A century of poverty

Chapter 49 News

The brigade consisted of a row of new houses built in the south of the village. The first house at the east end was the uncle's accounting office and broadcasting room. In the middle were the canteen for the young people who had come to the countryside and the dormitories for male and female students. To the west were the Party branch, the militia company, the warehouse, and so on.

To the west, there are two side rooms where the brigade allowed my father to raise horses.

Dad made the most of his time to build a kang (heated brick bed) for the youth dormitory and a stove for Uncle's accounting office. The chimney passed under Uncle's desk. Dad said, "If your feet aren't cold, your body won't be cold."

In the autumn of 1971, after a long day of work, everyone at home had gone to bed.

The eldest brother came back from outside and had just entered the house when he heard someone outside calling, "Zhang Shuangxing! Zhang Shuangxing!" The voice was not loud.

The older brother came outside, and the person who came said, "Let's go to the brigade meeting."

Seeing the visitor's serious expression, the older brother went back into the house and told his mother, "I've gone to a meeting at the brigade headquarters."

Mom: "What meeting is it? Why the rush?"

The older brother said, "I don't know, just say it's an emergency meeting." Then he left.

A meeting is being held during sleeping hours; although I don't know what it's about, it must be something extraordinary.

I can't sleep anyway. What could it be? Just wait and see, I'll find out when the meeting comes back.

About an hour later, there was a knock at the door, and the older brother came in, bolted the door, and went inside.

. . . . . .

My eldest brother was valued by our father from a young age, and he was trained to take on the heavy responsibilities of the family. At the age of sixteen, he would get up at three o'clock in the morning to carry a load of dry grass to the market in Luan County to sell, earning two or three yuan to supplement the family income.

Before he was even twenty, he had grown into a handsome young man with regular features, a dignified appearance, and strength that surpassed that of his peers.

During the summer, several days and nights of continuous rain caused the Donghe River to overflow, flooding forests and crops. Between Lizhuangtuo and Zhaozhuangtuo, a stretch of land over a kilometer, the floodwaters roared down, carrying melons and fruits floating on the water. Some brave souls went down to the riverbank to retrieve them.

The torrent surged forward, carrying trees downstream. Suddenly, someone jumped into the river to try and retrieve them. He pushed the trees towards the bank several times, but the current was too strong, and he and the trees were swept away together. The river flowed past the old cemetery south of Wangzhuangtuo, several miles away, and he couldn't pull the trees back up. Exhausted, he managed to climb out on his own. This man was the eldest brother, who returned home and received a severe scolding from his father.

When the third sister was sixteen, Zhang Jingtang's eldest aunt came to propose marriage. My mother said no, she was too young. The eldest aunt said, "Our two families are on good terms. I've tried to be a matchmaker for your daughters, but two of them have already left home without success. I must be able to help this third girl find a match. If you think she's too young, let's talk about it first. If you can't get engaged, I'll be the matchmaker next year."

Sure enough, just as she turned seventeen, she came to arrange another marriage, asking her to marry her third sister to her nephew Zhang Yuexian, who was attending high school in Lianyu. They ate engagement dumplings and got engaged.

At this time, a high school was established in Zhuangtuo Commune, located in Zhangzhuangtuo, a large flat area at the foot of Lianyu Mountain.

In 1972, my maternal uncle from Heilongjiang wrote a letter and sent travel expenses, inviting my mother to visit him. Since they moved away, my mother had never visited them, nor had she seen her siblings. My mother really wanted to go and see them; decades had passed in the blink of an eye. When they parted, they were still young and naive, but now she was more than halfway through her life.

Dad was very supportive and bought a piece of royal blue khaki fabric to make a new shirt for Mom.

They brought along their older and younger brothers, along with local specialties like walnuts and dried sweet potatoes.

Before I knew it, my mother and the others had been gone for a long time. A small apricot tree on the south side of the wing had blossomed, and after the rain, the wind blew the blossoms all over the ground. I found a piece of wire, picked up the blossoms from the ground, and made a wreath to wear on my chest to fill the emptiness of missing my mother.

In spring, my father, unusually, planted two rows of cucumbers south of the side room. Every day after school, I would peek through the garden gate. Finally, the cucumber vines climbed the trellis and blossomed, with tiny, finger-sized cucumbers growing from the flowers, their thorns supporting the blossoms. My third sister told us, "You're not allowed to pick cucumbers from the garden to eat."

A graceful mangosteen tree was in full bloom, and I squatted in front of the side room, gazing at the beautiful mangosteen flower in a daze.

After a while, I went through the main house passageway to the back yard, and then to the front gate. I walked around and there was nothing interesting. I couldn't see my mother anywhere, inside or out. It was so deserted!

One day at noon after school, Li Xian, Dai Nan, and I were walking side by side, with Dai Nan on the left and Li Xian on the right. Dai Nan noticed that the bag on my left shoulder was bulging with a pool paddle, so he pulled it out, held it in his hand, and pointed at it, saying, "Your paddle is no good. It's too small to hold, and it's too heavy."

"Yeah, I think so too. My older brother used a saw to cut the ground for me," I replied. Indeed, my racket is big and round, shaped like a big apple, and the handle is as small as a stem. I can't hold it horizontally; I can only lift it by hand, and it's heavy and hurts my fingers.

As she spoke, Dai Nan pulled her pool paddle out of her bag: "Look at this, my dad made it for me." She held it horizontally, demonstrating how to block and smash. I took hers and weighed it in my hand: "You have a good grip, but the head is a bit small, it's hard to catch the ball!"

At this point, Li Xian didn't even look at the two of us, deliberately keeping her head down and walking forward. I found this unusual and asked, "Why are you walking like that?" She replied, "Isn't this how you usually walk?"

"Me? Did I?"

She replied, "That's how you walk; I'm copying you."

"Oh?" I exclaimed, alert. Regardless of whether it was true or not, walking like that was unsightly; I had to walk with my chest out and head held high. When we reached the east slope, the "housekeeper" at the east well smiled and said to me, "Qinglian, go home and see what's going on; you have guests."

"Who is it?" I asked, glancing at him.

"I won't tell you, you'll find out when you get home," Cun Tou said with a sly smile.

When I got home, the house was quiet. Grandma was sitting against the pile of quilts. I put my schoolbag on the cabinet and went to check on the south wing.

Upon entering the south room, there was a table on the kang (a heated brick bed), with a letter and a pen on it. Next to it, in a plate, were two clean cucumbers, still damp with water droplets.

Under the window, my third sister and Zhang Yuexian were standing facing each other, seemingly talking about something. Zhang Yuexian was smiling happily, but when she saw me come in, her round face with a few freckles turned red.

I understand now. Cuntou also goes to high school in Lianyu, and Zhang Yuexian and the others are classmates; they might even have come from the same place. I also know that they asked Zhang Yuexian, a high school student, to help their family write letters. I turned around and said, "I'm hungry; I have school this afternoon."

On an early autumn afternoon, I walked home alone from school, up the eastern slope. The sun shone through the gaps in the trees, dazzling my eyes. As I walked home, I could vaguely see a group of people climbing the hill. When I was almost at my neighbor's house to the east, I recognized one of them—a tall woman wearing a light pink vest—as my mother. I ran over, and my mother smiled kindly, bent down, and hugged me.

"Mom! You're back!" I exclaimed happily.

"You're back, my little darling!" Mom replied.

I had never seen my mother so fair-skinned, serene, full-figured, and beautiful before, and I began to admire her.

My third sister walked ahead, carrying a bag. As she stepped through the gate, I wondered if the person wearing a blue cloth shirt and a military green hat was my younger brother, Shuanglai? I hadn't seen him for half a year, and I almost didn't recognize him.

There was also a girl whose head was taller than her mother's. She had a fair, oval face, large double-lidded eyes, and two long, black braids that reached her thighs. She wore a dark, soft, flowing short-sleeved top and long pants, which accentuated her full figure and elegant demeanor. She was holding a chubby, fair-skinned baby, a few months old, in her arms.

"This is my third cousin," Mom introduced.

"Hello, Third Cousin." Third Cousin patted the top of my head.

The older brother walked at the back, carrying a bag with a picture of "Harbin" on it. I smiled at him.

The house suddenly became lively, bringing with it a sense of atmosphere from the outside world that I had never seen before.

My eldest sister came and learned that my maternal grandfather had passed away. She inquired about the health of my eldest uncle and aunt, chatted with my third cousin about the situation there, and asked what Yaoman, who had asked her "how many oxen pull the train" years ago, was doing. My third cousin replied that he drove a combine harvester on a farm.

My mother held up a photo and introduced the girl: "This girl with a dignified and pretty face is Zhengyu. This one with thin lips and a clever look is Zhengxi. Zhengxi is quite good at storytelling and often goes out to perform." Both are my older cousin's children. The family is very happy and harmonious. Their grandfather, Old Man Song, passed away a few years ago.

The eldest brother also told a funny story about himself. Once, on his way home from get off work, he saw a log thicker than a rafter on the road. He carried it back on his shoulder, sweating profusely. His aunt asked him how he did it, and he said, "I picked up a log and carried it back; it was a long way." His aunt laughed and said, "My silly nephew, next time watch out, don't carry that. Look at that pile of firewood in the yard; every piece is as thick as that. We have plenty of wood here."

Older brother: "Such a big piece of wood, are we just going to throw it away?"

Aunt: "No, that's not it. We can just throw it in a car when it passes by and take it anywhere."

The older brother then pulled out two Chairman Mao badges from his bag: "Have you ever seen such beautiful Chairman Mao badges?" Our eyes were immediately drawn to them. The exquisite craftsmanship and the red five-pointed stars, with Chairman Mao's image embedded in their hearts, were truly something we had never seen before. "Let me see!" "Let me see!" We all scrambled to hold them in our hands to admire them.

The eldest sister asked, "How is Zhaodi doing?"

My third cousin replied, "After she graduated from school, she stayed in Harbin and got married there. Her husband is a very nice young man." As she spoke, she took out a photo. Next to the handsome Zhao Di was a person with a square face, big eyes, and a straight nose and mouth.

"How is my second cousin doing?"

My third cousin sighed, "That guy surnamed Mou is a scoundrel. He was married for only a few months, and after my second sister got pregnant, he started cheating on her with other women. A few years later, my second sister was completely ruined. Now she's divorced and raising her child alone."

Younger brother: "I've even met Russians and bathed in the same river as them."

I was surprised: "Can you play with them?"

"No, I can still say 'Alashao, Alashao.' When Yaoyu and I went to take a shower, we greeted the Russians with 'Alashao, Alashao,' and they waved back in response."

Mom said, "Further along the border, there's a river with a boundary marker. People from both countries bathe on their own sides, and they're not allowed to cross the border freely. They can greet each other politely. Your aunt took me for a walk, and across the river, you could see clusters of white houses—those were the houses where the Soviets lived. Russians love to drink; sometimes they'd be walking down the street drinking as they walked at nine or ten at night, carrying bottles in their hands. If they got too drunk, they'd sing."

"What are they singing?"

"I can't understand it; it's sung in their language."