Chapter 1 Birth

Aunt Yinxin takes her name from the huge ginkgo tree in front of her house. In the summer of that year, it was also such a hot afternoon. Aunt Yinxin's mother fell asleep unconsciously when she was enjoying the coolness under the ginkgo tree. In her sleep her mother saw the huge ginkgo tree covered with white ginkgo berries. Countless magpies fell on the tree and chirped non-stop. Mother was surprised to see the ginkgo fruit in the tree full of surprises. Since she came to this house, the ginkgo tree has never produced a single fruit. The old people told her more than once that it was a male tree that never bore fruit. Her mother couldn't help but feel ridiculous when she heard such an explanation. It was the first time she heard that a tree was divided into male and female. Yes, the old man told her earnestly that there are male trees and female trees in ginkgo trees, and the one that bears fruit is the female tree, and the one that does not bear fruit is the male tree. The tree in front of her house is a fruitless male tree. Right now, she looked at the trees full of white ginkgo fruits, and there was an indescribable surprise and consternation in her heart. After a while of coursing, she secretly thought that she would be able to harvest the white fruits on this tree in the autumn. When she was immersed in her happy reverie, all the magpies on the tree suddenly fluttered and flew away, a dark cloud was pressing over the sky, there was a faint sound of thunder in the distance, and the gust of wind came at the same time. People were shouting and running, and the white fruit of the tree fell everywhere in the wind, hitting her heavily, which made her feel very distressed and regretful. She struggled and shouted, Yinxin, my Yinxin. At this moment, a colic in her stomach woke her up from her deep sleep, and then she heard a cry of a baby coming from under her body. Aunt Yinxin was born at that time.

The day Aunt Yinxin was born was when the Huayuankou Embankment burst. At that time, the Japanese had already reached Henan. Every day, refugees who escaped from the famine walked past the village from time to time. Bringing girls, begging from door to door, they fled westward like a stream of locusts, the Japanese murdered and set fire, and the horror news of raped women also spread like locusts in the Central Plains with the refugees who fled. At that time, Her mother had just given birth to Yinxin, and there was another riot in the village. The Yellow River burst. This terrible news instantly pushed people to the peak of terror. People can't take care of the mature crops in the fields and the homes they have lived in for many years, and they have fled west.

The miserable Yinxin encountered the first catastrophe in her life as soon as she was born, and her life of suffering began from here. All this may be attributed to the name "Yinxin" given to her by her mother. The mother's unconscious cry in the dream happened to be heard by the aunt next door, and after the mother's cry, it was her first cry in the world, and that cry was so loud, in the quiet June afternoon It seemed so unusual. The cry woke up the sleeping mother under the ginkgo tree, and also woke up the sleeping aunt next to the mother. The aunt next door completed the first welcoming ceremony for her to come to this miserable world under the ginkgo tree. A pair of peasant's customary rough hands raised her high above her head, and after identifying her gender, her throat was let out a soft hiss, a hint of slight regret evident in the hiss. Over the years, peasants have had far greater expectations for males than females. Preference for sons over females is an unchangeable concept under this backward productivity. This concept has been passed down from generation to generation, and it has lasted for many years. Yes, peasants have to work in the fields, and that is the hard work that only men can do. When the ancestors invented Chinese characters, they gave the Chinese character "male" this special meaning. Male means to work hard in the fields. Men can not only establish a family and support their families, but also pass on the family's incense. And all of this is something women can't do. During the tenth month of pregnancy, who doesn't want a boy? During this long tenth month, the father and mother were always looking forward to a boy in their womb, but all these expectations were realized just at the moment of childbirth. It's like a peasant who knows his harvest in autumn after a year of hard work.

From the sigh of the aunt next door, the mother has already understood whether she gave birth to a boy or a girl. The eyes of the mother lying on the ground are full of the tenderness and kindness of motherhood, and that trace of regret is fleeting in her eyes, disappeared without a trace in an instant, and became extremely happy and satisfied. Boys and girls are the same, they are all the flesh that fell from the mother's body, and they are the mother's heart and treasure. There is no mother in the world who does not love her own flesh and blood, and there is no mother in the world who will despise her own flesh and blood, it is her own flesh and blood.

Yinxin, this girl is called Yinxin. It turns out that you have long known that she is a girl. It turns out that you have given her a name a long time ago. Yinxin is Yinxin. The old ginkgo tree gave birth to a little girl, Yinxin. May she be in the future as robust as this ginkgo pair.The aunt next door handed the packed child to her mother, and she was still talking about it. The mother smiled, holding her child and looking at it carefully, thinking in her heart: where is it, I was dreaming just now. Dream? God's will, all this is God's will, it seems that this child has to be called Yinxin. The name is good or not, but it's a bit bitter. At the end of the delivery the new born Yinxin, the aunt next door muttered these words from her mouth. Only she can hear these words. Since it is God's will, how can manpower violate it? The mother is already immersed in the happiness of being a mother for the first time. At this moment, it is the little Yinxin that occupies all her heart. She no longer cares about the words of the aunt next door, and has no mood to listen what the aunt next door spoke.

The words of the aunt next door strengthened the mother's confidence in naming her child as Yinxin. From then on, there was a girl named Yinxin appeared in this world. The little Yinxin who was wandering in the swaddling clothes on the way to flee the famine, the little beggar Yinxin who ate a hundred family meals and wore robes in his childhood, the girl who disguised herself as a man and worked hard at the rich man’s house, the alias Yinsuo. The young Yinxin, the bride Yinxin who married the poor young man and gave birth to the second happiness, and the Yinxin who later became a widow, the Yinxin who raised her son and daughter up and remarried, until the one I saw when I came home a few years ago sitting with a stooped body. The old lady Yinxin under the shade tree.

*Yinxin, Chinese name , means ginkgo.