Xingtang and Tianzhen

Mountain city and old village in the Republic of China. Chen Xingtang (1922-1995) and Cheng Tianzhen (1921-2010) were married when they were young. They grew up separated by a mountain and an old-fashioned market on the Ancient Tea Horse Road. Xingtang had herded sheep, worked as a butcher, and served as a security chief. He was also the little leader of the Pao Brother Association. He had bright eyes and was not angry. Tianzhen was not a lady, but she was the most beautiful girl in eight villages in ten miles. After the two got married, their life was rough and real. In the summer of 1948, in order to save a woman at the market, Xingtang offended the bandit Xiong family and his son. His goat was robbed and he was almost beaten. With the help of the villagers and the county magistrate Paoge, the bandits were finally brought to justice. The rescued woman gave her a pair of cloth shoes as a thank you, but Xingtang's unintentional words hurt Tianzhen. From then on, Tianzhen worked hard to practice female beauty, and finally became the best expert in a hundred miles. Since then, times have changed dramatically. Baochang stopped serving, Brother Pao dispersed, and the old market was abandoned due to the construction of roads. Xingtang contracted tuberculosis in his later years and died in 1995; Tianzhen lived until 2010 and left behind a box of finely stitched cloth shoes. The story begins with a pair of calm eyes on the wall and ends with a box of cloth shoes. It describes the simplest and deepest commitment made by two ordinary people in a lifetime.