There is also spring for passers-by

Hua Yang's mother is a military medical worker and his father is a soldier.

My grandfather was once the deputy commander of the Northern Military Region. When my grandmother Ji Meiyun was labeled a rightist, they broke off relations with her in order to avoid being implicated.

My grandparents are no longer husband and wife. They divorced and broke off their relationship and he remarried soon after.

In order to protect themselves, my uncle Liu Yuanchao and my mother Liu Kangmei followed my grandfather's lead and published an announcement in the newspaper to sever ties with my grandmother.

Hua Yang was only nine years old at the time. Her parents weren't happy about her birth, as she had two older brothers and a sister. Even her grandmother disliked her. When she was just one month old, her mother, Liu Kangmei, sent her to Beijing to be raised by her grandmother. "Mom, my mother-in-law had to take care of the three children at home. Hua Hua was a premature baby, and her grandmother had to take care of her, cook, and wash for Hua Song and Hua Bai. She really couldn't take care of this little one."

Liu Kangmei didn't wait for her grandmother to refuse. She went to her grandmother's house in Beijing in the morning, had lunch, and then took the train back to the southern island.

Because of the influence of her family, Hua Yang has had a great interest in dancing since she was a child, and she even has a talent for dancing. When she first learned to walk, she would raise her hands and wave them like the actors in her grandmother's troupe, and move her little feet along with them. She would often fall down because of the movement, but would cry for a while and get up again, and would continue to do so.

Ji Meiyu discovered that her granddaughter had a deep interest in dancing, which gave her hope of inheriting her legacy. In the days to come, she will devote herself to cultivating Hua Yang.

Hua Yang has been performing in song and dance troupes since she was three years old. She was also loaned out to drama troupes for plays, playing the roles of a newspaper boy and a young messenger. She has also played roles in films, making her a child star. Her biggest dream is to grow up to be a famous dancer like her grandmother.

My grandmother once said that it is difficult for domestic dancers to gain recognition from the international art world. She has never won an international award in her life. She hopes that her granddaughter can become an internationally recognized dancer when she grows up.

However, when Hua Yang was ten years old, her grandmother was framed by bad people, labeled a rightist, and locked up in a cowshed. She was also taken back to the southern island by her parents.

At that time, Hua Yang didn't quite understand. How could such a good person as grandma be a bad person? Why did everyone say that grandma was bad? Grandpa didn't want grandma anymore, and his uncle and mother didn't want her either.

She told her mother: "You don't want grandma, but I do. I will always want my grandma."

Liu Kangmei slapped her twice hard.

Hua Hua's face was filled with worry. In her softest voice, she said the most ruthless words, "Mom, Ji Meiyun is a rightist. We can't do the dances she choreographed anymore. Yesterday, I saw Hua Yang dancing a dance choreographed by a rightist. Will anyone see us?"

Liu Kangmei ordered her little daughter, "Do you hear me? No more dancing! If you continue dancing, it will harm the whole family."

Hua Yang didn't understand why she couldn't dance anymore. She liked dancing and her grandmother also liked teaching people to dance. Why couldn't she dance now?

"No dancing, you hear me? If I catch you dancing again, I'll break your legs."

When Hua Yang returned home at the age of ten, she felt completely out of place with her older siblings. Her dancing skills, which had given her a unique aura, had already given her a few film credits, and the children on the island loved playing with her. But even so, Hua Hua was unhappy. Before Hua Yang arrived, she was the most popular girl in school. But after Hua Yang arrived, the children who had always played around her now went to her, and the boys who had given her candy and cookies also flocked to her.

Hua Hua discovered that Hua Yang went to the grove on the island and asked Wang Lei, the son of the island's political commissar, to keep watch for her. She hid in the grove and danced. Wang Lei was fascinated by her dancing and clapped from time to time.

Hua Hua did not tell Liu Kangmei about this matter, but told the political commissar's wife. This woman, who was ignorant of major issues and did not understand art, secretly ran to the woods and was furious when she saw Hua Yang dancing with her son.

She found Liu Kangmei and said that her little daughter was still very young and was not a good student. Her dancing style was very manly. It would be a disaster for her when she grew up if she did such things at such a young age.

How could Liu Kangmei listen to such words? In a rage, she rushed to the woods with a rolling pin and hit Hua Yang fiercely, "How many times have I told you not to dance, not to dance! How many people have lost their lives because of dancing, and you are not allowed to dance! I told you to dance? If you dance, I will break your legs. I can't let your family's life be ruined because of you! How can you be so disobedient? How can you be so disobedient..."

Under his mother's crazy beating, Hua Yang felt a piercing pain in his right leg and fainted.

When she woke up, she was in the island military clinic. A doctor in a white coat told her parents, "Your right leg is broken! Even if it's healed, there will be sequelae."

Liu Kangmei did not feel any guilt. Instead, she said, "Just heal the wound. It's fine now. I don't have to worry anymore."

What made Hua Yang even more desperate was that not long after, she heard Hua Hua, Hua Song, and Hua Bai say: "Ji Meiyun committed suicide by drinking pesticide in a cowshed in the countryside. Alas, a rightist like that, even when she was sent to the hospital, no doctor came to save her. She was already dead..."

Grandma is dead!

She couldn't stand the hardship in the rural cowshed, nor could she stand being dragged out for criticism every few days. She didn't understand why she was also implicated when she just wanted to protect a few of the most talented actors in the troupe.

Between 1977 and 1979, countless highly educated individuals were rehabilitated and returned to work, as were some persecuted artists. But Hua Yang's grandmother never returned. She died in the village where she had been sent to the countryside, wrapped in a mat by kind villagers and left there forever.

In the spring of 1978, the national college entrance examination was resumed.

Hua Yang, whose basic knowledge was poor due to the Ten Years of Movement, was unable to enter university. However, Hua Song and Hua Bai were the least affected. Hua Hua, upon graduating from high school at seventeen, had already joined the army and was admitted to a military academy there; Hua Bai, who had graduated from a local school, was admitted to a normal university and would graduate with honors as a teacher.

Hua Hua, who had always forbidden Hua Yang from dancing, became a female soldier in the Southern Military Region Art Troupe, responsible for art propaganda. Although she failed to get into university, she was doing very well in the art troupe.

It's really funny to say that Hua Hua was able to do well in the Southern Art Troupe because she was the granddaughter of the famous artist Ji Meiyu and was even made one of the mainstays.

Originally, Hua Yang also had the opportunity to join the art troupe, but she had a lame leg and staggered when she walked. Hua Hua was able to join the art troupe because Hua Yang gave her guidance and instruction for six months in order to help her pass the exam.

Hua Hua took a home leave not long ago and said that she had been promoted to deputy company-level cultural cadre. Everyone in the troupe knew that she was Ji Meiyu's granddaughter. She passed the political assessment and would be vigorously cultivated.

What Liu Kangmei said at the time was, she said: "I raised you, and your grandmother has nothing to do with you. You really make your mother proud, you are worthy of being my daughter, Liu Kangmei."