The Ups and Downs of the Commoners Page #13

This non-fiction novel tells the life of ordinary commoners in the middle of the 20th century in China, from the series of movements such as "Land Reform", "Great Leap Forward", "Cultural Revolution" and "Educated Youth Going to the Countryside" to the early days of Reform and Opening-up. The book has four volumes, and was published by Hong Kong Chinese International Publishing House in 2015. The protagonist of this book, Fang Zhengben, was born into a bankrupt family of landowners. Their family has lived in Taiqing Town for generations. When he was six years old, he left Taiqing Town with his parents and came to Longyun Mountain, where the mountains overlap. From then on, he began an unusual life: their family hard work, but they couldn't eat enough; he yearned for reading, but he has dropped out of school three times before graduating from junior high school; he is diligent and studious, with excellent grades, but the door of colleges is

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At noon, Fang Xinwen is back from the market. He bought back 1 kg of pork, a bottle of Sorghum liquor, a packet of realgar and a packet of aromatic powder, also to two or three side dishes such as green peppers and cucumbers. Wang Qihui saw him come back and went to cook immediately.
This day was the first time they had eaten pork since they went to the countryside. Fang Zhengben  tasted the Sichuanstyle Cooked pork fry green chili,  and found it particularly delicious. Fang Xinwen poured some Realgar with liquor and drank his face red and talked more and more. So he use the time of drinking, of the liquor to talk about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival. He was happy about it, and put the realgar liquor on the forehead, nose and cheeks of Fang Zhengqing and Fang Zhengben, saying that this would detoxify and prevent the damage from sores. After the meal, Fang Xinwen sprinkled some realgar on the back of the house and said: "There are many snakes on this mountain, but snakes are most afraid of realgar. It will be very uncomfortable when it encounters realgar. As long as the realgar is scattered like this, snakes will not dare to come."  
After cleaning up the bowls and chopsticks, Wang Qihui took out a basket with needles and thread inside. She to find out various colored fabrics and silk line, and made sachets. She wrapped incense powder with floral cloth to make several little monkeys as big as a thumb. The eyes, ears, mouth and nose of the little monkey are all complete, all of them are very realistic. She used silk threads of different colors to wrap the sachet into the shape of rice dumplings. The style was exquisite and the fragrance was pleasant.
After making the sachets, Wang Qihui hung up two for each of the Fang Zhengqing brothers, and gave some to Zhang Chunxiang, and the rest hung on the bedside guardrail. That night, she boiled a large pot of water with the herbs she picked back in the morning, and let the family take a bath comfortably.
This day was a very happy day for their family. Before going to bed at night, Fang Xinwen suddenly remembered something and said to Wang Qihui: "I was busy with the festival during the day, and I forgot to tell you one thing." Wang Qihui asked: "What's the matter?" Fang Xinwen said, "I'm on the street today.I wanted to see our old house. As a result catch sight of, Zhang Yuting had already moved inside, and live in." Wang Qihui said: "Look, he is ignorant of his conscience and must drive us to the countryside. It turns out that he wants to occupy our house. If he occupies the house like this, there will be no good results."
After the Dragon Boat Festival, Fang Zhengqing and Fang Zhengben continued to collect firewood and cut the grass on the mountain. 
In the morning after a heavy rain, Fang Xinyou and Fang Xinlin suddenly came to  call the Fang Zhengqing brothers and said, "Go, let's go to Yanwo Rock today to cut the grass. It is fun there and the grass grows well." Fang Zhengqing asked: "You It's a holiday?" Fang Xinyou said, "Since yesterday." Fang Zhengqing and Fang Zhengben had known about the place of Yanwo Rock, and they wanted to see it, so they readily agreed.
This Yanwo Rock is overlap in mountain on the northern end of Yueya Ridge. It is two or three times higher than Yueya Ridge. There are several crop fields in the gentler places below it. Because the land here is thin and thin, only some sweet potato is grown in the land. They walked on a small road outside the cropland for a while, and they entered a patch of forest. Alder cremastogyne and cypress trees grow in the woods. Because it rained just last night, the woods were wet, and the air inside was particularly fresh and cool. Where the trees are sparse, the thick and fluffy grass looks like someone has laid a green carpet on the ground, and very comfortable to step on. But they have no time to appreciate the beauty of the forest, they quickly dispersed in the woods, each looking for a place, putting down their back basket, and rushing to cut the grass.
Everyone was busy cutting the grass, and Fang Zhengben suddenly said "Oh".  Fang Zhengqing and Fang Xinyou brothers heard his voice and hurriedly asked: "What's wrong with you?" Fang Zhengben said dejectedly: "My sickle met a stone and it cut my hand!" Everyone ran over to look, seeing blood running on the index finger of his left hand. Fang Zhengqing looked at it, but he no hand a way, only was anxious beside him.Fang Xinyou  had a way. He said, "Quickly pinch the underside of your finger!" Fang Zhengben hurriedly pinched the bleeding finger with his right hand. Fang Xinyou went to the nearby grass to find a Bletilla striata seedling, used a sickle to dig out two white trident-shaped roots from the soil below it, handed it to Fang Zhengben, and said , "This is Bletilla striata, which can stop bleeding . You chew it up and apply it there to, there will be no bleeding." Fang Zhengben was a bit dubious, but he still did what Fang Xinyou said. Strange to say, his fingers stopped bleeding soon.
Fang Zhengqing felt a bit fatigue in his hands, and said, "Let’s play for a while and then cut the grass!" Fang Xinyou and the brothers listened and said, "We also want to rest for a while and go, let’s go to the Yanwo Rock." They walked  In the woods, climb up the steep slope. Due is to the high slopes and steep slopes, the trees on the hills are becoming thinner and thinner, and short and small than those on the bottom. They came under the cliff, and looking up, see with dangerous rocks hanging in the  above their heads. The rocks are covered by Myrull.jpg hairy Wall. The green Myrull.jpg hairy Wall hangs upside down like a waterfall, dancing with the wind. They walked right along the cliff cavity, came to the ridge, and then followed a path on the ridge to the top of the mountain. On the top of the mountain is a small bare flat land with no vegetation.
This mountain top is about the same height as Cuiping Mountain in the east and Laifeng Peak in the west. Winding northward, there is a mountain on the mountain. Fang Zhengqing and Fang Zhengben followed Lianghekou and Laolong Pool, looking south towards the direction they entered the Ravine, and saw numerous small hills scattered behind the rolling hills. Fang Zhengben tried his best to search with his eyes, trying to find Taiqing Town among the small hills behind the mountains, but Taiqing Town happened to be blocked by Shangguan Mountain and Xiaguan Mountain.
They played for a while on the top of the mountain, then returned to the woods along the same way, and cut the grass for a while. At this time, the sun shines through the woods on the lawn, dispelling the humid air in the forest, and making people tired. So they  down on the lawn and chatted for a while, until they felt a little hungry in their stomachs, and then went home with their baskets on their backs.

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