Flowers Fall, Water Flows Red - Novel Essence by Wang Zifu

Author: Wang Zifu / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-02-01
Features: The falling flowers flow like red wine—beautiful peach blossoms created a huge scandal in Peach Blossom Village. Chen Cuozi's daughter, Little Shaji, made a fortune working as a "bird" outside. This story came out during the March of the Peach Blossom Season, when the peach blossoms were in full bloom. Overnight, the peach blossoms on the mountains burst into a dazzling display, then fell like a dream. The stream, loaded with fallen petals and withered blossoms, flowed out of the small mountain village, red and vibrant, carrying a hint of earthy smell.
Peach Blossom Village had about a hundred households, and who was poorer than Chen Cuozi? Over fifty years old, he had never worn clothes without patches, never eaten food without bran and vegetables, and never had a moment when he wasn’t carrying a burden. To say nothing of the small hut made of bamboo and thatch on the hillside, it was empty except for a single stove, with only one pot on it. Around the stove, seven pits had been dug. Whenever it was time to eat, his woman, no bigger than a rabbit, would use a wooden spoon to scoop the food from the pot into the pits. The whole family would gather around the stove to eat from the pits. In other words, they didn’t even have a few cracked and chipped bowls. Chopsticks were easy to make—just break off a branch or a sorghum stalk. Without bowls, the small woman couldn’t separate the vegetables from the rice. So, in Chen Cuozi’s household, the rice and vegetables were always cooked together in the pot. The woman saved time by not even washing the bowl. These bowls, never washed, were gradually licked clean by the whole family. Over time, under the scorching heat of the stove fire, they became hard and smooth, like they had been glazed.
At night, it was even simpler. There were no beds or heated platforms, so the whole family would sprawl haphazardly on the ground covered with straw. They had no cotton padding to cover themselves, so they’d spread out during the heat and huddle together during the cold. After all, they were all family, and there weren’t many taboos.
Chen Cuozi was the only family in Peach Blossom Village, and they were an isolated lineage. It was said that his family originally lived at the foot of the mountain, but during a bandit uprising, his father was taken away, and his grandfather carried them up the mountain. As the only family in the village, they were not only poor but also had no support or status. When his grandfather died, he left a final request for his widow to marry Chen Cuozi a wife, no matter how bald, blind, or mute, as long as she could bear children. She must not let the Chen family die out.
The widow spent her life’s savings and bought this young wife from a human trafficker. The woman was so young and small, barely bigger than a child of eight or nine years old.
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