Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Part I)

This story starts out in a small village on a mountain known as the Phoenix in the Sky. Two teenagers, Luo and the narrator, are sent there for reeducation, basically to work. The village headmaster is examining a violin to figure out what it is, the narrator has to explain to him that it is a musical instrument. The boys' parents are persecuted during the Chinese Cultural Revolution for being doctors. During this "reeducation" they lived in a house on stilts with only two beds and an alarm clock that captivated many of the villagers and especially that of the headman. The boys usually worked by carring waste in buckets, but would occasionally tell stories to the villagers. This led to the headman sending them to see a movie in town and coming back and describing it to them.
This going to the city is what led the boys to meet the little seamstress. She would stay in her home and sew on her machine while her father would travel to the different villages to make clothes. When they talked to her for the first time, it seemed as if Luo was attracted to her. For a couple of months, the boys were sent to work in a coal mine on the mountain. It was dangerous work and eventually, Luo developed Malaria. The day he got it, Luo recieved a letter from the seamstress telling them that she had gotten permission for them to tell the story of one of the movies to her village.
When they arrived at the village, they told the stroy of "The Little Flower Seller". Luo told the better part of the story because he had a gift for storytelling. By the end of their performance, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Luo was struck down by the Malaria, enough to where they (the seamstress and the narrator) had soceresses come to watch over him.