Ronan's Moonlit Journey Chapter 3

Drawing red exercises(5)

Ronan leaned against the glass and looked out (you couldn't see outside without leaning against the glass after the lights in the carriage were turned on). The crowd was dark. Except for the dark crowds, the ground is white.

He saw his father walking into the crowd. His clothes became as white as the ground, and his face and legs were black.

My grandfather got out of the car after his father got off. He turned to the other side of the car, in the shadow of the body. Ronan couldn't see him from his position. My grandfather got out of the car to relieve himself, but he didn't expect to encounter such good moonlight.

He stepped out of the parking lot and compared all the white. There is a particularly bright white strip below, leading all the way to the front. My grandfather thought it was an asphalt road and walked down it. So he fell into the water.

The road is uneven, and the contrast between black and white is great under the moonlight. Ronan couldn't make his feet land on the white spot accurately every time. Grandma walked in front, supported by two rural girls. Maybe her feet didn't even touch the ground, and she was trapped and walked forward. Grandpa’s shoes were filled with water and made the loudest noise. He didn't want help and insisted on walking by himself.

Across the bridge ahead is the village they want to go to.

Someone in our school wrote a counter-mark on the dirt next to the playground with a branch. Teacher Lin wrote a paragraph on the blackboard and asked each of us to copy it. Teacher Lin said that the handwriting should be corrected. Teacher Lin said that this passage contains all the words used to write anti-standardization, but the passage itself is not anti-standardization, it is revolutionary, and it is a quotation from Chairman Mao. Teacher Lin said that whoever wrote the counter-mark should quickly explain it, mainly to explain the person behind the scenes, and he would be liberated. Teacher Lin kept looking at me while talking. Teacher Lin said that we can detect even if it is written with the left hand. She asked us to copy Chairman Mao's quotations once with our right hand and again with our left hand. I didn't write the counter-marking, but I'm scared. I have long been able to write Chairman Mao's quotations copied by Teacher Lin, and I will definitely be able to write the words in the reverse subtitles. I can write but I did not write. I want to tell Teacher Lin that my grandfather taught me how to write Chairman Mao’s quotations. He was a historical counter-revolutionary. Which words in Chairman Mao's quotations are the anti-marks on the dirt next to the playground? I figured it out as soon as I thought about it. When I came up with five counter-marks, I became even more scared. I don’t know which of the five counter signs on the dirt next to the playground is. I wanted to ask Teacher Lin, but I didn’t dare.

The bridge has no railings and is made of three or four tree trunks tied together. It is about two feet wide. There is of course the river below. They were walking along this river just now. Now cross it, because it is impossible to keep walking on the embankment.

I told my grandma all these truths, but she just wouldn't listen and wouldn't leave no matter what I said.

Two more girls were added. Four girls pushed their grandmother across the bridge. Her face was covered with a scarf. She said she couldn't breathe. Just when her grandmother was worried about suffocation, she was pushed across the bridge. She didn't have time to fall into the water and drown. The person in question arrived at the bridge. They stood here and saw their grandmother coming over there. Ronan and his brother called out to grandma, and grandma agreed and wanted to come over because the family was still here. This time she was not afraid at all and walked onto the bridge alone. Four rural girls quickly grabbed her.

Mom blamed grandpa for pasting the slogan too firmly, and now it takes a lot more effort to put it on. Grandpa said, let me do it. They scrambled to clean the door. Mom asked me to bring soap, washing powder, decontamination powder, and rice water. She asked grandpa to heat the water on the fire. My mother stood on the stool and refused to get off, asking me to get a broom, rag, brush, feather duster, and fruit knife. I watched her scrape off the dried paste bit by bit. Mom said she was liberated today and tearing down the slogans was approved by the organization.

The oil lamp illuminated a circle on the table. The center of this circle is the projection of the lamp itself, underneath the lamp. The shadows swayed as the flames swayed. Ronan noticed that the shadow in the center of the circle was small and dark. On the walls and roofs, the shadows are tall and blurry.

Four bowls were brought up, and the oil lamp was raised. The shadows of four bowls were swinging.

There were many people in the room, watching them eat.

Ronan and his mother were sitting on the edge of the bed, with quilts piled high behind them. Someone spoke under the quilt. He was talking, so Ronan knew that there was a person lying there, not just a quilt. The woman who was introduced as the owner told them: That was her husband, who had been suffering from stomach problems for more than 20 years and had been lying in bed.

Ronan wanted to see the patient's face clearly, but he covered the quilt up to his nose. With her hair hanging down from above, she looks like a woman. He bent one leg under the quilt to make Ronan more comfortable.

A big dog emerged from under the table, its face raised as level as the tabletop, and its head was brown under the oil lamp. It cupped a vegetable bowl with its mouth, and everyone in the room booed it. The dog hesitated and looked at Ronan.

Drawing red exercises(6)

Ronan put his hand on the dog's forehead and felt that its fur was a little wet, but very soft. "What's your name?" Ronan asked. All the children in the room answered for him: "His name is dog."

"What are you eating?"

"It eats Sh!t."

Someone comes from my mother's unit again. They put signs on the door of Mom and Dad's room. Good words this time, I know. They shook hands with grandpa and grandma. They shook my hand. The door that their mother had cleaned was stained again. Set off firecrackers, beat drums and perform shows in front of our house. They left footprints everywhere. After they left, grandpa started mopping the floor and cleaning the door again. He taught me to read the slogan on the door: Farewell to Comrade Lu Hongying and her family for being gloriously approved to be sent to the countryside.

Ronan's stomach was full of food. The children led him out to find the toilet. All the children came out. They surrounded Ronan and reached out to touch his clothes.

It's much brighter outside than inside. Under the moonlight, Ronan saw a child with a particularly big head. Ronan called him Datou. Datou's head was bigger than that of his brother's classmate named Datou. There was a tank buried next to the bamboo garden at the back of the house, surrounded by corn stalks. Big Tou told him that this was the toilet, and he could defecate here.

"Look at me." Datou said, squatting down in the bamboo garden. Ronan heard him fart and saw half of his B*tt0cks illuminated by the moon. "Okay," Big Head said, "dog, dog, dog." He was calling the dog, and the yellow dog came running. Smack, smack, smack, it is indeed eating Sh!t. Big head raised his B*tt0cks and let him lick it clean. "Are you ready?" Datou asked Ronan.

When Ronan squatted by the manure tank, all the children took off their pants and squatted. They defecate with him. Ronan is no longer embarrassed. The B*tt was cold and a little painful from the wind. The moon was so big and round above the corn stalks that Ronan felt it really looked like a bare B*tt.

I am the only child left in our yard. There are more than a dozen in our school, which is not unusual. There are two people in our class, one is me and the other is an escort. They are bad elements and have not been rehabilitated. Teacher Lin asked, are there any students in our class who want to be sent down? Raise your hand. I raised my hand, and the escort also raised his hand, but he was different from me. My parents have both been rehabilitated, and devolution is voluntary and an honor. Later, the school held a farewell party and the escort did not come to the stage. I sat on the stage, and there were more than a dozen people sitting in a row with me, none of whom were from our class. We wore big red flowers and each of us was given a set of selected works of Mao Zedong. Everyone else applauded under the rostrum. Teacher Lin was also sitting in the audience.

"This is Ronan's new home." Mother said. They walked towards it through the village. The house was a little tilted, and Ronan thought it was because of the moon. The shadow behind the house was deep and dark, like a big pit.

The people in the village next to the door once wanted to build a stove. When the oil lamp was lit on the stove, Ronan saw a dozen scattered pieces of adobe. Maybe they were too late and the stove was not finished. It was hard to see clearly further inside, but the captain said there were three rooms in total.

They wanted to dry their grandfather's pants.

Firewood arrived. Everyone sat on the pile of firewood and lit a fire in front. While burning, add firewood from around you. The captain fiddled with a branch in the fire. The fire burned wonderfully. Ronan had never seen such high flames. Grandfather's cotton trousers began to steam, and the house became brighter.

The father asked the captain: "What was this house used for before?"

"The public house," said the captain, "raised cattle for a while."

"How many cows does the captain have?" the father asked.

"Six heads." Just the same as the population of Ronan's family.

Now they all saw clearly the cracked earth wall and the many things hanging from the top.

"Hanging ashes," the captain said, "In winter, the cattle have to be heated by the fire. As time goes by, there will be hanging ashes on the top."

Hanging ash is the kind of thing that hangs down in strands, like the furry and gray tail of some kind of animal. They were densely packed on the roof of the house, above the flames, less than a foot away from the flames.

Grandfather kept adding firewood, and the flame rose higher and higher. Grandma said: "The old man is looking for death." No one paid any attention to her. She said again: "How can this be good?" She said it over and over again.

The moon among the branches (1)

We arrived at night and were taken to Cheng Yuying's house for dinner. The villagers watching were packed with people. The kerosene lamp made from an inkwell illuminated a large area of   the table, only enough to see four large coarse porcelain bowls, filled with unknown dishes. The onlookers were wearing dark cotton-padded jackets, and with the projections stacked on top of each other, it was so dark that it was impossible to see who was who. A half-grown person squeezed in and stood out. The elder brother immediately caught his features--"Big head!" The elder brother exclaimed happily.

This big head is Jiuzizi, so named because he was born in the ninth month of the lunar calendar. "Big head" was what my brother blurted out. Datou or Jiuyuzi is sixteen or seventeen years old and looks like a child. He had a scabrous head, yellow teeth stuck out, and his cheeks were fleshy and slack. From today's perspective, his face looked very much like that of a bureaucrat. The big head was dragging Huanglong's nose, and the cotton wool was exposed from the torn cotton-padded jacket on his body. There was a straw rope tied around his waist, and he was not wearing a shirt under the open collar. Like the local farmers, he was shirtless and wore a cotton-padded jacket.

My father asked my brother, the leader, and me to go outside to find the toilet.

Under the strong moonlight, I noticed that Big Tou's legs were slightly lame. Later, we had to go down to the river to carry water to eat (there was no running water), and then I realized that the big head walked as if he was carrying a bucket. Datou also often helped our family carry water from the river. As soon as he carried the water, he stopped limping.

There was no toilet found that night. Datou demonstrated defecating next to the manure tank behind the house. He untied his straw-rope trousers and squatted down behind the corn stalks, and his brother followed suit. I hesitated for a moment and chose a tree and squatted down. There were six or seven farmers' children squatting around. I squatted and looked up to see a bright moon between the branches of the trees. I felt that it really looked like a big B*tt.

We settled in the cow house, and many farmers came to visit us in the first few days. He said he came to see his father, but he actually wanted to see something new. The women from the village came in groups, pushing each other into the house, and came to my mother's dressing mirror. It’s even more awkward because of the exposed reflection. The rural woman in the mirror is wearing a blue cloth blouse with a large placket. Her dark, weathered face smiles like a flower, and her gums are exposed. They smoothed their hair and straightened the hems of their clothes. They were first pushing and shoving to avoid standing in front of the mirror, and then they were squeezing and refusing to fall behind others after taking a good look at the mirror. Big Tou seems to be half the master, coming in and out, busy here and there. If someone comes at a bad time (such as at night or during lunch break), they have to intercede through Datou if they want to come in for a visit.