godfather

Meng Xiaobei was born in a large valley to the west of Qishan Mountain in Shaanxi.On the evening of the day he was born, the sunset glow was dyed red on the mountain ridges sculpted by the loess, and the children of the old Shan family in the village came back with their flock of sheep. color.

His mother was still on duty that day. After answering the last call in the telephone room at the factory gate, the hand holding the receiver felt heavy and her stomach hurt.

On the other end of the phone was a person from the county town, shouting in a high tone: "Hey, what are you talking about? Are you the person in charge?... This is an instruction from the superior. Someone will come to your factory soon to inspect the work. It is related to the college students' indicators above , you bring me the person in charge of your factory..."

"Oh, wait a minute."

Ma Baochun transferred the extension, dropped the receiver, struggled to stand up, and took a few steps to the yard by himself, leaning on the big tree, and shouted at the first time: "Section Chief, the phone above, please call our deputy." The factory manager, if there is something wrong, you can watch it for me."

She shouted the second time: "Who lifts me up!"

"I have to go to the bathroom."

"I may be... giving birth."

Ma Baochun was carried by several colleagues. Without a car, he carried a simple stretcher, covered with a blanket, and rushed to the factory hospital in a hurry.A group of people ran wildly on the boulevard of the factory yard, and countless people along the road looked sideways, shouting, run quickly, don't bore the child, don't delay.

His father's name is Meng Jianmin.Before the evening shift was over that day, this person was yelled out in the factory by someone running around, saying that Meng Jianmin, your wife is about to give birth!

Meng Jianmin didn't even have time to change his work clothes. He threw away his oil-stained gloves and chased the group in front of him all the way through the factory.

It so happened that a platoon leader from a nearby army took people to the factory and was about to go back after finishing work, so he also joined the stretcher-carrying team.

The stretcher began to bleed red.

"No, come out soon!"

"Hey, Master Ma, hold on a little longer, it's not here yet!"

"Baby!...Baby!..."

Meng Jianmin will never forget the first time he saw his own son.The colleague yelled a few times indiscriminately, and a group of indistinct meatballs fell directly from the marching stretcher!Meng Jianmin saw a "bang", the newborn baby fell to the ground without making a sound.

"Old Meng, boy, boy!"

"Your baby is out!"

In summer, the large maternity dress that Ma Baochun wears has an open hem, making it easy to put on and take off. I didn't expect it to be too convenient, so I just let the baby go.A group of men were in a hurry, yelling, they had never seen this battle before, and they were all frightened.The platoon leader in military uniform was not afraid of blood, and commanded sharply: "Master, your baby...you pick up your baby quickly!!!"

Meng Jianmin suddenly realized that he picked up the child who fell on the ground and held it with both hands like a treasure.

"It's connected, be careful!"

"Also, there seems to be another one?!"

"Hurry up, wrap it up, don't leak it!"

Everyone was horrified to find that there was another small head sticking out.Several people rushed into the hospital carrying a stretcher, and Meng Jianmin followed closely behind, holding the child on the other end of the umbilical cord.He ran so fast that he almost pulled his heart out of his chest, excruciating pain, exuding extreme joy, he will never forget that moment...

A pair of twins were born on such a summer evening, both sons.

Ma Baochun is young, the first child, healthy and strong, both mother and child are safe.Meng Jianmin is about to become a father, and he doesn't know anything about preparations. He still relies on the kindness of hospital nurses and labor union aunts to wrap him in swaddling clothes, fetch clothes, and find food.

At that time, there were only two members of the family, and there was no third member. The couple worked as dual-career workers, and worked hard at their respective jobs until the last moment before the baby was born.Later, when my colleagues talked about this, they were all happy with the family, saying that Meng Jianmin was really blessed and lucky, he didn't delay anything, and he even had two big fat sons in his arms.Lao Meng, you two are really model workers. We will vote for you at the end of the year. If the factory doesn’t judge you and your couple, I’m sorry that your boss fell out of his mother’s womb. He nodded his head and stood there on the ground. Knock!

Of course, the child who knocked on the ground didn't have a long memory at the time, so he didn't know there was such a thrilling scene.

The parents and relatives of the Meng and Ma families are all far away in Beijing, and they cannot get through. There are only a couple and a pair of sons who depend on each other.

Meng Jianmin and Ma Baochun are both "old three" students.Those students who graduated from middle school and high school were catching up with the Cultural Revolution, and the reactionary capitalist roaders were completely overthrown. The state called on the students to rebel and make revolution, and they went to the mountains and the countryside, and the whole country joined forces.Students from the [-], [-], and [-] classes had a backlog of three years, and their lives were delayed by the Cultural Revolution.These students are about to graduate, have nothing to study, and hang out in the society and make troubles all day long.Later, the state arranged for distribution, and some educated youths went to the mountains and countryside to go to the Northeast and Xinjiang Construction Corps, and some went to the Northwest and Southwest to support the construction of the third front.Meng Jianmin graduated from junior high school at that time and had no chance to go to high school. At that time, together with many young men and women of the same age, he carried luggage, took the train, left his hometown, and went to the Qishan Arsenal in the valley.

The background at that time was political turmoil inside and the threat of a Sino-Soviet nuclear split outside. According to the spirit of the Central Committee, these three arsenals were set up in the valleys of the Qinling Mountains in the northwest.A military gear factory, a military car factory, and a gun factory.The three factories are laid out like melons and vines, along a big river, like three loofahs on a vine connecting the mountains.Meng Jianmin is a skilled worker in an automobile factory. "A good man is good on the third front", "preparing for war and famine for the people".This group of young male and female students with thin bodies and ignorant and youthful expressions on their faces, the youth of eighteen or nineteen years old and under 20 years old, were imprisoned in the hinterland of the mountains like this.

These arsenals do not exist on the map at all, and they have been kept secret for more than ten years. Once a war of aggression breaks out, the army will not be able to enter, and nuclear weapons will not be able to hit them.

Of course, in a place where even birds can't shit and cannonballs can't penetrate, once people enter, they can't easily go out again, and they just stay in the mountains.An arsenal, thousands of young people from big cities across the country gathered in one place, together with nearby family dormitories, hospitals, and cooperatives, is a small closed society.

If life is not here, death cannot go away.

When Meng Jianmin was young, he was really a handsome boy with thick eyebrows and big eyes. People in the family compound called him the thin version of "Zhao Dan".

He was only nineteen when he came, and he had been away from his family for eight years, and now he has a baby of his own.Even if this group of educated young people eat loess and drink northwest wind, they will grow up and reach the age of marriage and childbearing, and they can't get out, so internal communication develops and thrives.What Meng Jianmin was looking for in the factory was a young woman named Ma Baochun who came from Beijing on the same road.

The girl from the Ma family looks ordinary.Standing together, the handsome man and the mediocre woman don't look like a couple at first glance.

Occasionally, people would gossip around, the family surnamed Ma is Hui people, Hui Han is not married, Meng Jianmin, why did you find Hui Hui?

But how old are these young people? Where can they find them?In those days, in places where the dimples were bigger, it didn’t matter whether they were married back to the Han or not, as long as it was a woman.The conditions in the valley are extremely difficult, and the basic daily necessities of food and non-staple food have to be transported from the outside to the mountains by large trucks every month.The young people were so hungry that their cheekbones protruded, their eyeballs protruded, and their ribs bulged when they took off their clothes.When there is a shortage of meat to eat, no one cares about whether it is pork or beef. As long as it is not human flesh, grab it and eat it secretly. Whoever does not grab it will starve.

Meng Jianmin thought about it.He felt that both of them were from Beijing, their hometowns were in the same place, and they had a common language.

When they got married, the couple was in the cooperative in the family compound and asked someone to make a small black and white photo.The labor union sent washbasin thermos and peony-patterned sheets.The ceremony was simple. Meng Jianmin, an advanced member of the technical backbone of the factory, gave his wife a "red book" and said, "I wish you the revolution to the end." Ma Baochun took the little red book and replied, "Long live Chairman Mao" as usual.

When the baby's mother was not discharged from the hospital, she was breastfeeding in the hospital. The two sons couldn't hold them. They cried after being fed, and became hungry again after feeding the other. There was not enough milk.

Lack of nutrition during pregnancy, and she was pregnant with twins. Both sons were born weak.The elder brother is even thinner than the younger brother.

The older one slipped out of the womb because his head touched the ground and gave the land master a knock on the head first, leaving a scar on his forehead.There was no incubator in the hospital, and the conditions were extremely poor. The factory leader came to intercede, fed high-grade milk powder and nutrient solution, and was finally discharged from the hospital.

When naming the baby, Meng Jianmin picked up one with each elbow, looked at the two sons in his arms, thought for a while, and said, "The one with slightly longer legs is the younger brother, named Meng Xiaojing."

"This one fell out halfway. He has quick legs and a lively personality. His forehead has been knocked out. His life is quite big!...Let's call him Meng Xiaobei."

He raised his left arm and kissed Meng Xiaobei on his red forehead...

Meng Jianmin is the only son of the old Meng family.

In the No. [-] middle school he attended in junior high school, he was the top student in the class and the monitor of the class.There are two key schools in Chaoyang District, "Eighty" for boys and "Chaoyang" for girls, which were very good schools at that time.If there hadn't been a ten-year catastrophe, he should have stayed in school after graduating from junior high school, and it would be logical to finish high school and be admitted to a good university in the capital.

Eight years away from home and isolated from the world, Meng Jianmin still thinks that one day he will be able to go back and return to his hometown with his wife and children for the rest of his life.

It was Lin Biao who presided over the construction of the Northwest Third Front.Lin Biao has become a reactionary. He fell from the sky long ago and was smashed to pieces, but these factories still exist in the ravines. The barren hills are like relics that have been obliterated and forgotten by the change of dynasties, a witness to a piece of history.The factory is producing day and night, and the sound of machines is rumbling. The people here are impetuous, and the days are like years.When will this group of people be able to go home, go to school, and start over in this life?

Meng Jianmin dreamed of going back to Beijing, so he named his son "Beijing".

……