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[wenzili]

(5) Misery As Long As Silk Thread

He Hua originally lived in Nan Chang County. Her father was a silk thread maker, locally known as Silk Master Huang.
Filature or silk making was a very old workmanship, which can be traced back to five thousands year�s ago in ancient China.
After years� development, the thread fabrication and dyeing process had become more and more mature.
After the silk reeled from cocoons, the thread could be manually made by the combination to several pieces of silks.
Every evening the silk maker tired up the both ends of the silk fiber to be processed to two brass-plumbs respectively. Dozen of such silk sets with brass-plumbs must be prepared well for the following process next day.
Before dawn, the silk master erected a �T� form bracket in an open area and fixed another pole in far distance, then he placed dozen of the plumbs on the top beam of the �T� bracket and the others on another mobile �T�, which he would hold in hands and walked around the fixed pole in far distance. After he returned back, he would place all these plumbs on the fixed bracket in a certain order.
After that, with a pair of handled rub-boards, he must constantly rub each end of the plumbs in turn to maintain their revolving. In this way, the silk fiber would twist together and become thinker.
This process was very hard and tiresome also with very narrow margin. Therefore, Master Huang�s family life was always in pressing economic odds.
Recent days, his wife would give a birth to a child. However, the sale of the silk thread was getting down daily.
�Only less than half kilo of rice left now in our container.� Wife warmed him with her hands resting on her bulged belly and accompanying by constant groaning, when he held his silk bracket out that morning.
Sure enough, when Master Huang was rubbing the plumbs, a neighbor ran and shouted to him in harsh panting:� Master Huang, Your wife had delivered a baby girl�
He collected his utensil and went home in hurry.
After long time�s fumbling inside, he failed to get anything to pay the midwife. Then, he gritted his teeth and pulled all rice out to reward her.
Consumed last provision, even the lying-in woman had no food, how could the little baby survive and be brought up? He felt he was really on the corner.
He had no way but to sent the infant to someone else.
When he held a nude baby in arms and shyly walked on road, he felt very uneasy. Therefore, he picked up some lotus leaves from a pond on the way and wrapped her body up entirely.
He arrived at a tobacco shop where happened to be no one in currently. He thought here must be her ideal destination for not only the landlord was rich enough to raise her, but also the landlady was infertile. Above all this couple was very kind to every body due to their belief of Buddhism.
He made up his mind and put the infant on the counter, then, ran away as quick as possible.
From then on, she became their adopted daughter and named as He Hua (lotus) to commemorate her first descent here with a package of lotus leaves.
He Hua and her foster parent had led a happy life for more than 9 years. The adopter treated her as their own borne daughter and had all sorts of favors by all means.
Unfortunately, a deadly disaster befell to them before long.

(To be continued by (6) Invaders� Bloody Massacre)

( For more information, pls. refer to my blog: http://blog.24en.com/blog.php?uid=16)
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