There are some things in a person’s life that are hard to forget. When the young people went to the countryside to join the troops, a pouring rain in the vast autumn night, in the muddy countryside fork in the road, the hands can not see five fingers, I can not distinguish the direction, relying on the faint light of the street lamp on the pole, whimsically to toss a coin, by virtue of the coin falls heads or tails to determine which fork in the road, still vivid in my memory.
I’m not afraid to walk at night, it’s a habit I’ve developed since I was a child. I remember that just after the three-year famine, I entered junior high school, the school is in Hefei City, the north gate on the edge of the eighteen middle school, and my family was living in about seven kilometers away from the metallurgical steel plant in Anhui Province. The eighteenth middle school was newly built, with only one three-story building, and the whole school had only six middle school classes, so naturally it was impossible to accept residential students, and I was the only one who had to travel more than ten kilometers to school every day. The school didn’t take it seriously, and my parents couldn’t do anything about it, because there was no middle school nearby, and this middle school was already the closest to home.
From then on, I started my junior high school life by leaving early and returning late. The seven-kilometer journey, for the small and short people at that time, coupled with the lack of nutrition, I had to walk nearly two hours. Although the famine had passed, food rations and foodstuffs were still in short supply. Every day before school, my mother put the early prepared food into a long, deep aluminum Japanese military lunchbox (which she bought from Japanese expatriates after the victory in the war) and handed it to me, and I started my daily seven-kilometer “expedition” with my schoolbag on my back and the lunchbox in my hand. Often, halfway through the journey, the three bowls of porridge I drank in the morning were no longer enough. My stomach was growling, and the lunchbox was in my hand, so how could I stand the temptation at such a young age? At first, I just opened the lunch box and tried a spoonful or two. Walk for a while, can not help but try a spoon or two. So I walked around and tasted, often before I got to school, the lunchbox was already at the bottom. I still remember clearly that because of the age and the soaking of the soup and vegetables, every time I ate at the bottom of the lunch box, the rice had been stained green with aluminum rust. Even so, I ate all the soup and water in the lunch box without leaving a single grain. After eating, I simply went to the roadside pond to wash the lunchbox and put it in my school bag.
With all these delays, I could only catch the third of the four morning classes. At first, I was punished for being late by the uninformed teacher, and it was a bit hard to stand after walking so far. Once I couldn’t resist saying to the teacher that if I recited the new text for the day, could I not be punished? The teacher heard this and immediately let me recite the new lesson of the day, I finished it word for word, and from then on the teacher did not punish me anymore. It turns out that in this seven-kilometer “expedition”, I walked for a while to turn a page of new text, and then read it silently, can not read down, then open the book to see, and then read silently; silent reading finished this page, then read the next page. When I walked to school, the day’s curriculum is basically finished. The language text, but also memorize the mathematical formula. So those three years, despite “skipping” two sessions a day, my academic performance did not fall behind. I remember one year Hefei City held the city’s junior high school math competition, I also won a fourth place it.
When school was over at noon, students went home to eat, and I read in the classroom with an empty lunchbox. When I arrived home at 5pm, it was basically after 7pm. In the winter and spring, every day with the sunset back to walk, not even halfway, the sinking night falls, the wilderness is dark, the street lights on the poles like ghost fire flicker. There were no pedestrians on the road at this time, and occasionally a car roared by, leaving behind a silence. On the outskirts of the countryside, 4 kilometers from the railway line, there is a high and low cemetery, and the sparse jungle is whistling in the breeze. A few crows that couldn’t stand the loneliness coldly croaked, making the nocturnal teenager’s heart skip a beat. At first, I would walk here faster and look straight ahead, not daring to look towards the graveyard. Nevertheless, every day when I approached this place, I always felt the wind chill behind me.
Many years later, my classmates and I were sent to Chengying Commune in Susong County, Anhui Province. I was assigned to the second team of the Mudang brigade, and at this time, walking at night, I seemed to be frank and normal, and I was also more courageous. The third team to the fourth team of the mud pond, there is also a cemetery on the road, the day naturally fine, the night through there, men and women young people are not afraid, I often in the dead of night alone to and from. One night, I rode my bike to take a classmate back to the production team, passing the cemetery I deliberately stopped the car, scaring her and begged me to go quickly.
After the idle tale, the book returns to the story. The coin toss to find the road that time, it was the fall of 1970, one evening, I returned to the mud pond brigade from Suisong County Fuxing town. The whole journey is about twenty kilometers, according to the usual four or five hours will arrive. Unexpectedly that day out of the revival of the town not far from the rain, I want to return to the revival of the town, must stay in a hotel, it will cost several dollars. But I had no money on me, and even if I did, I couldn’t afford to give it up; if I rushed back, I would be able to get home that night, but my clothes would get wet and I would suffer a little more. I thought while walking, and gradually speed up the pace of forward.
The rain is getting heavier and heavier, my body has long been soaked. About six o’clock, finally walked to the Chengying commune adjacent to the Huikou commune boundary. I estimate that this place is only about ten miles from the production team, hold on a little longer, at most nine o’clock will be able to reach home.
When I left the main road and turned to the country road, a fork in the road suddenly appeared in front of me. The left side of a road to the south, the right side of a road to the west. The faint lights on the poles along the road reflected the rain spreading a curtain of pouring rain, left or right? I couldn’t tell which way to go. It was clear to me that if I made a mistake, I would not be able to get home tonight, and it would be a more treacherous trek. Besides, I was already hungry, and if I couldn’t get home, I would be hungry and cold tonight. Therefore, I stopped and looked hard ahead, even though I could not see anything in the heavy rain, but I still wanted to find even a trace of it can help me identify the direction of the basis to. For the first time in my life, I felt that the issue of “left and right” was so important. As the old saying goes, “a single mistake is a thousand hates,” and if I hadn’t been in danger, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have felt it so deeply.
Half a day of speculation, I still can not do anything. By impression, the direction of the west seems to be right, but also feel that the west-facing fork is narrow, not as wide as the south-facing fork. It is reasonable to say that taking the country roads, narrow roads may often be a cutoff, while the wide road may be a big road. At this point, hunger and soaking wet has long been no feeling, the most urgent and most distracted me is, in the end, which road to take? In the middle of nowhere and in the rain, not only was there no one there, even a car was nowhere to be seen. I was in a lonely predicament of not being able to respond to the call of the day and not being able to respond to the call of the ground.
Suddenly, I had a sudden thought: anyway, two roads must live in one, choose the right choice is only half right half, why not see how God’s will. I feel from the wet pants pocket out of a five-cent coin, the mind silently: if the toss falls it heads up, go right, west; if it is the coat of arms facing up, go left, south.
The fate of the night rests on this coin. By the faint light of the street lamp, I carefully tossed the coin under the pole, and it landed in the mud, but I could still clearly identify its direction. The first time I tossed it up, it was heads up. That’s right, so it’s time to go west to the right! At this point, I still hesitate, after all, the matter is important, still want to verify once, decided to toss the coin again, if still heads up, then I will not hesitate to go right to the west line.
Strange enough, the second toss, but the coat of arms facing up, two “providence” different. What can I do?
The rain was still coming down hard. At this point, I slowly quieted my mind, less panic at first. I thought, anyway, it is a game, so just one more, the thing is only three, the last throw, regardless of the front and back, the left will be left, when the right is right. Of course, time and physical strength does not allow for procrastination, on the third time prevail, tossed and left.
The coin fell for the third time, the emblem is still facing up, according to prior meditation, it should be south to the left. So, in the wind and rain, I took one foot deep and one foot shallow to continue along the left country road.
However, it was a wrong road. Take the right to the west is the right. Of course, this is two hours later I realized, but it was too late, regret too late. Who would have thought that this wrong road would lead to another story.
After walking for about two hours, it was already dark and the rain had stopped, but the slightly wider fork led me to the Yangtze River embankment. At this point we awoke to the absurdity of the coin toss just now, a game that took me to this wrong way.
At that time we have two years in the countryside, every winter to pick soil reinforcement on the dike, the Yangtze River dike is quite familiar. And our production team from the Yangtze River embankment is still seven or eight miles, black light, it looks like tonight anyway it is difficult to touch back.
I walked along the embankment, far from seeing a beam of lights. This midnight, or the first time I saw the light, there must be lights, I was a burst of joy, speed up the pace to the light to run. When I got closer, it turned out to be the light from a shack built on the Yangtze River embankment. I head into the shack, only to see a few young farmers in the shack chat, the ground is covered with straw, on top of the bedding pillows and so on. After running through the rain for most of the night, I was already exhausted and just wanted to find a place to rest and rush back to the production team in the morning.
I told them that I was a youth in the Chengying Commune Mudang Brigade, and that I had taken the wrong road tonight and couldn’t get back, so could I stay here for the night. A slightly older young man was polite, pointing to the bunk against the inside and said, “It just so happens that a small one has returned to the village tonight, you can sleep in his bed. After hearing this, I was relieved. Because I do not know, the time is also too late, dare not mention again did not eat dinner, afraid that people excuse excuses, even sleep can not be. I had to endure the hunger, take off the wet clothes, wash my face haphazardly, and lie down wrapped in the aroma of straw.
The next day I slept until nine o’clock and woke up. When I got up, only the slightly older youth was in the shack, and the others seemed to have gone out to work. From their conversation last night, I guessed that this group of young people is a brigade of Huikou Commune sent to supervise the Yangtze River flood control post. Last night’s rainstorm had just passed, so naturally they had to go everywhere to investigate.
I put on my still-damp clothes and pants, carrying my bag, and thanked the youths and said goodbye. Just as I walked out of the shack, the young man said to me.
“You’re just going to leave?”
I did not react, I thought the young man wanted to retain me. Turning back to him, he smiled and said.
“Yes, I still have to go back to work today.”
Seeing that I didn’t understand, the young man continued to guide me and said.
“Uh, I said that, you are in town, after staying in a hotel and just leave?”
Now I understood, he was looking for me for money. Last night I had identified myself as a youth, and in their opinion, a youth is a city dweller and must have money. But at this point, I really did not have any money in my pocket. I turned around and walked into the shack and sincerely took his words and said.
“Ah, I understand, you have to pay for the hotel. But I really do not have money at this time, so, I have ten pounds of national food stamps, how about I take the food stamps against the hotel money, okay?” I took out ten pounds of national food stamps that had been soaked and handed them to the young man.
The young man looked me up and down, see my clothes and pants are not dry, the words are also frank, it seems to be a poor boy from the city. So he waved his hand and said.
“Oh. Then forget it, you go.”
An hour later, I returned to the second team in the mud pond. I changed my clothes and pants that were almost dried up, boiled a pot of rice, and ate like a hungry tiger.
Written in Hefei at the Dragon Boat Festival in the year Gengzi
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