The Ups and Downs of the Commoners Page #17

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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Although they were very economical, but they soon ate up the grains they bought after selling the peaches. Wang Qihui said: "Nature will always provide people with conditions for survival. There are no grains to eat, there are still a lot of Ground fungus on this mountain.  As long as pick them up and eat them, and it will not starve people to death." So they picked up the Ground fungus every day and used it as their staple food. Unexpectedly, this thing can consumes body fat, and you feels fresh eating it once in a while, but if you eat too much, it will make it unbearable for you. After eating Ground fungus for two days in a row, everyone in the family said that their stomachs are like the sea is turning over the waves. If they sit there a while, they certainly have a puddle of drool on the ground. The family kept complaining.
On this day, Fang Xinwen's family was having dinner, and suddenly Fang Xinyou's father came to their house chat. He is about forty years old, of medium height, with a dark face, long naturally curly hair, a row of short beards on his chin, and wear a short shirt. Wang Qihui saw a visitor coming, and knew that he was the leader of their villager group, hurriedly greet him and said, "Leader Fang, come into and sit!" Fang Xinwen also took out the leaf tobacco and said, "Come on, smoking!"
After the leader Fang sat down, he while smoking a cigarette, and started chat with Fang Xinwen and Wang Qihui. He said: "In fact, you shouldn't call me i'leader’. My name is Fang Zhicheng, and I belong to the ‘Zhi’ generation, and I belong to the same Clan Association as you! Therefore, in terms of generation, I am still your elder. I am ranked fourth among the brothers..." Fang Xinwen already understood it in before the he could finish his words. According to the Fang family tree, the generation order is "Ren, Yi, Li, Zhi, Xin, Zheng, Shan, Zhong, He, Ping". Therefore, the "Zhi" generation is indeed higher than the "Xin" generation. He hurriedly smiling and said, "So, we should call you the 'Fourth uncle'! We didn't know before, fourth uncle don't blame." Fang Zhicheng grinned and said, "Since you don't know, how can I blame it?" Fang Xinwen  to Fang Zhengqing and Fang Zhengben said, "Quickly call'Fourth Grandpa'!" The two brothers hurriedly shouted, "Fourth Grandpa!" Fang Zhicheng nodded happily at them, and said, "Good! Good!" Wang Qihui asked curiously, "Fourth Uncle, how did you get come here?" Fang Zhicheng took a cigarette and said: "Because I worked as a salt worker in Lianghekou a few years ago, I made a home here; after the salt factory was closed, I switched to farming here." Fang Zhicheng saw that their family all eating Ground fungus, Asked: "Why do you all eating Ground fungus, without eating rice?" Wang Qihui said, “I’m not afraid of the fourth uncle’s ridicule. Our family has been without grains for several days. No way, I picked up this thing to replace grains. After eating for a few days, the family was drooling.” Fang Zhicheng listened, said:" How can that be! If Ground fungus can replace grains, then people won't need to farm! Well, tomorrow you come to my place to take 20 kilograms of wheat, I lent it to you. You have grain in the future, give it back to me." Wang Qihui was overjoyed when he heard it, and said: "The fourth uncle is really a helpful person! Thank fourth uncle!"
After eating the 20 kilograms of wheat that Fang Zhicheng lent them, the corn in the field is also about to mature. Zeng Sanxing told them: “As long as you see the flower on the top of the corn stalk withered, it means that the corn is mature and you can pick it back to eat.” So Wang Qihui took Fang Zhengqing and Fang Zhengben to the field, searched carefully, and according to the method Zeng Sanxing said, they chose a half basket of fresh corn-on-the-cob to go home, peel off the corn kernels, grind it into a pulp, and boil it into a paste to solve the problem of eating for a family of four.
On this day, Wang Qihui chose a bamboo basket of corn-on-the-cobs to go home. Except for the dinner that day, she puts the remaining half basket of corn -on-the-cobs in the kitchen and prepares it for tomorrow's breakfast. When the family was having dinner in another room, they suddenly heard a sound of "ding ding dong dong" in the kitchen, It's like many horses are running. Not knowing what happened in the kitchen, Wang Qihui said to Fang Zhengqing, "Qingyuan, go and see, what's going on in the kitchen?" Fang Zhengqing ran into the kitchen, and a look at, he immediately exclaimed in the kitchen: "Mom, it's not good! The corn in the basket is gone!" Upon hearing this, the whole family couldn't believe it: "So many corn-on-the-cobs, will it be gone? Who will take these corn cobs?" So they scrambling rushed into the kitchen, to see what happened. When the family came to the kitchen, they were all stunned:  half a basket of corn -on-the-cobs is gone. What exactly happened? Fang Xinwen calmed down and said, "How could there be such a strange thing! Don't rush, let's look for it carefully." So the family was busy looking around. Soon, Fang Zhengben found that under the root of the wall next to the firewood stack, half of the corn -on-the-cob was exposed outside the wall, and half was still inserted in the wall hole, shouting: "Here is one!" Everyone went over and looked at it and finally understood. The reason is that the rats in this room have not seen grains for two months. They must be extremely hungry. Today they suddenly saw the corn in the basket, so they seized the opportunity to store grains for themselves, and take advantage the chance of their family eat in another room,   quickly remove half a basket of corn-on-the-cobs. Wang Qihui said: "It's really a rat goblin, it moves so fast! People have not eaten corn yet, they will calculate for themselves in advance."  Fang Xinwen said: "Let's look everywhere." The family separate and looked around, some Looking through piles of firewood, some digging mouse holes. They have been busy for a long time and finally found most of the corn-on-the-cobs.


Chapter 6

In July of the lunar calendar, corn finally matured large areas. The first food shortage encountered by Fang Xinwen's family was finally over.
The fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar is the traditional Zhongyuan Festival, commonly known as "July and a half". According to the custom, it is a day for offering sacrifices to deceased ancestors. On this day, some simulated coins will be burned as ghost coins and given to the ancestors. Fang Xinwen got up early, put a bag of freshly dried corn in his pocket and sold it on the street. He bought 1 kilogram of pork, a bottle of sorghum liquor, a stack of white paper, and a few sticks of incense and candles, used for evening sacrifices.

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