明伢子饭后闲聊
有心灵感动时，记录一点点感想，尽管缺乏使用文字的天赋，还是乐在其中。
我的父亲去世到现在已经有三十多年了。父亲非常爱我们，竭尽所能，温暖而又充满力量，真可谓父爱如山。我经常想起我和父亲在一起的点点滴滴，他对我的教导，我年少时与他的争吵，也常常梦见他，很多事情好像发生是不久以前，历历在目。
小时候，我母亲经常给我讲关于父亲童年时的故事。父亲1927年出生于湖南的一个小县城，很小时，他的母亲因病去世，不到三岁他的父亲被害，他的叔叔，婶婶把他抚养成人。我们家所在地是红色革命老区，三十年代打土豪，分田地运动非要恐怖。我祖父是个漆匠，也是当地红色苏维埃政权的小领导，他的的岳父家比较富裕，属于大户人家，是共产党打土豪＂扫地出门＂的专政对象。一天，土改队在没收他岳父家的财产时，他对土改队员说他岳父母都是很好的人，是老实本分的地主，应该给他多留下一点东西。没有想到，他这一求情则引发了杀身之祸，很快有人告诉他，土改队内有人说他是叛徒要杀他，劝他到外面去躲一躲。于是，他就到一个朋友家躲了起来。过了三天，他觉得事情可能过去了，就悄悄地回到家中。当天晚上，一个姓王的赤卫队员带了几个人把他抓起来，带到屋外，杀死在家门口的一棵大樟树下。过了几天，听说这个姓王的人也被别人杀了。文革时，这件事给我父亲带来很多麻烦，他为此事走访了许多了解此事的长辈索取证据，调查这个事件的真相，希望摆脱此事的纠缠。后来，我父亲认为这是一个私下的仇杀事件，不了了之。
我父亲的叔叔也是漆匠，家境不错，自己没有小孩。他对我父亲很好，送他去上学。父亲念完小学以后，就执意要跟他的一个好朋友去念了老书，而不去念中学，叔叔也管不了他。这样，他念了一年老书，也就再也没有上学了，他后来常提到此事，如果他当时去念了中学，上大学，可能前途就不同了。父亲十五岁到附近的一家食品店当学徒，在那干了几年。1949年解放后，他通过考试，开始了他的会计生涯。我小时候，经常听到父亲讲他参加会计培训班的故事，他总是笑着告诉我们，他从来不做珠算作业，但是每次考试都是满分。我念小学时也想学我的父亲不做家庭作业，结果，这个方法对我不灵验，我每次不复习，不做作业，考试成绩都不好。
我父亲聪明能干，很喜欢读书，工作能力强，他的珠算技术可以说是又快又准，在我们的县里也算是个名气的老会计。小时候经常听我母亲讲关于县财政局派我父亲去地区和省一级财政部门审查疑难错帐的故事。他多次为我们县财政局从上级财政部门找回来很多的钱。由于他的工作非常出色，二十多岁时就被提升到县财政局农村部副科长，工资也很快升级到每月57块。在中国五十年代的的小县城，一个三十多岁的年轻人毎月工资57块已经是很高了。
1958年大跃进运动席卷全国, 我们县也开展了赶英超美，大炼钢铁的运动。我们家几乎所有的铁锅，烤火用铜火盆，烧水壶等都被居委会拿去炼钢铁了。不久，政府要建农机厂，我们家祖传的一栋有十三间房的屋子，被当地政府三天三晚给拆掉了，然后建起了工厂车间。我们家被迫搬迁到一个很小很矮的房子里。一家六口在矮屋子住了很长一段时间。后来，又搬到老邮电局宿舍住了两年。1962年左右，政府落实政策为一些被没收的私人房地产平反，尽管，我们家解放前只是一个小手工业漆匠，但县政府认为我家太富裕不属于平反对象。我父亲对此不服气，便写了一个报告告状到湖南省政府，结果省政府将我家房屋拆迁亊件判定为错误拆迁，推翻了县政府的决定，并要求县政府平反并给予赔偿。1964年，我们家得到了半个车间的赔偿，大约有200多平方米，相当于老房的三分之一。这样，我们家又搬回了老屋所在位置居住，由于这房子的另外一半是锻工车间，所有，从早到晚都是机器响声，震耳欲聋，有时候到半夜都无法入睡。虽然我们家得到了这应有的?偿，但是父亲也因此得罪了他的领导，被上级认为不服从领导，骄傲自满，他的工作也从财政局调到县商业局，从此断了工作上发展前途。一直到他六十岁退休时，仍然是一个副科级，工资再也从沒上涨过。由于我们家房子的所在地是城市的主要街道旁，一些单位企业单位总是打它的主意。文革时，工厂造反派多次到我们家找麻烦，操家，后来，又强行占走我们四分之一的房子。1983年，父亲迫于政府的压力，房子最终还是以27,000元廉价卖给了县物资局。此后，我们搬到父母单位一个不到60平方米的宿舍，居住环境很差。母亲对我父亲处理房产之事非常生气，一直抱怨，俩人也经常为此事争吵。
我父亲是个和蔼可亲很好交流的人，但对我们兄弟姐妹要求很严格，每天早晨五六点点钟，天还没有亮，他就会把我们姐弟都叫起来，安排做不同的家务事，洗碗，扫地，读书，带我和哥哥到河边去挑去水。有时候，星期天我们到附近酒厂拖酒糟渣回家烧饭用，或者帮妈妈去河边洗衣服，做干菜等。我们长大一点以后，家里的一些重活都是我和哥哥的负责。我母亲家务很忙，平时不太管我们，我们姐弟三人都怕我爸爸，只要他在家，我们都表现很好。晚餐后，我们总是围坐在一张方桌旁， 在暗淡煤油灯下做作业。我小时候贪玩，不爱学习，做作业总是心不在焉，成绩不好。我爸爸晚上有时外出串门，每次只要他一出门，我也很快出去找别的小朋友玩。每当我溜出家门时，总是听到身后传来我姐姐很大的声音＂明伢子又出去玩去啦＂。爸爸有时候很生气打我们，要我们跪在地上，我姐姐和哥哥都很听话，他们会很快的老老实实的跪下来。而我倔犟，不肯跪下，即使有时跪下后，也会很快的站起来，父亲气得面红耳赤，打得越厉害。有时候，母亲会过来求情，劝说父亲不要再打我。我慢慢长大以后，有一次听爸爸对妈妈说小孩长大了，以后再也不打了。后来，他真的不打我们了，他也很少对我们发脾气，有时候，我们让他不高兴时，他都是耐心的与我们交流，讲道理。当我和姐姐一起回忆往事时，姐姐总是笑我说＂我们小时候挨打时，爸爸要我们脆下，我们都老老实实地跪下，你就是不跪，跪下去，又站起来，所以，挨打最多＂。
小时候，父亲叫我们三姐弟学珠算，姐姐和哥哥都很认真，也学得很快，珠算的加减乘除都会。我长大一点后，父亲也开始教我学珠算，可我一点兴趣也没有，而且不认真，注意力不集中，不管他怎样教我也学不好，珠算的六百六十六的简单加法老是算错。父亲很有耐心，仍然坐在我旁边手把手的教我，偶尔，我也能加对一两次六百六，这时父亲会非常高兴的表掦我。
1966年6月毛泽东发起了文化大革命，所有的学校开始停课闹革命，运动一个接一个，许多的人都被红卫兵造反派抓着批斗，戴高帽子游街。文革刚开始时，我父亲没受到冲击，有一天，我们县城举行万人大会，会后环城游行，有几千个被揪斗的人戴高帽，挂牌游街。我们家门正对马路，是游行队伍的必经之路，我们都站在门口看热闹。我们突然发现我父亲也被揪斗，脖子上挂了一块很大牌子，足有三尺长，二尺高，上面写着很大的字＂手工业资本家，阶级异极分子XXX，父亲带着高度近视眼镜，面无表情，一脸无奈，一边走一边看着我们。我们都非常惊讶，很难接受眼前所看到的一切，我们爸爸这么好的老实人怎么也成了坏人昵？游行结束后，父亲很快就回到家里，我们都看他，他很气愤地说＂娘买X的，真拐＂。姐姐一直都在伤心难过的哭，爸爸带着苦笑问我们是否看见他挂牌游街？并且，安慰我们这不要紧，这么多人都被揪斗挂牌游街。不久后，父亲被关在单位不准回家了，每天写反省。有一天，哥哥钓到一只很大的脚鱼，母亲烧了一大碗脚鱼肉汤送给爸爸吃，他边吃边说真好吃。后来，父亲就被送到离县城很远的五七干校劳动改造，很少回家。他在那里呆了三年之久，有一天，他终于被解放了，回到了原单位工作。但是，好景不长，接着，他就被劝退回家，没有了工作。
父亲回家后，就开始和我母亲一起弹棉花养家糊口，后来又在街道纸箱厂做了二年会计。那时棉花机是人力的，一个脚要不停地上下踩动踏板来带动机器，踩上20分钟就会是满头大汗，是非常艰苦的劳动。我爸爸喜欢钻研，所有弹花机的故障都是他自己维修保养，他还买了一个旧的马达，自己设计，把弹花机改装成电动的，并且还自己做了一个电扇安装在机器后面，这样大大的减轻了我母亲弹棉花劳动强度。1976文革结束以后，国家的政策又发生了变化，为很多被劝退的国家干部平反，父亲也恢复了原来的职务，被安排到乡镇企业局工作直到退休。
文革期间的知识青年上山下乡是当时许多家庭的恶梦。姐姐16岁初中毕业后就下放到农村，一呆就是八年，由于父亲是批斗对象，每次有机会招工回城时，姐姐都被拒之门外，理由是我们家的政审不合格。哥哥高中毕业后，也随之下放到当地农场，不过他运气比较好，呆了不到三年就进了一家工厂当电工。我应该说是最幸运的，按照当时的政策，如果一家有三个孩子，两个小孩下放农村后，第三个孩子就可以留城。因此，我高中毕业后就没有下放到农村。那时候，许多的年轻人都没有工作，即使想找一临时工做都很困难，尤其是像我们这样家庭政审不能过关的子女。所以，我每天无所事事，到处玩，打蓝球，游泳，有时候参加训练比赛，偶尔帮助妈妈弹棉花。我在家里闲着 也是父亲很头疼的一件事情，他希望我以后能自食其力，想找关系让我去学木模工，结果也没有找到师傅带。他总是耐心的劝我不要总把时间浪费在玩上面，要学好数理化，特别是数学和英语，他常说有了英语，你以后可以到国外去留学，学习计算机。父亲的话对我来就是耳边风，好像天方夜谭。什么是计算机，我连听都没有听说过。不管父亲怎么讲，我还是照样每天玩。有时候，父亲把我讲烦了，我就对他说我连一个工作都找不到，怎么可能去留学呢？学英语有什么用？这时父亲总是说你以看吧，到底要不要有知识。
1976毛泽东去世，中国结束了10年文化大革命浩劫，第二年七月宣布恢复大学招生高考制度。我去找朋友们玩时，他们都对我说不去玩了，要复习功课，准备参加高考。过了一段时间，我也有了去参加高考的想法，但是，我真是一点信心都没有。因为，我从念小学到高中，从来没有认真学习过，每天都是政治学习，搞劳动，挖防空洞，况且，高中毕业已经有四年多，学校教的那点点数理化也忘得差不多了。不过，我最终还是决定去碰碰运气。父亲听到我要参加高考，非常高兴，他到处为我找复习题目，那时候，没有复印机，所以的材料都要手抄写，他花了大量的时间，有时抄写复习资料一直到深夜。记得我和朋友去教委填写报考学校志愿时，刚要出门，我父亲把我叫住了，他对我说你的体育很好，你报考体育学院，你会考取的。我本来并没有这个想法，但经过父亲这一提醒，觉得也很好，我就填报了体育志愿。我认真准备了两个多月，每天学习十几个小时，父亲感叹地说＂从来没有看见过这个伢子这么认真读过书＂。1977年的高考于10月份举行，那年我们县有300多人参加体育专业考试，我是唯一的被录取的体育本科生。其实，那年我的高考成绩并不好，刚刚过线，如果没有父亲的建议报考体育学院，我肯定考不取大学，也可能一辈子与大学擦肩而过。而且，那年高考的录取率特别低，全国仅为4.7%。同一年，哥哥也被录取到一所顶尖的军事院校，而且，我们念书的两个大学都在同一个城市，大学四年也使我和哥哥有了更多交流和了解。这一年我父母亲特别开心，两个儿子进大学，姐姐结婚。
我上大学后，父亲每个星期都要给我写信交流。1986年到1989大学校园有很多的学生运动，父亲总是在信中嘱咐我不要去参加政治运动，我也非常理解他的担心，中国的政治运动对于许多人来说就是大祸临头，令人生畏。我们读大学期间，尽管家里经济并不太好，但父母还尽全力支持我们，每月提供我们学习所需的基本费用。1985年在我读研究生的时候，父母还资助我买了一台录音机用于学习英语。后来，我每天都使用这台录音机听美国之音，进行听力和口语训练，一直用到我来美国前。
我父亲一生保持着爱学习，好钻研的好习惯，他还发展了一套独特珠算乘除运算方法，他告诉我他的珠算乘除运算口诀比常规运算简单，更容易学习。退休前几年，他还花了很多时间研究陈景润的哥得巴赫猜想，把他的研究文章送到北京数学研究杂志，当然是没有什结果。出于好奇，我把我父亲的名字Google一下，还真可以找到他1959年发表在巜财政半月刊 》，1989年发表在《农村财务会计》杂志上的文章。父亲一生也非常节俭，自己从来舍不得给自己买东西，他常常告诉我们要艰苦朴素。他年轻时也喜欢抽烟，喝酒。有时候，朋友帮他从郴州买了好烟叶的时候，他告诉我和哥哥用一个木制小卷烟机帮他自制香烟。但是，父亲从来不准我们小孩子抽烟，喝酒，打牌，下棋，他说做这些事情对身体不好，也浪费时间。所有，我们三姐弟都没这些爱好。父亲到四十岁左右，医生建议他把抽烟和喝酒都戒掉了，他很有自制力，说戒就戒掉了。
父亲退休后身就开始不好了，得了不治之症，经常住医院，被病魔纠缠了三四年，非常痛苦。有一天，我接到姐夫的电话，他告诉我父亲不行了，要我立刻回家。我到医院时已经是下午五点多了，看到父亲躺在床上，鼻子里带着氧气管，非常虚弱。过了一会儿，他看到我，轻轻地叫我。我赶忙靠近他说，爸爸，你有什么事情要告诉我吗？他摇了摇头。不久，我发现他好像不行了，我赶紧用手臂扶着他的头，母亲忙跑去叫医生，医生进来时，父亲已经安祥地离开了，享年六十四岁。
父亲去世二年以后，1993年我塔上了赴美的航班，开始了我的美国梦。当时，正赶上美国的计算机革命，我奋斗了几年，完成计算机研究生学位后，很快就找到软件工程师工作，到现在已经整整干了二十多年。回想自己走过的旅程，非常感概父亲眼光的独到之处，他对我寄予的希望＂学英语，去留学，做计算机工作＂，这个期望竞然在我二十年以后完全的应验了。我经常给太太和我的小孩分享这些奇妙的故事，我真是太幸运了，更是感谢父母亲的恩典和父亲的教导。爸爸，我爱你！
Father's Day 2022: Remembering my father
As a child, my mother often told me stories about my father's childhood. His father was born in a small county in Hunan in 1927. When he was very young, his mother died of illness. His father was killed when he was less than three years old, and his uncle and aunt raised him. Our home was in an old red revolutionary area of CCP. In the 1930s, the “Beat the local despots and redistribute the land" movement had to be terrifying. My grandfather was a lacquer and was also a small leader of the local Red Soviet Regime. His father-in-law's family was relatively wealthy and belonged to a large family. One day, when the land reform team confiscated the property of his father-in-law's house, he told the land reform team that his parents-in-law were very good people, honest landlords, and he should leave something more for him. Unexpectedly, his plea would lead to murder, and someone soon told him that someone in the land reform team said he was a traitor and wanted to kill him, and persuaded him to hide outside. So, he went to hide at a friend's house. After three days, he felt that the matter might be over, and went back home quietly. That night, a Red Guard member surnamed Wang brought a few people to arrest him, took him outside, and killed him under a big camphor tree in front of the house. A few days later, I heard that this man surnamed Wang was also killed by others. During the Cultural Revolution, this incident brought a lot of trouble to my father. He visited many elders who knew about this incident to ask for evidence, investigated the truth of this incident, and hoped to get rid of the entanglement of this incident. Later, my father thought it was a private vendetta and let it go.
My father's uncle was also a lacquer maker; his family was well off and he had no children of his own. He was nice to my father and sent him to school. After my father finished primary school, he insisted on studying traditional old books with a good friend of his, instead of going to middle school, and his uncle could not control him. In this way, he studied for a year and never went to school again. He often mentioned this matter later, if he had gone to middle school or university at that time, his future might have been different. At the age of fifteen, my father apprenticed to a nearby food store and worked there for a few years. After liberation in 1949, he passed the exam and started his accounting career. When I was a child, I often heard my father tell the story of his taking an accounting training class. He always told us with a smile that he never did abacus homework, but every time he took the exam, he got full marks. When I was in elementary school, I also wanted to learn from my father not to do homework. Thus, this method didn't work for me. Every time I didn't review, I didn't do my homework, and I didn't do well in exams.
My father is smart and capable. He likes reading very much. He has strong working ability. His abacus skills can be said to be fast and accurate. He is also a famous senior accountant in our county. When I was a child, I often heard stories from my mother about the county finance bureau sending my father to the regional and provincial finance departments to review difficult accounts. He has retrieved a lot of money from the higher-level financial department for our county finance bureau many times. Because of his excellent work, he was promoted to the deputy section chief of the rural department of the county finance bureau when he was in his twenties, and his salary was quickly upgraded to 57 yuan per month. In a small county town in the 1950s, a young man in his thirties earned a monthly salary of 57 yuan, which was already very high.
In 1958, the Great Leap Forward movement swept across the country, and our county also launched a campaign to catch up with the United Kingdom than the United States, and smelt steel. Almost all the iron pots, copper braziers and kettles in our house had been used by the neighborhood committee to make steel. Soon, the government was going to build an agricultural machinery factory. Our ancestral house with thirteen rooms was demolished by the local government in three days and three nights, and then a factory workshop was built. Our family was forced to move to a very small and short house, and the family of six lived in the short and small house for a long time. Later, we moved to the dormitory of the old post and telecommunications bureau for two years. Around 1962, the government implemented a policy to compensate for some confiscated private real estate. Although our family was only a small handicraft painter before 1949 liberation, the county government believed that my family was too wealthy to be compensated. My father was not convinced by this, so he wrote a report to the Hunan provincial government. Thus, the provincial government judged my house demolition as wrongful demolition, overturned the decision of the county government, and asked the county government to vindicate and pay compensation. In 1964, our family received compensation for half the workshop, which was about more than 200 square meters, which was equivalent to one-third of the old house. In this way, our family moved back to the place where the old house was. Since the other half of the house was a forge workshop, all the machine sounds were deafening from morning to night, and sometimes we couldn't sleep until midnight. Although our family got this due compensation, my father also offended his leadership because of this. He was considered by his superiors to be disobedient to the leadership and complacent. His job was also transferred from the Finance Bureau to the County Commercial Bureau, and he had since stopped be promoted in working. Until he retired at the age of sixty, he was still at the sub-department level, and his salary never rose again. Since the location of our house was next to the main street of the city, some units of business units always hit the idea of ??it. During the Cultural Revolution, the factory rebels came to our house many times to make trouble and mess with the house. Later, they forcibly occupied a quarter of our house. In 1983, under pressure from the government, my father finally sold the house to the County Materials Bureau at a low price of 27,000 yuan. After that, we moved to a dormitory of less than 60 square meters in my father’s company, and the living environment was very poor. My mother was very angry at my father's handling of the property, complaining all the time, and the two often argued about it.
My father was an amiable and easy-to-communicate person, but he was very strict with our brothers and sisters. Every morning at five or six o’clock, before the sun rises, he would wake up our brothers and sisters and arrange for different housework, washing up, etc. Bowl, swept the floor, read, took my brother and I to the river to fetch water. Sometimes, on Sundays, we were to a nearby winery to drag the lees of the lees home for cooking, or help my mother go to the river to do laundry and made dry vegetables. When we grew up a little, my brother and I were responsible for some of the heavy work at home. My mother was very busy with housework and usually didn't care about us. The three of us were afraid of my father. As long as he was at home, we all behaved very well. After dinner, we always sat around a square table and did our homework under dim kerosene lamps. When I was a kid, I was playful and didn't like to study. My dad sometimes goes out at night, and every time he goes out, I also went out to play with other children. Whenever I sneaked out of the house, I always heard my sister's loud voice behind me, "Ming-Ya-Zi is out to play again". Dad sometimes got angry and beat us and asked us to kneel on the ground. My sister and brother were very obedient and they would kneel down very quickly. But I was stubborn and refused to kneel down. Even after kneeling sometimes, I would stand up quickly. My father was so angry that his face was red, and the more he beat me. Sometimes my mother would come to intercede and persuade my father not to beat me again. After I grew up, I once heard my father told my mother that the children already grew up, he would never beat them again. Later, he stopped hitting us, and he rarely lost his temper with us. Sometimes, when we upset him, he communicated with us patiently and reasoned with us. When my sister and I reminisced about the past, my sister always laughed at me and said, "When we were beaten when we were young, our father asked us to kneel down, and we all knelt down quickly. You just didn't kneel. You kneel down, and stand up again, so you were beaten. most".
When we were young, my father asked our three sisters and brothers to learn abacus. My sister and brother were very serious and learned very quickly. They could add, subtract, multiply and divide abacus. When I was a little older, my father also began to teach me to learn abacus, but I had no interest at all, and I was not serious and focused, no matter how he taught me, I could not learn well. I always made mistakes and miscalculate the wrong number. My father was very patient and still sit next to me and taught me hand in hand. Occasionally, I could add six hundred and six correctly once or twice. My father would be very happy and say you did good job.
In June 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, and all schools began to close classes to start the revolution. Movement after movement, many people were arrested and criticized by the Red Guard rebels, wearing high hats and parading through the streets. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, my father was not affected. One day, a meeting of 10,000 people was held in our county seat. After the meeting, there was a parade around the city. Our house was facing the road, which was the only way for the parade. We all stood at the door to watch the excitement. We suddenly found out that my father was also grabbed, with a big sign hanging around his neck, three feet long and two feet high, with the words "Handicraft Capitalist, Class Heteropolar Li Qixaing". My father, with high myopia glasses, expressionless and helpless, he looked at us as we walked. We were all very surprised and had a hard time accepting what we saw. How could a good and honest man like our father suddenly become a bad guy? After the parade, Father soon returned home, we all looked at him, he said angrily, "fucking, these guys really bad". My sister has been crying sadly, and my father asked us with a helpless smile if we saw him on the street? He comforted us that it didn't matter, so many people were paraded through the streets. Soon after, my father was locked up in the unit and was not allowed to go home. He wrote reflections every day. One day, my brother fished a big Chinese soft shell turtle, and my mother cooked a big bowl of turtle fish soup for my father. He said it was delicious. Later, my father was sent to the May-Seventh-Cadre-School far away from the county seat for labor reform, and he seldom returned home. He stayed there for three years. After a long period of years, one day, he was finally released and returned to work in his original unit. However, the good times did not last long, and then he was persuaded to return home without a job.
After my father returned home, he and my mother started bouncing cotton to support the family, and then worked as an accountant in a street carton factory for two years. At that time, the cotton machine was manpower, and one foot had to constantly move the pedal up and down to drive the machine. If you step on it for 20 minutes, you will be sweating profusely, which was very hard work. My dad liked to study. All the faults of the flower machine were repaired and maintained by himself. He also bought an old motor, designed it by himself, converted the bounce cotton machine into an electric one, and made a fan to install behind the machine. This greatly reduced the labor intensity of my mother bouncing cotton. After the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, the country's policy changed again. Many state cadres who had been dismissed were rehabilitated. My father also resumed his original position and was assigned to work in the Township and Township Enterprise Bureau until his retirement.
During the Cultural Revolution, the movement of Intellectual Youth go to the Mountains and the Countryside was a nightmare for many families at that time. My sister was sent to the countryside after graduating from junior high school at the age of 16. She stayed the countryside for eight years. Because our father was the target of criticism, every time she had the opportunity to recruit workers and returned to the city, she was turned away. The reason was that our family had failed the political review of government. My brother was also sent to a local farm after he graduated from high school, but he was lucky, and after staying for less than three years, he joined a factory as an electrician. I should say that it was the luckiest. Per the policy at the time, if a family had three children, after two children were sent to the countryside, the third child could stay in the city. Therefore, after I graduated from high school at 16 years old, I was not sent to the countryside. At that time, many young people were unemployed, and even it was very difficult to find a temporary job, especially children like us who could not pass the family political review. So, I did nothing every day, playing around, playing basketball, swimming, sometimes participating in training games, and occasionally helping my mother bouncing cotton. I was idle at home, which was also a headache for my father. He hoped that I would be able to support myself in the future. He always patiently persuaded me not to waste time on playing, but to learn mathematics, physics and chemistry, especially mathematics and English. He often said to me that with English, you could study abroad and learn computer science. My father's words was like an ear wind. What was a computer, I had never even heard of it. No matter what my father said, I still played every day. Sometimes, when my father was annoying me, I told him that I couldn't even find a job, so how could I go to study abroad? What was the use of learning English? At this time, my father always said that you would see, whether you need to have knowledge or not in the future.
Mao Zedong died in 1976, and China ended the catastrophe of the 10-year Cultural Revolution. In July of the following year, it announced the restoration of the college entrance examination system for college admissions. When I went to invite my friends to play, they all told me that they couldn't go to play, but to review and prepare for the college entrance examination. After a while, I also had the idea of taking the college entrance examination, but I really had no confidence at all. Because, from elementary school to high school, I had never studied seriously. Every day was political study, doing labor, and digging air-raid shelters. Besides, it had been more than four years since I graduated from high school, and I had almost forgotten the little bit of physics and chemistry taught in school. However, I finally decided to try my luck. My father was very happy to hear that I was going to take the college entrance examination. He looked for review material questions for me everywhere. At that time, there was no copier, so all the materials had to be written down by hand. He spent a lot of time, sometimes copying the review materials until late at night. I remember when my friend and I went to the Education Commission to fill out the school application, and just about to go out, my father stopped me, he told me that your sports are very good, if you apply for the sports academy, you would be admitted. I didn't have the idea of studying PE at first, but after my father's reminder, I felt that it was also very good, so I filled in the PE volunteer. I prepared carefully for more than two months and studied for more than ten hours a day. My father sighed and said, "I have never seen this child read books so seriously." In 1977, the college entrance examination was held in October. That year, more than 300 people in our county took the physical education professional examination. I was the only sports undergraduate student admitted. In fact, my grades in the college entrance examination that year were not good. I just passed the test. If I didn't apply for the sports college with my father's suggestion, I would definitely not be able to get into the university, and I might miss the university for the rest of my life. Moreover, the admission rate for the college entrance examination that year was particularly low, only 4.7% nationwide. In the same year, my brother was also admitted to a top military academy. Moreover, the two universities we studied in were in the same city. The four years of university also enabled my brother and I to have more communication and understanding. My parents were very happy this year. Two sons went to college and my sister got married.
After I went to college, my father wrote to me every week to communicate. From 1986 to 1989, there were many student movements on college campuses. My father always told me not to participate in political movements in his letters. I understand his worries very well. Political movements in China were a disaster for many people, which were life-threatening and frightening. During our college years, although the family's finances were not very good, our parents did their best to support us and provided us with the basic expenses for our study every month. When I was a graduate student in 1985, my parents also sponsored me to buy a tape recorder for learning English. Later, I used this recorder to listen to the Voice of America every day for listening and speaking training until I came to the United States.
My father maintained the good habit of loving learning and studying hard all his life. He also developed a unique abacus multiplication and division method. He told me that his abacus multiplication and division formulas were simpler and easier to learn than regular operations. A few years before his retirement, he also spent a lot of time studying Chen, Jingrun's famous Goldbach conjecture, and sent his research articles to the Beijing Mathematical Research Journal, of course, to no avail. Out of curiosity, I googled my father's name, and I could still find his article published in the 1959 Financial Biweekly and 1989 in the "Rural Financial Accounting" magazine. My father was very frugal all his life, and he was never willing to buy things for himself. He often told us to be hard and simple. He also liked to smoke and drink when he was young. Sometimes, when a friend helped him buy good tobacco leaves from Chenzhou, Hunan, he told my brother and I to help him make cigarettes with a small wooden cigarette maker. However, my father never allowed our children to smoke, drink, play cards, and play chess. He said that doing these things is not good for health and wastes time. All, our three siblings do not have these hobbies. When my father was about forty years old, the doctor advised him to quit smoking and drinking. He was very self-controlled and quit when he said quit.
After my father retired, his health began to deteriorate. He suffered from an incurable disease and was often hospitalized. He was entangled by the disease for three or four years, which was very painful. One day, I received a call from my brother-in-law, who told my father that he was dying and wanted me to go home immediately. When I arrived at the hospital, it was past five in the afternoon and I saw my father lying on the bed with an oxygen tube in his nose, very weak. After a while, he saw me and called me softly. I hurriedly approached him and said, Dad, do you have anything to tell me? He shook his head. Soon, I found that he seemed to be dying. I quickly hold his head in my arm, and my mother rushed to call the doctor. When the doctor came in, my father had left peacefully and was sixty-four years old.
Two years after my father's death, in 1993, I got on a flight to the United States and started my American dream. At that time, I was catching up with the computer revolution in the United States. I studied hard for a few years. After completing my graduate degree in computer science, I quickly found a job as a software engineer. I have been working for more than 20 years now. Looking back on the journey I have traveled; I am very impressed with the uniqueness of my father's vision. His hope for me "to learn English, to study abroad, and to do computer work" has completely come true 20 years later. I often share these wonderful stories with my wife and my children. I am so lucky and very grateful for the grace of my parents and the teachings of my father. Dad, I love you!
