If the eldest brother were alive, he would be seventy years old next year.
There are five of us brothers, no sister and no sister, my mother is sick all her life, and my father has to support the family; so the responsibility of going to the hospital to take care of my mother and going home to take care of my brother falls on the eldest brother. The mother suffers from severe tuberculosis, which is a contagious disease, and the eldest brother is the eldest in the family, who spends the most time around the mother, and accidentally gets tuberculosis. The disease was difficult to treat in the seventies and eighties of the last century, the family was difficult, could not afford expensive medicines, and two uncles who worked in the hospital took advantage of their convenience in the hospital to occasionally prescribe some levakh medicines for tuberculosis for the eldest brother and mother. But the eldest brother often took advantage of the family's inattention to secretly hide the medicine and leave it for his mother to eat, and he delayed his illness when he came and went. After her mother died at the age of thirty-four, my father led our brother through five difficult days.
Soon, the stepmother brought six children to my house, and in that era, a family of thirteen people, eating became a big problem, and we often did not have enough to eat. The stepmother would lock up the leftover flatbread (tortillas), stewed potatoes, etc., and leave it for her children to eat when they were hungry, and our brothers would not give it to us no matter how hungry they were. In order not to starve a few younger brothers often, when the eldest brother came in the spring, he plated a lot of clips to fight wild birds; in the summer, he would go fishing in the nearby Red Flag Bubble Reservoir and burn green wheat grains in the wheat field; in the autumn, he would find some soybeans that were not too ripe to roast; when winter came, he would bake potatoes by the stove to relieve the hunger of several younger brothers. All year round he worked hard for his brothers to eat, but he rarely ate it himself, often watching us eat while he was busy; we asked him to eat together, and he would always say, "I am willing to watch you eat, and I will be happy when you are full!" "During a labor trip to repair the Red Flag Bubble Reservoir, the eldest brother vomited blood due to excessive exertion, and since then, he has suffered from tuberculosis that he cannot do heavy work.
The harshness of the stepmother, the father's Muna, the eldest brother had the idea of leading several younger brothers to separate the family. Considering that the eldest brother was not in good health and could not do heavy physical work, which was not enough to support a family, Grandma and Uncle did not agree with the idea of the eldest brother's repeated proposals to separate the family.
The eldest brother was frail and sickly, and his family was not well-off, and no girl was willing to marry him. He was unable to lead his brothers to live a well-fed life, and he did not want to see his stepmother's face every day. The last years of his life were spent at the homes of several aunts, and at the age of twenty-six he vomited blood and died next to the walls of the courtyard of his second aunt's house.
A few days ago, the good literary friend Deng Ge invited a few friends to dinner, and during the banquet, after he was busy, he gave us a few who were not brothers and sisters, but like brothers and sisters to pour tea and cloth dishes; he said, I am willing to watch you eat, you eat well, eat enough, I am happy! Brother Dunge's words touched my thoughts and reminded me of my bitter big brother...
About author:Li Jiping, male, born in 1968 in Anda, Heilongjiang Province. He is currently a member of the Chinese Poetry Society, a member of the China Yuelian Society, a member of the China Collectors Association, a director of the China New Literature Alliance, a director of the Council of Young Writers Magazine and the vice chairman of the Daqing Branch, a writer and director of the Editorial Department of Chinese Writers Online, a member of the China Hard Pen Book Association, a member of the Heilongjiang Poetry Society, a member of the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Society, a director of the Daqing Writers Association, a director of the Daqing Poetry Society, a director of the Daqing Dandelion English Scholarship Organizing Committee, a chairman of the Daqing High-tech Zone Writers Association, and a campus literary and art network. chief editor. Some of his works have been published in "Hundred Essays", "Yalu River", "Middle-aged Readers", "Qilu Literature", "Years", "Contemporary Essays", "Cultural Herald", "Poets", "Young Writers", "Poetry Country", "Daqing Daily", "Chinese Writers Online", "Qingfeng World Literature" and other newspapers and online platforms.
Editor-in-Charge: Shang Shu