Accidentally Born in the ‘60s

Chapter 42

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Mingbei watched Li Muwu waving the measuring tape, making a loud clacking sound and dancing with a whip, and his legs began to tremble again. He hid half of his head behind the door again with his calves shaking, and stammered in retort: "How can a ruler measure a difference of a few centimeters? Besides, I clearly straightened the handlebars before I came back, so it can't be that much of a difference."

Zhenzhen lay on the windowsill, covering her face, unable to bear the sight. As expected, Li Muwu got angry when he heard it: "You gave yourself away. I could tell you were guilty the moment I walked in. I tell you, I know how many feces you poop when you stick your butt out. I wipe our bicycle so many times every day. I even measure it eight times a day with a ruler. I can even tell how much mud is on the wheel. You want to hide it from me after you broke the bike? I think you are dreaming."

Zhenzhen looked at Li Muwu in shock. She never expected that her usually taciturn father could be so capable. Not only could he measure the bicycle for fun, but he could even use a few lies to get the truth out of his silly son.

Seeing Li Muwu carefully fixing the car and hanging it on the wall of the warehouse, Li Mingbei couldn't help but interrupt him: "Dad, it's a waste of your time carrying sacks in the granary. You might as well be a policeman and catch spies. You will definitely catch them one by one." Li Muwu picked up a stick and sneered: "You dare to talk nonsense? I think you deserve a beating." Then he rushed towards Li Mingbei.

Li Mingbei howled, holding his head and rushed into the house. When Li Muwu entered the house, Li Mingbei had already jumped out of the window and ran out. The neighbors heard the quarrel between the father and son and came to watch the fun. It can be said that Li Mingbei was so glorious riding his bicycle in front of his house in the morning, and how embarrassed he was when he was chased by Li Muwu in the evening.

Zhenzhen sat by the window sill, eating melon seeds and watching with relish as the father and son circled the front and back yards of the house. Old Mrs. Li was also watching the fun, but she realized something was wrong after watching for a while. She put down her pipe and pulled Zhenzhen over to check him up and down: "Did your brother really crash his car? Did he hit you? Did you bump your leg?"

"No!" Zhen Zhen quickly moved her arms and legs for Mrs. Li to check: "My brother just rode on the rock and I jumped off."

"Don't your feet hurt after jumping down from such a high?" Old Lady Li looked at Zhenzhen's feet with concern. She was relieved to see that the instep and the foot were white without any bruises. Seeing Li Muwu chasing Mingbei around the window again, Old Lady Li shouted angrily: "Beat that kid hard. He almost fell on Zhenzhen by riding on the rock. I think this bastard deserves to be punished recently."

Li Muwu, who had just stopped to catch his breath, heard that Mingbei had ridden his bicycle onto a rock and almost hit his daughter. He suddenly didn't know whether to feel sorry for the bicycle or for his daughter. He picked up a thicker stick from the yard and continued to chase Mingbei and beat him.

Mingbei was at the age when he could run and jump, but it was no match for him just circling the yard, not to mention that there was Old Lady Li chasing him with her pipe. After running a few laps, Mingbei couldn't stand it anymore and was hit on the butt by Old Lady Li's pipe several times. Mingbei found a time when Li Muwu and Old Lady Li were both unable to come, crossed the vegetable garden, climbed over the fence into the yard, and escaped through the gate.

Old Lady Li walked to the front door with her small feet and shouted at her grandson's running back, "If you have the guts, don't come back. I'll ask your mother to make dumplings tonight. I'll make mushroom and pork dumplings."

Mingbei stopped dead in his tracks. He turned around and looked at the door of his house, feeling very conflicted: If he went back, he would definitely get beaten; but if he didn't go back, he would miss out on eating dumplings. You know, the last time he made dumplings at home was two months ago, with pork and cabbage filling, and they were so delicious.

Mingbei sighed. If he could just hide outside and avoid being beaten, that would be great. He was worried that if he came back late, he would not only miss out on the dumplings, but would also be beaten sooner or later. Li Mingbei moved slowly towards home, wavering between being beaten and eating dumplings.

Having seen enough of the excitement, Zhenzhen ate the last pine nut in her hand, then slowly came out to persuade Mrs. Li: "Grandma, I really didn't fall, please don't beat my brother. He is not smart to begin with, and he will become even dumber if he is beaten. What should I do

Seeing that Zhenzhen was indeed fine, Old Lady Li glanced at Mingbei's pitiful appearance and snorted coldly: "I won't beat him, but I don't care whether his father beats him or not."

Li Mingbei watched from afar as Zhenzhen persuaded Old Lady Li to leave, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Seeing that Li Muwu didn't come out, he waved at Zhenzhen vigorously. Zhenzhen looked back and saw Li Muwu leaning against the wall and breathing heavily, so she ran to Mingbei and gave him a thumbs up in admiration: "Brother, you won't stop until you get beaten, and you keep adding fuel to the fire for our father."

"I just couldn't help but say that." Mingbei was annoyed. He pulled Zhenzhen's pigtail and discussed with her: "Talk to our father to change the stick. That stick is too thick. I can't get off the bed for at least three days."

Zhenzhen snatched back her braid, her eyes widened and her chubby cheeks puffed up: "I see you're not worried at all, I just helped you persuade grandma not to cut you, and now you turn around and pull my braid."

Mingbei slapped his hand quickly, and said with a wry smile: "I just can't help it!" He gently patted Zhenzhen's shoulder, then squatted down to discuss with him: "Sister, talk to our father. As long as our father is willing to change to a thinner stick, you can ask me to do anything."

Zhenzhen hesitated for a moment, looked at Mingbei and nodded: "Okay, I'll go talk to our dad."

Mingbei watched Zhenzhen walk into his house, then he ran to the door carefully and stretched his neck to peek in. He didn't know what Zhenzhen said to Li Muwu, but Li Muwu seemed to have calmed down. He threw away the stick as thick as his arm, replaced it with a stick as thick as a cucumber, and shouted at the door, "Come in."

Mingbei heard Guihua clinking meat in the kitchen, and hurried in, stopping three or four meters away from Li Muwu. Li Muwu glanced at him, picked up the stick and hit him hard on the buttocks twice, then threw the stick away and snorted: "Don't even think about riding my bike again, I'll hit you if you touch me."

Mingbei stared at Li Muwu's departing back in amazement, and couldn't help asking, "What if my sister wants to go to the hydrolysis plant to watch a movie again?"

Li Muwu stopped and glanced back at him: "I'll take Zhenzhen with me on my bike, you run down below!"

Mingbei wailed in an instant: "Dad, I am your biological son."

As it turned out, Li Muwu had too many sons, and he didn't have that much love for his biological son Mingbei. From that day on, he bought a chain lock and locked the bicycle tightly. Mingbei tried to steal the bicycle to show off several times, but all ended in failure.

Zhenzhen really couldn't stand Mingbei jumping up and down and showing off all day long, so she used the conditions Mingbei agreed to that day to force him to sit at the table to review his homework. She watched him copy the textbooks for the first and second grade of junior high school and answer all the after-class exercises, and then she gave him two days off.

After Mingbei was forced by Zhenzhen to copy books for more than ten days, he was finally freed. He immediately went to Wang Sufen to discuss asking for money to go to the movies.

Wang Sufen looked at him impatiently while kneading the dough: "When Mingdong, Mingxi, and Mingnan were in school, they all studied better than you. When they were studying at home, they didn't even watch movies to relax. Look at you, you are showing off. Can you get 100 points or something?"

"I don't want to relax." Mingbei said confidently: "Besides, I just want to visit the hydrolysis plant more often, so that I can have more confidence when recruiting workers in the future."

Wang Sufen attended night school for a while during the literacy campaign in the early 1950s, but she was either busy with housework or working with Old Lady Li to open up wasteland and cultivate the land. She knew nothing about the factory. When Mingbei used recruitment as an excuse, Wang Sufen hesitated: "Really? Don't fool me!"

"Yeah, yeah, really!" Mingbei stretched out his hand and said, "Give me fifty cents, and I'll take Zhenzhen to the movies and have a good look around."

Wang Sufen slapped his hand away, wiped the water off her hands, went into the house and asked Zhenzhen: "Bao'er, your brother wants to go to the movies again, do you want to go?"

Zhenzhen asked the staff when she left the cinema last time and found out that the movie that was playing in the past two months was "Land Mine Warfare". Although "Land Mine Warfare" was good, she didn't like to watch the same movie repeatedly, so when Wang Sufen asked, Zhenzhen immediately shook her head.

Seeing Zhenzhen's unwilling look, Mingbei quickly winked at her: "Didn't you promise Yu Wanqiu last time to go play with her? How can you go back on your word?"

Zhenzhen couldn't help laughing at Mingbei's eagerness. She took a bite of a tomato and looked at Mingbei: "Sister Wanqiu, you are too polite. I am a six-year-old kid who is ten years younger than her. What fun is there in being together?"

Mingbei was blocked by just one sentence. He was speechless and couldn't think of any other words. He looked at Zhenzhen who was smiling cunningly. He really couldn't understand why his sister was so cunning. She was not cute at all.

"Zhenzhen doesn't want to go either, so just stay at home and be quiet. Your father didn't beat you lightly last time, did he?" Wang Sufen glanced at Li Mingbei and shouted, "Go read your books, and go when your sister wants to go!"

Mingbei finally got around to talking to Wang Sufen, but Zhenzhen's words ruined the plan. He immediately hugged Wang Sufen's arm and turned back to talk to Zhenzhen: "How about I give you some money?"

"Why didn't you say so earlier!" Zhenzhen threw the persimmon stem in her hand into the basin and stretched out her hand with a smile: "Mom, I want to go to the movies."

"How can you be so cunning, little girl?" Wang Sufen smiled as she opened the box, took out a small handkerchief, took out a dollar and half a pound of food coupons from it and handed them to Zhenzhen: "Your father won't let your brother ride his 28-inch bicycle, so you two can walk there. After watching the movie, have a meal at the factory, and let your brother walk around the factory more often so that he knows how to make progress."

Seeing Zhenzhen happily accepting the money and food coupons, Wang Sufen felt a little worried and had to give her a few more instructions: "You have to spend sparingly and keep the rest of the money. We don't have that much spare money for you to go to the movies every now and then. If you are really hungry, buy two pieces of cake. You eat one and give Roubao one. Your grandma and I don't eat that stuff." Glancing at her youngest son who was staring at the money, Wang Sufen added: "Don't buy it for your brother either. It will be a waste if he eats it."

"I know." Zhenzhen got off the kang and didn't put on her plastic sandals. Instead, she took out the small cloth shoes made by Guihua and put them on. Then she went out under Mingbei's repeated urging.

Mingbei wanted to go to the hydrolysis plant when he was studying at home these days. He couldn't figure out whether he wanted to watch the movie or was looking forward to meeting Yu Wanqiu. Yu Wanqiu was much prettier than the girls in Mingbei's school. She was the kind of girl who you could tell had never suffered much. Her skin was very white, her hands looked very tender, she had a traditional oval face, and a pair of particularly attractive big eyes. Mingbei felt itchy and soft when he saw her.

Every day when Mingbei was free, he couldn't help thinking of the scene when Yu Wanqiu sat next to him and watched a movie, and her big watery eyes. But he felt a little embarrassed to always think of the beautiful girl. As a boy of his age, he was in the stage of saving face. He didn't dare to tell his family about his love, but it was really uncomfortable to keep it in his heart.

Fortunately, Zhenzhen stood by Mingbei's side in time after Mingbei's repeated signals. The brother and sister took some food in their water bottles and walked to the hydrolysis plant. The hydrolysis plant was far away from Lao Li's house. It would take at least an hour to walk there. Fortunately, the brother and sister were not afraid of walking. They usually walked for two or three hours in the mountains without feeling tired, not to mention this flat road.

After walking for an hour, they finally arrived at the office building of the hydrolysis plant. Seeing the familiar building, Mingbei's pace slowed down significantly. He looked around as he walked, as if he was looking for something.

"Brother, what are you looking for?" Zhenzhen took out the kettle and drank some honey water, then teased Mingbei with a smile: "Are you looking for Sister Wanqiu?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? I don't know her well." Mingbei's face was obviously red, as if he felt that his previous words were not strong enough, and he stammered and added: "Why would a grown man like me look for a little girl? Ha!"

"Hypocrisy." Zhen Zhen curled her lips and scanned the entire hydrolysis plant with her consciousness, and soon found Yu Wanqiu's trace. Patting the silly boy who was still looking around, Zhen Zhen pointed to the three-story building next to her: "Brother, where is that? Let's go and take a look."

Mingbei glanced at it casually, then looked somewhere else: "That's the building where the workers' families live at the hydrolysis plant."

"I haven't seen the building yet. Let's go take a look." Zhenzhen said as she dragged him to the family building. There were four three-story buildings in this area, which were surrounded together like a "口" shape. There were seven or eight rows of warehouses in the middle, each with ten rooms. Every family upstairs had one, where they could store miscellaneous things.

Zhenzhen pulled Mingbei's hand and walked around from the back of the building. They saw a group of children aged seven or eight running happily in front of the building. Yu Wanqiu was sitting at the door of a warehouse reading a book, and from time to time he looked up at a little boy who was running.

Mingbei had something on his mind. Although he was pulled over by Zhenzhen, he kept looking back. He bumped into a little boy who was running with his head down, and knocked the boy toppled.

Yu Wanqiu finished reading a page of the book and looked up to see his brother fell to the ground and squatted on his butt. He ran over and asked, "Wansheng, are you okay?"

Mingbei just picked up Yu Wansheng when he heard a familiar voice. He looked up and saw Yu Wanqiu appear in front of him. He was suddenly happy and a little nervous. He scratched his head and didn't know what to say: "Hey, why are you here?"

"I should be the one asking you this." Yu Wanqiu looked at him helplessly, "Why don't you ever look at the road? Last time you hit a rock while riding your bike, and this time you hit my brother while walking. What are you thinking about?" Mingbei blushed and scratched the back of his head. After a long while, he said, "No... I'm not thinking about anything..."

Seeing this, Zhen Zhen quickly tried to smooth things over. She took Yu Wanqiu's hand and said with a sweet smile, "My brother and I came to the factory to play. It was my first time seeing a strange building, so I asked my brother to bring me over to take a look. Who would have thought that I would run into Sister Wanqiu?"

"I live here." Yu Wanqiu pointed to the middle unit and said, "The one in the middle on the third floor. It's a long way to get here from the south of the railway track. Why don't you come to my house and have some water?"

"No, no, I brought some water." Zhenzhen quickly declined.

Yu Wanqiu took Zhenzhen's kettle, shook it and said, "It's almost empty. Why are you being so polite to me? Come to my house and have a seat."

Zhenzhen glanced at Mingbei and saw that he lowered his head and didn't speak. She knew what he was thinking: "Then I'll trouble Sister Wanqiu."

"Since you already call me sister, don't be so polite." Yu Wanqiu smiled brightly and said hello to Yu Wansheng: "You play downstairs, I'll take them upstairs to drink some water."

This was the first time Zhenzhen had seen a building since the 1960s. She looked around curiously and saw that there were three families on each floor. Yu Wanqiu lived on the third floor. When she opened the door, she saw the kitchen, which had a chicken coop in it. A few chickens stuck their heads out to eat. There were two rooms, one on the east and one on the west. The room on the east was slightly larger and had a dining table. There was also a large desk in the corner with many books on it.

Zhenzhen walked over and saw that the textbook on top looked familiar. "Sister Wanqiu, are you also in the second grade? I see that the textbook is the same as my brother's."

"Well, we'll be in the third grade when school starts." Yu Wanqiu took out a thermos from the kitchen and poured a pot of water for Mingbei and Wanqiu respectively, and then helped Zhenzhen fill the kettle.

"Then will you take the high school entrance exam after graduating from junior high school?" Zhenzhen asked again.

"Of course I will." Wanqiu replied with a smile: "My dad asked me to take the exam for our hydrolysis plant's No. 2 Middle School, saying that it would be easier to take the exam for the hydrolysis plant's technical school after graduation, or directly take the exam for the factory than outside."

Zhenzhen glanced at Mingbei and said meaningfully, "Sister Wanqiu thinks long-term, unlike my brother who is still planning to work as a log hauler at the Forest Management Office after graduating from junior high school."

"No!" Mingbei interrupted Zhenzhen hastily. He quickly glanced at Yu Wanqiu and stammered, "I also want to take the high school entrance exam." After a pause, Mingbei added, "I also want to take the Hydrolysis Plant No. 2 Middle School."

Yu Wanqiu smiled at him and said, "Good luck to you!"

With a goal to work hard for, Mingbei has become a different person since he came back from the hydrolysis plant. Every day, without Zhenzhen urging him, he would sit at the table in front of the window to study. When Mingnan came back from vacation, Mingbei took the initiative to ask him to go through his first and second grade textbooks. Seeing her grandson who had become a different person, Grandma Li thought he was possessed by a yellow fox.

As September was approaching, Li Muwu went to the Steel Primary School near his home and finally enrolled Zhenzhen. He paid the tuition and book fees and received a set of textbooks.

The family has attached great importance to Zhenzhen's schooling since she was a child. Old Mrs. Li went to the street and bought Zhenzhen a school bag that looked like a People's Liberation Army backpack, and also bought her stationery such as notebooks, pencils, and erasers. The things she had were much more complete than when Mingnan and Mingbei were in school.

There were not many classes at that time, and the textbooks were only two: "Chinese" and "Arithmetic". When you opened the Chinese textbook, the texts were basically very relevant to the period, with stories about the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, stories about hardship and plain living, and some quotations from Chairman Mao.

After flipping through the textbook, Zhenzhen called Mingbei over to teach her how to write her name. Mingbei wrote the first two characters very well, but when it came to the character "Zhen", Mingbei wrote for half a page and still couldn't write it correctly. Zhenzhen looked at the characters that were either missing arms or legs in silence, and couldn't help knocking on the table: "I'm your sister after all, how come you can't even write my name?"

Mingbei scratched his face in distress. "This is too difficult. I think big brother must have had bad intentions in giving you this name. I bet you won't be able to write it even if you're in fifth grade. Why don't you change the character? I think the word 真假真 is pretty good and pretty simple. I'll write one for you to see."

Zhenzhen looked at her with a sneer: "My name Zhen means flourishing vegetation, which has a good meaning. I won't change it."

"Why is it so troublesome? Why not change your name?" Li Mingbei scratched his head and thought for a long time and finally came up with a good name: "Let's call you Caodui. Li Caodui also means a lot of grass."

"Why don't you say my name is Li Shulin? That means there are many trees." Zhenzhen was so angry that she laughed. If she didn't want to hide her identity, why would she ask Mingbei, this idiot, to teach her how to write? Seeing Mingbei's self-righteous look, Zhenzhen couldn't help but want to hit him: "Forget it, I won't let you teach me. You have no education at all and you want to take the high school entrance exam. I see that Sister Wanqiu is a good student, but you are definitely not letting her go. I'll go to the hydrolysis plant to ask Sister Wanqiu tomorrow."

"No! No! No!" Mingbei was immediately anxious. He had an indescribable fondness for Wanqiu in his heart, and naturally did not want to expose his shortcomings to others. He gritted his teeth and slammed the table: "I can definitely teach you how to write your name." He shouted outside at the top of his voice: "Grandma, open the box and give me our household registration book. I don't believe I can't learn to write Zhenzhen's name!"

Zhen Zhen: “…”

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