Not long after Third Brother was beaten up, Cousin's aunt in the provincial capital sent a letter saying that she would come to the copper mine to see us. When our whole family heard this news, we were so excited that we didn't know what to do. Mother was even more overjoyed. Since 1947, the two sisters had not seen each other. It had been 16 years. When Mother was in the doctor's village, she was thousands of miles away from Cousin's aunt and it was difficult to see her. However, after arriving at Zhoutian, she was only a hundred miles away. It had been almost three years, but they had not seen each other until now. Mother always wanted to meet Cousin Aunt.
Mother said that Biao Yi was very mischievous when she was young. She was even more mischievous than the boys in the family. She made the family restless all day and even thought of ways to tease the elderly. Everyone hated her. However, Biao Yi was the smartest and most courageous among the children in the big family. Mother was the eldest sister among them. She was honest and steady. Biao Yi could ignore the elders, but she was obedient to Mother. Mother herself was honest, but she especially liked Biao Yi's bold and bold personality. She thought that she would be someone who would do great things in the future, so she looked at Biao Yi differently.
The relationship between my mother and my cousin is that my mother's mother and my cousin's mother are biological sisters, namely, the generation of my grandmother. The mother's family is a big family, so naturally, she has to find a family with a similar social status. Therefore, the two sisters married rich families. The Zhao family (grandmother's in-laws) and the Xu family (cousin's in-laws) that they married were originally relatives. In this way, the two families that the mother married were even closer.
In detail, although the Xu family is a big family, it is not as big and thick as the Zhao family's property. Therefore, my grandmother often treats her sisters generously in terms of property. My mother died early, and I had no chance to see her. My mother rarely mentioned her, and later (in 2007), when I read the sixth aunt's (who lived in Qingdao) recollection, I learned a little about her from the sentence she wrote: "My mother was a zealous Christian, but she died a long time ago. My sisters, Eighth Brother, and I were all influenced by our mother and were passionate about Buddhism since we were young.”
The Zhao family and the Xu family had different goals in society. The Zhao family was satisfied with the status quo. Their children were either teaching or working in their hometown. None of them left the local area to do big business. The Xu family was different. Their children all went to the big cities to study and seek great development.
Her cousin went to a university in a big city to study at the attached high school. Her brother was a member of the university student's party organization. When organizing activities (anti-Japanese), he did not avoid her sister, so she also participated in the activities. Later, the school began to investigate the party organization among the students. She could not stay in school anymore, so she followed the party members and students to the northeast to participate in the anti-Japanese alliance. After the anti-Japanese alliance was destroyed, they moved to North Korea to continue resisting the Japanese. From joining the party in 1938 to the founding of the new dynasty, they had risked their lives to follow the revolution of the party in the war for more than ten years. They had all become the party's cadre (Second aunt was in Beijing, Second uncle was in Tsingtao).
However, her aunt's marriage was not happy. At the beginning of the Liberation, her uncle held an important position in the Ministry of Industry. Because his work required an assistant who knew foreign languages, the organization coordinated the divorce between her aunt and her uncle. At that time, her aunt was pregnant.(Younger daughter Fang). After Fang (1951) was born, her aunt signed the divorce agreement. At that time, it was an old Red Army cadre, Ping's father, who came to talk to her on behalf of the organization to coordinate the divorce. In 1991 (I was already the deputy director of the farm), when I met Ping's father (who had already retired), he even talked about the awkwardness of dealing with this matter back then: "The organization handed me over to do this. I'm really in a difficult position. It's a good thing to be a matchmaker. Now, you want me to persuade someone to get a divorce? I accompanied your auntie around the lake (I wonder which lake in the provincial capital?）After walking around and around, she couldn't open her mouth to say anything. Your aunt also knew that I was looking for her to discuss this matter, so she simply said,"Don't make things difficult for me. I agree to sign!"”When he talked about this, Old Red Army felt a little apologetic for handling his aunt's divorce back then."Cough, it's been decades, but she's been single and refused to look for someone else. Old Xu's temper is too hard."(When his aunt divorced, she was less than 30 years old.)
Mother's generous help to her cousins during the revolution may be like a Christian mother. It was precisely because of Mother's generous help to her cousin that she had the courage to ask for help from her cousin when our family's life was extremely difficult.
Mother was looking forward to meeting Biao Yi, but when Biao Yi was really coming, Mother panicked. Although they were as close as sisters, their identities were different. Biao Yi was a revolutionary cadre, while Mother was still a housewife, and she was a poor family who ate one meal and did not know what to eat next. Mother began to worry. Where should she sleep? There were many children at home, so they slept on the double-decker bed that was thrown out from the workers 'dormitory. The gaps between the bed boards were full of bugs. Those who were not used to it would be allergic to the bites of the bugs. They would have hives all over their bodies and the itch was unbearable. What should I eat? Not to mention meat, there was not even an egg.(In 1963, the country's economic situation improved slightly. My family no longer ate wormwood, but it was still very poor.) Even my father joined in to help my mother think of an idea. After thinking about it, he finally made up his mind to pick the broad beans that had just grown in the vegetable field and eat them. This could be considered a fresh dish. She was looking forward to Aunt coming, but now she was afraid that Aunt would come. She was afraid that she would have to come. She was also afraid that if she stayed for a long time, if she stayed for a few days, Mother would not have any tricks on Aunt's food and accommodation. Therefore, Aunt had not come yet. She was worried that if she stayed for a few days, where would she get food? How are we going to live there?"
No matter how worried Mother was, Cousin Aunt still came. We brothers had never seen aunt before. We had seen the photos sent by aunt when we were in the doctor's village. When we thought that aunt was a senior cadre, we were also respectful and fearful. However, when aunt was accompanied by the mine manager,(She arrived at the mining department first.) When she arrived at our door, the previous tension disappeared. The appearance of aunt and mother was like twin sisters, making it difficult to distinguish. They were also so loving and peaceful. At first sight, they felt close. However, they were dressed much more westernized than mother. They had wavy hair, long skirts and leather sandals. They were fashionable and generous. At a glance, one could tell that their identities were extraordinary. Mother, a housewife, naturally couldn't be compared to Biao Yi.
Aunt told Mother a lot about the reason why she came to see us until now."First, she was busy and couldn't get away. Second, she didn't dare to come because the children all knew that Aunt was a big cadre. She had to bring some delicious food when she came. But the first two years were so difficult. She couldn't buy anything to eat. She couldn't come empty-handed, right?”The second reason that the aunt said was the truth. Mother was such a poor family, which relative was willing to provoke her? To a poor family with five children (Fourth Brother was born in 1962), what was the use of helping ten yuan? How could she not be afraid of this heavy burden? She might as well delay it as much as possible and not come to meet him early.
For the sake of this family and these children, Mother was also in a difficult position. If she didn't beg for help, it would be difficult for her to feed these children. If she begged for help, even if she was her biological sister, it was inevitable that she wouldn't feel disgusted. Out of helplessness, Mother could only complain in front of Biao Aunt. Wasn't she hoping for Biao Aunt to meet her to achieve this goal? Ever since my aunt came to visit us, she sent me ten yuan a month to subsidize my family's living expenses. Of course, ten yuan is not a small amount. Dad's monthly salary is only thirty yuan. This lasted for three years, until the cultural revolution, when she was locked up in the "cowshed"(the place where the overthrown authorities were imprisoned was called the cowshed) and could no longer send them. In those difficult times, my cousin's help was considered a life-saving grace to us brothers. Aunt doesn't have a boy, and Mother took the initiative to adopt my brother as Aunt's son. Aunt is a revolutionary cadre, and she doesn't need to raise a son for her old age. What son does she lack? It was obvious that this was her mother's helplessness (there was no other way to repay her).
Auntie didn't have much time to talk to Mother. She only met briefly. In the next few days, she visited the high-level leaders of the farm, the university, and the copper mine. In order to let my family get more help from the local leaders, she brought my brother to meet these high-level leaders and told them that my brother was her son (maybe, he was adopted by her). She let these high-level leaders know that her sister's family lived in the copper mine.
After visiting the senior leaders, I also visited the ordinary cadre that she had worked with before. At this time, I found out that Fan's mother was an ordinary employee in Aunt's original unit, and the father of the "Swan" female classmate who saw me vomit was also an employee under Aunt's original staff. Her father was very touched by Aunt's level of revolutionary old cadre and still remembered their family.
In 1991, when I went to Mount Tai to visit my aunt who had settled there after retiring, my aunt said that some facts had been neglected in the compilation of Zhoutian Farm Records. "I just found out that my aunt was the first person to develop Zhoutian. She can really be called the" founder "of the development of this mountain area. In 1957, the provincial government made the decision to develop the mountain area and build the mountain area. My aunt was appointed as the leader of the" advance inspection team "and led some technical personnel to select the site for the construction of the mine and school. She led the advance team to enter the Zhoutian area first and finally selected Zhoutian as the administrative center of the farm. She also submitted the inspection report to the province for approval." He also brought the first batch of construction workers to set up camp in Zhoutian to prepare for the arrival of the construction army. The first party committee and administrative leader of the farm in Zhoutian area was the director of a provincial department, while the aunt served as the secretary of the party committee office, which was higher than the deputy farm level. However, three months later, the aunt was transferred back to the provincial capital. The copper mine belongs to the Provincial Department of Metals, but the mine manager was also my aunt's subordinate when she was in the army. She joined the revolution in 1946 and respectfully addressed my aunt as the old leader. I then understood that my father had not been discovered when he used the scrap iron from the workshop to make hoes in the countryside to exchange for food. It turned out that the leaders deliberately turned a blind eye. Anyway, they did not let my father do this. The mine also used other methods to subsidize the families who were living in poverty.
My aunt didn't really make things difficult for my mother in terms of food and accommodation. She only slept at our house for one night (the rest of the night she stayed at the farm guest house). It was to show that although she hadn't seen my mother for 16 years, they weren't estranged from each other. It was also to use the time in the evening to discuss some things, including the matter of family planning for my mother. She said that she couldn't have another child since she was so poor (after returning to the provincial capital, she even sent birth control devices to my mother). That night, the two of them talked until dawn. In the end, they let Biao Yi rest on the bamboo bed for a while. Mother sat by the bamboo bed and waved a fan to drive away mosquitoes for Biao Yi (Mother really lived hard for her children).
Auntie only had a symbolic lunch at our house to comfort our family. Otherwise, she was afraid that we would have any thoughts and say that she disliked our poor family. Even after eating this meal, she still heard her third brother's complaints. He fed her plain white rice (it wasn't as bitter this year, but we still couldn't eat plain white rice) and broad beans cooked in salt water. Auntie asked her mother to fill her a small bowl of rice and eat it with broad beans. When Auntie ate the broad beans, she peeled off the outer skin of the broad beans (this was very normal nowadays). Third Brother saw it and started complaining at the side. He took the lesson from the text and said,"Just like the landlord Liu Wencai, the broad beans have to be peeled off and eaten." Auntie didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She said,"This little thing is quite powerful!"”Later, during the later period of the Cultural Revolution, when my aunt came out of the cowshed and I went to the provincial capital to take care of her, she even treated it as a joke and said,"Your family was really poor in 1960. I vomited a broad bean skin and San Er couldn't even stand it. It was really pitiful back then!”。Yes, those days were really pitiful. Auntie went to the mining department after eating. Third Brother immediately picked up the broad bean skin that Auntie spat out on the table and ate it.
On the first day of my aunt's return to the provincial capital, the leader of the mining department invited her to have a meal. My aunt waved at me and asked me to follow her. She took me directly to the mine manager's office. When she pushed open the door, she saw that the two mine managers were already waiting there. When the mine manager saw that my aunt had brought me here, he asked me to sit down and eat. My aunt said that there was no need, so she looked at the food on the table. There were four pieces of steamed cake made of vermicelli, a small porcelain bowl of porridge, a plate of cold cucumber, and a small plate of scrambled eggs on the table. There was nothing else. The mine manager understood the meaning of the aunt and immediately grabbed a piece of cake and stuffed it into my hand. I was embarrassed and stepped back, but the aunt grabbed me and let me take the cake from the mine manager. She said,"Go home quickly, don't make your mother anxious."
When I left the mine manager's office, my heart was so excited that it was about to float out. I skipped home. When I was still far from home, I shouted," Mother, mother, the mine manager gave me a piece of cake." The workers walking on the road couldn't understand why the mine manager would give me a piece of cake.
At that time, in my opinion, the cake in my hand was not an ordinary cake at all. It was simply a treasure that only the emperor could eat. It was like a pure white jade, emitting a sour and sweet fragrance. Let alone eating it, just looking at it and smelling it would make people drunk. We brothers shared it and didn't forget to pinch a small piece for Mother to taste. Because this is something that only a cousin who is a big cadre in our hearts can get. It's really incomparably precious.
Father didn't share the cake. He picked up the bottle that was specially used to make soy sauce for Aunt Biao's meal.(Before Aunt Biao came, our family was reluctant to buy soy sauce.) He poured some into a bowl, mixed it with water, and drank it. He repeatedly said,"It tastes good, it tastes good." Aunt Biao's arrival made the whole family happy. Before Father went to God, as long as he saw me and brother, he would say,"You can forget anyone, but you can't forget your aunt."
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。