A century of poverty

Chapter 28 Defending the Homeland!

Summer of 1951.

Under the scorching sun, Mom and Dad were turning over sweet potato vines on the hillside in the northwest. The vines crawled haphazardly all over the ground, sprouting tendrils and affecting the yield. Every time the vines had grown past three rows, before the autumn harvest, they had to turn over the vines and weed several times.

Mom was in her early twenties then. She had worked hard since childhood, so no matter how tough or tiring it was, she couldn't handle it. Having witnessed firsthand the new China after liberation, with its people becoming masters of their own destiny and women's status improving, she had high hopes for the future. While working, she talked to Dad: "After we've had enough to eat, let's raise a few chickens and a couple of pigs, so Mom and the kids can have eggs too; and slaughter a pig for the New Year. Wouldn't that make life good?"

Father replied, "Yes! You need to have something to look forward to in life."

The sun was shining brightly, it was time to go home for dinner. With that, the two picked up their belongings and walked out of the field.

Just then, Mom spotted a pair of huge grasshoppers (Qingqingleng) by the roadside. She bent down, tiptoed, put her fingers together, and cupped her hand to grab the grasshoppers, catching both of them in one go.

Dad asked, "Why did you catch it?"

"We'll light a fire when we get home and cook it for the kids in the stove," Mom replied simply.

"Let it go, it's a life too!" the father said.

Mom let go, and the grasshopper kicked its leg and flew away. Mom watched the two grasshoppers hop and fly away, disappearing into the grass.

Turning her gaze back to her father, she couldn't understand why he, who was so domineering in front of her, would show mercy to the lives of two grasshoppers.

Coming up the Xihe path, and crossing the ridge to Xidang Street, Mom saw Uncle carrying lime water in the village, painting large characters on the wall.

I asked my dad, "What did he write?"

Father replied, "Resist America, Aid Korea, Protect Our Homeland!"

The two talked as they entered the house.

Grandma, standing at the door, was displeased to see the two of them walking and talking together. "When they're together, and I'm not around, I can't hear what they're saying. If they keep this up, will they eventually become afraid of me?"

The rice seedlings on the northwest mountain need to be turned over for several days, and this day is market day.

Grandma said to Dad, "Don't go to the fields today. Go to Luanzhou and buy a new set of clothes. Let's not keep borrowing from others."

"Okay! I'll go to the market in Luanxian after I finish eating," Dad agreed.

Mom washed the pot and dishes, and after tidying up, she prepared to get out of bed. Grandma instructed her, "Go to Zhang Jingtang's house on South Street and tell him that we're not borrowing their set anymore; we already have one."

"Yes!" Mom replied, went out, picked up her basket and hoe, and headed down the big slope from the gate to Nan Dang Street to tell Zhang Jingtang the news. After leaving Zhang Jingtang's house, she went west to Xi Dang Street to work in the fields.

Dad sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) rolling a pipe and lighting it. Grandma opened her cabinet, gave Dad change, and he took the money and went to the market.

At the market, after buying the set of sex toys, Dad donated the remaining money to the "fundraising center where people across the country enthusiastically participated in fundraising activities."

Grandma sat on the kang and became suspicious and angry: "When you went to work in your mother's village, did someone say something to you about me?"

Did someone give you advice? They told you to go to Nandang Street to deliver a message and then not even come back to report. This is outrageous! The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.

The mother didn't come back specifically to report because she wanted to get back to work in the fields as soon as possible. Why bother going all the way back? The whole family could talk freely in one house. She didn't know that her mother-in-law would think of this matter in such a complicated way.

Grandma got angrier and angrier. Ignoring everything else, she immediately got up, found her, and gave her a good scolding to see if she would dare to disregard her again.

In the sweet potato field, Mom was turning over the vines alone, carrying the weeds she had hoeed into a basket and emptying it. Her old cloth shirt, patched on the shoulders, was soaked with sweat. The basket was on her back, and sweat streamed down her forehead. She raised her arm to wipe the sweat from her face.

Grandma doesn't care about this; it's not her business.

When Mom got closer, she saw Grandma and said, "Mom, what brings you here? Is something wrong?"

Grandma's face was as dark as grape juice as she snapped, "Go home!"

Only then did Mom realize something was wrong: "Hey!" she exclaimed and obediently walked ahead.

Grandma casually snapped a sorghum stalk from the roadside, broke it in half, and lashed it across Mom's back as she walked ahead. "Whack!"

The mother's body jolted; she was in pain and afraid, but dared not dodge or ask why, and could only silently endure it.

Grandma swung a sorghum stalk down, yelling angrily, "So, you think you're family just because you came to your mother's village to work? Tell me what you're talking about!"

Mom honestly replied, "Mom, I didn't."

"Still dare to say you didn't." *Snap!* Another sorghum stalk.

"Mom, I really didn't," Mom answered honestly.

"Slap! Slap!" Two more sorghum stalks fell on Mom's sweat-soaked back.

It is known that sorghum stalks have weight, and each swing would cause a red, swollen welt. Imagine the pain of being whipped like that on a back soaked in sweat.

And she was beaten innocently, and to this day she still doesn't know what she did wrong. Her mother-in-law chased her to the field to call her, and beat her like this on the way.

The pedestrians on the road remained silent upon seeing this scene, walking past on the other side and looking at it with strange eyes.

After crossing the Xiaoxi River and going up the slope to the east, we arrived at Zhangzhuangtuo West Street, a sad road that my mother often walked when she was a child.

Grandma followed Mom to the village like she was escorting a prisoner. Two women were chatting inside someone's house, and they glared at Grandma when they saw this.

Grandma's anger flared up again when she heard people talking, and she lashed out with the sorghum stalk again: "You think you're so great? You're going to go outside and talk about me!" She thought the people talking were gossiping about how she treated her daughter-in-law badly.

Little did they know, outsiders could see perfectly well how she treated her mother.

In fact, Mom never mentions how the family treats her, which is a very shameful thing.

When they arrived at the west side of the alley, passing by the gate of the new courtyard of Third Grandma's house, Grandma was hitting Mom with a green sorghum stalk, which was seen by Third Grandma and her daughter-in-law Gao Shuzhi, who were sharp-eyed and quick-footed.

When they got home, Grandma, exhausted from the beatings and scoldings she'd endured, sat on the kang (heated brick bed) and continued to berate Mom: "I told you to go to Nandang Street to deliver a message, and you didn't even come back to report to me? You've got some ideas now, haven't you? Are you using the excuse of working at your mother's house in the west of the village to go and talk about me? Did someone instigate you?"

"Mom, no, I didn't. I just wanted to hurry up and finish hoeing that plot of land before I left." Mom stood on the ground with her head down, still without any emotion, explaining to Grandma.

"Go away! Don't stand in my way." Grandma ordered Mom to leave.

She was beaten and scolded for no reason. Humiliated, wronged, in pain, and heartbroken, the mother walked out of the house and quickly went to a deserted place on the east bank of the river to cry her heart out.