A century of poverty

Chapter 15 Growth

Children of the poor learn to be independent early. The snarling smile of Tongtou when selling land made Hope understand that he could no longer sell land.

Fourteen-year-old Xiwang had grown taller, but his family's life still hadn't improved.

Since dropping out of school, he has been supporting his family by working as a child laborer at the "Kung Fu Market" in Zhaozhuangtuo. When the soil moisture is good, the "Kung Fu" market is fast, so he takes the opportunity to work a few more days to earn some money. By the time the Kung Fu Market is over and he tries to return to farming his own land, it's already too late, the autumn harvest is poor, and the following year there won't be enough food. He and his grandfather go to the market to carry rice to sell and buy sorghum bran to eat.

Today is market day in Luanxian County. Grandpa told him he couldn't bring anything today; he had to go empty-handed. He wasn't going to the market for everyday household items today.

Grandpa always carried a coarse cloth satchel on his shoulder. Upon arriving in Luan County, the two of them headed straight to the livestock market, where Grandpa was going to teach him how to inspect livestock.

First, observe the animal's stance. Check if its four hooves are stable; if one leg is wobbling, it indicates a problem with that leg. Second, examine its coat; check the shine of the hairs. If these are all fine, the next step is to examine its mouth: look at its teeth to determine its age.

Hopefully, he remembered everything. Finally, Grandpa rolled down his sleeves, pulled his hands inside, and told Hope to put his hands into his sleeves, hook, pinch, and squeeze them, bargaining until he got it all under the table without anyone noticing. Then he pulled the livestock aside to count the money.

"Buying livestock is this complicated?" Hope said.

"If I didn't wait until you were older to teach you!" Grandpa replied.

After browsing the livestock market, the father and son came to a tea stall. They each drank a bowl of tea and rested. The grandfather called out to Xiwang, "Let's go home. We'll go home for lunch."

The grandfather and grandson chatted as they walked. The grandfather said, "I hope so! I've taught you everything about business, but you can figure out farming on your own. As I get older, I won't be able to take you to the market all the time. Be careful when you go to the market by yourself; there are all kinds of people there—especially pickpockets."

As we walked and chatted, we arrived at Zhugezhuang. There, the "traffic trench" dug by the Japanese soldiers was clearly visible. Looking down from the edge of the trench, I exclaimed, "Wow, it's so deep!"

Grandpa called him back: "Stay away from there, or you'll fall in. It's where they dug this ditch; your third uncle was killed by the Japanese."

Hope: "When will we be able to drive those despicable Japanese out of China?"

Xiuying's sister-in-law is tall, with a fair and clean face, and generous eyebrows and eyes, with a slight upturn at the corners of her mouth. She told her sister-in-law, "You can't always stay at home. Sooner or later you'll belong to your husband's family. You have to adapt. That's your home for life."

Xiuying understood that it wasn't that her sister-in-law was being unreasonable; she was about to marry into the family, and her sister-in-law was doing it for her own good.

With her slender figure and oval face, Yi Qiu and Hope worked tirelessly from dawn till dusk, participating in the autumn harvest and threshing, ensuring that the two fourteen-year-old children didn't neglect any of the farm work.

North of the gate was their threshing ground. The two children pulled the millet roller to thresh the grain and sorghum, while Grandma Er only had to turn and sift the grain. With Xiuying around, her life was much easier. Grandma Er was very happy this year. They had harvested a lot of various kinds of grain, enough to handle things and provide for their needs. With her daughter-in-law soon to be married, she had nothing to fear with enough grain.

The temple bell rang urgently, and someone shouted, "The enemy is coming! Run!" Instantly, people carrying bundles, young and old, rushed out of the village. Grandma Er froze. Someone called out, "Hope, quickly help your mother and run with us! The Japanese are coming!" Grandma Er replied, "This is all the grain I have." She refused to go. Hope pulled her mother, and Xiuying helped her, and they joined the crowd running north. They ran all the way to the mountain pass (north pass). Grandma Er, with her bound feet, was already exhausted. She didn't want to run anymore, but the people didn't stop. She persevered for a while, but finally couldn't run anymore. She stopped, looked at Hope and Xiuying, and said, "You run, I'll hide up this ditch." Xiuying said, "I'll go with you." Grandma Er pushed Xiuying, "You run." At this moment, several other elderly women with bound feet stopped. "We can't run anymore. Let's go up from here together and hide in that little cave in Lianyu." The young man pulled Xiwang and Xiuying and continued running north. They would be safe near Diaoyutai. Because this was a guerrilla zone for the Eighth Route Army and guerrillas, the militia of Diaoyutai often cooperated with the guerrillas to fight guerrilla warfare. Under normal circumstances, the Japanese would not dare to advance beyond Shaguiziyu Gully.

As darkness fell, people gradually returned to their villages.

Second Grandma arrived at the threshing ground first and was horrified to find that all the grain in her family's threshing ground had been looted by the Japanese soldiers. She sat on the ground and burst into tears, crying, "This was for my child's wedding, a year's worth of food! It's all gone! What are we going to do..."

Cries could be heard from house to house throughout the village; every family had suffered misfortune, and the entire village had been looted by the Japanese invaders.

The next morning, the worst news came from "Tiandetang": the eldest son's daughter-in-law had just given birth yesterday, and the mother-in-law stayed to take care of her. Both mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were killed by Japanese soldiers with bayonets, one inside the door and the other outside.

People hated the Japanese devils so much that they believed they would never have a good life until the Japanese devils were driven out.

Second Grandma fell ill. The wedding for the two children was scheduled after the ceremony, but the food was gone. What could they do? She hadn't eaten or drunk anything for days. Xiuying swept some grain from the edge of the field and cooked some thin porridge. She brought it to her mother-in-law and persuaded her to drink it. With Xiuying's careful care, her mother-in-law slowly recovered.

A messenger from Wangzhuangtuo brought news that Xiuying's father had returned and asked Xiuying to go home. Second Grandma readily agreed: "Go home and see him quickly, it's been years since you've seen your father." Xiuying's face lit up with joy. "Okay!" She washed her face and happily went home for a reunion.

Xiuying's father had indeed been doing better in Northeast China than at home these past few years. It was a sparsely populated area, free from Japanese invasion and administrative control, so life was good, and he had accumulated some savings over the years. He missed his eldest son's family and his youngest daughter, so he brought his savings back, used them to pay off his eldest son's debts from the past few years, and gave some to Xiuying. His daughter was getting married, and this was a small token of his affection.

On the fourth day, when the topic of marriage came up, Xiuying couldn't feel happy. She still felt it was better to be a daughter. Her father said that daughters all grow up and get married; how could they stay at home forever? Besides, this time her father came back to see her wedding, and he was going to take her eldest brother's family to the Northeast, where it would be much easier to make a living than at home. Xiuying said, "So you're just leaving me here alone?" Her father replied, "Your husband's family is your home. Your father will come back to see you!"

That night, Xiuying tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Her father and the whole family were gone. What would she do if she missed home? Tears welled up in her eyes.

The next day, she told her father about the Japanese soldiers' recent raid on their territory, where all the grain had been looted. Her father pondered for a moment, then said, "Such a terrible thing has happened. I'll go to Zhangzhuangtuo to see my mother-in-law!" He went immediately, setting off for her second grandmother's house. Upon reaching the back door, he called out loudly, "Is my mother-in-law home?"

Upon hearing that it was her in-laws, Second Grandma quickly responded, "Home, home!" and led Hope out to greet them. Hope then greeted her father-in-law.

After being ushered into the house, Second Grandma led her in-laws to sit on stools at the high table, while she herself sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), hoping to stand behind her mother. They chatted for a while about the situation in Northeast China, and then the topic turned to the children's wedding. Xiuying's father readily said, "To tell you the truth, I brought back a few yuan this time. I originally planned to give it to Xiuying as a dowry, but I heard that the grain you were using for the children's wedding was looted by the Japanese, and now you're in a financial bind. So I'm entrusting this money to you to handle the arrangements."

Second Madam quickly declined, saying, "No, no, how can we use your money for our family's affairs?"

Xiuying's father said frankly, "It's not easy for you orphans and widows to earn money. Life is better in Northeast China, and it's easier to earn money there. This little bit of money is nothing." His straightforward words, though unintentional, resonated with the listener.

Feeling embarrassed, she got up to get more water: "Drink water, drink water. I don't have any money, but I'll figure something out myself."

Xiuying's father didn't realize what his second wife was thinking. He just said, "We're all family now, why are you being so formal? Just use this." He put the money down, said goodbye, and left.

Second Grandma was in dire need of money, and Xiuying's father's gift came to her just in time. However, she didn't understand Xiuying's father's generous and righteous nature, and took it as showing off and making her feel ashamed in front of him.

Hopefully, after the wedding with Xiuying, they would add a five-foot-long cabinet, a large mirror, and two porcelain dressing boxes, make new clothes for each of the two children, two sets of new luggage, and have a meal together with their closest relatives.

Xiuying's sister-in-law gave a pair of gall-shaped vases to her younger sister-in-law as part of her wedding dowry.

The bridal chamber was still the same room, and he and his second grandmother shared a kang (heated brick bed).

Xiuying's father had finally settled his daughter in, and they would be setting off for Heilongjiang soon. Xiuying's sister-in-law made a special trip to her younger sister's house in Liuzhuangtuo, instructing her sister and brother-in-law, Liu Fuyou, to take care of her young sister-in-law who had lost her mother at a young age: "When we leave, she has no relatives. She's so young; it's not easy for our child's aunt!"

Xiuying's sister-in-law's worries were not without reason. Just the fact that her sister-in-law cried as she crossed the river to her husband's house revealed that Xiuying's life in her husband's family was exceptionally difficult. If her father had cared about how his daughter was doing in her husband's family, Xiuying's fate might have been different. But things didn't turn out as people hoped; they continued to unfold according to their own trajectory.

Xiuying felt utterly heartbroken after seeing off her father, brother, sister-in-law, and other family members. She was left all alone at her mother-in-law's house, where she was treated like a bought maid, utterly powerless and without status. Her behavior was expected to conform to a rigid, feudalistic daughter-in-law code. A woman who had spent her entire life sleeping on the same kang (heated brick bed) with her mother-in-law—who could know the repression and grievances she felt? He only knew that his mother had endured so much to protect him, her son, and that filial piety was a matter of course. As for this woman, the same age as him, he never knew she also needed care and love.

Spring planting has begun again, but the two fifteen-year-old children and their second grandmother are not yet able to cultivate the land entirely on their own and still need to work with Diaoyutai.

Hope, from the moment he could lift a small pickaxe, followed his grandfather and uncles to till the fields. The slopes of Diaoyutai were mostly flat, with short furrows and hard edges, so the plow couldn't reach the end; a pickaxe was needed to dig it out by hand. This task naturally fell to Hope, who, despite his best efforts, couldn't keep up. His grandfather would shout from ahead, "Hope! Keep going!"

But his younger uncle, who was the same age as him, was chasing birds on the hillside...

When it was time to plant the Hope family's land, Second Grandma would always do her best to cook delicious food to make up for the lack of manpower in her family.

Despite this, the second uncle was still not at peace.

After finishing the meal, looking at his sister and nephew, the second uncle couldn't say anything. Looking at his wife, who was not of the same surname, his resentment surfaced: "You have to rely on yourselves to make a living. I've been coming to farm for you every year because of my sister. You, as the younger generation, should take good care of her and not make her angry. If I find out that you treat her badly, I won't stand for it."

Xiuying, a little girl with no one to rely on, was timid in this family. She just followed her mother-in-law's instructions to do chores. During festivals, when guests came and went, if there was something delicious to eat, she would just cook it without even smelling it. She would serve the food to her mother-in-law, hoping that the mother and son could enjoy it. How could she possibly make her mother-in-law angry?

Hearing her uncle's words, she became even more afraid of her mother-in-law and the authority of Hope.

The second maternal uncle's words subtly set rules for the young nephew and his wife.

Hope was his mother's greatest love. His mother was widowed at the age of twenty-seven, and he was the pillar of her life. Naturally, she loved him dearly. So, the hardest and most tiring work in the family, as well as the negative emotions of the mother and son, were all placed on Xiuying, the daughter-in-law who was not her husband.