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墨書 Inktalez
Zhu Shan Bay is a place surrounded by mountains. Although the mountains are not very tall, the houses built against them naturally form a courtyard. Due to the proliferation of our clan, we, the descendants of the Long family who have experienced migration, have constructed four or five wooden houses like swallows gathering mud, positioned between the three Liu courtyards of Mao Su Mountain, Shibaochong, and Changtangchong, with our backs against the foot of the mountain and facing the rice fields, creating a branch of our lineage.
Since the late Ming Dynasty, the Long family has been a prominent clan in the area. Our founding ancestors, Guo Xian and his wife, had nine children from one mother. After the late ancestor moved to Jiujiantang, our bloodline has continued for over twenty generations, forming four courtyards: Jiujiantang, New House, Old House, and Zhu Shan Bay.
The Long ancestral hall, built in the late Qing Dynasty and enduring through time, is located amidst fertile land in a rich ridge area. It stands beside an osmanthus tree that has grown for over a hundred years, so large that it takes four or five men to encircle it. This tree symbolizes that this clan and its bloodline will continue to thrive forever.
The establishment of New China brought about many external changes, gradually dismantling our ancestral courtyards. Shortly after the liberation, agricultural cooperatives were formed, followed by the establishment of people's communes and production platoons. During this time, Zhu Shan Bay was incorporated into another platoon, which was named "Great Victory Platoon" to commemorate the arrival of a new era. The remaining three Long family courtyards and their clansmen mostly stayed in Osmanthus Platoon, guarding the large osmanthus tree that had grown alongside the clan.
In this new platoon, the Zhu Shan Bay Production Team was no longer just a settlement for the Long family; three households of the Liu family had also moved in. This change reflected the reality of intermarriage between the two surnames and signaled a significant break from the original clan structure.
The head of the first household was a handsome man. His father, Mr. Wan, was a well-known traditional Chinese medicine practitioner during the Republic of China era, renowned for miles around. His family had practiced medicine for generations, particularly excelling in treating eye diseases, which allowed them to accumulate substantial land and wealth. Before the liberation, my grandfather's generation had been tenants on their land. Under the wheels of historical change, their house was divided among some farmers from Shibaochong, leading to disintegration within their family: the eldest son’s family was assigned to Shibaochong Production Team, while the second son was undergoing government reformation. He was the youngest son and reportedly inherited his father's true skills; his medical expertise surpassed that of his elder brother, who worked at a hospital under government employment. However, he could only labor in Zhu Shan Bay Production Team to earn work points.
The second family was also split apart. The eldest son was assigned to the Changtangchong Production Team, while the second son, the youngest son, and their father were placed in the Zhu Shan Bay Production Team. Their father was tall and stood out in the southern rural area, known as "Wande's Eldest Son." He likely passed away in the late 1970s or early 1980s, but I never met their mother. Interestingly, among the three brothers, only the youngest inherited their father's height, making him the tallest in the entire Production Team. Due to his long legs, he couldn't operate the threshing machine while doing "Double Grab," so he could only do seemingly easy tasks alongside women, earning lower work points. Even more interestingly, he married the shortest woman in the entire Production Team, and their descendants are not tall either. Thus, the genes of "Wande's Eldest Son" slowly faded away in the tide of history.
The third family's head belonged to the same clan as Liu from Maosushan and was assigned to the Zhu Shan Bay Production Team but lived in Baochong. This might be a rural version of the "mixing sand" and "from all corners of the world" policy. This family had three sons; the second son was adopted by an uncle from Mount Meru, and the youngest son was only three or four years older than me. They also had a pair of twin daughters who married far away. However, on clear days, if one climbed to the top of nearby Shizhu Mountain, it was said that one could see three large trees in front of their house. When I was five or six years old, I once tried it at the urging of their youngest son. Not only could I see those three trees, but I could also see Gaosha Town twenty miles away with its brick kiln chimney billowing thick white smoke, which made me quite envious.
In addition to the three Liu families, there was another member with the surname Long who did not belong to our branch. The head of this family was only slightly younger than my grandfather but was two generations lower than me in terms of seniority. His sons would respectfully call me "Old Ancestor." This family was tough and combative; during land reform, no cooperative group wanted to take them in. In the end, my grandfather agreed to let them settle in Zhu Shan Bay out of consideration for their shared surname, allowing them to move from four or five miles away into our courtyard. He had three sons, all strong-willed and quick to fight; they would often flex their muscles and assert themselves at home where those with bigger fists had more say.
Aside from that, Zhu Shan Bay was entirely inhabited by the Long family.
In the Upper Courtyard, there were two elders at that time: one great-uncle and the Third Grandfather. The great-uncle had no descendants of his own and raised the third son of the Third Grandfather. Therefore, among my father's generation, the brothers in the Upper Courtyard were purely biological siblings. I referred to them as Paternal Uncle, Second Uncle, Third Uncle, Fourth Uncle, and Late Uncle. To distinguish them from the similarly named elders in the Lower Courtyard, when I was two or three years old, I foolishly added a "my own" prefix to the names of the elders in the Lower Courtyard. My kind grandmother scolded me for this, and the correction resulted in adding a "from Gao Tou Wu Li" prefix to the names of the elders in the Upper Courtyard.
In the Lower Courtyard, only Fourth Grandfather and my grandfather were still alive among my grandfather's generation. In my father's generation, there was my dad and four uncles.
I was the first boy in the "De" generation of the Lower Courtyard, with only my third uncle having a slightly older female cousin before me.
At this time, the Upper Courtyard already had a large number of male cousins. My paternal uncle had three sons: the eldest, the second, and the ninth. My second uncle had three as well: the third, the sixth, and the eleventh. My third uncle had three sons too: the fourth, the fifth, and the seventh. Lastly, my fourth uncle had two: the eighth and the tenth. In total, there were eleven boys. The tenth and eleventh cousins were born in the same year as me, while the eldest was even older than my father.
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