Chapter 25: Rural Love

Rural Love

1o8 chapters,

"Who are you fooling?"

______ watch CCTV's hot broadcast of director Zhao Benshan's 'Rural Love' 2

Liu Guozong

Preface: Whoever can blow a frog's belly up to the size of a cow's tripe, whoever makes such goods will be valuable. Of course, this blowing requires skill. If it's a celebrity doing the blowing, then it's even more extraordinary--

One of the childhood stories related to this topic: there was a seafarer; when his ship reached the middle of the sea, the sail was torn by a violent wind, and the ship could not move. The captain looked up and saw a patch of dark cloud passing overhead. So he raised the ship's pole in his hand, wrapped that patch of dark cloud around the pole, and used it as a sail.

"Whoa, the captain's pole is really long." As a child, I truly believed the captain's pole was that long.

The second childhood story related to this topic: someone was eating a meal, felt a bit of grit in his teeth, and used chopsticks to pick it out. This picking wasn't a big deal, but a stone weighing three or four thousand jin rolled out of his mouth and fell to the ground, smashing a large pit in the ground.

"What a huge person!" As a child, I was so amazed I couldn't speak.

Both of these stories I heard in the countryside. Past rural folk had long heads but short vision. They only saw the lines: 'Planting beans below the southern mountain, grass lush, bean sprouts sparse. In the morning I weed the wilderness, carrying the moon and hoe home. The path is narrow, plants grow long; evening dew wets my clothes; though my clothes are not worth much, I wish to have no transgression.' They knew: 'The Chile River, at the foot of Yin Mountain; the sky seems like a dome, covering the four fields. The sky is dark and vast, the wilderness dark and vast. When the wind blows the grass low, cattle and sheep appear.' Not like now, with mobile phones, newspapers, especially television, one can know all world affairs without leaving home.

At that time, rural people were also very 'dense,' both eyes 'pitch black.' 'In our village, who isn't honest and sincere, eating from a big bowl as much as they want?' From the pot's front to its back, how much knowledge could one have? If someone occasionally went to the city, it was like Liu Laolao entering the Grand View Garden in Dream of the Red Chamber—completely clueless about east, west, south, and north.

Now it's different. Now rural people going to the city is like walking into their own 'one mu two fen' contracted land. As long as they don't break the law, city folks aren't much better than rural folks.

So, now whoever tries to fool rural people with those 'sesame turned to mush, rotten grains' will get nowhere.

Enough small talk, let's get to the point. What has director Zhao Benshan's 'Rural Love' taught us? Getting a few celebrities to stick out their tongues and blink white eyes on screen, using Zhao Benshan's words: 'Who are you fooling?' Are you taking us viewers as suckers? 'Making fun of us'? Do we really resemble Liu Laolao entering the Grand View Garden, clueless about east, west, south, and north? Eight generations never left home, nine generations never saw the world.

"Who are you fooling?"

From a creative perspective, some love to write 'People idle, osmanthus falls,' some love to write 'Flying spring hangs over emerald peaks'; also some love to write 'Moonlight before the bed,' 'Gazing at each other in silence, only tears flow a thousand lines.' 'Stir-fried scallions with cabbage, each to their own taste.' But no matter how you stir-fry, the dish you stir-fry is meant to be eaten, not to blindly fool people.

"Where does this little Liu come from? Please speak clearly. Are you trying to say Zhao Benshan is fooling people?"

"So what if it is? So what if it isn't? Remember Lu Xun said something like this: Having said it, we have nothing to fear; aren't we not lacking unspeakable words?"

Right, friend.