Return To 1977 Chapter 58: Things on my mind

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"Dad, the medicine is ready. Do you want to drink it now or let it dry?"

A question alarmed Hong Lucheng. It was Hong Yanru, the daughter of the medicine maker, who poked her head in from the outer room and asked with concern.

Hong Lucheng wanted to drink the medicine quickly to reassure his daughter. But the pain in his leg hadn't gone away yet, and he grinned in pain after only moving a little.

"Let it dry. I'll call you later when I'm drinking medicine."

Hong Yanru responded and Hong Lucheng sighed softly.

He knew that drinking medicine could only relieve pain and delay the condition. His legs will become more and more painful until they are rotten to the bone. He won't live long, but he's just waiting for the day he dies. He still insists on taking medicine now, just because he is worried that his relatives will be too sad and wants to calm their hearts.

But from the bottom of his heart, he was not afraid of death. He has experienced too much in this life. Decades have passed and it is pure luck that he is still alive. Besides, having passed one's sixtieth birthday is not considered a short life. And once people get older, they naturally understand many complexities in life. Now there are only two things that he really can't let go of, one is his wife, and the other is his children.

Hong Lucheng is glad to have married the best wife in this life. He could hardly find anything wrong with his wife Wang Yunlin, and all he remembered was the good things about her.

Yunlin was beautiful when she was young, with a fair and pretty face, two big eyes, and two long and even eyebrows. Just looking at her makes the air feel comfortable.

Yes, sometimes others will criticize her for being too quiet and not talkative, but what's wrong with that?

When Yunlin doesn't speak, she doesn't make people feel cold at all. Because she will smile and nod when appropriate to show that she is listening to the other person's words seriously. It seems calm and generous, and does not offend anyone. This is a kind of temperament that can only come from the ladies of everyone, and cannot be learned from a small family. Every move is permeated with etiquette and calmness.

Besides, Yunlin is only like this to young or unfamiliar guests, but when she meets elders, relatives and friends, she is so kind and considerate and serves her attentively. She has completely turned into a cheerful, affectionate, intelligent and decent little daughter-in-law. Therefore, it is only natural that this is his favorite place.

I still remember that when they were in the Shanghai Concession, Yunlin was pregnant and gave birth to their first child.

As far as he is concerned, all husbands in the world have little merit in giving birth to children and raising children. When he is happy, the man picks up the child and plays with it for a while, and the rest of the trouble is entirely the woman's fault. Really, let alone focusing on the shopping mall, even if he occasionally wants to help, it will be useless. He will be in a hurry and is worse than a girl or an old mother.

He is not confused, so he is very willing to make his affected wife happy and free. So he often persuaded her to buy more clothes and jewelry, or to play cards with other ladies, eat, or go to the park or theater to relax. Ke Yunlin just smiled after hearing this and stayed at home as usual, focusing on her children and family affairs.

Yunlin is very ingenious. She makes all her son's clothes, which are very suitable and beautiful. The scene when she takes the measurements is also the most interesting.

My son is always like a big rag doll, being turned over and over by Yunlin. Often when her big eyes blinked towards her son, his eyes also blinked towards her mutton-fat jade-like face. As soon as he saw the look of their mother and son, he felt as if his heart was soaked with honey. Is there anyone cuter than a young mother in the world?

In those difficult years, Yunlin impressed him even more.

Since his family moved from their old home to a poor place, how to get along with his neighbors who came from the bottom of society once gave him a headache. His family can be said to be an outlier in the east courtyard of Guanyin Yuan. If other residents reject them, life will be even more difficult. However, he did not expect that this matter was easily resolved due to his wife's kindness and easy-going. Yunlin quickly gained the favor of her new neighbors with her kindness and understanding.

What also surprised him was that Yunlin was so calm about the transition from "being particular" to "making do". Not only did she accept the life of eating chaffy vegetables without any complaints, but she also took the initiative to ask her neighbors for tips on living in a poor family. She even often comforted him in return not to be obsessed with external things, so as to ease his heartache over losing his ancestral property. . Especially when the "Ten Years Movement" came and his salary and dividends were suspended, Yunlin took the initiative to go to the street and ask for a job, using her slender shoulders to support the family's livelihood. These are extremely rare things in mansions.

What made him feel most guilty was that after he fell ill, he had to be taken care of by others for his food, drink, and toilet. It was hard for him to imagine how his wife, who had to go to work every day, supported everything in the family despite difficulties. Ke Yunlin not only kept the house in order, but also took good care of him. Yunlin was making medicine when he was sleeping, and she was wiping his face when he woke up. There is never a shortage of scalding bath water, warm bed, dry and loose clothes, and enough millet porridge to cook.

As Yunlin's face became increasingly haggard, the quiet, beautiful and noble young lady she used to be completely disappeared, replaced by a diligent housewife who took care of the trivial matters of life. But in his heart, there was only infinite emotion and sadness.

How lucky I am to have a wife like this.

Unfortunately, their days together are numbered. Now, neither Bazhen duck tongue nor bean juice rice porridge meant anything to him. His life was like a flickering oil lamp, slowly burning out while "letting nature take its course". For this reason, he had thought about his wife's old age more than once, and every time he thought of the words "alone" and "unaccompanied", he was so worried that he could not sleep.

Couples are trees, and children are flowers. Only with flowers can a tree show its deep roots. In addition to his beloved wife, the other thing Hong Lucheng worried about was his children.

He has two children, which is a blessing. But being born into this family is a great misfortune for these children. His children have never enjoyed a life of wealth and wealth with him. Instead, they all suffered from Guuluoer (a native language meaning implicated and implicated) because of his capitalist father. Carrying the burden of high levels of poverty, his children not only have no hope of a bright future, but are even unable to guarantee basic life and personal dignity.

Fortunately, the air today is much looser than in the past, and the pressure has been reduced a lot. He only hopes that one day his children can completely emerge from the shadow of the sun, and can forever enjoy the same national treatment as workers, farmers, soldiers, and cadres on an equal footing...

"Dad, please drink it quickly. I fanned it for a while and the medicine will no longer burn." Hong Yanru's voice sounded again.

Hong Lucheng opened his eyes and saw his daughter approaching the bedside with medicine in hand. The fine beads of sweat on her forehead made him feel distressed. He said no more, endured the pain and tried his best to stand up, took the medicine bowl, and drank it in one breath.

Hong Yanru smiled softly. After his father finished drinking, he poured some water to clear his mouth, and then took the empty bowl.

This kind of thoughtfulness is really impressive.

Actually, no matter where you go, Hong Lucheng also likes this old girl the most ("old" means youngest in Beijing dialect).

First of all, Hong Lucheng had three sons. But with three sons and three tigers, he couldn't help but feel that something delicate and soft was missing around him. Hong Yanru, however, is the only girl in the family and has inherited both her mother's delicate appearance and gentle personality. It just makes up for this regret.

Secondly, since she is a daughter, she will eventually get married, and she will inevitably be angered by her mother-in-law when she comes to her husband's house. So when he was at home, Hong Lucheng felt that his daughter should be loved more by her parents.

Thirdly, Hong Lucheng's fourteen-year-old daughter is very well-behaved and sensible. She is the most worry-free child in the family for her parents. Not only is her academic performance among the best in school, but she has also consciously helped her family with housework since she was a child. This is not an easy task.

It's a pity that the care Hong Lucheng can give his daughter is really limited. Because of the decline of the Hong family, Hong Yanru not only lacked food and clothing since childhood, but also grew up in fear and panic during the ten years of "exercise". Even now, she has to rush home every day after school. Not only does she have to help the family buy food and cook, but she also has to take care of her sick father in place of her mother who is not off work.

Therefore, Hong Lucheng always felt that among all the children, the one he owed the most was this daughter, who suffered a lot at a young age. As a father, he really deserves it.

Except for his daughter, Hong Lucheng's sons did not make him feel at ease.

The eldest brother, Hong Yanzheng, is a high school graduate from the 60th class.

To say that this eldest son is really a piece of reading material. Since I entered school, not only have I been rated as one of the top three students and a study committee member every year, but my performance reports from childhood to seniority have almost always received full marks. Even after I was admitted to the city's key No. 4 middle school, the evaluation written by the teacher every semester was "the results are quite good, I will keep improving, I will be excellent in both character and study, and I will be a talented person." But just because he was born at the wrong time, no matter how good his academic performance was, he was still rejected from higher education.

The saddest thing is that after failing the college entrance examination, the boss was assigned to a large collective unit for the same reason, and eventually became a carpenter at the Hongxing Furniture Factory in the southern suburbs. .

After the eldest son started working, he didn’t get married until 1970. The girl I married was named Xu Manli. She graduated from junior high school in 1964 and worked at the Hongqi Factory in Beijing.

Of course, it would have been difficult for a family like the Hong family to find a marriage partner. But after all, the Hong family is not the only one with a high-quality family, so it doesn't matter if it's a bad fish looking for a rotten shrimp, or it can be a good match between two good people, it's a good match anyway, right? The Hong family married their former business partner, the Xu family, a Shanxi wine merchant, and the children of the two families also solved their marriage problems with each other.

Under the same life circumstances, the eldest couple got along well after their marriage. Within two years, Hong Lucheng gave birth to his grandson. It’s just that after the eldest son got married, he became even more disheartened and had no ambition at all. He didn’t care about anything except going to work, eating and sleeping every day, and he didn’t touch books at all.

Who knows whose son is the son? Hong Lucheng naturally understood that the eldest son was holding back his resentment for not having a chance to go to university, and no one could solve it. If you continue to be depressed like this, I'm afraid this life will be wasted.

The second eldest child, Hong Yanwen, is actually not as well off as the eldest brother.

Just because he went to school a year early, the second child became a junior high school student in the 1969 class. Not only did he miss the chance to stay in the city as a whole in the 70th class, he was also sent to Yanbei, the most miserable area, to jump in and go to the countryside.

The second child wanted to make progress. When he transferred his household registration, he changed his revolutionary name to Hong Xiangyang, and then went on the road alone. He didn't even ask for travel expenses from home, he only took away an old sheepskin coat from home.

A few years passed by, and the second child spent many years in the countryside, experiencing hardships. It wasn't until this year's Spring Festival that my second son went home to visit relatives for the first time. When they met again, "Hong Xiangyang" wearing an old sheepskin coat had become dark and thin, and did not look sunny at all. It was almost unrecognizable to parents Hong Lucheng and Wang Yunlin. They also heard from their second son that as an educated youth, they didn’t even have enough to eat, and their work was even more difficult. It was really sad to think about it.

In addition, Hong Lucheng also knew that his second son only wrote letters and did not go home for several years, all in order to save money on train tickets. He had long heard from others that an educated youth could work for an adult's salary, but other families also relied on their parents to tighten their belts to supplement the children who went to the countryside to join the queue. If you think about it carefully, the second child has never spoken to the family about money. He has to endure it and survive these days. It is really embarrassing. So when the second child went on the road after the holiday, he and his wife tried every means to collect 30 yuan and 20 pounds of national food stamps. In addition, the other thing I can bring for my second son is a jar of Liubiju’s small pickled radish.

For this second son, Hong Lucheng only felt helpless and sad. There is no way, the family just has this ability. Who made him, the father, become the biggest burden on the family? He could only feel wronged to the second son who was suffering outside.

The third child Hong Yanwu, the third child, alas!

Among Hong Lucheng's children, he was the only one who felt pain as if a knife was cutting out his heart when he thought of Hong Yanwu, and he couldn't help but lament for it.

This son has another name for him, called "Heart Disease".

Since childhood, this "heart problem" has caused countless troubles for the family and caused countless troubles. For the sake of his son, it has almost become normal for him to apologize and confess to every neighbor around him. In the end, after fully understanding the naughty nature of this **** son, he could only admit that he was unable to discipline him and had to hand it over to the people's police.

Actually, for the third child in his family, he never expected much of his future. His greatest hope is that Hong Yanwu can be a peaceful son who "will not cause trouble for the family." Although this wish is so simple, it has always been difficult to realize.

He knew that Hong Yanwu would definitely hate his father. He resented the fact that he personally sent his son to a labor camp. But as a father, did he have any other choice?

He did this not only so that other family members would not be implicated, but also so that Hong Yanwu could return to the right path. But when will his son understand his painstaking efforts?