Chapter One: Back to Parents' Side

  It's been a while since school started, and Qiang is still so lonely, going to and from school by himself, carrying his little leather ball with him. During recess, the ball is his only "playmate".

  Several classmates, including Hua Zi and others, often go to rob Qiang Qiang's leather ball. After robbing it, you kick it over, I kick it back, and several people in the mouth keep shouting: "Little reactionary, come on!" Qiang Qiang is flustered and busy everywhere. Seeing Qiang Qiang's embarrassed and busy appearance, they burst out laughing together.

  Qí Bīng and Dà Míng watched as they teased Qiáng Qiáng, their hearts also filled with anger. Qí Bīng thought of going up to reason with them several times, but thinking of Qiáng Qiáng's father's slap, she felt relieved, thinking that Qiáng Qiáng deserved it.

  Ji Bing quickly adapted to school life. Of the two subjects, math and language, he liked language a bit more, but had trouble with phonetics, such as front teeth sounds, back teeth sounds, and retroflex initials, which made him very embarrassed.

  But there is one thing, he doesn't recognize some characters, but he can write them down from memory. Even if they haven't been studied or aren't in the textbook.

  One language class, the teacher asked students to fill in the blanks, including one that said "transport". Teacher He wanted students to raise their hands and complete it. Qi Bing knew that the character could be followed by the characters for "power" or "movement", which they had just learned. But Qi Bing suddenly remembered a truck parked on the side of the road on his way to school, with white letters sprayed on the door: Binjiang City Automobile Transport Company. He recognized the character for "transport", but not the character for "输" that followed it. Since "输" came after "运", it must be a word. Why not try filling in this one?

  Qī Bīng hastily raised his hand, and Mr. He called him to come up and fill in the blanks. Relying on his memory, he quickly filled in the character "输". Mr. He was surprised and asked Qī Bīng: "I didn't teach this, how did you know it?" Qī Bīng confessed the truth, and Mr. He happily said: "Classmates, I haven't taught you this character, it has many strokes and is very complex, but Qī Bīng was able to fill it in, proving that he paid attention." "Can you read this character? What does it mean?" Qī Bīng scratched his head and said embarrassedly: "I don't know yet." "Although he didn't know the pronunciation and meaning of the character, he knew they were a combination, a word. In principle, I require you to learn the characters, words, and sentences in the textbook well. If you are like Qī Bīng, who also knows some new characters outside of class, the teacher will encourage you. Here, I want to praise Qī Bīng. What is called learning is to ask first and then learn, if you don't understand, ask. Everywhere in life is a place for learning, as long as everyone pays attention, knowledge can be constantly enriched and increased." Afterwards, Mr. He taught the pronunciation of the character and explained the meaning of the word.

  Hearing Mr. He's praise, Qi Bing was very pleased and didn't dare to show it on her face. The class monitor sitting next to her turned around at this time and said to Qi Bing: "I'll learn from you."

  He was teased by Liuzi and Huazi again and again, and Qiangqiang couldn't bear it anymore. He finally told his older cousin. His cousin worked at a nearby grinding tool factory, but due to the suspension of production for revolution, he had nothing to do all day and wandered around with a group of hoodlums. After hearing his younger cousin's complaint, he decided to go to school to teach those kids a lesson. That day after school, his cousin brought two hoodlums and blocked the school gate. Seeing Liuzi, Huazi, and several other classmates coming out, under Qiangqiang's guidance, his cousin walked up and dragged Liuzi and Huazi into the alley next to the school, slapping them hard: "You dare to bully people? You're tired of living, huh?" "Why are you hitting us?" "I'm hitting you! Take a good look! Qiangqiang is my brother. If you bully him again, I won't let you off!" He kicked them and shouted, "Get out of here!"

  Originally thought, Liuzi and others had accepted the lesson and would no longer cause trouble. Who knew that Liuzi's two older brothers were not easy to deal with either? After hearing Liuzi's exaggerated complaints, how could they swallow their anger? They told Liuzi to inform Qiangqiang that his older cousin wanted to settle the score with him at school the next afternoon.

  Both sides were furious as soon as they met, and couldn't say two words before they started fighting. The brothers pulled out two-foot-long steel straps from their sleeves, while the other side took out triangular scraper knives used for work. Suddenly, there were shouts and screams everywhere, with the sound of metal clashing against each other ringing out clearly. "A fight has broken out! Someone's been killed!" someone shouted. The students who had just finished school were frightened and ran away in all directions, with some girls crying. The brothers' deadly weapons gave them an advantage, and the others retreated while fighting, eventually fleeing in disarray after a few rounds.

  When the police station and school workers arrived, they had all run away. The next day, the police station separately asked Hua Zi and Qiang Qiang to ask them to pass on a message calling on both parties involved in the fight to come to the police station voluntarily to accept treatment and hand over their weapons.

  When they went back to spread the news, no one was seen, and it is said that they all hid. After this incident, although Liuzi and Qiangqiang often met, Liuzi occasionally put on a victorious posture, but despite this, they got along peacefully for several days.

  Qiang Qiang's older brother had gone into hiding for a few days, and when he saw that there was no movement, he sneaked back. Qiang Qiang's older brother not only felt that he had lost face, but also thought that he had been outsmarted. He insisted on having a showdown with the hoodlums. Qiang Qiang tried to persuade his older brother to give up, saying "Not only have I lost face, but you can't even hold your head up in front of them!" Qiang Qiang's older brother was furious and wanted Qiang Qiang to go to school the next day to deliver a challenge letter to the hoodlums. Qiang Qiang refused. Suddenly, Qiang Qiang's older brother remembered someone who could help him deliver the letter. "Isn't your neighbor Qi Ying's house? Go get him, I'll ask him to help me deliver a message." Qiang Qiang replied, "He won't do it, we haven't spoken in a long time. But he has a good relationship with Da Ming, you can ask Da Ming to go call him." "Okay, hurry up!" Qiang Qiang's older brother urged.

  When Da Ming came to find Qi Bing, Qi Bing said: "That's not okay, that day was so scary and hit. I won't pass on the message." At this time, someone outside called out: "Qi Bing! Qi Bing! Come out for a moment." Qiang Qiang finally couldn't hold back anymore.

  Ji Bing slowly walked out of the house and saw his cousin Qiangqiang standing outside. Qiangqiang grabbed him and they went downstairs together. When they reached the wall at the bottom, Qiangqiang said: "Ji Bing, I heard you're quite chivalrous usually, so help your brother out this time, okay?" Ji Bing replied: "It's not good to help with this." "Just deliver a message, don't do anything, what are you afraid of? Brother won't treat you unfairly. I'll give you a few comic books, how about that?" Comic books were those small volumes of serialized cartoons, which Ji Bing loved very much. Not only did he enjoy reading the content, but also liked to copy the pictures from the books. Sometimes he would save up his breakfast money to buy these comic books, and they already had quite a few at home, like stories about Lei Feng, Dong Cunrui, Qiu Shaoyun, etc.

  When Qī Bīng heard Zhāo Jiàn say this, her eyes flickered a few times, and she had some thoughts. Seeing that this condition was in line with Qī Bīng's mind, Zhāo Jiàn continued to say: "We'll go to the bookstore now, how about it?" "Then let's do this, I'll go find Liū Zi, bring Liū Zi in front of Zhāo Jiàn, and let Zhāo Jiàn talk to him personally." Qī Bīng made such a reply. "Okay, that works too." Zhāo Jiàn had no choice but to agree.

  At night, after dinner, Ji Bing took out the three doll books given by Qiang Qiang's older brother and looked at them seriously. After a while, he leaned back and thought about the fight between his brothers and Qiang Qiang's older brother that day, fortunately, there was no bloodshed or casualties, otherwise, things would have gotten out of hand. He also thought about the tragic death of Qiang Qiang's father and didn't want anyone else to get hurt or bleed. The relationship between people should be harmonious, friendly, and equal, not like that, fighting and killing each other, making people uneasy and anxious all day long. Now he regretted agreeing to Qiang Qiang's older brother. If they met again, something would definitely happen. Thinking of this, he decided to return the books to Qiang Qiang's older brother and get rid of this troublesome and harmful thing.

  The next morning, Ji Bing returned the book to Qiang Qiang and asked him to give it to his older cousin. He also told his older cousin that he would no longer look for trouble with Zou Zi, and hoped that his older cousin would stop fighting as well. Later on, they didn't run into each other again, nor was there any news of them getting into a fight. Perhaps Qiang Qiang's older cousin had given up himself, or perhaps it was due to some other reason.