The Ups and Downs of the Commoners Page #7

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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After the Laolong Pool, the front suddenly became open. It turned out that the mountains on both sides of the valley belonged to the same vein and were separated not far above. One went to the southeast and the other to the southwest. They arrived here, and like two galloping horses, suddenly turned around, the two mountains form an encircling situation, with a small basin in the middle. The center of the basin is a slope that is high in the north and low in the south; there is a section of ridge from north to south on the slope. There is a small river on the east and west sides of the slope. The river on the east is called Shixi River, and the river on the west is called Xiaoxi River. This is where the two rivers meet, so it is called Lianghekou.
In riverside of the Xiaoxi River near the Lianghekou, there is a flat land.  In on this flat land, there are bungalows and small buildings with a small cyan tile roof, some high, some low.  In this ravine, it really looks like someone who has been walking in the desert for a long time has suddenly seen an oasis, and it seems like suddenly found a star in the vast night sky.  In the past, there were two salt works here, and many families lived there.  The salt works were once a little famous.  Two years ago, when the factory owners fled, the government confiscated their homes, gave some to the poor and turned some into what is now the station of township government.
The family through a winding alley and went up the slope, and in about half an hour came to the foot of the ridge which they had seen before. The ridge is called the Yueya Ridge, because its shape is like crescent moon. The Fang Xinwen family left the road in front of a thatched cottage, onto a path to the left. Go up another slope, they were faced with a wide, more gentle slope. This area is called Huoshao Ping, and it is said that it got its name from the fact that a large area of forest was burned down and cleared for land by predecessors.
At this time, the sun was hanging high above the head, scorching hot.   The family had been walking for a long time, tired and thirsty, just in time to  see a strand of mountain spring water trickling out from a fissure　under the Yueya Ridge, and flows into a small spring puddle on the cliff wall in the small river ditch beside the road. Fang Xinwen put down the burden and stood in the creek ditch, holding a few handfuls of spring water and drinking, saying: "Well, this spring water is really delicious!"  WangQihui and with two sons followed his example, put down things on ground, went down to the creek, and drank some of the spring water, which they found sweet and cool.
Fang Zhengben drank  the  water  , got up from the brook, wiped the drops of water from his lips with his hands, looked up, and saw a thatched hut among the green trees not far ahead, and said, "The elder brother, you look, there is a house in front of."  Fang Xin wen said: "We're moving to that house."
Go another to two or three hundred meters, they came to the front of the hut, and saw that the whole hut was shaped like a L-shaped structure. The main hut faced south, and under the cornice stood a man around 30 years old.   He was a man of medium height, very strong, and greeted them with a simple and honest smile. His name was Zeng Sanxing, the Fang family's new neighbor.   Because he was the third child, Fang Zhengqing and Fang Zhengben later called him the third uncle Zeng. When the family arrived, Zeng's wife also came out from the house. Her surname is Zhang, and her first name is Chunxiang. She is more than twenty years old. She has a fair face, plump body and a pair of long braids, look cheerful and generous.  The Fang Zhengqing brothers two later called her third aunt Zeng. She smiled sweetly at Fang Xinwen and said, "Hello! You are come?" At the same time to Wang Qihui nodded. "Er," Fang Xinwen asked, "have you eaten yet?" "Not yet."  Zhang Chunxiang said. After a couple of greetings, Fang Xinwen and his family hurried into the room to put down things.
Their new home was on the left side of the house, the direction is faces west; A main room with double wooden doors had a high threshold; On either side of the house there were rows of holes in the black earth walls, left by the former inhabitants who had taken away the beams from which the building had been built; Into a side door from under the eaves, a large room was divided into a kitchen and a pigsty;     Walk through the kitchen and into the door, behind it is a goat house. All houses have roofs covered with wheat straw.
After looked the house, Wang Qihui is ready to cook.   Zeng Sanxing told them, "Take water, you go to below of Yueya Ridge, it's where you just passed.   It's called Yueliang Bay, and we all go and fetch water from that spring water pit."   Then he went and looking for to three mud bricks for them, and said, "Put the pot on these three bricks and you can cook the rice."   Fang Xingwen control three adobe mud bricks standing on the ground, in a "Π" type, put the pot on it. Wang Qihui took out an earthenware pot from the basket, went for a long time, and fetched water and back from Yueliang Bay. Then she went to outside the house and gathered some firewood, and began to cook.
Fang Zhengqing and Fang Zhengben came here for the first time, and they felt that everything was very novel, so they couldn't wait to sneak out of the house to play.
At this time the Huoshao Ping, because the summer harvest has just ended, and beginning sowing, the new seedlings have not come out, in outside the house is a red field. Fortunately, on the edge of the ground not far from the house stood rows of fruit trees, pear, peach, cherry, plum, walnut, loquat and orange, which shaded the front and back of the house. At this time, the cherries have been picked long ago, and the peaches and plums are not yet ripe, but Fang Zhengqing and Fang Zhengben still can't help but want to taste the taste of these fresh peaches and plums. They picked some plums and put them in their mouths, tasted bitter and astringent, and hurriedly spit them. Then, they picked some peaches and chewed them.     Although the green with white peaches were not delicious, they didn't have a strange smell, and they could be swallowed. The two brothers were having fun.     They only heard their mother come out and calling Fang Zhengqing's nickname and said,"Qingyuan, Zhengben, come back for lunch soon." The brothers hurriedly got down from the tree and ran back.     The family each carried a bowl of porridge, around a plate of pickles on a small square stool that had just been came moved, squatting or standing, and ate a random meal like a picnic.
After lunch, the family went to the field to plant corn. According to the pre-arrangement, Fang Xinwen dug pits in front, and Wang Qihui followed behind to throw the seeds.  The task of the Fang Zhengqing brothers two was to carry dry dung, and to sprinkle a handful of dry dung in each pit.

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