“Ah Kai said he wanted to meet his mother and find her.” “Who dares to call that Vietnamese woman back? I broke his foot bone!” exclaimed the grandmother.
The “Vietnamese woman” has been away from the Lin family for more than 11 years. After she’s gone, Lin Kai and xing Xing grow up amid rumors in the village and learn that their mother, a Vietnamese bride, was once bought by the family.
When I asked them where their mother came from, how old they were, and even the exact names, they looked blank. After the silence, Mr. Lin said, “Everyone called her Amin.” Later, Xing said, “I only know that I have a mother, but I don’t know Amin very well.”
Lin Kai tried to describe to me the last time he saw her: before she left home, she squatted down on the front patio and put her hands on his shoulders and said something he could not remember, but the back of her long black hair still haunted him later.
The star knew that her mother had tried to take her away. In her memory, her mother and grandmother stood at opposite ends of the door and pulled at her, while her brother sat stupidly behind him. In desperation, grandma pushed her mother hard, fell on her brother’s mother. The mother left the house with the baby crying.
But xiuyun only to the second son died before the memory of the entreaties —
“Mom, you should guard these two children well and let your brother and sister help me to manage them. If the Vietnamese woman takes them away, they will be gone”.
1
“Now I am looking forward to Ah Kai’s college entrance examination. There is no future for him to go out and stay in the village.”
Show cloud with plastic scoop scoop a spoonful of water, in turn, have door of flowers and plants, alongside the wall corner flicker growth of bamboo, repose the lins’ test reading lang on wishes, in a bucket of aloe, kuan Yin zhang, mother-in-law, is in the life each have each utility, children and many happy pomegranate, already is higher than our old house, branches climb messy wires is extended upward.
Xiu Yun is 79 years old. She often watches the old house alone, assembling toys while waiting for Lin Kai and Xing Xing to come back from school on weekends.
Money for assembling toys is hard to come by. Xiuyun from the factory this month to work is the processing of toy cars: first use a small hammer to nail one end of the steel wire to the wheel, and then the other end of the steel wire through the body reserved hole, and then use a small hammer to nail the other end of the steel wire to the second wheel, and finally, the body and the car bottom together.
Make a toy car, Xiuyun can get 3 cents, by the catty calculation, 1 catty toy finished product is 1 yuan 3 cents. If she started working after breakfast, she could earn about 13 yuan a day, with 10 jin of finished toys stuffed in a big bag made of fertilizer.
when the factory did not work, xiu cloud to the village temple, temple to collect incense ashes, save to a certain number of people to sell to the village to buy. In the local area, the ancestral temple is also called “Old man residence”. Elderly people often come here to bask in the sun and chat with their old brothers and sisters. The new news about the marriage of the club and the birth of children from the West family is often from the “old man residence”. Xiu yun is usually willing to run here, in the upstream god worship activities, but also wholeheartedly into, origami money, do cake product, pork, if there is she can help to live, never refuse.
Xiuyun figured it out: the money from assembling toys and selling ashes of incense could be used to pay utilities and other expenses, as well as some fruits and snacks for grandchildren. Lin Kai is not fussy about food. Stars like candy, and Xiuyun always asks her granddaughter for advice when she buys food for the festival.
“The current policy is good, and there are many people with good hearts.” Xiuyun said that she saved the monthly rural subsistence allowance and pension for Lin Kai to go to university in the future. Volunteers from the volunteer association often visited Lin to learn about his family and offered him some help. Having a heart condition, her daughter pays for most of her monthly drug purchases.
Waiting for grandchildren home day, show the clouds often face in front of a pool of clear water sitting, thinking about the life of all the tears, from before the founding of the people’s liberation army (PLA) residency to the night school reading will be the selection to the women’s basketball team, from “728” typhoon swept through the village to oneself in such county primary school, next, daughter-in-law is Vietnam that take the door, two son died of prime of life, three son in a car accident. One by one, every day and night in the mind of the cloud show, sad joy and intersection.
“When I was a child, my father always advised me to go to school, but I could not bear it. At that time, herding cattle, raising ducks and going to the fields, how much labor they could earn and how much grain they could get. Later, I listen to the arrangement of ye, earn points in the day, in the evening to the evening school further study, but the night school did not open for long and then closed.” “I am eminem the only midwife in the village, and there is not an elderly person in the village who has not been indebted to her,” Said Xiuyun.
“By the time you’re 20 or so, people come knocking. My old aunt told me about a marriage in the next city, saying that the other side was rich and honest, but I grew up to be so big that I never left ABU Eminem, so I refused. Later, married in the village, gave birth to my eldest son. When typhoon 728 landed, I was pregnant with two children, even the two gold rings that Father Eminem sent me to get married did not tidy up and hurried to the county primary school refuge, gave birth to Axi in the school. When the typhoon subsided, holding son back to the village, found that the ancestral home of the Lins had been flattened by the typhoon.”
With a tear in her eye, Xiuyun continued, “To live, we must have a tile to shelter us from the wind and rain. After giving the two sons to Oiwan (my mother-in-law), I will go with all of us to move bricks, repair Bridges and build houses. Over the years, Every time I walk on the bridge into the village, I remember the location and the stone I built. The house I live in now is empty, but I built it with Axi’s father.”
Either poor or poorly cared for, the infant had a fever and bronchitis — “The money I spent on my son’s treatment would pile up as high as his people. Three or five days to take him to the county for medicine, a small tablespoon of medicine for 100 yuan. In order to earn enough money to buy medicine, I went to the beach with his father at dawn to catch crabs, a crab for 30 cents, sometimes a day can earn more than 100; Later there were no crabs to catch, I went to the county kindergarten as a kitchen helper, a month’s salary is 500. As much money as you earn, you save it and it’s mostly spent on Axi.”
But when he reached the marriageable age, he could not find anyone willing to marry him. The elder sister-in-law in the village did not have the heart to look at Xi to 31 years old or alone, asking around for the channel to marry. In the fall of 2000, she was told that she could “introduce” Vietnamese brides. Hence, elder sister-in-law make the decision, A Xi spent 6000 yuan to “marry” a wife.
“The Vietnamese woman” and the Lin family’s entanglement began.
2
“If I am at home, I promise to tell Er not to buy a Vietnamese bride. The woman I buy will not care for my family.”
At that time, xiuyun is still in the county office kindergarten kitchen, only weekends to return to the village. “One day Axi called me and told me that the Vietnamese woman had been delivered to her house during the day. When I get home it was already evening, she sat ah kay now living room, crying stop a moment, only know to ask can I let her go – in other words how to say no, but this sentence is very clear, you say, even if, people can find the sent her to also want money back, or also like her, I can’t let her go?”
The amin that is sent to Lin Jia wants to escape a few times, did not succeed, be caught every time after coming back is a fist and foot hail, “dozen arrive black and blue face, spent a lot of money cure”. Xiu yun advised Axi to cherish marriage, also advised Amin to accept life. Beyond that, she had to continue to find ways to earn money to support her 30-year-old son.
After a month or two in peace, Amin made his first successful escape. “On Friday night, I came back from the county to the village. I got off the bus at the bus stop and Axi’s father was already there, telling me ‘the woman has run away’. Where, I asked? He said he didn’t know.”
Xiuyun couple two people spent the night on a bicycle at the intersection of the county town looking for amin, nothing. Just when she felt “miserable”, but Amin himself back to the village, told her, “yesterday took the wrong car to go to the city” — later, Xiu yun learned in the chat, Amin in the original acquaintance in the city of Vietnam, that is to find fellow villagers left home.
Amin gave birth to Lin Kai in 2002. Before long, she fled Lin’s house again, for half a year. “I told him at that time that I had a job in the kindergarten and couldn’t keep a Vietnamese woman for you all the time. I had to earn money to support my family.
At the end of the year, outside amin called Lin’s little son, expressed his wish to go home to visit Lin Kai. She said she left home to find work, and had found a job in the city as an embroider, earning thousands of yuan a month. “You can earn 2,000 yuan a month here if you come home,” Lin’s younger son advised Amin.
back to the village of Amin did not dare to go into the Lins, but hid in the village of axi sister home. Xiu Cloud to persuade Axi, one day husband and wife hundred days grace, since Amin is willing to come home, should accept her, this just let Amin into the door.
After Amin came back, Axi’s condition gradually improved, began to do casual work around the countryside to earn money to raise a wife and children, living here, as if began to move forward calmly and steadily. But one day, Amin suddenly put forward that she wanted to “bring the two children from Vietnam to live together”.
At this time, the Lins knew that Amin had already had two marriages before she “married” Axi, and had a son and a daughter: At the age of 15, Amin had been married once in her hometown in Vietnam, but she hated each other for being old. After giving birth to a daughter, she remarried to a Guangxi family on the Border between China and Vietnam. During her pregnancy, her husband’s family in Guangxi broke off their marriage. Amin returned to her parents’ home in Vietnam to give birth to a boy, who was raised by her parents. In order to earn money to raise children, Amin credulity other people introduce the word of work, trafficked, was forced into prostitution. She was later sold to the Lins for 6,000 yuan.
“She didn’t volunteer. She was tricked into it. I can’t blame her.” Xiu yun also sympathized with the suffering of Amin, but she strongly disagreed with amin want to a pair of sons and daughters in Vietnam received the request to live together in the village, “absolutely not”.
In 2003, the stars were born. His wife put forward to give up xiuyun county kindergarten work home, to help take her granddaughter. “At that time, getting 500 yuan a month was a lot of money.” Although reluctant to work in a kindergarten, Xiuyun returned to the village to take care of her grandchildren and do odd jobs in a factory. Axi’s health fluctuates so much that it is difficult for her to work for a long time. Every day at noon, her little grandson goes to the factory to buy food for her. “8 yuan for a shift (4 hours), 16 yuan a day, 10 yuan to buy food for Axi and his family.”
Amin began to leave home frequently again, but kept coming home once a month to visit her children, mostly for one day at a time. If it comes to Spring Festival or other festivals, stay longer. Xiu Yun felt that Amin’s heart was not in the Lins at all, “the money she earned has been sent back to Vietnam to raise the other two children, regardless of the life here”.
3
“Marrying that Vietnamese woman caused too much trouble for the family.” Xiu cloud murmured.
Later, Because Amin often did not return from home and drowning his sorrows, Axi used 2.5 liter Sprite bottle of wine, sometimes half a bottle a day. In the impression of the stars, my father has been accompanied by wine, sometimes can drink a whole day, but not drunk crazy, nor with my mother quarrel. She tried to persuade her father not to drink too much, but Axi, who always loved her daughter, scolded her when she tried to persuade her. “Later, When my father started drinking, I went far away and dared not say so.”
The wine became the last straw that crushed Axi’s life. In the fall of 2008, Axi was rescued and died at the age of 39. At that time, Lin Kai was 6 years old and Xing Xing was 5 years old.
“I didn’t hear the right sound that night. I sent Er er to the hospital overnight, and he was gone the next morning.” Xiuyun said, “Before my son died, he didn’t say anything else, but he said, ‘Oh, mother, you should guard these two children well and let your brother and sister help me to manage them. If the Vietnamese woman takes them away, they will be gone’.”
“No gentleman in the room is difficult to leave Niang, no grass in the mountain is difficult to raise sheep”, his son was buried, xiu yun knew that Amin did not stay. Still, she spoke earnestly to Amin, who had come back to the village for the funeral: “You stay at home and help raise the two children. I didn’t die that early. I’ll help you with the children.” “, of course, she also gave Amin an ultimatum: “‘ It is easier to become a monk than to return home ‘, you want to go, don’t come back.
Amin finally decided to leave the lins, and determined to take her daughter with the stars. Xiuyun did not agree, the stars said: “Grandma is afraid That I was taken away by my mother after learning bad.”
In the pull of the stars, xiu cloud to push Amin as hard as he could, will push her out of the door. then, Xiuyun will send Lin Kai to the village of the eldest daughter home, asked the eldest daughter must see the nephew. The next day early in the morning, and with the stars to the county daughter’s home, the granddaughter entrusted to the little daughter.
Stars still remember her and grandma to the county bus station after getting off “to walk to sister-in-law”, but grandma in any case to find the wrong way, with her in the intersection of The South gate Street round and round, from the early morning more than 7 o ‘clock until noon. “At that time I did not go to primary school, fortunately, usually watch TV time to understand some words, I called my aunt to pick us up”.
Xiuyun also said: “I worked in the kindergarten of the county for so many years, the road is all familiar, I don’t know why the day is not the right way.”
After the granddaughter settled, xiuyun back to the village. Amin has put away her things, but she can’t take away any of the pictures of Lin Kai and the stars — they have been put away by Xiu Yun.
In this way, that no marriage certificate, no Chinese hukou, no identity card of the Vietnamese woman, leaving a son and daughter, quietly left the Lins.
4
“Everyone in the village knew my mother was gone, and they were very fond of bullying me, always whispering in my ear what it would be like to be a child without mum or dad.” Star murmur.
After Amin left, everyone in the village commented that The Lin’s “Vietnamese bride” had run away. Lin Kai and stars live with grandma, became an orphan. The following autumn, Xing Xing went to primary school and his grandfather died.
“Sometimes, students will say, ‘Your mother was taken away by Vietnamese children. When I hear that, I get angry and want to fight with them, but I know I can’t beat them. In fact, I was very cowardly when I was young. And some of my classmates are always making up all kinds of nasty things about me, even taking my things honestly.”
On children’s “literary talent” for malicious, style and lethality is infinite, reading six years in the village, peers mocked and exclude embarrasses the stars feel self-abased and: “when you go to sleep at night, I will hide in the quilt cry, also dare not to tell grandma, if grandma know I wronged, she also will be sad.”
But Xiuyun still knows what happened to her granddaughter at school. “Many times, my grandmother took me to my classmates’ homes to look for their parents. Some parents were more reasonable and criticized their children in front of us, while others were indifferent and ignored us.” After a pause, Xing Xing said — “Because their children are telling the truth.”
One day, the classmate again prank said to the star “your mother does not want you”. Xing Xing also began to believe that it must be the two Vietnamese children who took her mother. She angrily ran home, find grandma previously hidden photos, with scissors in the photo of Amin cut out. Unable to hold the scissors, she accidentally cut off Axi’s foot in the photo. Xiuyun returned home from the factory, to see the granddaughter in the photo while crying and said: “Dad, Sorry, I cut your feet…”
Lin kai, who had been silent throughout his sister’s story, added in a low voice: “If I had been at home, I would have helped my sister cut the pictures together.”
Stay where you are, Missing Vietnamese mom
“I can’t find anything left by my mother at home, so I don’t have anything to regret.” Xing Xing said, “I always keep my father’s photo very well. Before, my grandma wanted to throw away my father’s ID card found in the cupboard, but I didn’t agree. Now the ID card is always in my schoolbag.”
Whenever someone bullied her, the star would think of her father. Ashy used to sit in the vacant lot in front of the house and chat with her when she was unemployed. “Dad was not well enough to go out to work. He took my brother and me at home. Usually, if we don’t listen to him, he will take out a stick to scare us, but he doesn’t really do anything. He just touches us lightly.”
Lin Kai said: “If I fight with my sister, my father is also biased sister.”
“Sometimes, I miss my mother, too. When I see my aunt playing with the children, I think it’s nice to have a mother.” After a silence, Xing xing added, “I remember when I was in kindergarten, my mother was still in the village. One year the school organized a children’s Day dance performance, my mother went to see me dance, and then I have been looking for my mother in the whole process, did not have the heart to dance. After I left the stage, my mother asked me why I was looking around — in fact, I was afraid she would slip away when I couldn’t see her.”
“I also feel that I am different from my classmates who come from intact families. But now That I’m used to it, I don’t take the unpleasant things that people sometimes say too much to heart.” Having grown up with such gossip, Xing Xing now seems to have come to terms with the particularity of her family — even though she was no longer bullied by her classmates when she went to junior high school in the county town after primary school.
“For example, when the school required parents’ meetings, I had to ask my grandmother to attend. Later, when my grandmother was too old to walk far, I asked my cousin to attend. When I handed out the paper, the teacher asked my parents to sign it. I would take my grandmother’s hand and write down her name, or tell her the grade, and then sign it myself.”
“If you’re in a situation where you need to fill out a form, it’s even more troublesome. For example: Recently, to apply for a state grant, I had to apply for a savings card, but because I was under 16, the teller turned me down. For other students, they just need their parents’ help to get a card, but I can’t. My guardian is my grandmother. The bank staff said that ‘grandparents’ were not included in their criteria for guardian, so now I can only apply for a grant when I am old enough to get a card.”
Lin Kai also encountered such inconvenience before. At that time, his bank card could only be applied for by the school, and it could only be activated after he turned 16.
Compared with her sister, Lin Kai’s campus life seems relatively pleasant. In the spring of 2011, Lin Kai transferred from the village primary and middle school to the county to study, and lived in his sister-in-law’s home. The tuition and living expenses were borne by his sister-in-law’s family, and his sister-in-law bought all his food and clothing. If a parent-teacher meeting is called by the school, the cousin who works in a toy factory will attend.
Lin kai did not seem to hear the taunts of his classmates, but when he heard about his sister’s bullying, he always thought, “When I come back [from the county], we will go and beat him [the boy who bullied xing Xing] together.”
In March 2016, The Department of Civil Affairs of Guangdong Province and the Department of Finance of Guangdong Province issued the Notice on The Establishment of basic Living Security System for De facto Unsupported Children, which included the life assistance of de facto unsupported Children into the scope of assistance. In the same year, small uncle for Lin Kai and star under the orphan card.
Lin doesn’t mind being called an orphan, but his status once made him feel inferior. When classmates talked about their parents, he would scrawl, “Only close friends would I tell him about my family, because real friends can understand each other.”
5
“When you have money, you can buy food.”
From the third grade weekend into the village factory, Star’s holiday has been accompanied by the assembly of toys. On her first day at the factory, she managed to earn 10 yuan — a daily salary for 220 of the 14 parts she had assembled.
“I was so excited when I got the money. I kept giggling all the time and rushed home from the factory to tell my grandma That I had made money.” Xing Xing said, “Assembling small toys is to earn as much money as you do. There is no time limit. You can go to the factory at any time. In general, I started working as soon as I got to the factory, and sometimes I got twenty dollars a day for a four-hour shift. But sometimes I get lazy and it’s boring.”
In order to get more odd jobs in the factory, “I wrote my homework in class first, and hid in bed at night if I couldn’t finish it.”
After middle school, Xing xing went to school from Monday to Friday, worked in a factory in the village on weekends, and worked in a factory in the county town during the summer and winter vacations. “A class in the county toy factory costs 30 to 40 yuan. Sometimes you can earn 100 yuan for two or three classes a day. The factory will provide free lunch and dinner, usually two dishes, one meat and one soup.
“Now I am familiar with the factory work,” xing said. “I assemble toys very quickly, but I have never spent money to buy a toy that I assemble myself. Every time I get my salary, I give it all to grandma.” She would also ask her grandmother if she could give herself a little money to save, “sometimes you can buy soda”, grandma would also agree to her.
Lin Kai also joined the ranks of summer and winter work after he was admitted to junior high school. In the summer holiday of 2018, he made more than 3,000 yuan by assembling toys, which he kept at his sister-in-law’s house to support him while he was still at school. He now attends the high school cafeteria, where breakfast costs 2 yuan and lunch and dinner average 6 to 8 yuan. He would ask his sister-in-law for 100 yuan every weekend and spend 400 to 500 yuan a month.
“In fact, I have more money than I can spend every week. Sometimes I will save it and give it to my grandma.” Lin kai said.
“Sometimes, if I want to improve my food, I will order malatang in the canteen. I will order a portion of rice noodles, Japanese tofu, chicken strips and lettuce, and then ask my aunt to give me some satay sauce instead of spicy and spicy soup. The price is 8 yuan. And now the canteen also serves milk tea, but I don’t drink much of it.” “It’s the same 100 yuan a week for living expenses, but I will spend a little more on food than my brother, so I can’t save much money.”
Now in the city studying technical secondary school star, every weekend home needs to take the bus to the next village stop, and then wait for her uncle to ride a motorcycle to pick her up. “There used to be a bus stop in the village, but as the village was full of old people and few people took the bus, the bus stop was cancelled. I would have to walk from five to six in the afternoon to get home by myself from a neighbouring village. When I was in junior high school, I had to ride my bike to school every day. Sometimes it was too windy and rainy to ride. When I saw that my classmates were all driven by their parents, I was so jealous that I even had a little breakdown and wanted to throw my bike away and walk to school.
Lin Kai complained that the stars do not listen to their own words, did not take a good examination of high school but went to read technical secondary school.
“Although high school will be stressful, I still hope she can go to college in the future.” Lin kai, who is about to take next year’s college entrance exam and now has to attend five and a half days of classes a week, thinks he could pass for an undergraduate degree if he worked hard.
Lin Kai hoped that “reading can change your fate”, and Xiu Yun often said to his grandchildren: “You must study hard to have a bright future. You must not stay in the village. Staying here is useless.”
but the stars feel more timid, eager to settle down, do not want to go too far because of reading, just want to live with my brother, grandmother. She usually asks her brother for advice on almost everything, and she trusts him to protect her. “Sometimes I think my brother is annoying. I wish I didn’t have a brother, but sometimes I think it’s nice to have a brother.”
This summer, brother and sister worked in the same factory. One day at noon, they bought bread from a small shop. Soon after they ate the bread, Xing Xing vomits very badly.
“To the clinic, I found the face of the elder brother is white,” the stars said here, a little ashamed, “the doctor said we were too gluttonous, all food poisoning.
Now, the stars, imagine waiting for his brother to graduate from university, to work, they can work together to make money, and then together with grandma to the county rent house to live.
‘I don’t like being in the village.’ She said.
6
“I dreamed axi told me, ‘Mom, you don’t have to worry about me. I’m being admitted to the Hospital by the Princess of The West.'”
Saturday morning, watch hands have not gone to 9 o ‘clock sharp, xiu cloud already put on reading glasses, sitting at the table to assemble toys. The radio yiyi yiya put the drama, singing is xue Rengui xiliang princess recruited for the story of the bridegroom.
In one corner of the table was a plate of red peach kuih (a snack made of japonica rice flour and often used as a sacrifice), which was the breakfast of the day. After breakfast, she will begin to mop the floor.
The roof that asbestos tile builds and becomes always can fall dust, the ground that cement paves no matter how is wiped, appear ash flutters. The house, which was rebuilt after Typhoon 728, was rated as “extremely humble at home” by the local volunteer agency’s standards of support in 2018.
In the room to the left of the house lived Xiuyun and Xing Xing. Rolled up the bamboo curtain, walked into the room, a square inch space is placed on a bed, the bed neatly stacked after the return of clothing. Xing put his clothes away in the vertical closet next to him. He glanced at the pink sweater, black sweatpants and white cloth shoes he was wearing today. “Our clothes are all bought by my little aunt.”
Xiuyun followed the words of the star: “For so many years, if it were not for the younger daughter who has been helping the family, relying on me as an old man, I could not support the family.”
The small satchel that the chest is hanged on the hand with beautiful cloud early years to weave with wool, gules horizontal grain, purple vertical grain, adorn 3 two yellow florets, bright-coloured and bright and beautiful, with the old man slant now gray tone dress style not how photograph is tie-in. Xing xing said that her grandmother is a good lady, good at embroidery, knitting and beaded chain. “I thought my grandmother would teach me her skills when I grew up, but in fact she didn’t want me to learn, and I really don’t have time to learn.”
“Hard work is the right way. It is no use learning my trade.” Xiuyun explained, “Now That I am old and have poor eyes, I have to rely on stars to help me thread and thread a needle. I don’t make these things any more.”
The room on the right was Lin Kai’s. There was no wardrobe, but there was a wooden writing table on which ruler marks could be seen, alleys and ditches seeping with white correction fluid and dark ball-point ink.
In the open space separating the door from the room stands a wooden beam tied to Xing Xing’s third kitten, Baby. The “baby”, who has been raising for half a year, is still running around and jumping up and down despite being tied to a rope. Xingxing, who is afraid of staying at home alone, loves to play with cats. Her first cat got lost and her second cat was hit by a car while running in the village. Xingxing tied Her baby at home later, she said, “fearing most that something would happen to a family member.”
At 11 o ‘clock, the two went to eat lunch at their uncle’s house in the same village — every weekend, lunch and dinner would be at his house, and sometimes Lin Kai would help with the cooking. There are three courses for lunch: celery fried chicken, carrot stew, white radish soup. They look like they’ve been made from offerings to the gods, and the pork is covered with a red seal.
Uncle was the cook of the meal, but he did not eat. He poured out a small glass of wine, drank it slowly, and then left the table. My uncle, who is 56, used to be a cook at a food stall in the county. When the stall moved to another place, the traffic was far away and he had to work until 2 am, his uncle was out of work. My uncle’s two children both work in the toy factory and my aunt works in the wool factory.
She liked her uncle very much. In her heart, he acted as a father, “loving me, loving me and teaching me”. If she asks for something to eat or to visit the county town, he will try his best to satisfy her.
About 1 o ‘clock in the afternoon, Lin Kai came home from school, a “model student” image: no dye no hot short hair, blue and white school uniform, step on a pair of gray cloth shoes, open a black schoolbag, inside is the monthly examination papers and the college entrance examination. Every Saturday afternoon, he rides a 40-minute bike home from school, and on Sunday evenings, he returns to school for a night of self-study.
Every time home, Lin Kai has a must do: carefully check the good grandma to eat medicine, told grandma must not eat cabbage and other food needs to avoid.
“Ah Kai is very filial. The old man doesn’t have any teeth, and everything he eats always falls out. He always makes me go to see a dentist.” Xiuyun said, “I said no, I don’t have many more years to live. It takes more than 10,000 teeth to get my teeth right.”
Lin Kai does not believe in gods or ghosts, but when he hears his grandmother talk about how long she will live, he answers, “I checked online for you, and you can live to be more than 90.”
This is very good for the devout in the Buddha xiuyun.
7
‘You don’t know what she’s like, and you think she’s a mother!
every boring weekend afternoon, xiu cloud will do the manual side said the past, she also does not care whether the grandchildren are listening, but mention amin, xiu cloud always could not help but swear.
Previously, Xing would advise her grandmother not to use harsh words to describe her mother. Later, she even carefully avoided the word “mother” in her conversation: “Grandma is very sensitive to this word, and if I mention this word in my conversation with her, she will be very sad.”
For stars, calling Amin “mama” would hurt grandma, and calling Amin “That Vietnamese woman” would be too unfamiliar, and it would be a headache to appropriately address the woman who gave birth to her.
This “headache” is even more pronounced in Lin Kai’s life, who believes amin will come home one day. In his imagination, he would one day have to face a choice: a grandmother or a mother?
The final answer was: “Both!”
Lin Kai hopes to let Amin know that he has been waiting for her to come home, also planned to wait for her to grow up to find her mother. He had a vague idea that Amin lived not far from the village, but he also knew that there were irreconcilable contradictions between grandma and mom. Even one day Amin came back, except for his acceptance with the stars, other factors would also force her away again.
“The biggest weakness of grandma is that she is very stubborn and scolding people when they are not satisfied with something.” Lin Kai thinks that his grandmother has a big misunderstanding of his mother, even can be said to exist discrimination. In his memory, Xiu Yun never agreed to spend too much time alone with Amin.
The star is in the village in the old man and grandmother chat, know amin still stay in the city. After leaving the village, Amin had asked someone to come home to see her two children, but she was rebuffed by her grandmother.
“She was afraid mother would take me away.” The stars said.
“In my mind, my mother is like a person born in a village and brought up in a village.” “She also has yellow skin and black hair and speaks the dialect of the village.”
“When I was a kid, I thought Vietnam was just a village next door, a short walk away.” “Said Xing Xing.” I didn’t understand why my mother left when I came back from my aunt’s house.”
“I thought mom left the same way she left and came back every month.” Lin Kai added, “Where does mom come from in Vietnam? How old is she? When is your birthday? What’s the exact name? I don’t know about any of these things.”
When I asked if they knew anything about Vietnam, Lin said: “… What is Vietnam like? I think it’s a lawless country — if it were a lawless country, we wouldn’t have so many people coming to our side.” Xing Xing argues that “Vietnam should be poorer than the village” because there are Vietnamese women in the village who have been bought jobs, but keep it secret. “If they know about it, the factory will be fined.”
The resentment of the brother and sister towards Amin for leaving them at the beginning has been slowly dissipated. After the knot is opened, they now hope to see their mother again one day. “Maybe we can keep in touch secretly”. But Lin also admits that if one day mother and son meet strangers, they may not be able to recognize each other.
Xing xing said seriously, “Grandma is very kind to us, just like my mother. She teaches me how to treat people and how to take care of myself when I am away from home. She is always very careful to tell me what I need to do.
At about 4 o ‘clock in the afternoon, Lin Kai and Xing Xing saw off the guests. Xiuyun walked about 500 meters to the west. There was a stone gate engraved with the village name. The old people in the village introduced: according to the tradition, but all the bride married to the village, in the wedding must pass under the stone gate, into the stone gate, can be regarded as the people of the village; If the marriage breaks up, the person who leaves also needs to walk out of this door, have a beginning and an end.
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