Someone to Talk to - A full life
[19:18, 15/08/2024] Ma Sivakumar: Qiaoling telling her son Aiguo her life story
When Aiguo was into his forties, his mother started talking to him about her past. As a boy Aiguo was not her favourite, but her eldest son was. But in her seventies she opens up only to him, her second son.
Qiaoling was kidnapped away from her step father by a rat poison peddler. He wanted to become rich, rat poison business will not help to become rich. He decided on a side business. Gets friendly with Qiaoling and her step-father. Her step-father was faking a search for his wife (Qiaoling's mother) and her lover. So, was staying in the same inn as the rat peddler.
Taking advantage of Qiaoling's step-father's absence one morning, the rat poison peddler takes her with him. He tells her that they are going to her step-father.
Qiaoling, though still a small girl, grows up in those days. She was polite to the rat poison peddler who she thinks was taking her to her step father. During the breaks in their journey, she fills his tea cup, serves him food, wipes sweat from his face and runs errands obediently. He was pleased.
He finds a buyer for her, a professional child trafficker. He sells her for 10 silver money. When he hands over Qiaoling, she starts crying. He was also touched, he has grown fond of her. When he tried to cancel the deal, planning to bring her up himself, the pro trafficker convinces him otherwise.
Qiaoling was terrified of the pro. He has an awl and uses it on her back when she doesn't behave to his liking. He ties her to the bed post in the night so she doesn't run away. Qiaoling cries a lot, but she can not run away, as she is far away from her home town and don't know anyone in the places where they go.
The pro sells her to another part time child dealer, who was a cloth seller. The cloth seller pays 20 silver money for Qiaoling.
But, that was too high a price. The cloth guy was not able to resell her at a higher price and he is stuck. Qiaoling is not afraid of him as he doesn't hit her.
She laughs when he tries to intimidate her. He was hard pressed, having to spend money for their boarding and lodging. He scrimps on food and the girl becomes thinner. Now, it is even more difficult to sell her.
Whenever, they rest under a tree, she skips around picking up nuts and berries to eat. She has her fill, laughs and is merry.
The cloth seller was furious, "what is this? I am a trafficker, taking you to sell. You are supposed to be miserable, not happy". But, she laughs more.
After several weeks she was not yet sold. She develops scabies and infected all over. Her skin starts itching and it is painful, she cries with pain. Now, it is even more difficult to sell her, thin and scabies infested.
A carter who works for a rich landowner-cum-vinegar merchant sees them when on his way carting some produce of his master to sell in the town.
The girl was running a high fever. The carter advises the man who is with the girl to better take her to a doctor. He took that man to be her father.
The part time child trafficker pleads with him to buy Qiaoling. He narrates his ordeal and appeals to save the girl's life.
The carter was taken aback. He says, " I am not here to buy a girl. I came here to sell the produce for my master and take the money back.
Even otherwise, I can not decide without consulting my wife".
The part time trafficker asks his name, and the name of his village. The carter tells him, hitches his donkey cart loaded with the produce to sell and drives away. He forgets all about the girl and the trafficker.
But, when he returns back to his village after four days and reaches home, he finds the girl and her trafficker there.
"What! you followed me here!"
"Don't be angry, brother. Sister-in-law wants to buy the girl".
Sister-in-law was of course the carter's wife. They have no children and she was persuaded to buy Qiaoliang.
The carter objects that the girl runs a high fever (may die), scabies ridden and skinny.
The part-time trafficker says the fever is broken and so it was. The carter's wife says, the scabies is fresh, will heal and Qiaoling has tender bones, will get stronger. She is very cheap at 13 silver money price.
The carter can say no more, and now Qiaoling has a family, a father and mother to bring her up.
They name her Gaixin (change of heart) to denote a new life.
How she grew up and how she married Aiguo's father?.
That is another story Chang'e tells her son Aiguo another time, when she was in her seventies and he in his forties
[07:34, 16/08/2024] Ma Sivakumar: Qiaoling's new mother was a tall woman. She took Qiaoling, now Gaixin, to the river to wash and squeeze the scabies sores. It was painful and Gaixin cried.
Mother asked her "who is a good mother, I or your original mother?"
The girl says "you", for which she got a scolding.
"So young and so artful lier".
"No, mother. You bought me but my mother left me with my step father and went away with another man"
"What about your step father?"
"He is a nice man, I miss him a lot" - the girl's eyes welled up.
"You should not miss him, should not think about him. You should not think about your home town. If you do, I will squeeze your sores"
"No mother, I will not think about them".
"That's right. You should be grateful to us"
Gaixin was afraid and kept quiet. She did all the work expected of her and did not talk back to her mother when she scolded her. Her mother was particularly spiteful about Qiaoling's home town and her step father. She had never been to that town nor met Moses, Qiaoling's stepfather. But she berated them to put Gaixin down. Thus, Gaixin's memory of her home town and her step father were kept alive.
She also didn't remember much about her home town and her step father's face was fading from her memory.
But, she kept positive images of both, silently countering her mother's negative tirades against them.
Her father was fond of her and used to carry her on his shoulder when he went to his master's farm to do some work. She will often doze off and even pee on him. He never got angry. He will bring snacks from places he goes (carting produce) and tie them up in a larder so that she can eat whenever she wants.
But, he never interferes with his wife when she scolds Gaixin. He just sits quietly and keeps silent. At home his wife is the one taking all decisions.
Things changed when Gaixin (Qiaoling) grew up, turned 13 and became as tall as her mother.
She started arguing back.
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[07:59, 17/08/2024] Ma Sivakumar: Gaixin meets the driver of a tractor for ploughing the fields. He goes from place to place works in the fields of a village (day and night) and moves on to the next place. Comes back again next year.
The villagers provides him food, one house for morning food and one for evening food. For lunch, someone will take food to the fields he was working.
Gaixin gets to know him while taking food for him. He gives rides on the tractor ploughing the land. She enjoys the sights. She asks him why he works in the nights also.
He says driving the tractor and ploughing in the night is better. It is peaceful and the earth turning is beautiful. He offers to take her in the night ride also and indeed turns up outside her room knocking on the window.
She joins him, inspite of her fear of darkness, finds the fields beautiful in the tractor's headlights.
She would ask, "your tractor runs only in the fields"
"No, no it can run on the streets and roads also"
"But it is too slow. If it runs fast, you can take me out from here to faraway places".
The romance continues.
Gauxin's father's friend from a far away village proposes his another friends son as a marriage match for Gaixin and manages to convince her mother.
Gaixin refuses, she goes to meet her tractor driver friend. Asks him to take her away and if he did she will marry him.
He hesitates saying if he runs away with her he can not continue driving the tractor.
She was furious, curses him and walks away.
She married the match proposed by her father's friend. She becomes Chang'e, has three sons and a daughter and in her old age in her seventies narrates some of her life stories to her son Aiguo who was in his forties and has a daughter who is close to her grandmother, Chang'e.
Qiaoling aka Gaixin aka Chang'e and her children have several experiences looking for someone to talk to, failing sometimes and finding someone a few times.
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