Emmett's Epoch of Endeavor Chapter 28

I took off my hat at 9:00 a.m. on May 6, 1978. I put on my hat at 3:00 p.m. on May 6, 1958. It was only six hours before 20 years. I put on my hat in the small conference room of the Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles at No. 2 Buhou Street, Chengdu. I sat in the middle, crossed my arms and looked at the person who read the announcement. I was dissatisfied, which inevitably reflected on my face, so I was scolded by the person who read the announcement as "the ninth young master is still powerful." I took off my hat at the playground of Chengxiang Town Middle School in Jintang County. 

I sat on the stone steps outside the classroom, lowered my head and listened to the announcement through the wired loudspeaker. I couldn't see the person who read the announcement. I was happy in my heart, but it was hard to reflect it on my face. I just frowned and looked sad. I was afraid that if I looked happy, the wired loudspeaker would see it and make it unhappy. I was happy in my heart because I knew that from now on I could focus on nailing wooden boxes without being troubled, treated unfairly, or doing the endless voluntary labor.

I always get up at dawn. After washing the rice and putting it in the pot, I call my son Kunkun to get up. I sit in front of the stove, adding firewood to the fire while supervising Kunkun's English lessons. Since September 1975, I have been teaching him English with my own textbooks. It has been two years and eight months since I was released from prison. After breakfast, I take him to the wooden furniture company to work, nailing and packing wooden boxes. He helps me make the two ends of each wooden box. I have to nail 15 wooden boxes every day, and each box is worth 10 cents. In this way, I can earn more than 40 yuan a month to support my life. I am very frugal. Apart from three meals a day, I only smoke cheap Chunyan brand cigarettes. 

Kunkun has almost no snacks. Even if he has, it is just a piece of cake or a piece of pot cake. Therefore, more than 40 yuan a month is enough. In order to nail 15 wooden boxes, I work during the day and have to work two hours of night shift after dinner. After the night shift, I go home and teach Kunkun English at night. After the night class, he goes to sleep, and I write his English textbook under the lamp. The English textbooks for middle school students in those years could only be regarded as English translations of elementary textbooks on leftist politics. 

They were so ridiculous that I did not use them, so I compiled them myself. When I was delisted, I had compiled them and taught him up to the seventh volume. Later, I compiled a total of ten volumes and taught him to read them all. There was also a book called "ABC of Phrases" that I compiled but did not have time to teach him, so we said goodbye to our hometown and went to the county cultural center. I said I compiled textbooks for my son, but in fact I was also studying for myself. Just like the ancients who worked the fields during the day and studied at night, we nailed boxes during the day and studied at night. My life was fulfilling. After I was delisted, I felt happy and had more energy to nail boxes.