A New Beijinger Moves to Russia

Shi Hongwei's father once made a serious mistake, leaving Shi Hongwei with no choice but to work as a farmer in the village. Shi Hongwei had trained in martial arts. After failing the college entrance exam, he first worked as a miner in a coal mine, then later took a job at a gold mine. His father-in-law was a friend of his father's, and his wife, Qiu Shuangyu, gave birth to a son and a daughter. After their daughter died from a hereditary illness, his mother-in-law insisted on inviting a feng shui master to perform a ritual at their home. The master told his wife to change her name to Qiu Hong, and said that after their next child turned one, Shi Hongwei would have to go to Beijing for work. He left the gold mine and went to a restaurant in the county seat to learn to cook. Later, his wife gave birth to their younger son, Jiangshan. Shi Hongwei followed a fellow villager, Brother Xiang, to work at a restaurant in Beijing. He rented a room in a single-story house in the old city, where the courtyard's many migrant tenants kept changing. In 2012, his eldest son, Jiang Sheng, went with a relative to work in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. In 2013, when the single-story houses in the alley were being repaired, Shi Hongwei moved to a semi-basement near a subway line in the suburbs. After attending tutoring classes, Jiang Sheng joined the Russian army. Shi Hongwei, his wife, and their younger son traveled to the place where the eldest son was stationed, where they helped the Russian army's cooks prepare food and exchanged cooking tips. Later, Jiang Sheng attended a short training course at a military academy and was promoted to second lieutenant. He married an Ossetian woman named Orlova, and after leaving the Russian army, became a police officer in a district on the southern shore of Lake Khanka in the Russian Far East. His daughter-in-law gave birth to a boy, and Shi Hongwei and his wife moved in with their eldest son. They helped the family farm by driving a tractor and also opened a small restaurant.