My Family, Goshoudai, Is from the Village

My surname is Shen. Shenjia Village is named after our family's surname. Great-grandpa's great-great-grandfather stopped the bandits with an axe. Grandpa's grandfather knelt all night to invite the doctor who saved his life. Grandpa's father gave the last bag of grain to the villagers, but he was hungry and broke his leg. The fourth generation is my great-grandfather. Wearing the cloth shoes made by his great-grandmother, he followed the team and went to Taierzhuang, never to return. The villagers set up a monument for him, just under the big locust tree at the entrance of the village. Two words are engraved on the monument: martyr. My grandfather guarded the village his entire life. When someone asked him what he was guarding, he said, "Keep watch over things that should not be forgotten." Later I grew up and went to the city. But I brought back a notebook and wrote down the stories of five generations, word by word. Because I'm afraid. I'm afraid no one will remember, those roots buried in the ground are really broken. The history of a family guarding the village for five generations. This is not a story about heroes, it is about ordinary people who did what they should do and became heroes.