Ku wasn’t born in Lemo village. Originally he worked for a Le family. The Le family head thought Ku was a diligent guy and married him with his daughter.

Ku had four sons together with his wife. His sons were almost all capable, only the biggest son became a farmer. It’s a pity Ku’s luck wasn’t very good. Soon he became ill and died, his funeral was hosted by his five sons, which seemed to be the best to that date. There were even professional dragon players participating the funeral. Any how, no matter how grand the funeral was, it had nothing to do with him.

The biggest son Gold was the only farmer among four brothers. Actually he read a lot too, only he was too shy, so he refused to be village head for it needed address in public. He was diligent on farm work, during rainy days, he would sit comfortably to read novels to kill time. There wasn’t much to do in winter, then he bought vegetables from town market and sold it to fellow villagers to earn extra money.

Gold had a son and a daughter. He was also the only one with a son among his brothers. The son was the only hope of all his uncles and father. He studied hard until he became a little unreasonable. He had near-sighted eyes and became very thin. When he graduated from college, his uncle Fire found a job for him.

For it’s state-funded business, he had to accompany guests to drink and have fun. He became very thin, with hair becoming thinner and thinner. He was single though he was more than thirty. The situation was always going like this: either he disliked the girl or the girl disliked him. Now he was going to get married with a girl of the same village.

The daughter got married early like other girls of countryside. She always thought her parents liked her brother more, yeah, she was right.

Wood was a teacher. He worked as both, farmer and teacher, hence received praise from elders, saying he could be either an official or a farmer, that’s what great man did. He had two daughters and failed to have a son. Later he moved out of village to be a teacher of middle school.

Water worked in county office and had a daughter. He was a warm-hearted man. When he returned to Lemo village, he always helped fellow villagers do this and that.

Fire worked in Wuhan, probably had his own business. He received a lot of help from his parents-in-law, that’s why he got married with their daughter. His wife was an arrogant woman and had difficulty to get well with his mother. For all those years, he had to take that and his wife didn’t give him any children. Finally he decided to get divorced with the consent of his parents-in-law. They also thought they ruined his life.

 

We Family

We always had cloudy eyes and died a long while ago. His fat wife died later. He had three sons together with his wife.

The biggest son Gold had a female voice. He also liked female work such as knitting clothes for his children, hence received a nickname Auntie Gold. Gold’s wife had an incredibly thin face and was always silent.

Gold had one son and one daughter. The son was diligent, only he wasn’t good at schooling. During entire elementary school, he always ranked the last in class and became an very humble boy.

Besides schooling, he was a good fisher. One summer day, he got a barrel of fish after several hours’ hard work. Unfortunately, the barrel was knocked to the river. He cried hard for all his work was ruined, however, he continued to fish until it’s close to evening to get a barrel of fish again to home.

These days, thanks to his uncle Water. Water had a chain supermarket business and offered part of it to the son. The son hence became rich for he could work hard. He became cocky and got a pretty wife, fellow villagers even seemed not to know him for he was totally changed.

The daughter jut got married early like other rural girls did.

The second son Wood was once village head. He got married with fellow villagers. He had three sons in total. His sons became rich too for the sake of his younger brother Water. Since they became rich, they gambled merrily like big boss. Wood was so angry that he had a stroke and that nearly cost him his life.

All three sons were mean. There was nothing to talk about them.

The third son Water worked outside after graduation of elementary school. He worked in a shop diligently. Eight years later, the boss was moved by his diligence and loyalty. He gave Water the shop for free and Water became rich basing on that shop. When he became rich, he got the children of his brothers rich.

 

Hu Family

Hu was a gentle old lady with white hair. It seemed nobody knew her husband for he died a long time ago. She had four sons and two daughters.

The oldest son Gold died a long time ago, leaving a widow and two sons. The wizard of village always used Gold as an excuse if somebody became ill, it seemed Gold enjoying haunting people.

His widow wasn’t easy all these years. She lived alone in her small house, taking care of her vegetable garden all days. Several months ago, she became ill suddenly, but there was nobody around. She had to struggle hard to knock her neighbor’s door. Thanks to the neighbor, she saved her life in time.

Her big son opened a noodle restaurant. Man seemed to get tired of his job easily. The big son suddenly decided to work outside, soon he found the outside world wasn’t good as he imagined. He returned to open a noodle restaurant again. The good old place was taken by someone else, he chose to open it in town center, the business wasn’t as good as before. His original place was near the entrance of town market. Rural people enjoyed having noodles there. Now since his restaurant was in town center, town people don’t like eating noodles outside. He had no choice, closed the restaurant again and opened a chicken farm in the old Lemo elementary school, the situation wasn’t good either. So man should focus what he does and that’s the correct way. Don’t envy other people for their situation isn’t working for you.

The second son got married with a city girl and rarely returned home.

Hu’s second son Wood had one son and three daughters. His son got married with a girl with the same family name. It turned out the girl was his aunt by rank, which was always the topic of gossip in village.

One daughter was a nurse in town hospital. She got married with a middle school English teacher. Wood’s wife gave birth her youngest daughter with an very late age.

Hu’s third son Water had three daughter and one son. He and his wife wanted a son very much and finally succeed. The first daughter got married early without nothing uncommon. The second daughter was the prettiest and it was rumored that she got married with some mafia guy. The third daughter was kind-hearted and accepted an arrange marriage.

Water’s family was originally happy and prosperous. One unlucky thing happened to his wife one summer day. His wife was bitten by a poisonous snake. Water got the doctor Cun to treat him for Cun had been treated other people bitten by snake well before.

His wife gradually became weaker and weaker. When Cun came for treatment the next day, his wife already died. Cun felt bitterness and threw his medical equipments to the river and swore he would never treat anyone. The son was less than 10 years then and cried his eyes out. He crawled to his mother’s coffin and wasn’t willing to come out. This made everybody at present so sad.

Now the son became a soldier. Water rode a tricycle in the county for a living. He said he was poor and wasn’t willing to get married again. The daughters were all married and lived in other places. The old house was broken by years and there were even trees growing outside of it. The scene made man sad.

The fourth son Fire was a teacher. He was a gentleman and always treated everybody well. He taught in town, but he always liked living in countryside. His wife was always sick even when she was young. Though she was only fifty, everybody thought she was eighty at least judging from her skinny hands and crinkled face.

Fire’s first son got married after he earned money by working in African countries. Fire’s second son graduated from college and seemed to go to a lot of places. They were united to fight with other children when they were young.

 

Fa Family

Fa rarely lived in Lemo Village, so rarely somebody knew him.

Thanks to the open-door policy, people’s lives are improved greatly, but it wasn’t so to Fa’s son.

The son originally worked merrily in the field, but his wife wanted to work outside, so he had to go with him. Soon his wife was fascinated by the luxury life outside, but working in a factory seemed not to be the way to enjoy luxury life.

Is there any other way? Engaging with the oldest job of human seemed to be the only choice. Fa’s son was very angry, but what could he do? Besides, he had two children, but he was a man of dignity, wasn’t willing to become a cuckoo or a pimple like other similar men did.

He went home alone and had rat poison to kill himself. The rat poison wasn’t strong enough to kill him instantly, instead, it destroyed him gradually. For several days, he lay in his shabby house waiting for death, the pain killed all his flesh and he looked like a living skeleton. He wanted his death to turn his wife a decent woman again.

Though several people called his wife, his wife only showed up on his funeral without tears or regrets. It seemed that she could be relaxed now. Fa’s son just died in vain. What a tragedy it was!