Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 3: Ms. Tao, the Outlaw

"Hey, that girl Tao Yushu didn't come back after all, right?"

"It's already this late, why are you coming back? I heard it's been half a year and he hasn't even written a letter. I told you, he's an educated youth from the city, he's as pretty as a flower, and he got into a prestigious school in Beijing, how can he compare to that kid from Chaoyang?"

"Erchun is a man who loves to scheme! He has been scheming all his life, and now he has schemed for his own son, right?"

"The Tao Yu family is a family of scholars. I heard that one of their family members is a professor at some university. Erchun was hoping to improve the breed for the Lin family, but now, he has lost both the wife and the army!"

"Hehe! This person is destined to be what he is. Don't be stubborn, it's useless!"

……

The big locust tree commonly seen in rural areas of the north looks like an octogenarian among trees. In midsummer, its branches and leaves are lush and green, casting a large area of ​​shade under the sunshine. Under the tree, there are several middle-aged women in simple clothes, who are working and talking about the family matters of the team.

Today, the focus of their topic was on Lin Erchun, the team leader of Xiaoyangtun Production Team, and his son Lin Chaoyang. Not only today, but in the past six months or so, this has always been a hot topic among the women in the team.

At this time, a woman who looked to be in her fifties passed by. Her skin was rough and her face was full of wrinkles left by the hard work of the past years. Her lips were thinner than those of ordinary people, and she looked like a woman who was good at speaking.

When they saw the woman, the voices under the locust tree suddenly became lower, and everyone's eyes were fixed on her, as if they were waiting for her to come over.

Zhang Guiqin did not hesitate. She knew very well what these old ladies had just talked about. It was nothing more than her family affairs.

In the past, if she knew about others talking about her family's affairs behind their backs, she would block the door and curse for a long time.

Having been married to Lin Erchun for more than 20 years, she has always been the best in the team, but now, she doesn't have that ambition anymore.

Zhang Guiqin passed by the locust tree without talking to the women, but walked by with her head held high.

Although the back view looked arrogant, in the eyes of the women it looked more like he was fleeing.

"What are you so proud of?"

"She is not arrogant at all, she is clearly guilty."

The women under the locust tree burst into unbridled laughter.

A young man who was walking by hurriedly was not happy to hear these women gossiping, "Look at you guys chattering all day long. When you do some work, your mouths become like belts. Why can't you stay idle?"

The woman with a round face and a big butt retorted: "You idiot, you are such a disrespectful dog. How dare you talk to me like that? Do you believe that I will let your father beat you with a belt?"

"Aunt Si, don't look for my father anymore. Why don't you check where my uncle is first?"

The round-faced woman was startled, and without caring to argue with Er Maitai anymore, she asked, "Didn't he go down to the ground?"

"I didn't see it anyway!"

The round-faced woman suddenly became anxious and stood up, cursing, "This bastard must have gone to the commune to look for Sheng Laoliu again!"

The round-faced woman hurriedly went to look for her husband who was playing with money. Without a capable person, the atmosphere of the symposium under the tree seemed a little deserted.

Er Maitai sent the round-faced woman away with just one sentence, his smugness hard to conceal on his face. He turned around and left to look for someone.

He caught up with Zhang Guiqin and asked, "Aunt, is Chaoyang at home?"

"No. I left home this morning. Go check on the school."

"I just looked through the school and there was no one."

"I don't know about that." Zhang Guiqin was in a bad mood. She didn't talk much with Er Maitai and walked towards home.

"I understand!"

"I understand!"

Er Maitai's hoarse voice was so loud in the team that it shook the heavens, but it did not alarm the young man who was lying on the pile of firewood to dry seedlings in the sun.

The firewood pile made of corn stalks was more than two meters high and as neatly arranged as tofu blocks stacked by soldiers.

Lin Chaoyang rested his head on his hands, holding a dogtail grass in his mouth, and occasionally drawing a circle in the air. He crossed his legs, looking at the half-bright and half-dark clouds in the sky. He had never felt so relaxed.

crossed!
This was probably the biggest lottery win he had ever had in his two lifetimes.

He was already thirty years old before he traveled through time, and was returned to the period before liberation overnight. However, he had no regrets or remorse in his heart. Even though he was so powerful and wealthy, who could resist the temptation of living his life again?

Traveling through time and space to the body of a young man with the same name, he felt the seemingly endless energy and desire contained in his body. The blue sky before him was boundless, just like his future life. This was the golden age of his life.

Is there anything better than this?

It’s been a year since he traveled to the 1970s. Time flies so fast!
It is August now, and all universities, colleges and primary and secondary schools are on summer vacation. As a young teacher in his team, he has no work to do and has to go to the fields to farm.

There is not much work in the team today. The team's loudspeaker just announced in the morning that a movie would be shown in the evening. The members have no intention of working at all. They are all looking forward to the movie in the evening.

In recent years, the morale of the production team has been low, and the labor intensity and discipline are no longer as good as they used to be. Lin Chaoyang took a break from his busy schedule and ran to a hidden pile of firewood to think about life.

There are still four months to the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in December. When Lin Chaoyang thought of the times coming, he felt a surge of passion in his heart.

However, the warm sun soon wore away his arrogance.

Intermittent ambition and continuous idleness were the norm for many people in the era before the time travel.

Lin Chaoyang was a worker before he traveled through time. In his previous life, he worked hard for twelve years and finally got into a 211 university. However, after leaving school, he found that graduate students were everywhere and undergraduates were worse than dogs. It was harder than climbing to the sky to get rich by working.

He worked hard for ten years and finally made it to the middle level of the company. In order to achieve good performance, he came to work early and left late every day, had to be humble in front of customers, and fawn on his superiors. He didn't even have time to go on a blind date or have a relationship.

But in the end, he sadly discovered that those who can do are not as good as those who can talk, and those who can talk are not as good as those who can use backdoors. His career was doomed to a ceiling from the very beginning, and no matter how hard he tried, it would be of no avail.

When he reached middle age, he had become more open-minded and wanted to learn from those old-timers who lived a life of idleness and waiting for death. However, he did not expect that while the country was prosperous and the industry was thriving, he would be laid off.

I remember that when he was in college, he was also a hipster surrounded by girls!
But after entering the society, he was forced step by step by the society to become the person he once hated the most.

Lin Chaoyang spat out the dogtail grass in his mouth, and his eyes seemed to penetrate the void and see the "entrepreneurship godfather" and "technology giant" who were talking incessantly in front of the camera, and he hated evil.

"Working? Tui! I won't even hit a dog!"

After traveling through time for a year, Lin Chaoyang had already figured it out. After the city was opened, he would use his foresight to make his first fortune, then support a few younger brothers to work for him, and then just lie back and live a life of idleness.

In his previous life, he had been a wage earner all his life. He was exhausted as a dog in the company, and had to endure constant bullying from customers and superiors, and clean up the mess for the heartless subordinates born after 95 and 00 from time to time. He was alone when he returned home, and had to endure the urging of relatives to get married during the holidays.

God finally gave him a lottery ticket, so shouldn’t he enjoy it?
If he doesn't live his life like a lazy fish, he will be sorry to God!
This is just like traveling back in time to a young rural man. If he had traveled back in time to the body of a high-ranking official's son, why would he bother with these things? He could have just gotten some approval slips and found a white glove and gotten away with it long ago.

Chaotic thoughts are jumping around in my mind, but occasionally a bright and beautiful face will appear in front of me.

I don’t know how my young educated youth wife is doing now?

The thought flashed through his mind, and Lin Chaoyang curled up into a sneer.

The educated youth who were admitted to the university are like a husky that has been let go. Do you still expect them to come back?

I laughed at my own naivety in my heart, when I heard a shout in my ears.

"I understand!"

The rough shouting caught Lin Chaoyang's attention, and he looked up, leaning on his hands.

After a moment, the sound became closer and louder, awakening Lin Chaoyang's sense of closeness and bond with this era.

I saw a black whirlwind in the flying dust, and the figure appeared in front of me in an instant.

The man was over 1.80 meters tall, as strong as a bull, with a square face and a crew cut on his head that gave him a tough temperament. The only flaw was that his sharp eyes were a little cross-eyed, which greatly reduced his overall temperament.

"What are you arguing about?" Lin Chaoyang scolded.

Er Maitai ran over, raised his head and said to Lin Chaoyang anxiously: "Da Mingbai, guess who I was watching in the commune?"

Lin Chaoyang put down his arms and lay back down, saying in a calm voice, "Why keep me in suspense? If you want to tell me, tell me. If you don't want to tell me, forget it."

Seeing him like this, Er Maitai was no longer anxious, "You really don't want to know?"

"I don't want to know." Lin Chaoyang replied with half his eyes half closed. Suddenly he remembered something and stood up to ask, "Where's my newspaper?"

Er Maitai went to the commune today. Lin Chaoyang asked him to go to the post office to bring back two newspapers. Er Maitai came back without any newspapers in his hand. Lin Chaoyang was immediately unhappy.

Er Maitai was furious when he heard this and said, "It's already this hour, and you're still thinking about your newspaper?"

"You know shit!" Lin Chaoyang cursed.

It is true that Lin Chaoyang traveled through time, but he did not experience the early days of reform and opening up in his previous life. The past he knew through texts and video materials before he traveled through time was superficial.

So over the past six months, he has been insisting on reading books and newspapers, and has never missed a beat in the team's loudspeaker broadcasts, fully absorbing nutrients from reality. These will become stepping stones for his future success.

With a prophet and a full understanding of current policies, he will be successful when he comes out.

Lin Chaoyang wanted to give Ermaitai some moral lessons, but before he could open his mouth, Ermaitai blurted out: "I saw Tao Yushu!"

It was like a patient with prostatitis standing in front of a urinal. The words on the tip of his tongue were blocked and he could only mutter a few words: "She... how... did she... come... back?"

Lin Chaoyang has always felt that he is a time traveler with a bright future. Others have their own futures to pursue, and he will not delay their future by begging for money.

What's more, now that you have let go, you should be more free and easy.

But when he heard the name "Tao Yushu" again, he couldn't help but feel a beating in his heart.

Er Maitai looked at Lin Chaoyang's reaction with a bit of pride, and a few words were written on his face: You keep pretending in front of me!

"Do you even need to ask? I came back to find you. You two are married and have obtained a marriage certificate." Er Maitai replied.

I have the certificate, but I have never used my spear, Lin Chaoyang added in his mind.

Tao Yushu came to the Xiaoyangtun Youth League Center in 1972. As soon as she appeared, she stunned the entire Youth League Center and the commune with her beautiful and bright appearance.

In less than a month, her beauty spread to several surrounding communes and counties. There was an endless stream of young men who came to the educated youth site to admire her beauty, and there were even several jealous fights over her.

In the special era of the 1970s, the words "single", "beautiful" and "female educated youth" combined together seemed to have doomed Tao Yushu's life as an educated youth to be full of hardships.

But to everyone's surprise, except for a few farces caused by the young men who admired Tao Ai occasionally, Tao Yushu's life in the Xiaoyangtun Youth League site was unexpectedly peaceful.

The reason for this is inseparable from Tao Yushu's own duty. She was born in a scholarly family, but she was not a spoiled girl. She was always active in her work and never lagged behind others. She never showed any interest in the overt or covert advances and pursuits of young men from the educated youth center, the commune, and the county. She was a woman with great determination and self-respect.

Lin Chaoyang is the only son of Lin Erchun, the team leader of Xiaoyangtun Production Brigade. He had an older brother who unfortunately died in infancy.

Therefore, in the upbringing of Lin Chaoyang, Lin Erchun and his wife seemed to be overly doting on him. Of course, in the conditions of this era, it is not material doting, but more spiritual.

Lin Chaoyang's parents' love was reflected in his growing environment, which saved him from a lot of hardship. After graduating from junior high school, Lin Erchun arranged for Lin Chaoyang to teach in the team primary school.

In rural areas of this era, teaching as a team teacher is the second only employment option for rural youth after studying, being employed, and joining the army.

Lin Chaoyang's ability to become a teacher in this team does not count as his father Lin Erchun abusing public resources for personal gain. After all, his junior high school education is the educational ceiling for Xiaoyangtun.

A junior high school education is not considered high, but it is rare in rural areas in this era.

As a team teacher, Lin Chaoyang only needs to teach every day to earn ten work points, which is much easier than other members.

However, during the winter and summer vacations, he still had to participate in labor like other members of the commune. Thanks to these opportunities, he became familiar with the educated youth who worked with him.

Lin Chaoyang was in his youth. Tao Yushu, a beautiful female educated youth from a scholarly family with outstanding temperament, naturally became the woman he dreamed of day and night, but he had always had unrequited love for her.

Until his father Lin Erchun realized his son's thoughts.

My son likes Tao Yushu. If the two of them can really get married, it will be of great help sooner or later. By then, maybe he can escape from farming and bring honor to the Lin family.

Moreover, Tao Yushu went to the countryside to work in the fields in 72, and was three years older than Lin Chaoyang. As the saying goes, a woman three years older than a man will bring him wealth. Female comrades mature early, and when they are older, they will definitely know how to love others after getting married.

In addition, Tao Yushu had never been involved in any scandals during his four years at the educated youth center.

In terms of appearance, character, temperament, and family background, there is nothing wrong with him.

Lin Erchun wanted to develop such an outstanding female educated youth as her into his daughter-in-law. If he told others about it, he would probably be laughed at and mocked for being a toad in the Lin family who wanted to eat swan meat.

But he deeply practices the words of the great man: No matter what you do in the world, you must be serious.

In order to create more opportunities for his son Lin Chaoyang to spend time with Tao Yushu, he demoted his son from the position of team teacher to the fields, and when assigning labor tasks, he always inadvertently assigned Lin Chaoyang and Tao Yushu together.

After half a year, Lin Erchun felt that the time was right and planned to create more opportunities for his son.

But before Lin Erchun could take any action, Lin Chaoyang shattered his plan by acting as a hero to save a beautiful girl.

During a collective labor, Lin Chaoyang was injured and lost excessive blood in order to save Tao Yushu who accidentally rolled down a steep slope.

It was because of this injury that the original Lin Chaoyang died, and was replaced by the soul of a social animal from decades later.

The brand new Lin Chaoyang woke up from his serious injuries, and when he opened his eyes he saw Tao Yushuo, who was crying and looked pitiful.

Before traveling through time, Lin Chaoyang had only had one unrequited love experience in college. After working, he was trapped in endless work and overtime. When had he ever enjoyed such treatment? He accepted all of his original body's inheritance almost without any sense of incongruity.

Lin Chaoyang was seriously injured while saving Tao Yushu. Tao Yushu was filled with gratitude and took care of him day and night during his bedridden days. Their relationship quickly heated up.

When Lin Chaoyang recovered from a serious illness, his father Lin Erchun couldn't wait to propose marriage to Tao Yushu on behalf of his son.

After hesitating, Tao Yushu told Lin Chaoyang that she had just received a letter from her father.

In the past few years, Tao Yushu's family had a miserable life because of their background. Their parents and brothers were separated from each other. Only their younger sister was placed in the home of relatives in Yanjing due to policy considerations.

After F4 was crushed, Tao Yushu knew that good days would soon come for her family, but she didn't expect the good news to come so soon.

According to the description in my father's letter, my parents have been given ordinary treatment (not a typo) and will soon be assigned to work in their original unit. Their wages from previous years will also be compensated after they return to Beijing.

Such great news made Tao Yushu cry with joy, but what made her even happier was yet to come.

In the letter, his father implicitly told Tao Yushu that the authorities were studying the restoration of the college entrance examination and the policy might be announced soon, so Tao Yushu must take this opportunity to return to Yenching.

When Tao Yushu and other educated youth went to the countryside to work in the fields, they cancelled their urban household registration in order to settle down in the frontier for the rest of their lives. However, several years of hard rural life had already worn away the passion in their hearts.

In the past two years, many educated youths who were tired of the life in the countryside wanted to return to the city. The children of the army used their connections to join the army. Those who were smart secretly studied on their own and carefully managed their interpersonal relationships in order to get a recommendation for the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University...

While others were busy digging holes to return to the city, Tao Yushu remained indifferent, because she knew very well that it would be extremely difficult to return to the city given her family background. Her father's letter gave Tao Yushu hope of returning to the city and going to college.

Although he did not have much experience in love, Lin Chaoyang had seen many breakups and reunions between men and women in his previous life.

Since someone wanted to pursue their career, he naturally would not stop them. Instead, he admired Tao Yushu's character of speaking his mind. There were too many scandals these days in the attempt to return to the city.

On October 1977, 10, the brigade's loudspeaker sounded on time, broadcasting news and newspaper excerpts from the Central People's Broadcasting Station. An exciting piece of news came:

The country has resumed the college entrance examination!

Lin Chaoyang specially found a set of mathematics, physics and chemistry books for Tao Yushu, as well as various review materials to help her prepare for the college entrance examination. His actions touched Tao Yushu's heart, but also made her parents very dissatisfied.

Tao Yushu was going to take the college entrance exam, which almost meant that his son's marriage was going to fail. But his silly son actually rushed to offer help. He was afraid that his wife wouldn't run away fast enough!

Two months passed in a flash, and in December Tao Yushu entered the examination room.

In early February of the following year, before the Lantern Festival, the commune postman delivered Tao Yushu's admission letter.

She was admitted to Yenching Normal University!
The news quickly spread throughout the county. Only four people in the county were admitted to university this year, and Tao Yushu was the only one who was admitted to the prestigious Yenching University.

Being admitted to university also means that Tao Yushu will soon go far away.

But I don't know what she was thinking, she wanted to get married with Lin Chaoyang at this time.

Lin Chaoyang was born in the 90s, but his thinking is that of a s person. He would not stop his girlfriend from pursuing her career, but why did she want to get a marriage certificate before leaving?
After we get the marriage certificate, you can just walk away and be cool about it. Then won't I become a second-married man?

He thought that Tao Yushu might have done this because of her emotions. It didn't matter that she was infatuated for a while, but it would ruin his reputation for half his life, so Lin Chaoyang naturally couldn't agree.

His actions really irritated Tao Yushu, who cried and blamed Lin Chaoyang in front of Lin Erchun and his wife.

Faced with such a situation, Lin Erchun and his wife were also dumbfounded.

When other families found a daughter-in-law or son-in-law who was an educated youth, the whole family would try to keep him if he wanted to leave. But why was it the other way around in the Lin family?

After Lin Chaoyang told his parents what was in his mind, Lin Erchun began to wonder in his heart, this was indeed a hidden danger.

After much thought, Lin Erchun came up with an idea.

He was the production team leader and he was able to issue the marriage certificate. After going to the hospital for a marriage check-up, he went to the commune and found an acquaintance to secretly tore up the certificate. No one knew about it and the wedding was not held.

In this way, even if Tao Yushu went to the city and never came back, and divorced her son, no one would know that her son was getting married for the second time.

Faced with his father's outrageous actions, Lin Chaoyang commented: The old man is obsessed with improving the breed!

However, Tao Yushu had overwhelming support in terms of numbers, and Lin Chaoyang's opposition was ineffective.

On February 1978, 2, Comrade Lin Chaoyang received a marriage certificate and was forced to become a married man.

That day was 20 days away from his legal marriage age of 349.

According to Mr. Luo, Ms. Tao Yushu is definitely an outlaw.

Of course, this kind of thing will be commonplace in rural areas, not to mention now, even in twenty years, and it will not be surprising.

After getting the marriage certificate, Lin Chaoyang decided to exercise his legal rights as a husband with the mentality of "if you don't take advantage of an opportunity, you'll be a bastard".

But before he could take off his pants, Tao Yushu ran to the train station with his luggage on his back. Yanshi University was going to start school on February 2.

This marriage is so frustrating!
Lin Chaoyang felt that he was being manipulated by a little girl from the 1970s. Before leaving, he vented his anger by giving Tao Yushu a shocking French kiss on the platform of the train station.

After the passionate kiss, they showed the marriage certificate to the astonished people around them, "What are you looking at? We are a legal couple!"

The people around looked at Tao Yushu's beautiful face and Lin Chaoyang's rude manners, and could only sigh in private.

"Immoral!"

"A flower stuck in cow dung!"

After the kiss, Lin Chaoyang felt much better. He wanted to say goodbye in a casual manner, but unexpectedly, Tao Yushu hugged him tightly with tears streaming down her face.

"Wait for me!"

Usually in movies and TV dramas, words like these mean a farewell of life and death. Lin Chaoyang was mentally prepared for Tao Yushu to never come back.

No matter what Lin Chaoyang's mental journey was, Tao Yushu was gone after all.

Except for the two days of low spirits at the beginning, Lin Chaoyang quickly returned to his carefree state, teaching, farming, reading books and newspapers, and practicing dog paddling for the coming tide of the times.

Tao Yushu was away for longer and longer periods of time, and there was not even a letter from him for several months.

This was not unexpected by Lin Chaoyang. He just sighed that women can change their attitude much faster than men can.

During this period, Lin Chaoyang also suffered criticism from his teammates.

What are the sayings like "a toad wants to eat swan flesh", "stealing a chicken but losing the rice", "failed to climb the high branch and fell flat on his face"...

Moreover, this criticism did not dissipate with the passage of time, but became more intense, and may eventually turn into a lifelong "stain" on Lin Chaoyang.

Lin Chaoyang himself did not take these words to heart, but it made Lin Erchun and his wife very worried. They used to be respectable people in the team, but now they are unwilling to say a word when they meet people.

The memories in his mind stopped here, and Lin Chaoyang warned Er Maitai: "Don't talk nonsense!"

The team members don’t know that Lin Chaoyang and Tao Yushu have gotten married. If they knew about this, the outcry of public opinion would probably rise to another level.

He himself was fine, but he was worried that the old couple couldn't bear it.

Er Maitai raised an eyebrow at him, "Don't worry, I'm very tight-lipped!"

Lin Chaoyang nodded. This was one of the few advantages of Ermaitai.

With a swift leap, Lin Chaoyang jumped off the pile of firewood and left in big strides.

"Hey, where are you going?" Er Maitai asked behind him.

"I'm hungry, let's go home and eat!" Lin Chaoyang said without turning his head.

Er Maitai looked at the sun in the sky and wondered if it was lunch or dinner.
(End of this chapter)