The Ups and Downs of the Commoners 2 Page #10

This book is the second volume of the novel "The Ups and Downs of the Commoners". It will tell you about caused by the disastrous consequences of the "Great Leap Forward" and the People's Commune Movement in China in the middle of the last century to the livelihood of the Commoners, as well as the difficult path of study of the protagonist of this book, Fang Zhengben.

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Fang Zhengben walked into the quadrangle dwellings from under a huge walnut tree, and saw that in the courtyard dam in the middle of the quadrangle dwellings, the firewood was piled higher than the house. This was purchased from local farmers by sending a worker from the school to stay here for a long time. Some students were standing high on the firewood stacks picking up the firewood they wanted to carry, and some students were tying up the firewood they had moved down in the courtyard dam and tie it up, some calling Zhang San, some named Li Si, and there was chaos. Fang Zhengben climbed onto the firewood stack, selected a dozen pieces of chopped firewood according to the amount he had previously gone to the "Ammonium Chloride Factory" to sell tree stumps, took them down and put them in the courtyard dam, and bundled them into two bundles. When he walked out of the quadrangle dwellings with firewood on his shoulder, there were only people going down the mountain, and there were no people going up.
He had just carried firewood to the road, and he didn't think it was too heavy. However, before he reached Banbian Mountain, he found that the rocks on the side of the road were always causing him trouble, and stones always stumbles two bundles of firewood. After when he descended the mountain, Fang Zhengben already clearly felt that his physical strength was exhausted, so he had to walk for a while and put down the firewood to rest. But every time he takes a break, there are always some classmates who will surpass him. Gradually, there were no more classmates carrying firewood behind him, and he had become the last. At this time, he realized that he must have been too greedy when tying firewood and tied too much firewood. Because carrying firewood back to school this time is very different from moving tree stumps from home to the "Ammonium Chloride Factory". Their family is only more than 1 kilometer away from the "Ammonium Chloride Factory" at most, but this time the distance to carry firewood is more than 10 kilometers.
It was noon, Fang Zhengben was still more than two kilometers away from the school, his stomach was hungry, his legs were very soft, and his shoulders were red and swollen. He no longer had the strength to move the two bundles of firewood. He put down the firewood and sat on the carrying pole. What to do about it? If only there was a family in the neighborhood, I could leave the firewood there and back to school for lunch, then I'll come move it, but there was no one nearby. Can I hide firewood in a ravine by the side of the road, go back to school and eat before moving it? Oh, no, if someone else finds out and moves away, how will I do the job then? Otherwise, throw off a few pieces of firewood, and I won't have to worry about I cannot carry it back! No! This is even more impossible. This is a collective thing in the school canteen, at least it is also a useful material, I how can it be thrown away casually? He was running out of options, and wanted to sit on the carrying pole and rest for a while until his strength recovered. At this time, he saw Teacher Zhang, who was walking behind him when he had gone up the mountain earlier, coming from behind. He was arranged by the school to go up the mountain to be responsible for the students carrying firewood this time, and he could not return to school until all the students had returned to school, so he was always at the end of the line. Seeing Teacher Zhang coming, Fang Zhengben hurriedly stood up, called "Teacher Zhang", and then stood aside politely. Teacher Zhang saw that Fang Zhengben was short, but he carried so much firewood, and said: "How? It's too heavy! Come! Let me help you carry it back!" With that, he bent down to pick up the Fang Zhengben's carrying pole. In this regard, Fang Zhengben is naturally very willing to get it.  Although Mr. Zhang's posture of carrying firewood is not standard, and his movements are not coordinated, his strength is much greater than that of Fang Zhengben after all. Seeing the two bundles of firewood dangling leisurely forward at Teacher Zhang's half waist, Fang Zhengben followed closely from behind.
When he arrived at the school gate, Teacher Zhang said to Fang Zhengben: "Okay, now you can carry yourself to the cooking workshop to go to the scale!" Fang Zhengben thanked Teacher Zhang and took the carrying pole from him. When he carried the firewood again, he felt a more pain in his shoulder than before. Fortunately, there was only a short walk left, and he quickly carried the firewood to the courtyard dam of the cooking workshop. A cook, seeing Fang Zhengben carrying firewood in, asked in surprise, "Why did you come back so late?" Fang Zhengben blushed and did not answer. The cook weighed the firewood for Fang Zhengben and reported, "16 kilograms!" He asked Fang Zhengben's class and name again, and made a note in a roster. Then he said to Fang Zhengben: "You go to the workbench and see, is that enamel cup yours? We saw that there was only the last one left, and no one took it, so we took it in."  Fang Zhengben packed up the rope and carrying pole, went to the workbench in the kitchen to see that it was indeed his own enamel cup, busily took it for the master to scoop the dish, went to the canteen to eat, and went back to the bedroom to rest.
At Monday's class meeting, Teacher Tang summarized the situation of moving firewood on Sunday. Fang Zhengben was strongly praised by Teacher Tang for he is being the smallest, but the number of firewood carried was the first in the class, and more students were severely reprimanded by the teacher: "... In terms of age and size, Fang Zhengben is the youngest in our class, but this time he went to Ma'an Mountain to carry firewood, but he carried the most in our class. How much? 16 kg! Some of our classmates stand on the ground taller than me, but carry less firewood than him, and are aren't you ashamed? In the future, in all kinds of public welfare work, everyone should learn from Fang Zhengben!”
After that, for two Sundays in a row, they all went to Ma'an Mountain to carry firewood.
Annotation
 (1) "Humiliating the Moon" - a folk song written by people in Yingshan County, Sichuan Province during the "Great Leap Forward" period in praise of the agricultural "Great Leap Forward".

Chapter 39

This week, instead of going to the mountains to carry firewood, students were given their second home leave since they entered school. Fang Zhengben returned home, saw that only his mother and little brother were at home, and asked, "Mom, where is Dad?" Wang Qihui said: "He went to Chengdu two days ago, saying that he was going to live at your paternal aunt's home for a few days." Fang Zhengben took out a small ball wrapped in two leaf mustard leaves from his bag, peeled the vegetable leaves, held a few pieces of pork condensed on the vegetable leaves in both hands, and sent them to his mother, saying: "Mom, this is for you, I only got it at dinner last night."

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