Chapter 419 Xiangshan Residence
In the blink of an eye, time has quietly slipped into the deep winter of 1971, and the bells of the end of the year seem to be faintly audible.

Less than a week after the beginning of winter this year, the cold weather arrived impatiently.

The north wind blew like a knife, blowing all day long. The severe winter is the coldest period of winter, and it is even colder in the capital.

People began to count the nine cold days of winter. By the 49th day of the winter, the ground was frozen and cracked. At night, a few stars seemed to be covered with frost, flashing cold light. The cold wind danced in the night sky like a sharp sword, whipping the dead leaves and making sharp sounds.

"Sijiu" is often around the Spring Festival, and it is also the coldest season of the year. People are hesitant, breathing out hot air, and jogging. In one word, it is cold.

At this time, it was so cold that when you touched the door handle, it stuck to you, and when you pulled it off, a layer of skin fell off; if you scraped it hard with a pickaxe, a white spot would appear.

The most daunting thing about getting up in the morning is getting dressed. It is painful to put on cold, hard clothes. Parents have to warm their children's clothes in the oven before they can put them on.

The glass was frozen white and you couldn't see what the yard looked like. The children used their fingers to melt all kinds of words and patterns on the glass to play with.

It’s very cold these days. The temperature in Beijing can drop to minus 30 degrees Celsius at the coldest time.

Liu Zhiye felt that this winter was extremely cold.

How severe was the cold? When we woke up in the morning, the water in the water jars was frozen and we had to use kitchen knives to poke them out.

The room is a natural refrigerator. The radishes and cabbages stored for the winter can be placed near the window and they will not go bad throughout the winter. You can even use them to make dumplings stuffed with cabbage on New Year’s Eve.

The pickles made during the Lesser Cold season will not grow white hair even if placed on the kitchen counter. The only thing you need to worry about is that it is too cold and the jar of pickles will freeze into ice lumps. In that case, you have to blanch them in boiling water to melt them when you eat them.

Because the temperature is too low, if you want to eat a hot meal you have to hurry. Generally, the whole family needs to sit around the table before the stew can be served. Otherwise, if you wait for someone or take a few seconds, the food will get cold.

After dinner, washing dishes is also a headache in winter. Families with the conditions will boil a pot of water and mix it with cold water. Families who are reluctant to use honeycomb coal will use cold water to wash dishes. Almost everyone will get frostbite on their hands and suffer from joint diseases.

In those days, the sky in the mountain villages surrounding the capital was bright blue, but the winters were extremely cold. What was most lacking was food and firewood, as all the grass on the mountains had been picked.

It was snowing heavily, and the snow could get in through the cracks in the thatched house. The old people called it thief snow. When the snow was heavy outside, it also snowed inside. The cracks in the door were very large before, and when I looked in the morning, the whole house was covered with snow.

However, compared with other places, residents in Liujiazhuang area are much better off.

Thanks to the booming biogas power generation projects in the past decade, not only has the urgent demand for electricity from local industries and residents been satisfactorily met, but the surplus electricity has also been transmitted to surrounding areas, benefiting a wider region.

In addition, the rise of biogas power generation has quietly changed the lifestyle of Liujiazhuang.

As a result, every household is connected to the heating system. Even on cold winter days, the house is filled with spring-like warmth, allowing the villagers to live a more comfortable and pleasant life.

On this day, Liu Zhiye, after inspecting troops from various places, walked into the door of the division headquarters office in the wind and snow, exhausted.

After he entered the room, he quickly took off his heavy coat with neat movements. It was obvious that the warmth inside the room formed a sharp contrast with the severe cold outside, which made people sigh that there was a difference of two seasons just separated by a wall.

Cui Jianguo quickly brewed a cup of hot "Xishan Tea" for Liu Zhiye, and the fragrance of the tea instantly filled the whole room.
Zhiye took the teacup and took a sip. The warm tea slid down his throat, as if a warm current instantly penetrated his limbs and bones, dispelling the coldness around him.

"Sha!" He couldn't help but let out a sigh of satisfaction, "It's so comfortable!"

Then, he leaned back in his chair leisurely, his eyes slightly closed, as if using the tranquility to dispel the chill he had felt on the road.

Soon, Cui Jianguo knocked on the door lightly and walked into the room again, his movements revealing a sense of competence and calmness.

"Commander, our division's guard unit stationed in Xiangshan sent a call saying that a local farmer found some unusual things in his own yard..." Communicator Cui Jianguo walked in and reported.

When Liu Zhiye heard this, a hint of curiosity and excitement flashed in his eyes. He quickly stood up and said in a firm tone: "Oh! There is this matter... Let's go, let's set off immediately and go to Xiangshan to find out." After that, he strode out, secretly speculating about the discovery in his heart.

Just like that, not long after they came back, before their bodies had completely warmed up, they plunged into the snow again.

Xiangshan is located on the eastern foot of Xishan Mountain in the northwest suburbs of Beijing, about 20 kilometers away from Beijing, and covers an area of ​​188 hectares.

It is located in the heart of the eastern slope of Xishan Mountain and is also the hub of the eastern end of Xishan Mountain Ridge, with overlapping peaks and crisscrossing ravines.

The main peak, Xianglu Peak, is 575 meters above sea level. There are side ridges on the north and south sides extending eastward. The southern side ridge extends directly to Hongshantou, and the northern side ridge extends to Qinglongqiaotou.

Xiangshan Mountain and Yuquan Mountain, Wanshou Mountain and Kunming Lake on the eastern plain are roughly on an east-west axis.

Xiangshan Mountain and Yuquan Mountain are located on the lake, Zhuoxixi and Danquan are located in the valley. There is water in the mountains and mountains in the water. There are many ancient sites, and you can see a few of them nearby.

There are two theories about the origin of the name "Xiangshan" in historical documents.

The first theory comes from the folks. It is said that in the early years, a large area of ​​apricot blossoms were planted on Xiangshan Mountain. Every year when the flowers bloomed, the place was filled with rich fragrance, hence the name.

The second one comes from "Records of Xiangshan Yong'an Temple", which says that there is a big stone in the mountain, whose shape is very similar to the incense burner used to burn incense in the temple. Therefore, the mountain was named after the incense burner-shaped stone.

As soon as you enter Xiangshan in winter, you will be shocked by the scene before you.

The trees were bent by the thick snow, and the white snow was dotted with a few touches of deep green pine trees, like a vivid winter painting.

As you continue along the mountain road, you will see some ancient buildings and temples, which look even more quaint and elegant against the backdrop of snow.

Liu Zhiye and his companions braved the snow and arrived at this remote mountain village deep in the Xiangshan Mountains. They were then led to an old farmer's home by the security officers in charge of the scene.

After they arrived here, Liu Zhiye realized that this was the case...

As the Chinese New Year approaches, in this remote village in Xiangshan, an old woman in her seventies began her pre-New Year cleaning as she did in previous years.

Some of the wall paint in the old house had peeled off, and she wanted to clean it again, but the peeling areas kept peeling off, and it seemed like there was another layer of wall behind the peeling wall.

She was originally an illiterate old rural woman, but she could roughly feel that there were a lot of brush calligraphy on the wall behind the wall.

These days, it is not convenient for her to tell anyone and she can only wait for her husband to come back.

At night, when his wife came back, the old woman quickly pulled him to the wall where the paint was peeling off, pointed at the wall and said, "Look at what these words are? I don't know them either."

This old man is a local teacher. His ancestors were from the Zhengbai Banner of the Qing Dynasty and have lived in this old house for a hundred years.

Shu Chengxun and his wife looked at the damaged wall and felt a surge of emotion. The words on the back of the wall were written in calligraphy, and the handwriting was beautiful. There seemed to be a lot more.

With the help of his wife, he peeled off the outer layer of the wall bit by bit. He found that the current wall was deliberately attached to the original wall by someone in order to cover up the words on the wall.

Shu Chengxun knew that it was best not to make such things public. He also liked history and culture, so he wanted to study it himself first.

There are many inscriptions on the wall, but the handwriting is very delicate. They must have been written by someone with a certain cultural background.

In terms of overall appearance, there are diamond combinations, fan combinations, vertical arrangements, horizontal arrangements...it seems that the writer did it casually.

A day later, Shu Chengxun took the time to look at the words on the wall again. He found a few poems on the wall, one of which caught his attention: "There are few people in the world who treat the rich with respect and the poor with courtesy, but there are many people in the world who are estranged from their relatives and friends because of money."

Shu Chengxun's ancestors were military officers, and there were very few people who could write such poems.

However, after the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, there was a regulation that in order to prevent the Manchus from neglecting their riding and archery skills after entering the Central Plains, an order was issued to prohibit the Manchus from learning to write Chinese characters, and poetry and songs were even more banned.

He thought that the owner of this writing should be two hundred years ago. He liked this kind of poetry, but he didn't dare to let others see it. But who is the author? Shu Zhengxun was very curious.

In fact, Shu Zhengxun had heard this poem on the wall many years ago. He looked at the wall carefully and saw a signature of "Clumsy Pen" on it, which reminded him of the words of a Redology expert who came to Xiangshan a few years ago.

Xiangshan was once the place where Cao Xueqin lived when he wrote Dream of the Red Chamber, so researchers related to the Dream of the Red Chamber often come here to visit and ask about the legends about it.

According to legend, after Cao Xueqin's family fell into poverty, he disdained to enter the imperial court, so he stayed at home writing books. His life became more and more difficult. When he had no rice to cook at home, Cao Xueqin went to the house of a relative with whom he had been good friends before to borrow money to buy rice.

However, to his surprise, this old friend did not want to talk to him, let alone give him money to buy rice. Cao Xueqin was very unhappy about this, so he told his good friend, a man named Ebi, about this.

According to legend, after Ebi knew about this, he wrote a couplet and gave it to Cao Xueqin.

This couplet is the one mentioned above.

Shu Chengxun couldn't help but feel excited. If this was the case, his house might have been Cao Xueqin's former residence two hundred years ago.

He thought about it again and again and finally decided to report the matter to the country.

However, as an ordinary teacher, he was confused about which department he should report the situation to.

Worried that his report to the local commune might be ignored, he suddenly had an idea and thought of the local garrison.

Stationed here is a unit of the 2nd Guard Division, who are responsible for safeguarding the peace in the Xiangshan area.

After receiving Shu Chengxun's report, the garrison cadres acted quickly, personally led a team to Shu's home, properly protected the scene, and then made a detailed report to the superior division headquarters.

When Liu Zhiye arrived hurriedly, he immediately checked it out in person. Relying on his years of accumulated appreciation skills and profound cultural heritage, he initially concluded that this was Cao Xueqin's former residence.

However, since he is not an expert in cultural relics management or Redology research, he knows that it is difficult to make a conclusion based on his own opinion. Therefore, he decided to take a more rigorous attitude and invite a team of experts with a high reputation in the field of Redology to come for an on-site inspection to ensure the scientificity and accuracy of the subsequent protection work.

So he quickly made arrangements, and letters of invitation, carrying an urgent desire to respect and protect cultural heritage, flew to the hands of scholars who could lift the veil of history.

However, the result surprised Liu Zhiye. The Redologists who were invited did not think that this was Cao Xueqin’s former residence, and there was no way to verify the pen name "Zhuo Bi".

The conclusions of these Redologists made Liu Zhiye somewhat worried.

In his heart, he still felt that this should have some connection with Cao Xueqin.

A few days later, another young expert in the study of the Dream of the Red Chamber came to the old farmer's house.

He was holding an old box in his hands. He said that he had always been interested in studying the Dream of the Red Chamber and heard that this might be Cao Xueqin's former residence, so he came to take a look.

He handed the box in his hand to Liu Zhiye to see. On the upper right corner of the box was written "Ti Qinxi Jushi", and the signature was written as "拙笔".

After seeing these two words, Liu Zhiye was extremely excited. The signature on the wooden box by this young man undoubtedly proved that the words on the wall of Shu Zhengxun's house were definitely related to Cao Xueqin.

And judging from the handwriting, these words were obviously written by one person.

Therefore, this old house is most likely the former residence of Cao Xueqin, and the words on the wall are the calligraphy left by Cao Xueqin and his friends in that era.

This proof once again caused quite a stir in the literary and archaeological circles, and Redologists from all over the country flocked to the book.

Finally, with the efforts and coordination of Liu Zhiye and others, the relevant departments built this old house into the "Cao Xueqin Memorial Hall."

Liu Zhiye was in a good mood after saving another former residence of a famous person. Over the years, he has also been interested in protecting some things, always thinking that he should leave something for future generations.

…………

Early in the morning, Liu Zhiye was awakened early by his three lively children.

These three little ones are of school age and are full of endless energy and playfulness. When the holidays come, they are even more unrestrained and make a lot of noise at home.

"Dad! Dad! Wake up, wake up! Let's go buy some candied haws. Someone is selling them outside!" The children's cheers came one after another, full of desire for winter snacks.

Although Liu Zhiye felt helpless, he smiled dotingly, struggled out of the warm bed, and began to put on his clothes.

Today was supposed to be his rare time of rest, and he wanted to enjoy the peace and warmth for a while longer.

"Okay, kids, wait a moment, Dad will take you to buy candied haws..." His words were full of tenderness and indulgence, and the laughter of the family instantly filled the whole room.

After Liu Zhiye finished washing up and took the children to enjoy breakfast, the family of four walked out of their own yard.

As the saying goes, it's warm after the wind and cold after the snow.

The weather in Beijing is especially like this.

Once it snows and the snow piles up in the alley, if the wind blows, it will be a white hair whirlwind, and the snow particles will hit your face and cause pain.

Before going out, Liu Zhiye dressed the three children in cotton scarves and cotton gloves and covered them tightly.

When they reached the streets outside, the sounds of hawking and shouting could be clearly heard, adding a bit of bustling atmosphere to the morning walk of the four father and sons.

At this time, the vendors hawking their wares along the street are quite interesting. The ones selling candied haws will keep changing according to the geographical location, and when they go to a big occasion, they will shout four words: "Freshly dipped, freshly dipped."

When he reached the outside of the large courtyard, he called out in a high-pitched and melodious voice: "Honey is here -- gourd -- lots of rock sugar -- hey -- gourd."

There are two kinds of persimmon sellers. Those who sell Gaozhuang persimmons say: "Here are the persimmons from Gaozhuang. If they are astringent, we will exchange them for new ones."

The sellers of big persimmons would shout: "It's as big as a pumpkin - not astringent, and if it's astringent, we'll replace it with another one..."

In the past few years, street vendors were almost extinct, but this year they have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, but most of them are selling near Liujiazhuang.

There are also many people pushing carts and carrying poles to sell cheap snacks in the alleys. Xiaoxian and her two siblings love to eat the kidney bean cakes sold by the vendors. They are made by wrapping boiled kidney beans in white cloth and pressing them into cakes. The bean cakes are very delicious with the five-spice flavor.

And roasted sweet potatoes. The vendors have a stove on their carts with a big iron pot on top.
Liu Zhiye bought a few sweet potatoes covered with honey and stuck them to the bottom of the pot. They were hot, soft, sweet, and melted in the mouth, and were very popular among the children.

On the streets of Liujiazhuang, as the morning light breaks, vendors have already come out, each busy with their own small businesses.

At the same time, there is an endless stream of pedestrians coming and going, adding a bit of vitality and vigor to these ancient yet modern streets.

Looking back in the past, the streets of Liujiazhuang were quiet for several years due to environmental factors, and the depressed scene was regrettable.

However, since the second half of this year, a spring breeze of recovery has quietly blown through, and the streets have gradually regained their former bustle and prosperity.

In the past year, Liujiazhuang finally broke free from the shadow of three consecutive years of economic downturn and ushered in the dawn of hope.

Looking back to 1966-1970, the economy of this land was booming and grew rapidly for many consecutive years. However, the good times did not last long. Between 1968 and 1970, Liujiazhuang's economy encountered a cold snap for the first time and showed negative growth for three consecutive years.

But a turning point came quietly this year. The export volume of the liquor industry hit a new high, and the pharmaceutical industry emerged as a new force and went abroad for the first time.

In addition, with the grand launch of the fourth phase of Liujiazhuang infrastructure project, under multiple favorable factors, the long-term sluggish economy has finally ushered in a strong rebound and shown great vitality.

This year, the gross domestic product of Liujiazhuang area has achieved new glory, surpassing the milestone of 12.5 billion yuan in one fell swoop, reaching an unprecedented height.

In this vibrant land, the local registered population has remained stable at around 13.4, while the permanent foreign population is as high as . The per capita annual income has exceeded yuan, demonstrating a significant improvement in the living standards of residents in the region.

In contrast, although the national GDP of Xiaguo is huge this year, it has not reached the threshold of 5000 billion yuan, and the per capita GDP is less than 700 yuan, which is in sharp contrast to the booming development of Liujiazhuang.

Moreover, Liujiazhuang, a village that has undergone three large-scale infrastructure construction projects, has had its core area fully completed and rejuvenated.

The once single Hexi region has now transformed into three prosperous urban areas covering Hexi, Hedong and Hebei, which complement each other and create glory together.

Looking into the future, starting next year, the infrastructure blueprint from Henan to Miaofeng Mountain will be slowly unfolded, heralding that a new wave of development is about to sweep in, adding infinite possibilities to this land.

(End of this chapter)