This is no exaggeration. Old Wang, the village elder, was forcibly fed a bowl of water made from burnt paper talismans after talking in his sleep for several nights; Wang Ermazi, who learned to speak Hokkien in the county town, was tied to a pillar and sun-baked for three days after returning to the village and uttering just a few phrases. He was believed to be possessed by a ghost.,Along the way, the irregular arrangement of thatched huts and earthen houses, Xiashan Village, although nestled by mountains and water, remained a remote and impoverished village. The local people's utilization of the mountains and water was limited to meeting their basic needs. To build a house, they would go up the mountain to cut down a few trees to bring back as beams; when there was no rice for cooking, they would go up the mountain to find some wild vegetables and fruits, or fish a couple of small fish from the river to cook. The feudal peasant economy still relied on farming, and most villagers struggled to make ends meet with their three-tenths of an acre of land. Only a few landlords were relatively wealthy.,“Mother, oh, it hurts, it hurts! I'm not a child of two or three anymore,” Zhu Ping’an cried for mercy, his chubby little hand clutching Chen’s arm, tiptoeing to lessen the pain.。