The 128 most classic philosophical essays in the world

Chapter 42
[China] Yu Qiuyu

Xinke works for the far travellers, but he himself is the most difficult traveler.He was dressed in rags and old clothes, his face was full of dust, and he looked like a beggar.

一
I have not checked when the postal and telecommunications network in the vast mountainous areas of our country was established. I remember that in the early years in the countryside, external correspondence mainly relied on people with a special profession: letter customers.

Xinke is a private profession and is not managed by any agency.There are a lot of people going out to make a living in this place, and it is necessary to bring a few letters from home, some clothes and food, and there is no post office in a radius of tens of miles, so Xinke is needed.Xinke must have a little culture, know the conditions of the major ports, and have a pair of strong muscles and bones to carry heavy luggage.

Thinking about it carefully, being a trustee is really hard work.There are not too many people going out in the countryside, and they are not concentrated in one city, so Xinke's business is not big, but it takes a lot of effort.If the transportation is convenient, there is no need for Xinke. Most of the roads that Xinke often take make seven turns and eight turns. Hearing what they say, he will feel dizzy.Xinke can’t make much money if they hand over their luggage for consignment. They all carry their shoulders, hunchbacks, handbags, and waistbands, gritting their teeth through the rough and long distance.There are various types of letters and goods from each household, and there must be no loss or damage. I have to count them repeatedly and be careful along the way.At that time, everyone was poor, and the shipping fee was very low, and sometimes it was not enough to cover the expenses. Xinke had to buy the worst ticket, live in the cheapest class, and bring some cold steamed buns and fried rice noodles with him to satisfy his hunger.

Xinke works for the far travellers, but he himself is the most difficult traveler.He was dressed in rags and old clothes, his face was full of dust, and he looked like a beggar.

Without trustees, many villagers would not travel far.For a long time, Xinke's heavy footsteps have been the link between the countryside and the city.

two

In the neighboring village of my family, there is a letter guest who is not young and has traveled long distances for 30 to [-] years.

He went to a private school, went out to break into the pier when he was old, hit a wall several times, was poor and unable to make a living, and came back to be a messenger.There is another reason for him to be a messenger.

It turned out that there was an old messenger in the village.Once, a girl from a family in the village was about to get married, and the girl's father, who was making a living in Shanghai, asked an old trustee to bring two bolts of red silk.The old trustee happened to want to give a gift to a distant relative, so he cut a narrow strip of red silk as a gift to look good.Unexpectedly, the one in Shanghai entrusted another person to bring a message to the family, saying that after receiving the red silk, check to see if there are small circles drawn on both ends, so as to prevent the letter from cheating.At this moment, the old Xinke stumbled, and the scandal of him spread in the four townships immediately. All the families who had asked him to bring things before recalled doubts, as if everything in his family came from embezzlement.But his home is dilapidated and gray, with nothing of value.

The old Xinke couldn't speak clearly, with a sad face, he picked up the pair of red silk scissors and pierced his hand.The next day, he found a young man from the same village who had just returned from poverty in Shanghai with his scarred hand in his pocket. When he entered the door, he said, "My reputation has been ruined, but this country cannot be without trustees."

For two whole days, the old Xinke told him in a soft voice and slow voice who were out in the four nearby towns, how to find the doors of the houses in the countryside, and how to get to the places where people made a living in the city.It was very difficult to talk about the routes in several cities, and I kept drawing patterns on paper.This young man didn't even know most of the people who went out to make a living. The old trustees talked and compared, and even introduced their tempers and habits.

After finishing all this, the old messenger told him which small hotels he could stay along the way and which tea room in the hotel he could trust.There are also places to eat, which stall has the thickest pancakes, and which small shop can buy rice without vegetables.

From the beginning to the end, the young people did not promise to take over.But after listening to the old man talk so much and in such detail, he didn't refuse any more.The old man's final instruction was to raise his injured hand and say, "Xinke Xinke is just a letter, don't imitate me."

The young man thought about the old man's life in the future, and said that he would help him after earning money.The old man said: "No. I will go to the cemetery and earn my living. I stink, and if you stand next to me, I will stink you too."

Lao Xinke was originally single and never returned to the village.

After the young Xinke set off on the road, he encountered inquiries from the old Xinke along the way.I have known him all the way through the journey of travel and dust for most of my life.The wanderer who lives outside waits for his footsteps every month and month.Now, he is hiding in the shabby hut next to the mountain cemetery, suffering from insomnia every night, with his eyes open in the dark, dazedly thinking about the piers, boats, and faces.

When it was windy and rainy, he would get up, stand for a while with his hand on the door frame, and secretly told the young Xinke to be careful all the way.

three

The young Xinke is getting old gradually.He often suffers from stomach problems and rheumatism, and whenever he commits a crime, he always thinks of Lao Xinke. The old man has said everything, why didn't he mention these two diseases?By the way, take care of the family to take some time to go to the cemetery with some food.He himself has been there a few times, and the old man forced him to tell the changes and news of various piers.There have always been more bad things than good things, so they sighed together.If their conversation can be recorded, it must be the historical data of urban and rural changes in modern China that historians are very interested in. Unfortunately, this is in the mountains, just the two of them, as soon as they spoke, they immediately drifted away. wind.

Xinke cannot often visit the elderly.He is really too busy and spends too much time on the road. He is busy distributing letters and things as soon as he gets home, and he has to receive the things he brings out next time.All these things require him to be present in person and check them out by himself. Once he goes to see the old man, he will make others wait.

As long as Xinke returns to the village, his family is always full of people.Most of them didn't come to send and receive letters or things, they just came to see the excitement, to see how the people who went out from each family were doing, and what rare items they brought.In the eyes of the peasants, there is envy and jealousy; more comparisons, but also contempt and ridicule.These eyes are the ratings of the Chinese countryside for their adventurers.These eyes are the exploration of the city by the thousand-year-old hometown.

Finally, a woman came to whisper to Xinke: "Take care of him, take things several times in the future and combine them once, don't want to be a piece of cake"; "Tell him, those things can't be stored in Shanghai? I'm a woman, come to robbers What should I do if the thief comes"...Xinke nodded calmly, he has seen too much and can fully understand all this.The ups and downs in the city tremble the long-sluggish rural nervous system, and he is the most sensitive nerve ending.

A certain earner who wandered around the city suddenly got a sudden illness and died. Such things often happened in those years.When Xinke heard the news from his fellow villagers in the city, he would rush there to take care of the funeral and pack up the relics on behalf of his family and fellow villagers.When he returned to the countryside, he took a black umbrella with the handle facing forward, and walked towards the deceased's house.Those who reported the death in the countryside were all marked with a black umbrella held upside down, and the villagers knew at a glance that another person had died in another country.When he came to the deceased's house, Xinke was full of sorrow, and reported the bad news in a euphemistic tone that he had thought about for a long time along the way.The poor family members would cry and faint, and he couldn't leave, helping to comfort Zhang Luo.There will also be some peasant women who hear the news of the death and hate the city, hate going out, and hate Xinke as well. In other words, keep making noises.

In the afternoon, he was going to send the remains of the deceased again, which was even more dangerous.Rural women would take this humble relic as the price of their husband's life, and hardly any of them would believe that alone.Doubtful sharp swords shot out from the red eye circles, Xinke felt uncomfortable all over, as if he had done something wrong.He had no choice but to report in a soft voice about the handling of funeral affairs in Shanghai. Rural women were completely ignorant of Shanghai society, and the questions raised by them often made him unable to answer them.

It wasn't until he sweated a lot and paid a lot of sins that he walked out of the deceased's house with a bad face.Can he not do this kind of thing?cannot.What do you mean I am also from the same hometown, so can I not show a little nostalgia and friendship?The old Xinke said that this country cannot be without Xinke.To be a trustee, you have to carry the burden of life and death, running back and forth.Those who went out to make a living in the four townships piled their blood, sweat and tears on his shoulders.

four

Xinke knows how to read and write letters, and often reads and writes letters for him.If there is no important matter, it is enough to send a message, and there is always something ominous about writing a letter.The women complained in Xinke's house with tears and snot in their noses. Xinke spread paper and rubbed ink, pondering over the sentences.He always arranges endless grievances and urgent urgency into bureaucratic sentences, solemnly puts them in envelopes, and then personally takes broken and anxious hearts far away.

Once, he walked into a house in the city with a letter full of grievances, and saw that the rich recipient had already lived with another woman.He was in a dilemma, hesitating again and again, to see if he should take out the letter.The fellow villagers who had made a fortune knew that he would do bad things when he came, so they deliberately pretended not to know him and asked him who he was.This made him angry, and he immediately raised the letter and shouted: "This is your wife's letter!"

The fashionable girl opened and read the letter, and she burst into tears after reading it.The fellow countryman couldn't get out of the stage, insisting that he was a thief who broke into a private house, and taking out a letter was just a way to get away.In order to calm the woman's crying, the fellow slapped him twice and sent him to the police station.

He explained his identity to the police officer and produced the addresses of many other fellow villagers as proof.The fellow summoned from his hometown raised funds to bail him out, and asked him why, he only said that he was confused for a while and went to the wrong house.He didn't want to cast a shadow on his fellow countrymen who were away from home.

When he returned home this time, he immediately went to burn incense on the grave of the old Xinke. The old man had been dead for many years.He knelt on the grave and asked the old man to forgive him: he would never be a trustee again.He said: "This road is getting more and more dangerous, and I can no longer support it."

He reasoned to the villagers that his legs and feet were sick and he could no longer travel far.Some family members who were away fell into panic for a while, looking everywhere for new customers, but they couldn't find them.

Only then do people think of all his benefits, and often bring him a few bowls of food and snacks to him who has lost his source of income, and then ask him to think about ways to communicate.

Even if the doom of these villages is not over, the fellow villager who slapped Xinke in the city suddenly showed kindness.This man later made a fortune, and the fashionable girl left him immediately after reading the letter. He also learned from other fellow villagers that Xinke did not say anything bad about him, and that Xinke had been out of work since then. All these things moved him deeply.He came back to his hometown once, and first went to the county post office to put money in and asked them to set up an agency in the Xiaonan goods store in this township, and suggested that Xinke should take care of the matter.

After finishing all this, he returned home to condolences to the neighbors, and even went to Xinke's house to apologize quietly, and asked him to accept the postal service as an agent.Xinke was very respectful to him and asked him not to keep the past in mind.As for the postal service, there are people in the Xiaonan store who can do it. I am not in good health, so I am sorry.He didn't take the money that his fellow countrymen gave him, but only some gifts.

Since then, a green mailbox has been hung at the door of the Xiaonan store, and it is also mailed in a bag. These villages have been connected with the city again.

Xinke began to make a living by writing letters on behalf of him. There are quite a few letters written by him, and his life is average in the countryside.

五

Two years later, several private schools merged into a primary school, using new-style teaching materials.There is a shortage of a geography teacher, and everyone thinks of Xinke.

Xinke taught geography vividly and vividly, and the effect was amazing.He didn't know much at first, but he traveled around for decades and wrote countless letters on his behalf. His actual level of education was top-notch among the few teachers, and he taught Chinese with ease.He has a broad vision and can accommodate all kinds of new knowledge.What is even more commendable is that he has a deep understanding of the world and people, and is very considerate, and soon became the backbone of this elementary school.Soon, he served as the primary school principal.

During his tenure as principal, the teaching quality of this elementary school was among the best in the county.The proportion of graduates admitted to urban secondary schools is also high.

When he died, many people came to express condolences, and many of them came from other places.According to his last wish, his tomb was built next to the tomb of Lao Xinke.At this time, most of the villagers did not know who the old trustee was and what relationship he had with the principal.In order to look pleasing to the eye, I also repaired the ugly grave.

Heart mark notes
Letter to customers, the key lies in the word "letter".Xinke keeps his promise, he is not only a postman, he is more affectionate and righteous than the postman, he always uses the most appropriate way to deal with the difficulties at both ends of the mail, sometimes he has to comfort the broken heart, sometimes he has to save the ugly soul, Sometimes he has to swallow his anger... In order to keep his promise, how much hard work Xinke has put in that others don't know, this is by no means compensated by a meager reward.Xinke is the link between the city and the countryside, and the bridge between the soul and the soul.

It is a pity that a narrow piece of red silk ruined the reputation accumulated by the first trustee throughout his life.This shows that sincerity is the most precious thing for human beings, we must constantly overcome all kinds of temptations and cherish our reputation.

(End of this chapter)