Wang Laogui's Family Affairs
by Xiaoliang
About This Novel
The novel is set in Guihuachong, northwest Hubei, and revolves around the ups and downs of Wang Laogui's family. It connects the changes of the times, family ties and life choices, and outlines the survival picture and emotional entanglements of ordinary farmers in the passage of time. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Wang family moved to Guihuachong with their golden osmanthus and silver osmanthus saplings. After several generations of reproduction, this place became a village where every household planted osmanthus trees. Wang Laogui was born in the Republic of China and grew up in the new society. He has a daughter and three sons. He fully hopes that his children will be rich and prosperous. The eldest daughter Wang Guifang has been engaged to Liu Musheng, an honest man from Shanghe since she was a child. The two went through twists and turns such as theft of dowry wood, misunderstandings and quarrels, and finally got married in the sweet-scented osmanthus season; the eldest son Wang Fu relied on the recruitment quota obtained by his father and went to the city to become a machine factory worker, forming a two-income family; He was looking forward to recruiting a job or entering a higher education, but failed repeatedly. After experiencing setbacks such as breaking off the engagement and being defrauded of the marriage, he went to the south to work, from construction sites to coal mines, saving money to make a living through hard work. His younger son Wang Wang was rebellious when he was young, participated in robbery and was sent to a labor camp. Later, he followed his fellow villagers to go out and struggle in a complex society. The story is intertwined with the joys and sorrows of multiple families: Liu Musheng's honest persistence, the different fates of the Chen sisters, the hardships and opportunities of migrant workers, and the changes in the countryside after the reform and opening up - household quotas, the boom in migrant workers, and the change in concepts under the impact of the market economy. From collective labor to dividing fields to households, from isolated mountain villages to connecting with the outside world, the life trajectory of Wang Laogui's family is closely connected with the tide of the times. There are not only the warmth and contradictions of the parents' shortcomings, but also the struggle and perseverance in the face of fate. In the end, over the years, everyone has found their own answer to life, and the cinnamon fragrance of Osmanthus Chong has always lingered in the lives of several generations.
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