The Ups and Downs of the Commoners Page #5

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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With this incident, the class composition of Fang Xinwen's family was classified as "Pauper", and he was personally classified as a "Layabout".   Although this is obviously inconsistent with their family actually owning more real estate, and Fang Xinwen has been teaching in Shaanxi a few years ago, and engaged in legitimate business activities after returned, but thinking of the scene of the struggle against the landowner and these days of his detention, he dare not argue.
A few days later, Fang Xinwen's family received a notice from the government of Taiqing Township, requiring them to move to Lianghekou Township within a month to settle down.
Annotation
①One hundred yuan RMB-- China implemented the currency system reform in 1955. The ten thousand yuan, one thousand yuan and one hundred yuan RMB before the currency reform shall be corresponding 1 yuan, 10 cent and 1 cent RMB after the currency reform. The words "ten thousand yuan" in chapter eight and twelve are the same.


Chapter 2

In early summer, a few faint white clouds sparsely floated in the blue sky, and the red sun warmed the air in the sky. Looking up, the main road in front of you looks a little dazzling in the direct sunlight. There were few pedestrians on the main road, except for a family of four who were particularly noticeable as they walked along it toward the mountain.
The man in the lead is Fang Xinwen. Today he was wearing a white Chinese shirt, cleanly washed, with a pair of grey trousers and cloth shoes. His white skin, handsome eyebrows and bright eyes, let a person know make him a man of too much bookish. He carried the newly bought dung bucket on a new Cypress shoulder pole. There was a dung-spoon and a hoe in the dung-pail, and half a pail of dry manure under it. He had just bought the dung-spoon and hoes, and he had just made the manure below from the ashes of firewood mixed with human excrement and urine. Obvious be visible, his shouldering burden posture very incongruous. Walking behind him were Fang Zhengqing, his elder son, and Fang Zhengben, his younger son. The two brothers have good facial features, and have a pair of cheeks red, both wore blue blouses and trousers, and round mouth cloth shoes of the same design. The two brothers were at Taiqing Primary school study, but they were absent today. They lift up a square stool, moved along the road, step by step. Fang Xinwen's wife, Wang Qihui, was carrying a back basket and walking behind them. She is about 30 years old, and stature petite and well-proportioned, with a natural kindness in her fair,   white and beauty face. She was dressed in a form-fitting blue Indanserin shirt, buttons on the right side, and pants with light blue stripes on beige fabric, and serge of cloth shoes, her dark hair, tucked behind her head, was tied up in a bun and hidden in a black silk screen. Her basket contained Kitchen utensils such as pot, bowls, gourd ladle, basin, etc. They had all already sweat dripped from one's face. This is their family's first action after receiving a notice from the Taiqing Township government to "move to Lianghekou Township within one month to settle down." From today, their family of four will leave Taiqing Town, where they have lived for generations, and walk along this road into a deep ravine, where they will start a life that is completely different from the past.
Over a small hills, through Baishu Ditch, round a hill spur, a high mountain rose suddenly before them. The road runs up the hillside as if it were going up into the sky. They walked up the hill step by step. Fang Zhengben was not yet six years old, and his height was not much taller than a small square stool. Fang Zhengqing is only nine years old and not very tall. The two brothers carried the stool up the hill, and the foot of the stool was always the collision on the slope, which made it very difficult for them to climb up the hill. It took them a long time, and do not know how many large and small beads of sweat down, before they climbed to the top of the mountain.
This mountain is called Xiaguan Mountain and runs from west to east. Standing on the ridge of the mountain, they looked as far north as he could, they could only saw overlapping mountains, like ten thousand horses galloping along and come. After Xiaguan Mountain, there is another Shangguan Mountain in front of it, heading from east to west. They are like two mountain gates locking the only passage in the mountain and outside the mountain. Qingxi River, sandwiched between two south-north mountains, forms a long "S" shape, and bypass the Shangguan and Xiaguan Mountains, and flows quietly out form the mountains the mountain.
The place where Fang Xinwen's family is going to move is in the depths of these layers of mountains. Looking back at Taiqing Town, it already seems so far away and indistinct. This road of down of the foot stretches to the south and connects Taiqing Town. Although it is bumpy and uneven, but it tramp over mountains and through ravines, and connects the provincial capital Chengdu to the north, and many towns and towns under the jurisdiction of Lingjing, Tuoyang, Zizhuo and other counties in Nantong. It is the road that must be passed by merchants coming from the South or going to the North.
On the ridge of Xiaguan Mountain, near the road, stood an old Pistacia chinensis tree, so luxuriant in foliage that it took five adults to close surrounded the trunk. For many years, it opened a huge natural green umbrella, allowing thousands of pedestrians to let them shade under it.
Fang Xinwen's family of four soon gathered under the tree, each found a section of exposed roots to sit down. Fang Xinwen wiped the sweat from her forehead with a pre-prepared sweat towel. His white shirt, soaked with sweat, clung to him, and the shoulder was stained yellow with the shoulder pole. Wang Qihui took off her straw hat and used it to make a fan. Her face turned red because she has been walking for a while now. Without wipe sweat towels or straw hats, Fang Zhengqing and his young brother Fang Zhengben, had to lift their sleeves and wipe the sweat from their foreheads.

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