“How silly! You’ve read too many books! How could you compare a family with a connection? What kind of survival doesn’t need a connection? Even in our home village, we would cook for guests in order to get some help when the harvests came. Don’t you remember how we passed the fi ve years of mother sickening in bed? We are the biggest family with more land than any other families. Every year, we started seeding the earliest yet fi nished harvesting the latest. With mother’s sickness, and if without the help of our villagers and our relatives, some of our crops might have rotten in the fi eld. Do you think our father would allow the food to become a waste after the labour of all seasons?”Mei said sternly, then added softly, “Had it not been such a hardship, I probably could finish primary school. Now my hand would shake whenever holding a pen. I just have the fear to read or write.”