Author: Yu Minhong
"Favored" childhood
We have three children in total, I have an older sister and an older brother. My brother got pneumonia when he was four years old. My grandmother was superstitious, saying that she was "phased" by the soul and was not allowed to be sent to the hospital, but my brother was sent to the hospital at the last moment of his life. The doctor said that my brother's lungs were all blackened, and he complained that my parents were too late. My parents watched their son pass away, and my mother cried for a long time. Later, perhaps to make up for her love for her brother, she poured all her love into me.
When I was a child, one of the things I remember the most was getting injections. At that time, my health was not very good, and I had to get injections almost every day. Every time I was injected, I cried out like a slaughtered domestic animal. My brother's departure cast a shadow over my mother, who would send me to an injection whenever I had the slightest physical problem.
Once, I had hepatitis and asthma. My parents were terrified and immediately sent me to the hospital for full treatment, and they were worried about it for many years, but luckily, I survived.
In order to increase my nutrition, from the year I was born in 1962 to 1980, when I was admitted to Peking University, my mother raised a total of 136 pigs, which was not a small number at that time. My mother also raised chickens, and every time I had some health problems, my mother would kill a chicken to replenish my body, and the neighbors said that I grew up in chicken soup and eggs.
My mother gave me all her love, and she could make any sacrifice so that I could grow up healthy and happy. My sister was five years older than me, and when she grew up, her mother asked her to study medicine because she could easily give me injections when she became a doctor. This seems to be a bit "favoritic" to me. My mother's love has grown with me until today.
My mother planted a dream for me
My mother is different from ordinary farmers, she does not have a deep land complex, but is bent on jumping out of the rural land and soaring into the wider sky. She failed to realize this dream, so she pinned this dream on me.
When I was very young, it was as if an operating system was implanted in my brain, and this operating system was Xu Xiake. Because Xu Xiake is also from Jiangyin, there are many stories about Xu Xiake in Jiangyin.
At first, I listened to my mother talk about Xu Xiake, and my mother asked me to take Xu Xiake as an example, study hard, grow my skills, and go out of the countryside in the future to glorify my ancestors.
Later, I listened to the old people in the village talk about Xu Xiake, they didn't say that Xu Xiake was a geographer or geologist, they said: "Ouch, every time Xu Xiake goes out, he can always bring a few beautiful women back." As soon as I heard it, I was very happy: "Well, it turns out that you can bring beautiful women back when you go out." "After listening to Xu Xiake's story, I often look at the clouds in the sky and the water of the Yangtze River, and fantasize about what the outside world looks like. And then I thought, "When will I be able to go out and bring some beautiful women back?" and slowly, the idea took root in my mind.
People are directed by the operating system in the brain to move forward, and in this way, I gradually developed a mentality. This mindset came to be known as "the desire to cross the horizon and go into the distance." This is a kind of inner desire for the future, longing for my life to continue to move forward, this desire to put into action, that is, to read books and learn, this is the only way I can go out.
Every night, my sister and I would sit under the kerosene lamp reading and doing our homework, while my mother spindled yarn. Because I am motivated, I have always been more self-conscious in my studies. I have a strong memory, so since I was a child, my Chinese grades have always been very good, but my math scores are very average, and I haven't scored too well in the class, but because I have been studying hard, my mother doesn't scold me, and she basically doesn't know how to read, so I don't know whether my grades are good or bad.
When I was a child, I loved books very much, and each book was wrapped in newspaper, and it was very beautifully wrapped. After the final exam, my book was as good as new. When I was in the third grade of elementary school, I was very fond of reading books and comic books. At that time, I had a lot of villain books, some of which I bought myself, and some of which I exchanged with children. I asked my mother for money to buy a villain book, and even if the family had no money, my mother never stopped me from buying it, and she was very supportive of my study.
When I was a little older, I started to go to the commune and the university library to borrow books to read, and at that time I started reading novels and read a lot. I remember one time, my sister borrowed a copy of "Lin Hai Xueyuan" from somewhere, and I secretly read it, but she scolded her. At that time, my sister was in the second year of high school, and I was in the second year of junior high school, and she thought that there was a love story in "Lin Hai Xueyuan", and children should not read it.
When I was in high school, many books were already open for reading and could be borrowed casually, and at that time I finished reading "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin" and "Dream of Red Mansions". I really like to read novels, no matter what kind of novel, I can read it when I pick it up. I also have a habit of reading, that is, I can't put it down when I pick it up, and sometimes I read it while eating. My mother has always been very supportive of my reading and studying, but sometimes when she sees me reading while eating, she throws the book on the ground when she is in a hurry. Because the speed of eating is too slow, this is a particularly lazy bad habit in the eyes of rural parents.
Mother's love holds up a sunny day for me
My mother's most important help to me was twice.
One time was when I graduated from junior high school and helped me get the opportunity to go to high school. When I was in junior high school, my grades were okay and my teachers liked me. At that time, the duration of junior high school was only two years, and when I graduated from junior high school, I was one of the students in my class with better academic performance, and I could have been able to go to high school, but there was a policy at that time that only one person in a family could go to high school for the children of poor and middle peasants. My sister went to high school, so I couldn't go anymore. At that time, I was not completely idle at home, so I would draw when I had nothing to do, and I was quite good. After staying for almost a year, my mother was very depressed and sad to see me, and she originally hoped that I could finish high school and become a private teacher. She ran several times to intercede with the leaders of the commune, hoping to give me a chance to go to school, but to no avail.
In 1976, the "Gang of Four" was crushed. In May of the following year, a girl from our neighboring village dropped out of high school and went home. When she heard about this, her mother felt that this was an opportunity, so she immediately went to the commune to find the leader, and then went to the house of the high school principal to fight for it. The mother said to the principal, "My son is doing well in his studies, can you let him go to high school?" My mother immediately said, "Isn't there a girl who is gone, and let my son fill the girl's vacancy." "It took a lot of effort for my mother, and then the school finally agreed.
Due to the delay of almost a year at home, when I entered high school, my first year of high school was over immediately, and high school was two years in total, so I actually only went to high school for one year. When I entered high school, my grades kept falling behind the rest of my class. After a year of studying, the teacher asked everyone to take the college entrance examination, because I liked to study very much, so I wanted to try my skills even though I had only been in high school for one year, so I signed up for the college entrance examination with everyone.
At that time, even if I had to take the college entrance examination, I still had to do the same farm work every day, such as mowing the grass outside when I came home from school. At that time, families in rural areas generally raised two pigs, and some families would raise one or two sheep. Pigs and sheep eat on ridges, and pigs have grass that pigs like to eat, and sheep have grass that sheep like to eat. Every night when I came home from school, I had to cut two baskets of grass, one for the pigs and one for the sheep. In the summer, they have to cut more grass, go home and dry the grass, and then tie it up one by one, and when there is no fresh grass in the winter, they will feed the pigs and sheep.
I didn't pass the college entrance examination the first time, but I am still very grateful to my mother for helping me, it was my mother who gave me the opportunity to go back to school, and if I had been on my own, I would not have had the opportunity to go to high school, let alone university. I didn't pass the college entrance examination in my first year, so I became an English substitute teacher.
I was 16 years old that year, and I only scored 33 points in English in the college entrance examination, although my English level was not high, but the students liked me very much. From the students, I gained confidence and decided to continue taking the college entrance examination the following year, but I failed again.
The second important help my mother gave me was the college entrance examination. I didn't get into university for two years in a row, but I got more and more courageous, and in the third year, I still wanted to take the exam. My mother said to me, "You can take the test, but it must be difficult to study on your own, and it is difficult to improve your grades, so you should take a new path." "A few days later, our county happened to hold a college entrance examination cram school, and we wanted to recruit 40 students, but my total test score was outside 40, and I was not eligible to enter. When my mother learned of this result, she went into the city without saying a word. Because I heard that there was a teacher Cao in the cram school, one of the students he trained the year before was admitted to Peking University, and I don't know how my mother found him.
At that time, Mr. Cao had a son who was just one year old, but the husband and wife were busy with work, and Mr. Cao's wife was weak and did not have enough milk for the child. When my mother saw that the child was thin and yellow, she volunteered to help Teacher Cao take care of the child. She said that the rice, vegetables and eggs in the countryside are fresh, and she does not worry about whether her children will gain weight after eating. The mother reassured Teacher Cao that she would be able to take the child well. Teacher Cao was very moved, so he accepted me. On that day, when my mother came home from the city in a hurry, it happened to be in time for a heavy rainstorm, and along the way, my mother fell into the ditch by the side of the road several times. I was anxiously waiting for my mother at home, and when I saw my mother standing in front of me like a clay figure, I immediately understood that there was only one way for me, and that was to study hard. A year later, I was finally admitted to Peking University.
After receiving the admission letter from Peking University, my mother was so happy that she killed both pigs in the family, invited three cooks, and feasted relatives, friends and teachers in the village. The banquet was divided into two sets at noon and evening, and this invitation allowed the whole village to eat for two days.
My mother wanted to repay Mr. Cao for cultivating me and helped Mr. Cao take care of the children for three years. When I sent my child back three years later, the child was white and fat, and Mr. Cao and his wife were very grateful to my mother. Now Mr. Cao has a very good relationship with me, and the relationship with my mother is also very good.