The countryside is not our only destination, but it is our last retreat.

▲The picture was taken in Suining’s hometown

This is the 377th picture and text updated by Lanyin Jiuer

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Picture and text丨Lanyin Jiuer

1

Is this my childhood?

On a green country road, a little girl carrying a schoolbag was running happily. On both sides of the road are endless fields, and at the end of the road is home.

In the evening when the sky was getting dark, the chickens and ducks playing outside were returning one after another. The smoke on the stove began to rise slowly. Before the mother could finish cooking, the little girl had already ran to the neighbor's house and looked for The little friend plays games and, of course, watches TV, although as she grows up, she has long forgotten what is shown on TV.

Suddenly, the room went dark, the power went out, and the TV had no speakers. Taking advantage of the moonlight, people started to come to an open space in the village with small benches and flashlights to chat about home life together. When I went back, I didn't forget to buy some candles from the small shop at the west end of the village.

As the crowd dispersed, the village gradually became quiet, and occasionally a few dog barks could be heard in the night. With a few rooster crows, the village began to wake up again in the morning mist. While the little girl was still sleeping, her mother was already busy cleaning up the inside and outside of the courtyard, and her father was already working in the fields.

The little girl who slept in had no time to drink the pumpkin porridge cooked by her mother. She just rolled up a pancake in a hurry, picked up her schoolbag, and walked towards the school. She always felt that the pancakes made by her mother were too thick and not as delicious as those made by her neighbors. But when she grew up and wanted to eat the pancakes made by her mother, her mother was too old to bake them.

This is my familiar childhood. Maybe, it's your childhood too.

▲The picture was taken in Suining’s hometown

2

What is your hometown? Some people say that hometown is a place that you want to escape from when you are a child and want to go back to when you grow up, but you cannot.

Perhaps because we have been away from home for too long, we always think that the countryside is too beautiful. When we go back, we find that it is unfamiliar to us.

Only a few old people were left guarding the house that was full of laughter and laughter in my childhood. The front doors of several households were overgrown with grass, and the tiles on the roofs had fallen off.

The short-lived excitement during the New Year is like a switch button. After it is over, they return to their respective "city" lives. Even when there is no epidemic, when I go home and face my childhood friends, I feel a sense of unfamiliar familiarity. Different experiences, different careers, different cities, and different cultures have made us drift apart.

Yes, we know each other very well, but we have nothing to say.

▲The picture was taken at Tian’s house in Hualian Village

3

Sometimes, I feel very lucky that the second hometown where I live now has mountains and water. The hollowing out of my own specialty resources is not as serious as that of my hometown.

My parents-in-law and Mr. Tian have been very supportive of my entrepreneurial endeavors in the past few years. They support my ideas and decisions. When I go out to study, either Mr. Tian will send me there or my mother-in-law will drive me there. (Now I have a driver’s license but can’t drive).

It is said to be a business, but in fact it is just using the specialty resources (spring tea, autumn crab, etc.) owned by one's own family and village to find ways to promote and sell some agricultural products. It is not that great.

Sometimes, I feel very powerless. Although I have feelings, I don’t have the ability to do more.

I have my own little family. I am a daughter, a daughter-in-law, a wife, and a mother. I can't take care of more. Even if I have big dreams, I only try carefully within the scope that I feel is controllable.

▲Villages photographed in recent years

4

Sometimes, I feel sad again.

We often lament the indifference of reinforced concrete cities, but we don’t know that today’s rural areas have already changed from an “acquaintance society” to a “semi-acquaintance society” in a differential pattern dominated by agriculture, and the proportion is still gradually changing. Zoom out.

For most people, it is more direct and faster to go out to work than to work hard on the land. Land can hardly give us a decent life. It is no longer people's only destination. When I was a child, during the busy farming season, the scene of neighbors helping out and gathering at the wheat field could never be seen again.

Saying goodbye to villages dominated by fields, people lacked reasons and opportunities for collective gatherings and fun.

Even though we all stay at home and rarely go out, the post-80s generation in the village may not recognize the post-90s generation, and the post-90s generation does not recognize the post-00s generation. When you have your own children, the first thing you think of going to school is the town or county. It is no longer the traditional primary school in the village, junior high school in the town, and high school in the county. People with certain conditions will also choose to buy a house in the county. Therefore, many children in the village do not know each other. Most people's activity range is only a few houses around.

Just like this rural e-commerce training event organized by Qingcha Space and me, Mr. Tian took me and my 20-year-old nieces from the village to visit each house in the village to inform them about the training. Information, find registration information for young people who are interested in studying. We found that many young people are not at home, and some young people stay at home because of the epidemic. If this training event had not been held, Mr. Tian might not have met his old classmates who he had not seen for several years.

▲The picture was taken at Hualian Murata’s house, promoting and registering for online training activities

5

We have grown up, but our hometown has become older. Even in the south, where the construction of beautiful countryside is more intensive, it still cannot stop young people from leaving.

I have seen that most villages in southern Jiangsu have begun to implement garbage classification, have modern public toilets, beautiful wall paintings, and activity squares, and the villages have begun to pay attention to greening and beautification. The polluted river water in front of my hometown village in northern Jiangsu has also begun to be treated. Trash cans have been installed in the village, and simple public toilets have been installed on the roadside.

However, there is still little trace of rural areas in the plans of the younger generation for studying, graduating, and working. As a person who loves the countryside, married to Gaochun, and lives in the countryside, I really hope that more young people in the village will stand up, unite, and think of doing something for the countryside, instead of a daughter-in-law from other places struggling alone. , to record. I have tasted hardships, experienced hardships, and heard cold words, but there is still a small group of unquenchable fire in my heart.

Professor He Xuefeng said in "Returning to Hometown": "Building rural areas is not first of all to realize the rural dream of the urban middle class, but to provide farmers who still need to obtain income and retreat from the countryside and agriculture. Provide the last choice. Carry out rural construction for the most disadvantaged peasant groups and not provide romantic nostalgia for the urban middle class. This should be the basic principle of nostalgia construction. In this sense, all people who come from rural areas to cities care about farmers. This is the largest group of people in China. All people who love this country, care about this country and see its unprecedented urbanization and modernization process have the responsibility and obligation to carry out rural construction within their capabilities. ”

Therefore. , I still will not give up my efforts and use my limited strength to do what I can. Although I don’t have the ability to sell all the specialties in the village, I can teach them how to use the most convenient network to promote themselves. Even if there are no special products to sell, it is meaningful to learn to publicize and let more people pay attention to the countryside.

No matter how the countryside changes, it is still a "paradise" in the hearts of wanderers. The countryside is not our only destination, but it is our last retreat. During the epidemic, this feeling became even more real. On days when we couldn't go out, we still had our own courtyard and vegetables from our own small garden to accompany us.

No matter how the countryside changes, the water and soil are still the source of warmth deep in our memories. If everyone shines a beam of light, the countryside will eventually be lit up.

▲The picture was taken at Hualian Murata’s house, promoting and registering for online training activities

▲Online training

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The author of this issue: Lan Yin Jiu'er, whose real name is the same as Jiu Hong. Catch a crab with your left hand and hold a pen with your right hand, discovering and recording the beauty of life with your heart. Born in northern Jiangsu and located in southern Jiangsu, he resigned and returned to his hometown to become a rural entrepreneur.