Back to 80: My Literary Life

"I have no objection. Let's donate some money individually. Let's each donate 5,000 yuan to show our personal intentions. How about that?"

"Okay, Secretary Zhang said that it would cost at least 50,000 yuan to build a primary school? Let's donate 100,000 yuan in total! Let's build a beautiful school with the best school buildings, desks, chairs, and teaching equipment! See if there are any teachers willing to come?"

"That's not enough. We have to improve the treatment of teachers." Fang Minghua reminded: "Just like learning literature, even if the school is beautiful, the meager income can't make you teach with peace of mind!"

"You're right, then we will take out some of the funds, and whoever is willing to come to the village to teach will receive a monthly subsidy of 60 yuan! How about it?"

"That's OK!"

"There are also children who are out of school. There must be children who can't afford to go to school. This must also be funded."

"Yes, yes, yes, let's go to Secretary Zhang tomorrow morning to talk!"

Early the next morning, Fang Minghua and Zhao Hongjun got up and found Zhang Guisheng at the village committee. They told him that they wanted to donate money to build a school and support the teachers and students of the school.

"Okay, okay." Zhang Guisheng nodded excitedly.

"Hongjun, Minghua, after the school is built, we will definitely carve a merit tablet next to the school gate and write your names on it!"

"No, no," Fang Minghua declined hurriedly: "As long as the school conditions are good, the students' academic performance improves, and a few of them can be admitted to college in the future, this is the best merit tablet for us!"

Since the decision has been made, we will start construction as soon as possible and strive to allow students to move into the new school building when the autumn semester starts. The key is the issue of funds in place.

Of course, there is no phone in the village, so the two drove to the township government with Zhang Guisheng, mainly to find a landline to call Song Tangtang in Xijing and ask her to immediately ask the financial staff to transfer 110,000 yuan to the designated account, of which 10,000 yuan belongs to Fang Minghua and Zhao Hongjun's personal investment.

This matter was inevitably known to the township leaders, and Secretary Liu thanked the two again on behalf of the township party committee and government.

How to build the school building is naturally not their concern, the government is responsible, and it is none of their business after the funds are in place.

Fang Minghua is going to drive around, and they plan to drive to the Yongtai city site not too far from here.

Because the castle looks like a golden tortoise, it is also known as Yongtai Turtle Castle. It is the most representative and well-preserved military castle of the Ming Dynasty along the Silk Road, and is very similar to the Zhenbei Fort in Yinchuan.

As a result, the car drove out of the village, and I saw dust flying on the road into the village. The first one was an Audi 100, followed by Santana, Lada, and 212 jeeps. A large group of them.

It turned out that leaders at all levels of the city, county, and township had come.

The leader was Mayor Wu, a middle-aged man in his early fifties. He held Fang Minghua's hand tightly and said, "Chairman Fang, why didn't you and General Manager Zhao tell us in advance when you came here? Others may not tell us, but Chairman Liu of our city's writers' association, you should tell us, right? Writers' associations all over the world are one family."

Next to Mayor Wu was Chairman Liu of the Writers Association, who immediately took over the conversation: "Mayor Wu is right. Chairman Zhao of our provincial writers' association came to your Xijing and was warmly welcomed by your writers' association. You came quietly this time. If your Chairman Hu knew, he would laugh at our provincial writers' association."

The Chairman Zhao that Chairman Liu was talking about was Zhao Yanyi, Chairman of the Gansu Writers Association, a novelist and a famous children's literature writer. He has devoted his life to the creation of children's literature. His representative works include the fairy tales "The Little Swallow and Its Three Neighbors" and "Iron Horse".

Fang Minghua had to say that this was a private trip. He just wanted to come to the place where he worked in the countryside, and he didn't dare to disturb the authorities.

"You are so good. You have made such a great contribution to Bandeng Village in just one visit." Mayor Wu took over the conversation and said with emotion: "I thank you on behalf of the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government!"

The arrival of so many leaders at once alarmed the local people. Many people stood at the doorstep to watch, and said in amazement that they had never seen so many leaders come to the village in their lives.

Today is an eye-opener.

Zhang Guisheng, the village party secretary, was a little flustered. He led all the village cadres to greet them quickly, and everyone held a meeting in the simple meeting room of the village committee.

Mayor Wu made a speech on behalf of the Municipal Party Committee and decided to hold a grand donation ceremony in three days. At that time, the top secretary of the Municipal Party Committee will attend, and the city's TV stations will accompany the report.

To be honest, Fang Minghua and Zhao Hongjun did not want to be so high-profile.

It was just a donation of 100,000 yuan to build a school, but they also knew that some things were beyond their control.

After the brief meeting, the city and county leaders were about to return. Mayor Wu invited Fang Minghua and others to live in the city, but was declined.

This time, the two of them came to the place where they had been sent to work in the countryside to recall the glorious days of the past. What was the point of living in the city?

After the city and county leaders returned, Fang Minghua and Zhao Hongjun drove their car, carrying dry food and water, and started their own tour, going around Yongtai Turtle City.

Around the majestic castle, there are scattered villages, and in the distance are large stretches of Gobi Desert, showing the desolation of the northwest.

Although the Turtle City is old, there are still dozens of families in it. In addition to the intact city walls, there is actually a primary school inside - Yongtai Primary School, and the sound of Lang Lang reading can be heard from it.

It is divided into front and back yards, with a blue brick arch-shaped school gate, and the four characters "Haichao Tuori" are carved on the top. The school buildings and auditorium are all mixed structures of brick, earth and wood, with Gothic doors and windows, and Chinese and Western buildings. This is particularly eye-catching among the adobe houses around.

Standing at the school gate, Zhao Hongjun said with emotion: "I never expected that such a desolate and barren place would have such a high-end school."

"Of course, there is a passage in "Mencius Teng Wen Gong": "If a person has good food, warm clothes, and a comfortable home without education, he is close to an animal." This means: When it comes to being a human being, if he has enough food, Wear warm clothes and live comfortably, but without education, we are like birds and beasts.”

"Have you ever heard of Liu Wenhui, the warlord of Sichuan Province during the Republic of China? Under his rule, if the county government building was better than the school, the county magistrate would be executed on the spot. It takes ten years for a tree to grow a hundred years for a person, especially for the poor. For children in the area, reading can really change their destiny, and we must provide them with this opportunity.”

Fang Minghua talked eloquently.

"Oh. Look at what you said. Our donation of 100,000 yuan is so worth it! I also feel that I am becoming more and more great."

While the two were chatting, they heard the bell ringing. The children rushed out of the classroom and started playing. The originally quiet castle suddenly became lively.

The last person to come out of the classroom was a middle-aged man in his thirties wearing a short-sleeved shirt. When he saw that Fang Minghua and Zhao Hongjun had unfamiliar faces and were not dressed like ordinary people, he thought they were from some department in the county. The leader took the initiative to come over and have a chat. After asking, he found out that he was an educated youth who joined the team in Bench Village and came back to have a look.

"In Bentou Village, there was a university professor named Lu who was decentralized back then. Do you know him?" The teacher's surname was Li Chongren.

"Why don't we know each other? We all lived together back then. We went to work and he taught in primary school." Zhao Hongjun said.

"What a good teacher." Speaking of Professor Lu, Li Chongren was full of praise: "He is very good at teaching. When I was in high school, I asked him to help me tutor math, physics and chemistry. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be able to pass the normal college entrance examination."

"Are you a college student?" Fang Minghua was a little surprised.

"No, no, I only went to Wuwei Normal School, a high school junior college. My foundation was too weak and I failed to live up to Professor Lu's expectations. He originally wanted me to take the Northeastern University exam and become his real student." Li Chongren looked regretful.

"It's not bad to be admitted to a high school. That's one of the best." Fang Minghua said.

"That's right. I went to the normal school and was assigned a job, so I was able to eat royal food. My hometown is here, so I took the initiative to come back to teach - our school building is nice, right?"

"It's good. The schools built during the Republic of China can still be maintained basically intact until now." Fang Minghua said.

"This was built by my grandfather." Li Chongren's tone was full of pride.

"Master?"

Li Chongren talked about this period of history.

The school site of Yongtai Primary School was originally the General Office. In the second year of the Republic of China, the General Office was abolished and his great-grandfather Li Shanche. After graduating from Lanzhou Military Academy and returning to his hometown, he called on the gentry to donate money for education, build school buildings, and served as the first principal.

"I can be regarded as taking over my grandfather's class. Now children from the surrounding villages come here to go to school." Li Chongren smiled at the end, showing his white teeth.

At this time, the school bell rang, and Fang Minghua and the others said goodbye to Teacher Li and left Yongtai City.

"It's not easy, it's not easy." Zhao Hongjun couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the desolate castle.

In the evening, Fang Minghua and his wife returned to Zhang Jianlin's house. Zhang Jianlin, who had been busy in the county during the day, also came back. When everyone was having dinner together, Zhang Jianlin said: "I heard from my wife that a lot of leaders came today. Thank you." What about your donation to build the school?”

"Yes, we don't want to make a big fuss, but we have no choice." Zhao Hongjun explained.

"I also want to donate 1,000 yuan. I don't know if that's okay?" Zhang Jianlin said suddenly.