Faced with the work of the eight production brigades of Chang'an Commune, Liu Yan's first stop was the Songyang Production Brigade.

This was the most remote and poorest production brigade Liu Yan ever visited when he first came to Chang'an Commune for social practice and research during the summer vacation of 1980.

The Songyang Production Brigade is the production team with the largest population in Chang'an Commune, and it is also the farthest production team from the commune, about 70 kilometers away from the location of Chang'an Commune.

Except for Yunling Village, which is the furthest away from the brigade headquarters, with an altitude of more than 1,500 meters, the average altitude is more than 800 meters, and it has 24 natural villages with a total population of 3,820 people.

If we say, Chang'an is called the Siberia of Huaining City.

Then, Songyang is the Chersky of Chang'an.

…

In the room at the Songyang Brigade Headquarters, there are several wooden boards cushioned with long benches on one side of the wall, and in the corner is an old-fashioned double-door cabinet.

In the middle of the room is a sturdy rectangular wooden table, with several long benches placed on the four sides of the table.

At this moment, seven people were sitting in front of the wooden table, and the room was filled with smoke.

He Changfa, secretary of the village party branch, is fifty-six years old. He has thick eyebrows and big eyes. He is quite tall, but his back is always hunched over.

Meng Xiang, captain of the production team and deputy secretary of the village party branch, is two years younger than He Changfa, tall and bearded.

Lin Jindi, director of the Women's Federation, is fifty years old, tall, and has big eyes. She is also in charge of family planning work in the village.

Clerk He Baolai, thirty-six years old, looks like a scholar and is cheerful all day long. He is also the scorekeeper of the production team.

Accountant Guo Dongmu, fifty-eight years old, is the oldest member of the Songyang Village Committee. He is of medium build and doesn’t talk much.

Zhang Lin, secretary of the Youth League branch, is twenty-five years old, of medium build, and a custodian. She is an educated youth who graduated from the county middle school and returned to her hometown.

Although she failed to pass the college entrance examination for three consecutive years starting from 1977, she is the most educated young person in Songyang Production Brigade.

There is also the Security Director Sha Tao, a thirty-five-year-old demobilized soldier, tall, and the captain of the militia.

For a long time, the folk customs in Songyang have been simple and honest, and the villagers have been kind and harmonious. There are very few unruly people here, and there are even fewer roosters and dogs.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, there has not been a single criminal case. At most, it was just a few quarrels.

The only civil dispute that occurred five years ago was purely a sneaky incident.

At the beginning, the two families got into a fight, and the village committee immediately stepped in to coordinate. After the two families calmed down, they both admitted their mistakes and made compensation. The matter was soon evened out, and no one owed anything to the other. So far, the two families are living in peace.

.

As a security director and militia captain, the actual role I have played in these years is to strictly investigate and prevent stray people from other places.

In the middle of the table were an old newspaper that had been torn in half and a plastic bag containing cut tobacco.

Except for Lin Jindi and Zhang Lin, the five men took turns tearing up newspapers and rolling tobacco, smoking one after another.

On the wooden beams on the roof of the house, there are strips of black wool condensed from years of smoke.

Walking out of this room is a connected kitchen.

There are several bundles of hay and a pile of firewood piled in the corner of the kitchen, as well as some farm tools and sundries.

Walking out of the kitchen door, there is a large courtyard that can accommodate hundreds of people. There are several grass slopes of different sizes in the courtyard, and there is an adobe house next to the toilet.

This courtyard is the headquarters of the Songyang Production Brigade, the village committee, the meeting place, and the guest house.

Anyone who comes from superiors will be received, accommodated and fed in this courtyard.

A few wooden boards with long benches on the side of the back room against the wall serve as beds. The mats and quilts are usually placed in the cabinets next to them.

If a woman comes, she stays in an adobe house next to the toilet.

At this moment, a plump middle-aged woman in her thirties with a bunch of long hair on her head was sitting on a small bench in front of the kitchen stove, with water boiling in the pot.

The firelight in the stove shone on her beautiful cheeks. She unbuttoned her chest and was lowering her head to feed a boy of about six years old.

This woman's name is Yang Guihua, a foreigner who fled famine and lived in Chang'an several years ago.

Her husband was once the militia captain of the Songyang Production Brigade. He joined the army five years ago and died heroically in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam three years ago.

As a relative of a military martyr, the production brigade arranged for her to manage the yard on a daily basis and be responsible for receiving visitors from her superiors and cooking.

…

This morning, as soon as He Changfa arrived at the brigade headquarters, he received a call from Secretary Wang of the commune, saying that the newly arrived deputy secretary of the commune, Liu Yan, and his party had already set off from the commune and were expected to arrive at Songyang Production Brigade at about three o'clock in the afternoon.

.

Secretary Wang asked He Changfa to resolutely follow Deputy Secretary Liu's instructions and actively cooperate with Deputy Secretary Liu's work arrangements.

Secretary Wang also told He Changfa on the phone that because the journey time was uncertain, he asked the village committee personnel to wait at the brigade headquarters instead of going to the intersection to greet him. He also said that this was specially instructed by Deputy Secretary Liu.

After putting down the phone, He Changfa immediately asked the clerk He Baolai to inform all the village committee members and Yang Guihua, asking everyone to gather at the brigade headquarters after lunch.

After lunch, everyone arrived at the brigade headquarters one after another. As soon as we sat down, we started talking about each other.

"Liu Yan, is that Xiao Liu, a college student from Yenching University?" Meng Xiang asked first.

"The signal is not good. Secretary Wang's voice on the phone is squeaky and hard to hear clearly. He seems to be talking about Liu Yan." He Changfa shook his head.

"Do you think Xiao Liu, a graduate of Yenching University and a city resident, can really come to work in our commune?" Sha Tao said to Zhang Lin next to him while rolling his tobacco.

Zhang Lin shook her head in confusion: "I think it's impossible! Take the only person in our commune who was admitted to college in 1977 as an example. I heard that after graduating from college this year, he was directly assigned to work in the provincial capital.

What’s more, Xiao Liu’s family is from Yenching University and from the city..."

"You'll know when it comes soon..." Lin Jindi muttered from the side.

Everyone, you and I are guessing every word...

At about 2:50 that afternoon, Liu Yan and his party walked into the yard of Songyang Brigade Headquarters.

"Uncle He, Uncle Meng, are you there?" Liu Yan, who was walking in front, shouted towards the house as soon as he entered the yard.

"Listen, this voice sounds like Xiao Liu's..." Hearing the shouts in the yard, Meng Xiang suddenly got excited, stood up from the bench, and said.

He Changfa and several others also stood up, and immediately stared straight at the adobe wall against the yard.

"Let's go out and take a look." He Changfa stood there for a while and said, and hurriedly led everyone towards the kitchen.

…

At this time, I heard a familiar voice coming from the kitchen: "Sister Yang, are you okay?"

The middle-aged woman in the kitchen heard the sound, stood up quickly, pushed the child in her arms to the side, buttoned the clothes in her arms, wiped her hands on the apron in front of her, and then turned around,

He suddenly froze on the spot.

I only heard Yang Guihua exclaiming: "Ouch! It's Xiao Liu, why is it you..."

"Sister Yang, it's me! Are you okay?" Liu Yan stepped forward and shook Yang Guihua's hand.

"I'm fine, I'm fine! Xiao Liu, what are you..."

Liu Yan did not answer Yang Guihua's words, but bent down and touched the head of the little boy next to her: "Doudou, do you still remember uncle?"

"It's Uncle Liu." The little boy pointed at Liu Yan. As soon as he finished speaking, he stared at the group of people behind Liu Yan with timid eyes.

"That's right! It's Xiao Liu, it's Xiao Liu." He Changfa heard the sound in the room and said excitedly, and quickly walked into the kitchen: "Xiao Liu, it's really you!"
Chapter completed!