People in a foreign land have the same melancholy.

I saw an old photo on Weibo. This old photo comes from chinese national geography Hubei Album on October 9th, 20/KLOC. In Guojiaba Town, Zigui County, Yichang City, Hubei Province, which is planned as the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, an immigrant carefully took a peach tree when he left his hometown where he was born and raised.

Seeing this photo, my heart was caught. I don't know if it's because of the melancholy expression on the man's face in the photo, or because of the bright peach blossoms in his basket, or because of the sharp contrast between the two, or because of the sadness that the man left his hometown with peach trees on his back. In short, this is an excellent photo, with scenes, stories, feelings, tension and appeal.

This photo also reminds me of more than 40 thousand immigrants who moved to our town to help the poor at the end of last year. I wonder if they were as disappointed as the man in the photo when they left their hometown. Will you leave with a peach tree on your back? Certainly not, because the resettlement areas are all high-rise buildings, and there is no place for them to grow peach trees.

Those tall buildings are scattered on a small slope one or two hundred meters away from the expressway. When I drive by here, I often see that the red archway was still there when the immigrants moved in at the gate, which is very festive. I sometimes think, I don't know what kind of stories and melancholy those who have left their homes to come here will have. If I am a journalist or a writer, I want to know. Unfortunately, I'm not. I have only seen those tall buildings from a distance, and even the people inside have never seen them.

Last Saturday morning, my mother and I went for a walk, and my period came. We walked to the door of the relocation and resettlement area. I really want to go in and have a look. My mother and menstruation accompanied me into the door of the red chamber. As soon as the gate enters, a spacious uphill road leads directly to the residential area. The street lamps on both sides of the road are hung with red flags, and the trees on the roadside are hung with red lanterns, which looks like a new home. Someone is on duty at the gate of the community, and workers wearing helmets come in and out. When I entered the community, all I saw were tall buildings rising from the ground. Looking at the tall buildings, some windows are lit, some balconies are hung with clothes, and the lower floors can see the Spring Festival couplets posted on the doors of every household. Menstruation is said to be unified, and the furniture inside is also unified. It is ok for the relocated households to move in directly. It seems that some people who moved here are not used to running back to their hometown.

It may be early in the morning, but I haven't seen the figure in the tall building yet. It's just that workers pass by one after another on the road. They go to work in twos and threes, participating in the greening of the community and the factory construction behind the community.

We walked to another entrance of the community and saw many workers waiting in line to take their temperature. Mom and Menstruation met two acquaintances who came to work as temporary workers from the village behind the resettlement area. The village behind the resettlement area is Ma Chang, the mother's hometown. This used to be a quiet small village, but now it has become lively because it is connected with the resettlement area. The road to the village is full of cars, and even the houses in the village are rented by workers. The original new market town was very deserted, and now it is also lively.

Standing at the gate of the resettlement area, you can see the bustling scene of the market town under the stone steps. Motorcycles and cars are parked everywhere, and there are many stalls selling breakfast under the red umbrella. Almost all people who buy breakfast on the street are going to work in the resettlement area.

Both mother and menstruation said that they never dreamed that their hometown would become so bustling and developing so fast now. In the past, the resettlement area was full of crops, but it only took more than two years to become like this.

Even my mother and menstruation feel that my hometown is almost unrecognizable, let alone my uncle in a foreign land. That day, my brother sent a group of photos of the place where he had worked before in the circle of friends. My uncle sent a message asking if my brother was in Machang New District, saying it was developing too fast. Brother told him not to. When my uncle asked about the new area, he should mean the relocation and resettlement area, because the market town was built when he came back a few years ago.

Now he is the old man's great uncle, and he is in a foreign land. Is he also missing his hometown? When he left his hometown, he certainly didn't think that his hometown would become a foreign land one day, and he wouldn't even recognize his hometown.

Li Jian's The Stranger goes like this:

"Unconsciously put his hometown.

As a hometown

My hometown has become a foreign land.

Only occasionally dare to look back.

It used to be rough.

Don't talk about it now.

People in a foreign land have the same melancholy ... "

The man in the photo, the residents whose hometown moved from five counties, and the uncle all have the same melancholy. ...