A Reunion and a Parting

Shandong Magpie Nest sounds like an inconspicuous little place, but it is the starting point for countless people. People who walk out from here are like stars in the sky, scattered in every corner of the country. Xia Guangkai's family is the most ordinary glimmer among all living beings. When the flames of war burned across his hometown, Xia Guangkai held his mother's clothes and watched his younger brother, protected in his arms, flee hastily from the scorched earth of the magpie's nest. I wandered all the way, begging for survival, and occasionally met a kind-hearted old man who took me in to accompany me. The sound of the piano accompanied my hunger and cold, and finally I felt a bit of warmth to breathe. Unexpectedly, when Huaiyin took a break, the old man died tragically under a traitor's knife to protect the three of them, mother and son, and his blood stained the erhu that accompanied him all the way. After traveling to Xuyi Beishan Village, fortunately they were taken in by fellow villagers, and the Xia family's mother and son finally found a place to settle down. Xia Guangkai got a job as a postman by virtue of his ability to observe words and emotions that he developed while escaping from the wilderness. For four years, he worked hard and made many meritorious deeds, rain or shine. His younger brother Xia Guangjin was obsessed with martial arts. He studied hard with the old martial arts master in the village and built a strong body. The recruitment horn sounded, and Xia Guangkai's dream of joining the army, which he had been looking forward to for many years, was just around the corner. He put on a brand new military uniform and a big red flower, waiting to set off with the troops at dawn. Unexpectedly, on the night before leaving, my mother suddenly fell ill due to overwork and could not sleep on the kang. The village elder Zhang Tou couldn't bear to see him trapped in the dilemma between "loyalty" and "filial piety", so he proposed that Xia Guangjin join the army instead, but the army rejected it due to rules. At the critical moment, the old village chief tearfully told the story - the Xia family's father was brutally murdered by the traitors when he was trying to protect the villagers from moving to the Magpie Nest.