Old Stories from Liujiagou

One winter in 1952, a mother and daughter surnamed Guo begged their way to Liujiagou, Yongchang, Gansu. By the time they reached the village entrance, the mother was on the verge of death. The daughter, twelve or thirteen years old, her lips cracked from the cold, ran to an open patch of ground in the village and cried out desperately again and again, "Can anyone save my mother? Can anyone save my mother? Whoever saves her, I'll marry into his family...!" Liu Sanyuan and his father heard her and hurried out of their home, making their way to the beggar mother at the village entrance. The raggedly dressed mother had already stopped breathing...