Introduction to "Brother-in-law's Account Book"
A red-covered kraft paper account book hides the ups and downs of half a farmer's life. In the village where loess and cooking smoke intersect, my uncle wrote down the grass roots and bark of the famine years, the brown sugar eggs when the children were born, the aroma of the hot pot during the winter solstice, and the difficulty and perseverance of raising a pair of nieces after the death of his brother and sister-in-law.
There are no earth-shattering stories in the ledger, only the trivial things of daily necessities, family ties and the accumulation of time. From the old days of hunger and cold to the days of reunion with smoke curling from the kitchen stove, the resilience of a generation is engraved in the yellowed pages, and the simplest warmth of a Chinese family is also hidden. When the grown-up nieces and nephews looked back at this account book, they understood that the crooked handwriting contained love and responsibility that transcended time, and the care and reunion year after year in the fireworks of the old house.
