In the sixth year of Guanghe, there was a severe drought throughout the country. Cannibalism was reported everywhere, the only difference being who ate whom. The sky was always filled with yellow sand everywhere, and travelers on the road joked that they had almost forgotten what color the sky was before.
Fortunately, these had nothing to do with me. I lived in Xiangyang. Everything in Xiangyang was relatively stable. All I did every day was study in a nearby school. That year, I was fifteen years old. I went home early every day. My sister was my only relative. I didn't want her to worry about me making trouble outside, so I would go home on time when school was over, that is, when the evening drum sounded.
My family is relatively well-off, at least there is a nice yard, and several elderly family members. They all watched my sister and I grow up. I have never seen what my parents look like. My sister is like a mother, although she is only a few years older than me. Since I can remember, I don’t know any relatives except my sister, but fortunately I don’t care too much. Uncle Zhang and Aunt Zhang are still the same as before, still feeling very old, with no signs of getting younger. I am getting taller day by day. When I was twelve years old, I surpassed Aunt Zhang, who already had a hunchback. One day I proudly said to her: "Aunt, I see that you need to bow your head." Aunt looked at me very gently, "Yes, the second young master has grown up." Now almost everyone in Xiangyang City is under my eyes. The good thing is that those young women who pass by in groups on the street always see me from a distance and laugh and whisper. Singles bow their heads and run away when they see me approaching. I asked my sister, "Do I look scary?" After my sister found out what happened, she laughed so hard that her teeth showed. Then she became serious and said, "Not really scary. In fact, I'm very cute, just like Bai." Then, my sister and I started to wrestle with each other, because Bai was a pig we raised.
Another morning, I was woken up by the chirping of chickens. It was a mistake for us to raise a bunch of chickens. My sister and I talked about it. She said, "Didn't you think the chickens at Zishe's house were cute when you were five years old and wanted to raise them yourself?" She must have lied to me. She said some things that I can't even remember, and she always used me as an excuse. But it's enough to have a female chicken laying eggs. The annoying thing is that there are more than 30 male chickens among them. Every morning, they chirp in front of my bed before dawn, making it impossible for me to continue my sweet dream. Finally, this one stopped chirping because it was tired, and the other one started chirping like crazy. Then, outside the house, there were people who got up early, walking back and forth, and there were sounds of sprinkling water and cleaning. It seemed impossible to sleep again. So I had to get up before the sun rose and went to school. There was still something to do. There was an open space behind the yard, where some stones from the city wall were left. I always liked to play with them. At first, I would just pull them when I couldn't move them. When I was fourteen, I could move them, so I started to come here every day to play, trying one, two, or at most three stones, because once I moved four stones and hit my foot. Then I started to throw stones far away, until one time I knocked down the neighbor's wall, and my sister took me to apologize to the neighbor. Then I practiced accuracy, I found a broken basket, and every day I threw the stone from a distance into the basket. This time, there was no problem, but people always took the broken basket away as garbage. After that, I had to look for it everywhere.
The sun finally came out. After breakfast, I went to the school to review my lessons. I came out dressed neatly. My sister looked at my clothes and my back and said, "You have clothes again." In order to prevent her from making fun of me again, I left quickly. I grew up very fast and was already over 9 feet tall. It is rare for people to be this tall. I also have a big appetite. My sister always describes me as a bucket for eating and a rack for wearing clothes.
It was still early in the morning, and I had some things to do, but I couldn't stay too long near home, or my sister or the aunties in the neighborhood would see me. Especially the aunties in the neighborhood, who knows what they would say to my sister. So I waited for my brothers outside Xiangyang City.
These guys are my classmates. We all like to have fun and usually call each other brothers. The reason why we chose to meet outside the city is the same as mine.
"What are we doing today? Going to school?"
"Of course I went. I didn't go yesterday, and if I don't go today, it will arouse suspicion..."
"So what are your plans for this morning?"
"We went swimming yesterday. Are we going again today?"
"No, my dad found my pussy wet when I got home yesterday... Look at my palm."
"Next time, just hit your palm and your handwriting won't be good. Follow the idea I taught you last time, Zishe."
"Whose? They didn't hit my palms before... but now they hit my buttocks and I can't even sit down."
…
"Then why don't we just go down to the river naked?"
"How can such an impolite thing be done..."
…
As a result, it was already noon and they still hadn't come to a conclusion on what to do.
As a result, we are in a school without a teacher. Our teacher is very young but very talented. The court has repeatedly summoned him to be an official, but he has declined. He now runs a school in Xiangyang City, teaching everything except martial arts. Basically, everyone in Xiangyang who is capable of studying comes here, but he left during this period, leaving only a sentence in his study, "The teacher is traveling and will return after several months. Remember to study hard. If you don't make progress, you will regress." It is concise and clear, and much more approachable than the poems of the current celebrities that we send here.
The teacher rarely goes out, even on the street. So...
We decided to block the news. We would still come here every day pretending to be here. But what would we do? Actually, we didn’t know when we went there in the morning. A bunch of young students… Terrible…
For example, this morning, we were just chatting about when the master would come back from his trip, what he did? Of course, there was no result, and then as usual, we talked about the sisters of the officials in Xiangyang City. Then we started arguing, and I usually didn't participate in the quarrel.
"Zi Rui is a good man. He never quarrels with others... because he stutters."
I'm not a stutterer, I just stutter when I'm fast. But there's nothing I can do about it, I've never been able to get rid of this bad habit.
Days like this passed one after another. To be honest, I missed our Master Wei.
Then, that autumn, I remember that when the maple trees in Xiangyang City had turned as red as blood, the Master came back.
That morning, a strong wind suddenly blew, and the maple leaves danced in the wind. I shouted to Uncle Zhang who was sweeping the fallen leaves in the yard in the distance: "Stop sweeping, wait for the wind to die down." Maybe because of his age, he didn't seem to hear what I said, but muttered to himself: "The sky is going to change."