At Mo Bei City, the countryside was sparsely populated. Most of the younger people had moved to the city or went south to work while the older people stayed to guard this ancestral land.
Bei Mian Village at Ma Er Wan's Yun Lin Town was one such village. The villagers settled down along the river and cultivated a small amount of farmland. The rest of the land was mostly barren land. Some still had some weeds but most of them had been desertified for a long time, they were no longer suitable for farming or grazing.
But it was also this place that had undergone some changes over the past few decades due to the support of the government.
If one looked from the sky, they would notice that the barren land outside the village had turned green, it was a tree farm.
For others, Arbor Day was only held once a year but for the 79 year old Wang Fuhou, there were two planting seasons a year and he had to take care of the trees every day.
Early in the morning, before the sun even rose, Wang Fuhou was woken up by the chirping of birds. The couple lived in a small brick house at the tree farm. From the first 50 mu of land 30 years ago to now they managed 200 mu of land that was already planted with trees. He and his wife had gotten used to such a life.
"Honey, honey." Wang Fuhou woke up his 77 year old wife, Zhang Maidong. "You're awake, we still have work to do today."
"Look at you stubborn old man, you're already so old but you're still not tired …" Zhang Maidong grumbled, "You just can't sit still …"
"Haha." Wang Fuhou chuckled. He got out of bed first. "I'm not an educated man but I know the story of the foolish old man who moved the mountain. Someone has to plant these trees or else the land will be desertified, what will happen to our future generations? We just hope we can live a few more years and plant more trees. "
"Of course, of course, the government is praising you." Zhang Maidong joked.
Wang Fuhou's aged face broke into a smile. He and his wife were praised by the city during Arbor Day and were interviewed by the news. It was said that planting trees was a hot topic in the country. One was Phecda, and the other was planting trees to green the environment.
Planting trees didn't earn much money. Preparing the land required a lot of manpower, and sometimes, large machinery was needed. The planting period was too short, and he couldn't do it himself, so he had to hire people. There were also watering and repairing the trees, so he had to rely on seedlings, withered branches and leaves, and 30 mu of fast-growing poplars to make some money. It was tens of thousands of yuan a year, and with some subsidies from the state, he could make ends meet. Their three children already had families. Sometimes, their children and grandchildren would come to help, but they would leave after they came. After all, young people did not want to face a piece of barren land all day long.
Wang Fuhou would be lying if he said he never thought about his livelihood. When Wang Fuhou first started this project, it was to earn some money.
But after planting it for so many years, he had really developed feelings for it.
Wang Fuhou understood that his wife was just trying to save him. He was not the only one who had to endure the hardships of planting trees.
30 years ago, there was no electricity, no water, no roads, there was nothing but a piece of barren land. It was them who tidied up the land bit by bit and planted the seedlings, pine trees, Chinese locust trees, weeping willows, fast-growing poplars … They watched as the trees grew, and the barren land was filled with lush greenery.
"Why don't we contract another 10 mu of land to plant trees? The state will reward me next year. "
"Of course! Then you'll live a few more years and I'll live a few less years. "
After chatting for a while longer with his wife, Wang Fuhou put on his coat and old man's hat and walked out of the small brick house.
The sky started to lighten and the birds chirped louder. Wang Fuhou stepped on the fallen leaves and slowly traversed through the forest that he had planted. On this Lunar New Year, the trees were growing new leaves. The fresh green made him feel refreshed.
"Refreshed." Wang Fuhou had never been to school, he could barely read a few words but the reporters who came to interview him that day kept telling him that it was a good phrase. Once he thought about how at his age, he would be able to be praised by the state and appear on the news, the old man's smile widened.
His life had not been muddle-headed.
"This won't do, I really need to contract another 10 mu of land." Wang Fuhou thought about it but just as the thought crossed his mind, he stumbled on a dried twig and a sharp pain shot through his crotch. "My legs are so disappointing." The old man sighed in frustration. It was not an illness, it was just that he was getting old.
"Aiz!" He thought back to when he was young, he could do any kind of chores, he could even climb up the tree to prune the branches but now it was getting harder and harder for him to walk.
The man was getting older but the tree was getting taller.
Wang Fuhou continued to walk and soon he reached the 'Fuhou Tree'. It was the first tree they planted, the Chinese locust tree. The trunk was so thick that they could barely wrap their arms around it. Whenever Wang Fuhou took a morning stroll, he would go there to take a look. He would hug the tree, it was like one of their children.
"… Where's the tree?"
But now, Wang Fuhou was stunned. Looking at the sparse forest around him, this place that he had walked through thousands of times felt so foreign to him.
He was too familiar with this path, it was the path he had carved out for himself, he could reach his destination with his eyes closed. But now he was supposed to be at the Fuhou Tree but he seemed to have lost his way. The towering pine tree was nowhere to be seen and the other trees were nowhere to be seen.
"Where, where is this place?" Wang Fuhou was confused. None of his 200 mu of woodland looked like this.
The distance between the trees was wrong, the distance between the trees was wrong! How come there are so many trees missing?
Have they been felled? The thought crossed Wang Fuhou's mind and he was instantly filled with anger and panic. But then he thought it was impossible, there was no way the felling would be so quiet and it was impossible for someone to have felled so many trees in one night without alerting them. Furthermore, there were no marks on the ground and there were no tree stumps …
Strange, strange, strange.
Wang Fuhou continued to walk forward but strangely enough, the forest did not change. He retraced his steps and confirmed it was only the 30 metres around his Fuhou Tree that had changed. He returned to that area and realized not only had the trees thinned, the ones that were still there were no new leaves.
The trees were lifeless, some of their bark was cracked like they could collapse at any moment.
The land under his feet appeared to be charred black, it was more barren than it was decades ago.
"What's going on …" Wang Fuhou grumbled as he walked to another locust tree. He reached out his calloused right hand to press on the cracked bark.
The old man's eyes suddenly widened, and his wrinkled face was filled with horror. He saw that his hand had directly reached into the tree trunk, and it was as if he had reached into water. The water was twisted, and the old man immediately felt a great pain. It was as if his whole body was burning, and he was about to explode. "Husband, husband …!"
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
