A century of poverty

Chapter 11 Selling Land

After the Lantern Festival, I hope to go back to school.

Second Grandma hired someone to plow and farm the land. She and Xiaodie did whatever chores they could manage on the side.

Sorghum is planted on the slope below Dongjing, and millet is planted at the foot of the northwest mountain in Wangzhuangtuo.

Hope studied at Mr. San's academy and learned the "Hundred Family Surnames" and the "Three Character Classic." She also learned abacus arithmetic, calculating five steps back and five steps forward, dividing by two in three steps, which she found very interesting. When she returned home, she even recited the "Hundred Family Surnames" to her mother and sister.

After the Grain in Ear solar term, it started to rain. Second Grandma and Xiaodie were weeding the sorghum field on the slope down from Dongjing. Second Grandma had poor eyesight and bound feet, so she could only kneel on the ground and feel her way to pull out the larger weeds. Weeding between the seedlings was all done by Xiaodie, a little girl who couldn't swing a hoe, so the mother and daughter made very slow progress and couldn't do much work in a day.

That day, Moo-tou's mother returned from fetching work in Zhao Zhuangtuo and saw her cousin and her daughter weeding and loosening the soil. She came over and said, "Sister."

"Hey, cousin."

"Auntie," Xiaodie greeted.

"I heard that the rice seedlings and weeds on the northwest mountain of your Wangzhuangtuo are growing together, and people are telling you to give up on them," Mootou's mother told me.

"It's not that we don't want it. My daughter and I can't do much work in a day. We're just thinking about cleaning this plot of land so we can go hoe that other place," Grandma Er replied.

The next day, Xiwang also couldn't go to school. The three of them brought their lunch and came to the Northwest Valley early to weed and hoe the land.

Before long, Moo-tou's mother also came to the field with a basket to help them. The two sisters chatted as they worked.

Moo-tou's mother said, "Little sister, you don't know this, do you? Last year, your two brothers and a few people from the village went to Luanzhou to sell walnuts, and the Japanese robbed them all."

"Really?" Second Grandma looked at her cousin in surprise.

Moo-tou's Mom: "I heard that the Japanese love to eat walnuts and eggs."

Second Grandma cursed, "That bastard Japanese devil, he really knows what's good to eat."

Moo-tou's mother said, "The Japanese devils are so cunning. They said these things wouldn't be poisonous." Then she added, "My family has been betrothed to Liuzhuangtuo. People on the temple platform are saying that the Japanese devils went south of the railway to rob grain and raped some girls. Families with daughters are all worried."

Second Madam cursed, "These beasts! Find out and marry Xiaodie too!"

"Okay!" Moo-headed Mom agreed.

Every five or ten days, there's a market in Shimen Town. Hope's grandfather told Hope early on, "Today we're not going to school, let's go to the market together."

Second Grandma asked, puzzled, "Why are you going to the market?"

The old man explained, "You all live your own lives, and when you go to the market or a shop, you need to teach him how to do business! I want to bring him out into the world."

Second Grandma understood. Yes! The old lady was so thoughtful.

Grandpa got ready and opened the gate to look for hope.

After the family split up, a fence made of straw was erected between the two households.

Before Grandpa even reached the east courtyard, Copperhead was already in front of him.

Grandpa asked, "What are you doing?"

Copperhead replied, "I'll go to the market with you."

"Go back!" Grandpa shooed him away.

"Why did you bring Hope to the market? Why didn't you bring Tongtou? They're all your grandsons." Third Grandma stood in front of the door, pouting as she asked her father-in-law.

"He has a father!" Three powerful words.

Grandma San fell silent, and Tongtou stopped in his tracks.

When autumn harvest season arrives, I hope I can take leave again to do farm work at home; I'll be busy with farm work all autumn.

Finally, the mother and her children gathered the crops into the threshing ground north of the street, separating the grain and straw. They stored the grain inside the house and piled the straw in the front yard.

One night, when all was quiet, Second Grandma called softly, "Xiaodie, Xiaodie, what's that noise?"

Startled by the call, Hope woke up. Hearing the "whoosh! whoosh! crackle crackle" sounds, the mother and children dared not light the lamps. The two children cautiously peered out the window and saw something white floating around in the yard. When the children told their mother, the mother and children huddled together in fear, too scared to utter a sound.

As dawn broke, the mother and her children went outside to check and found that the large sorghum stalks they had gathered together the day before were gone.

The traces of fallen leaves and fragments clearly indicated that they had gone to the west, and a large clump of sorghum stalks had appeared in Third Master's courtyard.

It turned out that after closing the door and getting into bed last night, Zhang Litian muttered, "Seeing that the mother and her children in the east room are planting in spring and harvesting in autumn, living a peaceful life, I still can't leave!"

Madam Zhang Gao: "They treated her so badly during the family division, she was so angry she went blind but she still didn't leave, she's just staying here and enduring the days. And your father, he always takes that boy to the market, he doesn't even take our copper heads with him. Once that boy becomes useful, he'll be even less likely to leave. We have to find a way to teach her a lesson. Did you see that pile of sorghum stalks they have?"

Zhang Litian: "What?"

Zhang Gaoshi: "Let's go out and throw her bunch of sorghum stalks over here."

Zhang Litian: "We don't need a few bundles of sorghum stalks!"

Zhang Gaoshi: "It's neither lacking nor superfluous; throwing it at her is just to make her suffer!"

Zhang Litian: "What will they say if they come out?"

"Those mother and children haven't dared to come out yet. Go over there and dump them here, I'll catch them here." As she spoke, Zhang Gaoshi grabbed Zhang Litian's white quilt sheet, draped it over him, and tied it up: "This way, I guarantee they won't dare to come out."

After they finished speaking, the couple came out, opened the gate, and the man came over, picked up a bundle of sorghum stalks, and handed it to the woman who was waiting on their side. The woman took it and piled it up in their yard.

This is what Grandma Er's two children saw last night when they peered out the window—a white blob floating around in the yard.

The mother and her children looked at the sorghum stalks that had gone to the west garden, the scattered fragments pointing towards—

Grandma was furious: "These wicked people, how could they do anything?"

Xiaodie called to her mother, "Mom, let's go back inside!" The mother and children went back inside.

A few days later, one morning, Second Grandma picked up a basket and said to Xiaodie, "Come on, let's dig up some sweet potatoes. We'll boil sweet potatoes for breakfast this morning."

Xiaodie walked ahead, reaching the sweet potato cellar. She lifted a bundle of sorghum stalks from the cellar opening and went down, her mother handing her a basket. Xiaodie took the basket and began picking sweet potatoes from the pile. Because it was dark inside, it took her a while to adjust. Then Xiaodie noticed something was wrong. "Wait a minute, why is there such a big piece in this pile?"

She suddenly realized that something was wrong when she lifted the sorghum stalks at the cellar entrance; she hadn't put them there that way. Without thinking much of it, she realized that someone must have come in and the sweet potatoes were missing or stolen.

She cried out, "Mom! The sweet potato is gone! A big piece is missing!"

Upon hearing this, Second Grandma's head buzzed. She hurriedly said, "I'll go down and take a look!" She groped her way down into the cellar.

Xiaodie: "I found this place last time I came down, and this big piece was missing." She gestured with her hand to indicate the name.

Grandma Er couldn't see clearly, so she touched it with her hand: "Hmm—a lot is missing, they must have stolen it. This guy who gouges out eyes isn't afraid of going blind, isn't he afraid of being struck by lightning..."

The mother and daughter came up from the cellar and saw the suspect who had stolen from them. The second grandmother blurted out, "Who stole my sweet potatoes? May she choke to death if she eats them!"

As Zhang Gaoshi was carrying a basin, she asked, "Who are you insulting?"

Second Grandma: "I'll yell at whoever steals my sweet potatoes."

Zhang Gaoshi: "Then why are you cursing while looking at me?"

Second Madam: "What right do you have to tell me where I'm looking?"

Zhang Gaoshi came to the fence: "You can't just curse at me like that!"

The old man stood at the front door: "Go back inside, all of you! Aren't you afraid people will laugh at you?"

Second Grandma was secretly furious; who could care about something like this?

Another year-end is approaching. A cloud of worry has once again descended upon this family. The money they owed Wangzhuangtuo last year is due. Their produce isn't even enough to feed themselves, let alone pay them back. But not paying is not an option; delaying will only make things worse.

Grandma clicked her tongue in worry, picked up her rice bowl, then put it down again: "What am I going to do?"

Finally, I made the tough decision—to sell the land.

Where to sell it? Downhill from Dongjing, we'll sell two of the three-acre plot to pay back Wang Dewan's money. That's what the mother and daughter decided.

Tell the village "broker". A few days later, the broker brought a buyer to see the land, and the broker said the deal was done.

Just then, it was lunchtime, and the children from the school were heading home for lunch.

The brothers, Copperhead and Ironhead, saw their second mother and older brother talking to someone in the field. When they got closer, they understood that they were selling land.

Tongtou burst into laughter at the sight of Hope.

The laughter was like thorns whipping at a hopeful heart; it was like being slapped hard across the face.

A hideous face, a devil's voice.

I hope to run away as soon as possible, get away from the devil, the farther the better.

He ran to the south end of the field and looked down at the frozen surface. Winter would pass, spring would come, and the river would flow again.