(The background and era are fictitious, please do not refer to them! Do not refer to them at all!)
In 1961, in Liujia Village, Danru Commune, Wencheng County, Nanhu Province, China (at the time, China had no townships), a thin, dark-skinned little girl lay on a wooden bed in the east room of a relatively new, dark-brick house near the main road at the entrance to Liujia Village. This little girl was Liu Xuemei herself. She had been caught in the rain during the autumn harvest a few days before and had been suffering from a fever intermittently for the past few days, but her condition had now stabilized.
There was a creaking sound, which was the sound of the wooden door opening. Someone stepped over the high threshold and walked in. Then a thin-looking woman walked in. This person was Liu Xuemei's mother, Wang Li. She had just finished working in the team and ran back in a hurry. Her hair was a little messy, with a few short weeds stuck in it. She had a round face, eyes of medium size, and a few beads of sweat on her forehead.
Wang Li was the youngest daughter of Wang Jiadong from Wangjia Village, a village 15 miles from Liujia Village. To reach it, one had to climb two hills from the main road at the village entrance. Wang Li had two older brothers and two younger brothers, and was the only daughter in the family.
My grandfather's generation worked for the local landlord Zhang family. My father was fortunate enough to be selected as a student for the eldest son of the Zhang family's eldest master. Learning some literacy and gaining experience, he became more tolerant of his daughter. Wang Li's mother, Zhang Xianhui, the daughter of the eldest master's concubine, was betrothed to Wang Li's father, Wang Jiadong, after her aunt interceded with the eldest lady to avoid being married off to an old man. Zhang's mother, well aware of the hardships of being a woman, favored her daughter from a young age.
When Wang Li was eighteen and ready to marry, her parents chose Liu Guangda, the eldest son of Liu Guisheng from Liujia Village. Liu Guisheng's wife was Wang Daya, and they had two sons and a daughter. Liu Guangda, the eldest son, had fought against the Japanese in his early years as a revolutionary and later against the Kuomintang. During the War of Liberation, he was injured in his right calf. Due to poor medical care, he received inadequate treatment, which left him with a slight sway in his right leg. After the liberation of New China, he returned to his hometown with a military pension and a social security payment from the organization.
When Liu Guangda returned home, his second younger brother had already married and had children, so fearing they might run out of room, the Liu family still lived in the old house. This was a wooden house built by Liu's father and his mother after their generation split up the family. It was only one and a half stories high, with the half-story being the distance between the roof and the first floor. It was 1.8 meters high at its highest point and only 1.2 meters high at its lowest. It was usually used to store food and sundries. Besides the kitchen and toilet, the first floor contained only three main rooms.
Liu's father divided the family property. Because his second brother's children were too young to build a new house in a short period of time, he gave the old house to his second brother. To help his second son take care of his grandchildren, Liu's father and his mother decided to temporarily live with his second son's family. Feeling sorry for their eldest son, they gave him all their savings and the money from selling the New Year pig, allowing him to live in the old house until his house was completed.
Liu Guangda, whose parents were taken care of by his second brother after being away from home for so many years, refused to ask for money from the family and even used part of his military pension to support his parents. Liu's parents did not ask for money from their eldest son, but simply said they should give them 150 kilograms of whole grains and 50 kilograms of rice each year until they turned 55.
Liu Guangda originally wanted to build a house near his old home, but since there wasn't much space nearby, he asked the village for permission to build a relatively flat plot of land about 100 meters from the main road at the village entrance. This plot, measuring just over one mu (approximately 900 square meters), was only about 100 meters from a stream. He built a blue brick house there, but the beams and floor were made of wooden planks, also one and a half stories high. Like the old house, the other half would be used to store grain.
There are three main rooms, the middle one being the larger, measuring 40 square meters. A wall divides the room, with the front serving as the main hall and the back as the main room. On either side are two 20-square-meter rooms. The floors of the three main rooms were first covered with river sand, and then wooden floors were laid 15 meters above the sand to prevent moisture. Next to the left room, a kitchen was built using mud bricks (yellow mud bricks). A wood shed was built next to the kitchen, and behind the kitchen, a bathroom was built using mud bricks.
Behind the main room in the middle, a wooden staircase leads to the upper floor. This floor is surrounded by wooden planks from the roof up, leaving only a one-meter-wide door. This door is often locked with a padlock. The eaves are wide, so the stairs don't usually get wet in the rain. Five or six meters diagonally behind the right room is the toilet. Three meters behind the toilet, two rows of shrubs stand. A dozen meters beyond the shrubs, a mountain rises.
After Liu Guangda finished building his house, he had little money left. Thinking he was getting older and ready to get married, he often went to the mountains to set traps and hunt. Because of his leg problems, he couldn't go deep into the mountains, so he could only hunt small animals like rabbits from the outskirts. One day, on his way home from selling rabbits at the market, Liu Guangda picked up a cloth bag belonging to someone in front of him. He quickly chased after the person and returned it to him. The person was Wang Li's father, Wang Jiadong. Wang's father was very grateful to Liu Guangda, as the bag contained the Wang family's savings for the past six months. Wang's father wanted to invite Liu Guangda home for dinner, but Liu Guangda declined. Wang's father then asked for Liu Guangda's name and address, planning to visit him another day to express his gratitude.
The next day, Wang's father and Zhang's mother bought two bottles of wine and a few pounds of meat and went to Liu Guangda's home to express their gratitude. After returning from Liu Guangda's home, Wang's father learned that he was still unmarried. He asked Zhang's mother, "What do you think of Liu Guangda as a good match for our Li'er?" Zhang's mother said, "He seems okay now. His family has split up, and he's built a nice blue brick house. He's an honest man. Lijia Village isn't far from us, so it's convenient for us to take care of Li'er. But we should check first to see if these statements are true." Wang's father nodded.
In January 1950, Wang Li and Liu Guangda got married with the blessings of their parents.
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