, but could not give them freedom. Many other people who had no enemies were also struggled against, and later the rightists were cracked down on. Those high-level intellectuals who were originally the most respected were also overthrown and sent down, and then to the Cultural Revolution, and people were in a panic.
The whole society is like this, it is an irreversible trend and cannot be reversed by individual efforts.
At the age of 26, he has already experienced the ups and downs of life, the separation of life and death. Wealth, honor, success, and honor to the family are all empty. Because for their family, being able to live like a human being, walking on the street without being looked at sideways or being pointed at and said, "Tsk tsk, look at him, such a handsome young man, it's a pity that his family is a landlord and a bad element." Being able to come and go freely without being arrested by the militia and criticized, kneeled, or jet-set at any time and anywhere, this is what their family desires most.
If he joined the army with a background like his, he might be singled out by the more serious cadres and labeled as a counter-revolutionary bad element hiding in the army. Not only would he be in trouble, but his family would also be implicated.
So, he will not join the army.
"Haha, you're quite interesting. You joined the death squad at the age of 14 and were brave and good at fighting." Captain Cen flipped through the file. "You drove a truck through the winding mountain road, went to Sichuan, went to the Great Northern Wilderness, went to Tibet, killed bandits, worked as an undercover in several prisons, and you were the one who uncovered several remaining gangs in Shuangling Prison..."
Several spies were found in Shuangling Prison. They hid in the prison and remotely controlled the outside world to sabotage socialist construction, which had a very bad impact.
No matter whether he praised or criticized Cheng Rushan, he remained unmoved, as if he was not being talked about himself.
Captain Cen nodded. No one would start a gang at the age of 14 unless they had no other choice. He is 26 years old this year. The hardships he has endured in the past ten years are unimaginable to outsiders.
He continued to look at the file, raised his brows, and smiled: "You want to go home to take care of your wife and children. Oh, how many years have you been married? 70 years, the child must be five or six years old."
Cheng Rushan remained expressionless when talking about this. "I was arrested by you guys just a few days after getting married. I wasn't sure if my wife was still alive."
I’m not even sure whether my wife is there, let alone whether I have children.
He came from a poor family, unlike those who joined the army properly. Every time he was called up, he was treated like a prisoner, without the freedom to contact his family. He was previously said to be doing transportation, but now he didn't know what he was called.
Captain Cen smiled slightly, "Don't panic. Although our army is keeping it secret, we can still arrange for you to stay with the army. It will be no problem for you to live in the large military area."
Cheng Rushan: "Sir, will you take off my hat even if I don't join?"
Captain Cen was startled, knowing that this guy was determined, and nodded: "It's fine, I said your background is fine, whether you are a middle peasant or a lower-middle peasant, I can get it for you."
There is a huge chasm from landlords to rich peasants, and there is another huge chasm from rich peasants to middle peasants.
But for him, it was as easy as making a phone call. Of course, he didn't know that he was the only special case among Captain Cen.
Cheng Rushan clenched his fists. They struggled hard, trying to raise their heads from the mud. In order to be qualified to look up at the sky and wash away the stigma of being landlords and gangsters with their blood, this road was extremely difficult.
Although his grandfather and grandfather-in-law were landlords, they were never bad people. Before the Anti-Japanese War, they advocated building bridges and roads and providing relief to disaster victims, and their family members never stopped working. The burden on tenants in the village was not heavy, and rent exemption and relief were common in years of famine. For this, the county government of the Republic of China also awarded a charity plaque. After the Anti-Japanese War, my grandfather sold more than half of his property to secretly support the war. At that time, my father wanted to join the anti-Japanese organization, but the family had named the Japanese army, and no one could be missing, otherwise the whole family would suffer. Although they could not join the Eighth Route Army, my uncle and father always supported the Anti-Japanese War, and they also dealt with the Japanese and puppet troops to protect the people around them.
However, when they were settled after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, they were labeled as local tyrants and counter-revolutionaries, and their dealings with the Japanese and puppet troops in order to protect the people also became a black history.
When Cheng Fugui colluded with the puppet army to make money during the national crisis, his uncle whipped him and locked him up in the village without letting him go out. Later, he said he would turn over a new leaf and join the anti-Japanese organization, and his uncle let him go.
Little did he know that he would become a platoon-level cadre, and when he returned to his hometown to fight against local tyrants, he shot his grandfather. He originally wanted to shoot his uncle and father as well, but fortunately they were protected by other revolutionary cadres and sent to the farm.
When he was a child, his father always told him to remember the kindness of those who rescued them. He didn't understand at that time and always asked, "Why didn't they tell the government about our family's affairs? Why didn't they clear our name?"
There was no answer at that time.
Later he found out that it was not that they didn't want to, but that the policy did not allow it. Even the underground revolutionaries were investigated, let alone them?
As counter-revolutionaries, landlord gangsters, and bad elements, they were usually allowed to keep their heads down, not to straighten their backs or chests, not to raise their heads, and certainly not to look up at the sky, otherwise it might become a reason to be struggled against.
He joined the death squad and the secret service company just to get rid of the black hat and let his family hold their heads high.
His consciousness was too low to be qualified to be a glorious soldier, so he refused to join the special forces.
After going through so much hardship, I just want to live a simple life.
Captain Cen did not push him any further and patted him on the shoulder. "Well, I'll arrange another good job for you."
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