Sigh, I really shouldn't have. Chatting is one thing, but discussing what to eat for breast enhancement during menstruation, why ask about someone else's childhood? Look, now I've been counter-questioned! Haha, it's all my fault for being too nostalgic! My childhood? Haha, so many people shared it with me... Those who were once part of my life, I wish you a lifetime of happiness, joy, and beauty!
First, we had a game that used the seeds of a fruit, which we called "throwing betel nuts," though only the boys played it. Back in my neighborhood, there were always groups of boys shouting loudly as they played this game. I was absolutely obsessed and very skilled at it. Haha, not kidding. I remember constantly asking my mom and grandma to buy betel nuts. I remember the joy of finding just one after searching the entire house. I remember the excitement of seeing a group of children playing 'throwing betel nuts' when we turned into an alley on the back of my mom’s bicycle. So many memories...
In the first and second grades of elementary school, playing hopscotch was a favorite pastime for both boys and girls. Let me tell you, I was very good at it. I still remember the white chalk-drawn “houses” on the cement floor in front of the classrooms at Haoxi School. Groups of children would balance a stone piece on the back of their hand while hopping on one foot. I remember stepping on the lines according to the rules set by others, and I remember those rhythmic hops...
At Haoxi School, there was another exclusive game for boys: jumping steps. Haha.
During holidays, a group of us would play games like throwing soda cans and then chasing each other or hide-and-seek at home.
As the game of throwing betel nuts started to decline, we began playing badminton at home or in the alleys instead. Ah, how could I forget my dad when talking about badminton?! Even though he only occasionally played with us, he would always step in whenever all the shuttlecocks ended up on the roof of the house. Mom would try her best to stop him because it was somewhat dangerous, but Dad would ignore her and climb onto the roof anyway—sometimes without even using a ladder (which I admired from a young age, so cool!). Then my brothers and I would pick up the shuttlecocks from below. Haha, we could gather dozens of them at once... Strangely enough, after enduring so much wind and rain on the roof, the shuttlecocks seemed to perform better, more stable, and less prone to damage... Haha, and soccer also required Dad's help. Truly grateful to Dad!
Playing blind man's bluff with my younger brothers at home was hilariously funny and made our stomachs hurt from laughing so much.
Then came our first red-and-white gaming console (buying a gaming console was strictly forbidden by Mom, but we got one anyway. Before that, we used handheld consoles and borrowed games from others. I remember once getting so angry over the console that I smashed it to pieces).
When I got mad as a child, it was truly earth-shattering and ghost-tearing.
Speaking of which, my second younger brother and I were arch-enemies when we were little. We argued at least three times a day and fought five times. Our hands were often scratched, and Mom scolded us constantly. Eventually, she gave up and ignored our arguments altogether. But even so, we played happily together, haha!!
Why did Mom allow us to 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 more. We also borrowed game discs from some of my close classmates. Haha!
We frequently played soccer in the alleys, which was extremely fun. In alleys, it’s better with more people; we could form teams of three or four, chasing each other from one end of the alley to the other! However, my brothers and I also played soccer in the small courtyard at home, with disastrous results—a soccer ball got punctured by Mom (Mom was really tough, I admire her). But how could the passion for soccer be extinguished? We made a ball out of crumpled paper, layer upon layer until it was the size of a soccer ball. To reinforce its shape, I used flat wire (translated from Chaoshan dialect, no explanation needed) to tie it several times and then covered it with a plastic bag. Hmm, the paper ball wasn’t very harmful, so Mom didn’t stop us from playing soccer at home anymore, although sometimes if 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 anime on Star TV every night. Haha (thinking about it, Sakura Card Captor, Doraemon, Naruto, One Piece, Dragon Ball, Inuyasha, Transformers... Damn, there are so many I remember but can't recall their names right now).
Afterward... Playing imaginative sandcastle games with my younger brothers in places with sandpiles was something we were completely obsessed with.
Stealthily buying firecrackers and ice cream and eating them secretly outside was such a joyful thing because of the ice cream and firecrackers. Haha (Ah, Mom never let us play with firecrackers or eat ice cream when we were little, but I remember she used to buy us ice cream when we were very young, and Dad would buy fireworks during the New Year).
I remember the feeling of kicking a soccer ball 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.
Venturing to abandoned stone quarries and rooftops to play adventure games was also one of my favorites. Haha.
Also, flying kites was super fun. Hmm... hmm... and riding bicycles was a very pleasant and enjoyable experience. Watching different faces, feeling the breeze, admiring the beautiful blue sky of my hometown. Haha.
There seem to be many more things I haven't written about yet. Hey, those who spent time with me, if anything comes to mind, let me know... By the way, before I went to kindergarten, our family had a large plot of land used to grow rice. The tool for removing the husks from the rice was stored upstairs in our house. I think it was a very traditional, entirely manual process. What I remember most vividly was the big wooden barrel. Every time I came home after the autumn harvest, I loved climbing inside the barrel and treating the iron rings lined up in a row as a staircase. Ah, thinking about this reminds me that when I was little, I would always pretend my two hands were two people and the bedding was mountains. Then, I'd engage in a chaotic battle right before sleeping with Dad, making martial arts sounds. Dad would always look at me in surprise, but I ignored him! Haha! Going out on the road with Grandma to collect unhulled rice grains is an unforgettable memory.
Let me talk about my kindergarten days. More than the cute little kids, what accompanied me through kindergarten were cartoons, manually operated merry-go-rounds, slides, etc. Alas, these all became boring eventually. Let me talk about a game that should be exclusive to boys called "fighting cards" (directly translated from our Chaoshan dialect, though some might not understand). There were many ways to play, and even more ways to cheat (attaching two identical cards together ensures a sure win in battles... Too evil). Most boys probably played this back then, haha. I was also quite skilled. Recently, when I saw my little cousin playing this game, I wanted to test if I was still as good as ever... Turns out my hands are old now, even though my heart isn't.
After saying so much, we’ve finally reached the most important and exciting part—bragging time! Haha, let me think... Hmm... Got it! There’s one thing I remember clearly from my childhood: I helped Mom find her wedding ring (I probably hadn’t fully mastered walking back then... Isn’t that amazing?). You see, kids love looking everywhere, and that’s what I did. Haha, I saw Mom’s ring fall to the ground and get swept into the dustpan. I thought Mom didn’t want it anymore until she said it was missing and kept looking for it. That’s when I spoke up and pointed to the dustpan (Wow, I was so cool!).
Now Grandma and Mom always say I was super ugly as a kid, but every time I see the photos of myself wearing a yellow cotton jacket leaning on the flower bed railing at Haoxi School, I’m sure I was super cute back then.
This is where my nightmare begins! On the way to kindergarten, the monsters I encountered most were domestic dogs and stray dogs (aren’t they all dogs?). This was a very dangerous situation for me going to school alone. I grew up battling dogs every day. Many times, I was chased by dogs. Fortunately, I had good running skills. But as they say, "What you think about during the day appears in your dreams at night." I often dreamed of being chased by dogs, which was truly a nightmare.
Who am I? How could I be defeated by a little dog, even in my dreams? That would be too pitiful. So, on a moonless, windy night, before falling asleep, I gave myself a strong psychological suggestion: everything that happens next is fake, it's a dream. As soon as I become aware of any impossibility, it means I'm dreaming (Really cool, I still admire myself now). Then I really did dream of being chased by a dog. Although I was chased for a short distance, I truly realized I was dreaming (probably because I had so many similar dreams). Haha, I turned around, threw a punch, and delivered a flying kick. I laughed so hard as the wild dog was sent flying. Afterward, even though I still had similar nightmares, I always beat the dogs up (Wow, so cool! This must be what immunity is like). 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. Though it's a bit challenging.
Even though my connection with dogs has been terrifying, I don't hate them. I'm still a little afraid of them.
Alright, bragging session over. 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 worshipping gods at home were raised ourselves. When the ducks grew up, they were penned by Uncle Dingxin's pond and brought back home at night. This was a tough job as there were always one or two ducks that wouldn't listen. Actually, I didn't want to do this, but now I regret it! Speaking of Grandma, hahaha, I loved it when she asked me if I wanted to go worship the ancestors. Of course, I happily followed along and was always the first to arrive! Worshipping was secondary; playing was primary. Because the temples in our hometown were generally park-like or quiet and harmonious places. Moreover, we could enjoy the shimmering fishponds (Alas, most of them have been filled in now), stroll along the paths around the ponds, and play cops and robbers on the inscribed stone tablets with my younger brother (Initially, we thought the old guard wouldn't allow it, hahaha, but he didn't care). Wow, I once flew kites here with Xiao Kun, Xiao Jie, and my brother (Xiao Kun mentioned this before, but I had no memory of it. Alas, I often suffer from short-term memory loss, but mostly I have permanent memories).
Besides being a duck herder, there were activities like fishing (That "beautiful" and "long" little stream, why did I only catch African catfish? Could you give me a grass carp or a carp? Alas, that's impossible! Talking about fishing, alas, I once secretly took shrimp as bait and got scolded by Mom... Because we had caught all the worms, we had no choice. But worms, when they wriggle around, I couldn't touch them because I was afraid of snakes! They were all caught by my second younger brother. But when a worm became several worms, it was my domain.), catching tadpoles (we brought them home, and after a few days, they grew legs, so exciting!), growing peanuts (why peanuts? Hmm... thinking about it, oh, I know! It was an example from our natural science textbook in elementary school), raising silkworms, picking and collecting kapok flowers (boiling kapok flowers makes cooling water, which is something Mom and Grandma always did. Haha, although Grandma said we shouldn't be seen picking kapok flowers from near Uncle Dingxin's house, I found Uncle Dingxin to be a good person, though...), playing with cats and dogs (small kittens and puppies are so cute!), catching cicadas (there were so many cicadas on the kapok trees in front of Uncle Dingxin's house. Looking at such tall trees, I discovered how simple catching cicadas was!! Haha, holding the cicada in my hand, feeling its vibrations, this feeling... do you understand it?), and having water fights with my two younger brothers through the gate of our house (Haha, even though we were scolded severely by Mom, it was worth it! And we didn't catch colds or fevers, so Mom worried too much). These are all precious treasures of memories...
Talking about the four seasons reminded me of Mid-Autumn Festival back then, wow!! Mid-Autumn Festival was so cool!! It must have been a long time ago, when those kind-hearted elders were still around, and before that dirt path became a concrete road. Haha, let's get to the point. The most indispensable part of the Mid-Autumn Festival was burning towers near our house (why near our house? Because it was organized by us kids, though it wasn't as grand as the ones built by adults near the school, which were one or two stories high, ours were very lively). Brother Xuan and his classmates would go to construction sites or somewhere else to get bricks for building walls (this was actually doing bad things, kids shouldn't imitate! Haha). The younger ones among us would stay behind to guard the bricks.
In the evening, we would start throwing anything flammable into the brick-stacked "tower". Haha, the flames burned fiercely, drawing a crowd. Under the full moon and in the autumn breeze, it felt particularly warm. Pouring salt into the tower produced crackling sounds, and the fire burned even brighter—nice!!! Grandpa seemed to have guided us on how to stack the tower. Ah, those people from that year, that Mid-Autumn Festival—you were truly beautiful~~~~~
I'm really sorry, how could I forget my glorious and dazzling comic career when talking about my childhood! (Touched)
Why did I draw comics? This story has deep roots. It's inseparable from my love for watching cartoons (why do I like watching cartoons? It's all the teacher's fault at kindergarten for 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 was on the back of one of Dad's lottery newspapers... Almost every newspaper's blank back page was filled with my bold scribbles. Later, as people always strive for improvement, I thought the characters I drew were just a circle plus a few irregular ovals, with no storyline, and drawing on newspapers wasn't satisfying and ended up being used as kindling, so it wasn't meaningful. Haha, the moment of innovation arrived! I forgot how old I was, but I started drawing comics in lined notebooks, imitating famous anime plots and characters (I forgot whether the first one I imitated was "Naruto" or "Dragon Ball", but I definitely imitated both. "Inuyasha" was also included). Later, I thought imitating others wasn't interesting (the key reason was that Star TV stopped airing "Naruto"). So, I decided to come up with my own storylines (hehe, basically revolving around saving the world). As for how well I drew... purely amateurish, just a little kid's random doodles. When it came to explaining why I had such a deep connection with comics, it's actually about fate and personality. Before I started drawing comics, I used to look around the house or in textbooks for pretty pictures, then copy them and stick them on the living room wall (this wasn't to show off to others; at that time, I didn't even have that awareness. It was completely to make our living room, which had been ruined by pencils and pens, look better, as a way to make up for our sins). I don't know if this is why I developed patience and a sense of ease when drawing comics later, not getting frustrated when the drawings didn't look human-like (though my drawings weren't great, I don't know why I felt good about myself back then, and later on, they gradually improved). The most important reason was that I felt I had found a way to make my dreams slightly more real—by drawing them out. (Haha, didn't I mention earlier that I liked to fantasize about battles between justice and darkness before falling asleep? Hehe, because I went to bed early and couldn't sleep, so I started fantasizing. Surprisingly, it helped me fall asleep. Aren't there people who write down their dreams? They're called novelists. But I didn't want to write down my dreams with words, possibly because teachers in elementary school always assigned pages of writing homework, 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 was almost always at home, extremely bored. Drawing comics made my stories visual and also passed the time during the dull holidays—a win-win. Haha, I remember Mom and Grandma telling my younger brothers to look at how their older brother was always studying at the table, hoping they'd learn from me. My brother would defiantly counter that I was drawing, and I, mostly silent, continued my journey into another world. (There's another thing that made me angry about comics, but I won't mention that overly mischievous and annoying cousin here! I wasn't that naughty as a child! I was shy...)
After several additions and revisions, I've roughly captured the essence of my childhood, but I still feel like I've forgotten some things... Looks like the story isn't over yet, is it? True! How could we forget the person I always saw when I had a fever? I