Shuangling: Braving the Rapids

Lying in bed, Aimin tossed and turned like a pancake, unable to fall asleep for a long time. Finally, he put on his clothes in the dark and simply ran outside the courtyard gate.

At this moment, the moonlight is both cool and bright, so bright that it would not be an exaggeration to say it is like daytime.

Standing beside the sheepfold, he could clearly see the saddle-shaped outline of Shuangling Mountain. Aside from him, probably no one else in the entire Qin Family Village had the leisure to appreciate this monotonous and dull night view. Luckily, no one was around, otherwise his strange posture of gazing at the sky would have become the subject of gossip.

In this remote mountain village, Aimin was destined to be lonely. He was unconventional and his thoughts were seriously out of sync with the atmosphere around him, which made him feel ignored and ostracized.

Take tonight's meeting, for example. The clan leader analyzed every detail and devised a plan, even outlining how to win over Qin Huozi, but no one mentioned the two acres of chrysanthemums he cultivated in Shuangxitian. He treated chrysanthemum cultivation as a career, but to outsiders, it was just a pastime for a well-fed but unambitious intellectual. He didn't care what outsiders thought, but the fact that his own family pretended not to see it made him feel uneasy.

A gust of night wind suddenly reminded Aimin of the patriotic song competition he attended in elementary school. As a young boy, he had belted out "We Are the Successors of Communism" with all his might and won first prize. But when he ran home with the certificate, his father offered no words of praise or encouragement. He simply grabbed a towel, wiped off the eyeshadow and blush the teacher had smeared on him, and then turned and squatted on the doorstep to smoke his pipe. Aimin, who had hoped for praise from his father, was deeply disappointed. He sobbed with grievance and ran all the way to Jutaidi, where he lay down on his mother's grave and cried for a long time.

Years later, when Aimin recalled this incident, his feelings had changed somewhat. He thought that if his mother hadn't died young but had accompanied him throughout his growth, perhaps he would have avoided many detours and had more choices. In any case, it would have been much better than living in a small mountain village.

As the only student from the village to be admitted to a key university, Aimin should have been making great strides in the outside world. Why is he working as an ordinary teacher in a rural middle school?

This is an absurd thing in itself.

Although Aimin had lofty aspirations, his ambition was definitely not to return to his hometown to teach. The reason for this situation was that he encountered a major setback when he was assigned a job after graduation.

In the late 80s, economic reforms entered a difficult period, with political turmoil and soaring prices. Some people who had lost their ideals and beliefs abused their power, and speculators made a fortune under the dual-track pricing system. The gap between the rich and the poor continued to widen, and even students in academia were severely impacted.

At that time, Aimin was the most prominent student union president at the university.

Upon hearing that a certain school leader had engaged in irregularities in infrastructure projects, he did not hesitate and worked overnight with his classmates to draft a manifesto, which was then posted all over the school's bulletin boards.

The article lists the leader's so-called "misdeeds," and between the lines, there are obvious traces of radical ideology. Such thinking is not to be tolerated!

Universities are not streets. By bypassing organizational boundaries and engaging in open confrontation, actions deemed "loving the people" have crossed a red line in the eyes of management.

Aimin received the maximum penalty for this, and if it weren't for the intervention of the highly respected Professor Meng, he would most likely have been expelled. Ultimately, his bachelor's degree was revoked, his application to teach in remote border regions was rejected, and to make matters worse, his girlfriend, with whom he shared a deep affection, broke up with him due to strong family interference. After a long period of depression, Aimin barely managed to obtain his graduation certificate with Professor Meng's personal intervention, and finally, disheartened, went to teach at Yanping No. 1 Middle School.

An individual's fate is insignificant in the face of the tides of history. But when the dust of history falls upon someone, they either suffer crushing defeat and a distorted personality, or they learn to carry on despite adversity.

Fortunately, Aimin was the latter.

After years of dedicated professional career, he is no longer just an angry young man who shouts slogans, but a practitioner who puts his beliefs into action and carries out change.

A cool breeze rose again, and Aimin couldn't help but shiver. He wrapped his coat tighter around himself and stared intently at the misty East and West Ridges.

He had wandered there countless times: sometimes running and playing on mountain paths, sometimes chasing pheasants and rabbits on earthen slopes and grassy areas. When bored, he would squat on the grassy fields and a cricket would while away most of the day; when sad, he would climb to the top of the ridge and look down at the village with its rising smoke and the winding loess gullies, and his depression and melancholy would instantly disappear.

He was healed and nurtured. Along the way, the mountain before him accompanied his growth and witnessed his transformation. In his heart, this mountain is incredibly profound, and has long been personified as a gentle mother, always there to give him a hug and warmth.

At this moment, Aimin made up his mind that no matter what difficulties he encountered, he would push forward with the chrysanthemum seedling cultivation project. This was not only about creating economic value, but also about protecting the mountains and forests. Rather than watching others destroy the forests, he would take the initiative. He firmly believed that as long as the experimental chrysanthemum fields were successfully promoted, most people in Qinjiazhuang would benefit.

If we can help them escape their lives of poverty and illness, perhaps some people will be willing to stand with Aimin and resist the greedy mine owners?