Mu Chen

10. Stone City

After waiting for Yu Yong's flight to take off, Mu Chen walked out of the waiting hall.He called Sister Chen first, and learned that Lin Lan was in a good mood and the needle was hung up. He confessed a few words and said that he had something to do in the afternoon before hanging up.

After starting the car, Muchen drove directly to Shicheng, which is a hundred kilometers away - his and Yu Yong's hometown.

Last year, the expressway from Shicheng to City Y was opened, and now it has only been an hour.Muchen drove the car directly to the cemetery on the outskirts of Shicheng.

This time I came at random, without preparing anything.Muchen only bought two bouquets of flowers at the entrance.Both his father Mu Wen and his grandfather Mu Grandpa were buried here. Thinking of his mother Yang Li, who had not heard from him for a long time, Mu Chen felt very sour.

Maybe it was because he saw Mu Wen's writing paper again when he moved two days ago, maybe it was just that his relationship with Yu Yong had undergone such a strange change and he had nowhere to tell.

The cemetery is located in the middle of the mountain. The city at the foot of the mountain is the place where they grew up together. They lived together in the family courtyard. There was his happy childhood under the blessing of his father, and there was also the sadness of his father's sudden death.

The past is full of history.

Muchen couldn't tell where the sourness and annoyance in his heart came from, he just felt that he had no more strength and couldn't hold on any longer.

Put the flowers, sit in front of the stele, close your eyes and whisper, "Dad, charge me up, I don't know if I'm doing it right, maybe it will disappoint you, but I really don't dare to take the risk , I'm really worried."

Also, I miss you so much.

The breeze blows, like a gentle hug.

Shicheng is located in the northwest inland. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was just a saline-alkali land at the foot of a barren mountain. Because it was barren enough, it was selected to build the xx factory code-named by numbers.However, due to the high level of secrecy and strict censorship, apart from the original few villages, there are only a few family members who have settled down with them for many years.

It was in the 70s that this small town built by the factory really developed into a not-so-small prefecture-level city, when iron ore and coal mines were detected here.The country then invested a lot of manpower and material resources, completed the supporting infrastructure, built a steel mill and a series of related factories, poured in a large number of people, and developed rapidly. It has become a well-known industrial center in the Northwest.

At the end of the 80s, with the transformation of factories, private enterprises in the south had not yet developed a strong technical foundation, and the economic benefits reached the best in history, and it became a city of immigrants.

In 1989, although Shicheng already had many factories, large and small, the largest and best factory was xx factory.

The military industry started, and the earliest founders were all people with real talents and knowledge and a heart for the country. Even the workers were selected after various inspections.The overall quality is high, and the transformed products also maintain their technical advantages, with good benefits and the best treatment.

Mu Wen is the doctor of the factory hospital in this xx factory that everyone admires. A large factory with nearly [-] people almost constitutes a small city by itself.Naturally, the scale of this factory hospital is not small. In addition, the staff is excellent and the facilities are good. It is not much worse than the big hospital in Y city. It has been the place where people nearby seek medical treatment for many years.

After graduating from university in 15, Mu Wen applied to be assigned to work here. Fifteen years have passed in a flash, and he is now a well-known doctor here.

The ancestors of the Mu family have always practiced medicine. They are willing to do good and have a good reputation. In addition, they don't own a permanent property. They escaped disaster in the early days of liberation by accident, but the family members have always been very thin.

Grandpa Mu Chen was also a well-known village doctor at that time, but there were no other brothers and sisters in the family, and his wife also died of illness shortly after giving birth to Mu Wen.How many people persuaded him to remarry, even if it was for the child to be taken care of, but Grandpa Mu was a long-term lover and never remarried.

When Mu Wen grew up, in addition to learning the medical skills passed down from his family, he was also recommended by the village to go to the Provincial Medical University because of his good family status and the popularity of his father and grandparents.Although it was only a junior college, and it was difficult to learn much at that time, Mu Wen's serious and rigorous personality allowed him to graduate with the No.1 grade in that professional course.

When he graduated, he could have worked in other places, but his grandparents passed away one after another, leaving only his father at home. In the end, he chose to return to his hometown, and instead of entering the No. [-] Hospital of Y City, he entered a factory in xx, which was closer to his home. medical.

Of course, in the eyes of others, he can be regarded as a promising young man with a solid job. In addition to his handsome appearance and gentle personality, many introducers came to him to propose marriage to him.But after he rejected several local girls, he fell in love with Yang Li who jumped in line in their village instead.

Yang Li is a native of Shanghai. She went to the countryside in 74 and came to a nearby village.Coupled with her self-conceited personality, she never integrated into the village, and she lived in a bit of a mess for a while, which was incomparable to Mu Wen's good market at that time.

Grandpa Mu didn't agree at first, he didn't think that Yang Li couldn't do farm work, but said that Yang Li's eyes were not clear, she was very stubborn, and it was difficult to live a smooth life when married to such a person.

But for the first time in Mu Wen's life, Mu Wen insisted, and parents will not win when father and son fight against each other. Soon, Grandpa Mu found an introducer to propose marriage to Yang Li, but kept muttering, "Life is to suffer." Wow."

Yang Li is slender and fair. Not to mention farm work, she is not even good at housework in the northwest countryside, including burning kangs, lighting fires, and cooking in large stoves.She was surprised when the introducer came to her door, but she agreed immediately after hearing about the situation of Mu's family.

The two got married soon, and Yang Li only wrote a letter to her family in Shanghai to inform them before the wedding, and there was only a telegram back there, and there was only one word "good", no visitors, no gifts, and no blessings .

Mu Wen was a little uneasy, and promised to Yang Li, "Don't be sad, it might be too sudden for them to accept it. When the holiday is at the end of this year, I will accompany you to Shanghai for the New Year, okay?"

Yang Li said coldly, "You think too well, they wish I could get married early."

Seeing Mu Wen's puzzled look, Yang Li explained, "Originally I was the youngest at home, and my sister went to Yunnan two years ago. We have three children in our family, and only one can stay in the city. This time, the neighborhood committee came to mobilize What I wanted was to let my brother go, but my parents were reluctant to part with their son, so they insisted on reporting my name."

Mu Wen, "..."

Yang Li, "Now that I get married here, I won't go back. They should be so happy."

Mu Wen held Yang Li's hand, but didn't say any comforting words.

He has a restrained personality and can't say any sweet words. This is one reason, and the other reason is that he probably can't empathize with his parents' partiality: because he has no impression of his mother, and his father is a very gentle person, let alone beating and scolding. He didn't say a word.

Even if marrying a wife went against his father's wishes this time, his father only listed the reasons for his opposition and the problems he would face in the future.

He really didn't listen to persuasion, and his father just said, "Well, people have to suffer in life. There are sufferings caused by others, and there are also sufferings caused by yourself. You just don't regret it."

After marriage, a period of quiet and good days passed.

At that time, Mu Wen had just worked in the unit and did not have a room assigned to him, so he was still living with Grandpa Mu in the village.At that time, Grandpa Mu was still a barefoot doctor in the brigade. In addition to working in the brigade health center, he often had to run around several villages and was very busy.

In the beginning, Mu Wen went to work during the day, and had to boil water for cooking when he entered the house. Everyone in the village laughed at him for returning after marrying a shoddy lady.

But Mu Wen never complained, and Yang Li quickly learned to do these housework, and even went to the field to work more actively than before, and she didn't have the initial contempt when getting along with people, and her popularity improved to a certain extent, even though she didn't Too concerned.

Yang Li is impatient and hasn't conceived for several years after marriage. Although she doesn't want a child very much, there is no privacy in the village, and her infertility is often gossiped about.

But she loves to read, and she reads all the writing and paper she can get.I love cleanliness and will keep the small earthen house neat and tidy.

In addition to the peach trees, apricot trees, pear trees and medlars planted in front and back of the house, there are also many Malan flowers planted in the porch, Mirabilis, which is called mine flower by the local people, and cosmos in autumn, which were brought from the wild. I dug up a lot of wormwood and unknown wild flowers, plus an original grape frame in the yard.

Mu's earthen house always looks very unique.

Mu Wen has always cared for Yang Li, but she has never been happy.

She thought of Shanghai, of her classmates and friends, of parks and cinemas, of the magnolia flowers sold in the alleys in summer, of the humid air filled with the fragrance of osmanthus from the four seasons after the rain, of the tap water in the public water room and the rice on the dining table. .

This secretive factory was deliberately chosen at the foot of a mountain far away from the city. There are only a few villages around, and the market only comes once every three days. There are also local accents that cannot be learned, ignorant and backward villagers, and the smell of earth in the dry air. .....

She felt she could never get used to it.

Even though this gentle man was really kind to her, and even supported her to take the college entrance examination after resuming the college entrance examination.It's just that she didn't study hard in junior high school, and she didn't have any study materials besides the textbooks used by Mu Wen, so she naturally failed the rankings in the first two years.

But when the policy of returning to the city was implemented in their place, Yang Li left regardless of everything. When she left, he refused to agree to her divorce request. She even left secretly when he was at work.

Mu Wen chased him to Shanghai. He found his wife and saw the prosperity of the metropolis for the first time. Although he went to school, he never went out of the province.

The wife's family is just the most common civilian family in Shanghai.

His wife and a sister who went to Yunnan also returned home. The two daughters who returned suddenly not only made the family live in a cramped place, but also fell into financial difficulties.

Originally, the two daughters went to the countryside, the son in Liucheng also got married, and the daughter-in-law was already pregnant, but now the two daughters came back in unison. divorce.

When Mu Wen came to the door, he happened to see his wife and a woman who looked very similar to her were arguing with a pregnant woman while they were pasting matchboxes. Although they didn't understand, seeing their unfriendly expressions, they probably didn't say anything. what a nice word.

His wife and parents are quite enthusiastic about him, after all, his daughter is well taken care of.But when his wife saw him, she didn't feel guilty about running away, but instead she was determined to break the boat.

Their conversation took place while he and his wife were doing laundry in the communal sink.

Her attitude was very decisive, and he was silent by the sink, watching her wash a basin of clothes and turn on the big faucet to wash them, a total of three times.

Thinking of the well water that can only be used sparingly in his hometown, he thinks he understands this woman's escape.This longing for city life cannot be changed by his kindness to her.

I ate a meal at her home, with small plates and small bowls, no meat dishes, but rice, and a large bowl of seaweed and shrimp skin soup.

He thought of the pasta she had never been used to.At home, Grandpa Mu and Yang Li's rations are accompanied by the production team. Because of the lack of water in their place, there is very little rice planted, so they can't get a few catties of rice all year round, but they can get some yellow rice.

Mu Wen has a food book, and there is a supply of several catties of rice every month. The two men in the family eat pasta all the year round, and all the rice is saved for her.But this is still very little, even the Ermi rice cooked with yellow rice is not something she can eat recklessly.

The table for eating is the square table where the matchboxes were pasted just now. There are a lot of things in the house, which is far less tidy than their earthen houses in the countryside.But she made it clear that she would rather sleep on the floor every day than go back.

In the end, she went back to the Northwest with him the next day. She was going to go through the formalities, and he agreed to let her go.Because her sister said, she is still young and has no children, so it is easy to find another marriage partner.He thought so too.