Chapter 17 Chapter Seventeen

The year was 1929.Many accidents at home and abroad happened to change Xing Le's life. The economic downturn has shaken Singapore to its very roots.Only the largest enterprises will survive.Several local banks have collapsed, and thousands of employees have lost their jobs and are living on the streets.The docks are full of homeless people looking for work.The number of beggars is increasing day by day.There are news of suicides every day, or news of millionaires going bankrupt overnight.British banks, insurance, shipping, and trusts obeyed sensible principles, and although affected, they generally survived.The rubber and sugar speculators are different.That is a gamble that the Chinese are naturally good at.In a few months, some people made a fortune and others went bankrupt.

There are quite a few people who are dumbfounded, driven mad by despair. Breaking up with Han Xing, the disillusionment hit Xing Le too hard.Emotionally he was still infatuated with her, but he said to himself: What's the use?A man had his leg amputated. Although he would have labor pains afterwards, the first month was always the hardest.After a while it's nothing. Xing Le didn't notice that he and Han Xing fell out for several months, and he didn't write a letter home at all.The family members were worried, so Baiying and his sister Meigong wrote to Xingle's uncle to find out what was going on.The uncle was also very worried, and wrote back that Xing Le was fascinated by that woman.He hoped it didn't turn out too badly.Everyone is more worried.In fact, Xingle's mother was very dissatisfied when she heard that he refused to go home.She wished her son would come back to her.

Xingle's business is very busy, which is related to the financial chaos and depression in various industries.Some businesses closed and the owners fled.Everyone has a debt, but no one pays the debt.However, the old Bama Elliton firm survived, but the business was overwhelmed by special projects such as commercial debt, real estate auctions and mortgage forfeitures.Only banana shops, tobacco shops, pharmacies, grocery stores and bars remain open.Everyone smoked more and drank more.Large corporations have been hit the hardest.The bosses of several factories have collapsed.The government has proposed a three-month moratorium on debt payments and will see how the situation plays out.

Xingle's uncle is the most sensitive to the situation.He sold the factory just in time and kept a considerable fortune.He said he would retire and return to China, buy a villa on Gulangyu Island, Xiamen, and take his wife and family back to live in peace.No one wanted rubber; the price was not worth the wages of gatherers.The price he sold at that time was two or three times higher than it is now.Of course, the villa is more difficult to sell, especially at this time. Weisheng asked Xingle to go out and had a long talk with him.You don't go home with uncle? No, why should I go back?I also want to learn more legal experience.I hope to open my own business by then.Do you think the economy will be depressed forever?

You don't want to go home to see your mother?What's holding you back here? I have no idea.I gradually learned the tricks of things.These are English laws, which I have learned not badly.Of what use was my knowledge of law, especially English law, at home? I know what's holding you back.It's Han Xing. Xing Le raised his eyes to look at him, and said calmly and with some sadness: I don't know either. He paused for a while, frowned and continued.Sometimes I just don't get it.I don't understand myself, I don't understand everyone around me, I don't understand this modern big city.I looked out the window and saw the blackened brick wall of another building ten feet away, wondering what everyone was doing.There are thousands of people like me who want to earn a living and support their families in the right way, right?Make money, right?Han Xing once said to me that love and money move the world.Very philosophical, don't you think?I don't know where she got it from.She is also right.You have to have both.But I stood in the corridor and observed this big port city. I saw the walkways with people coming and going, the faded walls, the dilapidated houses where everyone lived, and the turbulent crowds, thousands of people trying to survive.Huh, that looks crazy.It doesn't make sense at all.

Why did you break up with Han Xing? Because she wants to divide.She has nothing to do all day long, saying that she would rather earn money to live by herself.I don't blame her. You still go to see her? We still met, and he said with trembling lips: Sometimes I go to where she works, and sometimes to her mother's house.We have been much friendlier since we separated.I think she is happier than before.We made it clear that she is free to do what she likes and so am I.I certainly hope that one day she will come back to me. There were also changes in Xingle's hometown that year.Some are natural disasters, and some are not acts of God, which affect the fate of the characters in the book as a whole.

Since that autumn, Meigong, her husband and children have moved to Zhangzhou to live with her deceased father, and Xingle's mother lives with them now.There were several floods in the Xihe River, and their home was on the bank of the hillside and suffered a lot of disasters.Mei Gong's mother-in-law died in a flooded night.The mother-in-law lived downstairs and was washed away by the flood in the dark and chaotic night.Afterwards, they fled to Zhangzhou and lived in the home of Mei Gong's deceased father, where several distant relatives lived at that time.After the crisis, she and her husband decided to stay in the city.

An important factor for this move is that she will bring her mother to live with her.Baiying is very kind to his mother, but Meigong knows that the mother should live with her daughter.In addition, Zhangzhou is the mother's hometown.It was a big city with almost everything you wanted.The local warlords had been driven out by the National Revolutionary Army, and considerable law and order had been restored in the city. Meigong and her husband went up the mountain to pick up her mother to Zhangzhou, only to find that a catastrophe had happened at Baiying's house. The National Revolutionary Army took control of southern China and continued the Northern Expedition.The warlord was defeated, and some remnants of the army fled to the mountains between Guangdong and Fujian, where they lived a life of looting and looting.A group of people fled up the West River, intending to go to the high mountains along the coast of Fujian.

Sugar cane was shopping at the market, a group of dusty, ragged infantry came to the river bank, and several officers on horseback.The deserters are defeated, and the discipline is of course very poor.The villagers don't even know whose team they are.The commander saw a lot of food in the market, so he asked the soldiers to stop on the shore.Some jumped into the river to bathe, others went to the market for food. It was not long before catastrophe occurred.The villagers who fled back saw what happened with their own eyes.Some soldiers ate pasta, pastries, and fast food for nothing, and plundered chickens and ducks wantonly, without any intention of paying.He also asked the restaurant owner to cook for them.Some farmers packed their things in a hurry and planned to go home.An officer blew his whistle and shouted that no one was allowed to leave the market with anything.The panicked farmer immediately understood what he meant.

ha!Don't our troops usually protect you?Now we have missions going through here.Is it not fair that you welcome your host with joy?What are you afraid of?We'll have a meal here and walk right away.Anyone who dares to take things away will be shot.Our commander-in-chief is coming tomorrow.Don't you want him to know that the people of this city are very hospitable and sensible?No one is allowed to go. There was a commotion in the place.The peasants were outraged, but mostly silent.It's unlucky to meet these troops today, that's all. It was usually bad luck for soldiers to come to a village, but there weren't many lucky days in a year.Several soldiers were sent to the market place to ask the customers who was going home.

Then an order was given, and the soldiers lined up.They started carrying sacks of white rice and soybeans, flour, charcoal, eggs.An officer commanded his men.In some restaurants, even the cooking utensils were taken away, and everything that the defeated soldiers could use was looted. Sugarcane stood aside, not understanding what was going on. hey guy what are you doingcome over.Carry this bag of rice.You are quite strong.come with us. Cane didn't understand what was going on.He carried a sack of rice weighing at least one hundred and fifty pounds. Get in line!there!Wait, don't move. Sugarcane stood in the line together with the others, looking baffled.He is always willing to help anyone who needs help. go ahead! The team moved forward, and the sugar cane was also inside, and the people who were arrested with him were silent. Where are we going?he asked another prisoner. have no idea. They walked up the river bank and headed towards the dwarf hill, apparently in the direction of the nunnery. Where are you going?he asked an officer who came up. You must know that it doesn't matter, after going to the nunnery. It takes a whole day to walk after the nunnery. I dont go.Cane said. What? I can't go with you, sir.I dont go. He put the rice bag on the ground. You are crazy. I can not go.I have something to do at home. The officers' physique is much worse than cane's.He poked at his chest, trying to push him.Walk!Pick up that bag of rice!Cane stood in front of him, high above him, motionless, feeling the officer's thrusts like mosquito bites. The officer drew a pistol from his belt.Are you moving? Cane is panicking now.He had never seen a gun in his life.He ran away. Come back, you idiot! Cane continued to run wild. A volley of bullets fired, and he immediately fell to the ground.The bullet passed through his body.He died minutes later without even understanding who hit him and why. This can teach you all a lesson.Officers use a thin noise.A row of people stopped to see what was going on, and now they started heading towards the mountains again. Seeing that her husband did not come back, Bai Ying was very worried when she heard about the catastrophe at the village market.She ran down to the shop on this side of the river, proving that many farmers were forced to carry rice and wheat, and drove away with the army. When it was dark, there was news from the heart that her husband had passed away in the suburbs.My heart is two miles away.She hurried away with her brother and mother.She was told that the army had passed there about three o'clock, and that some of the villagers had recognized the body and found him lying on the slope at the head of the rapids. it's getting dark.No one could be found to carry the body home.Boying knelt beside him, repeatedly wiping the tears from his face.Her mind is not broken.Heart full of hatred for the chaos army. That night Tianzhu guarded the corpse and asked his sister and mother to go home first.At ten o'clock in the morning, the corpse arrived, and it was carried by the farmers in the village with door panels.In the evening, several released prisoners told what happened. This kind of thing is not special.It happens over and over again across the country.It's just a matter of how often.Some provinces have more chances, just as some provinces get a little more rain a year than others.The villagers see catastrophes such as flamingworms, plagues, and soldiers crossing the border very normally. A few years later, Bai Ying used this resigned tone to tell Xing Le all the accidents.That fall, soldiers came to our village and took him away.he died. Bai Ying was sad for her husband for a long time.Then, she thought that there was no one to take over the fields and other jobs left by her good husband, and she really went crazy.When will she find such an upright husband? In October, Mei Gong went up the mountain to pick up her mother, and Bai Ying had become strong.There was sadness in her eyes, but she was too busy with work to mourn Sugarcane.She has a mother, an aunt, and two children to take care of.Tianzhu's body recovered somewhat, and his appetite improved a lot after the treatment.Now they finally have a helper in the field. When she talked about those soldiers, her voice was calm, serene, and strict, the calm, serene, and harsh tone of the farm family.Those bloody bastards lived short lives.They don't live long!God has eyes, they won't live long! This is a common slang term for women.Cane is a good guy, really. Her brows were deeply furrowed, and there was a forlorn, thoughtful look in her eyes.How much patience is in those eyes. They said goodbye reluctantly.Mei Gong said that she would take her mother to live with her, thanking Bai Ying and her mother for their kindness these days, Bai Ying said: No, no, she likes us here. Bai Ying, Mei Gong said: I don't know how to thank you.When my mother-in-law was alive, I couldn't support my mother as I wanted.You have done your best.Now it's my turn. Of course, of course.She is almost reckless, which shows that she is unwilling to separate.You are her own daughter, of course.But I'm also like her daughter.I bet she'll be back.The air over there is not as good as here.I know. Bai Ying insisted that everyone would go back to the heron's nest, maybe she can't be blamed.Miyagi smiled quietly.She had other things on her mind.But Baiying agreed that Xingle's mother should go back to her daughter.Next year she may go to Zhangzhou to see them, she is going to sell sugar cane. Xingle's mother liked Wangzai very much and said she would take him to Zhangzhou because there are good schools there. Oh, no.You can't take Wangzai there.No way. Mom, I'm going too.let me go. no son.Let's talk about it later.You can't leave mother now.Let's talk about it later, okay? Wang Zai seemed to be fidgeting just like his father.There was a sharp pain in Bai Ying's heart, suffering from the tragedy of urban temptation and the restless spirit of this man, both this little man and that big man were her most beloved.Both the mother who leans on the door and the wife who sticks to the empty boudoir have to face the oldest problem: men work and women stay at home.She almost saw herself walking into the fate of Xingle's mother, and was very worried.She bent down and held the child tightly in her arms.