Books & Beyond China Plus

While the mother is still weeping, her elder son runs to her with the news that his son, the grandson the mother has always dreamed of having, has arrived. At last, there is new hope for the family and for the mother.

They arrive back home after the execution later that morning, and the mother asks her elder son to take her out behind the hamlet to the old grave to weep. As the mother grieves the loss of her younger son, she sinks into the earth and all past sorrows flash through her mind.

When the young prisoners are brought out, the mother spots her younger son in the crowd and rushes toward him. But he is tied to another bold young woman who pulls the frightened younger son away from the mother while singing aloud their great cause as they walk towards their death.

The mother decides to go to town and witness for herself her younger son's execution. Her elder son and the cousin's son are with her and they wait together outside the jail's gate for that dreadful moment.

In desperation, the mother talks about trading their land for more money to save the younger son, still thinking that money is the issue and the jail keeper won't let his son go because they are poor. But her elder son refuses to sell the land, which is now his land. After all, he is soon to become a father of his own child.

The elder son and his cousin relate to the mother all that they saw and heard in town earlier that day.