Chapter Seven: Entering the School for the First Time

  As for "Yu Siliang" disdain towards himself, Teacher Chen and Yu Xinhe, Yu Xinmin exchanged a smile. They did not teach this ignorant child a lesson, on the contrary, Teacher Chen suddenly exerted his strength and disappeared from everyone's sight in an instant.

  Yu Songyuan's thatched hut had walls as high as three or four meters, and Teacher Chen lightly jumped up onto the roof.

  He was like a nimble spirit cat, walking on the thatched roofs of each house as if flying, his body light as a swallow. He jumped down from the house, picked up the thick green bricks beside the pigpen, and with a light slap, he broke all six stacked green bricks. Next, on his own simple horizontal bar, he hooked the bar with one little finger and could easily do a string of beautiful pull-ups...

  Good heavens, wasn't he supposed to be ill? How can he be so fierce?

  That night, the moonlight was like water, and the gentle breeze was blowing. Teacher Chen simply showed just one small hand, and Yu Siliang and his little brothers were thoroughly stunned.

  Yu Songyuan took the lead, and the four of them sincerely knelt down to pay their respects to their master.

  From then on, Teacher Chen began to carefully teach the four apprentices, starting from basic stances, finger strength, wrist strength, fist strength, jumping and pit-jumping, learning basic skills and techniques of martial arts and lightness.

  Yu Songyuan was nine years old that year, in the second grade. He remembered that not long after he started school, the most talked-about topic among adults after dinner was Lin Biao's failed assassination attempt on Chairman Mao, fleeing to the Soviet Union by plane, but ultimately crashing and dying in the Wuduerhan grasslands of Mongolia.

  Teacher Chen is a genuine combat-type martial arts teacher from the provincial city, unlike those mysterious and powerful people in the deep mountains. Not only is his own martial arts skills good and low-key, but also his greatest strength lies in being good at teaching and daring to punish.

  When he first started practicing basic skills, Ma Bu, Gong Bu, Chuang Bu, Keng Tiao, Zhua Sha Dai, Cha Sha Pen, Kong Fan, Fu Chong Deng Pao and so on, he was very strict and did not allow any slackness. Among the four apprentices, anyone who showed a little laziness would be severely punished immediately, without any emotional consideration.

  After several days, the naughty children's muscles and joints ached unbearably, they couldn't even hold their chopsticks while eating, and didn't dare take big steps while walking. Yu Yueyue and Wang Feng hugged them, feeling heartbroken and crying until tears streamed down their faces.

  By the time he was in fifth grade, Yu Songyuan's kung fu skills had made great progress and were deeply loved by Master Chen. His finger strength, palm strength, fist strength, leg strength, and waist strength had all improved greatly. Palm chopping bricks, fists shattering wooden boards, and lightness skills were no longer a problem for him. He could easily jump out of deep pits that were much higher than his own head with just the power of his legs.

  The school's brick house, he can grab the tiles with his hands and step on the wall surface, hanging in mid-air, and walk freely along the eaves. Chen Lan, "Xi Shi" and "Pang Duan" are relatively clumsy, although they have made progress without Yu Songyuan, but when it comes to dealing with an adult, it's still not a problem.

  Teacher Chen is a strict teacher, and his punishment is also the most frightening for the aunties.

  Once, Yu Songyuan and Chen Lan were practicing with a bit of slackness. Teacher Chen made "Xi Shi" and "Pang Dun" lift up the two people's legs respectively. In the evening, they walked around the production team's threshing ground ten times using their hands. When they got up, their necks, shoulders, arms, and wrists had completely lost sensation. It wasn't until the next day that the two of them didn't dare to move their pencils during class and didn't dare to hold chopsticks while eating.

  Wang Feng's aunt was furious, and for three consecutive days, she stayed at Yuemonth's house, refusing to go back home to cook. At night, she wouldn't even let Teacher Chen come near her. Yuemonth and Wang Feng held the two little ones in their arms, crying until they were tear-stained. While feeding them dinner, they cursed Teacher Chen through tears.

  The professor came to persuade them, saying that a strict teacher produces superior students, you don't understand, don't wrongly blame their master. The two of them shouted in unison, even a tiger doesn't eat its own son, his heart is more ruthless than a snake's gallbladder.

  But as soon as night falls, after the two of them have enjoyed their excessive motherly love and endless doting, they will voluntarily and actively participate in martial arts training, making Yu Yueyue and Wang Feng so angry that they are half dead.

  When Yu Songyuan was four or five years old, his elder brother Yu Songdong joined the army and later became an officer. His family had a five-room thatched cottage, and he, who used to share a bed with his second brother, got a large independent room and a big bed from the age of nine. As a result, when they played too late at night, the four mischievous children would squeeze onto this one bed.

  In winter, the weather was cold, and Wenfang specially added a thick quilt for them. Later on, they would either sleep at Yu Songyuan's home or at Chen Lan's or "Xi Shi"'s home. The only exception was "Pang Dunchu's" home, as there were too many people, they couldn't squeeze in.

  Yu Songyuan had occasional sleepwalking experiences in his childhood, which greatly worried his mother Yu Wenfang, who even asked several doctors for medicinal soups to help him.

  He would squeeze into his parents' bed at night, pushing Yu Xinhe to the outside of the quilt, and then hug his mother tightly and sleep soundly. By dawn, he wouldn't even remember what had happened. One night, Yu Xinhe was frozen and caught a cold because of this, and only recovered after taking several doses of medicine from Yu Xinmin.

  It was also winter, and the four brothers originally all slept on Chen Lan's bed. In the middle of the night, however, he somehow ended up walking into the east room and squeezing onto Teacher Chen's bed. When daylight came, he was lying in Wang Feng's arms, his head resting on Wang Feng's arm, fast asleep.

  Mr. Chen glared and grumbled, "This little brat." Wang Feng woke up and saw the situation, then smiled and scolded, "You can't bear to see a young kid like me being favored, can you? You're so jealous that it's killing you!"

  Yu Songyuan's most unforgettable childhood memory was his several sleepwalking incidents at Shu Tong's home.

  Xu Tongjia's home was similar to Teacher Chen's, with fewer people and more houses. Professor Nainai lived in the west wing, while Yu Yueyue lived in the east wing. The main house was the largest, and aside from daily life, it also had a big bed that belonged to Yu Songyuan and his brothers. Occasionally, Yu Songyuan would sleepwalk into Nainai's bed, or sometimes he would squeeze onto Yu Yueyue's bed.

  One time, he woke up to find himself sleeping at the professor's feet, with the quilt wrapped tightly around him. The professor's two old legs, cold from the wind, had been warmed up especially comfortably that night, feeling very relaxed. Grandma then said: "From now on, sleep with grandma at night and warm grandma's feet."

  From then on, whenever it was cold outside, he and Shu would take turns warming Grandma's feet.

  He often sleepwalked to Yu Yu, Xiao Shu and his mother's bed. When he woke up, he was always in their warm arms, resting on their shoulders, sleeping very sweetly.

  About his sleepwalking, his mother had Yu Yueyue and Wang Feng copy a number of "flyers" to post on utility poles or walls at road intersections. During that time, "Heaven is vast, earth is vast, my family has a sleepwalker. Passersby read three times, one night sleep till dawn", which made the village inside and out full of them.

  Yu Xinhe couldn't help but say, "His sleepwalking problem is mainly caused by his subconscious attachment to his mother, it will get better when he grows up." His mother always listened to and obeyed his father's words, so she stopped worrying. Thinking about it, it was indeed true that he never sleepwalked to other places, but always ended up in the beds of a few women, in their arms.

  Four mothers, regarding his somnambulism, gradually turned it into enjoyment and relished in it. You think, after sleeping for a while, suddenly there's an additional plump little boy in their arms, like an infant clinging to his mother, hugging them tightly, sleeping so soundly, this scene made each of them feel deeply moved, with maternal love overflowing.

  The 1970s was a time of material scarcity, and urban consumption was all rationed with coupons. Grain coupons, fabric coupons, meat coupons, egg coupons, etc., are the unforgettable memories of people living in that era.

  In those years, the rural areas, after the production team handed over the grain to the public granary, it was distributed to each household, and it was impossible for a family of three to fill their stomachs. The spring famine was the most severe living difficulty faced by every peasant family.

  In Yujiacun Brigade, the Sixth Team was the most productive. Originally, according to the normal proportion of public grain delivery, the Sixth Team would not have gone hungry. However, in previous years, they had falsely reported high yields and handed over too much grain as public grain, leaving them with very little food.

  The work points of the six teams were worth only a few cents each at the end of the year. After a whole year of hard work, the villagers ended up with barely enough food to fill their mouths.

  She Wenfang and She Wenshu, the two sisters, have always been frugal and thrifty in managing their household. They, along with Yu Xiner and Yu Xinmin brothers, had experienced cruel survival tests during the war of resistance against Japan. The spring famine was not a problem for them at all.

  At that time, there were fewer people than now. In the wild fields of grasslands, riverbanks and river valleys, there was plenty of "food". Even if grain was scarce, they had plenty of ways to cope with spring famine.

  For Yuè Yuè and Wáng Fèng, the two housewives who were sent down to the countryside, feeding their families was a major problem. At first, the two cultured women who had just started living as peasants were at a loss when spring famine arrived and both families fell into the embarrassing situation of having no rice to cook.

  In rural areas, a housewife's skills are more reflected in whether she can "get by" or not.

  The extremely limited rations allocated to each production team every year are the only food for a farmer's family all year round. They have to be very frugal and make every grain count in order not to go hungry. The household income relies on raising pigs and chickens. Selling pigs to the state at the end of the year is the main source of income, which covers expenses such as children's tuition fees, clothing for the whole family, weddings and funerals, etc.

  The eggs laid by the chickens are sold to the supply and marketing cooperative in exchange for small change to buy kerosene, matches, white cloth and salt. The vegetables that farmers normally eat mainly rely on the small vegetables grown in their own plots of less than one mu.

  Yu Yueyue and Wang Feng had just moved from the city a few years ago, they didn't know how to manage the household or get by day-to-day. The limited food supply was always insufficient for them to eat. They were even more inept at planting vegetables, raising pigs, and raising chickens. In the first year's spring season, they couldn't even open the pot (i.e., cook a meal). Fortunately, Yu Xinhai and Yu Xinmin's families provided full support, and Shu Wenfang and Shu Wenshu fully taught them the "skills" of managing the household, barely helping them get through the spring famine.

  The family's food supply was already tight, and with the added burden of supporting the families of Yue Xiang and Wang Feng, the greatest challenge for the Yu Xinhe and Yu Xinmin families in those years was how to fill their stomachs.

  Yu Songyuan and his three friends were known as the "Yu Brothers" in school, and their academic performance was always the best throughout elementary and middle school. Especially Shu Tong, who was always the first in his grade. They were good at studying, had a strong fist, high prestige, and were loyal to their brothers, which earned them the favor of their teachers. They often skipped class, but the private tutors never bothered them.

  Yu Songyuan's favorite thing to do is to find food with his brothers.

  Fishing, catching grasshoppers, digging bird eggs, catching sparrows, sticking cicadas, digging ground puppies (northern Jiangsu dialect, cicada pupae), and catching frogs (reading hua, third tone) and so on. As long as it's edible, almost everything is caught, nothing is not refined.

  In the northern countryside of Jiangsu, there were crisscrossing canals and ditches everywhere. At that time, villagers were all busy with agricultural learning from Dazhai, and during their spare time, the three-level organization of commune, brigade, and village organized peasants to carry out large-scale farmland water conservancy construction, digging canals and ditches to control salinization. These canals, ponds, and river bends became the main battlefield for Yu Songyuan and his three companions, who spent all four seasons of the year, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, scooping up fish, which was their favorite thing to do.

  At the critical moment when the four families were struggling to fill their stomachs, Yu Songyuan and his brothers made a great contribution to the victory of this big family over spring famine.