mijobooks Chapter 4 Facing the Sea, Not Working Like an Ox or a Horse
Chapter 4 Facing the Sea, Not Working Like an Ox or a Horse
With the stiff cotton hat on his head, Chen Tuo walked to the door of the wooden house and adjusted his mindset.
Life is never easy.
Unable to resist, they could only accept their fate.
Now that we're here, do we think dying again will allow us to go back?
Go back to being a beast of burden, earning a pittance.
Why toil and struggle, panting for a few taels of silver?
Reluctant to part with her new body, strong as an ox and fiery as a raging beast, it was a choice forced upon her by circumstances.
Push open the heavy wooden door.
The cool, clear wind blowing on his face left Chen Tuo stunned.
There is a mountain in front of me, and trees on the mountain.
The mountains and trees are not dull.
The distant mountain ranges are clearly outlined, like waves piled up on the sea.
Seeing the cold winter night scene before him, Chen Tuo spontaneously recited Hai Zi's poem.
"I have a house facing the sea, where spring is warm and flowers bloom."
When the feeling is right, one can transcend mountains and seas, as well as warm spring and cold winter.
He turned back, closed the wooden door, and found the fountain pen with a slightly forked nib.
On the first page of the new notebook, inscribed by veteran Fang Miao with the words "Smash the entire old world, create a magnificent new land," it reads:
December 14, 1979, night, a new life.
newborn.
Starting tomorrow.
Be a happy person.
Feeding horses.
firewood.
Travel the world...
As a graduate of a 211 university majoring in Chinese literature.
Modern and contemporary literature are compulsory practical and thematic courses.
Chen Tuo was naturally familiar with Hai Zi's poems.
Moreover, he also knew that Hai Zi in 1979 did not have a life of facing the sea and enjoying the warmth of spring.
The reason for splitting the lines of poetry.
This is because modern poetry is usually paid in twenty-line increments.
They habitually conflate literary elegance with the vulgarity of the marketplace.
This immediately gave Chen Tuo the idea to get rid of his unregistered status.
The original self, as a member of a group of educated youth sent to the countryside, can be ignored.
But what about the lesser-known educated youth poets?
It's done.
His contemporary poetry from the late 1970s to the mid-to-late 1980s was enough to bring him both fame and fortune.
Looking at the handwriting in the diary, it was fairly neat.
Chen Tuo picked up a pencil again and tore off a few pieces of birch bark from the side of the stove.
I copied the poem "Facing the sea, with spring flowers blooming" into three copies, changing it to twenty lines.
The poem titled "New Life," depicting a scene of facing the sea and spring blossoms, was copied onto birch bark.
Chen Tuo felt that the poem's imagery had directly transformed into something positive and uplifting.
The alienation, loneliness, and imperfection in the original poem were completely washed away by the birch bark and the small Yangqi educated youth settlement where he lived.
I was just thinking of writing a preface to earn some royalties.
The frenzied heat that had just been suppressed by poetry returned.
Chen Tuo didn't take the keychain hanging on the nails in the wooden house.
Instead, he picked up a logging axe that was almost worn down.
According to the diary, this logging axe had to go through at least three work groups: clearing forest, logging, and forest management, before it could reach the tending work group.
Apart from axe handles that could be made from local materials, the Xiaoyangqi educated youth settlement rarely issued brand-new tools.
The supply of materials in and out of the Songling Forest Area depends entirely on the Nenlin Railway, and the supply is limited.
This explains why the registered educated youth, when leaving, would selfishly disregard relationships and friendships and insist on exchanging their belongings.
According to the diary, five or six waves of educated youth, totaling nearly a thousand, came to the Xiaoyangqi educated youth settlement.
In the educated youth settlement, there were three rows of six wooden houses, each over ten meters long.
It is also a testament to how the educated youth gradually adapted to life in the forest area.
The earliest two rows of wooden houses were built entirely of logs.
It had large, bright single-pane windows, which were later converted into housing for the summer and autumn seasons by the educated youth.
The two rows of wooden houses in the middle were built with logs and mud.
The double-glazed windows were later converted into a warehouse and activity room.
The last two rows of wooden houses were built.
The inner, outer, and middle layers of mud sandwich two layers of logs.
There is also an ice cellar made of stone slabs under the wooden house.
The windows have three panes of glass and two layers of wooden panels for wind protection.
Beneath the two rows of large communal beds, there was also a stone slab heated brick bed.
Unfortunately, the last two rows of wooden houses were only used by the registered educated youth for a little over a year before the tide ended.
Including the more than two years of stay, the newly built wooden house has only just finished its renovation period.
Following the footprints left by the original owner, they arrived at the house with a wooden sign that read "Warehouse".
Chen Tuo rubbed his eyes. The words "Warehouse" were clearly printed on the T-shaped wooden sign.
Looking at the North Mountain not far away, the night was deep.
Looking back to the south, the sky was lit up with light, divided into two colors: dark blue and deep blue.
The two-tone night sky, devoid of stars and moon, gives one a very unreal feeling.
With a swift stroke of the axe, he smashed the warehouse lock.
The sound of the iron lock hitting the ground was remarkably realistic.
Pull the light cord, and the 200-watt light bulb lights up.
He reached out and touched each of the sleds, axe handles, saw blades, and farm tools.
The realistic touch calmed my inner turmoil a little.
The tools in the warehouse mainly consisted of iron shovels, axes, and obstacle clearing knives, with dozens of each.
There are two wooden sleds and three iron sleds.
A row of brand-new gas lamps and kerosene lamps hung on the wall.
Green nylon fishing nets were piled up in the corner.
Chen Tuo was looking for five ice chisels, old and new, the two newest of which still had the chisel marks on them.
They dragged out a nimble wooden sled, two brand-new ice chisels, two axes, and a bundle of axe handles.
Chen Tuo walked back and forth along the wooden corridor and then broke the lock on the repair room.
Inside the mud-plastered wooden hut, there was a blacksmith's furnace, an anvil, a grinding wheel, and a pile of small pieces of coke.
They went back to the warehouse, retrieved the gas lamp, and lit it.
In the courtyard of the Xiaoyangqi educated youth settlement, there is still a hand-cranked well with steaming water.
With six connected wooden houses, there will be no shortage of firewood for the winter.
The tattered cotton-padded jackets left behind by the registered educated youth were enough to keep them warm.
It's really too cold, so I'll just wear a few more layers.
The twenty pounds of cornmeal and two sacks of potatoes left behind by the original owner wouldn't have caused him to starve to death on the spot.
Just now, I had a sudden inspiration and discovered a way to make a living by plagiarizing poems and cheating people out of their royalties.
Although Chen Tuo did not know about the Songling Forest Area in 1979, he did know the wage levels in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as the approximate level of royalties.
With the poems of Hai Zi and Gu Cheng, he shouldn't have needed to be a toiling ox or horse.
"Ha... Spring is here, flowers are blooming, no more working like cattle!"
Thinking of something pleasant, Chen Tuo let out a strange cry in the courtyard of the educated youth settlement, listening to the echo coming from the distant valley.
Only then did he pull the sled to the pile of firewood.
Even without mentioning the row of wooden houses, the small mountain of pine trees and pine resin piled up several meters high in front of you can provide enough heat.
Pine resin is a product of the brittleness of a whole pine tree, which is then soaked in residual resin. It is mostly irregular tree knots.
The Chinese pine is different; most of its branches are pruned from logging areas.
The pine trees that were transported back to the educated youth settlement by the registered educated youth were mostly over a meter long and as thick as a bowl.
Chen Tuo didn't care whether he could pull it or not, and just filled the sled with its contents.
Carrying a gas lamp and pulling a sled, he followed the footprints left by the original body to find the pond he had scouted many times.
The ice shards that flew up from the ice shattering the ice surface didn't hurt my face; instead, they brought a refreshing coolness that suppressed the rage in my heart.
Before the ice hole could be broken open, the sound of footsteps crunching could be heard from the riverbank.
Chen Tuo put down the ice chisel, picked up the logging axe, and looked warily toward the shore.
After a series of coughs, Wu Laowai's familiar voice finally came through.
"Dude, fishing at night like this, aren't you afraid of attracting wild boars and other predatory animals? Even though bears hibernate, winter came early this year, so they might wake up hungry..."