Alas, I really shouldn't have. Chatting is chatting, why ask about someone's childhood? Look, now I've been asked back! Haha, it's fine, it's all because I'm too nostalgic!~~~ As for my childhood, hahaha, so many people lived it with me ~~ Those who were once part of my life, I wish you happiness and joy forever, and beauty for a lifetime!! First, we had a game that used the seeds of a kind of fruit; we called it "throwing lang kernels," but only boys played it. Back then, in several alleys near my house, there would be clusters of boys shouting and playing loudly. I was very obsessed and also very skilled at this game. Haha, I'm not joking. I remember always asking my mom and grandma to buy lang fruits to eat. I remember the joy of finding just one kernel after searching the whole house. I remember the excitement of sitting on the back of my mom's bike as we turned into an alley and seeing a group of children playing with lang kernels. I remember so much more............ When I was in first or second grade of elementary school, playing hopscotch was something both boys and girls loved. Let me tell you, I was very good at it. I remember the cement ground in front of the classrooms at Haoxi School, marked out with white chalk into "houses." Clusters of children would balance a stone piece on the back of their hand and hop on one foot past it. I remember stepping on the lines meant following someone else's rules. I remember those hopping steps............ Haha.
At Haoxi School, there was another exclusive boy's game - jumping steps. Haha.
Next, during holidays, we would play a game of throwing empty cans and then chasing each other, or play hide-and-seek at home.
As the game of throwing lang kernels gradually declined, we started playing badminton at home or in the alleyways. Oh, when talking about badminton, how could I forget Dad?! Although Dad only occasionally played with us, never forget that whenever all the shuttlecocks ended up on the roof of the xiatiger (a traditional southern Chinese architectural feature), it was time for my dear, handsome, cute, and respected dad to take the stage. Although Mom would try to stop Dad from doing what he was about to do because it was a bit dangerous, Dad would ignore her and bravely climb onto the roof, sometimes without even using a ladder (this has impressed me since I was little, how cool!). Then my brothers and I would pick up the shuttlecocks from below, hahaha, picking up dozens of them at once....... Strangely, after enduring so many years of wind and rain on the roof, the shuttlecocks seemed to play better, more steadily, and were less prone to damage........................ Haha, besides badminton, soccer also required Dad's help. Truly, thank you, Dad.
Playing blind man's bluff with my younger brothers at home was extremely funny and made our stomachs ache from laughing.
Next, we bought our first red-and-white video game console (buying a game console was strictly forbidden by Mom, but we still did it anyway. Before this, we played handheld Xiaowangzhe games and had to borrow them from others. I remember once arguing with my younger brother over the game console, and in anger, I smashed it to pieces ******
When I got angry as a child, it was truly earth-shattering and ghost-tear-inducing ******
Speaking of which, when I was young, my second younger brother and I were natural enemies. We would argue at least three times a day and fight five times. Our hands were often scratched, and Mom would scold us constantly. Later, Mom gave up trying to intervene in our arguments, but even so, we still had a lot of fun when we played together, hahaha!! Why did Mom let us buy a game console? Oh~~ because we went and borrowed one from others) At that time, we played games at home, like Super Mario, Contra, Snow Brothers, and more. We also borrowed game cartridges from some of my good classmates, hahaha.
Next, we often played soccer in the alleyways. It was incredibly fun! Hmm... Playing soccer in the alleyways is more fun with more people, allowing us to play in groups of three or four, chasing from one end of the alley to the other! However, my brother and I also frequently played soccer in the small courtyard at home, resulting in a rather tragic outcome - one soccer ball was punctured by Mom (
Mom was really tough, I admire her). But how could the passion for soccer ever fade? We made a ball out of crumpled paper, layer upon layer..... until it became a soccer-sized paper ball. To reinforce and shape it, I tied it with flat wire (haha, translated from Chaozhou dialect, no explanation needed) several times, and later covered it with a plastic bag. Hmm hmm, the paper ball wasn't very damaging, so Mom didn't stop us from playing soccer at home, though sometimes when we got carried away, Mom would glare at us sharply. I ignored her.
Then, at exactly 6 PM or 5:30 PM, we would watch the animated shows on Sky Television. Haha (think about it, "Cardcaptor Sakura", "Doraemon", "Naruto", "One Piece", "Dragon Ball", "Inuyasha", "Transformers"...... Damn, there are so many I remember but can't recall their names right now).
Next... Playing imaginative sandcastle games with the younger brothers in places with sand piles was also something we were very engrossed in.
Then, 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, hahaha (alas, as a child, Mom wouldn't let us play with firecrackers or eat ice cream, but I remember when I was very young, Mom herself used to buy us ice cream, and every year during the Spring Festival, Dad would buy fireworks to set off himself ).
I remember the feeling of playing soccer in the fields with a group of people, it was breathless.
And then there was playing chess, though not very often, just a few days.
Going to abandoned stone quarries and wall tops to play adventure games was also one of my favorites, hahaha.
And oh, flying kites was super fun. Hmm... Hmm... And yes, riding bicycles was a very pleasant and enjoyable experience - watching different faces, feeling the breeze, admiring the beautiful blue sky of our hometown, hahaha.
It seems there are still so many things I haven't written down, hehe. You people who spent your childhood with me, if you remember anything, please tell me...? Oh right, before I went to kindergarten, our family had a large piece of land used for growing rice. Ha! There was a tool on the upper floor of our house used to remove the husks from the coarse rice, I think it must have been a very traditional, entirely manual process! The deepest impression I have is of that big wooden barrel. Every time I came home after the autumn harvest, I would always climb into the barrel, and then use the iron rings embedded in a row as a staircase, haha. Thinking about this, I remember that before sleeping with Dad, I would always pretend my two hands were two people, and the bedding was mountains, conducting a chaotic battle in this setting while making martial arts sounds. Dad would always look at me in surprise, but I ignored him! Haha! Going with Grandma to collect unhulled rice on the road is an unforgettable memory.
Let's talk about my kindergarten days. More than just the cute little kids, what accompanied me through kindergarten were cartoons, human-powered merry-go-rounds, slides, etc. Alas, but these all got boring eventually. Let's talk about a game that should also be exclusive to boys, called "Da Ren Zi" (translated directly from our Chaozhou dialect, though some may not understand it). The gameplay seems quite varied, haha, and the methods of cheating even more so (sticking two identical ones together ensures victory in duels, very evil). Boys back then must have all played it, right? Haha, I was also very good at it. However, not long ago, I saw my little cousin playing this game again, and I wanted to test if I was still as sharp as before... Unfortunately, my hands have aged, though my heart hasn't.
After saying so much, it's finally time for the most important and exciting part - the self-boasting section! Hmm, let me think... Hmm... Got it! There's one thing from my childhood I remember very clearly - helping Mom find her wedding ring (at that time, I probably hadn't fully mastered walking yet... Isn't that amazing?). Everyone knows that kids love looking around everywhere, and that's how I was. Hehe, I saw Mom's ring fall to the ground and sweep it into the dustpan, thinking she didn't want it anymore. It wasn't until Mom said her ring was missing and kept looking that I pointed to the dustpan (Wow, I was so cool). Now, Grandma and Mom always say I looked very ugly as a child, but whenever I see photos 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 most on the way to kindergarten 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 fighting with dogs every day. Many times, I was chased by dogs, but 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," so I often dreamed of being chased by dogs, which was truly a nightmare.
Who am I? How could I be defeated by a puppy, even in a dream? That would be too pitiful, wouldn't it? So, on a moonless, windy night, before falling asleep, I gave myself a strong psychological suggestion: everything that happens next is fake, it's all a dream. As soon as I become aware of even the slightest impossibility, it's a dream (
Truly cool, I still admire myself to this day). Then, I really did dream of being chased by a dog. Alas, although I was chased for a short distance, I really felt like I was dreaming (maybe because I'd had such dreams so many times already... ). Haha, I turned around, threw a heavy punch, and delivered a flying kick. I laughed so hard, the wild dog was sent flying. After that, although I still had similar nightmares, I always beat up the dogs in them (Wow, so cool, this must be what's called immunity to antibodies... ). Haha, so friends who have nightmares can try my pre-sleep suggestion method. Let me tell you a secret, if you master it well, you can control your dreams. Really, I've tried it...
But it's a bit difficult.
Although my connection with dogs was so terrifying, I don't dislike dogs. I'm still a bit afraid of them, though.
Alright, self-boasting is 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! Hehe, I also worked as a duck herder for Grandma. The ducks we used for worshipping gods were raised at home. When 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... Hehe, when I was little, I loved it when Grandma asked me if I wanted to go worship the ancestors. I would happily follow her, and I was always the first to arrive! Worshiping the ancestors was secondary, playing was primary. Because the temples in our hometown were generally park-like or quiet and harmonious places, and when we got there, we could also enjoy the shimmering fish ponds (sigh, most of them have been filled in now, haven't they?) strolling along the paths around the ponds, and playing cops and robbers on the stone steles of the donor lists with my younger brother (initially thought the old guard would disapprove, hehe, but he didn't care). Hey, I once flew kites here with Xiao Kun, Xiao Jie, and my younger brother (Xiao Kun mentioned this once, but I had no recollection at all. Sigh, I suffer from short-term memory loss, hey, but mostly it's permanent memories). Besides being a duck herder, activities like fishing (that 'beautiful', 'long' little stream, why did I only catch African tilapia? Can I have a grass carp or a carp? Sigh, impossible! Talking about fishing, sigh, I once secretly took shrimp as bait, and got scolded by Mom
Because we had caught all the worms, we were out of options
However, when worms were wriggling 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 (brought them home and found their legs growing after a few days, so excited
), planting peanuts (why peanuts? Hmm... Think, oh, I know, because I saw an example of planting peanuts in the nature textbook in elementary school), raising silkworms, picking kapok flowers (boiling kapok flowers makes cooling water, this is something Mom and Grandma always did, I think it's reasonable. Haha, although Grandma said we shouldn't be seen picking kapok flowers from the tree near Uncle Dingxin's house, I found Uncle Dingxin to be a good person, though...
Can't speak ill of elders), playing with kittens and puppies (small cats and dogs 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 realized catching cicadas was actually very simple!!! Haha, holding the cicada in my hand, feeling its vibrations, this sensation... Do you understand it?), having water fights with my two younger brothers through the gate of our house (haha, though we would get scolded severely by Mom, it was worth it! And we didn't catch colds or fevers, Mom worried too much) these are all super precious memory treasures...........
Speaking of the four seasons, I thought of the Mid-Autumn Festival back then, wow!! The Mid-Autumn Festival was too cool!!! It must have been a long time ago, when those kind-hearted elders were still around, and before that dirt path had turned into a concrete road. Hehe, getting 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 couldn't compare to the towers built by adults near the school, which were one or two stories high, but ours were very exciting). Xuan's brother and his classmates would fetch bricks from construction sites or elsewhere (this was naughty behavior, kids shouldn't imitate! Haha) while the younger ones like us stayed 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 crowds. Under the full moon and in the autumn breeze, it was exceptionally warm. Pouring salt into the tower would produce crackling sounds, and the fire would burn even brighter, nice!! Grandpa seemed to have given us guidance on how to stack 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 extraordinarily brilliant and dazzling comic career from my childhood! (
Moved) Why did I start drawing comics? This story has deep roots! It's inseparable from my love for animated shows (why do I like animated shows? All thanks to the teachers at kindergarten for showing them to us little pkids 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 blank back of one of Dad's六合彩 newspapers
Almost every sheet of newspaper had my bold handwriting on its pristine back. Later, people always strive for progress. I thought the characters I drew were just circles and irregular ovals, lacked a storyline, and weren't satisfying enough when drawn on newspapers which were eventually burned as fire starters. Haha, the moment of innovation arrived! I forgot how old I was, but I started using lined notebooks to draw comics, mimicking famous anime plots and characters (I forgot whether the first one I copied was from "Naruto" or "Dragon Ball", but I definitely copied both, and of course "Inuyasha" too). Later, I thought mimicking others wasn't interesting (the key reason was that Star TV stopped airing "Naruto"
), so I decided to create my own plot (Hehe, usually revolving around saving the world). As for how my drawings turned out, purely amateurish, just a kid's random doodles. It's time to recount why I developed such a deep connection with comics. Actually, this also involves fate and personality. Before I started drawing comics, I would wander around the house or search in textbooks for pretty pictures and then copy them, sticking them on the walls in the living room (this wasn't to show off to others, and at that time, I didn't even have such an awareness. I did this entirely to make our living room, which had been defaced by pencils and pens, look better, as a way to compensate for our sins.) I'm not sure if it's because of this that I developed patience and a sense of mastery in drawing. Later, when drawing comics, I wouldn't get frustrated because the characters didn't look human (though my drawings weren't great either, I don't know why I felt so confident back then, leading to improvements over time). 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 fantasizing about battles between justice and darkness before sleeping? Hehe, because I couldn't fall asleep early, so I would fantasize. Unexpectedly, this was extremely 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 write down my dreams in words, possibly due to the stupid assignments in elementary school where we had to write pages of characters, causing me to develop a writing aversion syndrome
This problem improved somewhat when I reached middle school.) The last reason is... Hmm... Hmm...
Back then, I basically stayed at home all day, incredibly bored. Drawing comics made my stories visual and also helped pass the dull holiday time, killing two birds with one stone. Haha, I remember Mom and Grandma telling my younger brothers to learn from me because I was always studying at the table, and the younger brother would defiantly counter that I was drawing, while I remained silent, continuing my journey into another world. (There's another incident where I got angry because of comics, but I won't mention that overly 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 roughly captured the essence of my childhood, but I still feel like I've forgotten some things... It seems the story isn't over yet, huh? You think so too? Yes! How could I forget that person I would see every time I had a fever in my childhood! I only knew he was a doctor, Dr. Shi Renzi. My impression of him was that he was kind, and the injection on the buttocks wasn't very painful during the process, but it hurt too much to sit on the rear rack of Mom's bike afterward. He was highly skilled (sigh, whenever I was sick, a single shot and a few packets of medicine from him would almost cure me
). That's it, then. May that rural doctor be blessed with happiness!! Grandpa left a very deep impression on me, one that will never fade!! He was a genuine farmer, diligent, kind, strong, thrifty, and an old farmer who endured hardships. 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 arduous times into such a hardworking and resilient grandfather. Grandpa was very frugal, but he spoiled us the most. He didn't talk much, and his greatest hobby was studying the lottery numbers. Grandpa was very handsome because he was always the earliest riser. I loved listening to Grandpa tell stories from his childhood, and the clearest memory I have is when Japanese invaders occupied our country and took over our beautiful hometown. Grandpa, still a child, would often sneak behind the fortifications to pick bullets (I don't know why, but I guess it must have been fun...)... There are many more stories about Grandpa, and I want to keep them in my heart forever... Old Ma, Grandpa's mother. I also loved hearing the old grandmother tell stories from her youth, but she mostly shared them with Mom, and their relationship was the best. In her youth, Grandma worked as a maid in a landlord's house, then married our ancestor, and eventually, our large family was formed.
Such a distant era!!! My favorite thing to do was to use Grandma's leg as a pillow every night to sleep, it was so comfortable! ~~~ Thank you, Grandma!
Mom and Dad, sigh, they truly are a perfect match! Just looking at their photos from their youth, I know that Dad and Mom were outrageously handsome and stunningly beautiful, so gorgeous they shocked the central committee of the party... Legend has it that Mom was the fifth fairy among the seven fairies in their hometown, indeed, Mom's sisters, my aunts, were all very beautiful... Dad was also incredibly handsome, an undeniable fact! Alas, when it comes to those little neighbors