张雁《护林员伊万》

Zhang Baozhu, a descendant of the first generation of Chinese-Russian mixed ancestry, carried a name steeped in Chinese tradition yet possessed a European countenance. His deep-set eyes glowed with a lake-blue hue beneath his high, straight nose, and his soft brown hair fell gracefully across his forehead. He stood tall and sturdy, his hands remarkably large. On his household registration form, he was listed as Zhang Baozhu, with his ancestral home in Hebei Province, but most who knew him called him Ivan. The name Zhang Baozhu had long been forgotten, and Ivan, though just a name, was the only memory left by his Russian mother.

Ivan was born by the banks of the Erguna River on the China-Russia border, in a place where sky, earth, water, and forest merged into one. This river, which had flowed for millennia, witnessed the Mongolian hordes galloping into the Central Plains and nurtured a Eurasian fusion of ethnicities. Ivan's father travelled north from Hebei in the early 20th century, following pioneers who ventured east, panning for gold and logging. His mother, Meisha, a Russian woman with golden hair and azure eyes, was slender and cheerful. No one knew precisely on which cold winter night, under the cover of darkness, Meisha crossed the frozen river to arrive at the unfamiliar right bank of the Erguna River. How she met Ivan's father, Zhang Zhongmin, and how the two, with no common language, found their way into a wooden hut in the forest, giving Ivan this precarious life, remained a mystery.

Ivan remained in the wooden house left by his fellow villagers, staying by his mother and brother's side. At just 13 years old, he became independent. The superior genes of his mixed heritage gave Ivan an inherent ingenuity. He inherited his father's hardworking spirit from the Central Plains and his mother's tenderness and delicacy from the Slavs. He cultivated the land left by his compatriots with dedication, earning his livelihood.

The small village where Ivan was born is called Shiwei, known in Russian as Jilalin. Nestled amidst mountains and water, the Erguna River flowed gently past the village. Across the river lay a small Russian town called Olochy. Separated by the Erguna River, the two villages coexisted in harmony. To the city's south lay a range of continuous mountains, where the mysterious and vast virgin forest connected with the Lesser Khingan Mountains. Dense ancient trees blocked off contact with the outside world. Until the end of the last century, the villagers still led a simple and serene life, rising with the sun and resting with its setting. Forty per cent of the residents here were descendants of Chinese-Russian mixed heritage like Ivan, with a few who were born in Russia but came here with their families as children, forming Sino-Russian blended families. Chinese and Russian cultures intermingled, collided, and fused, creating a unique Russian ethnic culture.

Ivan didn't particularly enjoy socialising with people. He preferred the mountains and forests, which never made him feel lonely or isolated. He loved every tree and blade of grass in the forest, treating them like old friends he had known for a long time. He coexisted harmoniously with them, gradually becoming inseparable from the mountains and forests. In the early 1950s, Ivan was the first choice when the township needed a forest ranger. From then on, he accompanied his mountains and forests, fulfilling his duties as a forest ranger.

Like the Russian ethnic group living there, Ivan followed the Sino-Russian blended way of life, festivals, and etiquette, celebrating the Chinese Spring Festival and the Russian Bashkir Festival. During festivals, he would clean and decorate his small house, sweep the shrine, and perform the liturgy with sincerity. He would also prepare clean and tidy clothes for himself, make frozen dumplings, bake rye bread, and prepare Russian-style bread. On festival days, he occasionally visited friends with homemade rye bread, dried meat, and other foods, sharing drinks and celebrating the festivities.

When Ivan turned 18, love quietly came to his side. He fell in love with Qiu Fang, the daughter of the village's carpenter, Zhang. Carpenter Zhang was from Shandong and arrived by the Erguna River around the same time as Ivan's father. The difference was that he brought his wife and children here from afar. Qiu Fang was born after they arrived by the Erguna River and was the same age as Ivan.

Qiu Fang was a feisty girl from Shandong with long black hair braided into two shiny plaits. Ivan met her during a collective labour organised by the village. Despite being just a girl, she worked as hard as any man. Qiu Fang constantly flicked away her braids, which had slipped due to bending over. Ivan was captivated by the graceful arc and fell in love with her. In fact, during that time, the Han people had prejudices against the Russian ethnic group, and few Han girls were willing to marry young men from this Sino-Russian mixed ethnic group. However, during that collective labour, fate destined that Qiu Fang would take a new look at Ivan, and this shy young Russian man also entered her heart.

In that era, tractors were still rare in remote mountain villages, and the only tractor in the township was constantly busy. Ivan had a natural sensitivity to machinery. He could grasp the machine's essential functions after assisting the tractor operator a few times. When the tractor operator slacked off, Ivan would take his place to work in the fields. This collective labour was for spring tree planting, and Ivan drove the tractor to haul water up the mountain to water the newly planted saplings. Seeing Ivan, who seemed oblivious to the scenery and busily working, Qiu Fang wanted to talk to him several times but held back. However, the tiny seedling of love had deeply taken root.

From childhood to adulthood, Ivan's clothes were given to him by kind villagers, and he had never worn new clothes before. He specially asked someone outside the village to buy a white shirt for him, which was his first new outfit. Wearing the new shirt, Ivan knocked on Qiu Fang's door with a nervous heart to propose to her. Qiu Fang's parents warmly welcomed Ivan and liked his simplicity and hardworking nature. However, when Ivan expressed his intentions, Qiu Fang's parents were troubled. On one hand, they sympathised with Ivan's situation. They recognised his excellent character, but on the other hand, Ivan, an orphan with nothing to his name, would make life difficult for their daughter if she married him. Seeing the troubled expressions on Qiu Fang's parents' faces, Ivan lowered his head and said firmly, "I have a pair of hands and won't let Qiu Fang suffer." At this moment, Qiu Fang, hiding in the inner room, blushed and said to her parents, "He's a good person, and I'm not afraid of hardship..."

Qiu Fang's parents agreed to their marriage and decided to hold the wedding during the Spring Festival of that year. Soon, autumn came, and Ivan was busy repairing the house and making furniture. At the same time, Qiu Fang secretly prepared cotton-padded clothes and quilts for them, eagerly anticipating the coming of the New Year. They would not utter words whenever they met, just burying themselves in their tasks.

Autumn was the most beautiful and enchanting season by the Erguna River. After the rise and fall of the river water in spring and summer, it became calm and gentle. After staring at it for a long time, the river water seemed to solidify, making people desire to get close to it. The forest became gorgeous and colourful. The pine trees remained verdant, while the leaves of birch and other shrubs, under the touch of autumn wind and rain, seemed to bloom like flowers in competition, with golden yellow and purplish red hues. From afar, the rolling mountains resembled an elegant and sentimental oil painting. This season was an excellent time to pick wild fruits. One day, Qiu Fang and several sisters agreed to go to the mountains to pick wild plums, but she never returned.

The township mobilised all the young and strong men to search for her in the mountains for a day and a night. Finally, they found Qiu Fang's red-checkered shirt sleeve on a branch of a wild plum tree and a cloth shoe under it. The wicker basket was broken, and the ground was littered with crushed wild plum fruits, a mass of black and red. It was said that black bears often appeared in that area that year.

Ivan shut himself in the newly repaired house for three days and three nights. When he came out again, his brown hair had turned hoary. Since then, no woman has ever appeared in his deep blue eyes like a lake.