My surname is Zhang, and I am from Baoding Prefecture. The reason why I changed my surname to Zhu was because it was the national surname later given to me by the Emperor and the Empress.
My family has been practicing medicine for generations, and almost all the men in the family can see doctors, but they are not well-known, so they have never been crowded with people. Most of the time in the year, they go out to practice medicine, so-called walking doctors. Most doctors hope that a plaque titled "Miracle Doctor" will be hung on their heads as soon as possible, so they often sit in court in downtown areas. But my grandfather placed the house in Zhangjia Village outside the city, a small village of about a hundred households. It was also outside the village and deliberately avoided the official roads outside the village. There was only a small road connecting the main road. The small road was often overgrown. There are so many weeds that when walking, you often have to worry about small animals that appear from time to time. My house is next to a hill and has a bluestone wall. Although it is not high, it is one of the few large houses in the countryside. The house is surrounded by groves, which can block the view of passers-by on the official road, but there is a stream in front of the door, slowly flowing into the village. It only overflows with muddy water in the continuous rainy days in autumn, but it is calm more often. And the clear stream water.
My grandfather was a taciturn man. It is said that he liked to travel around when he was young. When he got older, he stayed at home. He read enough books and practiced his calligraphy every day. Occasionally he went for a walk outside the village, which meant looking at the farmland and mountains. Wait, but refused to chat more with the surrounding villagers. It's just that Zhangjiacun is located next to the official road, and there are a lot of people coming and going. Because he is a doctor, there are still people who come to see the doctor. Even so, they only use a few simple words to see the doctor, and the prescription is very accurate. As for the cost of medicine, it was always after writing the prescription and telling how much it was. If the patient's family said they didn't have it for the time being, my grandfather would still ask his servant Uncle Chen to fill the prescription. My grandfather never minded when and how much the patient paid for the medicine, and he never allowed the family to keep track of other people's medical bills. Often in the autumn, people who had seen a doctor in the spring would come to pay back money or bring some things. My grandfather never shied away and accepted them all, without asking how much. Therefore, my grandfather’s income from medical treatment was much lower than that of people practicing medicine outside, but he was very proud of it and probably had a sense of accomplishment.
My mother told me that my grandfather accidentally saved two people. One of them later came to be an official here. He specially invited my grandfather to be a guest in the government palace and gave him many belongings. He even hoped that my grandfather would move the family to the city, but my grandfather did not agree. Still back here. The official exempted my family from a lot of taxes and at the same time warned his subordinates not to harass my family. Therefore, my grandfather was very proud of his time in the country, but he still lived peacefully as an old country man.
Every day is a rough meal, and only during festivals does the food get better. Occasionally, I heard my mother and several aunts talking while they were working as female workers, and I realized that my family is actually very rich. Every year, people come to give money, of course, mostly banknotes! It is said that the fields are rich, but they are in other places. None of his five father and brothers were officials, but they all read a lot and were very proficient in the martial arts inherited from their families. There were always people to teach them their skills. There are more than a dozen brothers in our generation, and I am the ninth oldest. I have been quite mischievous since I was a child. My father often went out to practice medicine, and occasionally visited manors in other places. They often exchanged the annual harvest for property such as silver, but placed it in many places that seemed to me to be secret.
The best time of my childhood was the creek in front of my door. I was born to like water, and I always looked for my happiness in the creek, catching fish and shrimps, and playing in the water. My grandfather, who always had a straight face, seemed to like our appearance very much. A rare smile always appeared on his face. However, in the summer when I was twelve years old, a few friends and I were playing by the river. The sky was getting darker. Not wanting to be stared at by an old wolf, I unknowingly went to the forest to get some clothes. Behind me, It was the screams of my friends. When I woke up, its terrifying figure appeared in front of me. I only felt that the surroundings were dark, and only the wolf's eyes were bright, showing the murderous aura. , probably the most terrifying thing I have ever seen in my life. The smell of blood that hit my face made me dizzy, and I turned around and ran away subconsciously.
I could feel something hitting my back, followed by a sharp howl. I turned around and watched the old wolf scream and fall down. Those ferocious eyes are still imprinted in my mind. The severe pain in my back immediately made me fall to the ground and burst into tears. Its claws still left deep marks on my back. To this day, I can still see five red scars on my back with the wolf head tattooed on it. It was my grandfather who was walking not far away. The screams of the children made him discover the existence of danger. My grandfather, who usually walked smoothly and steadily, ran over from a distance, then jumped up and put his paw on the ground with one palm. The wild wolf slapped me to death on the back.
The fear and pain made me cry loudly, and my crying was met with a very severe reprimand from my grandfather, "Why are boys crying?" It also attracted a panicked mother, father, and uncles. My mother held me in her arms and tried to comfort me. But his father frowned, and just when he was about to speak, his grandfather said in an unquestionable tone: "It's time for Ying'er to learn some skills!"
Then my grandfather arranged for my uncle to teach me my skills after I recovered from my injury. My uncle is not much older than me. He is just as innocent and innocent. There is always play between uncles and nephews. It is only during the winter solstice that he gets dressed up and sits at the end of the table, looking at us brothers with a sullen face. kowtow. He learned martial arts very early, and there were inevitably fights among boys, which often made us brothers cry. He was busy coaxing us, and even said he could teach us martial arts, but we were too lazy. Very, if you don’t want to endure hardship, playing games is better than learning martial arts. After the grandfather arranged it, both uncle and nephew had to face the matter of learning martial arts. After I recovered from my injury, he seemed to be my master. First, he taught some serious principles, as the saying goes, a strict master produces a good disciple, and then he taught some basic martial arts. I was unwilling to learn it at the beginning. Basically, I spent three days fishing and two days. Even if I post it online, I can’t do anything about it. Fortunately, my grandfather never checked my abilities. He was still busy every day. My father fully inherited my grandfather's reticence and didn't like to talk too much. When he was at home, he always stayed in the study room, studying various books. My mother loves me very much, especially after the injury. After cleaning housework, my mother would always find me, pull me to the kitchen, and make me some delicious food from time to time.
I am my father's only son, and I am naughty by nature. As my grandfather said, "I am born with a glib tongue." I have two sisters who are more than ten years older than me. They naturally take good care of me. My temperament is just like this, which is a bit boring. Pistachios for the family. But when I started learning martial arts, everyone thought I had grown up.
One night in the winter, I heard my father and mother talking, probably about me. My mother said that I should go to school, since I was already twelve years old. My father was always noncommittal, and my mother changed her usual virtuous attitude and said that my father had not fulfilled his responsibilities. If it were someone else, he would be able to recognize a bunch of words at the age of six or seven. But my father laughed and said that he had read too many books and was speechless. If I continued to study, I was afraid that my whole family would be bored. My mother was very angry and said that my father was also glib when he was young, which made me the same.
Brothers in the family have to go to private schools one after another. This is the rule of my family. In the spring of the next year, my grandfather arranged for several of our brothers to go to private school. The private school was in the village, and he was hired by a wealthy family with money. I got to know more children in the village. After getting familiar with them, they said that my family was very mysterious. This probably meant that the adults in my family did not want to have contact with the villagers, but I was very carefree and could play with them. Among them, Hu Haisan and Zhu Shihua are my best friends. Hu Haisan is the nephew of the rich man in the village. He lived here with his family ten years ago. He has always been glib. He is best at talking about Emperor Hongwu and Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty, and even today's Hongzhi. emperor. I later thought that there must be an official from the Ming Dynasty in his family who could explain these things that ordinary people did not understand in a clear and logical manner. God knows why he came to attend a private school here, so that sometimes the private school teachers would look at him with suspicion. I have a good memory, and I keep everything about him in my mind unconsciously. But accidentally, she learned his accent and became more naughty, so that she was often scolded by her father. Zhu Shihua is a silent person and rarely talks, but he is clever and can always do some fun things. Unfortunately, he left without saying goodbye five years ago and disappeared without a trace. I have always missed him.
The private school teacher was an old scholar and taught a lot about the Four Books and Five Classics, but we kids couldn't listen at all, and it was even more difficult to memorize it. The old scholar had a gentle temper and never scolded us. His ruler was almost a decoration. When we couldn't carry it on our backs, he would ask us to open our palms and he would hold the ruler high. We looked at him with a playful smile, but he gently dropped it. . And my favorite thing is to imitate him, shaking my head in front of me, asking my friends one by one to endorse, and even following the punishment scene, but one time the friends stretched out their hands, and I "snap" After the beating, my friend let out an ouch, and I ran away quickly, not wanting to bump into the old scholar who came in at the door. He had a big fall, injured his ribs, and was bedridden for three months before he recovered.
After my father heard about it, he angrily pushed me down on the bench and beat me more than ten times with a ruler. I cried and howled so much that when I went out to play again, I walked with a limp, which annoyed my friends. They laughed for a while.
Children always like to fight when they are together, and table tennis is inevitable. Because my old uncle taught me my skills, I could often defeat other friends and gradually became the leader. It's just that although Hu Haisan is usually smooth-talking, he is born with brute force and knows some swordsmanship. At the beginning, I was basically no match. Although there were only a few moves, they made me look at Guanxi. I used a lot of fun things to learn them from him. Although they were a bit confusing, they were indeed much better than my original skills. I curiously asked him who he learned it from, but he refused to tell me. When asked about the name of the swordsmanship, he thought about it and said: "Lao Hu's swordsmanship!"
The competition among children made me gradually fall in love with martial arts. It’s just that before my uncle taught me how to practice martial arts, he solemnly told me that those who practice martial arts must concentrate and cannot steal other people’s martial arts skills. I asked him why, and he scratched his head and said seriously: "Afraid of getting into trouble." Become possessed!"
