A Tenacious Mother

A Tenacious Mother





Mei was very gloomy because there was no food to fill the children’s bellies. Sometimes she couldn’t even find firewood.



Every year after the harvest the community divided crops. Your share was based on how much work you did. How many days you were in the field and how many people were working in the family. Mei‘s family always got the least because only Shun was working. One person to feed four mouths. Their life was extremely harsh.



Even though life was very hard Mei got pregnant a third time. Mei had to hide the fact that she was pregnant because she was only allowed to have two children. She was terrified of the consequences of not abiding by” Ji hua shenf yu”



In the fifth year of their marriage there was a third baby. This time the baby was a big healthy boy. At last the burden of having a son had now been lifted.



The baby was named Hai. There were now three babies. The oldest was Ying who was three years old. The next was Hua, one year old and then there was Hai.



Mei couldn’t hide the baby anymore. It was always crying and could be heard and seen.

So the “Ji hua sheng yu” officers come to the village. The commune officials had to help the “ji hua sheng yu” officers. They went to Shun’s home and tried to seize Mei and her baby and take them to Jail. They took all the furniture and everything value.



It was normal for the mothers to go to jail. It was usual for the baby to be taken away. What happened to the baby was a mystery. No one new if the baby was taken away and given to other people of whether is was killed. It was rumored that officials would sometimes drown the baby.



The husband would have to find money to organize bail for the wife.

After they took all your valuables, officials would pull down your house so you had no place to live.



The officers came to Shun’s home and asked for a fine 960 yuan. Shun only earned 24 cents for working all day.



In this kind of situation Shun and Mei were terrified. They knew what would happen. In the middle of the night Shun and Mei Ran away. They disappeared when no one could see them. They found they had nowhere to run. What could they do? Where could they go with three babies?



If they went to Mei’s mother’s home the officials would be waiting. They had been to the village of Mei’s mother and told the village officials to seize them if they appeared. This possible escape route had been cut off.



Then where? No where! And then it began snow. The new baby was only Seven days old. The oldest child had trousers were much too short. They have no money to buy new pants for their little girl. So half her legs were outside her trousers. Her legs changed to purple color because of the cold.



The snow got worse and worse, the wind was so strong it cut like a knife. It was razor sharp on their faces.



How could they find a place to escape from the snow? If they didn’t find shelter they would be frozen into blocks of ice.



They continued walking in the snow. They eventually saw a bridge over a river. They scurried under the bridge and hid there.



“The baby is hungry now. Give some milk to the baby.” Shun said to Mei and handed child to Mei.


Mei put down her Hua and held the baby boy.



Then Shun picked up the second daughter and held her close to keep them both warm.



Mei turned so that the baby was sheltered from the wind and the snow. She fed her son. Mei looked at the second baby shaking with cold against her father’s chest. Tears came to her eyes. The second baby had only received mother’s milk for six months when mei had become pregnant again. So little child had nothing to eat since then except flourier porridge. Occasionally it had a little sugary water in the place of real food.



The baby had been a big health child with fat cheeks. But when milk had stopped. She had become very thin. Her face had become like an old lady’s. The skin was very loose and wrinkled because the child had lost weight. Her cherubic face had become thin and gaunt. This child was always sick.



That night had been very had as they trudging through the snow in the middle of winter. It was freezing and windy. The second daughter contracted a fever.



For more than seven hours while they were walking the family had not to eaten. If this continued, Hua’s life would be in jeopardy. Mei thought the child would not survive. She would die.



The oldest daughter sat against her mother’s leg on the ground and said feebly:” Mum , I ‘m cold.”



It looked like the snow would never stop. Where could they find food to eat? Mei looked at her children suffering in the cold and harsh conations. They are starving and freezing. Her husband looked distresses like a lost dog. He looked like a miserable puppy with no idea what to do or where to go. Shun forgot about his violence and he pitifully whined:

“God doesn’t want us to survive.”

Shun repeated

“God doesn’t want us to survive.”

Mei felt bitter inside. She knew she couldn’t rely on her husband. What would they do now? Mei heard it said that China was boundless. Why was there nowhere to go in this vast country? Why couldn’t they find somewhere to escape? They needed to find something to eat. They needed some food for the children.



Right then Mei suddenly remembered that at home they had a half yam bread. She felt regret that she hadn’t taken the yam bread with her.



The eldest child began to doze while sitting next to mei’s leg. She was shaking from the cold even in her sleep. Mei thought about what to do. She said to her husband:” Right now we only have two options. The first is taking the children and go to NE China near Russia. We will have to beg for food all the way, our children are very young and we don’t know if they can survive the weather and be without shelter. We ran away because of the children. If they children can’t survive, what are we doing for?

Another option is to go back home. It doesn’t matter if the” Ji hua sheng yu” Or the commune officers punish us. If we can keep the children it doesn’t matter. They can’t shoot us. If we can keep the children; that’s all that matters. We have nothing to lose. It is better we go home then to the NE. maybe the children will not survive in the difficult journey. I think we should just go back home.”



After Mei had finished talking. Shun said:



“But the officers will not let us survive.”



Shun was cowering in the black recesses of the corner under the bridge. He hugged the second daughter to his chest and shrank into the darkness as he was talking.

Mei said;” I know it will be difficult, but we don’t want our children to die from the cold or from the starvation. All that matters is that our children survive and that we can keep them and that they are not taken away by the government officials.” Mei did her best to encourage her husband.



“Alright, let’s go then.” Shun said.

Mei said” Come on then. You carry two little children and I will take the oldest daughter. We can swap later.”



Mei knew she had to carry her oldest child ad she was freezing, tried and weak with the hunger. They climbed up onto the bridge and headed back in the snow. They trudged along laboriously.



Finally they returned to their village. Life continued as before. But something had changed. The officials came to their home almost immediately and demanded they pay the fine.Mei didn’t argue with the officials. She had only one thought that dominated her every moment---nobody was going to take her children away from her. The officials left because they knew they were wasting their time.



Few days later Shun finished work at dinner time and demanded of Mei.



“Get me a bowl of water.”



Shun was then silent for a long time. Occasionally he opened his mouth as if to speak but nothing comes out. Finally he said:



“Somebody has told me that a family from another village had third baby and that baby has been taken away.”



Shun stopped talking. He hesitated. Then he started again.



“The officers got help from the local police. At night they had taken the baby and the mother away. The mother came back after three days but the baby had never returned. The mother had been paralyzed from the torture although she was still conscious. She had returned home and stared looking for her baby. But of course she could not find it. Eventually she went insane with despair.”



Mei was sitting on the bed that was made from mud bricks, nursing the youngest child. She couldn’t say anything. She was shocked with the information that Shun had given her.



She sat silently for a long, long time. She was speechless”. Eventually she said:



“Don’t worry. We will block the door. No one will be able to come in during the day time. At night we will bring the shovel and the axe and out them near the bed. If anyone comes in during the night, we will kill them.”



Shun finished his dinner and then said to Mei:



“I will look after the children. You have your meal.”



The two daughters were asleep. She put them on the bed and pulled the blanket up to keep them warm and safe. She went to have her meal. Her hands were trembling with fear and tears were drop into her bowl.



It was time for the Spring Festival.( Village people call” NEW YEAR”) There were a lot of people in Shun’s old broken house. The villagers wanted to see the fun. The officials had come to ask for money. The villages knew that the officials would find nothing and they wanted to see what would happen.



One if the officials said;

“You have to pay the fine 960 yuan before 23th of December. If you don’t pay the fine, we will pull down your house.”



Mei looked at her husband who was squatting in the corner with his head bowed. She knew that she would have to deal with the officials. She said:



“You are an officer. You get paid a salary by the government. We are simple villages. We earn a little food through hard work laboring in the fields. It is worse in our home because there five people to feed but only one person can work. We don’t have any money. How can we pay the fine? 960Yuan! A high skilled carpenter can only earn 28 cents a day. Shun is a simple laborer. We can never have never pay this fine. You can see that we don’t have the money.”



Zheng shu li was a high ranking officer in the “Ji hua sheng yu”office. He was very angry. He slammed his fist on the table in Shun’s house. He Said:



“We don’t care if you have the money or not. We don’t care if you are starving. You have broken the law. This is all that matters. If you go out stealing, looting or killing people to get the money; we don’t care. We just want the money. It doesn’t matter to us where the money comes from. But you must pay the fine. If you don’t we will pull down your house. Everybody else will celebrate the New Year but you will be starving. You face famine and despair.”



The villagers were watching this happen. They showed no sympathy. They all had come to watch. Life was generally very boring and difficult. Life was just surviving; working and surviving. This incident was something different. It would keep them entertained for a short time. It would help them keep their minds off their hungry bellies.



While they were watching some of villagers thought to themselves



“What is going to happen now?”



They new that in the past Shun had always been violent and aggressive. They watched with bated breath. Many of them gloated over the family’s misfortune.

They knew it was obvious that Shun couldn’t pay the fine. Nobody in the village could pay this mount money. Let alone the hapless Shun.



Mei screamed at Zheng shu li:



“Are you a government official? If you are then what you have just said is encouraging. We never knew that we could do these things before------Stealing, looting and killing. If you only care about the money and don’t care where the money comes from then that is good. I will discuss this with my husband. Maybe tonight we will go to your home; stealing and looting from you. If anybody tries to stop us we will kill them. Tomorrow morning we will pay the fine. What do you think?”



Zheng shu li said;



“Why do you talk like this?”



Mei Replied;



“You are pushing us down this road and we have nowhere to turn.”



Zheng shu li became extremely upset and angry;



“You are completely lawless!”



He was shaking his fist and had lost his dignity. It was not right that a woman should talk to him in this way.



Mei said:



“What? Completely lawless! If you push a rabbit too much then the rabbit will bite you. We are people and you have push us into a dead end. Today, you officials and villagers, I will give my word here. If anyone tries to tyrannize us, to remove our children or burn down our house, my husband will kill them. We have got nothing to lose. If you don’t believe me then I dare you to try. Everybody knows my husband is called” Half baked”. I don’t have to remind you of this. You know he would do what we have to do, even kill someone.”



During that time Mei looked out the window and she saw that officials had brought trucks and ropes to pull down the house. The rope had already been attached. She knew that just one word from the officials would result in their house being destroyed.



Mei got even angrier. She screamed at her husband;



“Get Up! Don’t squat there! Pick up the metal bar and go guard the door. If we get killed inside our house it doesn’t matter! There are villagers and officials inside woith us. If the house gets pull down we will all die together.”



So Shun picked up the bar, closed the door and stood on guard. No one could get out.



Zheng shu li became dejected. He knew that Mei would not give up. He knew that he could not win as Mei had nothing to lose. He walked away with other officials following behind him. The villagers were shocked. They never thought that Mei , A woman, would ever have the courage to stand up to the officials like this.



The villagers became wary of Mei and Shun. They knew that she would stand up and fight for her children and her property. They knew that Mei and Shun were capable of revenge. They would show more respect for them in the future.