A century of poverty

Chapter 62 Height

After the Lantern Festival, Liu Shulian, Liu Xiaxia, and Zhou Yawen came to the stable to find my fourth sister and me to go to school. The three of them went to the window, and Shulian called out, "Aunt Zhang! We've come to find Qiulian and Qinglian to go to school!" Mother responded and came out, "Come in, come in." The three of them went inside. Shulian said, "Aunt Zhang, my second sister has spoken with the school, and your Qiulian and Qinglian can enroll now, in the same class as us."

My fourth sister and I carried our newly bought green schoolbags and went out of the east gate of the field with them. We walked north along the field road, turned onto the driveway at the edge of the field, and then onto the main road connecting the villages, heading towards the school located in the northeast.

Liu Shulian's nickname is "Four Fatty." She's Secretary Liu's fourth daughter, dark-skinned and sturdy, with rough skin, and a head taller than me. Liu Xiaxia, Liu Shulian's cousin, is slightly smaller than Shulian, with a prominent forehead, thick lips, and a darker complexion than Shulian. Zhou Yawen, nicknamed "Little Fei," is slightly shorter than Xiaxia, fair-skinned, with a round face, slightly chubby, and small, smiling eyes; she has a very good temper.

They chatted along the way, calling each other by nicknames. Fourth Sister occasionally chimed in, getting along well with them. I remained silent, looking at my classmates. How come they were all so tall? They were all clearly older than Fourth Sister. In my memory, classmates should be around the same age and height. How could there be classmates this tall?

I had my doubts.

Walking straight ahead along the main road, the school is at the east end of the main road, where it intersects with the gravel road.

This gravel road extends north to the Liaohe River embankment, south past the "Dagoubang" bus station on the county road, and continues south to other cities and counties. To the east of the gravel road is a large drainage ditch, over ten meters wide. East of the ditch is Xiaoliujia Village. North of Xiaoliujia Village, separated by a paddy field, is the Daliujia Supply and Marketing Cooperative. East of the cooperative is Xutun. School-age children from all three villages attend the "Daliujia School."

The school consists of two rows of buildings, one in front and one in back, without a wall, with a playground in between. The back row houses classrooms for lower grades. The east building in the front row was recently built and is not yet in use. The west building contains one classroom, an office, a room for a school worker, and a kitchen.

There is also a large pigsty in the southwest corner.

The school toilets were located in the rice paddies outside the school grounds, behind the buildings, connected to the foundations by a difficult-to-walk path.

Shulian led us down the main road, down the north-south trunk line, and up the fish spine road connecting the campus. On the right was a large sewer that led directly to the windows of the front row of houses and then to the east side of the gravel road. On the left was a dug water pit.

We arrived at the classroom in the front row. Almost all the students were there, and the teacher was standing at the front.

Liu Shulian: "Teacher, these are the two sisters from the lower room of my house who have come to school."

The teacher looked me up and down, then at the fourth girl in front of me: "You sit there." She gestured for her to sit in the middle. After a while, she looked around again, asking several students sitting alone, but they all said someone was sitting next to them. Finally, she asked the girl in the very back corner: "Gao Yaning, is someone sitting next to you?"

Gao Yaning: "No."

"Go sit with her." I, the youngest, sat down with Gao Yaning, the tallest girl in the class.

Seeing this class was a huge surprise. Most of the students, both boys and girls, weren't my age. My fourth sister was three years older than me, which made her one of the younger ones. Most were three to five years older, some even seven or eight. It was unbelievable to me. Those strong, able-bodied students looked more like commune members than students. Even Gao Yaning, sitting next to me, was much taller than me. Sitting among them, I always felt like I was in the wrong place.

This teacher was Liu Shulian's eighth uncle, named Liu Zhenxue. He was the homeroom teacher and taught both Chinese and math. There were no teachers for the arts classes on the timetable, and physical education became free time. The bolder boys would go to the office to ask the nominal PE teacher for a soccer ball, which they would then pass around and kick around on the playground. Most of the girls sat in the classroom chatting. The restless girls would go to one side of the playground to play shuttlecock or jump rope. The school didn't have basketballs; two worn-out hoops stood facing each other across the entire playground, one on the east and one on the west. Table tennis was something no one had ever heard of.

Painting, calligraphy (small and large characters), and art teachers teaching songs while playing the accordion—these are all memories that only exist in my hometown.

The teacher was explaining math problems, and my deskmate, Gao Yaning, was looking in a small mirror. The teacher explained problems and assigned similar ones to do in class. I finished quickly, but then I saw my deskmate, a pretty girl with fair skin and two long braids, wearing new clothes and always looking in the mirror, struggling. She couldn't sit still, turning this way and that, completely lost. She couldn't even write out the equations, let alone do the calculations. She looked at me, pleading for help. I told her two steps, but she didn't understand at all. She just scribbled something down, which she probably didn't even understand herself. She handed in her homework at the end of get out of class.

When the homework was returned the next day, she looked through it. I glanced at her notebook; it was full of X's and BB's. I felt sorry for her; sitting in the classroom every day listening to lectures was torture.

The weather has warmed up, and the classroom door is open.

During a Chinese class, the teacher led the students to read the text twice, wrote key words on the blackboard, and explained them.

"What are you having for lunch?" A tall, thin, wrinkled, lame old man stood at the door and asked Teacher Liu.

"Eat your food again!" Teacher Liu walked out of the classroom, turned around, and grinned at the old school janitor. Two metal-inlaid teeth were visible in his smile, and a horizontal line appeared between his nose and eyes.

I know it's a joke, but I'm still surprised. And what's even more surprising is yet to come.

The old school janitor stammered quickly, "Really, it's not a joke, it's almost noon." With that, he stepped into the classroom.

Liu Zhenxue: "Oops? Did you fall down?" As he spoke, he swung his right arm and grabbed the old school worker by the neck. The old man grabbed Liu's right arm with both hands, his face turning red. Liu held him down tightly.

The old man repeatedly said, "I'm convinced, I'm convinced."

The boys stood up happily, clapped and cheered for their teacher, and Ms. Liu released her arm. The old man limped out, slipping and shuffling back to the kitchen to cook.

This happened so suddenly, I can hardly understand it.

These older students understood their teacher's instructions very well when it came to labor. In the spring and summer, before school ended at noon, Teacher Liu's loud voice instructed the students on what to bring for the afternoon's work, then she looked at a few of the taller boys and asked, "How many two-foot pickaxes do we need for wiping the roof this afternoon?"

Zhang Lude, Liu Shi'an, and others from Xiaoliujia Village raised their hands high: "Four handfuls! Four handfuls are enough."

Teacher Liu: "You're the ones leading it?"

Zhang and Liu readily agreed: "Sure! I have one at home, and I'll borrow another from the neighbor."

Sun Youcai, Cao Xuecai, and a few other experienced students raised their hands: "Teacher! I'll get the mud board." "Okay," the teacher replied.

She continued, "Yang Ji can't be left out either. Who will be leading Yang Ji tomorrow?"

This time, more than a dozen students raised their hands: "I'll bring it! I'll bring it!" Teacher Liu counted: "1, 2, 3... That's enough, that's enough. Everyone who raised their hand will bring it this afternoon! Okay, the rest of you will bring shovels."

After all that talk, I only understood this one sentence: most of us bring shovels. I'll go home and prepare a shovel to bring this afternoon. After lunch, my fourth sister and I went to school early, each carrying a shovel. On the main road, we ran into Liu Shulian, Liu Xiaxia, and Zhou Yawen. Each of them had a shovel on their shoulder and a bundle of rice straw tucked under their arm. My fourth sister asked, "What are you doing carrying those rice straw tucked under your arms?"

The girls replied, "Didn't the teacher tell us to bring Yang Ji?"

Ah! I know, Yangji is Daolanzi.

Upon arriving at the school, several boys were already working, with the teacher directing them. Liu Shi'an and Liu Shibao were wearing boots, while Zhang Lude was barefoot, his calf muscles bulging. The group had already begun clearing away the mounds of earth. The honest and simple-minded Zhang Jiuquan was already standing at the water line, holding a bucket, ready to fetch water. The students arrived and immediately began working, spreading water onto the earth. Sun Youcai went down to the main line and called out, "Jiuquan, bring water!" Bucket after bucket was passed around, continuously pouring water onto the cleared mounds of earth.

Seeing the picks in the hands of the people digging in the dirt and mud, I realized that these two-pronged picks were not the same as the "two-foot picks".

These tall boys and girls were all experts at their work, mixing the mud and building the planks. Several tall boys took turns throwing mud onto the planks, while the more experienced ones were responsible for smoothing it out with mud slabs. Liu Shulian, Bai Guixia, and others led the other boys and girls in scooping mud, working easily and in an orderly manner. Even Gao Yaning, who was afraid of getting mud splattered on herself, worked much more easily than I did.

As for me, even the same shovel felt heavy, and I was afraid that my teachers and classmates would say that I wasn't doing a good job, so I had no choice but to work as hard as I could. After carrying a shovelful of mud, I staggered to the mud-smearing area and was already very tired. I tried my best to persevere until the work was finished, but I was already exhausted and too tired to even speak.