Changbai Island is like a lying elephant, melting into the Changbai River, which is thousands of meters wide, blocking our view from looking north.

Otherwise, use a high-powered telescope and stand at the door of your home to see Shanghai's skyscrapers.

My father's mother, my grandmother was married from Changbai Island, where there were many of our relatives.

My father would occasionally reminisce about some of my grandmother's house.

"My uncle often scolded me for not being able to plant the land, and the rice I planted couldn't survive."

"I went to my grandmother's house, and my cousin always bullied me."

When my father was 16 years old, my grandfather, who was a butcher, fell ill and died, and the family began to decline.

When he was 18 years old, he encountered another fire that burned down all the family's belongings.

Although he received the help of some relatives and built two thatched houses to survive, he was basically destitute and lived by working part-time jobs.

So I filled in the part of the generation and filled in the hired peasants, that is, the proletariat in the countryside.

Many people do not know that in addition to the poor middle peasants, there is also a hired peasant.

Because there are very few hired farmers.

Since his father went to his mother's house to be a door-to-door son-in-law, he has not walked past Changbai's relatives.

He only said that he did not like to go to relatives.

But that's certainly not a reason, he told me to drive to his sister's house when he was 90 years old.

I can guess his thoughts: he feels that being a door-to-door son-in-law is inferior, and he is afraid of being looked down upon.

Come to think of it, we won't pierce it.

There are brothers and sisters who have to complete the etiquette for any major things.

When I was very young, I went to Changbai with my older siblings, as if my father's cousin was married.

Because I don't usually move around, I don't have much contact even during the New Year's holidays.

At that time, I had to go to Maozhi Pier to take a boat, which was not big, but it was loaded with machinery.

It doesn't take an hour to go from Maozhi to Changbai, but it's just one shift a day, and you can't go back and forth on the same day.

At that time, I felt that Changbai was a big island, and it was also a commune, just like our Xiaosha.

When I was very young, I saw a long line of lights on Changbai Island at night, and our village was not yet electrified, so I always felt that they were more advanced than us.

When my father and aunt were there, I asked someone to bring letters to ask my father to go for a walk, and they also knew that my father loved face, but my father just didn't go.

Once, when I accompanied my mother on a transport boat in the village, I went to the Tang River on Changbai Island to cut a kind of grass that pigs eat, called "revolutionary grass", and my mother pointed to a village and said, "This is your father's grandmother's house in Dawan."

We didn't have time to visit because the boat was about to return.

When my sister got married, my father's cousin came, and she was tall and had a long braid, which was very good-looking.

In recent years, I have met many white people in Hangzhou who have made some achievements in working outside, and the most asked question at the dinner table is whether they recognize these relatives of their father.

Although the results were not very satisfactory, there was no match for relatives.

But when they told me something about the other person, such as a cousin of my father who went to the United States to work as a doctor, and mixed well, they were very pleased.

Now, just outside the village is a large ferry terminal, and you can drive to Changbai.

The Yongdai Bridge, which is under construction, also has a hole to connect to Changbai Island.

Would love to take some time to check it out.

Changbai, there is the root vein of my ancestors!