Chapter Nineteenth: The Walking Watermelon

  Lao Guangzhong was called Li Wanzheng, but he was a famous person in the big team that year. His father was a big landlord locally and was suppressed by the people's government during the suppression of counter-revolutionaries. His brother was the main battalion commander of the 8th Regiment of the New Fourth Army's 3rd Division, and later died on the battlefield during the anti-sweeping campaign.

  Li Wanzheng was a famous scholar in his youth, and even at the age of nearly fifty, he remained single. The year before Yu Songyuan was recruited by a highly classified special forces unit of the army, on New Year's Day during the Spring Festival, Li hanged himself from a beam. Yu Songyuan clearly remembered that it snowed very heavily that year and the weather was extremely cold.

  Lao Guanggun likes to grow watermelons and sell them at the market. When he cut off the tail of capitalism, he even destroyed his entire melon garden, but he still grows melons every year. Lao Guanggun is stubborn, and the village cadres are also helpless, so they let him do as he pleases. As a result, Lao Guanggun turned all his private land into a melon garden. The watermelons he grew were both big and sweet, famous far and wide, and every year they would sell out early in the melon garden without even going to the market. Therefore, he is completely self-sufficient in life.

  In those years, the land in our village was mainly used for growing grain. Each household's private plot of land was mainly used to grow vegetables for their own consumption. Some people also followed Lao Guang's method and planted a few melons on the ridges between fields, but only a few households grew them well. Lao Guang had a unique technique for growing melons that he kept secret from others.

  But for Yuè and Wáng, he made an exception, imparting all his secrets to them with great passion, and repeatedly warning them not to tell anyone else. The reason he was so generous was not because the two were renowned as the most beautiful flowers far and wide, but because the peace of his melon garden depended on them.

  He didn't socialize much with others, but he was very close to lame-legged Teacher Chen. The two of them often set up a chessboard or Go board under the melon shed, playing chess while sipping tea and eating watermelon. It was precisely because of his close relationship with Teacher Chen that, apart from Yu Songyuan and his brothers, no one else dared to come and steal watermelons from his home.

  Yu Songyuan, a mischievous boy, also liked to play Go, which was contradictory to his naughty nature. Teacher Chen, although a martial artist, preferred quietness. During leisure time, he would often sit alone under a tree with a self-drawn chessboard, using corn and broad beans as pieces, playing against himself for hours on end. Among the four mischievous boys, only Yu Songyuan gradually developed an interest in Go. Teacher Chen would occasionally give him some guidance while teaching them martial arts.

  Yu Songyuan lost the game and had to go steal melons. He didn't blame Yu Yue for making him lose, on the contrary, it seemed as if there was a huge secret hidden in his heart that only he knew, and he felt sweet about it.

  They saw them wanting to steal melons again, so they hastily walked into the main room with their pants held up, "Wait a minute, are you going to mess with Mr. Li's watermelons again? If you want to eat melon, Auntie has some in her field, I'll go pick a big one for you, it's ripe and sweet, how about that?"

  Several people chuckled and said in unison: "That doesn't count!"

  "Alright, alright. I'll take the risk and won't let you down, Auntie. With my skills, I definitely won't get caught. I'm not stealing, I want to make the watermelon grow legs and quietly walk out of the melon field by itself."

  Yu Yu said, "I think you're just asking for a beating. Your master is playing chess downstairs, and you're not going to go looking for trouble." Yu Songyuan's heart skipped a beat when she mentioned his master, but seeing the three mischievous faces with sly smiles, he gritted his teeth. After all, it was his own rule, so he might as well go.

  The melon garden is on the west bank of the West Dam in the village. Yu Songyu quietly slipped into the water from this side of the dam, and with a strong stroke, he swam to the other shore. Then, he crawled up the bank, close to the ground, and quietly slipped under the melon leaves into the melon garden. He patted each melon one by one, selected a big-headed watermelon, plucked it off, and slowly rolled towards the dam edge.

  The melon patch was over a hundred meters long, and the melon shed was more than two or three meters high. Suddenly, a big watermelon started rolling by itself in the field. Teacher Chen and Old Light looked at each other with the corner of their eyes and smiled, continuing to play chess. Yu Songyuan stuck close to the ground in the melon patch, slowly pushing the melon, sweating profusely, until he finally reached the edge of the pond. He hugged the melon and rolled down the bank, quietly transporting it back to the opposite shore from the water's surface.

  Four people hugged a big watermelon, overjoyed and triumphant, returning to Yu Yu's home, where they cut it open on a small table under the tree in front of the door. Good heavens, the pulp was red and black, clearly ripe, and the four of them excitedly scrambled to devour it.

  "Xishi" handed the melon to her grandmother and mother, saying sweetly, "Grandma, mom, it's really sweet, you guys try some too." The professor took it in his hand and then put it down again, smiling but not speaking.

  Yu Yuangyu didn't care about him, and angrily said, "No sense of honor at all! Take it away, stolen things, I won't eat them." The few people who were excited at the moment also didn't bother to see if she was really angry.

  The watermelon was too big, and the professor and Yu Yueyue didn't eat a single bite. The four of them couldn't finish it, so they had to cover the leftovers with a net. Just as they were about to continue playing cards, Teacher Chen arrived. The four of them wanted to escape but it was too late, and they immediately fell silent. But Yu Yueyue intentionally added fuel to the fire, smiling and saying: "Teacher Chen, you're here to eat watermelon too, right?"

  Mr. Chen grunted and walked up to the four disciples standing at attention, slapping each of them on the head: "Li Dage is almost sixty years old, a lonely old man with no children. Every year he relies on this patch of watermelon for food, clothing, medical care, and retirement. You guys keep stealing his watermelons, don't you have any humanity?"

  Scolding and scolding, getting angrier and angrier, each person received a loud slap on the face, "Get out of here, everyone run around the village ten times."

  "Grandma is going to tell you a story, let's sit in a circle." The professor glanced at the scorching sun in the sky and quickly begged for mercy.

  Teacher Chen said: "For grandma's face, each person runs five laps and stands for an hour after finishing."

  Yu Songyuan took the lead, and the four of them immediately rushed forward along the main road in front of the door. They circled around the village for about one and a half kilometers. Five laps would be seven or eight kilometers, which was quite a distance on a scorching hot day in July.

  Four people ran far away, and Teacher Chen, Yu Yueyue, Professor, and Teacher Chen just started eating. Wang Feng looked at Teacher Chen from a distance, teaching them, and hurried over to ask: "What's wrong again? It's such a hot day, can't you just let it go? Are you really going to punish them?"

  Yu Yu angrily said: "Wang Feng, you are not allowed to intervene. These little bastards have driven me mad. The habit of stealing must be changed and they should be severely punished." Then, he told the story of losing cards and stealing melons with a smile.

  The county town fair is held on the 2nd and 7th days of the lunar calendar. The second day that the thief was punished for stealing melons happened to be the day of the big fair.

  Yu Yuemonth was originally going to the county post office to pick up the money sent by Shi Yuandong, and coincidentally it was a big market day, so she planned to take advantage of the opportunity to go to the market. That day, everyone had something to do, "Xishi" was also called by her grandmother to accompany her to the brigade clinic for an injection, so only Yu Songyuan accompanied Yu Yuemonth.

  Yu Songyuan liked this kind of thing the most, lively and fun.

  He followed behind Yu Yue, like a little bodyguard. They arrived at the village center, where San Kui's tractor was waiting. As Yu Yue climbed onto the carriage, San Kui hastily stretched out his hand to grab her butt.

  But seeing Yu Songyuan coldly watching him from the side, he quickly withdrew his hand and smiled awkwardly, nodding to appease him, meaning "I absolutely didn't have any other ideas, I just wanted to help". Yu Songyuan ignored him, first jumping onto the car, stretching out his hand to pull Yun Yuemonth up, finding a seat for her by the armrest.

  Before long, the bus was packed with people.

  When they arrived at the county town, San Kui stopped the car in front of Guanhe Restaurant. This was the most prosperous area of the county town. The entire Hongqi Road was crowded with people, bustling and extraordinary. San Kui said loudly: "Everyone pay attention to the time, gather here at 12 o'clock sharp. Departure is at 12:10, go back for lunch, no waiting if late." He was the team leader's assistant, responsible for bringing everyone back.

  Yu Yuemei and Yu Song walked together in the crowd, first going to the "People's Post Office" where they lined up to withdraw some money. Then, they spent four cents on two ice sticks and continued their stroll while eating them. They bought a large pile of things and carried them on their backs. When they arrived at a very big bookstall, Yu Yuemei couldn't move anymore, holding books and forgetting about time.

  Yu Songyuan liked military books and flipped through a book called "Biographies of World War II Generals". He asked Yu Yueyue, "Auntie, what are you reading?" Yu Yueyue raised her hand to let him see, it was "Theories on the History of Chinese National Dance". When Yu Yueyue put down the book, Yu Songyuan noticed that under the title, there were four small black characters that read "Written by Yu Yueyue".

  He quickly picked it up and took a look, flipping to the title page, where there was a large color photo of Yuè Yuè standing behind a cluster of plum blossoms, smiling innocently. The person was more delicate than the flowers, and the flowers blended with the person into one, truly breathtakingly beautiful.

  "Aunt, is this the book you wrote? Your photo looks really beautiful!" He sincerely admired. Yu Yue's eyes already had tears in them, she just silently nodded her head and didn't say a word. The two of them looked at some other books again, before they knew it, the gathering time had passed, Yu Yue lifted her hand to look at her watch, oh no, it was already 12:30.

  It's too late to rush back to the gathering point, so Yuè Yuè comforts him by saying: "Don't worry, we'll just buy a few more things and Auntie will hire a tricycle to send us." She then takes out 0.73 yuan and buys the thick book "Biographies of World War II Generals" for Yú Sōng Yuǎn, and the two leave together.

  Following the crowd, I was looking for a place to eat. Ahead on the road, someone opened a stall. As I walked closer, I saw that three rascals had eaten at a small restaurant and refused to pay, even hitting people.

  It seems that this small shop is run by a father and daughter, the owner was pressed to the ground by two young hooligans who were beating him to death, with cries of pain constantly. Next to them, a big man was pressing down on a 17 or 18-year-old girl, the girl's age not much older than Yu Song's.

  The girl punched and kicked, scolding incessantly. The big guy cursed: "If you don't behave yourself, I won't be polite to you either, don't blame me for hitting a woman." The girl continued to struggle, the big guy got impatient, and tied her hands together.

  He took a deep breath, lit a cigarette and took a long drag. He didn't care about the girl's scolding at all, but he scolded the middle-aged man who was being beaten: "Old Qin, you're really not decent. You eat two meals of broken rice and make a fuss, I'll come to eat every day in the future, can you pinch my hair off?"

  Yu Yuemei knew that Yu Songyuan hated people who were soft on the outside but hard on the inside, so she tightly grasped his hand, afraid he would cause trouble in the county town. Yu Songyuan tried to break free, but Yu Yuemei wouldn't let go, whispering: "Aunt can't bear it either, but this is a county town, and we're not familiar with the local situation. Even a powerful dragon will be suppressed by a snake in its own territory. Don't worry, under the Communist Party's rule, there are people who will take care of things."