There was no way to go, to take refuge with relatives, to seek medical treatment in the night and the moon— a stick education I experienced in my childhood

One summer night, the sky was full of stars, the Milky Way was quiet, and a few neighbors who were close to him sat around Chu Tianshu's courtyard and listened to Chu Tianshu talk about what happened to him in his childhood. Chu Tianshu picked up the teacup, blew the foam of the tea leaves in the cup, and said:

First, chase and fight

------ blink of an eye, the school was out of summer, and the scars on my calves from being whipped with bamboo whips were almost better. At this time, the early rice is in storage, the pieces of early rice fields on the field are re-turned, the soil is ploughed into the land and then rake into a paste-like fine mud, filled with water, and the smell of the soil is mixed with the fragrance of cauliflower, which is immersed in the cool breeze in the morning and evening. This morning, my father instructed me to do my homework at home and carry the "cattle burden" by myself (Note: agricultural tools in Jiangsu and Zhejiang). At the bottom is a wooden frame in the shape of a field, the four corners are erected with bamboo strips, and at a height of about 80 centimeters, they are knotted with hemp rope, which is specially used to pick up manure in the pig house) to do farm work.

"In the morning, I went to Shazhu to pluck seedlings, and then I went to shangyang to cultivate the fields, and you did your homework at home." Dad said sternly and left.

I did some homework under the roof, already did a unit of practice problems in Chinese mathematics, and started a translation of a text. The title of this ancient text is "Harsh Government Is Stronger Than The Tiger". I chanted "Harsh government! tyranny! "Harsh" means harsh and harsh, "government" means government decrees, and the meaning of "harsh government is stronger than tigers" should be translated as: harsh government decrees are more terrible than tigers.

Suddenly, I thought of my father, who often beat me hard, named "Xingzheng", with a "zheng" word that was clear with the word "political", and suddenly realized: It turned out that my father was also exercising government decrees! No wonder it's fiercer than a tiger!

While I was thinking wildly, my classmate Chu Jianlin and "slug" Chu Yongqing came to ask me to "hit glass marbles".

"Playing Glass Marbles" is a children's version of an activity similar to golf. In summer and autumn, a quadrilateral field with a length of about 3 meters is set on the mochi field, and a shallow hole is dug in each of the four corners. Everyone has a glass marble, and from one hole clockwise the glass marbles are punched into the next hole, and whoever returns to the starting point first wins. On the way, when you encounter someone else's marbles that have not entered the hole, and your own has entered the hole, you have the right to knock someone else's marbles out of the hole first, and you can continue to hit the glass marbles to the next hole.

The event is so popular that when school is out in the afternoon, there are clusters of children playing the game.

At this time, I had already translated this ancient text on scratch paper, and when I listened to their encouragement, I was very itchy when I boarded it, so I asked "Slug" to help me copy the translation to the exercise book.

"Forget it! Now don't copy, play for a while and then talk about it. Chu Jianlin proposed.

"Yongqing, you write well, you help me copy, I'll come back when I go to play." I involuntarily shoved the green corn-shaped pen into Yong Qing's hand.

"What if your dad finds out?"

"Oh! By the way, you sit at the front door and do it, be vigilant, see my dad come home, you take the homework book back to your house, I play a game and come back right away. ”

I took the homework book and the square stool to the front door, let Yongqing sit on the threshold to help me copy the translation, and ran to the playground with Chu Jianlin to play.

When my father pulled out the seedlings in Shaju and came to the Shangyang field to prepare for the planting, he suddenly remembered that he did not have a nylon rope for school straights, so he returned home along the road from the gate of the courtyard.

Because there was no road from the front door, the Slug did not see that my father had returned home. When he suddenly realized that my father had returned home, he was also very frightened, dropped the exercise book and the translation, got up and ran.

But when my dad was rummaging through the nylon rope in a pile of baskets under the eaves, he caught a glimpse of the person sitting on the threshold at the front door doing his homework and ran away, and immediately felt that there was a problem, he did not look for the nylon rope first, hurried to the front door to see, at a glance that the person who ran away was a "slug", and then picked up the exercise book and looked at it, and saw my little trick.

"Oh well! I even let someone else do the homework for me, which paid off! Dad's heart was on fire, "What other lessons and books are you reading?" Isn't this a prodigal son? ”

Dad couldn't take care of the bamboo whip, so he got up and chased out of the alley.

As soon as I saw the "slug" running, I knew that things were bad, and in the blink of an eye, I saw my father chasing out of the alley and coming to the mound, and immediately rushed to the main street of the village and ran to the east of the village.

My dad chased after him and opened his throat to threaten, "You debt collector, today I broke your leg, you don't have to read." Dad's words frightened my heart tight, and my scalp swelled. I used my brain to think about countermeasures.

The east end of the village is the intersection of the tongcheng highway on the edge of the village and the road in the village, and the exit from the village is a straight road to the neighboring village to the east, but to the west, it is close to the village and is connected to the lanes in the village. My dad was looking for nylon ropes from the road back to his home, so the "slugs" staring at the main road in the village didn't see my dad come home. I knew that if I ran along the road to a neighboring village when I left the village, I would soon be caught by my father, and only by running back to the village could I go to someone else's house in the village and hide. So, when I ran out of the village, I ran back along the road.

Thanks to the fact that I usually play with my playmates, sprinting is good. So basically kept a distance of about 20 meters from dad.

When I ran along the highway to the intersection connected to the lane in front of the third road, I suddenly turned from the road into the lane, from the road down to the lane, it was a curved and narrow path, down to a high ridge, and there were more than a dozen steps of rocky masonry, I usually jumped up and down, very flexible, my father's old arms and legs, it was half a beat slower. I suddenly distanced myself from him.

When my dad chased into the alley, I had already run back to the door of my house, about 40 meters away. I walked through the back door of the neighbor's house in the same courtyard and ran from the lane in front of the fourth lane to the intersection of the road and the lane.

I saw that my father had just chased him out of the back door of the neighbor's house, and the distance was still far away. I stood still, slapped the wind in my face with the palm of my hand, and shouted, "Great evil man! Come chase! Catch up and count your skills! "My father was so angry that he bent down to pick up the stones, and I was so frightened that I quickly ran again.

I ran for a while, then turned from the highway to the fifth road, passed through the hall and entered the house, and ran to the home of my father's friend Chu Ciyou. Chu Ciyou's father, Chu Shaozhang, came back from working in the fields, wearing a black imitation silk shirt, sitting on a small square stool in the alley and fanning it with a fan, and when he saw me running over, he asked: "Tianshu, panicked, what's wrong?" I said, "Father-in-law! My dad is going to hit me, you help me stop it! ”

Chu Shaozhang is more than 60 years old, tall, shaved flat head, gray hair, wide mouth and long face, looks particularly kind, listen to me say this, he stood up and said: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid!" You went to my room and hid, and came to my house to beat people up. ”

I rushed into the door and saw Chu Ciyou's wife fishing for tofu skin in front of the stove, so I said, "Aunt Caijuan, my father chased me with a stone and beat me, let me hide." ”

Cai Juan aunt combed the big braid dragged to the waist, her face was white and tender, everything was not hurried, listening to me say this, quickly dried the tofu skin in her hand to the shelf, wiped it on the floral green cloth apron with her hand, and said", "Beat my son so fiercely", while welcoming out.

I heard my father's voice: "Uncle Shaozhang! Did this little devil in my family come to you? I beat him to death.". Shao Zhanggong replied, "He is in my house!" Do you mean to hit him here? I also heard Aunt Caijuan say, "Children can only be educated, how can they fight?" My dad said, "Don't teach me a lesson this time, it won't work!" ”

I heard my father's anger and immediately slipped out the back door and took a detour to the road again. This is really no way, I have to face my father anyway. Where do I go?

Second, escape

I ran to the road, looked back to see that my father did not follow, so I slowed down and walked to the west of the village, walking less than 300 meters, to the village's temple of protection , Kong Qixianggong Temple.

The ancient temple is located in a large ancient pine forest, facing north and south, with only one main hall, no temple door, in front of the hall is a wall, and the entrance faces east. There is a long board fixed to the pillar on the east and west sides of the temple for people to rest, and on the south side of the altar sits a statue of Kong Qixianggong and his wife, Kong Qixianggong is dressed in Confucian clothes, very kind.

I walked into the temple, prayed to Kong Qixianggong and his wife for a few times, and then sat on the long board on the west side to rest, and because I was not at ease, I looked at the road from time to time to prevent my father from chasing me.

It is now more than 10 o'clock, the summer sun is beginning to threaten, the sand and gravel on the road emit a scorching white light under the sun, the cicadas on both sides of the road let go of their throats and shout, and the water of the rice plants that are basking on the side of the road is evaporated, and a layer of shiny halos appears on the rows of rice plants. The hot wind brings heat into the temple without sunlight, giving me goosebumps from time to time in the confluence of heat and cold.

I thought about it, but I didn't dare to go back to the village, I didn't dare to go home, so I went outside the temple wall and looked around, hoping to see my mother's figure. However, this hope has been that after three or five disappointments, I have lost confidence.

So, I was suddenly afraid that my father would come to me. With this thought, I was too scared to do it, and I quickly made up my mind to run away. The destination of the escape was in the village of Lilang, about 10 miles to the northwest, where there was a relative, and my great uncle lived in the village.

In the fields on both sides of the road, farmers in pairs of threes and threes planted seedlings in their respective fields, and occasionally farmers returned home from work on the road. There are intermittent sycamore trees on the side of the road, which are as thick as a cover at this time, and it is particularly cool to walk under the trees; the water in the ditch under the road is abundant and clear, babbling, and in the small pool formed by the impact of the flowing water, there is the sound of small fish hitting the water from time to time.

"Ahem! Tianshu, where are you going? "I came to the same neighbor Chu Yonglu. Chu Yonglu would often "hum" in his nose before speaking. At this time, Chu Yonglu's pants legs, cuffs were high, covered with muddy water, and the shoulders were carrying a one-legged stool and nylon rope, and the "cow rope" was going home.

I hesitated for a moment and then said, "Uncle Yonglu, my father asked me to go to Lilang Village to invite my uncle to farm." ”

"Why did you go alone so late?" hum! You should let your sister go. Uncle Yonglu expressed his dissatisfaction with my father's arrangement, and stopped to say a few more words, but I left him without stopping to continue walking.

After walking for about 2 miles, I turned left into Jinghu Village, and when I walked out of the intersection of the south side of the village, a big yellow dog lying in the house was awakened, and immediately chased out the door to follow me and barked wildly - I have known this dog for three years, I go to Uncle Da's house every Spring Festival to "eat rice dumplings (walk relatives)", this dog always has to show me the majesty, so I have picked up two stones, one in each hand, before coming to the door of this family. When I passed the door, I deliberately trotted up, and the big yellow dog was immediately excited and chased after him. I ran to a pile of rocks not far away, stood up sharply, turned around and aimed the stone in my hand at it, and because it was not far away, a stone hit the dog, and the big yellow dog was suddenly attacked by me, "whimpered" and screamed, turned around and ran away, ran for a long distance before stopping, and shouted at me in demonstration.

After walking along the field path through a large area of farmland, walking about three miles, and crossing a small stream, I began to walk up the mountain road. At this moment, my heart naturally became afraid. Because there are several coffins parked at the foot of the mountain about 30 meters from the path, which have not been moved for many years.

The coffins were neatly covered with straw, and the lacquer of the coffin plates was still bright red. Although I didn't want to see it at all, I couldn't help but look at it, because Chu Yonglu, who was in the same place, had told ghost stories to a group of our children many times. He said that there was a distant uncle in the neighboring village who had gone to the field to weed on a rainy morning, and there was a coffin parked at the foot of the mountain not far from his uncle's own place. At this moment, my mind was also filled with the plot of ghost stories, a heart beating like a drum, and between the tensions, I withdrew my gaze and instead sped up and ran towards the mountain.

I ran up the ridge in a huff, relieved, and couldn't help but look back at the road. Who knew that this look made my heart twitch and my scalp tighten. I saw a man on the path by the coffin suddenly follow him toward the ridge, and the man was clearly wearing a blue shirt.

"There are ghosts!" I cried out in fright, "Ah", did not dare to look at it more, turned around and ran to the foot of the mountain on the other side. From this ridge to Lilang Village, there is another mountain range, and between the two mountains is a farmland, and it is about 500 meters along the field path to reach the foot of another ridge.

I ran down the mountain in one breath, at this time the field has basically finished harvesting rice, some fields have just planted seedlings, so there are many muddy water stains on the road, I feel that there are traces of farmers' activities, my mind is slightly settled, I slowed down slightly, looked back, only to see that the person wearing the green shirt has reached the middle of the mountainside, and the speed is very fast. I stopped to look closely, and saw that the man was wearing gray trousers, and it was also step by step, and I relaxed my mind when I boarded.

"It's people!" I judged that in the ghost stories I heard, ghosts had no feet.

"Could it be the bad guy who kidded and sold children?" Another terrible thought came to my mind— because during that time there were stories of child abduction and trafficking, and it was said that during the New Year's Festival, there was a four-year-old child in the city who went out with his mother, and a foreigner took advantage of the opportunity of the child's mother to go to the toilet, and when he opened his eyes, he fled with the child, and he still does not know the end. I was so frightened that my calves and stomach trembled, but I tried my best to walk faster, and when I reached the foot of the second ridge, I was exhausted, so I could only bend over and bend my back, and with my hands on my knees, I would step up step by step, and when I encountered a small tree on the side of the road, I grabbed the branch and moved it up.

When I reached the ridge, I looked back and saw that the man in the blue clothes had also reached the middle of the mountainside, and the Village of Lilang at the foot of the mountain on the other side was full of smoke, and in the distance, the sound of chickens and dogs barking was heard, and I stopped slightly to catch my breath, and then a gust of wind rushed to the foot of the mountain.

My uncle and aunt were sitting and eating noodles (a kind of handmade noodles with southern characteristics), and my uncle was sipping on bayberry wine when he suddenly saw me running in, and both of them were shocked. Uncle Quickly put down the wine glass, because it was a little urgent, and the bright red wine spilled on the table.

"Tianshu, what happened?" Uncle asked with concern.

"Look at this child, his face is blue, his clothes are soaked with sweat."

"Someone is chasing me!" ---"I just wanted to say it. Suddenly, it was dark inside the house, and the man in the blue dress stood in the doorway. I jumped up with a "whoosh" and hid behind my uncle.

"Hey! Uncle, do you go to Zhuxi Village along this road? The man in green was staring at me, and I felt that his eyes were evil, his eyes were cold, and his heart was involuntarily "fluttering" and beating.

"Follow this road and cross a ridge to Zhuxi Village." Uncle Da went to the door and pointed out to the Qingyi man.

"Tianshu! You mean this person is chasing you! Don't think too much, he is in a hurry like you, not chasing you. ”

Third, seek medical treatment

After my father was stopped by Shao Zhanggong, he drank a bowl of tea at his house. Aunt CaiJuan and Shao Zhanggong persuaded my father, and when they saw that my father's anger was slightly calmer, they called me out to admit my mistake, but I had already left Shao Zhanggong's home, where could they still find me? The three of them did not pay attention to it, and my father resigned and went to work in the fields again.

When it was time for lunch, there was no trace of me, and my mother became anxious first.

At noon, we eat the famous local home-cooked meal "Dough Skin". This kind of noodle is as long as the famous ramen noodles in the north, but thin and wide, in general, the length can reach 1 meter, about 4 cm wide, about 2 mm thick, after the potatoes, pickles for cooking in a large pot of soup boiling, the dough skin is thrown into the soup one by one, the dough skin is immediately cooked, put into a bowl, with garlic paste and a small spoon of lard as the topping, really fragrant and delicious.

My mother gave my father a large bowl of noodles, let my sisters continue to roll the noodles into the pot, and went out to Shaozhang's house to find me.

When Aunt Cai Juan heard that I had not come home for lunch, she also felt strange, so she quickly went into the room to look for me, and searched upstairs and downstairs again, and naturally disappeared from me.

At this time, both of them were anxious, and when they went out together, they went to the fourth road to inquire, and my mother called my name with her throat open on the way. In the past, whenever I heard my mother shouting at me, I would run out immediately, but this time it was obviously unexpected by my mother. Chu Yonglu lived in the fourth lane, was drinking a little wine, Sifang's face overflowed with red light, he heard my mother calling me early, saw my mother walk into the door, and said in his nose, "Cough! cough! The second voice, with a smile on his face, said, "This little devil! When I met him on the road, he lied to me and told me to go to Lilang Village and call Uncle Dabo to farm! cough! cough! I didn't feel right. ”

Aunt Caijuan laughed and said, "Now rest assured, the teaching method of playing children must be changed." ”

My mother went home and counted my father down, so she sent my eldest sister and third sister to pick me up at Lilang Village after dinner. My dad was calm on the surface, but he was also frightened in his heart.

With the repeated assurances of my two sisters, I followed them back to the house that evening, and my father took one look at me, sighed, and went to the alley with a bowl and sat down to receive Chu Ciyou's "education." My mom was so happy that she burned three eggs brown sugar tea for me to eat. I couldn't eat, I ate only an egg, drank a few mouthfuls of brown sugar tea, ate only a bowl of porridge for dinner, and went to bed before 8 o'clock.

Sleeping until midnight, I actually started a high fever. I had a headache and was confused to see the roof of the big bed infinitely enlarged, and I fell into the endless void without any support, so I let out a terrifying scream from time to time in my groa. This frightened my father, who took me in his arms to soothe me, and I occasionally woke up and opened my eyes to look at my father, and after a moment of silence, the dream was the same scene again, and then I let out another cry of fear.

My father saw that the situation was not right, and quickly carried me with my mother to the village west health center to find the chubby Dr. Luo. Dr. Luo took my temperature, listened to my heartbeat with a handset, and usually showed a confused look on his face with a hip-hop expression, and the clouds between his eyebrows were uncertain, and after a while he made up his mind and said: "It may be pleurisy, a little serious, hurry to the town health center." ”

My dad quickly said a few "troubles", so he and my mother returned home to prepare some hospital items and rushed to the town health center.

My mother carried me on her back, and my father had a light wooden knife with a 1-foot length in his waist, a flashlight in his hand, and a wind lamp in his hand, and set out on the road to town.

We walked west from the main road in the village, and the dogs in the village barked incessantly, and the continuous barking accompanied us out of the village. After crossing the Huanxi Bridge in the west of the village, the path winds between the "Five Qi Mountains" scattered in the fields. "Wuqi Mountain" is a circular hill bag with a height of about 10 meters to 20 meters and a diameter of about 60 meters to 80 meters, which are called Shrimp Mountain, Yushan Mountain, Crab Mountain, Turtle Mountain, and Cat Mountain. A mountain about 200 meters high in the northeast of the village is called Lion Mountain, holding its head high to the east, and the five hills are closely followed by Lion Mountain, also facing the east, so the feng shui master calls it "Five Qi Chaoyuan", and the ancestors of Qifeng Village built the village here, which is said to be the focus on this feng shui.

By this time, just after midnight, the moon had risen to the center of the sky, round and bright. The wilderness is full of life in a silence, and the frogs are talking loudly, starting from here and there, as if it were a gathering of the frog world. The paddy fields are freshly planted seedlings, where layers of silvery mist float and the sound of "grunting" in the water is constantly heard – the sound of loach swimming suddenly.

I was carried by my mother, and I felt very down-to-earth, and at first I was still confused and a little awake, but by the time I passed through this field and came to the foot of "Pingyang Ridge", I had fallen into a deep sleep. This is a mountain that separates Pingyi Town from Qifeng Village, and it is not known in what era it was built. The mountain is not high, but the steep slope is narrow, only 40cm to 50cm wide, and the stones on the original paved stone pavement have fallen in pieces. In some sections, the weeds on the side of the road cover the road surface, and the whole situation of the road is not visible, and it is easy to step on the air and fall; under the road, some are inclined slopes, and some are deep ditches. Such mountain roads are difficult to walk during the day, and even more dangerous at night. My dad took me from my mom's back and carried me on his back. My mother walked in front of me with a wind lamp and a wood knife.

I heard my mom constantly reminding my dad. "There is a gap here", "The stone on this side is loose", "There is a pond here", "This stone is slippery" ------ encounter these difficult places, my mother will slow down, take the wind lamp and shine back, so that my father can walk more steadily.

My dad carefully climbed the hill while adjusting the strength of the hand that was holding my two calves from time to time. When he felt his hands loosen, he tightened them again. He also consciously clanged the two silver bracelets hanging around my neck (my mother skewered the silver bracelets around my neck before leaving home). I guess it's to ward off evil spirits!

Feeling the hardships of my parents, my heart was full of regret, guilt, touching and other emotions, and my two hands hugged my father's neck tightly, and I secretly resolved: I must obey in the future. As my father's body slowly moved, listening to the soft conversation between my mother and my father, I gradually became confused and confused.

"Yikes! Ha! "Yikes! Ha! Suddenly, two short strange cries came from a grove of trees at the top of the hill.

"Ghost!" My heart suddenly jumped, a sound I had never heard, but I had said and imitated it a thousand times when I was playing with my friends.

My dad tightened his legs, and my mom used a wood knife to pound a large rock on the side of the road.

"Yikes! Ha! The unknown bird continued to bark. My hair stood up straight, but I couldn't help but count the number of times I cried.

My mother struck the stone harder with the knife, and when the bird called for the tenth, it was my mother who struck the stone with sparks, and the bird flew up from the woods. When I opened my eyes, I saw that the bird's body was dark red, similar in size to a crow's, and it cried out two times in the air, "Oh! Ha! Soon a hill that flew over the east was gone.

When we arrived at Pingyi Town Hospital, it was about 3 o'clock in the morning, the doctor in the emergency room was snoozing on his desk, he heard footsteps and opened his eyes and rubbed his hands, and my mother said urgently: "Doctor, my son has a high fever, help me see." ”

"Oh! Sit down and sit down! Do you know how to take your temperature? Place the thermometer under the tongue and leave untouched for 3 minutes. The doctor, who was tall, with a long nose and a beautiful face, handed me the thermometer and said to me very kindly.

Taking advantage of my temperature, he asked my parents about my situation this day.

After a while, the temperature is good, the body temperature is 36.8 degrees, normal!

My parents didn't believe it, and they watched me and let me measure it again, and it was still 36.8 degrees.

My parents kept saying "strange", not believing it to be true, but strongly hoping that it was a fact.

The doctor understood their mood, and he carefully examined my chest with the earpiece, examined my throat again, and finally breathed a sigh of relief, saying: "The little guy had a long heat yesterday, his body was too hot, it was heat stroke." You walked all the way with him on your back, and as soon as the cool breeze blew, the heat dissipated, and the body temperature was gone. ”

After a pause, he said, "I'll open you a bottle of ten drops of water, go to the next room and sleep for a while, and go back tomorrow!" ”

My parents closed their mouths in delight and thankfully led me into the next room. Tomorrow, my parents took me to the street, bought me two seaweed cakes and a bowl of salted soy milk with green onions, and bought a fritter - this fritter I ate for the first time, it was really delicious, it gave me memories, and I have never eaten such delicious fritters since.