The Countryside Suffocated by Beauty

With the good weather these past two days, there was a light frost in the mornings, making it difficult to distinguish between the earth's breath and mist. Under the radiant sunlight, everything in sight seemed to glow with a pale yellow hue.

I am always intoxicated by the night and early mornings when returning home, lingering in the air and fragrance of the countryside. I've also had many dreams about the revitalization of rural areas, fantasizing about the peaceful tranquility of chickens and dogs coexisting. However, rural life is not as idyllic as one imagines,

I once thought that places with peach trees could be like the Peach Blossom Land; a path in front of the door with trees meant a happy countryside.

But I've seen too much familial absence, too much neighborly competition, and the behavior of A Q and A P, blindly serving their interests before a single iron plate,

I once believed that leaving home was a poetic distant land. However, the black and white photos on the walls of my old house, the fallen leaves from last year, made Uncle Xiang, in his twilight years, sob uncontrollably while sweeping his yard. Eighty-three-year-old Grandpa Dongyuan knelt before the portrait of his wife, refusing to move,

'Father, don't cry, get up! You can't keep this up, or you'll never come back.' Uncle Hongyan coaxed and pleaded with Grandpa Dongyuan, half-scolding and half-comforting him,

How many people quietly came and quietly went during this Qingming Festival? Every old courtyard holds a memory of a life lived. How many childhood symbols are beneath the old locust tree in the courtyard?

Yesterday, all the cadres from every village in the county gathered in Xinqian Village, apparently to demolish rural houses and build apartment blocks. The higher-ups issued a unified statement about building a new rural area and improving things, etc.

Rural affairs seem strange to outsiders. Which things are done with vague compliance? Which can be resolved definitively? Which can be concealed and deceived? Which can be disguised as a grand scheme? Truly, the 'wisdom' of a village leader is no less than that of anyone else.

Many things in rural areas, if they can make a stir, are often not due to clear and executable policies or outstanding abilities, but due to the potential for profit.

How can people be like this? How can people be like this?

I'm really tired. If I'm not silenced, I'll continue to speak.

The beauty of the countryside is suffocating – not because it's beautiful to the point of suffocation, but because there's beauty that cannot be experienced, and that's suffocating,

I'm really tired!