Your youth, my recklessness

Author: Ren Zengchao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Hilarious and youthful with endless Beijing flavor.
· Birth left parents in confusion;
· Early romance caused chaos at home;
· Infidelity turned brothers into man-eaters.
Once, my fried chicken leg was snatched by Wang Qing'er (an immature wolf dog) raised by Qiangzi's father, making me cry uncontrollably. After Zhang Xue learned the story, she watched the dog all afternoon. And successfully stole the chicken bone back under its watchful eyes. Then she asked me kindly, "Do you still want to eat?"
Looking at that bone, I cried even harder.
My mom locked the door while my dad was drunk and beat me with a clothes-hanging rod (a "suwa" in slang). I wasn’t stupid, though. I dodged and asked her, "Why did you lock the door?"
"Scared you’d run!"
"If you chase me, you can catch me!"
"Still talking nonsense? If you catch me, I’ll still run!"
"How can you be so stupid? You were just one step away!"
"Want to sleep? Go die, then you’ll have plenty of time!"
"One more time: The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed by Li Hongzhang, not Li Hongzhi."
Sometimes, when she couldn’t solve a function, she’d ask me in a unique way: "You, come here. How do you do this problem? If this affects my college entrance exam score, you’ll support me for life!"
The story has nothing to do with my life. Proof is that the protagonist in the novel is an excellent basketball player who can dunk. My height is only 5'9.7", and even after a 10-meter run-up, I can barely touch the rim.
The reason I could describe the game so vividly is thanks to Yao Ming. Ever since he entered the NBA, I started watching basketball. I even tried playing in games, but ah, that’s a story for another day. As a movie line goes: "In theory, I might be invincible. In practice, I’m completely powerless."
I set most of the plot in summer because I love summer, especially its dazzling and glaring sunlight.
Driven by personality, the novel doesn’t much depict confused, decadent, or painful youth—even when it does, it handles it with humor. I don’t expect it to provoke anyone’s thoughts. Fiction is inherently fictional, and being tortured by fictional stories is absurd.
Life is multifaceted. Endlessly suffering in anger and confusion is like tying yourself in a cocoon.