A century of poverty

Chapter 52 Heart...Goodness

It was late spring of 1973. My father made a rule for my fourth sister and me, who were in school: every morning before school and after school, we had to dig a basket of wild vegetables to feed the pigs. This would save on bran, feed, and firewood for the pigs. The wild vegetables were also said to help the pigs "cool down" and make their hair shiny, and many of them contained medicinal herbs. In the summer, many children in the village would dig for wild vegetables, but not many families had this rule. Most children would just take their baskets after school and go to the fields and hillsides to dig for wild vegetables while playing.

Before I was fully awake in the morning, my mother was calling out to me, "Get up and go dig for vegetables! You'll be late for school if you're late." I felt a cool sensation on my forehead, and when I opened my eyes, I saw my mother's wet hand touching me. I immediately got up, put on my pants, buttoned my clothes as I walked, slung my basket over my shoulder in the yard, and went out the gate with my fourth sister.

The little girl next door to the east was the same age as my fourth sister. Her family saw that my fourth sister and I went to dig for wild vegetables every morning, so they let her go with us.

Wading through the morning dew, we hadn't walked far before our trouser legs and shoes were soaked through. The shoes were filled with mud and water; without socks, our feet couldn't grip the shoes, making walking extremely difficult. We followed the edges of the fields and slopes, digging as we went. When we reached the foot of the north slope of the fourth team's land in Beihe, a few of us stepped over sweet potato ridges, searching for wild vegetables along the steep slope. The little girl in front shouted, "There are long snakes, green ones!" Fourth Sister asked, "Where?"

The little girl pointed down the slope, and my fourth sister and I looked in the direction she was pointing. A long, emerald-green snake was crawling towards us, and we each picked up a clod of dirt and threw it at the snake.

In our time, whether it was a boy or a girl, if they encountered snakes while working in the fields, they rarely escaped and were mostly killed. Therefore, dead snakes were often seen on roads and roadsides.

The snake changed direction and darted across the sweet potato field toward the road. We chased after it relentlessly. When we reached the road, the two girls picked up stones and threw them at the snake. Little Girl's stone hit the snake's front, and it immediately stopped crawling. Fourth Sister threw her stone as well. I also ran to find stones. Slippery! One of my shoes flew far away. Barefoot, I picked up a stone, put on my shoe, and threw it at the snake. In a short while, under our onslaught, the snake was smashed to pieces.

At this moment, the little girl cried to her fourth sister, "You splashed some worm on my ankle when you were hitting it. I'm poisoned, and it's very itchy."

Fourth Sister: "Really? How come I didn't know!" Looking at her ankle, there was indeed a red, flat bump that looked like a mosquito bite. "Then hurry up and go wash it in the river."

We walked down a few dozen steps to the clear waters of the North River, where Fourth Sister helped her wash. The little girl was still crying, "I'm going to get poisoned, you have to compensate me." Fourth Sister said, "I'll compensate you." After a while, the little girl stopped crying, and we walked westward along the ground until we reached the north end of the "big area".

The little girl's crying changed our planned route for foraging for wild vegetables. There were few wild vegetables along this path; large patches of land were scarce, and by this point, each of us had only dug up the bottom of a basket. We had to spread out and diligently search for vegetables. I hadn't walked far when I came to an empty field after the wheat harvest. There wasn't a single blade of grass, let alone any wild vegetables. I saw that the fallen wheat leaves were almost rotten, so I guessed it was a "liberated" wheat field. Right after the wheat harvest, picking up the wheat ears wasn't allowed; the team would assign people to pick them up, but after a while, the team would stop. Seeing the state of the field, I had long since stopped caring. I searched for wild vegetables, and whenever I found wheat ears, I would pick them up, walk to the edge of the field, tie them into a bundle with grass, and put them in my basket.

After leaving the large area of ​​land, the three of us met up and saw that the sun was already high in the sky, the sunlight was dazzling, and it was time for class. Even if we didn't fill our baskets, we had to go home.

The large area to the south is north of Wangzhuangtuo's house. We stopped there and saw some students from Wangzhuangtuo already going to school with their backpacks. The three of us looked at each other and said, "Let's hurry, we're getting late." We jogged to the North River, put our baskets on the bank, splashed some water on our faces, ran home, put the baskets inside the gate, ate a bowl of rice, and without caring whether we were full or not, rushed off to school.

When I arrived at the classroom door, it was still late. The teacher was sitting at the front, and the students were studying on their own. I lowered my head and sat down in my seat.

Teacher: "Class begins."

Squad leader: "Stand up."

Teacher: "Sit down." The students sat down.

The teacher first read aloud an article from a newspaper about learning from the good experiences of a certain place. Then she talked about how we should be successors of socialism and strive to be an advanced class that loves public service and the collective.

Our homeroom teacher, Ms. Liu, is a girl from Liuzhuangtuo. She wore a yellowish-green blouse with black chrysanthemum petal patterns and black trousers. She was about twenty-three or twenty-four years old, of medium height, with two thick, long black braids reaching her waist. She had dark skin, a round face, large, dark eyes, long eyelashes, a straight nose, well-defined lips, and slightly upturned corners. Her eyes swept across the students, giving her a calm and capable air.

After a while, student A stood up and said, "Teacher, I picked up a small piece of eraser the other day but didn't hand it in." The teacher didn't say anything, and she continued to stand there.

Student B stood up: "Teacher, the other day I found a pencil stub and used it myself." The second student stood up. After a pause, the third student stood up: "Teacher, once I was gathering firewood, and a walnut fell from a tree. I looked around and saw no one was watching, so I cracked it open and ate it."

Ten minutes passed, and no one else stood up. The teacher said, "Good! If you're too embarrassed to speak up yourself, then those who know the answer should help others!"

A male student stood up: "Teacher, the other day when we went to collect firewood, Zhao XX was breaking off dried walnuts from the tree—", and a student who was "helping" stood up.

"Teacher, this morning when I came to school, I saw Zhang Qinglian picking up a basket of wheat ears."

Teacher: "Zhang Qinglian, you've picked up a basket of wheat ears?"

My head buzzed, and I stood up, my heart pounding in my chest. My face turned from red to white. I lowered my head and stole a glance at Wang Shaoyou, who was looking at me smugly. I quickly looked away.

"Teacher, I went to dig for wild vegetables this morning but didn't find any. I saw a few ears of wheat on the ground, so I picked them up and tied them with grass. It was a handful, no, not a basket," I stammered.

"Teacher, it's a basket." Wang Shaoyou insisted on saying it was a basket.

"Teacher, it's just a small handful. It was with a few of us. You can ask them if you don't believe me," I said softly but tried my best to explain.

"Wang Shaoyou, sit down," the teacher said, adding that those who help others don't need to mention themselves.

Teacher: "Where did you put the ears of wheat you picked?"

"I didn't put it anywhere. I was afraid I'd miss class when I came back, so I just threw the basket inside the gate and came to school," I said.

Teacher: "Take the ears of wheat to the team!"

"Mmm," I replied, continuing to stand.

Next, one by one, the students helped others, mostly by breaking off dry firewood while gathering firewood or stepping on rice seedlings while walking.

More than twenty students had already stood up. The bell rang, but the teacher didn't dismiss the class and continued discussing their selfish behavior. Other classes had already ended, but seeing that our class wasn't dismissed, they peeked through the windows to watch. We students standing there were filled with anxiety, and after a long time, we finally heard the teacher say get out of class was over.

I hurriedly left the classroom, not for any other reason than to escape that humiliating place. A lot of thoughts raced through my mind: Was this matter truly over? Would those of us who had been helped be branded with a bad reputation and forever unable to hold our heads high? I felt sullen.

After school, Wang Shaoyou and we walked out together. After passing Zhaozhuangtuo, I turned off and went into Zhangzhuangtuo, while he continued west along Beigou Avenue. He was still gloating over his actions. His small, pointed nose, high cheekbones, and two malicious eyes in his deep-set sockets told me that he was the victor.

I recognized him in my heart; beneath his smug exterior lay a corrupt heart. Why did he say I picked a basket of wheat ears? I placed the basket by the river, and while washing my face, a student from Wangzhuangtuo passed by. I didn't notice it was him. As he walked past my basket, it was clearly half a basket of vegetables with a small handful of wheat ears on top. Couldn't he see that? He told the teacher and the whole class that it was a basket of wheat ears. He not only had a problem with his eyes, but also with his heart, and he even looked smug. For the first time, I felt how terrifying people can be.

Several days passed, and the teacher didn't mention it again. The other students had also forgotten about it, but Wang Shaoyou didn't forget what he had done, and afterwards he always avoided me with hostility.

On rainy days, the roads are muddy and flooded. I only have one pair of cloth shoes, which I can't step in. So I take them off and carry them in my hand, while holding up my trouser leg with my other hand. I walk slowly and carefully on my way to school, afraid that broken glass or broken bowls might hurt my feet. When I get to the classroom door, I rinse my feet, put on my shoes, and go into the classroom.

I longed for a pair of plastic sandals, so I could wear them when I picked wild vegetables in the morning, and avoid going barefoot on rainy days. When I got home from school, I saw a pair of brown plastic sandals on the ground, the perfect size for my feet. I excitedly asked my mom, "Are these sandals for me?"

Mom: "No, your second brother found it."

I said, "Perfect, then I'll wear it!"

Mom: "I can't let you wear it. If someone asks for it back, I'll have to return it."

I said, "Lixian and Dainan both have them, but I don't. My dad won't buy me any either. I can wear these for now, and return them to her if someone comes looking for them, right?"

Mother: "No, you should keep what you find safe for it. That's a matter of trust."

A few days later, when I came home from school again, I saw a woman sitting on the edge of our kang (a heated brick bed), wearing a brand-new green dress, her hair neatly tucked behind her ears, chatting enthusiastically with my mother. Between them were those plastic sandals. Seeing me enter the house, the woman stood up: "The children are all out of school, I can't stay any longer, I'm leaving."

Mom: "This is your eldest cousin's wife."

"Big Cousin-in-law," I called out, knowing that this was Lei Jiapu's eldest cousin-in-law.

My older cousin's wife left carrying her sandals, and my mother saw her off.

When Mom came back, I asked, "Why did she take your sandals? Are they from her family?"

Mom replied, "It should be. A few days ago, the North River was flooded. One of these shoes was hanging on a tree branch, and the other was found by your second brother on the nearby beach. Your eldest cousin's wife said that her son had just bought these sandals and hadn't worn them for more than a few days when he went to play in the river. He took them off and left them by the riverbank. When the floodwaters came down, the children ran up, and the shoes were washed away."

They're upstream, and there's a sandy beach downstream from our village, so it's possible they washed ashore there. She came to inquire, and since what she said made sense, I gave it to her.