bookbashuk Chapter 26 Sorrow
Chapter 26 Sorrow
The family has a second child, named "Little Brother". She is a clever little girl, nine months old. When you call her name, she will turn around and look at you, babbling and talking to you.
I hope he'll continue to be busy with village affairs as usual, neglecting his family matters.
In the autumn of 1948, my mother was threshing sorghum in the north field. The cleaned sorghum was piled up in a heap, with a sack next to it.
A small quilt was laid out in a large basket, where the younger brother sat while the older sister, Fenglian, teased her younger sister.
Grandma told Fenglian, "Fenglian, you watch over your sister. Your mother and I will irrigate the sorghum."
Grandma's eyesight was poor, so she couldn't do delicate work, but she could still manage. She picked up the bag and opened the mouth of the bag for Mom, and the two of them began to fill it with sorghum.
Suddenly, several Central Army soldiers arrived at the threshing ground with guns, brandishing their weapons and shouting, "Go home, go home—take the children home and don't let them come out."
The mother pleaded, "Boss, please let us finish drinking."
"No, no, take the child home right now." He said, shoving with the barrel of his gun.
From the moment they entered the courtyard, Xiaodi and Fenglian saw them. The two children stared at the strangers in terror. As they shouted and shoved, Fenglian cowered behind her grandmother, while Xiaodi burst into tears. Their mother quickly picked up Xiaodi, and their grandmother, holding Fenglian's hand, was driven home by the Central Army soldiers. Only then did they realize that many Central Army soldiers had entered the courtyard and climbed onto the roof, and Xiaodi was still crying incessantly.
They went inside and closed the doors and windows. To avoid bullets, Grandma led Fenglian to hide under the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed).
The mother was holding her younger brother behind the stove in the hallway. Because the stove in the old house was low, and the mother was tall, there was no way to block the two of them from getting in.
The mother put her younger brother down, and as she prepared to roll up, she pulled her daughter into her arms. At the same time, there was a commotion outside the window in the yard, with loud thumping noises coming from the rooftops and a machine gun mounted on the chimney.
With a whoosh, a bullet pierced the window. "Crash—" The large mirror from my mother's wedding on the north wall shattered and fell down.
Gunshots rang out in the courtyard and on the rooftops. The younger brother, still in shock, screamed "Ah—" and fainted from the suddenness of it all.
Almost simultaneously, the mother hurriedly got up, her face pale, and hugged the child, crying, "Little brother! Little brother! Little brother—look, your mother is here." She called and shook him, and it took a long time for the child to catch his breath, but his face was sallow and he was listless.
The mother felt heartbroken and sad seeing her child...
Grandma kept sighing.
It was quiet inside and outside the house. I don't know when the gunfire stopped or when the soldiers left.
"Thump, clatter—" The sound made Mom remember something and said, "It sounds like a bullet casing."
She put the child down, opened the front door, but there was no one there.
Grandma also woke up. She poked her head out to look around, but dared not go out.
Fenglian took half a liter of water and searched for bullet casings in the yard, only finding a few in the gaps between the jars under the window and in inconspicuous places at the base of the wall.
"Wait a minute, we've fired so many shots and it's been so long, how come there are only a few spent shell casings? Those three old thieves must have picked them up again," Grandma scolded angrily.
Yes, the gunfire stopped, and as soon as the soldiers left, Zhang Gaoshi picked up the spent shell casings in the yard like mushrooms after a rain.
On the side of Third Grandmother Zhang Gaoshi, she sold land twice, taking over the community's vegetable garden, planting the community's poplar trees, and building a new house and courtyard. It was truly a timely move that brought double the profit.
The first time we sold land, our two sons went to school and grew up. Farming wasn't hard work; we lived a comfortable life with good food and drink.
The second land sale was before the land reform. During the land reform, her family's population and land holdings were equal, so they didn't need to be transferred out.
They built a new courtyard in Xiyuanzi, demolished the old houses, and since the per capita property was not much, they were able to live in a new house, have money to spend, and most importantly, they were not labeled as "rich peasants".
Although the old courtyard allocated a few vegetable plots to the east courtyard and gave them some change, compared to what they gained, the loss was really nothing.
The eldest son and daughter-in-law do all the farm work, and they are both doing it well. The daughter-in-law gave birth to a granddaughter who is over a year old, and now she is experiencing morning sickness. These past few years have been very lucky for them, with everything going smoothly.
This is the younger brother-in-law with crutches. He can't do much now, all he can do is heat the kang (a heated brick bed) where he sleeps.
Fourth Master Zhang Jingtian knew in his heart that ever since his third brother and sister-in-law took him in after the family division, he was just a tool for them to seize the family property, and they would throw him aside once they succeeded.
Now he's been left alone in one of the other three rooms. The cooking is done in the three rooms where they live, and they don't call him to eat. He has to go there by himself when it's almost time. Sometimes he smells a wonderful aroma in the hallway, but there's nothing on the table, and he doesn't dare ask. His brother and father are gone, in the hands of others. He inwardly resents his second sister-in-law for being so foolish, always getting schemed against. Seeing his nephew hopefully growing up brings him some comfort, but he can't say anything, feeling a strange sense of guilt.
I haven't been feeling well these past few days, so I came to sit by the front door for a while after dinner.
At his advanced age, living through chaotic times and war, he was no longer afraid.
Today, after the gunfire subsided and the soldiers withdrew, he opened the door and sat down at the gate, looking around to see if anything was different from usual. Before he could see anyone else, his third sister-in-law came out of the yard carrying a basket. She went out the door to the old courtyard on the east side of the alley, opened the gate, and went in. After a short while, she came out of the old courtyard, carrying a heavy basket of spent bullet casings, and quickly went into the yard.
She had that kind of ability, the courage, and the willingness to do it. Her son and daughter-in-law were at home, protecting their one-year-old daughter. When they saw the army coming in, they closed the doors and windows and hid. She hid alone in a corner by the door. As soon as the gunfire stopped, she came out, grabbed a basket, and ran to the old courtyard. She went into the side room, took out a ladder, propped it up on the roof of the east courtyard, climbed up, and went down the west wall along the courtyard wall. Sure enough, there were many bullet casings in the courtyard. She quickly picked them up, then climbed up the east wall and onto the roof using a forked log. After picking up the ones on the roof, she climbed down the ladder back to her old courtyard. Because the basket was heavy, she tripped and fell while going down the ladder. The basket bounced, and the copper casings rattled. She quickly got up and ran back to the new courtyard.
Xiuying and her mother-in-law were so busy taking care of the child that they had no idea when the gunfire stopped or when the army withdrew. When Xiuying heard the noise and opened the door, she saw no one. Her mother-in-law looked outside but didn't dare to go out.
The spent cartridges in the yard had already been picked up by the "good person" Zhang Gaoshi, and Fenglian only managed to retrieve a few when she went out.
Hope was still busy with things in the village, and he didn't return until dusk. Every time he came home, he would tease his clever daughter and younger brother. Today, the child wasn't playing on the kang (heated brick bed), but lying listlessly to one side. He asked, "What's wrong with the child? He was fine this morning!"
Xiuying replied, "I was frightened." She then recounted what had happened that afternoon.
Hope scolded, "What can you even do? You can't even take care of the kids!"
Xiuying said, "I didn't do it on purpose. It was just too coincidental. She's my daughter too."
*Smack!* A resounding slap landed across the face. "And you're still saying that? Mom sees our eldest daughter is fine, but you're so useless?"
Xiuying dared not speak again, holding her youngest daughter, feeling wronged, guilty and depressed, with nowhere to confide in her heart—she only hated why fate was so unfair.
She was more heartbroken than anyone else to see her daughter so sick.
I'm only 23 years old, and I'm busy all day long. Experiencing this situation is terrifying. I need comfort, but no one cares. Instead, they demand perfection in everything.
Having vented their anger by beating their wife, the mother and son approached the mother and asked, "Mom, weren't you scared today?"
Grandma: "How could we not be scared? There were soldiers all over the roof and in the yard, machine guns were mounted on the chimney, firing like popping beans. My eldest daughter and I huddled under the edge of the kang (heated brick bed), too scared to move. By the way, who are the Central Army fighting with today? I didn't see any of them over there."
Hope: "How could you see that the People's Liberation Army is in Beishan? It seems they're fighting in Heishan. I don't know how they ended up exchanging fire here."
The mother and daughter chatted for a while and then fell asleep.
Xiuying couldn't sleep, holding her child all night. Her younger brother was startled and disoriented; when dawn broke, the child was motionless. She sensed something was wrong and choked back tears, calling out, "Little brother—little brother! Look at Mom, Mom's here."
Grandma clicked her tongue and sat up.
Father: "Really!" He sat up, dressed, and looked at the child. His face was deathly pale, and he was no longer breathing.
Grandma looked at the child with a gloomy expression and said, "It's no good, just throw it away."
Father found a sorghum stalk, wrapped it around his younger brother, tucked it under his arm, went out, grabbed a shovel, and headed down the western cliff.