The One Behind It All Chapter 4

During the Anti-Japanese War, Finley was introduced by his fellow villagers to work as an accountant at Factory 412 in Guangzhou, an arsenal that produced gas masks. Although he was in the Kuomintang arsenal, he agreed with the Communist Party's views, actively promoted anti-Japanese resistance, and organized reading groups, which attracted the attention of Kuomintang agents. Later, a large number of people in the reading groups became senior cadres after the founding of New China. Due to the war, the factory was relocated to Tongzi, Guizhou via Guangxi. In 1944, Finley sent his family back to his hometown to settle down. After evading the pursuit of the spies, he quietly returned to Guizhou. From then on, he lived in a foreign land for a long time. It was not until 1995 that he returned to his hometown for sightseeing after half a century away. He died soon after.

In Guizhou, Finley married Aiden's mother, Ellis, and they had two sons and five daughters, with Aiden being the eldest. In 1944, Aiden was born in the mountainous area of Zhenning County, Anshun District, Guizhou Province. It has karst limestone terrain and beautiful scenery. The famous Huangguoshu Waterfall is located there, but the economy is very backward.

Finley did not establish contact with the Communist Party's underground organization, but his political stance has always been on the side of the Communist Party. After the liberation of Guizhou, he joined the land reform team and entered the ethnic minority mountainous areas of Guizhou, where he carried out work in the dark. Later he participated in the preparation of schools and served as the principal of a junior college for many years. During this period, he did not care about the gains and losses of promotion, worked hard, and completely regarded the school as his home. Hard work pays off, the school's teaching quality has reached a very high level, and the admission rate has reached more than 90%. He devoted himself wholeheartedly to education, worked for decades, and trained many outstanding cadres, but he still regarded himself as an ordinary person and never cared about anything.

Finley loves reading very much and likes to think independently. When he has a little free time, he tells the children some stories about scientists and cultural celebrities, and encourages the children to study hard and become the pillars of the country in the future.

Although Finley participated in progressive activities earlier, he was not trusted because of his non-proletarian background and his experience in the Kuomintang arsenal. He had to undergo transformation in previous political movements and repeatedly explained his ideological issues. It was not until 1958 that he was approved to join the party. .

After graduating from high school, Aiden's mother worked as a very ordinary rural teacher. In addition to completing teaching tasks on time, she also insisted on self-study, and was eventually rated as a senior middle school teacher. Many of her students are provincial and prefecture-level cadres and outstanding experts, and they are deeply impressed by Ren's mother's sense of responsibility in teaching.

Ren's mother spent her whole life accompanying her husband in education in impoverished mountainous areas. The couple was so cautious in their words and deeds that they were so engrossed in their work that they had no time to take care of their children.

Aiden's parents were school teachers at the bottom of society at that time and could not help their children with wealth and career. What they left to their children was a love of knowledge and the love of being a parent.

3. Poor boyhood

Many people's innocent teenage years were carefree, full of childishness, full of beautiful fantasies, and left many beautiful memories. However, Aiden's boyhood was gray.

In the 1950s and 1960s, intellectuals were all "stinky old people". Not only did they receive meager wages, but they were also despised by others, which is very different from the treatment of intellectuals in modern society. Aiden has seven brothers and sisters, plus his parents, a total of nine people. The family relies on his parents' meager salary and has no other sources. His parents have to send living expenses to their family members in their hometown. At that time, the national economy was in dire straits and there was a serious shortage of food. The little grain stored was not even enough to feed the whole family. The scene of poverty even stunned the rebels who later ransacked the house.

At that time, two or three people in the Ren family shared a quilt, and straw was spread under the worn quilt. Life is already very difficult, but our children are growing up day by day, their clothes are getting shorter and shorter, and they all have to go to school, which costs a lot of money. Each student pays 2 to 3 yuan in tuition fees every semester. When school starts and fees are paid, parents become worried and often have to borrow money from people everywhere to make ends meet, and often cannot borrow money because others are in the same difficulty. But they always adhere to the idea that "no matter how hard it is, they still want their children to be educated" and try every means to raise tuition fees for their children to go to school.

Under such difficult and difficult circumstances, Aiden finished elementary school and junior high school. It stands to reason that after graduating from junior high school, he was already an intellectual and could have a good future. And since he was the eldest son in the family, working early could also reduce the burden on the family. However, his parents are very wise people. They not only let Aiden go to high school, but also provided for him to go to college.

Guizhou is located on a plateau and has an underdeveloped economy, especially in mountainous areas. It is commonly known as "the land is not three miles flat and the people are not worth three cents of silver". After the "Great Leap Forward" movement began, due to the large number of public canteens in rural areas and high procurement prices, food was extremely tight. In 1960, a severe famine occurred in Guizhou, but the provincial party committee reported to the provincial government that 80% of the province's canteens were good or relatively good. It was known as a "red flag province" and demanded that the whole country learn from Guizhou and "do so". In 1961, Guizhou, a red-flag province with a large number of canteens, had to implement household-based production quotas, and the situation in urban and rural areas was alleviated.

However, when Aiden was in high school, he encountered another three years of economic hardship. The country implements a strict rationing system, and everything is based on tickets. At the very least, each person is only given 0.5 meters of cloth tickets and a few kilograms of food stamps a year. How can the seven brothers and sisters use them! Therefore, until he graduated from high school, Aiden never wore a shirt. Even in the hot summer, he could only wear a thick coat in winter. Moreover, due to lack of food, hunger and death threaten people at all times. Aiden is hungry every day, so how can he find the time to study? Therefore, he took the make-up exam in his sophomore year of high school.

The mother was aware of the impact of lack of food and clothing on her children, so during the three months before the college entrance examination, her mother would often secretly give Aiden a small tortilla in the morning, so that he could review his homework with peace of mind and be admitted to college. Aiden later said with emotion: "If it hadn't been like this, maybe I wouldn't have been able to start a company like Huawei. There might just be one more pig-raising expert in the society, or one more skilled craftsman on the street. This little tortilla is from I can't repay my parents and siblings for what they said."

Difficulties make people become realistic. During his three years of high school, Aiden’s biggest dream was to eat a complete white-flour steamed bun. What finally helped him realize this dream was a treat from a classmate from a well-off family on the eve of graduation. That time he got 2/3 of a white-flour steamed bun. He ate most of the steamed buns for two whole days, taking a bite at each meal before putting them in his pocket.