To Live

Fugui starts by saying, “Those years after I returned home were difficult, but I guess you could say they went smoothly. Fengxia and Youqing got bigger by the day, and me, I got older and older” (87). Fengxia is now 17 and beautiful, but she most likely won’t get married because she is deaf and mute, and Youqing is 12 and going to school in town. At first, Fugui didn’t think he’d have enough money to send Youqing to school, so in an effort to save money, he sent Fengxia away to live with an elderly man in town. However, Youqing was devastated by the loss of his sister, and Fengxia kept coming back home in the middle of the night, crying. Eventually, Fugui realized that he couldn’t live without Fengxia by his side, and he allowed her to come back home.

By the time Youqing is 10, Fugui feels that their fortunes are improving: “Fengxia could carry her own weight. We were raising two lambs, and Youqing was in charge of cutting grass to feed them” (98). Youqing grows attached to the lambs and continually runs back and forth from school to home to feed the lambs.