寒冷的冬天終于就要過去。

粉碎“四人幫”后的第二年,即使在川北偏僻山中的小山村,也可以嗅到一絲春的氣息了。

第一縷春風,來自遙遠的安徽鳳陽縣小崗村。這一年,小崗村的農民吃夠了大呼隆生產方式的苦頭,他們實在活不下去了,20多戶村民冒著坐牢的風險,在一盞煤油燈下秘密串通后,在一張紙上按上了密密麻麻幾排手印。他們做出了一個膽大包天的決定:劃分集體的土地,實行家庭聯產承包責任制。隨后,在當地領導裝聾作啞默許之下,這股包產到戶的星星之火以燎原之勢,迅速在各地農村悄悄蔓延起來。

周興和是個嗅覺極其敏銳的人。

不甘寂寞的他又蠢蠢欲動起來。

1974年初,由于他做草藥、票證等小生意,又被“群專”組織沒收了物品,在公社又被掛牌游街后,他這死心塌地“走資本主義道路的壞分子”,更是在當地聲名狼藉,連小生意也無法再做下去了。“民不畏死,奈何以死懼之。”一不做二不休,周興和想了幾天,他既沒有抱石投河,也沒有找人拼命,他懷揣幾塊錢,告別妻兒,一咬牙遠走他鄉了。走出家門,他睡車站,蹲屋檐,有時在外地打幾天短工,有時在別處做點能掙錢的小生意,掙點錢后再偷偷回家給妻兒買點吃的用的。

“中山大隊的那個周興和,不安心在生產隊勞動,長期在外當流竄犯!對這樣屢教不改的人,早就該專他的政了!”公社革委會領導在大會上把周興和作為反面教育典型,他們指使“群專組”的人,“這樣的人,要把他抓回來,不行就送到公安局關起來!”

“那個周興和,十四五歲就拖家養口的,也不容易。他不偷不搶,也沒危害社會呀。”公社里有人動了惻隱之心,“把他抓回來關起,他家里大大小小幾個娃兒要吃飯,都餓死了啷個整啰!”

“那就勒令他限期回來,交給生產隊勞動管制,不準亂走亂動!”

到了1976年夏天,“反擊右傾翻案風”開始了,階級斗爭風聲更是緊了起來。公社革委會通過各種手段,勒令周興和回到了生產隊,他們既要繼續批判他頭腦中的“資產階級思想”,又要限制他的人身自由,不準他亂走亂動,在農村接受“勞動改造”。

可桀驁不馴的周興和,即使回到生產隊勞動,他也不可能是個安分守己的角色。那時,生產隊限制一個人只能在自留地里種一窩菜,按規定他一家5口人只能種5窩,他卻別出心裁地將南瓜和其它菜苗嫁接起來,然后在嫁接處用土埋起來再生根,讓瓜藤繼續往前生長。結果,他種的1窩菜變成了無數窩,產量比其他人多好幾倍。生產隊干部來檢查,那真是哭笑不得,然而爭論一番也只好不了了之。你說,他到底種的是幾窩菜呢?

那時,農村還有一件說來令人不可置信的荒唐事:社員家里自己養的豬產生的豬糞,都要全部交到生產隊,交不夠數量的要扣工分!為了防止養豬戶“偷”自家的糞,隊里有時甚至在養豬戶豬圈里做上記號。但,這樣一來,自己家那點自留地里要施肥怎么辦呢?周興和自有對付他們的辦法:往糞坑里摻水、添渣、重做記號,他鬼點子多的是!他要保證自己自留地能用上肥料,多收一點瓜菜來填喂大人小孩的肚皮。

被監督勞動的周興和,這時似乎已是死豬不怕開水燙,生產隊的干部對他真還無可奈何。

還好,山外終于有風徐徐吹到了魏河兩岸。

這風,夾雜著一絲大地回暖的氣息。

春江水暖鴨先知。

不知是從那一天的哪一個早晨開始,周興和從生產隊的大喇叭里嗅出了一點別的氣味。那坡上的大喇叭,除了仍在繼續叫著要“反擊右傾翻案風”外,也在反復叫著要“抓革命,促生產”了。再往后,從許多跡象中,周興和隱隱約約感到農村有些政策快要變了。在趕場過河船上,有人談論起了集體生產不會長久了,將來說不定土地還會劃歸各家各戶耕種;談論起了某領導在某場合說過,搞活農村經濟不算投機倒把,個人搞點副業不算資本主義;特別是到后來,社會上竟風傳起來鄧小平可能要復出的消息!憑著直覺,周興和感到屬于他的機會就要來了。

是的,周興和的感覺是對的。隨著時間推移,農村合作化以來有些根深蒂固的東西,到了1978年初,似乎開始慢慢松動起來:農民在自留地種菜不再限制窩數,養雞養鴨不再限制只數,到場上賣點雞蛋小菜,市管會的人也開始睜只眼閉只眼了。

夜深人靜,這時的周興和有些坐臥不安起來。有好多個夜晚,妻子和孩子們都睡了,他從床上爬了起來,一個人走到院壩里,坐在壩子邊那塊石頭上,望著遠處朦朧的山野,望著山頂上那彎游移的山月,一坐就坐到半夜。

多年在外東顛西跑,他見的東西多了,經歷的事情也多了,由此他得出了一個結論:如果說,就在這偏僻的山窩里當個循規蹈矩的農民,他家永遠就只能在這里當貧困戶,欠生產隊的錢他永遠不可能還清,家里大人小孩也只能是永遠餓肚皮的命。即使將來上頭政策變了,把土地劃給各家各戶耕種,自己和妻子就是拼死累活地干,最多就是能夠買回鹽巴煤油,全家人求得個溫飽。但,那也只會像自己的祖輩一樣,守著眼前這一畝二分地終老一生,孩子們一輩子也只能當農民,繼續在這里受窮受苦——不行,只有離開山里,到外面去闖蕩一番,說不定還能闖出一條生路來!

不成功便成仁。周興和骨子里就是那種寧折不彎、倔犟如牛的秉性。

遠處山坳里透出一絲晨光,近處的竹枝草葉輕輕地搖曳起來。既然大地就要回暖,自己還像一只蛤蟆一樣,蟄伏在洞里干什么呢?

周興和站了起來,深深吸了一口早晨這清新的空氣,他躍躍欲試,蠢蠢欲動起來。

The cold winter will be over at last.

In the second year after smashing the “Gang of Four”, even in the remote mountain village in the north of Sichuan, people could smell the spring.

The first spring breeze came from Xiaogang Village in Fengyang County, Anhui Province.This year, the farmers of Xiaogang Village had suffered enough from the headlong method of production. They could not live any longer. So, more than 20 households of villagers risked to be in jail, secretly communicated under a kerosene lamp and stamped several rows of fingerprints on a piece of paper.They made a bold decision: to divide up the collective land and implement the household contract responsibility system.Subsequently, under the tacit acquiescence of local leaders, this small spark of land contract started a prairie fire quickly and spread quietly in the countryside.

Zhou Xinghe is a man with a keen sense.

Unwilling to be quiet, he was tempted to do something again.

At the beginning of 1974, as he was engaged in the small businesses such as herbal medicines and certificates, confiscated by the "mass special organization", and paraded in the commune, he became even more notorious as an "evildoer taking the road of capitalism". Thus, even the small businesses could no longer be carried on."The people are not afraid of death. How could they be feared by death?" Zhou Xinghe thought for a few days, but he did not throw himself into the river with stones, nor did he find anyone to risk his life. With a little money in his pocket, he said goodbye to his wife and children and went away.Out of the house, he slept in the station, temporarily lived under other’s roof, sometimes worked for a few days in other locality, or did some small business to earn money in other places, and then secretly went home to buy food and utensil for his wife and children.

"That Zhou Xinghe of Zhongshan Team did not set his mind on working in the production team and was on the run for a long time!It shall dictate him who refused to correct one's errors despite repeated education!"The commune revolutionary committee leaders took Zhou Xinghe as a negative education model in the conference, and instigated the "mass special organization" that "such a person, you shall catch him back, or send to the public security bureau to shut him up!"

"It was not easy for Zhou Xinghe to feed his family since he was fourteen or fifteen years old.He does not steal or rob, nor does he harm the society."Someone in the commune commiserated Zhou Xinghe, "If taking him back and shutting him up, his wife and children still needs to eat, and who shall be responsible if they all starve to death!"

"Then, order him to come back within a certain period of time, hand over to the production team for labor control, and prohibit the disorderly walk or wander!"

By the summer of 1976, the "backlash against right-leaning revolts" had begun, and the class struggle became even more intense.By various means, the commune revolutionary committee ordered Zhou Xinghe to return to the production team. They should not only continue to criticize his "bourgeois ideology", but also restrict his personal freedom, forbidding him to wander around and requiring him to accept the "labor reform" in the countryside.

But the rebellious Zhou Xinghe, even coming back to the production team to work, could not be a role of peace and order.At that time, the production team limited that each person was able to plant one vegetable in the private plot, so according to the regulation his family of 5 person could plant 5 vegetables, he grafted the pumpkin and other vegetable seedling, buried with earth in the grafting place to take root again, so that the vine continued to grow forward.As a result, his one vegetable grew into countless vegetables, producing several times more than others.When the production team cadres came to check, it was really funny and annoying, but after the argument it came to no conlcusion.How many vegetables did he plant, you tell me?

At that time, the countryside also had an unbelievable and absurd thing: the pig excrement produced by the member's family raised pig shall all be handed over to the production team, and it shall deduct the workpoints if the quantity was insufficient!In order to prevent the pig farmers from "stealing" their manure, the team sometimes even marked in the farmer's pigsty.But then, how to fertilize their own private plot?Zhou Xinghe had his own way of dealing with them: he added water and slag to the cesspool, and made another mark. He was full of tricks!He just wanted to make sure his private plot to be fertilized. He wanted to harvest more melons to feed the children and adults of his family.

Zhou Xinghe, who was under the labor supervision, seemed to have no fear, and the cadres of the production team had nothing to do with him.

Fortunately, the wind finally blew in from the outside to the nanks of Weihe River.

The wind was mixed with a hint of earth warming breath.

The duck knows first when the river becomes warm in spring.

From a morning of a day, Zhou Xinghe sniffed out a bit of other smell from the loudspeaker of the production team.The loudspeaker on the slope also repeatedly called to "keep the revolution, and promote the production", in addition to still continue to call to "backlash against right-leaning revolts".Later, from many signs, Zhou Xinghe felt vaguely that some rural policies were about to change.As they crossed the river on the boat for the fair, there was people talking that the collective production would not last long, and that the land might one day be farmed by individual households;they talked about a certain leader had said on a certain occasion that, to invigorate the rural economy was not the speculative profitmaking, and the individuals to do some side business was not capitalist;especially later, the society unexpectedly spread the news that Deng Xiaoping might come back to be in power!With his intuition, Zhou Xinghe felt his chance was coming.

Zhou Xinghe’s intuition was correct.As time went on, something ingrained in rural cooperation began to loosen in early 1978: the farmers were no longer limited for the number of vegetables they could grow on their private plots; the chickens and ducks raised were no longer limited in number; the eggs and vegetables were sold on the fair, and the municipal management committee started to turn a blind eye.

In the dead of night, Zhou Xinghe was a little restless. In many nights, his wife and children were asleep, he climbed out of bed, went to the yard, sat on the rock in the yard, looked at the distant hazy mountains, looked at the curved wandering moon over the mountain top, and sat until midnight.

Over the years of running around, he saw so many things, and experienced so much, so he came to the conclusion: if keeping being a conventional farmer in this remote mountain area, his family would only be the low-income family here forever, the money he owed to the production team could never be paid up, and the adult and children at home would also be hungry forever.Even if the policy changed and the land was allocated to each family for farming, he and his wife would have to work very hard, to just afford to buy the salt and kerosene for the whole family to feed themselves.However, it was just similar to his ancestral generations, to keep the small land at present and finish a lifetime, and his children would also be farmer all their lives and suffer poor here - no way, only to leave the mountains, go outside to make a living, perhaps it can make another way to live!

Success or death.Zhou Xinghe is stubborn and persistent in nature.

In the distance, there was a glimmer of morning light in the col, and in the nearby, the bamboo branches and grasses swayed gently.Why was he dormant in his cave, like a toad, when the earth was about to thaw?

Zhou Xinghe stood up and took a deep breath of the fresh air in the morning. He was itching to try.