Uncle in his 60s, after being in debt of hundreds of thousands, he retired to the mountains to live out his life. What would life look like?

A few days ago, a group of three of us set off from Rizhao City, Shandong Province and headed west. After more than three hours of running, we finally arrived in the misty autumn rain at this place known as "Qingzhou Shizigou" "small mountain village. The reason why we chose this small mountain village far away from the city actually has two purposes. First, this place is not a popular attraction and has relatively few tourists, so it can avoid the crowds during the National Day. The second is that after living in the busy city for a long time, the body and mind are overwhelmed by the mundane things and are in urgent need of a pure land to integrate the body and mind into nature. Therefore, "Qingzhou Shizigou", a mountain village full of human fireworks and folk customs, became the destination of our trip.

In fact, before departure, we did not make any special arrangements in terms of time and weather, it was more casual. On the road, we don’t drive very fast, so we can arrive at any time. We also thought that if there was no place to eat or stay in the mountains, we would live in the county town. Or, if there are too many tourists here, we will randomly find a mountain village to visit. The reason why we do this is to let our bodies and minds return to nature, without making any deliberate arrangements, and just do everything casually. In this way, there is no time pressure in the mind, and it becomes more natural.

Just as we expected, when the car drove along the clean and tidy mountain village trails to "Persimmon Valley", there was almost no car on the road. Perhaps because it was drizzling that day and it was afternoon, the scenery in the mountains seemed quiet and empty, the air was moist and fresh, and the mountains were shrouded in clouds and mist, like a fairyland. That day, the temperature here was a bit low. The weather on the phone showed a temperature of 16 degrees. This temperature surprised us.

Although the temperature that day was a bit cold, the people we met made us feel warm in our hearts. Our car was parked in the small square in the middle of the village, and occasionally villagers passed by. A cleaning man in the village saw us arriving and greeted us very warmly, saying why we came here to play when it was almost dark and it was still raining. We told him that we came here just to experience the night life in the countryside, because only at night can people's mental state be closer to reality. It would be better if you could stay here.

This uncle is very enthusiastic, as unpretentious as the stones in the mountains. After learning our purpose, he put down his work and took us to the west of the village, where he lived at the home of Brother Liu Yuping, who lived by the small reservoir. He said that his home would definitely satisfy us. Because his house is relatively clean, and he is a well-known local craftsman and folk artist. He has been obsessed with stone art creation for many years. Everywhere in his house is full of artistic atmosphere, which will definitely make our trip worthwhile.

If we regard human life as spiritual practice, we generally need to go through the following three stages: "Seeing mountains is mountains, seeing water is water; seeing mountains is not mountains, seeing water is not water; seeing mountains is still mountains. , Seeing water is still water. "This kind of realm of life would be difficult to achieve without the baptism of years, the tempering of human relationships, and some twists and turns. If the understanding is poor, it is really difficult for ordinary people to enter this realm, and they may stay in the primary stage of "seeing mountains as mountains and water as water" throughout their lives.

In Baiyang Village, Wangfen Town, Qingzhou City, Weifang City, Shandong Province, the 61-year-old brother Liu Yuping realized the true meaning of life after going through many hardships in life and has been "reclusive" all year round. In this deep ravine, I regard my hobbies as my life pursuits, growing vegetables and flowers, running a B&B with my wife, and at the same time calming down to create stone art works, so that I can have a lifelong pursuit. He did not seek glory and wealth, but sought peace and happiness, so that his mind could be peaceful and he could live a pastoral life that was enviable to the people in the city.

Stepping into Brother Liu’s farmyard was indeed an eye-opener for us. I really didn't expect that in this small mountain village far away from the city, there is such a literary and artistic B&B. From the outside, this small farmhouse is not much different from other homes, but when we entered, we discovered that this small courtyard is unique. When you understand the owner's life experience and feelings, it feels even more extraordinary. Below we will slowly share Brother Liu's life story with you. Perhaps after reading his story, your attitude towards life may change, or you may receive some life inspiration.

"Mountains are mountains, and mountains and rivers are water." When Brother Liu was young, he once had a "dream of a poet," but due to various reasons, the dream did not come true. "I must have just graduated from junior high school at that time. I really wanted to go to school, but my family was in a difficult situation and I couldn't afford to go to school." Brother Liu said that he liked literature and art very much at the time. Once when he was reading a newspaper, he found an advertisement that introduced A correspondence school in Guangxi taught poetry and literary creation, so he signed up. However, due to the pressure of life, his "poet dream" was shattered.

"There was no money at that time. I couldn't make money by writing poetry. Plus I had to make a living. I couldn't just sit at home and write every day. So I found a place to work, and since then I haven't had time to write. "Brother Liu said that at that time, he was very ideal and ambitious in life. The local area was rich in hawthorn and there were also factories that produced hawthorn slices.

In order to survive, he wanted to make money by selling hawthorn slices. At that time, because he was young and full of whims, he took a few packages of hawthorn slices, got on the train and went to Hangzhou, where he began to "dream of getting rich."

"That was before I started working alone. Transportation and accommodation were not as convenient as they are now. You had to use food stamps to eat and a letter of introduction to stay." Brother Liu said that he didn't know where Hangzhou was at that time and was just a student. At that time, he learned about Hangzhou from a book and longed for it, so he got on the train and traveled for several days before finally arriving in Hangzhou. Because he did not have a letter of introduction, when he arrived in Hangzhou, the hotel did not accept him. He had no choice but to live in the corridor of the hotel for a few days, and the hawthorn slices were not sold. Finally, he went to Guangzhou and Fujian, but the outcome was the same. People didn't recognize the hawthorn piece, so he had to go home.

"Seeing mountains is not mountains, seeing water is not water." Brother Liu introduced that when he was on the train returning to Shandong from Fujian, he met a noble man who gave him a lot of help. "On the train to Jinan, I met a man from my town. He was from Qingzhou Materials Company. He asked me what I did, so I told him. He said he could let me go to their unit. I went to work and wrote me a letter of introduction, and then I went there and worked for less than three years." Brother Liu said that later he saw that he was making good money by producing hawthorn slices, so he went home and started a partnership with a few people in the village. A factory was set up to produce hawthorn slices.

"There was no money at that time. Several of us formed a partnership and pooled together tens of thousands of dollars, so we opened a small factory to produce hawthorn slices. Later, it gradually became bigger and bigger. Later, the factory It also built two floors, but due to many reasons, it failed in the end and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars." Brother Liu said that during the years of running the Hawthorn Film Factory, he encountered many things. Due to the shortcomings of people's hearts, some people were jealous, some were envious, and some were obstructive. In the end, the factory had to close down and was saddled with hundreds of thousands of debts.

Brother Liu can be considered a financially savvy person. In order to survive, he gave up his "poet dream" and "writer dream", abandoned his hobbies, and worked hard for life. Although he was once "successful" "Yes, but because of the worldly affairs, he was burdened with hundreds of thousands of debts, which should be considered a considerable sum at that time. In order to pay off the debt, he and his wife started working around and borrowed money from almost all their relatives and friends. While working to earn money to pay off debts, I continue to think about life. My two children have grown up. How should I go about my future life?

"When you see mountains, they are still mountains; when you see water, they are still water." Opportunities always come to those who are prepared. The end of the road is the beginning of hope. The turning point in Brother Liu's life came from a chance encounter. "I have loved playing with flowers, plants, stones, and pruning them since I was a child. Once I was in a flower market, and there was a person selling flowers there. I saw that the flowers didn't look good and they couldn't be sold, so I went there. I pruned it for him, but he didn't expect it to be sold soon." Brother Liu said that it was after pruning flowers and plants that a boss who dealt with flowers and seedlings hired him as a gardener with a high salary. In an era when the monthly salary was several hundred yuan, He was given a high salary of 8,000 yuan per month, which set him on another path in life.

"I have been working for two or three years, but I stopped because the seedling market was not good. At that time, many people in our village who liked photography came to take pictures of persimmons, because there are many persimmon trees on the mountains here. In autumn, the red persimmons all over the mountains and plains are so spectacular that they attract photographers from all over the country to take pictures of the persimmons, so I went home and started a farmhouse," said Brother Liu. He and his wife were running a B&B while helping the villagers sell the goods. Although the income from local agricultural products such as millet and persimmons is not much, it is relatively stable. This firmly determined him to develop B&Bs based on the characteristics of the village. At the same time, he picked up his hobbies and regained his life feelings.

"I have liked stones since I was a child. There are a lot of caviar stones in the mountains here. The natural shapes are very good. I used to go up the mountain to pick up stones." Brother Liu said that because he no longer goes out to work, the children When he grew up and his life became stable, he began to study stones. He usually has no bad habits. He doesn't smoke, drink, or play cards or mahjong. He likes to ponder stones when he has nothing to do. After carrying the stone back from the mountain, he began to study it. He thought, if characters, flowers, birds, figures and other patterns were carved on the stone, wouldn't the stone "speak"? So, he just went ahead and bought tools and started creating art on stones.

"I'm not a professional, nor have I ever studied. I don't know the names of the tools. I just buy them in the store and start working. If I don't know, I search online or read books to learn." Brother Liu He said that he has no foundation in painting, no foundation in calligraphy, and no experience in carving. Everything depends on his own understanding. When he sees a good pattern, he just imitates it, draws it on the stone, and then uses electric tools to carve it out bit by bit. Because he is obsessed with stone art creation, he sometimes forgets to eat, and sometimes he just sits there for the whole day. Only he can understand the joy of this. Over the years, he taught himself stone art carving and created more than 300 stone carving art works, including stone tea sets, stone pots and pans, stone tobacco pouches, stone cabbage, etc. He once carved a stone gourd, which was bought by a boss for 10,000 yuan.

"I don't sell my works now, and I didn't want to sell them at the time. But someone liked it, so I had no choice but to give it to him." Brother Liu said that now he has created hundreds of stone art works, including figures, Flowers, birds, calligraphy and other subjects cannot be placed on the library shelf at home. There are stones everywhere in the house, and I am still creating. He said that each of these stone works is hand-made by him, and each one is unique. There is no second one in the world that is the same. Therefore, he wants to continue creating in the next few years. When he is older and has no strength to create, he will open an "exhibition hall" so that people can appreciate life while appreciating these works of art, abandon impetuousness, and put down their mobile phones. , integrate into nature, so that the body and mind can calm down, thus making the journey of life smoother.

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