chapter 3

Back home, Mother brought out my new New Year’s clothes and dressed my little brother in his best outfit before taking us to town.

She carried him on her back, and I followed. Her skin had grown much darker, and her hands much rougher.

We waited outside the school until every pupil had gone, but my brother never appeared.

The schoolmaster came out, saw us, and sighed. “Of all my pupils, Zhou Baoting is the brightest. And yet he has hardly come to class lately.”

Mother’s face darkened.

One of the students told us my brother was working as an attendant in a gambling house, carrying tea and water for the patrons.

When we reached the gambling house, he was standing at the entrance with several disreputable-looking youths as if guarding the door.

Mother handed my little brother to me, rolled up her sleeves, and charged.

My brother panicked at the sight of her. She seized his ear and twisted.

“I scrape together money for you to study, and you run off with scum? Have you no shame before me? Before your father?”

Everyone stopped to watch.

My brother’s face burned red. “I hate school! I’m not going back! I want to earn money!”

He struggled against her, determined not to be restrained. Mother staggered, and terror shot through me. What if he had grown too strong for her? Then no one would be able to keep him from going bad.

“Erniu!” Mother shouted. “Find me a bamboo switch!”

A basket seller nearby had strips of bamboo. I picked one up, hesitating.

Was I really helping Mother beat him?

The onlookers pointed and whispered.

“Oh, his father is dead. Of course the stepmother wants to beat her husband’s first child to death.”

“Just look at that. No stepmother is any good.”

Mother’s eyes flashed. “Give it to me!”

My hand shook as I passed it over.

She struck fast and true.

“I’ll teach you to go bad! I’ll teach you! Will you do it again? Will you?”

The crowd dispersed. My brother began to howl, but Mother did not stop.

My little brother and I sobbed and begged. “Mother, don’t hit him! Please stop!”

She would not listen.

I threw myself over my brother. The switch cracked across my back. It hurt so badly I could hardly breathe.

Our little brother flung his arms around me, crying.

The three of us huddled together, our wails shaking the street.

Only when no more blows fell did we dare raise our heads.

Mother looked at my brother. “Are you going back to school?”

There were bloody welts across his backside.

“Yes.”

To earn more money, Mother began taking work in town, embroidering handkerchiefs and stitching shoe soles.

My brother returned to school.

Every evening, Mother inspected his assignments even though she could not read. She made him teach my little brother and me our characters while she sewed beside the fire.

One night I saw her counting copper coins in secret. She sighed.

My brother’s schooling cost one tael of silver, and we could not afford it. He needed at least five years of study before he could sit the provincial examination at fourteen. If he failed, he would have to remain with his teacher and continue learning.

Eldest Uncle and Third Uncle were going fishing in the river. Father used to go with them. Now Mother said she would take his place.

The uncles hesitated, trying to dissuade her.

“Baoting has to study,” she said. “We need the silver.”

Eldest Uncle scoffed. “You’re chasing a foolish dream. What future is there in books? He’d be more use helping the family now.”

Both of Eldest Uncle’s sons worked the fields every day instead of attending school. His land was beautifully tended. Ours was full of weeds because no one had the strength or time to pull them.

Mother went anyway.

She was stubborn.

Stubbornly determined that my brother would study.

For three days she fished until midnight, then rose before dawn to carry the catch to market.

Each morning, my brother walked to school with our little brother on his back while I carried his book bag.

How I envied him. Other children had to work, but he sat in a classroom learning to read.

Mother earned money from the fish, but not enough for tuition.

Then exhaustion felled her. A high fever burned through her.

My brother wanted to fetch a physician, but she forbade it.

We boiled ginger tea and borrowed a little liquor from Eldest Uncle’s house to rub over her forehead and behind her ears.

Her fever broke the next day, but she remained too weak to stand.