Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 484 Our Village

Chen Hui said, "Not necessarily. Maybe the water level has dropped and the river has dried up. This area used to be a major tributary. Historically, the Taizi River was a major river, not much smaller than the Yangtze River, just not as deep or as long."

Xiao Wei said, "I don't understand the difference between 'river' and 'river.' The Yellow River is big enough, so why is it called a river?"

Chen Hui thought for a moment and said, "It seems to be divided according to the mouth of the sea. Rivers that flow into the open ocean are called 'jiang' (江), and those that flow into the inland sea or a large lake are called 'he' (河). There is no strict distinction. It is just a customary name since ancient times. However, generally speaking, the flow of a jiang is larger than that of a he.

Xiao Wei said, "Not necessarily. The Hun River is bigger than many rivers in China, and the Yellow River is smaller than the Yangtze River. The Ussuri River and the Taizi River are about the same size, and they are not even as big as the Liao River."

Chen Hui smacked his lips and said, "Call it whatever you want. Who knows how it came about in the first place? You can go back to ancient times sometime and ask them, then come back and let me know."

The three girls behind her laughed. Xiao Hong said, "You two are so funny. There's really nothing to say about it. It's just a name. It's just flowing freshwater. In many places, rivers are called whatever they want. Qinghai Lake is even called 'sea.' What's the difference? It's just a matter of geographical and dialectal habits. Like the Taedong River, it's called a river, right? But all the songs about it refer to it as a big river. Who said we're wrong?"

Chen Xiao thought for a moment and asked, "What river is the Taedong River? I've never heard of it. What song is it from?"

Xiao Hong cleared her throat and sang: "A wide river flows, the wind blows the fragrance of rice flowers on both banks, my home is on the shore."

Chen Xiao said, "Oh, this song, where is it about? Taedong River? Where is that? Hey, don't tell me, I've never even thought about what place this song is about."

Xiao Hong said, "The Taedong River, the mother river of the Korean people, flows through the city of Pyongyang."

Chen Hui said, "Really? I remember seeing some interview where the old man who wrote this song said it was the Yangtze River, but he said 'river' would be better, because every Chinese person has a river in their heart."

Xiao Hong said, "First, when asked by the reporter, Mr. Qiao only said that when he wrote the lyrics, it was the first time he had seen the Yangtze River and he was moved by it. Second, this song is a North Korean song from the Korean War period. There are also very famous songs like 'Azalea' and 'Bitter Herbs Bloom,' which are similar to our 'My Home is on the Songhua River in Northeast China.' It was just adapted and the lyrics were changed to Chinese. Moreover, the translation is basically the same as the original meaning."

Chen Xiao's eyes widened in surprise as he said, "Really? It's not a song from our country?"

Xiao Hong said, "It was just for propaganda purposes. At that time, we needed to be politically correct. Actually, many of our songs back then were borrowed from others, mostly from the Soviet Union. Anyway, there weren't any patents or copyrights back then. We were all from socialist countries, so it was all about mutual benefit."

Xiao Wei said, "Don't talk nonsense."

Little Red pouted and snorted, then fell silent.

The car wound its way through the mountains for several tens of minutes before finally spotting a village in the distance. Xiao Hong exclaimed, "We're here! We're here!"

As Xiao Wei watched the village of Guoshe approach, he took a deep breath and said with a smile, "This is our village."

The car was parked on the barren embankment in front of Xiaowei's house.

After everyone got off the bus, Xiao Wei looked around and said, "Brother and sister-in-law are really hardworking people. They've cleared a lot of land. I remember this plot used to be much bigger than it is now, and they've planted all of it in between."

Little Red looked around with her big eyes and said, "I don't know, I remember there wasn't a vegetable garden in front of your house."

Xiao Wei glanced at her and said, "You remember when we were ten years old, right?"

Xiao Hong pouted, thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "Hmm, it seems so. Is it my fault? I was at school, after all."

Chen Xiao pulled Xiao Hong aside and asked, "Where do you live?"

Xiao Hong pointed ahead and said, "That house, it's belonged to someone else a long time ago. The house was given to my uncle, and then my uncle sold it. That old geezer, he used our things to sell for money." After saying that, she laughed first.

Xiao Wei laughed and said, "You're so capable of saying that to our uncle's face. They've built a new house, so can't they sell the old one?"

Xiaohong glanced over there, took a breath, and said, "But that's a childhood memory of mine. Now I can't even look at it. Do you think that hole we dug together when we were kids is still there?"

Xiao Wei twitched his face and said, "How would I know? What kind of hole did I dig? I've forgotten."

Chen Xiao laughed and said, "Haha, it sounds like you two were quite mischievous when you were kids."

Xiao Hong laughed and said, "I had no one to play with, so I had to drag him along every day. His older brother was too old to play with us, and Xiao Bing was too small back then. I was the one who directed him to do things. The other day, he even tore open the wall of our kang (heated brick bed), haha."

Xiao Wei thought for a moment and said, "Oh, is that so? I even had my dad beat me up, but you ran away."

A man wearing a straw hat walked towards them from afar, carrying a hoe: "Who are you looking for?"

Xiao Wei turned his head and looked over, smiling as he said, "Big brother, let's get out of bed."

Little Red cupped her hands to her mouth and barked, "Woof, woof woof woof." It was Zhang Wang, Xiao Wei's uncle, who laughed and scolded, "You naughty brat, still so mischievous. I thought it was some big entourage coming from somewhere. Come inside, what brings you here?"

Xiao Wei introduced them: "This is my brother, Zhang Wang. This is Xia Maosheng, and this is his wife, Geng Hui. This is Chen Hui, and this is his wife, Chen Xiao. We just arrived. I went back to the county to take care of some things and stopped by to visit. I hope everyone at home is doing well."

Zhang Wang went over to open the courtyard gate and said, "It's fine. The land has been planted, and there's not much to do. I just tend to it occasionally. Why don't you come back to stay for a few days?"

Xiao Wei said, "No, I just came back to visit. It's been a long time since I've been back. I'll go see Xiao Hong's grandma and then go back; I have things to do there."

A group of people entered the yard, and a large dog ran over and sniffed each of them. The chickens strolled around the yard, the pigs grunted in their pen, and the geese stretched their necks to patrol their territory. The ducks were usually nowhere to be seen; they had long since run off to play in the water and wouldn't be back until evening.

Xiao Wei looked at the yard and asked, "You've turned over quite a bit of soil. Can the two of you manage to plant it all? Don't overwork yourself."

Zhang Wang put down his hoe, took off his clothes and hung them under the eaves, brushing the dust off his clothes and said, "How tiring can it be? It's just a few strokes of the hoe. What's so tiring about planting vegetables? My second uncle was tired from harvesting rice. We don't grow that stuff anymore, we don't have any paddy fields." There aren't many paddy fields here. When the river was still quite large, it was collective land, but after the land was distributed to individual households, there were only a few acres of paddy fields left.

As soon as the door opened, Zhang Wang's wife peeked out. Zhang Wang said, "Xiao Wei and Xiao Hong are back. Have you made dinner?"

Xiao Wei and the others greeted her as "Sister-in-law," and Zhang Wang's wife shyly responded. She then said to Zhang Wang, "Why didn't you tell me beforehand? We're out of meat at home."

(End of this chapter)