Jiazhen (Gong Li) to leave him, along with their daughter, Fengxia, and their unborn son, Youqing. Fugui eventually reunites with his wife and children but is forced to start a shadow puppet troupe with a partner named Chunsheng. The Chinese Civil War is occurring at the time, and both Fugui and Chunsheng are conscripted into the Kuomintang's Republic of China armed forces during a performance. Midway through the war, the two are captured by the communist People's Liberation Army and serve by performing their shadow puppet routine for the communist revolutionaries. After the Communist victory, Fugui is able to return home, only to find out that due to a week-long fever, Fengxia has become mute and partially deaf. Soon after his return, Fugui learns that Long'er burned all his property just to deny the new regime from seizing it. No one helped put out the fire because Long'er was a gentry. He is eventually put on trial and sentenced to execution. As Long'er is pulled away, he recognizes Fugui in the crowd and tries to talk to him as he is dragged toward the execution grounds. Realizing that Long'er's fate would have been his if not for his "misfortune" years earlier, Fugui is filled with fear and runs into an alleyway before hearing five gunshots. He runs home to tell Jiazhen what has happened, and they quickly pull out the certificate stating that Fugui served in the communist People's Liberation Army. Jiazhen assures him they are no longer gentries and will not be killed. The story moves forward a decade into the future, to the time of the Great Leap Forward. The local town chief enlists everyone to donate all scrap iron to the national drive to produce steel and make weaponry for retaking Taiwan. As an entertainer, Fugui performs for the entire town nightly, and is very smug about his singing abilities. Soon after, some boys begin picking on Fengxia. Youqing decides to get back at one of the boys by dumping spicy noodles on his head during a communal lunch. Fugui is furious, but Jiazhen stops him and tells him why Youqing acted the way he did. Fugui realizes the love his children have for each other. The children are exhausted from the hard labor they are doing in the town and try to sleep whenever they can. They eventually get a break during the festivities for meeting