1959Siheyuan, a Turnaround

Chen Lanxiang frowned slightly, and after thinking for a moment, she turned to Sha Zhu and said, "I see that the Jia family always has the eldest uncle to take care of everything for them. Why don't you go find the eldest uncle when you have time and tell him about this matter and see what he has to say."

Her tone was steady and negotiating, and her eyes were looking at Sha Zhu, as if waiting for his response.

Sha Zhu listened to Chen Lanxiang's words and fell into deep thought. After a while, he nodded and said, "Okay, you make sense."

Chen Lanxiang continued, "Now that Jia Dongxu has just died, it is not appropriate for us to come to his house. You can ask the old man after a while. We agreed to pay it back once a month. Now that the Jia family is in this situation, although we are not in a hurry, we must have an explanation."

As she spoke, she gently adjusted the child's quilt with her hands, a hint of caution in her eyes.

Sha Zhu nodded again and said, "Okay, I'll listen to you. I'll go talk to the uncle about this later."

His expression seemed a little helpless, but he also agreed with Chen Lanxiang's suggestion, and began to think about how to talk to the old man about the Jia family's debt.

On a farm in the northwest, a disheveled woman fought with a group of people over a steamed bun.

"You are such a jerk, Jia Zhang, you actually dared to steal the steamed bread to eat, you are such a rebel!"

"What do you mean by stealing the Wowotou? I picked it up!"

"You picked it up? What a joke! The whole country is starving and you still picked up some steamed bread. I'm warning you once, return it to me honestly, or I'll break your bones!"

"Who said I can't pick up the steamed buns? This is what I picked up. You can't ask me to hand it over!"

"Okay, very good, Jia Zhang, don't blame me for being rude!"

"Comrades, beat her!"

Then the sound of beating was heard. It was certain that a group of people would win when beating one person.

In the middle of the crowd, Jia Zhang was hunched over, holding a steamed bun in her arms and refusing to let go.

Even if she was beaten, she would not let go of the steamed bread in her hand.

Although being beaten is painful, the feeling of being hungry is even worse!

Thinking back to when Jia Zhang first arrived in the Northwest, everything here made her feel at a loss.

As soon as she got off the train, a dry wind carrying sand and dust blew in her face. She couldn't help coughing, and her eyes were hurt by the wind and sand.

Looking at the strange and desolate land before her, an inexplicable fear and resistance surged in her heart.

When we arrived at the residence assigned to us by the farm, it was a simple adobe house with mottled walls and an old atmosphere in the air.

The bed was hard, with only a thin, worn blanket on it.

At night, the temperature dropped suddenly and the cold penetrated into the house through the cracks in the wall. Jia Zhang curled up in the quilt, shivering, but could not fall asleep.

The next day, the symptoms of acclimatization quickly appeared.

Her stomach started to upset, she had to go to the bathroom frequently, and she became weak and powerless.

She couldn't eat the rough local food and felt like vomiting after eating it, but her stomach was growling with hunger.

Her mouth was chapped due to the dry climate, and her throat was uncomfortably dry. Even drinking water could not relieve the stinging sensation.

Even so, she had to work every day, otherwise she would have no food to eat.

While she was working, the strong sunlight shone directly on her, and she felt dizzy after a while.

The heavy tools seemed to weigh a thousand pounds in her hands, and every swing made her breathless.

The ground here was extremely hard, and she couldn't dig much despite trying very hard. Blisters soon formed on her hands, and the pain made her cry. The surrounding environment was also unbearable for her.

The wind and sand always blew up without warning, and the yellow sand in the sky made it impossible for her to open her eyes and made breathing difficult.

There was the sound of whistling wind in her ears, as if mocking her helplessness.

During Jia Zhang's time in the Northwest, every day was painful and torturous.

She kept complaining about the unfairness of fate and cursing Chen Lanxiang and Sha Zhu, saying that if it weren't for them she would not have been sent to the Northwest for labor reform.

Every day here, she has work tasks to do and she cannot afford to delay for even a moment.

Otherwise she would have to work overtime, and if she failed to complete the task she would not have any food.

Early every morning, Jia Zhang had to drag her tired body out of the hard bed to prepare for another day of hard work.

The heavy work made her originally plump figure become thinner and thinner.

Her daily food was just a bowl of thin porridge, which could not fill her stomach at all. She could only drink water to relieve her unbearable hunger.

Today, good news came from the canteen. A new batch of food arrived, and we steamed some steamed cornbread.

When the steaming hot steamed buns were brought out, the fragrance instantly filled the air.

Jia Zhang's eyes suddenly lit up. Hunger made her lose her mind. She rushed forward desperately, grabbed a steamed bun and stuffed it into her mouth.

"What are you doing! Put it down quickly, there is a limit to the number of steamed buns!"

The cafeteria staff shouted angrily and immediately chased after them.

Other inmates also expressed their dissatisfaction. After all, if Jia Zhang ate one more person, it meant that someone would have to eat one less person.

Soon, everyone surrounded Jia Zhang and started beating and kicking her. She was sore all over but she dared not say a word because she knew she had done something wrong.

Not long after, the farm manager and his men came over aggressively. They tied up Jia Zhang without mercy and locked her up in a small dark room.

Jia Zhang couldn't remember how many times she had been locked up in the small dark room. It was dark and damp, with no food or water, but at least there was no heavy labor.

She collapsed on the ground, her heart full of helplessness and bitterness, and began to recall the good life in the courtyard.

"It was so good to live in a courtyard before. If someone cooked something delicious, I could go and ask for a bowl of it. Now in this desolate northwest, it's wishful thinking to want to have a good meal. I can't even fill my stomach. Even steamed corn bread has become an object of competition. Why is it so difficult for me?"

Jia Zhang talked to herself and couldn't help but burst into tears.

While sobbing, Jia Zhang gradually fell into a deep sleep.

At night, she fell into a dream.

In her dream, she saw her son Jia Dongxu. Jia Dongxu's face was haggard and his eyes were full of pain.

"Mom, why did you do that? You did something wrong and caused trouble for the whole family."

"Why don't you think about me? Why!"

"Mom, I really doubt whether I am your son... Why did you cheat me!..."

Jia Dongxu kept blaming her and said a lot of things, but Jia Zhangshi could not remember a word of them. She just stared at her son blankly, her heart full of guilt and regret.

Finally, Jia Dongxu looked pale and said in despair: "Now you have killed me, are you satisfied? I am leaving and will never come back, are you satisfied?"

Hearing these words, Jia Zhang suddenly woke up from her dream. She felt as if her heart was being tightly grasped, and it hurt so much that she couldn't breathe.

"Could it be that something happened over at Dongxu?"

She thought in horror, her eyes filled with helplessness and confusion in the darkness, and tears flowed silently again.