Chapter 5: Life is full of sorrow and hardship

Whenever the birdsong broke through the darkness and the sun squeezed in through the old glass, Li Dafa always asked his eldest and second sisters to wash his face. He used to have thick eyebrows, big eyes and a square face, and he was considered handsome when he was young. Now he is so thin that only his big eyes are left, which is a bit scary. After washing his face, Li Dafa looks no different from before washing his face, but he thinks he is a decent man.

There are often young wives and old ladies in the village to see Li Dafa. People say: "Li Dafa wants a woman."

The old woman said: "It's pitiful, he didn't even leave a seedling, who will see him off to the end."

The young wife said: "It's pitiful, he didn't even have a woman in his life, and he is not even as good as a chicken when he dies."

The old woman said: "Li Dafa has had women, and more than one."

The young wife said: "A bachelor has a wife, so why don't people follow him?"

Men are born hunters, but marriage is a cage. Even if a man imprisoned in a cage has a heart to hunt prey all over the world, his freedom is ultimately restricted by the cage. On the contrary, a bachelor theoretically has the possibility to have fun before entering the cage, and may experience more women than a husband. It's just that due to some mistakes, he failed to achieve the right result.

Thirty years ago, Li Dafa went to the northeast to join his elder brother. He first worked as a lumberjack in a forest farm in Jiamusi. Later, the forest farm closed down, and he left Jiamusi and went to a coal mine on the edge of Changbai Mountain to work as a miner.

This is the only mining area on the edge of Changbai Mountain. The indigenous residents and foreign miners contribute their strength to the goal of industrialization. There are big slogans on the white walls made up with fly ash: dig more coal, dig coal widely, dig coal deeply, and coal is the beacon of society.

Coal is indeed the beacon here. The wealth brought by coal makes the town like a glowing island surrounded by poor nests. The pockets of miners are also beacons, driving local consumption. Beautiful slogans are also like beacons, illuminating the restlessness of those male animals at night. Most of the migrant miners were single, so the bright lights gathered the eagerness of the female animals around.

Female animals appeared at night and ambushed in the woods near the mine. The miners had dark faces, and the women's faces were also dark. Men judged the fatness and thinness of women from the outline of their bodies, and judged their age from the texture of their voices. Of course, the voices were rough and thin, and most of them were loose. In the late 1980s, the economy supported by the manufacturing industry in the three northeastern provinces entered a stage of comprehensive recession. Although there was no big talk of layoffs at that time, the recession of enterprises made many people's rice bowls first without meat and then without vegetables, and carnival became the only form of entertainment. Anyway, when it gets dark, you can put on some powder, no matter if she is 18 or 58, no one can tell who is here.

In winter, in the snowy Changbai Mountain, women are afraid of freezing to a standstill, and men are also afraid of becoming stiff like popsicle sticks, so everyone hibernates like bears.

The things between men and women, blowing out the lights and pulling out the wax, Pan An and Dong Shi, Yang Guifei falling in love with Wu Dalang, are essentially the same. The late 1980s was a really good era. At that time, prices were relatively stable, and the years were not long.

Li Dafa was a little different from the miners. When he came out of the mine, others went to party and gamble, but he went to the bank to save money. He wanted to save a lot of money, and he had a beautiful plan. He returned to his hometown to marry his beloved girl, ended his days of working outside, and lived a life with his wife and children.

At that time, Li Dafa was wandering on the eve of turning 30. He had thick eyebrows and big eyes and was of medium build. He was a man who could be picked out from a group of coal miners. Because he didn't go to the woods, he was laughed at by his colleagues. It was abnormal for a man not to be a hooligan. When he urinated, people stared at him. Some people said, "Li Dafa urinates far away. He doesn't look like a sick person."

At night, the Hong Kong female star on the wall of the dormitory was smiling at him. The female star's red lips were flaming, like the strawberries in her hometown in May, growing wildly one by one, which made Li Dafa want to go up and hold her tender and juicy mouth.

The miners' pockets bulged and deflated, the wheat-scented steamed buns turned white and black, and the birds in the jungle flew back and forth in their nests. The miners' lives were so beautiful.

If it weren't for the gas explosion.

The gas explosion now seems like an old movie in Li Dafa's memory, with a long time and mottled pictures. People's memory has a filtering function, and they always like to capture some beautiful things. Sadness and unbearableness are like impurities that are missed.

The brother who had been together day and night was a corpse in an instant. Now he himself has quickly become a corpse. The coming and going of Jiamusi elder brother opened the curtain of Li Dafa's work as a miner. A play of his best years was being staged there, and a woman broke into the play...

The gas explosion accident made the surviving Li Dafa understand that life should be enjoyed in time instead of depositing money in the bank. His co-worker was jumping around looking for girls one moment, and the next day he couldn't spend a penny in the bank. Enjoying life in time, of course, includes women. He needs more than just the women in the picture books.

He has never had physical contact with a woman. His colleague said: "Mice are born to dig holes."

The elder sister at the edge of the woods told him that the girl he was looking for was at the eighth fir tree. Fir trees are tall and thick, and they are mixed in the territory of the birch forest, so they are easy to find.

However, Li Dafa went to the wrong tree and walked to the eleventh fir tree. No girl as the legend said came to him. His flashlight illuminated the woman lying down. On the night of Changbai Mountain in September, his surging passion suddenly cooled down. This woman was not a girl who came for pleasure at all. She was dying. When Li Dafa helped her up, she could still speak, but Li Dafa could not understand. Judging from her pronunciation, she was from another country.

Li Dafa carried her out of the grove and walked to his dormitory. He fed her water and food. The woman recovered like a frozen snake.

Li Dafa picked up a woman out of thin air, but he did not dare to take her. Because she had food to eat, she did not want to leave.

She was indeed from the other side of the mountain. Li Dafa heard that the country over there was very poor. He could not imagine how poor it was. Later he learned that they were so poor that they could not afford salt and used sea water to pickle pickles.

He rented a house outside and lived with the smuggled woman. He also gave his virginity to this woman at the age of 30. The woman's Chinese improved rapidly. Half a year later, Li Dafa knew her general condition: her husband died of illness, and she had a son who was fostered in her parents' home. Before she starved to death, she escaped alone.

Li Dafa's pockets were bulging and deflated, the wheat-scented steamed buns turned white and black, and the quilt was cold and warm. Li Dafa's life was so beautiful.

Until someone knocked on Li Dafa's door and told him: "Your smuggled woman must be repatriated."

The other party was quite merciful. They retreated outside the door and gave them an hour to say goodbye.

The woman clung to Li Dafa like a gecko. Li Dafa felt that the woman was a mollusk without bones.

Li Dafa took out a stack of ten-yuan bills, twenty bills totaling two hundred. He put the bill in a handkerchief and stuffed it into the woman's pocket. The woman stopped crying, took out her handkerchief, spread it out, and in Li Dafa's stunned eyes, she ate the ten-yuan bills one by one!

This money is life-saving money.

Later, she used the money she had retrieved from the cycle of grains to take out thirty yuan and bribed the driver who was escorting her. The direction ahead was home, and going back meant starving to death. The woman turned and went back into the mountains, running towards China.

The night before Li Dafa was about to give up his rented house, the wild cats in late spring suddenly cried miserably. A strong wind blew at night, and his door rang rhythmically in the sobbing wind.

He leaned close to the door, one hand behind his back, holding a wooden stick. "Who?"

A voice floated from the sky: "Me."

He opened the door, and a mollusk fell into his arms. With the light, he saw the face of the smuggled woman.

He was her beacon.

He hid the smuggled woman for three days, and said: "Come back to Shandong with me. You can't make much money there, but the Dragon King takes good care of it. The weather is good and you never go hungry."

The smuggled woman didn't know who the Dragon King was, but she knew that he was a very important official in the sky who managed people's meals.

He took the smuggled woman and said goodbye to the town forever. The coal mine still owed him a month's wages, and it couldn't wait to get it.

He used the money he earned in the Northeast to renovate the broken house left by his parents into four red brick houses and rebuilt the courtyard wall and gate. Of course, the eldest sister paid and the second sister worked hard.

Li Dafa's pockets were bulging and deflated, the wheat-scented steamed buns were replaced by flower rolls, and the quilt was cold and warm. Li Dafa's life was so beautiful.

The wife of Liu You next door taught the smuggled woman how to make dumplings, flower rolls, steamed buns, and pancakes. Liu You's wife was very enthusiastic, and Li Dafa thought she was a good person.

When Li Dafa was not at home, Wang Dapang would sell soy sauce and vinegar on credit to the smuggled women, and Li Dafa thought Wang Dapang was really a good person.

He also met bad people.

In the first year after Li Dafa returned to his hometown, the land assigned to him by the village became neighbors with Zhao Youcai's family. In autumn, the corn cobs of Li Dafa's family were all plump and solid, while those of Zhao Youcai's family were dry, flat and thin. The experienced old farmers in the village said that the land was good, but Zhao Youcai did not choose the seeds well. The word spread and became that Zhao Youcai did not plant well. At that time, Zhao Youcai's family had a pair of twin girls, and people called them twins. A pair of twins were born with small heads and small faces and had no future. According to the aesthetics of rural people, the face with four-happiness meatballs is the most pleasing. Zhao Youcai consciously identified himself with the family, and even hiccups were not happy.

The corn was about to mature, and some of Li Dafa's corn was broken off one after another. After so many losses, Li Dafa lost his patience and got up in the middle of the night to raid his family's cornfield as a scout. The moon was bright and the stars were sparse. He saw a small cart at the edge of the field, half of which was loaded with his family's corn. He knew the owner of the cart, whose surname was Zhao Youcai. The wind blew the cornfield and rustled. Li Dafa raised his voice and shouted, "Thank you, brother, for breaking the corn for me. I'll push it home first." Then he pushed the cart away. Zhao Youcai, who was hiding in the cornfield, was speechless and dared not breathe.

From then on, Li Dafa's corn grew safely until the harvest season.

The smuggled woman persuaded Li Dafa to give the cart to Zhao Youcai. The smuggled woman said, "We want peace, not war."

Li Dafa listened to her and threw the cart back to Zhao Youcai's field one night. The jade was not returned to Zhao. The old man who got up early to pick up dung saw that the cart was more shining than a pile of cow dung, so he put the dung basket on the cart and pushed it away humming a little song about the sunny day!

From then on, the grudge between the corn owner and the corn owner deepened.

Li Dafa lived a peaceful life in his hometown. Maybe the smuggled woman was the beloved girl he wanted to marry. He had a wife and children, and he just lacked a child.

After the smuggled woman did not have her period for three months, Li Dafa brought her to see the pot-covered doctor. After the pot-covered doctor took Li Dafa's pulse, he announced to him: "You are going to be a father."

When his eldest and second sisters returned to their parents' home, he told them the good news. The eldest sister said, "I'm relieved now. You have a wife and children. Live a good life. What's there to be afraid of if you're poor? These days, if you have the strength to work hard, you won't have a bad life."

The second sister said, "You two should find a way to get a marriage certificate. Without a marriage certificate, your child will be an illegal resident in the future, and he won't be able to go to school or share the land. But getting a marriage certificate requires the household registration of both of you. Your wife is an illegal resident. What can you do? Save some money first and look for an opportunity to use the back door."

The second sister's words reminded him that he couldn't save money to use the back door by relying on the harvest from the land. His strength was his capital.

The canal in the village needs to be renovated. This canal, built in the 1950s, runs from the reservoir 30 miles south to the county town. It is a water conservancy hub for water supply and irrigation. The slopes on both sides of the canal need to be repaved with stones.

The reservoir at the source has stopped releasing water. The section passing through Li Dafa Village has also been drained of water. At that time, being a construction worker was a job that farmers were eager to get. Li Dafa was strong and healthy, so he was naturally chosen.

Also chosen was Zhao Youcai, who had been in the same trench with him. In theory, they were apprentices of Master Lu Ban.

Under the scorching sun, Li Dafa, holding a shovel full of concrete, stepped up the slope with his arms wide open. The mason quickly smoothed the concrete and pressed the stones flat. Zhao Youcai was in charge of mixing cement at the bottom of the canal, and the shovel made the mud squeak. The three people who worked together didn't speak, as if they were performing a pantomime.

During the break, a group of black men like loaches sat under the shade of the trees. Some smoked, some drank water, some fanned themselves with straw hats, and someone asked, "Li Dafa, I heard you are going to be a father soon?"

Li Dafa smiled.

Someone said, "No wonder you work so hard, you are saving money for your son to get married."

Li Dafa smiled again.

Zhao Youcai was tilting his neck to drink water. He gulped down half a belly of water. He seemed to be choked by the water. He burped twice with great effort and glanced at Li Dafa.

After working as a construction worker for 13 days, earning 18 yuan a day, Li Dafa secretly calculated that he could earn 234 yuan. The wages were paid every ten days, and on the eleventh day, he could get 180 yuan first.

He excitedly said to the smuggled woman: "I will take you to the market after the wages are paid. You can choose whatever you want to eat. For lunch, we will go to my elder sister's house."

The smuggled woman, who was tortured by pregnancy reactions and haggard, had slender eyes shining with moving brilliance.

When Li Dafa received his ten-day wages, he put it in his chest pocket and touched it several times on the way home. He felt a warm current of happiness passing through his heart and flowing through his body. From then on, his waist became much stronger.

That day, when Li Dafa walked to the door of his house with a straight back, he touched his chest pocket again.

Looking up, there was a jeep parked at the door of his house. Two people got out of the jeep. Li Dafa recognized that they were the same as the last group of people.

The taller one said, "Your wife is not legal, she is a defector from the country, what you are doing is called condoning a traitor."

Li Dafa didn't know what condoning a traitor meant. He wondered how anyone could know that his woman was so well hidden? Li Dafa's mind was gurgling: Run!

The other party was merciful this time and gave them a week to say goodbye. But the taller one warned, "If she runs away, I will come to catch you. If both of you run away, your elder sister and second sister will not be able to escape."

Every night the woman clung to him like a gecko, and for a week, her tears had not dried up. Li Dafa touched her slightly bulging belly, and he knew that this time, she would not be able to run back to find him like she did last time. She also understood what it meant to defect twice.

Li Dafa went to the construction site to ask for the remaining money, but returned empty-handed before the next ten-day cycle.

Li Dafa took out the 180 yuan he earned, and also took out the pitiful savings of his family, a pile of colorful bills. The colorful bills were the last straw. Li Dafa said: "The red one is the biggest. Try it. Having money will protect you." The woman rolled up the red bill with tears in her eyes, like the pancake with green onions she ate. She swallowed one, and the pancake with green onions went into her stomach, and suddenly it started to churn. Her slightly calmed pregnancy reaction was provoked, and she vomited until bitter bile came out. This time, she couldn't swallow a single dollar. That day, Liu You's wife was going to sell the pig she had raised for a year. She got up early in the morning to feed the pig. The pig's head meal was made delicious by the owner, with a lot of bean cakes. She half-sang and half-spoken to the happy big fat pig that was eating its last meal at the pig trough: "Eat more, my pig Dalang, your belly is so beautiful. Add another 10 pounds to it and exchange it for some food. It's not easy for me to feed you, my pig Dalang, the price of meat has dropped so much that I'm panicking, panicking..."

Her pig Dalang suddenly raised his big mouth and threw pig food all over her. Liu You's wife was furious. Just as she was about to use a stick to teach the pig Dalang a lesson, her stick drew an arc in the air and did not fall on Dalang, but instead bounced up the dust on the ground.

She ran out in a gust of wind and saw Li Dafa's woman being escorted by a tall man into a van with a barbed wire behind it.

The woman cried heartbreakingly, and Liu You's wife heard her say, "Li Dafa, you are taking me to the market..." The van sped away and disappeared at the entrance of the alley. Liu You's wife saw Li Dafa fall at the door of his house like a puddle of mud. When Li Dafa's life was about to die, he thought of the smuggled woman and wondered what her fate was, whether the child was born, and whether it starved to death. Who had reported it to the relevant departments back then? When Du Lengding was flowing through his body, there was an extremely clear sieve in his mind, sifting the names of all the villagers. Could the one left at the bottom of the sieve be Zhao Youcai, who was ridiculed by the villagers for not being able to grow a good crop? He would never know, but someone saw this scene at the border: After a group of smuggled women were handed over to the other side of their motherland, holes were pierced in their noses to prevent them from escaping. The wire passed through the women's noses, and blood dripped. Those smuggled women were like cows with rings, being led step by step towards an unknown but doomed tragic fate. If it weren't for fate, the people serving him by his bed might not be his two sisters, but the smuggled women and their children.

Perhaps, if life wasn't so miserable, he could still carry a sack of corn and walk in the fields in autumn.