Chapter Nine Wireless Telegraphy

  "Zhaohe, what's wrong with you? Haven't I told you a million times not to take Xiaojun down by the river? Why won't you listen? If something happens to Xiaojun... how can we be at peace?"

  My mother was so flustered that she didn't even have time to take off her shoes, and directly jumped into the river, embracing me in her arms.

  My heart felt a pang of sourness, and I almost had tears in my eyes.

  It's been almost a year since I saw my mom in my past life. Always working outside and being away from family, we rarely get to see each other.

  On the riverbank, my three elder sisters stood in a row, making scary faces at me.

  I only realized then that Mother was still scolding Third Brother nonstop. Poor Third Brother blinked his eyes, holding a bucket and standing in the water, not daring to make a sound.

  I rolled my small eyes and thought of a plan.

  (Once again, I declare that after growing up, my sharp eyebrows and bright eyes make me a handsome guy. Considering that in my previous life, I was a nobody from the countryside and no one paid attention to me, it's only right that I occasionally admire myself. Please don't vomit, esteemed officials.)

  "Mom, don't blame San Ge, I came here by myself."

  "Xiao Jun, Mommy told you before, you're a little kid, don't play with water."

  My mom carried me to the shore, pinched from head to toe, making sure I didn't have any injuries, and then let out a long sigh of relief, complaining.

  I'm experienced in dealing with my mom. As soon as I stretch out my small hands, I rush into her arms, hug her neck and say: "Mom, you haven't come to see me for a long time, I miss you."

  Mom immediately beamed with joy, throwing her anger far away, and repeatedly kissed my cheeks.

  "Little Jun, Mommy misses you too!"

  I secretly smiled to myself. This move has been used for decades and has always been effective.

  "Mom, the water is almost all spilled out. Let's catch the fish back. I want to give them to Teacher Zhou, he hasn't eaten fish for a long time."

  This isn't being pretentious, I really did have this idea. Mr. Zhou is indeed too miserable. Besides, I couldn't possibly tell my mom that I want to eat meat, that would make her feel guilty. In my past life, I was already a very unsuccessful son, could it be that after reincarnation, I'm still so useless?

  "Teacher Zhou?"

  The old mother was momentarily stunned and couldn't come back to her senses.

  She still doesn't know about me becoming an apprentice of Mr. Zhou.

  "Yes, I'm reading with Teacher Zhou every day now. It's Mr. Zhou. He's really good to me, teaching me Chinese and math, and even English."

  "Xiao Jun is really well-behaved, really sensible and really filial."

  Mom heard me say I liked reading so much and praised me a few words. Her eyes were staring straight at the river dam, though.

  "Mom, look, we'll catch the fish soon. It's a pity to give up now. All our efforts will be wasted!"

  This remark is quite insightful. Not intentionally showing off, just no inhibitions in front of the closest people, blurting out whatever comes to mind. As soon as I said it, I regretted it a bit, fortunately Mom didn't notice.

  "Oh my, look at my little treasure, only in primary one and already knows how to use idioms."

  Mom laughed so hard her eyes narrowed.

  "This is all thanks to Teacher Zhou's teaching."

  "Alright then, let's catch the fish and send it over to Mr. Zhou. Huazi, Yezhi, you both go help out."

  Hua Zi is the elder sister Liu Hua.

  Big sister and second sister nodded in agreement, rolled up their pant legs and went down to the river. Third sister also wanted to go, but was stopped by mom.

  "Xiao Yan, you'd better not go."

  The third sister was less than ten years old, and she had a strong desire to play. Unfortunately, she could only stand on the shore with a reluctant expression, staring at them with eager eyes.

  I smiled slightly and made a fierce face at her.

  The third sister was so angry that she couldn't help it, turned her head and ignored me.

  Alas, what's going on here. After crossing over, not only has my body become younger, but my mindset has also become increasingly youthful. I wonder if it's because of some subconscious desire to act young and cute?

  Mind your own business! I'm only seven years old, a tender age. In my previous life, it was fashionable to act young, and Shanghai college girls were said to have taken it to the extreme of drinking from baby bottles. Compared to that, my current behavior is nothing out of the ordinary.

  Big sister and second sister joined the fight, and it progressed even faster. In less than half an hour, the small riverbed was basically dry, and all the fish, shrimp, and crabs were caught, not a single one escaped. Although they didn't weigh them, judging from their appearance, there must be at least two catties or so. Especially a particularly large yellow eel, as thin as a small water snake, probably weighing three to four catties.

  Although the credit for blocking the river dam goes to Third Brother, since Old Mother has arrived on the scene, the spoils of war naturally belong to Old Mother to dispose of. Everything that's been captured should be turned over to the public, haha!

  The old mother looked at the small fish and shrimp jumping in the bucket, and soon made a decision. She said to divide it into three parts, one for San Ge, one for their own family, and one for Mr. Zhou.

  It's no wonder he's a cadre of the public institution, handling things with great vigor and momentum.

  My mother only went to school for two years. This is already very remarkable. I remember that my mother was born in 1940, and girls in the old society had no chance to read books? These two years of study were also taken after joining the workforce. My mother has been able to endure hardship since childhood, during the national water conservancy construction, she served as the captain of the "Iron Girl Team", relying on her solid work, she was recruited and became a government employee. My mother's story in Liujia Mountain, throughout the Hongqi Commune, has become a legend. If written down, it would be the Chinese version of "How the Steel Was Tempered".

  No matter in this life or the next, Mom is absolutely my idol.

  I pointed at the big yellow eel and said: "Mom, this yellow eel is very nourishing, leave it for you to eat."

  Eel has high nutritional value, which is well-known by older generations.

  Mom was deeply moved, stroked my head, and showed an extremely loving expression on her face, nodding.

  "Uncle, I've brought some fish for you."

  Mr. Zhou stared at the small fish and shrimp fried golden brown in the big sea bowl, stunned.

  "Xiao Jun, where did you get the fish?"

  "My third brother and I went to block a river dam and caught some fish. They were fried by my mom and tasted great."

  I recall the small fried fish I had earlier, and without realizing it, I licked my lips again. The aftertaste is truly wonderful! Upon careful consideration, it seems that in two lifetimes, I've never had such delicious small fish before.

  Mr. Zhou's hands trembled as he took the porcelain bowl. The teacher's mother was even more red-eyed, wiping away tears with her sleeve.

  When I encounter this kind of thing, my face becomes thin, a bad habit that has been passed down for two lifetimes, can't bear to see it, quickly bow and say "goodbye uncle and aunt", and run away like a car turning around.

  Mr. Zhou held his bowl and gazed at my small back, with a mix of emotions.

  At dinner time, Dad came back too. The whole family gathered together, happy and harmonious. When I mentioned sending the fish to Mr. Zhou, Dad highly praised me. He used to be a teacher and has always advocated for "respecting teachers and valuing morality".

  My mother hugged me and stroked my head, praising: "My little Jun has been so polite since childhood, he will definitely make a good future when he grows up."

  Dad nodded in agreement, but said, "Don't spoil the child. Xiaojun, tell Dad what you've learned from Mr. Zhou?"

  "Chinese, arithmetic, history, English..."

  "What? You're still learning English?"

  Mom was shocked.

  At that time, it was still "taking class struggle as the key link", and English was not a good thing. As soon as English is mentioned, people can't help but think of "collaborating with foreign powers" - a big hat to wear.

  Dad didn't think much of it: "It's not a bad thing for kids to learn more things. Our whole family is made up of poor peasants, and we can't find a single overseas Chinese among our eighteen generations of ancestors, so there's no need to worry."

  Not long after Chairman Mao's death, the "Gang of Four" had yet to be crushed and the Great Revolution was still not over, so family background was still quite important.

  For such a big thing, Mom has always trusted Dad, seeing him say so, she didn't say much more.

  "Xiao Jun, how's your English coming along?" Dad asked.

  "I learned 26 letters and also some words."

  I thought for a moment and answered very carefully.

  Mr. Zhou is not a professional English teacher, so his teaching methods are somewhat "unorthodox". Seeing that I picked up the 26 letters quickly, he didn't bother with gradual progress and instead dove straight into Hamlet. We learned sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph. It had a bit of a "counter-attack" feel to it. Although my previous English learning experience was a mess, I still had some foundation to build on. Meeting such a "master" teacher, I had no choice but to toughen up and keep up. Luckily, my physical age is only 7 years old, so my memory is excellent. Teacher Zhou taught intensively, and I learned intensively too. What's even more exciting is that Mr. Zhou's spoken English is superb, and after just over a dozen days, the teacher and student can already have simple conversations. We've also made it to page 3 of Hamlet and memorized over a hundred vocabulary words. As for grammar, with Shakespeare as our teacher, how could we go wrong?

  Mr. Zhou was very proud of his own method and told me many times that once he had memorized Hamlet, he would be proficient in English.

  I think so too, if one can really memorize "Hamlet", then taking TOEFL should be a piece of cake.

  There's no need to let Dad know about this. As the saying goes, "A tall tree catches the wind," it's better for people to keep a low profile.

  "How's your Chinese coming along? How many new characters have you learned?"

  The elder sister asked with interest.

  Older sister Liu Hua is eight years older than me, and is a true "older sister like mother". I've heard that when I was young, it was older sister who took care of me. In my past life, she treated me very well. In this life, if I can really make something of myself, I will definitely repay her many times over.

  This question is not easy to answer. Because from the third day on, Mr. Zhou no longer taught me new characters, but used the same method as teaching English, directly using "A General History of China" as a textbook, studying one chapter at a time. As for books like "The Book of Songs" and "The Twenty-four Histories", Mr. Zhou treated them as my extracurricular reading materials, allowing me to take them home to read on my own, marking the parts I didn't understand, and asking him about them again the next day.

  "Uh-huh, Uncle is now teaching me "A General History of China"."

  "What?"

  Others might not know what "A General History of China" is, but my dad's eyes are already shining with excitement.

  I smiled smugly, feeling rather pleased with myself.

  "Uncle said that after finishing 'A General History of China', I should learn 'A History of Chinese Literature', and then... hmm, seems like it's 'Guwen Guanzhi'..."

  "Wait a minute... wait a minute..."

  Dad raised his hand to stop me, took a deep breath, and calmed down his agitated emotions. After a while, Dad asked in a very uncertain tone: "Xiao Jun, do you understand these books?"

  "I don't understand..." I shook my head innocently, "But Uncle taught me, and now I get it. Dad, Uncle is so knowledgeable, he knows everything..."

  This statement is not a lie. Following Mr. Zhou to learn Chinese, I must say that at first, I had a somewhat perfunctory attitude. No matter what, in my previous life, I had read quite a few miscellaneous books and recognized many characters. Even with "G uwén Guānzhǐ" (A Collection of Ancient Prose), if I looked at the annotations, I could roughly understand eight or nine out of ten. However, after studying with Mr. Zhou for a few days, my so-called "confidence" was completely lost. Mr. Zhou didn't need to look at the original text and could lecture on an entire "General History of China" in a magnificent manner. No matter how obscure the vocabulary or how profound the questions were, as long as I asked them, he would answer without any hesitation, truly displaying the demeanor of a great master. My little foundation in Chinese compared to his was not even close to being "half a bottle of vinegar".

  "Ah, right, actually Uncle also has things he doesn't understand."

  "Oh, Uncle still doesn't understand something? Tell me, what is it?"

  Dad is coming with interest.

  "Radio! Uncle's radio is broken and he doesn't know how to fix it. He doesn't understand wireless!"

  "Ah? You even know about wireless telegraphy?"

  Dad looked at me with a gaze that was somewhat like looking at an alien.

  I pouted and pretended to be nonchalant: "It's written on the radio, Qingdao Wireless Factory No. 2 produced it. Dad, do you understand wireless?"

  My mom smiled and pinched my face: "Your dad is a technician, he understands anything that's electric!"

  Dad also smiled slightly, with a bit of reserve.

  I clapped my hands and laughed: "That's great! Dad, teach me wireless telegraphy."

  After going around in circles for half a day, this is finally my goal. In any case, this process always has to be done, even if it's just for show, otherwise I'll have no face. If not, next time I help someone fix their radio or something, I'll really be treated like a freak.

  "Okay, Dad will teach you tomorrow."

  His mother couldn't help but worry: "Old Liu, Xiao Jun is only seven years old, learning so many things, won't it exhaust the child?"

  "It's nothing."

  "Dad waved his hand and said, 'Kids have a strong ability to accept things, learning more won't hurt.'"