Notes on the Wall

"Memory on the Wall" is a short popular novel with a strong sense of local flavor and satirical comedy. The story is set in the northern countryside and tells the story of an ordinary farm family's human relationships and the various behaviors of its children. The protagonist, Mrs. Wang, has been diligent and thrifty throughout her life, working hard and raising her two sons to grow up and start a family. Unexpectedly, after the death of his wife, the old lady, who was old, frail, moneyless and jobless, suddenly became a burden. The two sons, who were good at calculation, greedy and selfish, pushed each other and argued with each other. Neither one was willing to take on the responsibility of supporting his mother. As a result, the old man lived alone in a broken house, lived in poverty, with no one to care for him, and his later life was desolate. The enthusiastic old man in the village saw through the money-grubbing and unfilial nature of the two sons, and came up with a clever plan for the old lady: he made a replica of Lao Dayang using scrap tin cakes, and sewed a close-fitting cloth bag filled with fake silver to make the old man appear poor but hide "heavy gold" inside, pretending to hold ancestral wealth. As soon as this plan came out, people's hearts changed. The two brothers, who were originally trying to avoid each other, suddenly changed their cold faces and competed to fulfill their filial piety, take turns to please, and compete for support. They fought against each other day and night across the shared wall, and staged a lively, funny, and ironic rural wall drama. The two brothers were involved in filial piety, exposing each other's shortcomings, and quarreling over the emptiness of their family wealth, which fully exposed the shortcomings of human nature that are greedy for profit and unjust. The whole village watched and every household discussed it, it was absurd yet true. Until the mystery was finally revealed, the bag full of money was actually worthless fake tin cakes. The two brothers were in vain, and ended up in an embarrassing situation where they lost all face and were in a dilemma. The full text uses humorous writing, vivid rural characters, and ups and downs of the plot to satirize the greed and depravity of human nature.