It was a September day and the trees were golden as they prepared to shed their leaves. The rising sun was just tinting the eastern clouds with a light orange hue. The crisp autumn air met young seven year old Zhangde as he stepped out onto their land. It was harvest time and they had a lot of work to do. Their land was among the largest which meant a lot of backbreaking work but plenty of food throughout the year. However, plenty of food didn't mean plenty of money. On the field, the Zhang family gained the most food out of all the farms, but off the field, they were just as poor as any other farmer. For a moment, Zhangde just sat there looking across the rolling land dotted with farms, and the distant mountains with peaks that rose into the clouds and the foothills surrounded by the early morning mist. This was his home, the land he knew well, and Zhangde loved every bit of it. From the noises of the animals, to the peaceful and lonely countryside to the birds singing on the nearby trees, all were familiar.
Zhangde was born and raised here; he thought he'd live here for the rest of his life. But things were going to change. Sooner than he thought.
At dinner, dad announced that he had sold their land and they were moving to the city once they were done harvesting. Zhangde and all of his brothers protested. But all their protests could not work now. The land was sold and they were moving into the city. That night was the most miserable night Zhangde could remember. All those familiar creaks and cracks, those familiar noises, and all of the animals that they owned. All were going to be gone. He could hear one of his brothers quietly sobbing and the last thing he saw before he fell asleep was the bright arc of the moon like a shining bow in the night sky.
One Month Later
Zhangde wakes up to the ringing of the clock and the sun shining through the window. The sunlight that had shone on his bed through that crack back at the farm was not here. The familiar sounds and noises were not there either. The air here in the city didn't feel like…air. It felt as if he needed to use a lot more energy to breathe. There were things called cars on the roads that moved without horses and behind them trailed dark smoke that seemed to suffocate Zhangde whenever he smelled it. The view outside the window revealed tall buildings instead of the peaceful, rolling lands with mountains in the distance. The buildings were shiny and had flat roofs.
Life here in the city was … different, for the worst or for the best, Zhangde couldn't decide. It was a whole lot cleaner here, but it didn't feel like home, and he couldn't communicate properly because of the language barrier. The local dialect was very different. There were streets instead of mud roads, there were stores to buy food instead of growing your own food, and there were so many people here, and the place was loud. Every now and then he could hear people yelling for no particular reason. The life back on the farm was wonderful, and they turned their backs on it because their parents needed more money so they came to the city for work.
Zhangde grew up like that, in the big city, but when he was just finishing high school, his father died and his mother worked hard to support the family. During that period, times were hard, they had only a few tattered and ripped shirts to wear, always starving and almost lost their apartment because they couldn't pay the bills. Things continued this way even when one of his brothers got accepted into an internship at a stock exchange company. Money from the family was given to Zhangde's brother so he could complete the internship and maybe get a job at the company.
Things got worse when the company Zhangde's mom worked for went bankrupt. They were forced out of their apartment and they moved to their relative's farm to live temporarily. The farm was not far from Hangzhou and so Zhangde and his other brothers, who had not graduated yet, continued at their school in Hangzhou. Every day, it was a thirty minute walk to and then from the school to their farm. The days were long and everyone felt angry and sad at the same time.
At times, Zhangde really missed his farm that he had lived on over ten years ago. Even though here, on his uncle's farm, there were animals and rolling farmlands and mountains in the distance, it was not the same, it didn't feel like home. The animals were different, the trees were different, everything was, and he was convinced he'll never find that feeling of being home ever again.
