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<div style="background-color:#ffeaee; padding: 25px; font-style:italic; font-size: 0.9em; margin-bottom: 20px;">In the <a href="http://chinesereadingpractice.com/tag/novels/">Novels</a> series, I get you started reading the first few paragraphs of classic Chinese fiction. If you like the beginning, you can buy the book and keep reading.</div>  
Mo Yan is a legendary novelist. My Chinese lit teacher said: sex, violence, and vulgarity. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sorghum_(novel)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mo_Yan
https://www.kanunu8.com/book3/8256/182711.html
https://www.penguin.com/ajax/books/excerpt/9780140168549

I know that when you first start reading, it's hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->

<h3>A few notable points:</h3>

他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。

I figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either "past" or "pass", or one of many variations thereon. Let's look a few usages of 过.

1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has "been done before", or "has been done in the past", as in "Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?" （你去过上海吗?), or "Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). 

2) Usage two, 过去, means "to pass by", as in “The days passed one by one" (一关一天就过去了). 

3) Usage three, also 过去, means "The Past", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. "To forget the past is a betrayal." (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)

4) The fourth usage is "to pass (time)", or "to pass one's days" (过日子), or to "How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?" (这些天过得怎么样？). 

5) Another 过去 - to "pass across", "to cross" (as in a river or street).

6) 过去 "to pass by" (someone or something). 

And on and on. In our sentence here, we're using #4 first, and then #2. 

他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。

"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>."

Make sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. 

<h3>One more thing:</h3>

咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means "us" or "we". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means "us" and "we", and it does.  咱们 only refers to "us" and "we" when the speaker is including the person they're talking to. So 咱们 means really "You and I", not "we". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：

我们： "Sorry, you can't come with us, we're going to see a movie alone." (The person being spoken to is not included in the "we".)
咱们： "Why don't we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the "we".)

我们： "I'll call you as soon as we get back." (The person being spoken to is not included in the "we".)
咱们： "What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the "we".)

我们： "We're not home right now, leave a message!" (The person being spoken to is not included in the "we".)
咱们： "We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the "we".)

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<h4>小马过河</h4>
小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”

小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”

牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”

小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”

小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”

小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。
 
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Little Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: "Little Horse, you're all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank." 

Little Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn't know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: "Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?" 

Uncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: "Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf." 

Little Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He'd just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: "Little Horse, Little Horse, don't go in, this river is so deep!" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: "Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away." 

Little Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: "Don't worry, let's go together and have a look." 

Little Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn't as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn't as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. 

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