Author: Nan Yuanjing Nan Yuanling
In the winter of 1943, my father returned to his hometown from the Qianxian Simple Normal School, and prepared to go to Binxian County to apply for the Binzhou Normal School in the beginning of the year.
After the New Year, he came to his grandmother's house in Panzhou Village. At that time, it was the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and all villages and towns were very lively, and there were people playing stories and stepping on stilts everywhere. Villagers from Panzhou Village, my grandmother's village, nearby Baiyang Village, and Zhounanjia in our village performed a social fire in Baiyang Village. My father rushed from his grandmother's house to Baiyang Village early in the morning to see the excitement.
After breakfast, the social fire performance began, and the social fire of each village appeared one after another, showing off the market. Although no one has announced the official competition, the fact that the village has more people in front of the community means that the village is the winner. Each village has come up with its own unique skills and secretly competes with each other. The social fire of Baiyang Village is "a thousand miles to ride alone", on a trailer of ox carts, Guan Yunchang rode a red rabbit horse on the back of a knife, majestic, and a single horse to protect the two imperial sisters-in-law thousands of miles to find brothers. Because Baiyang Village is a home game, it was the first to appear and immediately attracted all the spectators who watched the excitement.
Without waiting for the social fire team of Baiyang Village to walk to the middle of the village, Zhou Nan's social fire made a shining appearance. Zhou Nanjia performed "Three Dozen White Bone Spirits". I saw Sun Wukong open his eyes and pick up the golden hoop stick and smash it to the "white bone essence" under his feet, the strength, momentum and form immediately ushered in bursts of applause from the audience, and the audience who were originally surrounding the Baiyangzhai Shehuo performance immediately ran to the Zhounanjia Shehuo team, and the front of the Baiyangzhai Shehuo train immediately became deserted.
Seeing that his own social fire was about to lose to Zhou Nan's family, the team leader of Baiyang Village was so anxious that he turned around. In order to save face, he ran back to his home, trying to find something strange to take out to attract the audience, but he couldn't find it after looking for a long time. In a hurry, he suddenly found that his mother-in-law was preparing to make lunch, so he immediately ran to his mother-in-law, squatted down, put his mother-in-law on his shoulder, and ran to the street. The mother-in-law didn't know what the man was going to do, so it was a shame to let the man "set up a horse and a stool" and run to the street in broad daylight, so she picked up two fists and smashed them on the man's head, scolding while smashing: "What are you doing with the ball!" "You're not ashamed of being a ball!" The man ignored the woman's fists and scolding, and ran into the fire team in his village with the woman. This trick really worked, and I saw the lively crowd hula hula surrounding the social fire team of Baiyang Village. There are good deeds who follow behind the men and women who "set up horses and stools" and coax: "Smash it in the face!" Smash it on the eye, smash a blue eye socket to count it as your father's baby! The woman's face fist swung into the man's eyes as the audience coaxed. The man scolded in pain: "You didn't get enough balls to smash me blind!" The crowd burst into laughter. Zhou Nan's social fire was immediately unwatched.
At this time, his father, who had been coaxing with Zhou Nan's social fire team, was in a hurry, and he thought that the appearance of his wife in Baiyangzhai was unfair competition, and he rushed into the social fire team of Baiyangzhai like a wild horse to find an opportunity to "seek justice". At this time, the leader of Baiyang Village held his wife and attracted many audiences, who were very proud. The father approached the team leader and made a trip to him, and the mother-in-law immediately fell off the leader's shoulder, causing a burst of laughter from the audience. The leader of the team found that it was a half-sized boy who had stumbled him, and immediately got up from the ground and threw an old fist at his father. The father was punched in the face and immediately launched a counterattack, "Black Tiger Digging Heart", "Mount Tai Pressing the Top", "Two Dragons Playing with Pearls" and "Mule Kicking" were staged in turn, and a burst of random kicks and kicks beat the team leader and the social fire team of Baiyang Village to the back.
The sudden attack made the social fire team in Baiyang Village chaotic. Except for Guan Gong on the ox cart who couldn't run, the rest of the people were beaten to the ground, and most of them scattered and fled. At this time, a few bold young men in Baiyang Village reacted, they found that there was only one troublemaker, although the fists and feet were powerful, but one punch was difficult to defeat four hands, they immediately organized a counterattack, and some also took out a shovel from their own homes to deal with this uninvited guest. Other villagers in the village also went out to participate in the operation to encircle and suppress the uninvited guests. For a while, the whole village fire show stopped, and the whole village chased after this guy who made trouble with the fire show.
My father was only a teenager at the time, and although he learned a few ways from his grandfather, he couldn't withstand the chase of the villagers of a village. In desperation, he was beaten and jumped into the "waterlogged pond" at the head of the village. In the first month of winter, there was a thin ice on the surface of the waterlogged pond, and my father shivered in the waterlogged pond. In order to avoid being injured by the villagers' sticks, he ran to the middle of the "waterlogged pond" despite the freezing ice. The villagers couldn't hit him with sticks, so they picked up the bricks and tiles and continued to attack from a distance, while the father held his head and passively greeted the storm of bricks and tiles. The villagers of Baiyangzhai who surrounded the "waterlogged pond" beat and scolded: "Kill this Mao Mao Chicken (my father had a more fashionable student flat head at that time, commonly known as Mao Mao Chicken)!" "Kill this presumptuous chicken!"
At the critical juncture, the uncle of my father in Panzhou Village asked my uncle to watch the excitement and come to the scene. At first, he also coaxed with the villagers: "Kill this presumptuous chicken!" But when I looked closely, I felt that the "chicken" in the middle of the waterlogged pond was a little familiar, and I found that it was my nephew, and immediately shouted and beat the Baiyang Village (Baiyang Village and Panzhou Village are connected to the farm, and the villagers are familiar with it) The villagers said: "Uncle, brother, fight!" Hit! This is a nephew! This is a nephew! When the people in the village heard that it was their nephew, they slowly stopped shouting and beating. Uncle clasped his fists in front of his chest: "It's not enough to compensate all uncles, brothers, and aunts!" The nephew was young and ignorant, so he spared him this time! Although the villagers were still angry, for the sake of their uncle's face, they still spared this naughty and mischievous guy.
My father was fished up from the waterlogged pond by my uncle and shivered like a chicken in soup. The people in the village stared at the "Mao Mao Chicken" being taken away by their uncle, and they gritted their teeth with hatred.
A social fire "game" did not distinguish the winner and was disturbed by his father. The villagers in each village did not watch the social fire performance, but unexpectedly saw the "noodle boxing horse stool" and "Mao Mao Chicken" smashing performance, which was more enjoyable than watching the social fire. The villagers of Zhounanjia Village regarded him as a "hero" because of his father's "heroic performance", and the villagers of other villages always talked about this matter during the New Year, and his father became a "celebrity" within a radius of more than ten miles.
(To be continued)