Not because of war or famine, but because of an iron crown and a series of trumped-up charges, I went through three years of fugitive Life.
In the summer of 1960, I graduated from the journalism department of Renmin University of China. Since I could not make a convincing statement of repentance, I was still a “rightist with a hat”. As a result, I was sent to Guizhou, where “the sky is not clear for three days and the ground is not flat for three feet”, and worked as a cashier in the library of the Agricultural College. I was a transfer student, married before going to college, and my lover was working in Weifang Iron and Steel Factory in Shandong Province. One day, a minister of the Organization Department of the Municipal Party Committee visited her factory and saw that she was living in great difficulties with two children, while her husband was far away in Guizhou, 8,000 miles away. The kind-hearted minister, that just graduated college students are talented, and will not have any historical problems, no access to the file, then a transfer order, I was transferred back to Weifang in Shandong. Previously, because my lover is honest and narrow-minded, I have not dared to tell her about my fall. After I returned to Weifang, I learned that I had been transferred back to a rightist. My lover cried, the organization department regretted, holding a hedgehog no place to put, so I went to the engine factory to do the shop statistician. I worked as an accountant back then, the abacus is smoothly familiar, the work done naturally very beautiful, workers are also full of courtesy to me, many people even called me “teacher”. Because I would not bow down to the top boss, and do not know how to send gifts to contact feelings, less than a year, they were thrown out of the office, thrown to the assembly plant as a porter.
The head of the assembly plant did not discriminate against me, but really treated me as a college student as a “talent” and assured me to engage in publicity. Every day after work, I was busy writing blackboards, writing slogans, making up literary programs, painting murals, often until seven or eight o’clock before going Home. I even went up to the scaffolding and painted the two-foot-high statue of the Great Leader. I prepared a three-scene Lv opera “Spring Song” with the theme of technical innovation, which was written and directed by myself and accompanied by myself, and the official performance was well received and won the honor for the workshop. Full of black and white, class work to work on the ground, can get a “really change the evil to good” praise, as soon as possible to remove the iron crown, to the wife and children to reduce a little mental pressure. Four clear task force into the field, still let me do propaganda work. It was not until the “clear organization” that the workers and I drew a line in the sand and were left out in the cold.
Unexpectedly, once the “unprecedented Proletarian Cultural Revolution” came, I, who was a children’s leader at the age of thirteen and joined the revolution at the age of fourteen, just thirty-four years old “old rightist”, was immediately plunged into a terminal disaster. I was raided, hung up, knocked on the gong and roamed the factory, and sat on the jet, which became a daily routine. Then he became a member of the “Rightist Revisionist Group” and was isolated and forced to hand over his black background.
It turns out that in the early 1960s, the United Front Work Department of the municipal party committee had organized a training program for the rightists in the city, encouraging them to accelerate their transformation and strive for an early return to the people’s ranks. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, several people took the lead in demanding the vindication of unjust cases. As a result, all the old rightists who participated in the training became “members” of the reversal group. In fact, since the end of the training, never met with those who led the “reversal”, but no one believed. It was difficult to argue, and the confessions were extracted day and night, for 33 days. Soon, and fell into another even more terrible vortex – “treason to repair group”!
Casting workshop has a surnamed Ding army cadres, because the “relationship between men and women” problem, had been reeducation through labor for three years. The cowshed opened, he naturally became a member of it. One day, when he was carrying with me, he secretly asked me: “Hey, if you don’t want to be killed, dare to leave?” I froze there, my heart pounding: “Under the sky, no one is the king’s land. The revolutionary storm is sweeping the country – where to go?”
“The Soviet Union. I drove a car in the army, and I’m very skilled. When you get to the border area, steal a car and make sure you can rush through.”
“What do those border guards do? Didn’t you hear that one of the prisoners who paraded through the streets the other day was sentenced to death for attempting to throw himself into the repair? That is not self-destruction! Don’t get carried away, man.” I rejected him with immense fear.
One day, two years later, he ran into me at the scrapyard and jokingly asked, “Old Right, have you been fighting lately?” I replied in a loud voice, “No problem.” I was not expecting that the two of us were overheard by a young man not far away. An hour later, I was put into a dark room. Immediately, I was untied of my pants and shoelaces, and three shifts of people took turns guarding me. The task force interrogated during the day and “heated up” at night. I was forced to give an account of “new crimes”. Since I fell into the right net, although I was not convinced, I forced myself to confess my crimes, worked hard and tried to reform myself. When I saw young workers destroying public property, I was always kind and persuasive, so where were the “new crimes”? The stubborn confrontation was “heated up”. Not only fist and kick, and even wielded an iron bar. A few days down the road, has been the legs can not walk, waist dare not straight, ears torn, right eye was almost blinded by a guard named Li Gamin poked, left leg knee he used an iron bar to injure …… However, they are anxious to report the results of the battle, never got. So the fancy is renewed – “boiling eagle”. Three days and three nights are not allowed to sleep. Forced to read aloud moment by moment, “Mao selected”. Reading, reading, I will be out of the sound of snoring. After a head-bashing “wake up”, I had to continue reading.
Until then, I still did not know what “new crime” I had committed. One day, the task force came up with a new trick: to force me to tell you who I had recently talked to outside the workshop. I immediately thought of Ding Yi, who was working in the casting workshop, and had said something like “nothing happened”. The words just came out, I could see from the faces of the thugs, the confession to the point. I realized that the activist who heard our conversation had reported to the top. In those days, there was a lot of nervousness and a lot of fear. They decided that it was “making an offensive and defensive alliance”! Nevertheless, for several days, I still didn’t want to explain what Ding Yi had said two years ago about wanting to flee. Repeated questions and answers such as “safe and sound” are common phrases used by the Black Five. But from their targeted confessions, I knew that Ding Yi had “surrendered”. From the bottom of my heart, I blamed Ding Yi for being weak. A person’s flash of thought, two or three years have passed, what crime is there to speak of? Why should I give an account? Since there is no point in being “stubborn to the end”, I just had to give an account of his conversation that year. But stressed, and has been more than two years, he has been working honestly, enough to prove that it was just a moment of confusion, not mature thinking. The thugs were so impressed that they immediately ordered me to write down a “confession”. From then on, only custody, no more punishment. A month later, I was released from the dark room and returned to work in the workshop, but I was still not allowed to go home. Only then did I realize that I had become a “key criminal in the treasonous group of defectors”. The case became a big sensation in the city. In less than three days, Ding Yi, the “main culprit”, not only explained his “crime”, but also lost the courage to live after three years of “training” in a reeducation-through-labor camp, a big man of 5.5 meters. Under the watchful eyes of the guards, he picked up a small piece of glass from a broken light bulb in the toilet and quietly cut his femoral artery. By the Time he decided to take the hospital to rescue, it was already too late, he died on the way to the hospital.
It was not until two hundred and eighteen days had passed that I was allowed to go home. At this time, “sweeping away all evil spirits and snake gods”, “fighting capitalists”, “one dozen and three anti”, “cleaning up the class ranks “The intense struggle had reached its end, but my personal disaster was still endless. In compliance with various “orders”, I had to serve as sand removal, handling, and environmental hygiene of the whole workshop. This is the workload of three or four people, one person exhausted also difficult to complete. What’s worse, the assembly plant set up a five-member combat team, specifically responsible for dictating to me alone. Under the command of Song Fengqing, the leader, Jiang Enzhen. He was a retired soldier with two small black eyes on his big forehead and a high sense of class struggle. Under his leadership and teaching, the dictatorship team has two generals: one is a technical school graduate named Yu Zaiyi, walking crookedly got a nickname “Yu Crippled”; he does not smoke, but borrowed a cigarette pouch, I was bending low, burning my neck. Another is less than two years as a soldier in the “honorable discharge”, is now actively pursuing a cadre daughter of Hu Jia Tong. He not only watched my every move all day like a thief, but also fought at every turn. In order to show their class consciousness, in addition to small fights for three days and big fights for five days, they also used heavy physical labor as a means of punishment.
My body has broken down to the extreme: swollen lower limbs, numbness in the left arm, swelling in the left leg, blurred vision in the right eye, bulging discs in the lumbar …… almost completely lost the ability to work. But they are assigned to the task every day, but a few stick labor to complete. I had no choice but to go straight to the Political Department of the Municipal Revolutionary Committee to petition. A PLA battalion commander surnamed Guo, instead of reprimanding me with stern words, advised me to “calm down and think about it”. Unexpectedly, as soon as I returned to the factory, I was seized at a criticism meeting. A thin wire hanging more than 20 pounds of large wooden board, in my “title” on top of the four big words “reactionary”, with a red pen on the fork, hanging on my neck. I was questioned why I had gone to the Municipal Revolutionary Committee to falsely accuse the revolutionary masses. In a short time, the wire sank into the swollen muscles. I couldn’t stand it and shouted with my eyes wide open, “You engage in physical destruction, so come on – I won’t answer anything.” Slogans such as “If you don’t beat a reactionary thing, he won’t fall” and “If XXX doesn’t surrender, he will perish” rang out in the sky until blood oozed from his neck, and only then did the criticism meeting “end in victory”! !
Three days later, I went to the letter and petition office of the Municipal Public Security Bureau. The interviewer was a section chief surnamed Tan. After I introduced myself, I said carefully, “In order to speed up my ideological reform, I voluntarily requested to go to a reeducation-through-labor camp.” “What? You want to go to a reeducation-through-labor camp? New! I’ve been a public security officer for so many years, but it’s the first time I’ve heard of someone asking to go to that place!” His scraped green chin was tilted high: “Humph, you think the reformatory is a hotel or nursing home, who wants to go there can go? I’m telling you, that place, those who want to go can’t go, but those who don’t want to go must go! If you keep fooling around like this, it’s not a question of going to a reeducation-through-labor camp!” “Comrade, I am not fooling around, I am sincere in order to speed up the reformation. Because in the factory is really ……” “Bah! Who is your comrade? Get back, or I’ll ask the armed to escort you back to the factory!”
I hastily slipped out of the Public Security Bureau back to the factory. Surprisingly, I did not commit the new crime of “falsely accusing the revolutionary masses” again. Probably the section chief was so busy with his work that he forgot to tell the factory about my “nonsense”.
Looking at the sky cliff road, I couldn’t see any hope of relief. Did I just enter the threshold of forty years old, and then go to meet the King of Hell? I was in deep pain and confusion.
At this time, an incident happened in the factory. A rightist with the surname of Hou was “re-hatted, expelled from the factory, escorted to the countryside, and sent to controlled labor”. This gave me a great inspiration: following in Hou’s footsteps is a way to live, isn’t it? Yes, give up twenty-seven years of service, go back home to become a farmer! I immediately wrote a resignation report: “…… In view of my health condition, I sincerely request the leadership’s permission to allow me to resign. I’m going back to my hometown, under the control of the poor peasants, honestly carry out labor reform.”
The report was handed up for many days, like a stone sinking into the sea. I wrote another application to upgrade myself: I asked to be expelled from the factory. I didn’t expect to hear anything. I had to go to the Factory Revolutionary Committee to plead. A deputy director of the Revolutionary Committee named Yu, without waiting for me to declare my intention, sternly rebuked: “Shut up! Now your only future is to accept the dictatorship of the proletariat honestly in the factory!” His two small eyes were wide open, and one of his incisors protruding to the right was raised as if he wanted to swallow me in one gulp. “Humph, you talk better than you sing! Do you think we can’t see through your wolfish ambition? You are trying to avoid reformation by all means. We have known for a long time that the cadres in your village are all shrimp soldiers, seven aunts and eight uncles from when you were the head of children. You want to hide under their umbrella and continue to do your evil deeds against the Party and socialism! What a delusion! I’m telling you, you are only allowed to follow the rules and not to talk and move around. Apart from unconditionally submitting to the dictatorship of the revolutionary masses, you do not have the right to do whatever you want – including demanding expulsion!”
At this point I realized that they were afraid I would return to the countryside and be free, because I came from the poor peasantry and no one would give me an order. The rightist, on the other hand, was expelled because he was a rich peasant. In those days, bad origins were tantamount to having political cancer, and there was a way out. I never imagined that even good origins could bring bad luck.
I couldn’t answer the call of the day, but I couldn’t answer the call of the earth! I thought of the flash of thought for which Ding Yi was killed. A strange thought suddenly appeared in my mind – to flee.
At the beginning of the movement, when I was touring the factory side by side with Yang Lizhi, the former party secretary who had become a capitalist, he stole a glimpse of me with my head held high and my face full of sulking, afraid that I would suffer, and advised me in a low voice many times: “Lower your head, don’t ask for pain.” This left an unforgettable impression on me. Although he just “stood up”, it is impossible to speak for me. But he could be a witness, right? In order not to be accused of treason, I wrote a letter to him, listing the torture I had been subjected to for some time, including labor. I wrote him a letter outlining the torture he had been subjected to for a period of time, including labor. I told him that the workers worked in two shifts, and I had to work alone on consecutive shifts, and that the process I did was cleaning, and I was also responsible for carrying and sanitation of the whole workshop. At the end of the month, the workers worked overtime, and I worked for twenty-seven hours in a row, so I was already lame and could not walk by the end of the shift. At the end of the letter, I affirmed: “Secretary Yang, I beg you to tell the leaders of the Revolutionary Committee. I am leaving my job today to recover from my illness, and I have no other intention. Once my condition improves, if the factory still wants me, I will immediately return to the factory to accept supervised labor.”
August 21, 1972 was a day I will never forget. It was on this night that I asked my eldest son to send the letter away, while leaving home and beginning a three-year-long life of escape.
I did not dare to go straight back to my original home, but first went to my father-in-law’s house. My mother-in-law had long since died, and my father-in-law died of starvation in 1960. Although my brother-in-law and his wife already knew about my “class enemy status,” they continued to treat me as a relative, which was rare in those days. Ten days later, I guess the raid had passed, so I returned home. As expected, on the third day I left the factory, someone from the factory came to “visit” me. But instead of saying that I had escaped, they said that I was doing well in the factory. Then they found the director of the village revolutionary committee and told him that I was a traitor and had escaped on my own, and that once they found me back home, they should not be alarmed and call the factory immediately to tell them.
When his son, who had left home at the age of fourteen to join the revolution, suddenly returned, both Parents said nothing, although they were apprehensive. The siblings, however, did not agree. The eldest sister wrote to say that to leave and run away was to resist to the end and to take a desperate path! She urged her parents “not to take him in, and not to recognize this unworthy son”! The second brother wrote to warn the second oldest: “To recognize the reactionary nature of that guy’s resistance to reform, immediately let the militia escort him back to the factory!” The third brother in the old home, the wedding date is approaching, afraid that I will bring him trouble and embarrassment, also advised me to leave quickly. As the saying goes, it’s hard to join a country, but it’s hard to return home!
I escaped from home in the night and went to a high school geography teacher whom I met during the rightist training. This teacher, surnamed Yuan, had been driven back to the countryside because of his “vicious attack on the agricultural society for having more grass on the land than when he was working alone” and had become an extreme rightist. He had the courage to take me in and let me recuperate in his home. It was like a life-saver to help me at the end of the road! In his house, I stayed for more than a month. The pain of my body was greatly relieved. I couldn’t bear to continue to trouble people. On a dark and windy night, I quietly left Lao Yuan’s house, went to a small train station nearby, boarded a westbound train, and ran towards the Dongyue Taishan.
In hindsight, even I was amazed: I had no skills, and it was unbelievable that I could make up my mind to abandon my job and leave. And just two legs can walk, they will run to the famous scenic spots, who heard that is crazy idiot! The rebellion of the Xiu Cai failed for three years. I myself thought that it was a well-thought-out choice. The rabbit still has three caves, I would not know? I made two preparations: the first is Mount Tai, followed by the island. Full of thought, two places, at least one can provide a hiding place.
At the beginning of the business trip, I had passed by the foot of Mount Tai many times. Before going to college, I also worked in Jinan for six months. At that time, the revolutionary interests above all else, but even the idea of strolling around the majestic East Mountain near at hand did not arise. I childishly thought that since Mount Tai is the top of the Five Mountains and hundreds of miles in circumference, there must be a single Family in the deep valley where people are rarely seen. I begged people to be kind and take me in, planting land, herding cattle, working as a servant, I was not picky, and I was willing to work without pay, so I am sorry that I would not be rejected. If you can’t find a suitable family, you’ll have to settle for the next best thing: to live in a cave and be a savage. Is a large mountain, even a five-foot cave can not find a body? Robinson, who was shipwrecked on the sea, was able to live on a deserted island for twenty-seven years. I also have two hands, and after more than ten years of labor exercise, can’t I eat wild vegetables, pick wild fruits, open up the land and plant a field to sustain my life?
After getting off the bus at Tai’an station, I confidently ran down the stone steps of the mountain towards the depths of Mount Tai. On the way, I saw a few families living alone, but they were all exposed in full view of the public. Not far past the Doumu Palace, with its cavernous gate and crooked statue on the ground, there was a family by the cliff. I pretended to look for water and went up to try. There was only an old widower with asthma in the house. He told me that there was an order from above that all the scattered farmers on Taishan should be concentrated at the bottom of the mountain to prevent the class enemy from hiding sabotage. I asked if there were any wild animals on the mountain, so as to find out if there were any caves in the mountain. The old man said that he was born and raised in Mount Tai, and there were several small caves to hide foxes and pigs and badgers, but he had never seen any caves that could hide big beasts such as jackals, wolves, tigers and leopards.
My “first choice” dream fell to pieces before I reached the top of Mount Tai!
I did not care to appreciate the dangerous peaks straight into the clouds, hammer marks mottled stone carvings, and could not bear to see the dilapidated Bixia Temple, the Jade Emperor Temple. I went straight over the head of the mountain Rikuan Peak, along the canyon behind the mountain to look for. Unfortunately, neither a single family living away from the group, nor found a cave to shelter.
The sun was setting over the mountain and the wind was blowing hard. I huddled in a rocky depression and shivered until dawn. By the glare of the waning moon, I hurried down the mountain and slipped back to the train station. Boarded the train and ran to the second “ideal place” – the isolated island. The isolated island, Kenli County, Shandong Province, is an alluvial plain where the Yellow River enters the sea, there is a large area of virgin land that has not yet been reclaimed. Wild grass everywhere, the land is fertile, I have long heard that there are many blind streams in there to open up the fields, is a paradise!
I got off the train at Xindian station and changed buses to a place called Dongying, ready to change trains to the isolated island. In the short waiting room, there was a middle-aged farmer with a face full of dirt and a bunk roll, who was holding a dry tobacco bag and was talking to an old man beside him about his grievances. It turns out that: in recent years, the Yellow River Delta discovered a large oil field, the plant named “923”. In order to ensure the safety of the plant, a deadline was set to expel the “blind stream” of foreigners who had fled to the field. He was forcibly driven out and had to return to his home in the Yimeng Mountains.
The peasants who had no problems were expelled, so they would allow the “Black Five” to survive? The second way out that he had worked out was a pipe dream!
The nerd’s “thoughtfulness” is just that!
I came to a large well not far in front of the bus station, holding the fence only waist-high, hot tears rolled.
In recent years, which day do not hear the “granite head” of the news “to die in the world”? My “co-accused” Lao Ding, held in custody for a few days, will resolutely committed suicide. Almost at the same time, three other people in the factory committed suicide. Why can’t I follow in his footsteps? The black water in front of you, is not a good “road”? As long as the head bottom, body leaning forward, everything is solved! Why hesitate?
Unfortunately, the poor faces of elderly parents and three minor children immediately came to the forefront. I retreated, wiped my tears dry and headed back. Late that night, I went back to Weifang, where I had fled two months ago.
Unexpectedly, once out of the train station, is the head: in many of the “wanted”, the most prominent one, but wrote my name. The charge: “Obstinate, resist reform, sabotage production, and abscond from crime! After ten years of reform through labor, there were many charges, but never “sabotaging production”. I didn’t expect to leave production for more than two months, but a new charge was added! The “wanted” order, there are photos to show the facial features; there are words to introduce the height and weight. Fortunately, it was early in the morning, the square was empty, otherwise it would really be caught on the spot and escorted back to the factory. What awaits you at that time will make people shudder!
The company’s main goal is to provide a safe and secure environment for the people of the city. When I arrived at his house, I learned that the old Yuan’s risky act of righteousness had leaked out. After I left, he was questioned. I did not want to involve Lao Yuan, immediately turned away. But he pulled me back: “Since we have come, to leave, but also to think of a good way to live and safe place to go ah. You just stay, I guess they will not come to search.”
In the evening, he asked me what my next step was. I could only tell the truth: I had thought of all the roads, and all of them were dead ends. Right now there is no way out. Asked what I have special skills? I said, before fleeing from the book to learn acupuncture, but also in their own body practice. I’m ready to do Robinson’s healing for myself. Old Yuan shook his head repeatedly: “Where you go, only remote villages, now the team has a barefoot doctor, who will beg you to cure? This path is not possible!”
Some years ago, I used to use white iron to make kerosene stoves, and also used broken wooden boards to nail low stools and dining tables, and nailed a baby carriage for my young son. Playing white iron, or to find work in the city, carpenters, can be in the remote countryside around. But I’m just a “nail carpenter”, which will use you? Old Yuan pondered for a long time, let me find a way to “further study. I thought of a colleague who was expelled from the right wing and went home to learn carpentry with his father. I sneaked to his house overnight, and learned that I had no way out, seriously gave me a midnight carpentry lesson, and gave me a few necessary tools such as planes and chisels. I returned to the old Yuan’s house, he found some broken wood, rotten boards, let me practice my art. I first made the pigpen door, then windows, wind doors. And then follow the gourd to draw a diagram, do a table cabinet. From coarse to fine, the more skilled, two months down, was considered “like a carpenter into hand”. I sneaked back to the city, with the family after the Spring Festival, and a few additional tools, to find two relatives in the northeast address, began a formal blind career – to break through the East.
I changed my name to Li Guangnan and came to Xinbin County, Liaoning Province to join a distant relative. The brigade where he was born had a poetic name – Ringshuihe. I lied that I had been a carpenter in 62 years, and that life was difficult in Guanli, so I wanted to find some work in the northeast. He seemed to believe my lie and actively solicited work for me. I then officially became a “carpenter”.
As the saying goes: the first three feet are difficult to kick. I spared no sweat, gave my best, and dealt with it seriously. When the first batch of work: chairs, cabinets, boxes, cabinets and other furniture made out, actually received the praise of the folks: “This Lee carpenter, to the people, work hard, work fine, but also love the wood.” I was happy that the first battle was successful, the division went well. Relatives suddenly told me that the brigade branch secretary, to him to interrogate my origins. He said, “The more that guy looks like a carpenter, the less he looks like a carpenter”! This cracked a mouth of yellow teeth, cigarette rolls do not leave the hand of a short man, several times to my work at home, “to appreciate the master’s good workmanship.” I never imagined that he would come to do detective work! If a telegram is sent back to Guanli, everything will be revealed! Thirty-six plans, the best plan is to go. That night, they fled to the second address: Jilin Province, Tonghua County, fast Damaozi.
In a ravine called stinky deer ditch, there is an aunt and mother-in-law of mine. She was widowed in her youth and fled with a pair of children to the northeast to marry someone. We had never met, and we were so surprised to see each other that we turned pale. To allay their fears, I counted the names of the members of my father-in-law’s family, the current situation, so that at least they believed that I was really her relative. Hou Guiyou, the branch secretary of this team, heard that a blind man had arrived and immediately spoke on the radio speaker about “new trends in the class struggle”: the blind man who had taken the capitalist road was infiltrating our production team, waiting for an opportunity to sabotage it! My relatives reminded me that the branch secretary’s son was getting married and was looking for a good carpenter. If you make him a high-quality dowry for free, he will pretend to be deaf and dumb. I immediately went to the door and offered myself. After receiving the favor, I made a kangaroo, a quilt shelf, two wooden boxes, and a basin stand for his son with all my strength. Not only did he change his cold face into a smiling one, but seeing that I really had “good craftsmanship”, I was allowed to go to Tonghua City Spiral Factory as a member of the community, together with several carpenters in the team, to start a side business, making wooden boxes for packing export products. For many years, I have been for hard self-study to get into college, “degenerate” into intellectuals and regret it. Unexpectedly, the end of the road, Culture came in handy – I was the only carpenter who could read the drawings. In time, I became a respected “master”. For the first time, I felt comfortable with my life.
Who knew that the good times would not last, just less than three months, a major inventory of the blind stream swept the city. I had to pick up the toolbox, only to flee back to the countryside. Since then, I have been in the ravine, through the dense forest, eating a hundred meals, always on edge. As soon as the wind blew, they quickly moved, like a bird without a branch to rely on.
I wandered in the Changbai Mountains for three years and two months, until the factory greeted me at home and allowed me to resume work.
When I returned to the factory in October 1975, I returned to my original post, and incredibly, my post, which was a one-man job, became a two-shift job with a total of six people. As soon as I returned, the staff was immediately reduced. Perhaps they tasted the inconvenience I caused them after I fled, and surprisingly did not seriously trace, for three long years, where I had gone. It was not until Mao Zedong died and the strings of class struggle were tightened that the “debts” of those three years were settled: leaving the factory without reason, disrupting production, being obsessed and resisting reform. He was expelled from the factory and put on probation for two years. During the probation period, he was given a monthly living allowance of thirty yuan!
Until 1978, when Document 55 was issued and the rightists were corrected, I was trying to atone for my “anti-Party and anti-socialist” and “three-year escape”.
After the correction, I once again became the meat and potatoes, and was tempted with various positions. In March 1979, I was transferred to a university, and finally left the engine factory where I had been reformed for 17 years and nearly lost my life many times.
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