Back to 80: My Literary Life

Chapter 615 Tiexi District

Taxis drive down the street.

It snowed two days ago and the streets looked a little muddy. Today there is still no sun and the sky is gray.

It should be said that the whole world is gray.

The sky is gray, the buildings are gray, and towering chimneys flash across the horizon from time to time, and the air is filled with a faint smell of smoke.

Tiexi District is known as the "Oriental Ruhr". It has the No. 1 machine tool factory, smelting factory, transformer factory, chemical factory, tractor factory, blower factory, Northeast Pharmaceutical Factory... Each factory is the leader in various industries in the country, and China's The first national emblem, the first tractor, the first internal combustion engine, etc. were all born here.

But now, it has begun to decline.

My uncle lived in a place called Workers' Village. My father said that this place was once known as the "No. 1 Village in the Country", with electric lights, telephones, gas heaters, grain stations, cooperatives, post offices, motorcycles and trams, labor parks, clubs, and cinemas. It is simply a small society.

When Fang Minghua and the others arrived, the place was indeed very lively. There were vendors setting up stalls on both sides of the street, video halls, and dance halls.

Even though it's daytime, you can still hear music coming from inside.

Fang Minghua and his father rushed to his uncle's house and lived in a three-story building. This is a typical building in a workers' village. It was designed in the 1950s according to the drawings of the former Soviet Union. It also has a special name: "three-story ridged roof style". Residential".

It is also commonly known as the "Suzhou-style building": the building is square, with wooden floors, brick-concrete structure, extremely thick walls, and a ceiling height of 2.8 meters.

The uncle's family lives on the third floor.

They went upstairs. There were white couplets on the door. There were a lot of people coming in and out. When they saw Fang Changhe and his son, someone immediately greeted them.

"Second uncle, Minghua, you are back."

The two entered the house. There was not much space inside, but there were quite a few people. Among them was an old woman with a haggard face, who was Fang Minghua's aunt.

There were a few people wearing filial piety beside them, they were Fang Minghua's peers.

After a while of greetings, Fang Minghua was also put on a white mourning veil.

"Where is my uncle's mourning hall?" Fang Minghua asked softly.

"It's in the third mourning hall of the funeral home. The space at home is small and there's no room for it. Now it's usually there. Mingjie and Mingjun are guarding there." The eldest aunt said.

"Dad, you rest first. I'll go over and offer some incense to my uncle."

Fang Changhe agreed.

Fang Minghua put down his luggage, then went downstairs and drove straight to the funeral parlor. As a junior, he did not forget to buy three wreaths and write the names of the eldest sister, the youngest sister, and members of his own family on the wreaths to express the gratitude of the younger generation to the elders. of condolences.

When he arrived at the third mourning hall, Fang Minghua saw a coffin placed inside, with his uncle's portrait in front and several people wearing mourning hats next to him.

Leaning the wreath against the surrounding walls, Fang Minghua knelt in front of the portrait, lit three sticks of incense, and kowtowed three times before standing up to chat with his brothers.

The uncle has two sons. The eldest son, Fang Mingjie, took over from his uncle and joined the Fengtian Heavy Machinery Factory as a worker. The wife he found was a worker in the factory. The second son, Fang Mingjun, attended the technical school run by the factory after graduating from junior high school and is now also in the factory. At work, my wife is a kindergarten teacher in the factory.

It can almost be said that the uncle's family all lives in this factory.

The brothers had not seen each other for many years and had no common experiences. After greeting each other, they had nothing to say. However, Fang Minghua felt that this was too boring, so he had nothing to say.

The eldest brother was in his early forties and seemed to be a boring gourd. The second son, Fang Mingjun, was a little younger than Fang Minghua, so the two started chatting.

First, they talked about the current situation of their respective families, and then Fang Minghua asked: "Mingjun, how is the efficiency of the factory?"

"Benefit?" Fang Mingjun showed a wry smile after hearing this: "What a benefit! Damn it, I'm going to be laid off soon! Damn it!"

Fang Mingjun suddenly cursed, causing Fang Mingjie next to him to glare at his younger brother.

Fang Mingjun was usually used to being casual, but he didn't dare to say anything in his father's mourning hall and kept his mouth shut.

Fang Minghua couldn't say any more.

After staying in the mourning hall for a while, Fang Minghua decided to leave. First, he had to find a hotel and arrange accommodation for himself and his father - his aunt's house was so small that it would definitely not fit in.

In addition, as a junior, I have to take turns to keep vigil here at night.

According to Northeastern customs, people are usually buried on odd-numbered days after death, three, five, or seven days. Today is the third day since his uncle died, which means he can be cremated and buried after two days.

During the vigil at night, Fang Minghua went back to catch up on his sleep during the day. For someone like him who had come from afar and was not familiar with the surrounding environment, they usually wouldn't arrange any work for him, so he basically had nothing to do all day until he finished prescribing for his uncle on the fifth day. The memorial service ends with cremation and burial in the cemetery.

However, Fang Minghua followed his father and did not return to Xijing.

According to Northeastern customs, there is also a garden tomb, which means that on the third day after the deceased is buried, relatives and friends go to the mausoleum to round the grave, add soil, and burn paper.

Fang Changhe decided to stay and give his eldest brother his grave before going back.

Fang Minghua decided to look around to see if he could chat with a few more worker families, so he found his cousin Fang Mingjun.

"Brother Minghua, what's the point of talking about this?" Fang Mingjun didn't quite understand.

"As you know, I am a writer, and I want to write some articles that reflect the life and work of workers' families." Fang Minghua said his purpose.

"Okay, I haven't been working in the past two days. I'm familiar with the area. I'll show you around." Fang Mingjun readily agreed.

Wearing an old military coat and a locomotive cap, Fang Minghua rode on his cousin's motorcycle and braved the severe cold to visit factories and family buildings in the vicinity.

He ran for three days and wrote down his interview records.

November 26, 1992, the first feeling.

The afterglow of the setting sun enveloped the entire urban area. Standing on the once prosperous Jianshe Avenue, Fang Minghua truly felt the desolation here.

At the gate of XX Industrial Electromechanical Factory, the "Shen" in the factory name has mostly fallen off, and "Ye" only has two dots on the left and right. The factory building is empty, and most of the window glass inside is incomplete.

The cold wind broke the window, making bursts of sobbing.

Fang Minghua didn't expect that he and his cousin experienced an "elevator shock" in the staff dormitory building: when they returned from taking photos on this high building, the elevator stopped abruptly on the sixth floor, and then quickly slid down, stopping only when it was almost at the bottom.

Fang Minghua was still in shock and asked an old man in the same elevator: "Is there no one to repair this elevator?"

The old man smiled bitterly and said: "This is an old problem, almost every day. The factory is going bankrupt, where can we get the money to repair the elevator?"

This was the first impression Fang Minghua left. And such factories can be found everywhere here. Night fell.

Fang Minghua followed Fang Mingjun, riding a motorcycle from the factory area to the family area. During the chat, Fang Mingjun told Fang Minghua: "In the 1950s, this was the most modern residential area in China.

The so-called 'upstairs and downstairs, electricity and telephones' refers to this place."

Before 8 o'clock in the evening, there were already few people on the streets of the workers' village. The lights in the buildings were dim and there was silence.

Fang Mingjun explained: "All the workers have been laid off, who would have the heart to enjoy a nightlife?"

The only lights visible on the street were the small bulbs lit by several fruit vendors at their stalls. When our car passed by, the stall owner shouted at us: "Duck pears! Three yuan for six pounds! Selling cheap!"

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