A century of poverty

Chapter 59 Interesting Stories about "Bandits"

After moving to Mahao, it was much brighter and less stressful than living in Secretary Liu's earthquake shelter. It was also relatively quiet after the workers left in the morning.

The open space in front of the horse stable leads to the Second Main Canal, which supplies water, and a branch canal to the north. The Second Main Canal receives water every two days. Standing on the higher canal embankment, with a gentle breeze on my face, watching the slightly yellowish new water of the Main Canal flow westward across the bridge, I felt a sense of tranquility and peace.

Just then, a young girl came along the canal embankment leading to the main road. She was about my age, a little taller, with dark skin, small eyes, and two short topknots. She looked very healthy. She stopped in front of me and struck up a conversation: "Is your clothing made of polyester?"

I replied, "No, it's silk spinning."

She pinched my sleeve with her hand; it felt smooth and rustling. She said, "It looks like Dacron."

I said, "No, it's just silk." I noticed she was wearing a slightly worn blue-green floral t-shirt, probably because she envied my new light blue plaid shirt, which was soft and smooth, and thought it was the best material available at the time, "Dacron."

She added, "I passed by here on my way back from playing on West Street, and I also know that your family lives in Mahao."

I asked her, "Where do you live? What's your name?"

She replied, "My home is in Changfangyuan, and my name is Qu Hui."

"Oh!" I replied. I thought to myself, just like my family, we live in the team's house.

Qu Hui: "I'll come find you if you go play on West Street again. I'm leaving now."

"Okay," I replied.

Just then, a flock of white ducks swam downstream from the bridge. A boy of about fourteen or fifteen years old squatted on the canal bank west of the bridge, washing his hands and watching the ducks. Two girls, younger than the boy, ran over from the west street. They were clearly his two younger sisters, both with thin, long faces and small eyes. The two girls came up behind the boy, one on each side, kicking and hitting him, yelling, "Who told you to let the ducks out like that? Did the ducks retrieve their eggs from the canal?" The younger one retorted, "If they had circled a little longer, they would have been back in the duck coop! See if you dare eat those eggs!"

The two girls were still kicking and yelling, "Go away! Get down! Go find it!"

The boy wasn't angry at all, and said with a smile, "What time is it? It's almost noon, my foot! The ducks have already laid their eggs. You two go back to the duck carcass and check."

The two girls each kicked him hard, saying, "We'll tell Mom when we get back!" With that, the two girls turned and went home.

What I saw amazed me. How could these two girls be so fierce, daring to kick and scold their brother? The brother, on the other hand, was incredibly good-natured, showing no anger whatsoever, and smiling as he explained things to them without moving.

"Qinglian! Qinglian!" It was my mother calling me.

"Yes—" I replied, turning back to look at home. I saw my mother standing outside the gate of the stable looking at me. I turned around, took a few steps down the canal embankment, and went home.

As I entered the house, my father smiled and said to me, "Would you like to come with me to Xiaoliujiatun to buy a 'bag cart'?"

I answered, "Yes."

Dad said, "Try it out when you get there and see if this car works well."

"Okay!" I replied, and walked out of the house with my father, heading east on the county road.

The Liu family and the Liu family lived in adjacent villages, and we quickly reached the seller. I sat on a stool and pedaled the shuttle; as long as it moved, it was fine, we didn't understand the details. Dad paid, carried the cart away, and we walked home; the round trip didn't even take half a day.

Because the living space was cramped, after arriving home, we first put the bag cart under the window in the yard. In the passageway of the half-outer room, we barely managed to clear a small space to put the bag cart and stool down and stabilize it for us to practice.

With the straw cart, we had to learn how to twist straw ropes and make straw bags. Because my mother had arrived earlier than us, she had seen how Liu Zhen's family did this.

After dinner, Mom brought a few handfuls of straw that she had picked and soaked in water to the kang (a heated brick bed) and taught my third sister, fourth sister, and me how to make straw ropes.

We sat around our mother, each of us picking up two blades of grass, holding them between our thumbs and palms, pushing forward with one hand and twisting backward with the other. This way, the two blades of grass were brought together. We twisted each blade of grass three or four times, then pushed it back in the opposite direction, and the two blades of grass became a rope.

Twist the straw to the tip, then add more straw. Twist and twist like this, adding more and more straw, until there's less and less straw and more and more straw rope.

We all knew how to do it. We watched as I rubbed the floor, and then we watched as she rubbed the floor. We noticed that our third sister rubbed the floor differently than us. We took the end of her rubbing rope and rubbed it, but instead of forming a rope, it just came apart. We were watching and talking, wondering what was going on.

Just then, Liu Shifu came to visit and saw our surprise when he entered the house. He said, "My third niece uses a left-handed stroke when rubbing the floor, while you use a right-handed stroke. There's nothing strange about it."

We asked, "What's a left-hand stroke? What's a right-hand stroke?"

Liu Shifu: "When you put your right hand on top, the resulting dough is the 'positive' rope; when she puts her left hand on top, the resulting dough is the 'negative' rope. Generally, the negative rope is even stronger!"

"Oh." I understand. It's like using scissors; you can cut things by using different force to cut left or right.

Father shifted his body and called out, "Third Brother, come, sit here."

Liu Shifu said, "Don't move, change it." He then sat down.

Father politely pulled him along, saying, "It's cold on the edge of the kang (heated brick bed), please sit inside!"

Liu Shifu was the first person to visit our family in Jinhai. Our whole family always treated him with sincerity and warmth, listening attentively as he recounted his past experiences and observations.

Liu is a very talkative person. He said that in the past, there was a man named Kan Laoshao in Xibin. He was particularly fierce and could kill people with a glare. The neighbors were all afraid of him, and the children were so scared that they dared not cry when they heard him coming.

He also recounted that during the Manchukuo period, he once went to the market. When he reached the dam entrance, he discovered that two bearded men and a millstone were hiding below the dam. He realized he wouldn't make it back in time, so two bearded men came out, grabbed him, and tied him up. He said, "I walk, and my family doesn't have much stuff."

Bearded Man: "Stop talking nonsense. I don't want your money. Just behave yourself and do what I tell you. If you dare to make a fuss, I'll shoot you!"

I obediently followed his instructions and lay down with Beard at the foot of the dam.

After waiting for a long time, a small squad of puppet troops came along the road, with two Japanese soldiers in front of them. They opened fire as soon as they could reach them, and after a while, both sides suffered casualties. At this time, a boy with a small beard, about sixteen or seventeen years old and about my age, came up and said a few words to the leader. The leader then shouted, "Retreat!" The two men who had tied me up grabbed me and ran westward. They ran for dozens of miles and entered a reed marshland, and when they saw that no one was chasing them, they found that they were not being pursued.

I said, "Why are you arresting me? I just want to go to the market in town. Let me go."

The leader shouted, "Tell the truth, kid! Were you a scout or a spy?"

I said, "No, I don't know them."

The leader suddenly pointed a gun at my head: "Who sent you here? Huh?"

I said, "My grandma sent me here. She's been coughing so much at night that she can't sleep. She asked me to go to town to buy two catties of pears and a catty of rock sugar. If you don't believe me, just take a look." As I spoke, I took out Manchurian currency from my pocket.

He then asked, "What's your surname? Which village are you from?"

"I am from the Liu family, my surname is Liu, and my name is Liu Fu."

"Let him go." The person next to me untied the ropes.

I hurried back the way I came, rushing as fast as I could, and finally arrived home before dark. My father was standing in the street looking out for me. When he saw me, he said, "Where have you been? I asked you to buy things all day!"

"Don't say anything more, let's go inside and talk."

After finishing his story, he burst into laughter: "Damn it, I followed them around all day and almost got shot. Tell me, wasn't I wronged?"

Father laughed too: "It's not that you're innocent, it's not that you're innocent. You ran around all day and didn't even hurt us. What kind of world is this?"

"It's getting late, I have to go."

As he spoke, Liu Shifu stretched out his legs, turned around, and stood on the ground. His father got off the kang (a heated brick bed) and stood on the ground, ready to see the guest off.

Liu Shifu: "Let me give you a heads-up. The team will be measuring land for you few migrant households who don't have houses after the Spring Festival. If you're not going to do anything, you should prepare some materials."

Dad: "Oh!"

Liu Shifu walked out, and his parents saw him off.