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My father spent most of his time away home doing business, and my mother mainly looked after the house.My mother never went to school.Though illiterate, she was very honest and kind, generous and courteous, introverted and hard-working.The neighborhood was very supportive, and everyone was willing to help her.But my aunt was very sharp and nasty, and my mother was often bullied by her.So, my mom had a really hard time.We all got bullied.
At that time, my father often went to Hengdian for business.He had two good friends who had settled down in Hengdian.They knew that my mother was often bullied by my aunt at home, so they advised my father to move the family over to avoid conflict with our relatives.My father asked mother’s opinion, and my mother always said “No”.
Located in the pass from Dongyang and Yongkang to Panan and Tiantai, Hengdian has been one of Dongyang’s important markets for rice, tea, firewood, bamboo, pig, cattle and trees since the Ming Dynasty.A variety of fixed shops and stalls lined both sides of many streets and around the city.People from all walks of life came here for business.There was no patriarchal culture, and people were open to outsiders.It was an ideal place for businessmen.
However, people are attached to the land and unwilling to move due to the Chinese culture.The family home is built up by the ancestors and their own family’s hard work.Not until the last resort would they ever abandon the family and migrate to other places.
In 1938, after my third birthday, the main topic in my family was about moving to Hengdian.It was finally on the agenda.What drove my parents to this last great resolution, apart from avoiding my aunt’s bullying, was the hope that the living conditions in Hengdian were much better than in Xindong Village.In addition, there was another important reason: the Japanese army start attacked Shanghai in the last quarter of 1937, and if they went further down the road, Xindong Village would face imminent disaster.The only option for the common people was to flee.
One day, one of my father’s friends in Hengdian told him that a tenant had moved out, the house was available, and he had talked to the owners.“Hurry up and move in.” My father went to check on the house, and agreed.He came home and asked my mother to move.
My mother was still worried and wanted to go to Hengdian to see for herself, but with so many children to take care of, she couldn’t leave.So, without telling my father, she quietly made my brother, Wenhao, who was nine years older than me, to Hengdian to see what was going on.My mother said to my brother, “Go and see if everyone in Hengdian can have pure rice at dinner.” In Xindong Village, all the year round, people could only enjoy pure rice twice.Once around the new year and the other on the day of the autumn harvest.However, children could only have half a bowl of white rice.Other than that, we could only eat congee and various grains.If people in Hengdian could eat white rice on a normal day, it must be good.
My teenage brother wondered if there was such a good place where one could eat white rice every day.If that was true, it would be great to eat so well every day after we moved there.The next morning, my brother was on the way.It was nearly 40 li from Xindong to Hengdian, and there were several mountains to climb on the way.All my brother had in mind was the good things to eat, and he didn’t feel tired.Before lunchtime, he arrived at Hengdian.
A friend of My father had a blacksmith workshop in Hengdian.My brother had known this blacksmith uncle, who served my brother pure rice.My brother wolfed the meal down, and then went out on the street to see whether the people in Hengdian really had rice to eat.It was lunchtime, and some were eating on the street, some were behind the counter, and some families gathered around a table in the back room: all of them had white rice.My brother came home and told mother what he had seen, and my mother finally agreed to move.
It was a fine day, my parents, my brother and three sisters, and me, with the help of many relatives and friends, slowly moved to Hengdian with wheelbarrows and shoulder-load.
At that time, we were all on two feet.It was hard to imagine how two adults moved 40 li away dragging five children.Although I have no memory of that time, I often heard from my elder brothers and sisters and other relatives that I was carried by my brothers and sisters, and finally picked up by a peddler in Hengdian.