I am not Ximen Qing.

The mountain forest farm is always bustling with activity. Being able to come to Dahe Forest Farm is, at least for now, a blessing earned through several lifetimes of good deeds. There's wine to drink and a place to stay. When you're craving something, you can go up the mountain to catch a pheasant or a rabbit. The weather is so cold that roe deer often rush into homes and jump onto the heated kang (a traditional heated brick bed) for warmth. This is a common occurrence in every household in the forest farm.

Honglin and Jinyu's new neighbors are the elderly Lao Liang and his bullied wife. They have two sons, both around thirteen or fourteen years old. This couple, in their forties or fifties, seem to have lived in the primeval red pine forest of Dahe Forest Farm since the time of Zhang Zuolin's Northeast Army and the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. It's a miracle they survived. How could the Japanese let the reclusive Lao Liang family go? Anyway, Lao Liang has become a worker, and his household registration clearly shows his class background: poor peasant of the lower-middle peasant class, definitely oppressed and exploited, a pure and upright proletarian, no problem. Ma Luozi is now the commander of the armed forces in Dahe Forest Farm, while Lin Jingtai is the deputy commander of the armed forces department. They've also suspected Lao Liang's past... his mysterious background in the deep mountains and forests. Lao Liang even has a bit of the evil look in his eyes, like the bandit leader from the novel "The Forest of Snowy Plains." Thinking back, the mountains and forests of Northeast China were once the domain of bandits and outlaws.

Lin Jingtai and Ma Luozi remained vigilant, determined not to let a single bad person escape or wrong an innocent one. They knew that far too many spies had been hiding since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Don't underestimate the role of the militia; they were capable militiamen, especially in tough battles. The Dahe Forest Farm treated its militiamen very well; they served as the farm's New Year's celebration guard. Lin Jingtai's greatest pleasure was standing in formation with the militiamen at midnight on New Year's Eve, hands clasped in their Type 564 automatic rifles. As Lin Jingtai fired three consecutive shots into the night sky, three streaks of red, green, and more green lights flashed across the sky above the Dahe Forest Farm, under the watchful eyes of the stars and the pristine white snow. The shooting range on the front mountain began its shooting practice. Then, a cacophony of cannon fire erupted from the Dahe Forest Farm, marking the start of the New Year. Old Liang hated the New Year's shooting practice the most. He was held in his wife's arms like a child. "Don't be afraid, Old Liang," she said, "that's just the militia's shooting practice."

"What are you afraid of, Mom and Dad? Fifth Brother and I will go to the riverbank to collect spent bullet casings and make homemade cannons."

"Go to hell, you son of a bitch."

This is Lao Liang's stubborn temper towards his two sons. He's never been nice to them since they were little, but both sons still managed to graduate from primary school in the forest farm.

"Why is Lao Liang getting angry with his son? Our fifth son will be a militiaman in the future too."

"If you're going to join the militia, join the army."

"Old Liang, are you out of your mind? Get out of my way. You've finally said something sensible. Lao Wu is in excellent health. If you have the chance to talk to Ma Luozi, could you let Lao Wu participate in the militia training as well?"

During the New Year in Dahe Forest Farm, bright red lanterns are hung high. People from all over the country, both inside and outside the pass, will carve an ice hole in the ice of the Dahe River or make an ice lantern, put red candles inside, and light red candles throughout the mountains and valleys of Dahe Forest Farm. The several meters of snow on the mountains provide enough space to hold the lit red candles. Every household hangs their lanterns high. Before the New Year, a thin wooden pole is erected in front of the house. The pole is made from a tall, thin red pine tree felled from the mountains. Red lanterns with lit red candles are placed inside the pole and hung at the top. The bright red lanterns hang high in the sky. Hundreds of red lanterns from each household are suspended in the air until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. The so-called Lantern Festival celebrations in Dahe Forest Farm involve every household hanging up big red lanterns. There are also ice lanterns for several kilometers along the river on the mountain, which is covered with a thick layer of ice. Children would carry small lanterns from night to visit their neighbors and offer New Year's greetings. Each child would carry a small stool to offer New Year's greetings, kowtow, and ask for lucky money.

The New Year is the best time for pregnant women to nourish their unborn babies. Jin Yu is pregnant, Lin Jingtai's wife is pregnant, as are Ma Luozi, Zhang Qinghua, and Li Beiba's wives. Influenced by the marriage trend in Dahe Forest Farm, almost all the women who get married and have children are pregnant, especially the newlyweds who were allocated houses in the large dormitory and the young and beautiful wives.

Old Liang's wife also started to feel envious. The young wives in the neighborhood were so vibrant and energetic, and their two sons were such a nuisance, leaving Old Liang and his wife no space to have children. What to do? Old Liang had a brilliant idea: he cleared a large plot of land on the hillside and planted beans, corn, and the like. This was his wildly imaginative plan. His wife, envious of the newlyweds' bellies, wanted to compete with them in having children. So, Old Liang made a bold decision and added a small outbuilding to one side of the family housing for his two sons. This was a stroke of luck for Old Liang when he drew the numbers; the housing building had five households, three in the middle and two at the ends. Building a small outbuilding was a piece of cake for him, someone with years of experience traversing mountains and venturing into the wilderness. Indeed, Old Liang was a seasoned veteran, a cunning old fox, who had worked as a bandit and a shady character.

Actually, this man knew the Dahe Forest Farm best. He never dreamed that it would suddenly and miraculously destroy his secluded paradise, Old Liang's paradise. Living in constant fear, he was grateful that the deep forest had covered up his past; this was the beauty of the forest—not a Liangshan bandit stronghold, but a chance for Old Liang's self-redemption. His wife knew what Old Liang feared: if Lin Jingtai and Ma Luozi knew he had been a bandit in the past, Old Liang would surely be in serious trouble. Old Liang mocked his wife's dream of having a daughter, but to satisfy her vanity, it didn't matter. Like a young man who had never seen a woman before, he and his wife worked tirelessly day and night to conceive. His two sons were exiled to a cold, remote house. He wanted them to experience the hardships their father had endured in the deep forest; living in a remote house was like paradise on earth. As his wife wished, she became pregnant. She was pregnant and could give birth alongside these young wives from the Dahe Forest Farm. This was the most glorious moment of Old Liang's life.

"Old Liang, do you think the neighbor's family will have a son or a daughter?"

"what?"

"I wish we could have a daughter, and the neighbor could have a son. Wouldn't it be wonderful if our daughter married the neighbor's son in the future?"

"Good my foot! That Zhang Honglin has never even given me a second glance."

"He's more than twenty years younger than you."

"No, we need to let the fifth brother build up his courage."

"You're doing it again."

"What's wrong with you? A man can't be a soldier if he doesn't have the guts."

"What do you want Xiao Wu to do?"

"They burned Zhang Honglin's woodpile."

"you dare!"

Why wouldn't I dare?

"Let me tell you, Lao Liang, Guo Baoshan's nephew is the director of the Public Security Bureau."

"Wife, you're the best."

Old Liang was right to listen to his wife's advice. He didn't care about Guo Jinyu and Zhang Honglin's background. Just those two annoying girls, Jinshui and Jingou, were enough to bring down Old Liang's house, not to mention Guo Jinyu's Jinhua sisters.

Li Jingshan still preferred to eat the wild mountain girls growing in the production team's fields. In Northeast China, especially in the Dahe Forest Farm, the wild mountain girls were a wild and alluring sight. They represented passionate love even more than Syrian roses. Because of the legends of man-eating wolves and dogs, almost no one dared to go to the production team's fields to pick them, which gave the mountain girls the opportunity to grow. Jin Yu also liked to eat the mountain girls because they had a sweet and sour taste with a hint of bitterness. They could be steeped in water or chewed, slowly savoring the sweet taste of love. In the autumn harvest season, Jin Yu would go to the production team's fields to pick several baskets of mountain girls, string them together with thin red thread, and hang them under the eaves, enough to last all winter.

Brother-in-law Li Jingshan adores mountain girls. He's a complete doting father, constantly consuming them because the old Chinese medicine doctor said that eating mountain girls is essential for having daughters, and since Li Jingshan is destined to have sons, this frightens him. So he frequently writes to his brother-in-law Honglin in the forest farm, hoping Honglin can paint some oil paintings of mountain girls for him. Eating mountain girls can be addictive, just like eating dog meat, and even eating boiled pork hotpot can make you fall in love with the natural pickled cabbage from Dahe Forest Farm. Of course, there are also some Korean villages not far from Dahe Forest Farm, where the Koreans magically create kimchi using large radishes and cabbages. But Zhang Honglin doesn't like sweet kimchi; he prefers Jinyu's boiled pork hotpot with pickled cabbage. Jinyu respects Li Jingshan quite a bit, giving all the mountain girls she picked from the production team to her older sister's family in the city. Because her older sister, Hongyu, was an admirer of Li Jingshan, she had received many scoldings and criticisms from him since her son, Li Xian, was born. He complained that Li Xian was lazy and greedy, unlike anyone else in the Li family. Hongyu immediately retorted, "He's not like anyone else in the Zhang family either!" Indeed, Li Jingshan thought his brother-in-law's oil paintings were practically indistinguishable from Picasso and Van Gogh, especially his sunflower painting, which was quite impressive, and he didn't follow the red flag or profit. Li Jingshan was still obsessed with medicine, which made him feel that Li Xian's disgusting personality—so young yet so capable of shaping the future—was difficult to manage. Suddenly, he remembered Huang Yumin, Li Xian and Huang Yumin. He remembered, at the wedding held in the large canteen, Huang Yumin... Suddenly, Li Jingshan said, "Hongyu, our son looks so much like your uncle, Huang Yumin."

"Nonsense, are you out of your mind?"

"Hongyu, you seem to be..."

"I'm sorry, Jingshan, please forgive me for not daring to do it again next time. But Li Xian is also your son. You have to believe me, I'm pregnant too."

"What? Really! That's wonderful! It's all thanks to the girl for bringing us good luck. Guo Jinyu is a really nice person."

"What's so good about him? He has such a bad temper that my uncle can hardly stay in the production team anymore."

"Isn't it good enough?"

"Well, it's all my uncle's fault. Jin Yu caught her red-handed with Widow Li when she went to pick wild mountain girls."

That's right, Guo Jinyu chased Huang Yumin away because Huang Yumin was having an affair with Widow Li in the production team's dormitory. However, this also saved Huang Yumin; otherwise, even bigger trouble would have occurred. In those days, issues involving relationships between men and women could lead to serious problems.

How far along are you in your pregnancy?

"I won't tell you..." Actually, the second sister in the bureau, Hongying, is also pregnant. It's a competition of giving birth both inside and outside the mountains. Work, childbirth, raising children—this is part of the cycle of cause and effect in nature. Li Jingshan suddenly decided to visit his brother-in-law in the spring, actually because he wanted to eat the frogs that ran from the river to the mountains. He kept saying he loved the mountains and rivers of Dahe Forest Farm, but it would be more accurate to say he loved the frogs of Dahe Forest Farm. His craving was irresistible. Hongyu also knew that there weren't many things that Li Jingshan would fancy or covet. He loved his brother-in-law's paintings and the forest farm where his brother-in-law lived, but he didn't like the second sister's house in the bureau at all, his maternal home in the valley of Dataizi.

Back at the bureau, Huang Yumin went to Huang Yuhuan and then to Huang Yupei to complain bitterly about his nephew Zhang Honglin being a weak man. His eldest sister's daughter-in-law was a shrew. Zhang Honglin was strictly controlled by Guo Baoshan's family and his two brothers-in-law—a typical henpecked husband. Huang Yumin also grumbled to his sisters that he, being unmarried, had the freedom to pursue love. His lover was a childless widow; couldn't a bachelor and a widow sleep together? Huang Yumin said this was the karmic retribution for his amorous nature. He planned to return to the Yalu River to burn incense and paper money for his parents and Guilan, praying for a peaceful death in this mortal world.

"Yumin, are you still thinking about your parents? Their graves have been replaced by high-rise buildings, and Guilan's grave is gone too."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Huang Yumin, this is my last little something for you. Take it and exchange it for money."

"Sister, I wouldn't dare, I absolutely wouldn't dare."

"Oh, don't worry, little brother, is it not enough for your sister to prove it?"

According to Huang Yumin, having an older sister is great; he still eats and drinks from her, and she even gave him a gold ring to exchange for money. Actually, the sisters had no other choice; each family had many children and was struggling financially. This precious treasure, they said, was only given to Huang Yumin because he was their parents' last remaining child; they couldn't just watch their brother go through such a hard time, could they? This incident made Huang Yupei harbor some resentment towards Guo Jinyu, a knot in her heart she couldn't untie. Guo Jinyu was too naive, thinking that a little temper tantrum was nothing. Even if Huang Yumin wanted to steal food, he was still Zhang Honglin's maternal uncle. His uncle never let him sleep in the house, always forcing him to sleep in the storeroom. So Zhang Honglin and Guo Jinyu got into a fight, almost alarming Secretary Zhang and Director Qiao of the forest farm, as well as the children of Guo Baoshan, who all rushed over to teach the painter and artist of Dahe Forest Farm a lesson. However, their neighbor, Old Liang, finally understood that his idea of ​​suppressing his neighbor's arrogance was unrealistic. The fight resulted in the smashing of a large water vat, a large iron pot on the kitchen stove, other basins, plates, bowls, a large tea mug, Jingdezhen blue and white porcelain, window glass, and a large grandfather clock—all smashed to pieces. In this respect, Pearl was farsighted; a couple living together can't always be polite and courteous, arguments are inevitable. But Guo Jinyu's fiery temper exceeded the bounds of humanity. Even though they smashed almost everything in the house, it didn't matter. The next day, they went to the forestry station's materials clerk and the department store at Dahe Forestry Station. Out with the old, in with the new. The neighbors all said Zhang Honglin and Guo Jinyu were too wasteful.

However, those people are well-off; they can easily buy new clothes and reconcile. That's nothing. But what about Pan Qinmei and his wife Sai Tiehua, who lived in the same building as Lin Jingtai, just one house away, crying and wailing about divorce? In these days, infidelity and extramarital affairs are unforgivable. This completely erased the quarrel between Guo Jinyu and Zhang Honglin, no longer a topic of ridicule among the hundreds of families in the forest farm. Compared to marital disputes, divorce is no different from extramarital affairs. The whole Dahe Forest Farm knew that the tall Pan Qinmei and his wife Sai Tiehua, the factory's beauty, were going through a divorce. Pan Qinmei was a contemptible fellow, only liking Secretary Zhang and Director Qiao. Pan Qinmei's greatest skill was that divorce was divorce, and work was work; he always knew that work was the most important thing. Now Pan Qinmei was the factory's materials clerk, and no one dared to laugh at his divorce farce anymore, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to get the materials, and in the deep mountains and forests, he couldn't do anything.

Whenever Guo Jinyu is angry, she thinks of the pair of gold rings her mother-in-law promised her. Zhang Honglin, however, calmly criticizes Guo Jinyu for being pretentious and obsessed with saving face. He, Zhang Honglin, will snatch the gold rings without any hesitation, and Guo Jinyu will curse him for talking nonsense. Meanwhile, her brother-in-law, under the guise of saving the souls of artists and painters, visits the Dahe Forest Farm.

What was the second brother-in-law's pretext? Whether it was inspecting the forest farm or going down to investigate, he actually loved drinking the homemade baijiu and red sorghum liquor from the Dahe Forest Farm, especially in the spring when frogs came ashore. Zhang Honglin knew his brother-in-law's purpose, so he collected a sack of frogs and stewed them with vermicelli. The eldest brother-in-law didn't drink, but the second brother-in-law and his brother-in-law ate the frogs, undoubtedly enjoying the best tonic. Collecting frogs with a lantern during heavy rains was the eldest brother-in-law's favorite activity. Staying at his brother-in-law's house for a few days could replenish his energy for a year. Whenever the eldest brother-in-law came, the second brother-in-law would urge him to invite Jinshui and Jingou over to eat and drink with him. Then the eldest brother-in-law would suggest a sketching session, asking Zhang Honglin to paint a few pictures to take away. Of course, the eldest brother-in-law would use this as an excuse to elevate his brother-in-law's status in Guo Jinyu's heart.

“Sister-in-law, you are with a great artist, he has great talent.”

"Brother-in-law, I don't care about grand gestures or anything like that, but you can't have affairs."

“Honglin, no, I can’t have such a good wife like you.”

"It's my uncle."

"Uncle, she's not married yet."

"I do not care."

"Alright, alright, this is Honglin's painting. Someone gave me some creative funding because they like it. I'm keeping it for my younger siblings."

To what extent does Li Jingshan favor daughters over sons? He would never allow Zhang Hongyu to take Li Xian to the Dahe Forest Farm to eat frogs, because Li Xian must grow up in a harsh environment; this child has a tickle that will offend his parents. Hongyu complained to her mother and younger sister Hongying, and suddenly had a wild idea: if her sister gave birth to a daughter, it would be best if she could marry Li Xian. This terrified Hongying; it was incestuous marriage, and the offspring would either be mentally challenged or physically disabled. For some reason, Li Jingshan loved the Dahe Forest Farm, its vast forests, and the river teeming with fish and shrimp even more.