The early spring sunshine in Yinchuan, Ningxia, shines on the ground, adding a touch of warmth to the desolate ground. On a barren loess hill, a man of about 24 or 25 years old wearing a gray Chinese tunic suit and carrying a yellow backpack walked up
The young man, who is 6 years old, is carrying a huge black handbag in his hand. It is so bulging that he does not know what it contains.
Wiping the sweat on his forehead and looking at the sun that had begun to set, the young man put down his handbag and took a long breath. He took out a dark green military kettle from his backpack and drank a large amount.
After a while, he took out a map from his pocket and looked at it carefully. After a long time, he murmured to himself: "Well, it seems that we should be there soon. Judging from the situation marked on the map, it should still be there."
There are three miles of road, so you should be able to feel Banshantun before dark.”
After resting for about ten minutes, the young man, who felt that his physical strength was almost restored, picked up his handbag and started on his way.
The sky gradually darkened, and the young man finally followed the path and arrived at this small village called Banshantun before dark. When the young man arrived at this small village, a dozen anxious-looking men and women had gathered at the entrance of the village.
, they rushed over as soon as they saw the young man's arrival.
"Hello, are you Teacher Yan?"
"You must be Teacher Yan sent by Qili, we have been looking forward to your arrival for a long time."
"You are finally here. If you don't come, we will go out to look for you."
The many greetings made the young man who had been traveling all day feel warm in his heart. He smiled and said: "Hello everyone, I am the teacher sent by Qili. My name is Yan Chun. From today on, I will
I have to live and work with you all here, so please give me your advice."
"Okay, okay..." A 70-year-old man wearing an octagonal hat with no visible color on his head was so excited that he shed two turbid tears, "The children in our village finally have their own teacher."
The old man grabbed Yan Chun's hand and said excitedly, "Teacher Yan, everyone in the village calls me Third Uncle. You should also call me Third Uncle. From today on, I will hand over all the children in the village to you."
The third uncle stretched out his hand and waved behind him, "Children, you all come here. I have met your Teacher Yan."
As soon as he finished speaking, more than 20 children came cheering from behind. Some of them were twelve or thirteen years old, and some were only four or five years old. But they all had one thing in common, that is, they were all dressed in rags.
With their dirty little hands and faces, they all stood behind the third uncle. Their dirty little faces looked at Yan Chun with timid expressions, and there was a look of longing in their eyes.
The third uncle smiled and scolded these children: "You troublemakers, why don't you meet your Teacher Yan soon? Please call me Teacher Yan."
The children timidly came to Yan Chun and shouted obediently: "Hello, Teacher Yan"
"Okay, hello, classmates." Yan Chun also smiled and greeted the children.
"Teacher Yan," the third uncle in front of him spoke, "From now on, if any of these little troublemakers disobeys your discipline, you can scold or hit them as long as you need them. Don't be polite. If anyone doesn't listen to you, just tell me, old man.
, the old man came to deal with him."
At this time, someone from behind spoke, "Third uncle, Teacher Yan has just arrived, and you haven't let anyone in yet, and you don't even let them drink water. This is not kind."
"Oh, yes, yes..." The third uncle slapped his thigh fiercely and said with a smile: "Look, everyone, I am an old fool. Come on, come on, Teacher Yan, please come in quickly, this small place in the countryside
There’s nothing to entertain, just some home-brewed corn wine, Teacher Yan, please don’t dislike it.”
Yan Chun knew that he could not postpone the reception banquet after arriving at a place. Hearing this, he smiled and said, "Third uncle, you are too polite. I am a newbie here, so I would like to ask you to take care of me. I must do it tonight."
Here’s to you, sir.”
After saying this, Yan Chun was about to bend down and pick up the backpack in his hand, but was stopped by his third uncle, "Teacher Yan, just give the bag to these little bastards. You and we can go have a few drinks first."
After speaking, the third uncle kicked a twelve or thirteen-year-old boy in the butt and cursed: "Aguli, you idiot, do you want me to teach you how to carry a bag? Why don't you help Teacher Yan carry the bag?"
Go to his house"
The young man named Aguli got excited and hurriedly picked up Yanchun's two backpacks with another companion and started to walk towards the village. Suddenly Aguli made a sound and lost his balance in his steps, almost falling to the ground.
"Hahaha..." Everyone laughed, "Aguli, you haven't eaten today, why can't you even carry a bag?"
Aguli, who was blushing, pointed at the backpack and said unconvinced: "This bag is too heavy, I can't lift it."
A man in his thirties walked up to him and lifted it up. He was surprised and said: "Oh, it's quite heavy. No wonder Aguli can't lift it."
Yan Chun on the side smiled and explained: "Here are the textbooks, homework books and some stationery distributed to the children by Zheng Fu. Of course, they should be more careful."
"Oh, that's right, now the government finally pays attention to us ordinary people."
"That's right, we haven't had a teacher in Banshan Village for many years. Now Zheng Ax has finally sent someone. Now it's better. Even the textbooks are sent together. Zheng Ax is better."
Listening to everyone's chatter, Yan Chun didn't say anything. He just looked at the dilapidated mud houses around him and the pungent smell of burning cattle and sheep dung from time to time. He heard the sound of graduating from a normal school.
A young man said during the ceremony: Knowledge changes destiny
It was late at night, and Yan Chun, who was slightly drunk, was sitting on a simple little bench. In front of him was a small square table with a dim oil lamp. Behind him was a small wooden bed, and next to him was a small wooden bed.
A small stove is his place of residence in this village.
Yan Chun took out a thick piece of letter paper and a pen, and began to write a letter on the letter paper.
Axia: Today is the first school I teach in after graduating from Chahar Normal School. This is a remote mountain village next to Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia. There are only more than a hundred people in this village, and the lack of water is my fault.
The first problem I encountered after coming here is that the order of water used by people here is like this. In addition to drinking water, they usually use it to wash their faces first, then wash vegetables, then wash their feet in the evening, and finally
It is used to drink for the pigs or livestock raised at home.
It is difficult for people here to go to the county, that is, Qili, in their entire lives. Most people will just stay in this small place with a radius of more than 20 miles throughout their lives. When I first saw this scene, I couldn't imagine that there was such a thing in the world.
Poverty-stricken place.
At night, when I saw the eager eyes of the children when they first saw me, my heart seemed to be stabbed by something. I felt that my heart was suddenly touched by something.
Dear, can you understand my mood?
We are the first batch of students to graduate from Chahar Normal School. When we graduated, Chairman Su personally attended our graduation. Chairman Su is so young, it seems that he is not even thirty yet, but it is him who just
With his young shoulders, he carried the safety of tens of millions of people in the four provinces of Chahar. I didn’t understand the difficulties of being a provincial chairman before, but today I looked at hundreds of old and young people and more than 20 children in the village.
When I saw those longing eyes, I immediately felt the responsibility on my shoulders. I really couldn't imagine if I would collapse immediately if the comfort of tens of millions of people in the four provinces of Chahar were placed on my shoulders.
I still clearly remember the feeling that all the more than 300 graduates did not understand when Chairman Su gave us the words: Knowledge changes destiny. Now I finally understand that in these poor places, children and adults
In their eyes, learning knowledge can indeed change the poverty-stricken fate of generations of their family and even the whole village. They condense all their future happiness in those few thin textbooks.
My dear love, do you understand how I feel? When I heard the words of my third uncle: I handed over all these children in the village to you, I clearly saw the twinkling tears in my third uncle’s eyes.
, he is pinning the future fate of Banshantun on me.
Axia, maybe you can never imagine the poverty of the children here in Zhangjiakou, how eager they are to see the sky outside. I was drunk today, and my third uncle drank all the more than ten kilograms of corn wine that the whole village brewed in a year.
They brought it out to entertain me, a substitute teacher who came from afar. This is wine that more than 100 people in their village have saved for a year. They usually don't even have enough to eat, but the whole village praises this wine and has to wait until the Chinese New Year.
I only drank it when I was here.
I was drunk tonight. I got myself drunk. I was afraid that I would see the longing eyes of my children and my third uncle again, and I was also afraid that I would let down their expectations.
Dear Xia, just tonight I had a bold idea. Your current Women's Normal School will graduate in two months. Are you willing to take root here with me after graduation to educate the children here?
Of course, I also know that this requirement is too harsh for you. With your conditions, you can stay in Zhangjiakou or find an easy job in any city. This requirement of mine is too unfair for you. You can definitely
If you refuse or even break up with me, I won't complain at all.
But I still decided to put down roots here. I want to change the destiny of the children here.
My dear, it’s already late at night, and I’m starting to get drunk, so I’ll just stop writing here. I will always love you Yan Chun.
On February 9, the twenty-seventh year of the Republic of China, Yan Chun finished writing the letter at 11 o'clock in the middle of the night. He took out an envelope, put the letter in the envelope, and slowly sealed the seal with his saliva.
The dim oil lamp reflected the young man's figure in flickering light, but it also seemed particularly conspicuous...