"This is the day!" "Yes, yes, Loo!" "I'm up!" "Quiet!" "Quiet!" "You'll wake father!" "Here friend!" "And eat a little bit more for once!" "Morning medley!" "Morning!" "Morning!" "So today's the day!" "The day!" "Hay hay!" "Tomorrow's another world's waters" "Another!" "I know!" "I know!" "Who does it!" "Shou Zheng!" "Where's my hot water?" "My lungs are cold!" "It's ready father." "I'm too old to wait for my food like this." "Tomorrow a woman will bring food to us both." "Yeah, she'll eat food too and there's little enough for any of us until the harvest, and if the rains don't come there won't be a harvest!" "Tea?" "Have you lost your mind?" "Tea is like eating silver!" "But this is the day father, if the woman brings us luck, we may never go hungry again." "Tea!" "Waste!" "You think she'll be an ugly woman?" "Hum!" "If things go on like this, someday the bridegroom would want to see the bride before they marry them!" "Well then I won't have a pock mark woman!" "Or the one with split lip!" "Now then are you a farmer's son or not?" "Your woman must work as your mother did." "And bear children like she did, 6 sons like mine!" "Your tea will be cold." "True!" "True!" "5 sons dided in the years of flood and famine." "Your mother worked on with me until she died." "Now I know that she was the one, the best a man could have." "But I'll tell you one thing, your woman is not deformed." "Thank you father!" "Now there it is!" "Water enough to bring a crop to fruit." "Must you waste it?" "I haven't wash my body all at once since the new year!" "That won't do starting a new woman like this!" "Tea in the morning water in all this wasting!" " Father?" " Well, what is it?" "I'll be grateful to you if you... would please you to ask my friends for a feast tonight?" " No!" " A very small feast?" " It's only this one?" " No no no no no!" "Spend for a feast, make way for a famine." "Good morning father Wong!" "It's going to rain!" "It is unlucky to mention it!" "I haven't said it would rain!" "I haven't said it!" "Here's some very bad wine for the bridegroom." "This gift is much too good for my son." "Oh is miserable wine!" "Where's the bridegroom?" "He's washing his whole body!" "Is that my friend Wong Loong?" "Shing!" "That's my son!" "Wasting good water before the rains come!" "Uh but the rains will come!" "And what's on the top of the water to you, a man who lives to see his grandson." "Young men and fools are alike, until the gods teach them wisdom." "And asking your few friends for a feast tonight." "A very small feast, if you'll come my son will be honoured." "You were boys together." "Shing!" "This is the day!" "Chickens!" "Good buy!" "Eat!" "Good your blood and pure your liver!" "Peaches, 6 for 2 coppers!" "Now then what?" "I'm Wong Loong, the farmer." "Well, and Wong Loong the farmer what?" "I'm coming..." "I'm coming..." "Are you seeing that?" "I see you a fool!" "There's a woman to be..." "Ha ha ha!" "So you're he!" "You're the bridegroom!" "I thought you're the peddler!" "Why do you bring a basket?" "Are you gonna carry that the whole day?" "The bridegroom!" "He comes!" "The bridegroom!" "He comes!" "The bridegroom!" "He's here!" "The bridegroom!" "He's here!" "The bridegroom!" "You fool, get up!" "Your farmer's come, he smells like a stable!" "Nobody giggles!" "Is all wreck crack yours?" "Open it!" "Open it!" "To see what's in it." "There's a thief in every kitchen." "When did you steal these?" "My mother gave'em to me." "Save it for your own brats!" "Pick up your eggs!" "Hurry!" "This dress, the kitchen slave." "This woman came into my house when she was a child." "Her parents were farmers but during the famine they sold her to me for food." "She has a strong body, and will work well for you in your house and your fields." "Take her and use her well!" "Ou Lang!" "Over him!" "And bring him many sons." "Bring the first son for me to see." "Well?" "Go go go go!" "Take the box!" "Peaches!" "Fresh peaches!" "Good peaches are the friend!" "Good your blood and pure your liver!" "Peaches!" "Fresh peaches!" "Thank you!" "Peaches!" "Fresh peaches!" "They're yours!" "Eat for yourself." "A tree will grow from the seeds." "Hey, hey!" "Let him be!" "For very silent says she's a good cook!" "An excellent cook!" "I am an old man and I have never tasted such food before!" "Oh no it's very poor food!" "Very badly prepared, the woman can't cook at all!" "My friends, my poor farm barely produces enough to keep my family alive." "But tonight, I rejoyce that my brother's son has been favoured by him." "Are you, you, how beautiful it is, and how pretty, nephew?" "Forgive me!" "Poor Zon!" "He faked and shaved and hope we will all go home!" "No no no no!" "Your presence delights him!" "Then we'll all stay till cockcrow!" "May you have many grandsons!" "And she might beg for the first one!" "You want my old bones!" "Brother, your joy is mine!" "Nephew!" "Now that the woman will work in the house, you might help your old uncle in the fields?" "Alas I..." "Good night!" "Good night!" "Good night!" "Good night!" "Good night!" "Night!" "Night!" "It will grow!" "This is good land!" "An old one, my ancestors came here long ago!" "And they sleep in it!" "My father ploughed it, and it's mine!" "The best the man can have!" "Now it belongs to us both!" "It's raining!" "Why did you put up your hand?" "Were you afraid?" "Afraid of me?" "Were they cruel to you in the Great House?" "No one will be cruel to you here!" "I am with child." "Enough for the day," "We'll tell old father." "Why have you left the field?" "She is with child already!" "Hey hey!" "She want me to be a grandfather." "I shall prepare food now." "Yes!" "Food!" "Food!" "Food!" "I know nothing of these things, when the child is born you need a woman." "Perhaps there's a woman in the Great House." "Someone you knew in the kitchen!" "Not in that house!" "Well... we're only two men here!" "There must be someone in the Great House..." "I'll never go back, in that house" "It will be with my son in the house" "I'll have a red coat on it, and a red flower trousers, and a hat with a buddha and tiger, and I'll go into a kitchen where I spend my days as a slave, and into the great hall" "where all the mistress sits with their pipe and I'll show myself and my son to all of them." "Well!" "You know, I..." "I haven't heard you speak so many words... since you came into this house!" "Now then, why are you not in the fields today?" "The wheat must be cut!" "Today I shall not go into the fields." "Look!" "Dark clouds!" "Rain?" "We'll loose the harvest!" "We'll starve this winter!" "Bring the others!" "Hey hurry with the wheat!" "There's hail in that storm!" "Let's go!" "Help me load the cart!" "What is it?" "Is it the child?" "I get a woman." "No!" "Go back to the wheat!" "I play my king correctly!" "No you didn't!" "You lost every game correctly!" "Of course!" "How did I know what he had?" "You might have looked over his shoulders." "But I didn't!" "You gave me the wrong sign!" "Hey!" "What did I tell you?" "And you made me play another game while this was happenning!" "Is it a man?" "Is it a man?" "A man!" "A man-child has been born!" "Behold we have a son!" "A man-child!" "A man-child!" "I'm a father!" "And you're a grandfather!" "I never could get my wife to work the way that woman did, with a child about to be born." "If it weren't indignified," "I'd tell her that she's a good wife!" "Nephew!" "I rejoyce with you!" "It's nothing that I lost my own wheat helping with the child, nothing!" "Hear him!" "Huh huh!" "I'll get eggs, and dye them red for the whole village." "Everyone must know I have a son!" "Ha ha ha ha ha!" "Oh my son is very pleased!" "Oh it was a dismal noise!" "No no!" "Very good noise!" "Now then!" "Those cakes are not to be eaten!" "Well!" "And I am poor but at least I can be honest!" "My dear nephew, please add this fowl to the little coloured eggs which you hadn't offered me!" "But they are gift for the Great House!" "Very bad for the stomach, only fit for rich people, if they are not too rich to accept them" "Those people are not as rich as you think!" "They are feeling pinch this year." "I've heard that they are selling land." "Land?" "Selling land?" "I heard it yesterday from their agent," "At the gambling, at the tea house." "Well, am I asked to fill my cup in this house of properity?" "Huh... please please!" "Ha ha ha ha ha!" "What have I not thought of..." "A good new year, a triumphant new year!" "Good night!" "Good bye!" "We could buy land, from the Great House!" "Rice land!" "Now then, if we lost our wheat we'll have no money." "But we haven't!" "But how close it was!" "Between this money and nothing" "Not even food!" "When a man has 2 fields, or 3 fields he can loose his wheat and still have food." "That rice land is sure!" "Had to be sure again I'd even go to the Great House and buy it!" "Do you think They'd kill me?" "Well, well!" "I'm not afraid!" "I go to the Great House to say, to tell'em I have important business." "Money is concerned." "What is a fair price, I have it in my hand!" "Well it was a good thought" "But what use is a good thought then?" "If no one agrees with it?" "And the child!" "A beautiful child!" "A beautiful boy!" "Boo boo boo boo!" "Ha ha ha ha ha!" "Here's the son of Wong Loong!" "Here's the son of Wong Loong the farmer!" "He's a man-child!" "He's a man-child!" "Miss Oh Lang, Wife Wong the farmer and her son you will announce them to ancient one." "And you say her child would be a female." "Ha ha ha ha!" "A female!" "Quiet!" "I'll cut off your own hands!" "Um!" "He has a sickly look." "Very pale and green." "Let's hope he won't die before Spring!" "Ha ha ha ha ha!" "Stop that cackles!" "Hurry woman!" "Must I waste the whole day?" "Hey hey hey!" "He's a beautiful child!" "He's a beautiful child!" "Hey hey hey!" "You won't believe she laughed!" "And say he's a beautiful child!" "She said those words "a beautiful child"!" "Well she said no more than the truths!" "And I saw not one slave in all that house with a new coat like mine!" "And why should you go about like a wife of a common fellow?" "I can afford a piece of cloth I think!" "Now I have 2 fields!" "I bought it today from the Great House!" " The land?" " They said it was less than an inch." "And took all that silver as if it were nothing!" "And the foolish clerks who don't own a foot land laughed the goose clack at me 'cause I couldn't write my name!" "But I'll buy again and again!" "Until my land is more than an inch!" "Even in a house of a prince!" "Look here farmer!" "Someday all this will belong to you!" "And you'll be a prince too!" "And I'll buy more land and more land and..." "What a pity!" "We're so poor!" "We have nothing!" "And the child is nothing!" "Yes yes!" "Is less than nothing!" "And it's only a female, and it's covered with small pox as well!" "Yes yes!" "Only a female, and covered with small pox, as well!" "You mighty gods!" "You wise gods!" "You've been good to me, for many years you've been good to this humble person;" "I had only 1 field, now I have 5!" "I had only 1 child, now I have 3!" "My eldest son planted his first rice today!" "My youngest son is big enough to lead the ox!" "My third child is only a female, but I won't reproach you for that!" "Excuse me!" "Now we haven't forgotten you!" "We brought you fine new rogues of red paper so you won't forget me!" "You send me rich harvest this year also and you persuade my uncle, to work a little now and then." "And not ask for money so often" "And if he does, please allow my husband to refuse him!" "I'll do that anyway!" "Very gracefully!" "Wong Loong!" "Come up!" "Wong Loong come up here!" "Wong Loong!" "Wong Loong will know, he'll know what it is!" "Wong Loong!" "How would he know?" "He is as slow witted as my woman!" "Hey hey!" "Well!" "And what now?" "Look!" "Look!" "An army!" "No!" "Virgins perhaps?" "So many?" "People from the North!" "But why?" "There must be famine in the North!" "They're going south where there's food!" "Famine!" "?" "Ha ha ha!" "What ideas you have!" "The woman is right!" "I have seen it before!" "That's what happens when a man has only 1 field!" "But I have 5!" "We must thank the gods for giving me so much foresight!" "What talk is this!" "?" "Forgive him!" "My son he's young and stupid and talks too much!" "It was famine that made me a slave!" "It dries even if we carry it!" "Well if the vines starve, we'll all starve!" "The wheats' gone!" "And the rice!" "The more my fields I have only this handful of beans!" "Mother!" "Mother!" "You know we're not thieves!" "But the ox is mine!" "We're hungry!" "Our children are hungry!" "You should help us!" "If I have money I would help you!" "My nephew!" "You can sell your land!" "Sell my land?" "Yes!" "But then the money is gone, and the land!" "At least we could live well through the famine!" "What good is this land now?" "You're young, you don't know what a famine is like!" "My father knew years of famine, but he kept the land." "I must keep it for my sons!" "The earth is good, if we work it would feed us." "But how am I to live?" "How am I to live?" "Work!" "As I do!" "I'll not rob my sons to feed you!" "You, you!" "Must we go hungry while you have land?" "This land that you won't sell!" "I'm not selling my land." "It's my life, it's mine!" "I'll never sell it, I'll dig up the earth first and feed it to my children!" "Yes!" "And you'll bury them in it!" "He's my friend." "My friend!" "We're not hungry!" "Mercy on me you powerful ones!" "I starve and my woman starve, and there's no one to give me a handful of rice!" "There's one who has plenty, but he's a rich man!" "And rich's hardened the heart, soften his heart o powerful ones, that he may give me a little out of his abundance!" "Would not a man sell his lands unless he has foods to give his children?" "He has food!" "And I starve!" "He has food!" "And these good men starve!" "Well, what?" "You have food!" "We're starving!" "You have food!" "Food!" "I have nothing!" "I dig for roots, for my children." "You have food hidden!" "Food and silver!" "Food?" "Find it!" "He's got it he's got it!" "Wong Loong has food!" "I told you, he has food!" "But... it's earth!" "It takes hunger, and it's warm." "Ching!" "Hunger makes man mad!" "Come come!" "You're little man now!" "You won't cry!" "Look!" "Your sister doesn't cry!" "Little one she never cries now" "What is it?" "Why?" "If you could have a little food you'd have the strength to bring the child" "I'll find it." "Tomorrow I..." "When have you had food?" "There's a thing in me that hurts, and not hunger," "that a man has no words." "No words, but I know!" "Oh Lang, the earth has forgotten us!" "The earth..." "I hate it!" "I'll sell it!" "No!" "For a constant length!" "No!" "No not the land!" "Not the land!" "We're ready nephew." "Are you safe?" "Yes... safe." "Huh!" "Another mouth to feed." "My poor man!" "For the sake of your children, we'll give you a better price for your land than you can get anywhere else in these times." "We'll give you 12 pieces of silver." "What?" "12 pieces?" "For all my land?" "Huh!" "I..." "I paid a 100 times that much!" "But who was starving then?" "Please!" "Please!" "And well you know I must sell." "No!" "Not the land!" "We'll not sell the land." "We'll keep it, we'll go south." "And when we return we'll still have the land." "But I've arranged it!" "I brought these men here, you must sell!" "Is it your land?" "Did you buy it bit by bit?" "The land is our life and it's better to go south, or die walking, than to give it to you, for nothing!" "What a pity!" "What a pity!" "How can you walk anywhere?" "With the child?" "The child is dead!" "Dead?" "But I heard it cry?" "The child is dead!" "What do you say father, shall we ride in this fire wagon?" "It ain't safe for your old back." "He said it crawls on these iron poles!" "Grandpa says it's a god of fire!" "These wagons chained together." "Do it again find a thing?" "We sit in it while it walks off!" "With these mats we can build a home." "Well then get to work!" "Get to work all of you!" "You'll look at me and listen!" "Take the bowel in your right hand so and hold it out to everybody that passes and cry out to them:" "!" "A heart good sir!" "A heart good lady!" "A good deed and you shall prosper!" "The small cash, a coin you throw away!" "Feed us starving child!"" "Have a kind heart!" "A good deed that bring you fortune!" "The small cash the coin you throw away give for the child died!" "Have a kind heard!" "A good deed to bring you fortune!" "The small cash feed the starving child!" "Feed the good fortune!" "Bring you a good heart!" "Small cash for starving!" "Poor little child!" "Feed the good fortune!" "Bring you a good heart!" "Small cash for starving!" "Hey hey!" "Have a kind heart good sir!" "A good..." "Well?" " And today?" " Nothing!" "No work of any kind!" "For things a beast should do, there were a 100 men, fighting!" "It would have been better to starve, in our own land, than to come to this great city, where there's no work for a man's hands!" "It will come!" "Now then must I wait for my meat any longer?" "Meat?" "Hey hey hey!" "It's the first we've had since we killed the ox!" "You must have begged from a prince today!" "It's mine!" "Where did you get meat?" "I took it from an old woman!" "You stole it?" "You thief!" "Thief!" "Thief!" "Meat is meat." "Do we have to steal or beg for it to live?" "A man can't stand it here!" "Our land is all in the north!" "In times like this, my parents found a way to go back;" "they sold me to the old mistress in the big house." "You could sell little one?" "I would sell her, to take you back to the land." "If it wasn't for me, you would die before you'll sell her!" "We won't sell her, not if I spend my life in this wilderness." "What is it?" "What happened?" "He was pulling timber, he fell and died!" "Where did he work?" "Where did he work?" "At the great market!" "Where are these soldiers going?" "They say there's a revolution coming!" "Revolution?" "What is a revolution?" "I don't know, but it has something to do with food!" "Things are growing again." "You were a farmer?" "I own land in the north!" "So did I!" "10 years ago!" "Why don't you go back?" "You gotta have an ox!" "You gotta buy seeds!" "You gotta live, till you make the crop." "I tried saving up for 10 years," "I'll never get back, and neither will you!" "I'll get back!" "If I can pull that thing I can pull a plough;" "ox or no ox!" "Listen my brothers!" "Before the peasants close my mouth!" "In a few days China will be a free country;" "the day of tyranny is over!" "The revolutionary army is on its way;" "they've been marching 30 miles a day!" "Fighting in the rain in the north" "Hey!" "You hear him?" "Yes!" "But what does it all mean?" "It's raining in the north!" "Everyday in the south as come to revolution!" "All of China will soon be free!" "Don't let them drag you from your homes;" "that famine has driven you off course!" "Soldiers!" "Soldiers!" "Run!" "Soldiers!" "What is it?" "What is it?" "Why you shouting?" "It's free!" "The revolution's here!" "China's a republic!" "Republic?" "What is a "republic"?" "Hey what do they want?" " Where are they going?" " Into the great house of Lang!" "It's all over the city, a man can do what he like!" "Aim!" "Fire!" "No!" "No!" "I was hungry!" "Mercy!" "No!" "I was hungry!" "Mercy!" "Mercy!" "Mercy!" "Aim!" "Fire!" "Captain!" "Prepare to march!" "Follow in!" "Let them be a warning to you!" "Free publicans are not bandits!" "Order must be maintained throughout the city!" "You may go, but remember anyone caught looting will be shot!" "What haven't I seen?" "What have I not seen!" "I could never tell you!" "Such things!" "Crowds!" "Oh I got through!" "The city is mad!" "They're robbing the rich!" "Killing'em and burning'em!" "The soldiers have come down from the north!" "Huh!" "It's well you were here, it's well you were here!" "Look!" "We can go back, we can go back to the land!" "Home!" "We are home!" " Home!" " Home!" "Come!" "Hey!" "Down with you!" "Run to uncles home, tell'em Wong is home!" "Tell all our friends, tell'em I have great hungs!" "Away with you!" "Ha ha ha ha!" "This is yours!" "Thank you!" "Take what you need!" "Please!" "Take it all!" "The sack!" "All!" "Thank you!" "All!" "There's food for all until the harvest!" "We'll have more crops!" "Thank you!" "Bye!" "If you need more, come back!" "We have plenty!" " Ching!" " Wong Loong!" "I see no face in the city like yours, my friend!" "These belong to you;" "I kept'em in our house." "Kept them?" "But it was starving!" "Why don't you sell them?" "I have no ploughs to..." "But keep it!" "Tomorrow I'll bring my ox and'em, to help plough your field!" "I have no field, I had to sell it!" "Sell them?" "Well you can come and work for me!" "I've had luck in itself, I have the mind to buy more land!" "Will you come?" "I'll come gladly." "Nephew!" "Brother!" "My loved ones!" "I predicted it!" "I predicted it!" "I always said if those southeners had anything, my nephew would bring it home with him" "But it's too late to help me," "I've had to sell my daughters" "Well uncle, anything you want and I have..." "Nothing, nothing." "Still, if you could let me have a few pieces of silver, 2 or 3, say 4?" "4?" "Why?" "Take 10!" "15!" "20!" "Why not?" "I have this and more!" "I have jewels!" "Jewels!" "A handful!" "All colours!" "Red ones white ones, come!" "I want to feel my toes in the earth again!" " But there's something..." " Well?" "Are you going to sell the jewels?" "To buy the land?" "Sell them?" "Why of course!" "And what else would I do with them?" "If I could have 2, only 2 small ones, 2 white ones..." "The pearls?" "You?" "I wouldn't wear them, I'm much too plain-looking." "Oh I've never noticed it." "But I could hold them in my hands, sometimes." "Thank you!" "It's nothing!" "Nothing!" "After all you, helped to find them." "And you must wear them, yes, and you must dress in a way becoming to them, not as a poor farmer's wife!" "We'll see to that!" "We'll look after you!" "We'll come and live with you!" "We'll rebuild the house!" "No this house is enough!" "But no we must make it bigger!" "We must have rooms for a household!" "No no we were happy here!" "We'll be happier!" "We'll have men in the fields, slave in the house." "No slaves!" "Nothing!" "But you must have a slave until you're well again." "I'm well now, see!" "It's cured me; coming home." "But you shall rest and have everything!" "We'll live well and in comfort," "We'll be safe from hunger as long as we live" "Longer!" "Longer!" "My nephew you're rich!" "You can live like a great lord!" "Why you can even pick a second wife!" "Listen to him!" "Listen to him!" "But why not?" "You have 2 oxens?" "No!" "No but come along!" "It is further agreed that the above named seller," "Wong Lung, shall deliver to the respected merchant," "Liu Fong Kee, the set wheat as and when same harvested" "Cost of transportation to be born by the seller." "It is agreed between the above mentioned parties, that the price of this wheat is to be as follows:" ""For each bushel of wheat, 4 pieces of silver" "In the event of damage to the crop, from storm, pest or other cause, the worthy purchaser, Liu Fong Kee, shall be held free of any liabilities to accept this wheat"" "Read that last paragraph." "Mr Wong, I'm delighted to pay you such a high price for your wheat, even though my profit might be slight." "Very kind of you to buy my rigid grain." "The contract's ready father." "Well it is time." "But this contract is wrong!" "This is the radical for wood, it should be the radical for water." "Change it then." "We'll not put our names to anything wrongly written!" "Mr Wong, 2 clever sons like these, are the better half of your wealth!" "They're stupid worthless preachers," "If anything was driven to their big bright skulls it was by beating them!" "I told that teacher to beat them!" "He beat them so well, that this one's going to the university." " Indeed!" " If I'm not too unworthy." "I hope to win a degree in agriculture!" "A degree!" "?" "Agriculture!" "?" "That's somekind of paper that will make it rain just enough." "But not too much!" "And you?" "You going too?" "No sir!" "I'll stay on my father's land, when my brother returns he'll show me what more can be done with it than we have done!" "Now then that's talk enough, take the money home." "My ignorant daughter!" "A beautiful girl!" "Oh she has a wretched appearance!" "Now you two might mix your blood in one bowl!" "Oh but your daughter is much too good for my son." "Oh no!" "But you would never come decend to such a marriage!" "Oh but I couldn't presume to look so high!" "It's impossible!" "Quite impossible!" "But, it might done." "Yes indeed, if you'll be good enough to consider it in due time." "I should think of it night and day, good bye!" "It would be modest of me to say that this idea was mine." "Good bye!" "Ah!" "What a beautiful day!" "That music!" "It seems to draw me inspite of myself!" " I'm not used to these places." " Eh?" "I have no clothes!" "I'm only a farmer!" "I have work to do..." "Work?" "Work!" "You must learn to enjoy yourself!" "There's more in the world than earth and crops, there're songs and dancing!" "And girls who do these things elegantly!" "Watch!" "That must be the stairway!" "Yes." " Shall we see what it feels like?" " No no no!" "No, I..." "I've never been off the ground all my life!" "She's like a dream person!" "Stop it!" "Stop it!" "Stop it!" "Quiet!" "I told the thing not to wake me till this time." "Another feast?" "The dragon feast, woman!" "It's my duty to observe the old customs" "My nephew insisted on it." "Old customs indeed!" "There's more than that with your nephew!" "When the farmer buys silk, robes and washes his whole body everyday, there's a woman that should work!" "But the rich man may have 2 wives!" "But the wife must cling to her husband, that is as it should be" "That's right!" "A woman of love and one is mistake!" "Of course!" "Now then, it is said you may see a tea pot with 4 tea cups, but did you ever see a tea cup with 4 tea pots!" "?" "It is also said, do you ever see 2 spoons in the same bowl that do not nod against each other!" "?" "Well What is it?" "What is it?" "Excuse me father, but you look like the lord of the Great House." "Well!" "And that is not as strange as you think!" "I just... tell your mother I wish to see her." "Yes father." "Can you spare me a moment?" "I must know what seed to prepare for the Summer planting." "Why trouble me about it?" "Prepare the seed my son gives you!" "These flowers are dead, Little One!" "Your sister knows only happiness." "Mother!" "Is it a letter from your brother?" "No mother!" "Father wishes to see you." "Forgot how chilly it was!" "Are you well?" "Your pain, is it bad?" "No it's nothing!" "You sent for me?" "Well, there's a thing I've done," "I bought the Great House!" "The house of Loo!" "Courts and land!" "I'm the new lord there." "Well?" "Have you no thanks?" "I thought it would please you to be mistress in that house, where you lived as a slave." "Our sons were born here..." "They must have wives!" "We'll have grandchildren, there's room in that house to all!" "You'll have a high place with money to spend for slaves." "You must make yourself becoming to it!" "Look at your hair!" "Your clothes!" "You disgrace me!" "One would think you're still the wife of a common labourer!" "Wear the pearl you have." "The pearls?" "I have them!" "You would never wear them." "Why..." "I look at them sometimes." "I need them, give them to me." "I know that I'm ugly, and not to be loved." "All that we have now came from you." "That is the truth and I say it." "But, but now..." "But now?" "There's a woman, not such a one as you;" "not as good as you, it's like a sickness!" "When I'm with her, it's not enough!" "When I'm not with her, there's nothing!" "Even the land is nothing!" "Then it will be better when she's in your house." "You'll say that?" "Is it your wish?" "Yes." "Let it be then!" "Ou lang, what is there more to say?" "Nothing." "Who is it?" "Who is that man going out the gate?" "He look something like my son, Lung!" "Now then what?" "I'm Ching the farmer." "Well, Ching the farmer what?" "I have business with Wong the farmer." "Wong the farmer?" "This is the great house of Wong!" "He's the lord here!" "There's a bad woman in the house!" "There's a bad woman in the house!" "Bad woman!" "Father, hush!" "It's his second wife." "I say it's a bad woman!" "I had but one woman..." "and my father had but one woman, and we farm the land!" "Come father, it's he and his second wife!" "I'm tired, I want my tea." "The old man is childish, nobody listens to him, but he shall be kept away!" "I'm hated in this house, how can I be happy here?" "But... what can I do?" "I have to sit here, shut in all day, if I stood out there they whisper and look at me hatefully!" "Where can I walk in the evening?" "If I had the garden, if I had the garden all mine;" "with singing birds in the pavillion, the fountain too, with fish." "But the money..." " Then it's money that you love." " No no!" "Little Flower!" "But it will not be easy until the harvest." "I must see, I must see, my younger son keeps the accounts." "But these're few little things." "If you love me, if I please you." "It shall be done!" "Anything!" "Anything!" "Be careful!" "My pearls!" "I may come in?" "Does my music disturb you?" "Oh no!" "No I like it!" "I listen sometimes." "I play it because I'm lonely." "I have so much to talk and laugh, but there's no one." "I'm sorry, I'm very sorry!" "You must excuse me, I..." "I have some business with the grain merchants." " If you'll please I must go!" " Then you'll pass by the shops?" "Yes?" "Would you mind giving him these for a bottle?" "With silver?" "Why..." "Yes!" "Yes!" "But you won't misunderstand." "Why should I?" "When a woman gives her slipper to a man?" "But I shouldn't tell you." "Oh no please!" "Well then... it means he's taking her fancy." "But you ask me to have it guilded?" "But the bottle doesn't need guilding, it's pure silver!" "Here's a letter from your brother, will you read it to me?" "Of course mother!" "Now then, we'll hear what our scholar has to say" ""First, I am ashamed of my ignorance." "But I am not ashamed to inquire of my teachers." "Each day I learn new ways of bring about nature's facts in case nature herself should fail us"." "What does he say?" "He says he's learning many things to help us." "But is he happy there?" "Does he say he need anything?" "No mother." ""I miss my beloved father and mother deeply." "And I'm eager to share the happiness of our new home"." "Mother, I want to go away too!" "Go away?" "To the wars!" "I'll be a soldier!" "Now then what madness is this?" "Well I've heard stories of war and plunder and battle, and I hate this house!" "And I'll go!" "I wish she'll stop that music!" "Now this house is full of silences." "I was reading mother a letter from the older brother." " Would you like to hear it?" " If he's well it can wait!" "But there's more in your face than the letter!" "He'll be a soldier." "A soldier!" "Now then, men don't take good iron to make an ail, nor a good man to make a soldier." "It would be a disgrace to me a man of serving land to have a son who's a soldier!" "But I'm nothing in this house!" "If you're lost in this house go back to the land!" "Help Ching until the harvest." "Put an alert on yourself!" "That's good for any man!" "Well if the land isn't fit for you anymore it isn't fit for me!" "Now all these stuffes I don't know." "He's come to the age of tempers and weeping." "When I was a lad I had no such tempers!" "You worked on the land;" "but he's like a young lord!" "And he's been alone here." "And you worry his age to have a bride" "But I was given a sla..." "My marriage cost my father nothing!" "The boy's our son!" "He would be better dead than here with this woman!" "What?" "You're dreaming!" "Even she hears it who has nothing else;" "it feels all this house, that woman cause and she's bored and your son is young..." "Enough!" "Gossip!" "Kitchen gossip!" "That's where you came from!" "Where you wished to live, live there then!" "Eat 'n sleep we will, but between you and me there's nothing!" "Nothing!" "The man is loon here." "What are you doing in the house?" "There's work to be done in the fields." "But, what is it?" "You're weeping, and you must do it and man can be sorry," "But why do you weep?" "There's food for everyday." "And fire!" "Sometimes a man gets a longing for his fields." "Well, if it pleases you to come up again and working them, they're yours!" "No it's better for my son to come;" "in the house he pulls against the yolk." "He has all the freedom here he wants!" "Where is he today?" "He comes and goes!" "Sometimes one day, sometimes two." "I thought you knew." "I knew nothing!" "I spend my time in town!" "Why don't you tell me you slow witted ox!" "Why should I tell you what everyone's been saying?" "For weeks!" "What?" "Well..." "Well speak!" "If you have eyes and ears you'll know." "Know?" "Know what?" "That the second wife and your son is..." "Liar!" "Get off my land." "Well... it's been a long time with us." "Take what belongs to you and go." "I came to you with nothing," "I'll go with nothing." "Good day master!" "Good day!" " Ah!" " Father!" "Get out!" "Out of my sight!" "Good bye mother." "Mother!" "Mother, you're ill, you should have a doctor." "It's nothing." "Where you go you ought to tell me." "They say there's a war in the north." "Sometimes in wars there are those who die." "Well if that's best, let it be!" "When I'm gone, you must see to the harvest we almost did it already, the clerk will tell you how much." "I will see to it." "If you must go, there's a thing to be done." "Speak to your father." " No, no, I can't!" " You're his youngest son." "Father." "Father?" "I..." "I am going away." "I..." "I only want to tell you that I... how I... if you could forgive me..." "But go!" "Nephew!" "We're ruined!" "Everything's gone!" "And I predicted it!" "I predicted it!" "What's happened?" "I knew it, I ran miles to tell you." " What is it?" " I forgive everybody." " What is it?" " This!" " Locusts!" " The flying plague!" "Well!" "Let them come!" "But the lion, the harvest!" "What can we do against the gods?" "It's not the gods!" "It's a thing of nature!" "We can fight it!" " Have you ever seen a plague of locusts?" " No but..." "I have!" "They come in millions." "The air is black with them and stinky." "And where they come down there's nothing left!" "Not a green of wheat!" "Not a blade of grass!" "Not a leave nor flower!" "Nothing!" "And can you fight that with your book?" "Forgive me!" "I mean no disrespect for my elders, but I speak for what I heard at school!" "And I heard this:" ""That a man is a slave to the earth, or its master and when it turns against him, he must fight it!"" "We can fight these creeping things!" "If we save but one field, it would a new thing in all this land, and the best in a thousand years!" "This thing can be done?" "Show us how to do it!" "If it'd please you, come on to the fields!" "Now look!" "The locusts will come down here, the wind blows between these hills." "There!" "Like a whirlpool, if it blows the locusts they'll come down there and no other place!" "I saw it!" "As a boy!" "They came down there!" "And they were gone, with a change of wind" "But the crops, were gone with them!" "But that's the thing!" "We can hold them off till the wind changes!" "We must take a fire break along these hill tops." "Make a wall of fire!" "But my wheat lights on fire in a fire wall!" "And mine!" "And mine!" "And mine!" "I'll pay for what is eaten and what is burnt!" "We'll get kerosene, bring it in carts!" "The fire stuff, it makes a quick, high flame." "We can fight everything behind this wall!" "If they break through, we'll wind the ditch behind the fire;" "a wall of water!" "It will fail!" "If it fails, we'll fight them with torches!" "With noise!" "With our hands!" "If we can hold them off until the wind picks them up again, we can save at least those fields!" " It can't be done!" " It must be done!" "All you have and all I have depends on it!" "You think I'm rich?" "But if I lose this harvest there's nothing!" "If I save anything I'll share it!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Let the men dig and women, let the old men and boys make torches, gather all things that'll make a noise!" "Bring the fire stuff!" "Get the oxens and ploughs, sickels, spades!" " Everyone!" "Hurry!" "Hurry!" " Useless!" "Useless!" "I'll stay where it's safe!" "Faster!" "Faster!" "Make that thing wider!" "Up here!" "Hurry!" "Hurry!" "Bring the fire stuff!" "Come on men, hurry!" "Torches." "Millions!" "Millions!" "My god!" "See!" "They land in one place!" "Yes, they fall!" "Hey!" "Hurry with the fire stuff!" "Load the fire stuff from here!" "Get them!" "Get the torches!" "Get the torches!" "Light the fires!" "All fire stop!" "They are smothering the plains!" "It's breaking through, just as I predicted it!" "Just as I predicted it!" " Bring the water!" "Fill the ditches!" " Fill the ditches!" "They'll be eaten, there's no doubt about it now!" "No doubt about it!" "That ditch will never hold them!" "We must fight them with our hands!" "Ourselves!" "Anything!" "Move!" "Chen!" "Keep fighting!" "Don't give up!" "We must keep fighting!" "Everyone!" "We can!" "There's the wheat!" "Save it!" "The wind!" "The wind!" "The wind!" "The wind!" "We beat them!" "We beat them!" "We beat them!" "Yeah!" "We beat them!" "The farm!" "Victory!" "Victory!" "We've done it!" "The young master, it's wonderful!" "He did it!" "The son and his father, the son to be proud of!" "The father to be proud of!" "The wise man in 3 generations!" "But it's nothing!" "Just a matter of oil and fire, something we learn from books!" "But I'm worn out!" "Worn out!" "But we saved the crops!" "The harvest is saved!" "The gods are good!" "What's the matter?" "I'll call your husband." "No, no!" "Say nothing." "He's on the land again, with his sons, and this day's his, and it must be!" "You shall bring in the harvest, and lead the workers!" "Both of you!" "And Ching is my steward!" "Well!" "There's work to be done!" "Yeah yeah yeah!" "The harvest!" "Food!" "Food again!" "And another thing must be done, and you must do it, quickly!" "I?" "Work?" "Go to the banker, as a commisioner to be had, and if you rob me a little, it will be yours!" "For old time's sake!" "I will sell the Great House!" "Sell?" "But why?" "The harvest is saved, you'll have money!" "You can live like a lord!" "All that is finished!" "I will sell the Great House!" "It's a wedding again!" "But who?" "It's your grandson's wedding!" "And soon there'll be great grandsons!" "Many of them!" "Many of them!" "Please!" "Please!" "Let him be!" "Let him be!" "His cheek is as red as this excellent wine!" "Excellent indeed!" "My stomach is very pleased!" "Perhaps it's the lost of memory, but I've never eaten such rice!" "It's very bad rice." "The worst I've ever bought!" "Grandchildren!" "Great grandchildren!" "Have all the guests had rice?" "Yes, yes!" "Is the sweet rice is hot, with lard and sugar?" "And the 8 fruits?" "It's just as you wished." "Mistrss!" "Your son's bride!" "Well, and she's beautiful!" "My daughter, look to your husband, and your husband's father, and his granfather, and you'll have no duty... to any of them." "You must rest!" "Everyone be here not smiling because of me." "Let them be, for the bride!" "In good time!" "In good time!" "For you'll be well again." "Well..." "This thing is waiting." "You can't speak of that, and please me." "I'm content, and what must be done, you've done!" "Bridegroom hasn't heard a word!" "He's wishing we go home!" "No!" "No indeed, I should be honoured if you stay the whole evening!" "Do you remember?" "Yes!" "If a man could speak, there're things..." "Some are forgotten." "But now I know that you're the one, that the best a man can have." "Ou Lang!" "Ou Lang!" "This I cannot bear!" "I'd sell all my land if I could heal you!" "No!" "I would not let you!" "For I must die, sometime." "But the land will be there, after me." "I beg you!" "Stay here with me!" "I can not!" "Forgive me!" "Ou Lang... you are the earth!"