Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 475 All the way to the west

"Okay!" Fang Minghua answered straightforwardly: "Let's drive my new car and go on a tour."

"That's a good idea. I'll go back and make some arrangements so we can set off as soon as possible!"

When Song Tangtang returned home in the evening, Fang Minghua said that he wanted to drive back to the place where he had been sent to work in the countryside with Zhao Hongjun.

"Hey, don't say that. Xijing City is in a mess right now. I also want to go out for a walk." Song Tangtang said.

"How about we go together? It's convenient to bring a car."

"I can't bear to leave my child behind. Forget it. You go with the Red Army. I'm going to the United States in the second half of this year."

"Visiting Lili?"

"Yes, my second aunt also came to my house today. We have agreed to go out when it gets cooler in the fall. I will also take the two children with me so that they can go out and see the world."

Why.
What a good mother she is. She always thinks about her children wherever she goes.

"Okay. Then you have to prepare passports and other things now. Children also need passports." Fang Minghua reminded.

"I know."

Fang Minghua began to make preparations for the long journey.

Medicines, cash, traffic maps, clothes, tow ropes, even fire extinguishers and tents. Since you are traveling by car, it is better to be well prepared.

In the middle of the term, he also went to Xi'an University and signed a contract with the school. Fang Minghua was hired as a visiting professor at the School of Literature of Xi'an University for a term of three years. The remuneration was calculated on a per-class basis, at 50 yuan per class.

He also did not forget to take a trip to the construction site. The main structure of his small building has been built, and the next step is to install supporting facilities such as water, electricity, heating, etc.

Early in the morning on May 5, Fang Minghua said goodbye to his wife and drove his newly purchased Land Cruiser to Xu Shimiao Street to pick up Zhao Hongjun.

Zhao Hongjun got into the car in a very casual manner, carrying a travel bag and sat in the passenger seat.

"Minghua, this SUV is so comfortable to sit in, much better than my Crown. I'll buy one when I get back!"

"This thing is nice to sit in, but it's not as prestigious as driving a Crown," Fang Minghua said with a smile.

Indeed, there was no concept of SUV in those days, and off-road vehicles were not very popular in cities. They were far from looking as majestic as the Crown, Hongqi and the like.

"That's true." Zhao Hongjun nodded.

If you don't care about your face when driving, what car should you drive?

The two chatted and laughed as the car drove west along Lianhu Road, passed the Sanqiao Bridge, and got on National Highway 310.

The place where Fang Minghua and his colleagues were sent to work in the countryside was a remote rural area in Baiyin, Gansu Province, and they had to go to Lanzhou first.

There is no expressway from Xijing to Lanzhou these days, but there are two national highways to get there. To the north, you can take National Highway 312 through Pingliang, Dingxi and then to Lanzhou.

To the south, take National Highway 310 through Baoji, Tianshui, and then Lanzhou, then turn north from Lanzhou and follow National Highway 109 to Baiyin.

Fang Minghua and his friends decided to take National Highway 310 in the south on the way there and take National Highway 312 in the north on the way back. After all, they were just going to have fun.

The two of them took turns driving along the national highway. When they passed Baoji, Fang Minghua suggested going to Famen Temple.

"Minghua, you who travels around, are you planning to write a travelogue? How about something like 'Red Star Over China'?" Zhao Hongjun joked.

"It's possible, but it's worth coming here. There is no Bodhi tree, and the mirror is not a stand. Let's go and calm our hearts that have been covered by the dust of the secular world." Fang Minghua drove the joke car into a county road.

The Famen Temple in the 1980s was far less magnificent than it is today. There were no Buddhist cultural scenic spots, folded-hand stupas, Buddha Light Avenue, or pilgrimage square. There was only one pagoda, which was restored just two years ago.

But Fang Minghua feels that the Buddhist flavor is stronger now, perhaps because it does not have the strong commercial flavor of later generations?
The underground palace of Famen Temple has been discovered, as well as the only existing Buddha finger bone relic in the country and thousands of rare treasures.

Fang Minghua bought a ticket to enter the underground palace and was lucky enough to see the relics, which are said to be the real finger bone relics of Sakyamuni.

But they really didn't see anything special.

I ate a bowl of Qishan sauerkraut noodles in Baoji, walked and stopped, went to Tianshui and visited Maiji Mountain, and had a spicy hot pot in Fang Minghua in the city. The taste was actually similar to that in Xijing.

We arrived in Lanzhou at noon on the third day.

According to Fang Minghua and his friends' plan, they were to stay in Lanzhou for one night and go to Lanzhou University the next day.

In early 82, Fang Minghua went to Lanzhou University to look up information. At the invitation of Ke Yang, the director of the Chinese Department of the school, he also gave a course on stream-of-consciousness writing. I heard that Ke Yang is still the director of the Chinese Department of Lanzhou University, so I wanted to pay him a visit.

As a result, they were blocked by the parade as soon as they entered the city. Fang Minghua and his companions had to stop the car and find a random restaurant to eat a bowl of beef noodles each. They did not even go into the city and continued on their way.

Along the edge of Lanzhou, cross the Yellow River Bridge and turn onto National Highway 109. The farther you get from the city, the more desolate the surrounding scenery becomes. In the distance are bare mountains, and in the nearby villages, the houses are still low.

Fortunately, spring wheat has been planted. Although it looks sparse, it adds a touch of green to the gray and yellow earth.

"Ah, more than ten years have passed, and it feels like nothing has changed here." Zhao Hongjun couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the surrounding scenery.

"Not really." Fang Minghua said with a smile while driving: "Look at this road, at least it's much easier to drive on than before."

"That's true. Even though it's a national highway, it used to be full of potholes."

It is about eighty kilometers from Lanzhou to Baiyin city. Fang Minghua drove for more than an hour and finally arrived in Baiyin.

It was already sunset.

We found a hotel to stay in and had the local specialty Shuichuan long noodles, which is said to be a traditional Chinese dish that means "come and go often". It was paired with some side dishes such as cucumber and carrot salad, and it tasted very special.

Early the next morning, Fang Minghua bought a lot of gifts at a department store in the county, such as ginseng, royal jelly, biscuits, canned food and so on.

Not for self-consumption but for gift giving.

When we got to the village, there were many people we knew. We couldn't go there empty-handed, right?
They continued to travel along Provincial Highway 217, but this time it was Zhao Hongjun who drove.

The village where Fang Minghua and his team were sent to work was a village called Bandeng Village in Jingtai County, northwest of Baiyin, which is close to Inner Mongolia.

It was a relatively cool morning in May in the northwest. Zhao Hongjun hummed a folk song while driving:
"You carry the load and I carry the baby.

I hold my baby in my arms, and my husband and I are going to pick cotton.

We, a couple, are going to pick cotton
The singing is melodious.

"This seems to be a Jingyuan folk song, right?" Fang Minghua asked tentatively after listening to it.

"Yes, have you forgotten? When we were sent to work in the countryside, we either sang revolutionary songs like "Go to the countryside, go to the frontiers, go to where the motherland needs you most" or folk songs," said Zhao Hongjun.

Fang Minghua nodded after hearing this.

"Among our educated youth, the best singer is Luo Hongmei from Shanghai. Her voice is so soft and beautiful. She is also pretty and has a good figure. Last year, I went to Shanghai on a business trip and found out about her unit. I even asked her out for dinner."

"How is she now?"

"I almost couldn't recognize him. He's gained a lot of weight, and his waist is as thick as a bucket. But his voice hasn't changed much."

Fang Minghua almost laughed out loud when he heard this.

He vaguely remembered that Zhao Hongjun seemed to have such feelings towards Luo Hongmei when he was queuing up.

"I don't know how Professor Lu is doing now. I haven't contacted him since he returned to his hometown in Shenyang. It's really a waste of talent for a university professor to be sent to the countryside to teach primary school students. But the class he taught was really good."

Zhao Hongjun continued to recall.

Professor Lu, whom Zhao Hongjun mentioned, was originally a professor at Northeastern University. During a special period, he was sent to a May 7th Cadre School in Jingtai, Gansu Province. Later, Bandeng Village was short of teachers, so Professor Lu was asked to teach in the village primary school. He worked there for ten years and only returned to Shenyang seven or eight years later after the policy was implemented.

Fang Minghua found that the closer they got to the place where they were assigned to work, the more sentimental Zhao Hongjun became.

The car did not go into the county town, but went directly to Bandeng Village, which is close to the edge of the Tengger Desert.

(End of this chapter)