Father's Land Mother's River

Chapter 72

Coming out of the factory director's office, Liu Xiaonan walked briskly into Gu Yu's office.Gu Yu was writing a report with her head down, when Liu Xiaonan stood beside her, pretending to read what she was writing, while brushing her hair unscrupulously with one hand.

Gu Yu pushed Liu Xiaonan away, and motioned him to sit across from her with reproachful eyes.

Liu Xiaonan sat down opposite Gu Yu, saw Gu Yu put down her pen and looked at herself before saying, "Dear leader, I'm asking for two days off."

Gu Yu knocked on the table: "I repeat, there are no dears in the office, only superiors and subordinates. You are the one who has the most work in the youth league committee. Give me a reasonable reason."

"Please take a look at the leader." Liu Xiaonan handed the proof of residence registration form to Gu Yu: "Is this reason sufficient?"

Gu Yu looked at the form seriously, but there was a familiar expression on his face.As soon as Liu Xiaonan walked out of the labor and management section chief's office, the labor and management section chief notified Gu Yu by phone, and the ready-made favor would not be given in vain.

Gu Yu returned the form to Liu Xiaonan and asked, "Do you know what this means?"

Liu Xiaonan replied: "It means that I am not struggling alone."

"You are wrong. In this matter, I have always respected your personal wishes, and I have no qualifications and ability to influence the collective decision of the factory leadership team. This is entirely the result of your unremitting efforts to get approval."

"Then what do you mean?"

"It means that you will bid farewell to the past completely, and will belong to me alone from now on."

Liu Xiaonan leaned out and stared at Gu Yu: "It also means that I have complied with Guan Xiaoyun's words, and I am completely finished. I have been thinking, if I had chosen to apply for a rural credit cooperative instead of a textile factory, how would my life be? Will it be better?"

Gu Yu smiled triumphantly: "There are no ifs in life, and you won't start all over again, you little brother in the countryside, you just accept your fate. Tonight, my friends and I will celebrate you with wine, and tomorrow you go home and transfer your hukou."

Liu Xiaonan said: "A mere trifle is not worth mobilizing people. I want to go to Master Wang Aiqing's house to sit."

A trace of displeasure flitted across Gu Yu's heart, but after thinking about it, he felt that it was precious, and this was what made him unique.With a good mass base, which is conducive to future development, he readily agreed.

Liu Xiaonan figured out that Wang Aiqing would have a rest today, so after get off work, she would buy food and drink at her house for a meal.He was a little ashamed, since he fell in love with Gu Yu, he couldn't control his spare time, so he didn't come to Master Wang's house for a long time.

Would Master Wang and the rural elder brother think that their eyeballs started to go up when they sat in the office?

Wang Aiqing was helping her son with homework, and Liu Xiaonan's sudden visit made her feel surprised, pleasantly surprised and relieved.

Although Liu Xiaonan has not forgotten the workers who have worked together in the section team, he often meets with everyone after get off work, and there is an essential difference between visiting relatives and visiting relatives, which shows that he is not a person with a pair of snobbish eyes.Therefore, we will continue to entertain warmly as always, just like treating a younger brother who is busy with work and does not often go home.

Liu Xiaonan explained that there are too many things going on recently, and I really don't have time to come and sit at home, so Master Wang please don't be offended.

Wang Aiqing stretched out her hand to straighten Liu Xiaonan's uneven shirt collar, and blamed: "I have to buy things every time I come home, is it because I am afraid that Master Wang will not be able to take care of your meal? Don't do this in the future, just treat it as your own." My brother, you and I are very happy that you can come here often."

Liu Xiaonan felt more and more ashamed: "It's not like before, sometimes I can't help myself."

Wang Aiqing expressed understanding that people in love can sometimes forget who they are.She asked Liu Xiaonan to help her son write lower script, went out and bought a few more vegetables, cooked them and waited for the man to come back.

After the elder brother from the countryside came home, Liu Xiaonan sat down at the dining table without being greeted, and after a few glasses of beer, he started the conversation: "Brother, I ask you a question, and you must answer truthfully, and you cannot hide anything just because Master Wang is present. You From falling in love to getting married with Master Wang, and now entering the city again, living a married life that is not husband and wife, do you ever feel tired?"

The farmer stared at Liu Xiaonan in a daze, not understanding why he would ask such a naive question: "Tired? What are you not tired of doing? Are farmers not tired of farming? Are textile factory workers tired of working the night shift? Isn't your father tired of going to the mine? Your sister Wang Aren’t they tired of going to the mountains and the countryside? Aren’t I tired of carrying big bags at the pier? Are you not tired of lying on the table and writing novels word by word? People are born to be tired.”

Liu Xiaonan said: "I'm not talking about this kind of tiredness. I mean, have you ever been forced to change your helplessness? For example, you have different household registrations and different identities from Master Wang. For Master Wang, you have to give up rural life. The true colors of people, dress yourself up as a city person."

The rural elder brother smiled and said, "You have to ask your sister Wang about this."

Wang Aiqing followed with a smile: "Walking, sitting and lying are orderly, talking loudly, since the day I met your eldest brother, he has always maintained the habit of the army, he will not change himself because of other people's opinions. I am not afraid of your jokes, this is true It’s my favorite and favorite.”

Laughed a few times and felt that something was wrong, and asked with concern: "Did you have a conflict with Gu Yu?"

"No, I'm just expressing my feelings." The rural elder brother and Master Wang are living a down-to-earth life. The couple are genuine people. How could they have such troubles as me?

Liu Xiaonan felt that she was asking too stupidly, so she changed the subject skillfully: "I have a happy event today. I wanted to share it with my brother and Master Wang, but I thought it was inappropriate, so I asked my brother such a question. The factory applied for it for me. In fact, I am not the one who needs a quota for conversion from rural areas to non-agricultural ones.”

"Really!" Wang Aiqing exclaimed in surprise, pouring wine for Liu Xiaonan in a hurry: "I know what you think, but your elder brother and I have been here for so many years, so we don't need a city hukou. But you, With a city hukou, you can fall in love with Gu Yu unimpeded."

Liu Xiaonan clinked glasses with the rural elder brother and Wang Aiqing, raised his neck and drank the wine in the glass, picked up the bottle and poured the wine one by one: "The quota for the conversion from farmers to non-citizens came too late, even if it was only a year earlier, I would not Miss the happiness that is at hand."

Wang Aiqing snatched the wine bottle from Liu Xiaonan's hand, and warned with concern: "Don't drink it, it's not that you don't want to part with this little wine, I'm afraid you'll talk nonsense if you drink too much. You are talented and have a bright future, and Gu Yu is your fate again." Your nobleman, what a wonderful couple, how can you still miss the past? You are still happy, I think you are in the blessing and don't know the blessing. "

"Where can it be called the past? Master Wang, you know better than anyone else, but it was only a year ago." Liu Xiaonan turned to ask the elder brother in the village: "Brother, when Master Wang returned to the city, can you forget Master Wang?"

Before the rural elder brother could answer, Wang Aiqing said first: "That's two different things. Your elder brother and I have been married for many years, we have a family and a child. Is it comparable to the love between you two young people who are just beginning to love each other? Don't tell me If you love it or not, it will be a lifetime if you miss it. Everyone has to move forward. I know you value love and righteousness. Everyone knows that Wu Yanli has nothing to do with the factory, and she has only worked for a few years. She can go to Changbai Ben, did you do it secretly?"

Liu Xiaonan nodded yes, and asked suspiciously, "How do you know?"

"Everyone sits together and analyzes it. The first thing that comes to mind is you. Don't think that what you have done is perfect." Wang Aiqing pouted, a little resenting him for not being up to date: "Does Wu Yanli know that your kindness will not be appreciated? I don't know about this relationship, I just know that she is much happier than you. The partner's family is in good condition, she talks and laughs at work, goes out to watch movies every day, but it's not like you still take it to heart. Wake up, young man, Gu Yu She is a good girl worthy of you."

Liu Xiaonan simply said happily: "I always think, if I can get together with Wu Yanli, I might not feel as tired as I am now."

Wang Aiqing was really angry, and her expression was rarely severe: "You have two people in your heart, can you not be tired? I can warn you, Xiaonan, don't ruin your future."

Liu Xiaonan grinned in embarrassment: "Master Wang, am I really stupid?"

That being said, he still believed that the first kiss in the woods by the sea was real, the most precious first kiss for a girl.After they met, each of them would live a good life, and naturally hoped that she would be happy, and that white mohair scarf would become his lifetime treasure.

Wang Aiqing pointed at Liu Xiaonan's forehead, anxious and angry: "You are so stupid, you are so stupid."

The big brother from the countryside said: "If Xiaonan is a shrewd person, he should walk around more with the leadership. Why would he come to our house like a brother? Tell us what's on the mind?"

Wang Aiqing's persuasion and warning will not make that deer-like figure completely disappear from Liu Xiaonan's brain, but the business that should be done still needs to be done.

Early the next morning, Liu Xiaonan took the train back home before noon.In the afternoon, I took the household registration book from my mother, rode a bicycle to the household registration management office of the township police station, and successfully completed the household registration transfer procedures.

The eldest son's page in the household registration booklet was affixed with a rectangular seal saying "The household registration has been moved out", and he was no longer a villager of Liuzijie Village.

Liu Xiaonan stood in front of the stele left for him by Mr. Guan, with a dignified expression, as if lost.

The stele was covered with mud, and there was a large pile of fresh cow dung in the shape of bread. The handwriting had been covered in dirt and was blurred and unreadable.But the words on the stone tablet have been deeply engraved in his heart: During the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, the three brothers of the Liu family in Lijiazhuang, Qixia County, Shandong Province, migrated to Chaotou Village, Fuzhou City, southern Liaoning due to poor family circumstances, and thrived.
He vaguely remembers Mr. Guan's appearance, how Mr. Guan led him to this stele, and how his grandmother urged him to come and copy Mr. Guan's calligraphy; of course, he will never forget that winter. The fire raged, and Liuzi Street was burnt to a piece of scorched earth. His father ordered him to squat on the stone tablet and copy it in cold weather, so that people could remember the hardships and glory of their ancestors
Yue Xuelian suggested that he use this stone tablet to suppress the impetuousness in the writing, and the effect was amazing. This stone tablet has become the ballast stone in his life.Whenever he needed to calm down and recognize himself, he would erect this stone monument in his heart.

Today, completely leaving the land where he was born, is not as exciting and relaxed as imagined.

My mother is still tired, my uncle and Erya are still running from dawn to dusk to make ends meet; my fourth brother is still a bachelor, working with semiconductor radios and two horses all day long, and I don’t know if he still thinks about the young widow in his heart.

Liu Qishun and his daughter-in-law did not spend a single day without quarreling, and Liu Xiaonan's success invisibly became the fuse of their conflicts: one said that you should see how capable Liu Xiaonan is, and the other said that you were optimistic about him, why didn't you marry him back then, This mountain looks as high as that mountain, you ask Liu Xiaonan if he likes you?

Uncle Guan Deyu is still farming the pitiful few ridges of land that only he owns, and still running errands for the villagers; his father is still studying his agricultural technology, and the family's agricultural books continue to increase.The two often sit together to discuss how to change the backward farming methods of the villagers and increase the yield of crops after their father retires.

When his father fled Liuzi Street on a cold winter night with cold tears in his eyes, did he think that Liuzi Street was still the place where his soul returns?Today, I walked out of this land with success and pride, without nostalgia. After a few years, will I find the destination of my soul like my father?

(End of this chapter)