Chapter 108: Karma I (2/2)

We were eager to learn and our teacher was the oldest grandfather in the village.

He said that the little knowledge he was imparting would help us lead better lives outside.

Somehow, the boys didn't enjoy listening to him teach.

The girls, however, often paid full attention.

While I started to enjoy writing, I couldn't understand how it would aid my future.

Plus, whenever that grandfather taught me, he would have to put on his gla.s.ses and spend a long time reading the textbooks.

The pace of his cla.s.s was alright but what he taught wasn't necessarily correct.

Of course, I only found that out after, because whenever I asked him about a word, he would give different p.r.o.nunciations and meanings each time.

This was the reason why I disliked studying.

The boys would be distracted in cla.s.s while the girls listen on with keen interest.

No one dared to doze off, however, except for Burly.

Because of that, Burly was always caned by the grandfather.

Grandfather's language was bad but his math was good.

I heard that he used to do business in the village. However, there were only two abacuses.

He used one to teach while the rest of us shared the other.

Unsurprisingly, despite his lack of interest, Burley never let the four of us use it.

Nevertheless, we studied seriously. Much more so than during language cla.s.ses.

We would even compare ourselves to Burly. We were weaker but we didn't want to be dumber as well.

We grew up gradually but Burly's abuse intensified.

He s.h.i.+fted his focus from the two of us guys onto the two other girls.

Because among us four, the two girls grew up well and were relatively beautiful.

We would try to obstruct Burly but we weren't his match.

Initially, he would only tease them but he eventually started to get fresh with them.

We made it known to the elderly but the abuse did not stop.

One night, Burly dragged Xiaohong into the forest

I ran after them at top speed but I was knocked down by one of his friends.

My buddy, Dahai, the other guy in our clique, chased after them.

He managed to prevent a disaster but he paid a heavy price.

Burly called it a truce by breaking Dahai's leg.

When we found out about that the next day, Xiaohong slit her wrist with a tile.

Her wound wasn't deep but it was infected nevertheless.

We wrapped her hand but she was in a bad shape.

We used the only handcart that we had to take her to the hospital. It took two days.

Xiaohong was saved and Burly learned his lesson.

The local leader was made aware of the fact that our village had no money to pay the bills.

Dahai wrapped his leg and said it was from a minor fall.

The local leader visited our forgotten village and after some investigations, he reprimanded his subordinates.

He apologized to us and expressed his wish to relocate us to another village.

The elderly were still against the idea and showed the leader their ready-made graves. They hoped that he would just take us along with him to give us better futures.

The leader agreed immediately and sent the boys, excluding Dahai, to the army.

I did not know where Dahai and the girls were sent to.

We stayed in the armed forces for over 10 days before we were allocated to respective districts.

Unfortunately, Burly and I got on the same train that ferried the soldiers.

I started plotting revenge on behalf of Dahai and Xiaohong.

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