journal:

January 1, 1980 (Sunny)

"Today's first day in the 1980s, when I was welcoming the New Year's Day, I was very excited because I came to the army at the great turning point of my motherland's march towards the "four modernizations" and spent the first New Year's Day in the army.

A few days ago, I received a letter from my brother from BJ. I was very excited. Our family is the only brothers. Now we are in the army. In the letter, my brother told me a lot of experiences as a veteran, and I agree. At this moment, I miss my parents in my hometown and my brother who is far away from BJ. I sincerely wish the two elders good health and everything goes well with my brother. Let us celebrate the great motherland together in the three places to usher in a new era!”

The first festival after leaving home, New Year's Day has arrived. This is undoubtedly an unforgettable life journey for us who have been away from our hometown for the first time, so the homesickness is shrouded in the face of every recruit.

Considering that the recruits miss home during the New Year, Lianli took a day off, although he could not go out, and there was no place to go by the remote seaside, his comrades enjoyed a rare rest and were busy with their own affairs.

I was going to write a letter to my parents and my brother at home, but my head was empty after I picked up the pen. I really didn't know what to say. I suddenly couldn't remember all the things I had prepared.

Just as he was thinking hard, Shi Yinlin, Du Zhigao, and Feng Wenquan said to me: "Go out for a walk, and write the letter after you come back. You can't write it anyway."

I smiled bitterly and put away my pen and went out for a walk with everyone.

We walked slowly along the mountain path, and we met our comrades who were walking from time to time. We were in a good mood and chatted while walking under the bright sunshine.

Shi Yinlin asked me: "Do you miss home?"

I looked at the sea in the distance and said, "Oh, it's strange. When I was at home, I wanted to leave home early all day long. It seemed that even if I left my parents, I would be a genius, but now I really left, I missed home." After that, I turned my head and asked, "Where are you? Don't you miss home?"

Shi Yinlin said: "I don't miss home, my parents always care about me. I just want to stay away from them when I come out."

Feng Wenquan took the sentence and said, "It is fake to say that he doesn't want to miss home. He will definitely think about it, but since he has come to join the army and is so far away from home, it's useless to think about it. It's better to do it honestly in the army."

Du Zhigao nodded and said, "Yes, Wenquan is right."

As we were chatting, we suddenly saw a few comrades in front of us waving at us. We ran closer and saw that it was a fellow villager in Bao Town. We already knew Gu Qing, the big one.

After the greetings, Gu Qing introduced: "Come on, let me introduce you to you. These are fellow villagers from our Bao Town."

After saying that, he pointed to one of the tall ones and said, "This is Gu Guoping."

Oh, I immediately remembered that he was also a model when he was good at fucking. Gu Guoping stepped forward and shook hands with us enthusiastically.

Then Gu Qing pointed to a young white face with a round face and a little green, and introduced: "His name is Xu Chengbin." He smiled shyly and shook hands with us one by one.

Finally, Gu Qing pulled a thin little man and said to us, "This is Ni Jianping." I joked to Ni Jianping, "I thought I was thin enough, but there were people thinner than me."

When we were away, we began to understand the meaning of the fellow villagers. We couldn't help but think of the hostility between the two sides on the boat coming to Ningbo. It was really naive. At this moment, we were all fellow villagers who came out of the same place to serve in the army and should take care of each other.

Letters at home are our favorites of our recruits, and they are also our spiritual food. They inspire and support us to overcome difficulties, grit our teeth and persist in training and growing in the army, and become a useful person to the motherland.

After joining the army, I was very eager for letters from my relatives at home. Therefore, whenever the company correspondents came to send a letter, they were a lively event that everyone was eagerly looking forward to. Often, those who had the letter were excited, while those who did not send a letter were depressed, forming a strong contrast.

My letters mainly include two aspects: one is the parents at home and the brother in BJ, and the other is classmates. There is nothing to talk about about the letters from classmates. Because of my culture and my own experience, I can’t talk more about it. Most of them are half a piece of letter paper. To be honest, people who leave home want to see letters from relatives at home.

However, my father, born in the New Fourth Army, was only 15 years old when he was in the army and had no education, but his army studied hard. After liberation, he was sent to the Third Public Security Army Cadre School of the Chinese People's Liberation Army to study. Later, he stayed at the school to teach with excellent results. It should be said that he was cultured, but his capable and courageous character developed as the leader of the army for a long time made him rarely send letters. Even if he wrote a letter, he only had a few lines of words, mostly to report peace, and a few words of advice. This kind of letter that cherishes words is as precious as gold, made me feel very unsatisfied.

My father, who often resents the soldiers at home, was too strict and wanted to leave home as soon as possible and leave his father's discipline. But after he really left home, he missed home very much and missed his relatives at home. Therefore, every time the correspondent came to deliver a letter, I was crowded with people, anxiously praying to hear my name. But every time I got the letter, it was mostly from my classmates from middle school. I finally waited for my father's letter, but after opening it, I always said a few dry words, as if my father would never say any kinder heartwarming words.

I used to be so resentful to my father, as if it was far away from me, and always had a cold and smileless face. But no matter how resentful he was, he was my father after all. I kept my father's letter in my pocket, and during training and resting, or when I stood guard at night, I would take it out and read it.

Gradually, from my father's short words, I savored the sternness of the leader, nor the official accent of the leader, but the sincere and passionate feelings of the father. This kind of cold outside and hot inside needs to be savored slowly and felt with care. When I began to understand the kindness behind my father's harshness, I realized that I have really grown up and matured.

In contrast, my brother, who is two years older than me, has always been a role model for me to learn and ponder. When my brother was in high school, he participated in the pilot physical examination. From town to county, and then to city, he almost passed one level after another, and was finally defeated. Later, two years after he settled in the countryside, his brother joined the army as he wished and worked as an air force ground staffer in the capital BJ.

Therefore, my brother's letters were more about his own experience and gains from being a soldier. There was no big reason. He repeatedly mentioned that he wanted me to learn more culture and improve his knowledge level, which showed that he had foreseeed that in the future, if we want to gain a foothold and survive in society, we must work hard to improve our cultural quality. This is also the weakness of our generation.

After wandering around outside and returning to the dormitory, I wanted to continue writing letters, but I saw Qin Zhongfa, Ye Meng and Yang Qilin sitting around the floor, passing several notebooks to each other. I went up and took them to see that they were educated youth. It turned out that they were famous quotes, aphorisms and excerpts about youth, inspiration, etc. I was very moved. So I put the writing of the letter aside and joined the ranks of copying.

On the other hand, several comrades in Quanzhou learned to sing "Goodbye, Mom" ​​with Huang Buqing, while Xu Chang and Gao Guozhu were also sharing their experiences in learning to sing "Ode to Corals".

In a corner of the dormitory, Zhou Yousheng got a pair of military chess and chess from somewhere, and he and Wu Xiaozhang got together with his brother's comrades.

Soon his loud voice resounded throughout the house, causing many comrades who had nothing to do to surround him and gave advice for the people he liked. There were noises in the house, and the sound of arguments were intertwined with singing.

Strangely, the few of us who were concentrating on copying aphorisms were not disturbed by the noisy sounds, and were completely immersed in those words with profound meanings.

Just as I was writing, someone suddenly pushed me. When I looked up, I saw that it was the Quanzhou comrade who had once competed with me to play the harmonica. He took the harmonica and said to me: "Tell me to play a few sh songs, it sounds nice. I want to learn from you."

I quickly put down my pen, took out my harmonica from my bag, and shared my experience of playing the piano with him.

At this time, I suddenly saw the platoon leader accompanying the company commander, instructor and other company commanders to come to the dormitory. The platoon leader was about to shout "Everyone stood at attention", but was stopped by the company commander. Several people looked here and there with interest, and they looked at it from time to time.
Chapter completed!