Chapter 16

He Dashan and Wei Xiangcui were parents who played extreme favorites. Their eldest son, He Yongan, was already twenty-five and remained unmarried. The second son, He Yongchang, was twenty-four, married to Wang Guihua, and had two children: five-year-old Goudan and three-year-old Gousheng. The third, He Yongchang, was twenty-two, married to Mao Chunfang, and had a three-year-old daughter named Daya. The fourth child, He Yongxia, was twenty, and because of her excellent grades in school, she had become a sales clerk at the commune’s Supply and Marketing Cooperative—a feat that caused quite a stir across the surrounding villages. She later married Zhong Xingye, a grassroots cadre at the commune government office, and they now had a baby boy just over five months old. The fifth and sixth children, He Yongyun and He Yongming, were twins who were both attending high school in the county.