My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 4 The Ferryman
The bus Zhou Jingming was riding swayed like a drunkard on the bumpy dirt road for a whole day before finally entering Jiangyang territory.

Looking at the mountains and rivers outside the window, he felt a sense of familiarity mixed with strangeness, as if time had turned back.

As the car drew closer to his hometown, his youthful body contrasted sharply with the faded and blurry memories of his hometown from decades ago, like poorly preserved old black-and-white photographs.

But some memories are etched in our hearts and will never be forgotten.

What connects all of this is the Tuojiang River that flows right past my doorstep.

Originating from Jiuding Mountain in Sichuan, the Tuojiang River rushes through Jiangyang County.

At the bend in Haichao Town, there is a small ferry crossing for boat transfers – Huluzui.

There are three villages near Huluzui Ferry, with several hundred households and more than a thousand people.

Zhou Jingming's father, Zhou Detong, was assigned by the commune to ferry people across the river during the production team era. Back then, work points were awarded based on performance, and he worked through wind and rain to earn a meager amount of food for his family.

With the reform and opening up, land was distributed to individual households, and Zhou Detong took over the ferry service as well.

On weekdays, the mother, Shen Fengqin, works in the fields and takes care of household chores, while the father carries a boat pole, going out early and returning late, traveling back and forth between the two banks of the river to ferry villagers to the town.

The price for ferrying people across the river was five cents, but since they were all neighbors, my father never asked for money. He was very casual; if he had money, he would give it, and if he didn't, he wouldn't.

At the end of the month, I could earn seven or eight yuan at the slowest times and ten or more at the best, which was just enough to make ends meet. Life was uneventful.

Upon spotting the large paulownia tree on the edge of the town, Zhou Jingming asked the driver to drop him off.

Zhou Jingming was familiar with this paulownia tree.

There's a path next to the paulownia trees that leads to the ferry crossing. I used to walk that path a lot when I was in elementary and middle school.

Regarding the paulownia tree and the path, Zhou Jingming has only two things that he remembers most vividly.

One incident happened when Zhou Jingming was in first grade. He couldn't remember exactly what his parents had argued about, but he remembered that his mother went back to her parents' home in a fit of anger and didn't return for five days. His father, who worked long hours and came home late every day, finally experienced the power of only cold water and sour soup rice when he got home, and decided to go to his maternal grandmother's house to call his mother back.

Fearing he wouldn't be persuasive enough, the father insisted on bringing Zhou Jingming along. It was a very hot day, and the two of them rested under a paulownia tree.

There, Zhou Jingming asked his father a question: His older cousins ​​all have the name Zhou Xing something, and even his younger sister is called Zhou Xingyao, so why is his generation name different from theirs, and why is he called Zhou Jingming instead of Zhou Xingming?

His father told him that when he was born, an old man passed by their house and went in to beg for food. Seeing that the old man was wearing black-rimmed glasses and had a pen in his pocket, the father knew that he was an educated man and asked him to help him give him a name.

The old gentleman thought for a while, then asked his father to bring him some red paper. He wrote down the three characters "Zhou Jingming," and after thinking for a moment, he added a line below: "When spring is warm and the scenery is bright, the waves are calm, and the sky and water are a vast expanse of blue."

This phrase is the origin of the name. Just by saying this name, one can feel the warmth of spring and the perfect sunshine.

Zhou Detong was illiterate, but he thought the characters were beautiful, more elegant and neat than the accountant's, and even more impressive.

He couldn't say whether the name was good or bad. When the commune director came to the village to inspect the production work, he even took a red paper to show the director, who said it was a good name. So he didn't care about the generational name and used it when registering the name.

Zhou Jingming wanted to see the red paper, but Zhou Detong was at a loss.

Seeing Zhou Jingming pressing him, he scratched his head and chuckled, telling Zhou Jingming, "That day I don't know what I ate, I had diarrhea, and I was in a hurry to go to the outhouse. Then I realized I didn't bring any corn husks, so I pulled out that red paper from my pocket..."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Jingming became furious and turned to leave: "How could you use a piece of paper with my name on it to wipe your butt? I'm not going to Grandma's house anymore, you can go by yourself."

Zhou Detong quickly stepped forward and grabbed him: "If I had something to wipe my crotch with, I wouldn't need that red paper. Do you know how much it stained my crotch red... Don't be angry. I'll make you a willow whistle when we get back, okay?"

Zhou Jingming's discontent was suppressed by the willow whistle his father made from the bark of a weeping willow branch, which made a whistling sound when blown.

Looking back now, Zhou Jingming smiled warmly, mostly because his illiterate father could remember that ancient text clearly and even draw it crookedly, which showed his dedication.

Another thing is about my younger sister, Zhou Xingyao.

Even though there's a shorter main road to school, she always insists on taking this side road.

The reason was simple: the main road was full of puddles and mud, especially on rainy days. Every step you took was a splash, and by the time you got to school, your shoes were covered in mud and your trousers were covered in slurry.

At that time, my sister's biggest wish was to own a pair of rain boots.

And the little path overgrown with knotted grass that few people walked on became her choice, even though her shoes and trousers still got wet, at least there was no mud.

Zhou Jingming, who was also worried about his younger sister, followed along for quite some time. So, when he arrived in the Great Northern Wilderness as an educated youth and received his first paycheck, the first thing he did was send the money back with a letter, asking his parents to buy his sister a pair of red short rain boots.

However, this was no longer an era when farm children could study properly. After finishing primary school, Zhou Xingyao returned to the production team to help herd pigs and earn work points.

It was getting late, so Zhou Jingming didn't linger under the paulownia tree. He walked along the path toward the Huluzui Ferry, looking at everything around him and trying to piece together his memories.

Twenty minutes later, he arrived at the grassy slope by the ferry crossing, but did not see his father who ferried people across.

He cupped his hands into a megaphone shape and shouted towards the opposite bank, "The boat is coming!"

The sound was torn into threads by the river wind, skimming across the cold river surface and startling the crows in the treetops.

After waiting for a short while, a figure emerged from the old house across the way and strode towards the ferry hidden deep in the reeds. Soon, a lone old wooden boat, like a sugar cube softened by the river water, broke through the water and came.

Upon reaching the shore, Zhou Detong saw Zhou Jingming standing there. He paused for a moment, then turned and shouted at the top of his lungs towards the opposite bank, "Wife, your son is back..."

His shout still echoed through the mountains when another person ran out of the old house, stood at the door looking around, and then ran towards the riverbank.

At this moment, Zhou Jingming couldn't hold back his tears when he saw his parents again.

Zhou Detong punted the boat slowly to shore. He jumped off the boat, tied the rope to a willow tree, and came over. He immediately noticed Zhou Jingming's strange behavior: "Why are you crying?"

Zhou Jingming unabashedly wiped his eyes with his sleeve, then smiled slightly at Zhou Detong: "I missed you all!"

"I thought something had happened to him outside... How long do you plan to stay this time? Or will you leave right after the New Year, like in previous years?"

"I took a few extra days off this time, so I can stay home for more than a month. Anyway, I won't be able to do anything if I go back!"

"Okay, okay... Your mom's still waiting. It's cold outside, hurry home!"

Zhou Detong was busy taking the backpack, and Zhou Jingming handed it to him casually, then took the nearly three-meter-long boat pole from his hand.

The boat pole has been used for many years, and the copper hoops wrapped around the bamboo joints have been worn shiny.

"It's been a long time since I've rowed a boat, are you sure you can handle it?"

Zhou Detong was somewhat worried.

Zhou Jingming said confidently, "It's something I've known since I was a child, don't worry!"

Zhou Detong nodded, said nothing more, and boarded the boat with his bag.

After he was settled, Zhou Jingming untied the rope, grabbed the boat pole, jumped onto the boat, inserted the pole into the river, and pushed backward with all his might, propelling the boat toward the river.

The deck of the old wooden boat exudes the scent of aged tung oil, and the deep and shallow scratches on the hull are the result of countless collisions with river stones, much like the wrinkles that time has left on Zhou Detong's face.

As the wooden boat drew closer to the opposite shore, his mother's face became clearer in Zhou Jingming's eyes.

He remembered that every rainy winter when his mother came home from school, she would stand by the riverbank and watch for him and his sister. As soon as they approached, she would wipe their wet hair, faces and hands with a towel she had prepared, saying, "The river breeze is cool, hurry home and have a bowl of ginger soup!"

The large copper kettle on the earthen stove in the house is always boiling water, and there is also eagle tea picked from the mountain for passing villagers.

This time, after Zhou Jingming jumped off the boat and secured the mooring rope, Shen Fengqin leaned over, scrutinized him closely, and said with a look of affection, "Look at you, you've lost weight and gotten even darker..."

Zhou Jingming patted his chest and said, "Mom, don't worry about it. I'm perfectly healthy... Let's go home!"

The family of three walked home together.

As soon as he entered the house, Zhou Jingming smelled the aroma that filled the room. He immediately went to the earthen stove, dug out a perfectly roasted sweet potato, dusted it off with ash, scratched it a few times, peeled off some skin, and couldn't wait to put it in his mouth.

The piping hot sweet potato hit his lips, causing him to gasp for breath, which made Shen Fengqin laugh: "Eat slowly..."

But then she found it strange and asked, "Don't you hate sweet potatoes the most?"

Zhou Jingming smiled and said, "You like eating again!"

(End of this chapter)