Oh, I really shouldn't have. Chatting is chatting, why ask about someone else's childhood? Look, now I've been asked back, haven't I! Haha, it's fine, it's all because I'm too nostalgic! My childhood? Haha, so many people have lived it with me... To those who were once part of my life, I wish you a lifetime of happiness, joy, and beauty!!
First off, we had a game that involved the seeds of a certain fruit, which we called "Liang He". However, only boys played this game. Back then, in several alleys near my house, there would be groups of boys shouting loudly while playing. I was quite obsessed with it back then and also very good at it. Haha, I'm not kidding. I remember always asking my mom and grandma to buy Liang for us to eat. I remember searching the entire house for just one seed and the joy I felt upon finding it. I remember sitting on the back of my mom’s bike as we turned into an alley and seeing a group of kids playing Liang He, how happy I was. I remember so much...
When I was in the first or second grade of elementary school, the game 'Hopscotch' was something both boys and girls loved to play. Let me tell you, I was very good at it. I still remember the cement ground in front of the classrooms at Haoxi School, marked out with white chalk into 'houses'. There would be heaps of children using a stone piece balanced on the back of their hand, hopping on one foot through the squares. I remember if your foot touched the line, it was against the rules. I remember those hopping steps...
At Haoxi School, there was another exclusive boy game called ‘Jump Step’. Haha.
Next, during holidays, we would play a game where we threw empty cans and then chased each other. Or we would play hide-and-seek inside the house.
As the game of throwing Liang He seeds gradually declined, we started playing badminton at home or in the alleyways. Ah, speaking of badminton, how could I forget my dad?! Although Dad only occasionally played with us, he was never forgotten. Whenever all the shuttlecocks ended up on the roof of the Xiamahutong (a traditional southern Chinese building style), it was time for my beloved, handsome, cute, and respected father to make an appearance. Even though Mom tried her best to stop Dad from doing something slightly dangerous, Dad ignored her and bravely climbed onto the roof without even a ladder sometimes (which I admired since I was little - so cool!). Then my brothers and I would pick up the shuttlecocks from below. Haha, we could collect dozens of shuttlecocks at once... For some reason, after enduring so many years of wind and rain on the roof, the shuttlecocks seemed to perform better, feel more stable, and last longer... Haha, footballs also required Dad's help. I am truly grateful to Dad.
Playing blindfolded hide-and-seek with my younger brothers was hilariously funny and made our stomachs ache from laughing.
Next, we bought our first red-and-white gaming console (which Mom strictly forbade, but we got it anyway. Before that, we used handheld consoles borrowed from others. I remember once arguing with my younger brother over the console, and in anger, I smashed it to pieces).
When I was little, I could get angry enough to move mountains and bring rivers to tears!
Speaking of this, when I was small, my second younger brother and I were mortal enemies. We argued at least three times a day and fought five times. Our hands were often scratched, and Mom scolded us frequently. Later, Mom stopped caring when we fought, but even so, we still played happily together, haha!! Why did Mom let us buy a gaming console? Oh~ because we went around borrowing them from others. At home, we played games like Super Mario, Contra, Snow Bros, and many others. We also borrowed game cartridges from a few good classmates. Haha.
Next, we often played football in the alleys. It was extremely fun. Hmm... Playing football in the alleys is more fun with more people, allowing us to form teams of three or four, chasing from one end of the alley to the other! But my brother and I often played football in the small courtyard at home, resulting in a rather tragic outcome – a football was punctured by Mom (Mom was really tough, I admire her). However, could the passion for football be extinguished so easily? We made a ball out of crumpled paper, layer by layer until it became a football-sized paper ball. To reinforce its shape, I used flat wire (haha, translated from Chaozhou dialect, no explanation needed) to tie the paper ball several times. Later, I even put a plastic bag over it. Hmm hmm, the paper ball had no destructive power, so Mom didn’t stop us from playing football at home. But sometimes, when we got too carried away, Mom would glare at us sharply. I ignored it.
Then, at 6 PM or 5:30 PM, we would watch the animated shows on Star TV every night. Haha (think about it, Sakura Card Captor, Doraemon, Naruto, One Piece, Dragon Ball, Inuyasha, Transformers... Damn, there are so many I remember but can't recall the names right now).
Next... Playing imaginative sand-pile games with my younger brothers was something we were quite obsessed with.
And sneaking out to buy firecrackers and ice cream and eating them secretly outside was a very happy thing because we had ice cream and firecrackers to play with. Haha (Ah, when we were little, Mom wouldn't let us play with firecrackers or eat ice cream, but I remember Mom herself buying us ice cream when we were very young, and during the New Year, Dad would buy fireworks and set them off himself).
I remember the feeling of kicking a football in the fields with a group of people – it was breathless.
And then there was playing chess, though not very often, just for a few days.
Running to abandoned stone quarries and wall tops to play adventure games was also my favorite. Haha.
Also, flying kites was super fun. Hmm... Hmm... Riding bicycles was a very pleasant and enjoyable experience – looking at different faces, feeling the breeze, appreciating the beautiful blue sky of my hometown. Haha.
It seems there are so many things I haven't written down yet, hehe. Those who spent their childhood with me, if you remember anything, please tell me...
By the way, before I went to kindergarten, our family had a large piece of farmland used for growing rice. Ha! On the attic of our home, there was a tool used to remove the husks from coarse rice. I think it must have been a very traditional, completely manual task. The image that stands out most in my mind is the big wooden bucket. Every time I came home after the autumn harvest, I loved climbing into the bucket and treating the iron rings lined up in a row as stairs. Ah, thinking about this makes me remember that when I slept with Dad, I would turn my two hands into two people and the bedding into mountains, engaging in a chaotic battle in the dark, accompanied by martial arts sounds. Dad always looked at me in surprise, but I ignored him! Haha! Collecting unhulled rice grains on the road with Grandma is an unforgettable memory.
Let me talk about my kindergarten days. Besides the cute little kids, what kept me company during my kindergarten years were cartoons, human-powered merry-go-rounds, slides, etc. Alas, but these all got boring eventually. Let me tell you about a game that should be exclusively for boys – a card game called "Darenzi" (translated directly from our Chaozhou dialect, although some might not understand). The ways to play were numerous, haha, and the methods to cheat were even more (putting two identical cards together ensured a sure win in battles... Too evil). Boys back then must have played this, right? Haha, I was very good at it too. But not long ago, I saw my little cousin playing this game again. I wanted to try if I was still as skilled as before... Turns out my hands have grown old, although my heart hasn't.
After saying so much, we finally come to the most important and exciting part – the self-boasting section! Hmm, let me think... Ah... Got it! When I was little, there was one thing I remember clearly – I helped Mom find her wedding ring (at that time, I probably hadn't fully mastered the skill of walking yet... Isn't that amazing?).
Everyone knows that kids love looking around everywhere, and I was like that. Haha, I saw Mom's ring fall to the ground and get swept into the dustpan. I thought Mom didn't want the ring anymore. It wasn't until Mom said she couldn't find her ring and kept looking that I spoke up and pointed to the dustpan (Wow, I was so cool).
Now, Grandma and Mom keep saying I looked terrible when I was little, but whenever I see the photo of myself wearing a yellow cotton jacket leaning on the flower bed railing at Haoxi School, I know I was super cute back then.
This is where my nightmare comes in! The monsters I encountered the most on my way to kindergarten were stray dogs and domestic dogs (seems like they were all dogs). This was a dangerous situation for me going to school alone. I grew up fighting with dogs every day. Many times, I ran away from being chased by dogs. Luckily, my running skills were good. But as the saying goes, "What you think about during the day will appear in your dreams at night." I kept dreaming about being chased by dogs, which was truly a nightmare.
Who am I? How could I be defeated by a small dog, even in my dreams? That would be too pathetic, wouldn't it? So, on a moonless and windy night, before sleeping, I gave myself strong psychological suggestions. Everything that happens next is fake, it's all a dream. As soon as I become aware of any impossibility, it's a dream (Haha, I was so cool, and I still admire myself now). And guess what? I really dreamed about being chased by a dog. Though I was chased for a short distance, I really realized I was dreaming (maybe because I had such dreams too often). Haha, I turned around, threw a punch, and delivered a flying kick. I laughed so hard when the wild dog was sent flying. Even though I had similar nightmares later, I always beat up the dogs in them (Wow, so cool, this must be what's called immunity). Haha, so friends who have nightmares can try my pre-sleep suggestion method. Here's a secret: If you master it well, you can control your dreams. It's true, I've tried it. But it does take some effort.
Even though my connection with dogs has been terrifying, I don't hate dogs. I'm still a bit afraid of them, though.
Alright, boasting is done. Fellow villagers, go home and eat first, we'll continue later...
What else did I do in the four seasons of my childhood? Ah! How could I forget this! Haha, I worked as a duck herder for Grandma. The ducks used for worship at home were raised ourselves. After the ducklings grew up, they were taken to the pond behind Uncle Dingxin's house, and brought back home at night. This was a tough job, as there were always one or two ducks that wouldn't listen. Sigh, I didn't want to do this job, but now I regret it! Speaking of Grandma, hahaha, when I was little, I loved it when Grandma asked me if I wanted to go worship the ancestors. I would happily go along, and I'd always be the first to arrive. Worshiping was secondary; playing was primary. Because the temples in our hometown were generally park-like or peaceful and harmonious places. Moreover, when we got there, we could enjoy the shimmering fish ponds (Alas, they've almost all been filled in now). We strolled along the paths around the fish ponds, and my younger brother and I played cops and robbers on the donor lists carved on stone tablets (We initially thought the old man guarding them wouldn't allow it, but he didn't care about us). Wow, I once flew kites here with Xiao Kun, Xiao Jie, and my younger brother (Xiao Kun once mentioned this, but I had no memory of it at all. Alas, I suffer from short-term memory loss, but most of the time, I have permanent memories). Apart from being a duck herder, there were activities like fishing (that beautiful, winding stream, why did I only catch African tilapia? Could I get a grass carp or a carp? Alas, that's impossible! Talking about fishing, sigh, I once secretly took shrimp as bait, and got scolded by Mom... Because we had caught all the earthworms, we had no other choice... Although I dared not touch the earthworms when they were wriggling around because I was scared of snakes! They were all caught by my second younger brother. But when an earthworm became several earthworms, it was my domain), catching tadpoles (we took them home and after a few days, we found legs growing, how happy!), planting peanuts (why peanuts? Hmm... Think about it, oh I know, because there was an example of planting peanuts in the natural science textbook in elementary school), raising silkworms, picking and collecting kapok flowers (boiling kapok flowers makes cooling water, this was something Mom and Grandma always did, I guess it makes sense. Haha, although Grandma said we should knock on Uncle Dingxin's door nearby to pick the kapok flowers without being noticed, I found Uncle Dingxin to be a good person, even though... Can't say bad things about elders), playing with kittens and puppies (those tiny cats and dogs were so adorable), catching cicadas (there were so many cicadas on the kapok tree in front of Uncle Dingxin's house. Looking at such a tall tree, I realized catching cicadas was so simple!!! Haha, holding a cicada in my hand, feeling the vibration, this feeling... Do you understand it?), having water fights with my two younger brothers through the gate of our home (Haha, although we got scolded severely by Mom, it was worth it! And we didn't catch colds or fevers either, Mom worried too much), these were all super precious memories...
Talking about the four seasons, I remembered the Mid-Autumn Festival back then. Wow, Doctor Shi Renzi pad money for patients for 14 years without encountering a single person who didn't pay him back!!! The Mid-Autumn Festival was so cool!! It must have been a long time ago, when those kind and friendly elders were still around, when that dirt path hadn't yet turned into a cement road. Haha, getting to the point, the Mid-Autumn Festival couldn't be complete without burning towers near our house (Why near our house? Because it was organized by us kids, although it wasn't as grand as the ones built by adults near the school, which were one or two stories high, ours were quite spectacular). Older brother and his classmates would sneak bricks from construction sites or somewhere else (this was wrong, kids, don't imitate! Haha) while we smaller kids stayed behind to guard the bricks. In the evening, we would start throwing anything flammable into the tower made of bricks. Haha, the flames burned fiercely, drawing many people. Under the full moon, in the autumn breeze, it was especially warm. Pouring salt into the tower would create crackling sounds, making the fire even more vigorous, nice!! Grandpa seemed to have given us guidance on how to build the tower. Ah, the people of that year, the Mid-Autumn Festival of that year, you were truly beautiful~~~~~
I’m really sorry, how could I forget my brilliant and dazzling comic career when talking about my childhood! (moved) Why did I start drawing comics? This story has deep roots! It's inseparable from my love for watching cartoons (why do I like watching cartoons? All thanks to the kindergarten teacher, why bother showing cartoons to us little kids all the time?) Of course, this isn't the main reason! I remember the first time I picked up a pen to draw comics, it was on the back of one of Dad's lottery newspapers... Almost every blank newspaper had my bold scribbles. Later, people always strive for improvement. I felt that the characters I drew were just a circle plus a few irregular ovals, with no plot, and drawing on newspapers wasn't satisfying and they ended up being burned as firewood, which was meaningless. Haha, the moment of innovation had arrived! I forgot how old I was when it happened, but I started drawing comics in exercise books with faint lines, imitating famous anime plots and characters (I forgot whether the first one I imitated was "Naruto" or "Dragon Ball", but I definitely imitated both. Of course, "Inuyasha" was included too.) Later, I felt that just imitating others wasn't interesting (the key reason was that Star TV stopped airing "Naruto"...). So, I decided to come up with my own plots (Hehe, mostly revolving around saving the world). As for how my drawings turned out, they were purely amateurish, just random doodles of a little kid. Now, it's time to talk about why I have such a deep connection with comics. Actually, this also depends on fate and personality. Before I started drawing comics, I would look around the house or search through textbooks for pretty pictures and then draw them, sticking them on the living room wall (this wasn't to show off to others, and at that time, I had no such awareness. I did it entirely to make the living room walls, which we had ruined with pencils and pens, look better, to make up for our sins). I don't know if it was because of this that I developed patience and a sense of mastery when drawing comics later on, and didn't get frustrated when the characters didn't look human (though my drawings weren't great, I don't know why I felt so good about myself at the time, which led to me improving over time). There was another important reason – I felt I had found a way to make my dreams slightly real, by drawing everything I imagined. (Haha, didn't I mention earlier that I liked to fantasize about battles between justice and darkness before sleeping? Hehe, because I went to bed too early and had nothing to do, so I fantasized. Unexpectedly, it was incredibly effective for falling asleep! Isn't it true that some people write down their dreams, and they're called novelists? But I didn't want to express my dreams in words, possibly due to the ridiculous homework assignments from elementary school teachers to write pages and pages, which gave me a writing aversion disorder... This problem wasn't resolved until junior high school). The last reason... Hmm... Hmm... At that time, I basically stayed at home all day, super bored. Drawing comics allowed me to visualize my stories and pass the time during the boring holidays, achieving two goals at once. Haha, I still remember Mom and Grandma telling my younger brothers to look at how their older brother always studied by the table, urging them to learn from me. My younger brother would argue back defiantly, saying I was drawing, while I remained silent, continuing my journey into another world... (There's one thing that made me angry because of comics, but I won't mention that mischievous and annoying cousin here! I wasn't that mischievous as a child! I was actually quite shy...)
After several rounds of additions and modifications, I've basically outlined my childhood, but I still feel like I've forgotten something... It seems the story isn't over yet, is it? Yes! How could we forget the person I always saw when I had a fever? I only knew he was a doctor, a doctor named Shi Renzi. He left a deep impression on me – kind, not painful when giving injections on the buttocks (but painful when sitting on the back rack of Mom's bike afterward), highly skilled (Sigh, whenever I was sick as a child, one injection and a few packets of medicine from him would usually cure me). That's it, may the doctor in that rural area be happy!!
Grandpa left a very deep impression on me, one that will never fade!! Grandpa was a genuine farmer, hardworking, kind, strong, frugal, and thrifty. Even in his later years, he continued farming, chopping wood, and selling prawns. Why doesn't an elderly person enjoy retirement? I think this is who my grandpa was – shaped by the impoverished and difficult times, he became such a hardworking and resilient grandfather. Grandpa was very frugal but doted on us. He didn't talk much, and studying the lottery numbers was his greatest hobby. Grandpa was handsome because he was always the earliest riser. I loved listening to Grandpa tell stories from his childhood, the clearest one being when the Japanese invaded our country and occupied our beautiful homeland. Grandpa was still a child, and he often secretly went behind the fortifications to pick up bullets (I don't know why, but it must have been fun)... There are many more stories about Grandpa, and I want to keep them in my heart forever...
Old Mother, or Grandpa's mother. I also loved hearing Old Ancestor tell stories from her youth, but she