that year (1963), the school organized a campaign to learn from Lei Feng and called on students to do good deeds. Most of the desks and benches in the school were incomplete. The elder brother brought some old nails that his father usually collected to the school. When class was over, he would repair the broken tables and benches. He simply became a handyman in the school. He was not a carpenter, so how could he talk about repair skills? He just nailed the broken or fallen table legs or orange legs with old nails. The old nails were of different sizes, twisted and rusty. They were also ugly when nailed to the table and orange. Although they were ugly, they were better than incomplete ones. The teacher praised his brother in front of the whole class as a good example of learning from Lei Feng. The elder brother was even more energetic after getting the teacher's praise. He ran out of nails, so he quickly picked up the rusty nails on the ground when he walked on the road. He also quickly pulled out the nails on the broken tables thrown out by other classes and saved them. He also picked up the broken boards and saved them at the back of the classroom. He was serious as if he was taking care of his own things at home.
My brother was a mature young man. He wasn't like my third brother, who was clever at first glance. Although he was only one year older than me, he was much taller than me at that time. He was considered tall among the boys in the class. Mother said that my brother's face looked like a Russian child when he was young. His skin is not as dark as mine. Among us brothers, he is considered to be the fairer. He is not as timid as me, nor does he have a serious inferiority complex like me. Although he studied harder than me, his academic performance was only slightly better than mine. He was above average in the class and not among the top students. Her brother was a little introverted. He didn't joke around with his classmates, let alone fight. In general, he gave the impression of being honest to his classmates. In comparison, the teacher didn't treat him the way he treated me. His height, face, and personality made his classmates think that he was very strong, good at working, and easy to talk to. All the students in my class, regardless of gender, called my brother "Old Bull" just like how the people in the mine called my father "Old Bull". However, I was always called "Little Cattle"(until today, when my classmates called me, they still asked me if you were a Little Cattle). Because of this address, my classmates even discussed it.
When Zhi and Qun first transferred to the class, they heard everyone call my brother "Old Bull" in class. Zhi said,"This is nonsense. His father is the" Old Bull ". Why is he called" Old Bull "too? Isn't this messing up the seniority?"”The group also said," It's not appropriate to call him 'Old Bull'. His younger brother is' Little Bull', so he should be called 'Big Bull'." Happy then said," I don't know who called him' Old Bull 'first, but he just called him' Old Bull'. In the future, I'll call the two brothers 'Big Bull' and 'Little Bull'." After the discussion on whether my brother should be called "Old Bull" or not, the students in the class still called my brother "Old Bull". Even Zhi had no choice but to follow suit and call my brother "Old Bull".
One day, during the Chinese class, the teacher moved the blackboard (it was a wooden blackboard at that time, supported by a frame). A cross bar on the blackboard frame came loose, and the blackboard slipped down and almost hit the teacher's foot. The eyes of the whole class looked at my brother, as if the responsibility of the loose cross bar of the blackboard frame was my brother's responsibility. One of the students shouted,"Teacher, can you ask Old Bull to nail the frame?" The teacher was stunned and asked,"Who is Old Bull?"”，The students 'eyes swept towards my brother, and the teacher burst out laughing. She didn't expect that there would be a student among the primary school students who was called' old'.
The activity of learning from Lei Feng gradually pushed to the climax. The teacher assigned an essay topic of "Remember to learn from Lei Feng and do good deeds". In order to write this essay, some of the officials and children really couldn't think of what to write. Because they didn't take the activity of learning from Lei Feng seriously at all, they said to my brother,"You're the only one in the limelight. You've nailed all the oranges on the table, leaving only a few for us to nail. We have nothing good to do, so we can't write the essay. You should do good deeds to the end." Help us write our essays too."
Brother didn't care about these things with his classmates. He still treated them like his own things at home. He was like a repairman all day long. Later on, even if there were things that needed to be nailed in the classrooms on both sides, he would run over and say,"Old Bull, we have something to fix over there. Come over." Brother would follow him. It was so natural that it was as if he was the owner of this school. He really became the school's voluntary repairman. He had to do the labor and materials (nails and tools) for free.
My brother's personality is probably like my father's. My father doesn't have much ability. He's been hammering and tinkering all his life. He doesn't have any free time all day. He will pick up any broken copper or iron he sees and save it for future use. When he has nothing to do, he will pick up a broken thing he picks up and ponder over it for a long time. Maybe he will figure out some use for it and start to work hard. These may be the so-called " poor habits ". This poor habit should have been formed since childhood when the family lived in a poor environment. Dad was like this, brother was like this, and I was no exception. I also had this poor habit.
When my brother was in Dafutun, he went to school a year earlier than me. Before he left Dafutun, his classmates didn't know how to do math homework. They all came to ask him. They all said that my brother had the best grades in their class. However, when I came to Zhoutian and was in the same class as him, I didn't feel that his grades were as good as what his classmates in Dafutun said. Perhaps it was because he had prematurely intervened in the difficult life burden that only adults could bear. His mother once said," Your brother was very smart when he was a few years old. The adults praised him, but he became dumber as he grew older. His brain was damaged by poverty."
In the spring of that year (1960), there was a famine. His mother took his brother and brother to the sixth aunt in Qingdao to beg for help. At that time, the sixth aunt was already sick due to hunger. Her body was swollen and she lay down all day and could not get up. In this situation, the four of them went to her place again, hoping to rely on her to help them survive the famine in the spring. However, the sixth aunt only had 20 catties of rations per month and a few yuan of sick allowance from the factory (there was no salary at that time). It was difficult to rely on this amount of food and a few yuan to support the lives of five people. At that time, the ten-year-old brother experienced all of this.
Because Aunt Liu couldn't get up, before Mother came, it was the colleagues in the factory who took Aunt Liu's living allowance and sent it to Aunt Liu's house. Now, Aunt Liu asked her colleagues to show her brother the way to the factory. In the future, her brother would go to the factory to get the living allowance on her behalf. When his brother first came to the factory to collect the living allowance for his sixth aunt, the people in the finance department could not believe that this little boy in front of them would also come to the factory to collect the living allowance for adults. They asked his brother to tell them who he was, where he lived, and what kind of relationship he had with his sixth aunt. His brother answered everything clearly and calmly. When the people in the finance department saw that his brother could go out to do things so boldly and calmly at such a young age, they all praised him for being smart and capable. He said,"This child will definitely have great prospects in the future."(But later, his brother did not make a big name for himself as people praised him. In the end, he was just a retired microwave communication technician.)
Where did his childhood cleverness go? Perhaps it was really destroyed by the burden of life at a young age. Obviously, it was almost impossible for the five of them to survive on 20 catties of rations and 8 yuan. The aunt asked her brother to take some fine grain (the grain supplied in the north was coarse, and the fine grain was mixed. The coarse grain was corn, kaoliang, dried sweet potato, and the like, and the fine grain was flour and rice) to the factory to exchange for coarse grain (fine coarse grain could be exchanged for 1:2 or 1:3).
This way, it could be maintained for a few more days to avoid premature breaks. His colleagues in the workshop saw that his brother was like a little adult. They all had a good impression of him. Although no one dared to eat too much fine grain these days, they still kindly exchanged coarse grain for his brother. Many of Aunt Liu's colleagues even specially added a little more for her brother. There were also colleagues who simply gave the dried sweet potatoes to their brothers for free and did not accept the fine grain. His brother's ability and likability had given him a lot of extra help in maintaining the lives of the five of them. Aunt Liu also liked her brother very much. No matter the big or small matters, she was assured that her brother would handle them alone in a big city like Qing Dao.
That time, after her mother had lived in Qing Dao for a few months, she had brought her younger brother and sister back to Dafutun. As the sixth aunt could not get up, she had left her brother there to continue taking care of the sixth aunt. Once her mother had left, he had no one to help him except for the sixth aunt who was lying in bed. This forced his brother to become more independent and mature as soon as possible. When Aunt Liu was able to get up and move around, her brother had dropped out of school for a long time. He set foot on the road home alone and returned to the doctor's village thousands of miles away from Qing Dao. It could not be said that his brother, who was only ten years old, had extraordinary courage and intelligence. Perhaps from then on, the innocence and intelligence of his childhood had long been extinguished, and in its place was wave after wave of suffering.
It was really like what those classmates said to her brother. He had already nailed all the oranges on the table. How could they learn from Lei Feng? "I found a penny by the roadside and gave it to the police…" No, in those days, the chances of picking up a penny were as low as picking up a gold bar. Finally, I thought of a way to " help someone push a cart on the road ". There was a big road in front of the school, and there were many people pulling carts. It was easy to find an opportunity to do good. After school at noon, I went home along the road and stopped at a place on the slope. I waited there for the cart to come over. However, there were very few carts in the afternoon. I waited there for a long time before an empty cart arrived. Kong also went up to help push. The person pulling the cart shouted at me,"Don't make a fuss." He thought that I wanted to jump onto his cart and let him pull me. " I want to learn from Lei Feng and do good deeds," I also shouted to him and continued to help him push the empty cart." No need, you can help the people behind you. You can do a great deed." I turned around and saw that there was really one. The firewood on the cart was as high as a hill. My legs turned to jelly as I watched. I could only go over and help push it. As it was too heavy, the handcart could only go up the slope in a zigzagging manner. The person pulling the handcart bent over and moved up the slope step by step. I helped push it from behind. I didn't have the strength to begin with. I hadn't eaten lunch yet. After only a few steps, I was already sweating. It wasn't easy for me to push it up the slope. The person pulling the handcart wiped his sweat and thanked me repeatedly. He asked me if I was also a temporary woodcutter in the kiln. When I heard that, my heart turned cold. I really couldn't figure it out. How could these people not know that the whole country was now vigorously carrying out activities to learn from Lei Feng?
Even though it was tiring to help people push carts, for the next few days, I still went up the hill to help people push carts after school. I liked to hear people say "thank you". This voice strongly indicated that this society was about to begin to change for the better.
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