Chapter 4: Warm Village Leisure Diagram

  Yu Yuemei and Professor were frightened, not knowing what to do, so they let their son Shu Tong hurry up and call for Yu Xinghe brothers. When the Yu Xinghe brothers rushed over, Zhou Jianguo had already come around. He lay on the ground, with a bump the size of an egg in the middle of his forehead, looking extremely terrifying and ferocious, like a unicorn from legend.

  Yu Xinhe's spine was drenched in cold sweat, it was too terrifying, he was terrified. Think about it, if Yu Songyuan hadn't been so accurate with his gun, Zhou Jianguo might have lost an eye or that big nose full of red packets.

  Yu Xinhe and Yu Xinmin hurriedly helped Zhou Jianguo up from the ground, repeatedly apologizing. Turning back to look for Yu Songyuan again, he had already fled in a flurry, without even a shadow of a person left behind.

  Zhou Jianguo, as the head of the regiment's revolutionary committee, didn't have a simple encounter with an 8-year-old kid. Moreover, his motives were not pure, so he could only admit defeat. Originally planning to come alone at night for "class", had to temporarily give up too.

  After Zhou Jianguo left, Yu Xinhe was still frightened. That night, Yu Xinhe brought out the family law and had Yu Xinfan pin Yu Songyuan to a stool, pull down his pants, and in front of several people, gave him a severe scolding.

  Yu Xinmin held the rolling pin, thud after thud, slap after slap, hitting Yu Songyuan's buttocks, aching in Yu Yuemeng's heart. In the end, Yu Yuemeng buried her face in Shu Wenfang's arms, almost crying herself into a faint.

  Yu Songyuan's buttocks had swollen up high and turned into a red monkey butt. Yu Yuerong was in tears, crying all the way as she carried him back to her home, where she and the professor took turns applying hot towels to his buttocks. At night, she let him sleep on her lap, hugging him tightly.

  This beating was quite severe, for more than a week, Yu Songyuan didn't dare to sit or lie down, and could only sleep on his stomach at night. He even had to eat standing up. It was also from then on that Yu Rong began to treat Yu Songyuan as if he were already an outsider, with no end of pampering and affection. Sometimes her doting on Yu Songyuan even surpassed that which she showed her own son, Shu Tong.

  Shu Tong resented Yu Songyuan for being more favored than himself, and often complained to Yu Songyuan when they grew up, saying, "I was picked up, you are my grandmother's own grandson, my mother's own son."

  The two families of Professor and Teacher Chen had bad class compositions, one was a "four-class element" and the other was a "black five-class". The so-called "four-class elements" were a unique term in that era, referring to landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries and bad elements, who were enemies of the revolution and objects of dictatorship.

  "The four elements" have no political rights, and when going out or receiving guests at home, they must report to the village. They also need to participate in regular political study sessions, receive guidance from village cadres and representatives of poor and lower-middle peasants, as well as activists of the movement, and engage in endless unpaid labor such as tree planting, snow shoveling, cleaning toilets, sweeping streets, and making compost. The most dirty and tiring tasks are assigned to them, and during the movement, they are often paraded through the streets.

  The houses of Professor and Teacher Chen are next to those of Yu Xinhe and Yu Xinmin, with the sounds of chickens and dogs audible to each other, making it convenient for mutual visits. The location is also good, located at the southernmost end of Yujia Village, on the site of the ruins of the Yu family ancestral temple and the old Yu residence.

  The professor's family had only three people, two widows and a seven-year-old child, Shu Tong. Shu Tong's grandfather and father were both executed for counter-revolutionary crimes, so his mother took him and his grandmother from southern Jiangsu to a rural village in northern Jiangsu. The orphaned child and widow lived a difficult life, full of hardships and desolation.

  Professor Zeng was a renowned scholar at the provincial capital university, wearing the hat of "reactionary academic authority". He usually wore a pair of old glasses, gentle and elegant, soft-spoken. Yu Yuexiu, on the other hand, was a famous dancer and dance teacher in the provincial capital, able to sing and dance well. When she was happy, she would secretly recite a few lines of Suzhou Pingtan, Huangmei Opera, or Yue Opera. With every gesture, she exuded the charm and style of a big city woman.

  With Yu Songyuan's eyes, Yu Yueyue is the most beautiful and prettiest woman in the whole village. Of course, before Yu Yueyue and Wang Fengcai, this honor belonged to their mother and aunt. He and his younger brother Yu Songquan have always proudly thought that their mother was the most beautiful, best-looking, and cleanest woman in the whole village.

  Mr. Chen is a physical education teacher who is less than 40 years old, with a boy and a girl. Mr. Chen's leg is severely crippled, walking like a wave, high and low, swaying greatly, making people worry that he will fall to one side at any moment. He also has very severe coughing and asthma, and every time he speaks, he must first cough uncontrollably.

  Because he was a cripple, when he first arrived, he was often surrounded by villagers to watch him like a performing monkey due to his lame leg. As the saying goes, "a true man does not show his appearance", Mr. Chen is exactly that. His real identity in the past was a famous boxing coach and martial arts coach in the provincial capital. He had learned from great masters, possessed extraordinary skills, and was a renowned master of practical martial arts in the southern and northern martial arts world, with a reputation that shook the provinces of East China and South China.

  Teacher Chen's lover is Wang Feng, a language teacher and also a pretty woman in her thirties. In the eyes of the mischievous Yu Songyuan, she is as beautiful as Aunt Yuemei, thousands or tens of thousands times more beautiful than the women on movies, model operas, and New Year paintings.

  Born in Wuyue, speaking the soft language of Wu, the unique spirit, elegance and subtlety given to women by Jiangnan water town make Yu Songyuan, a stubborn child, unable to explain why he is fascinated by them, but he can't help but admire them. He doesn't say they are beautiful because he likes them, but they are really beautiful, and the more he looks at them, the more beautiful they become.

  Wang Fengwen's speech is gentle and elegant, soft-spoken, but with a belly full of knowledge. She has extensive knowledge and strong memory, able to recite many ancient texts and poems, Tang poetry, Song lyrics, and historical allusions from various dynasties come out effortlessly. She can talk about Dream of the Red Chamber, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, Water Margin, and Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.

  Yu Songyuan and his younger brothers loved to secretly listen to her tell stories, recite ancient poems, talk about the "Thirty-six Stratagems" and other historical anecdotes, and even tell idiomatic stories. In that era, these books were all banned, and few people had read them.

  Wang Feng's aunt opened a window of culture for him.

  The boy is called Chen Lan, and the girl is called Chen Jing. They are a lovely and elegant pair of siblings, but their personalities are opposite to their names. Brother Chen Lan has a gentle personality and loves to blush. However, sister Chen Jing is lively and quirky, not calm at all, and never peaceful for a moment.

  Chen Lan's grandfather and grandmother were originally high-ranking officials in the province, but after being overthrown, they worked on a farm. Chen Lan's name had been an object of ridicule among his peers for a long time.

  Yu Songyuan couldn't understand why Wang Feng's mother, a beautiful and cultured woman, would give her precious son a girl's name, even if she had swapped the names of her daughter and son.

  Chen Lan and Shu followed the adults to Yujiacun Village, just a year before Lin Biao's death. Shortly after the two families moved in, the two people of the same age became sworn brothers with Yu Songyuan and Yu Songquan. They were like old friends at first sight, as close as hands and feet, as close as brothers, so close that they didn't distinguish between each other.

  In the year they were all seven years old, they were in first grade. Yu Songyuan was strong and mischievous from a young age, and the four brothers were as close as one person. As long as Yu Songyuan gave the order, the four brothers would rush up together, fight fiercely, and their combat effectiveness was extremely strong.

  No matter in the village or at school, even older students who were much older than them didn't dare to mess with them. Soon, they made a name for themselves and had their own nickname, "The Yu Brothers!"

  Slowly, the village's naughty kids of similar age all "surrendered" to Yu Songyuan. Yu Songyuan called himself Commander Yu and became the leader of dozens of naughty kids in the village. Yu Xinmin's youngest son Yu Songquan was known as Chief of Staff, Chen Lan and Shu Tong were both Deputy Commanders.

  Although he was mischievous, Yu Songyuan was truly fond of Wang Feng and Yu Yueyue, treating them as his own mothers from the bottom of his heart. Professors, Chen teachers, Yu Yueyue, and Wang Feng, four adults, also particularly liked Yu Songyuan. They started liking him just because he could make Chen Lan and Shu Tong not be bullied by other children.

  Later, Yu Songyuan's implicit tiger spirit, heroic spirit, overbearing spirit and cleverness were even more liked by Yu Yuemonth and Wang Feng, who almost treated him as if he was their own son.

  Sometimes, after being scolded by their mother and aunt, Yu Songyuan and Yu Songquan would sulk and deliberately stay at Yuan Yue's or Wang Feng's house, squeezing onto one bed with Shu Tong or Chen Lan, stubbornly refusing to go home. The result of their sulking was always that their mother and aunt would concede defeat.

  They hated to part with them, but in their hearts they loved these two little sons so much that they couldn't bear it. They would often disregard the dignity of mothers and wait until Yu Songyuan and Yu Songquan had fallen asleep at night, then secretly take them back home and sleep with them in their arms.

  She Wenfang and She Wenshu, Yu Yueyue and Wang Fengnong chatted together in their spare time. They were delighted to see the children being so affectionate with each other. But they also couldn't understand why this was happening, feeling that it was unbelievable - could it be that fate really existed? Among all the children in the village, why did these two get along so well?

  The year Lin Biao died, Yu Commander held a "fiefdom" and gave his dead party members a nickname. His younger brother Yu Songquan was a fat lump, so he was called "Fat Lump". Shu Tong was always sickly and frail, easily blown over by the wind, hence the name "Xi Shi". Chen Lan's original name was already somewhat unusual, so he was still called Chen Lan. As for himself, he naturally took the nickname "Commander".

  Chen Jing cried and wanted to play with Yu Gege, also wanting a "title". Yu Songyuan snorted, "'Little Dot', go play with Ya'er and Si Ma on the side." Yu Ya'er was Yu Songyuan's younger sister, Si Ma was "Fatty" Yu Songquan's younger sister, whose full name was Yu Xiaohui. Both were the same age as Chen Jing, four years younger than Yu Songyuan. However, afterwards, Chen Jing took "Little Dot" as her own title and was very pleased with herself.

  Yu Songyuan's elder brother was an army officer, and his sister-in-law was the head of the women's federation in the regiment. When his brother came home on leave, he brought back a short-wave radio that was slightly larger than a brick, with dry batteries that were even bigger than the radio itself. Every evening after dinner, the adults would gather at Yu Songyuan's house to chat and listen to the radio.

  At that time, the most popular programs were CCTV's "National News Network", "News and Newspaper Summary Program" and Mei Lanfang's storytelling "The Legend of Yue Fei", "Yang Family Generals", "Detective Chief".

  The children would go to Chen Lan or "Xi Shi" 's home to do their homework. After finishing their homework, the four of them would practice martial arts together with Teacher Chen. Shu Tong's interest was in reading, almost to the point of obsession, and by the first year of high school he had already finished studying all the high school curriculum on his own. Although he wasn't interested in practicing martial arts, but his body was weak, Yu Yue would force him to practice with Teacher Chen together.

  Teacher Chen brought four apprentices to practice martial arts, while Wang Feng quietly sat on the side and mended shoes. Chen Jing, Yu Xiao Hui, and Yu Ya Er, on the other hand, were enthusiastically playing their own sandbag game on the side. As it turned out, Chen Jing was a master of martial arts after all, and her sandbags always hit the mark, able to "knock out" everyone else.

  This is a very warm and cozy village scene.