Chinese Literature

in exchange for the work others did for her. So busy all the time that she felt nearly out of breath!

Mother Wang was allotted eight mow of rocky land, four mou of fruit trees, five goats and two sheep. Under the labour exchange system, other members of the Big Stone Bay mutual-aid team till her land and tend her flock while she takes care of the children’s créche. This way she earns more than enough to pay for the use of draught animals and for all the work others do for her. People say that Mother Wang is happy because her life is so much better now. She feels that her happiness is due not so much to that, but because now she can do work worth exchanging for others’. She no longer has to ask anybody’s favour for the use of his animal, and she is no longer under any obligation to anyone for working on her land. And yet, the grain stands on her eight mow just as tall, thick and heavy as on the fields of the well-to-do households of the village. She can hold up her head now! In the world she now lives in, she becomes more energetic as time goes on, and there is a measure of pride in her happiness.

When the creche was formally opened, she said to all the people present at the ceremony: “I’m heart and soul for our mutual-aid team in Big Stone Bay. Before Chairman Mao’s picture here I swear that, although I’m an old woman, I shall look after your children just as you take care of my land, and as I used to look after my own granddaughter. I promise I shan’t favour some and neglect others. One and all, they are the children of our team!”

To this very day, she has kept her promise.

IV

One fine day after the autumn harvest, Mother Wang at last asked for two days’ leave from the créche to go to Gingko-tree Village to see her daughter. A few months ago, during the wheat harvest, Kuei-chieh had sent Mother Wang a message by word of mouth that she had had another child, a boy this time. Mother Wang was surprised at her own indifference. How did it happen that she had not once left Big Stone Bay in three years? For the past years, she had scarcely had a thought of her granddaughter. Her relationship with Kuei-chieh seemed to have cooled down, and yet she had no other close relation besides her daughter. But, at the time the message came, her mutual-aid team was kept busy with killing crop pests. Mother Wang did not find the time to go to Gingko-tree Village herself. So she asked someone else to take her daughter the usual gift of noodles and a basketful of eggs for the happy event. She was thinking of going when the ploughing and sowing for the autumn crops would be done. But then the mutual-aid team was busy sinking new wells to fight a sudden drought. There was never a

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