Memoirs of Growing up in China – A Story About My Exile to My Mother’s Hometown Part 3 //中国回忆录 --关于我被放逐到妈妈的老家的故事 第三部分

Hi, Steemit friends. I hope you continue to enjoy reading my stories of growing up in China.

Stemmit的朋友们，你们好！我希望你们继续喜欢阅读有关我在中国的成长经历的故事。

After a couple of weeks of relocating in Neijiang, I started to get used to living with San Niang. San Niang was a tiny woman with a gentle and kind face. She talked softly with her strong Neijiang dialect. Every morning, she would help me wash my face and brush my teeth. She would sit me down on the long bench and start combing and braiding my hair standing behind me. Her hands were gentle and I liked the feeling of her hands touching my hair. San Niang was a peddler who sold small household items such as needles and threads. Every morning she pushed a small cart filled with household items to the market at the center of the town and I would accompany her.

San Niang was very poor and we hardly had any meat to eat. Sweet potatoes were the staple and I sometimes would go with my cousin Mao Mao and other children in our neighborhood to dig sweet potatoes in the field. Once I begged San Niang to buy me some candies in the market since I had not had candies for a very long time and I was craving for sweets. She told me that we needed a special coupon to buy candies. I told her to get that special coupon but she replied that the special coupon was huge and heavy and it was buried at the bottom of her big trunk and she could not get it out. Her answer stopped me from insisting more.

One of San Niang’s neighbors in the quadrangle made a living by shelling peanuts. She sometimes would bring home big bagful of peanuts to shell. Many times I would sit with her and help her shelling the peanuts. She made me promise never to eat any of the peanut I helped shelling. I always restrain myself from eating the peanuts. One day, San Niang’s oldest son An Bang came home from the countryside to visit his mother. Shortly after he came home, I heard him yelling loudly at San Niang. I was sitting with the neighbor shelling the peanuts in the courtyard. I saw An Bang rushed out of the room angrily and San Niang ran after him. San Niang did not come home for a long time and I became very worried and scared and I started to cry. The neighbor was very kind to me. She took my hand and walked a long way with me to find my San Niang in the town. I was sobbing all the way. The neighbor later saw that I still had a peanut in my hand and she gently told me that I could go ahead and eat it. That was the first and only peanut I ever ate from files of peanuts I helped her shelling.

I stayed with San Niang for almost a year. During this time, San Niang never said anything about my family in Chengdu. One day, a visitor came to San Niang’s home to see me. I had never met her before. San Niang told me to call her Jia Ming Jie (Sister Jia Ming). It turned out that Jia Ming was my mother’s niece, (her sister’s oldest daughter). Jia Ming was seventeen and she was a sent-down-youth living and working in the countryside of Neijiang. When my mother’s sister, my Da Niang (Big Aunt) who lived in Chongqing learned from my mother that I was in Neijiang, she asked her daughter Jia Ming to go to town to visit me. Jia Ming bought me candies as well as an orange whistle shaped like a boat. The candies and the toy as well as the attention from Jia Ming made me attached to her right away. By the time Jia Ming had to return to the countryside, I begged her to take me with her. She told me she was not able to since where she lived, there was no electricity and people could only use kerosene lamp for light at night. Besides she would not be able to take care of a child as a sent-down-youth. After Jia Ming returned to the countryside, she wrote a letter to her mother reporting my condition. I did not know what she wrote, I only knew that after reading her daughter’s letter, my Big Aunt immediately wrote a letter to my mother in Chengdu and urged her to go to Neijiang and fetch me right away.

I still remember the day when my mother came to Neijiang to pick me up. I was peeling a raw sweet potato with a huge kitchen knife in the kitchen right outside of San Niang’s room. I saw a strange woman entered the gate of the quadrangle. She walked toward me with her arms stretched out and called out “San Mei” (Number Three Sister) which was what I was called all my childhood. I did not go to her at first because I had completely forgot who my mother was. During the exile of almost a year, I had completely blocked the memories of my family in Chengdu and did not even recognize my mother when she came to me. Later on my mother held me close and was very dear to me. I shared the big bed with my mother that night. I remember being very shy but happy.

My mother spent another two days visiting some relatives in Neijiang with San Niang and then returned Chengdu with me. This ended my one year exile at my mother’s hometown.

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A picture of me and my mother taken at home in Chengdu before I was sent to live with my San Niang in Neijiang.
我和妈妈在成都家里的留影。照于我和三孃去内江前。

A Picture of my mother, my grandmother, my Big Aunt “Da Niang” and her family. The child next to my mother was my cousin Jia Ming.
我妈妈，外婆和大孃一家人。站在我妈妈旁边的孩子是我表姐嘉明姐。

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我到内江两周后开始习惯了和三孃一起生活。三孃是一个矮小的妇女，有一张慈善的面孔。她带着浓浓的内江方言口音轻言细语地跟我说话。每天早上她帮我洗脸和刷牙，然后让我坐在长凳上，她站在我身后给我梳头扎辫子。她的手很轻，我喜欢她给我梳头时的感觉。三孃是一个小摊贩，卖一些简单的比如针线之类的生活小用品。她每天早上推一个小车到镇中心的市场去卖，我会陪她一起去。

三孃家很贫穷，我们几乎没有肉吃。红薯是我们的主食。有时候我和表哥毛毛，还有邻居几个孩子们一起去外面的田里挖红薯。有一次我求三孃给我买集市上的糖果，我已经很长时间没有吃到糖了，嘴很馋。三孃告诉我说买糖果需要一张特别的糖票。我说那你就用那张糖票给我买呀。三孃回答说那张特别的糖票又大又重，被埋在了她箱子的最底下，她拿不出来。听了她的话后我就没有再坚持要她买糖了。

三孃所在四合院里有一个邻居靠剥花生壳为生。她经常把一大袋带壳花生带回家来剥。许多次我坐在小凳子上帮她剥花生，她要我保证不能吃剥好的花生米。我就一直克制自己，从来不随便吃一颗花生。有一天，三孃的大儿子安邦从农村回家探亲，我正好和那位邻居一起在剥花生。安邦刚进家不久，我就听见他高声跟三孃说话。过了一会，我看见他气冲冲地从屋子里跑出来，三孃跟在他后面试图想追到他。他们俩离开院子后很久三孃都没有回家，我开始感到担心和害怕，就开始哭起来。那位邻居对我很好，她牵着我的手带我去镇上找我三孃，我一边走一边哭。邻居后来发现我手里还握着一颗剥好的花生，她轻轻地对我说我可以把那颗花生吃了。这是我帮她剥了许多花生后的第一次和唯一一次吃花生。

我在三孃那里住了快一年。在此期间，三孃从来没有提到过我在成都的家人。有一天，三孃家来了一个客人，是来看我的。我从来没有见过这个人。三孃让我叫这个客人“嘉明姐”。原来，嘉明是我妈妈在重庆的姐姐（我大孃）的大女儿。她当时十七岁，在内江农村当知青。当我大孃从我妈妈那里得知我在内江三孃家时，她就写信给嘉明，要她去镇上三孃家看望我。嘉明姐给我带来了糖果和一个金黄色的形状像一条船的玩具口哨。我很快与嘉明姐亲近起来，当她要离开时我就开始求她带我一起走。她告诉我说她所在的农村没有电灯，晚上只有点煤油灯，况且她是一个知青，没有办法带一个小孩子。嘉明姐回到农村后马上给她妈妈写了信，报告我的情况。我不知道她在信里写了什么。我只知道我大孃读到她的信后马上给我在成都的妈妈写了信，叫她立马去内江把我接回家。

我至今还记得我妈妈去内江接我的情景。我站在三孃屋外的厨房里，手里正拿着一把很大的菜刀在削一个生红薯，我看见一个陌生的女人从外面走进四合院，她看见我时伸出双臂叫到：“三妹！”（这是我童年时的小名），但我没有走近她，因为我已经忘了我妈妈是什么模样的了。在这快一年的放逐期间，我干干净净地抹去了我在成都的家人的一切记忆！在我妈妈来接我时我已经不认识她了。妈妈走过来抱住了我，对我很亲热。那天晚上我和妈妈一起睡在大床上。我感到有些害羞，但很开心。

我妈妈在内江呆了两天，和三孃一切去看望了几个亲戚。然后带着我回到了成都，我因此结束了在妈妈老家快一年的放逐生活。