The Circus Is Here

That night, we all slept in one house. They tied me to the leg of the table and I pretended to be asleep. They themselves slept on a wooden bed, feeling relieved.

At midnight, or maybe it was midnight because I noticed the moon was slightly to the west, the moonlight shone through the skylight and cast a weird, eerie shadow in the room. I decided to escape.

I struggled to untie the rope that bound my body, but it was tightly tied and my arms were hurting. The rope tied to the leg of the table did not budge. Eventually, I came up with a good idea. I bent my neck down, brought my mouth close to the rope under my armpit, and bit the rope with my teeth.

The rope was tied tightly, so it was hard to bite. I struggled for a long time before I finally bit through one rope. My eyes were seeing stars, and my neck was tired and sore. Once one rope was broken, the others all fell off and dropped to the ground.

I quietly got up, removed the latch from the door, and crawled out without them noticing. In the distance, a wolf howled, and I shuddered. But then I thought, I'd rather be eaten by wolves than be sold by them, so I bravely walked to the gate.

Behind the gate, there was an iron shovel. I picked it up and prepared to take it with me when I left, so that if I encountered wolves, it would give me courage.

There were two latches on the gate. I removed them both and opened the gate. Suddenly, the brass bell above the door made a piercing sound, ding-dong, ding-dong, which sounded particularly loud in the dark night. A man inside the house shouted, "Who's there? What do you want?" I didn't dare to answer and ran out with the shovel.

I only ran for a few tens of meters before the people behind caught up with me. They grabbed me and threw me back into the yard. I knew a beating was waiting for me.

I went from being a rich young master to a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

That night, I was terrified, lying on the ground, trembling all over and not daring to move. Someone kicked me twice from behind and yelled, "I told you to run, why aren't you running now?" Then more feet stepped on me, and the dull pain almost made me pass out.

Later, I heard someone say, "Don't hit him, if he gets hurt, he won't sell well."

I have never been beaten since I was born. Although Wang Xigui was extremely stingy, he was not a bad person and never dared to hit me. As for the rest of my family, they called me "Little Young Master" and no one would hit me. However, since these human traffickers cheated me, I have been beaten several times by them. My eyes were full of tears, but I didn't dare to cry out loud because I was afraid of attracting their punches and kicks.

Three days later, they brought me to a village called Liu Jia Zhuang, which was at the bottom of a mountain ditch, surrounded by mountains. I don't know how much they sold me for, but I knew the couple who bought me were middle-aged, the man's name was Liu Genhe, and the woman's name was Lei Caifeng. They had been married for half their lives and had no children.

Liu Genhe was an extremely cowardly man who didn't even dare to fart at home. One night, they did something that made Lei Caifeng unhappy for some reason, and she kicked Liu Genhe under the bed. Liu Genhe didn't say a word and squatted under the bed all night.

When Liu Genhe talked to Lei Caifeng, he always spoke in a low voice. When Lei Caifeng's face changed, he didn't dare to say a word. On the contrary, when Lei Caifeng talked to Liu Genhe, she always scolded and spoke with a cold look. It is said that Lei Caifeng was the most powerful woman in the village. Once, she quarreled with a man in the village and rushed over to grab the man's crotch, making him pass out.

I knew I wouldn't have a good life in this kind of family.

There is a custom in rural areas that if a family has no children, they can find a "baby lure" and they will be able to have a child the following year. I was that "baby lure".

After living with them for a year, Lei Caifeng became pregnant. She was not good to me before she was pregnant, but she became even worse to me after she got pregnant. In the middle of winter, she asked me to go out and collect firewood. My cotton shoes were torn and worn out, but a neighbor's grandfather saw me pitifully and gave me his grandson's leftover cotton shoes. The shoes had already exposed my toes. I walked in the snow wearing these shoes, feeling like being pricked by needles all over my body. Winter in the countryside is a leisurely season. When people who were wandering around the village saw me like this, they said, "Caifeng wants to eat the flesh of the child. How could she let him go out to collect firewood in this weather?"

My feet were frostbitten and full of frostbite and cracks. When I returned home, I saw Lei Caifeng sitting in a warm quilt, but I didn't dare to say a word and went to do housework limping.

After the child was born, Lei Caifeng became even worse to me. She would beat me whenever she was in a bad mood. Once, she picked up an iron shovel and hit my thigh, causing it to bleed heavily. Liu Genhe picked up some dust to stop the bleeding. A neighbor couldn't stand it and ran over to say, "Caifeng, don't hit the child like that. That is a life too."

But Lei Caifeng didn't seem to care about what the neighbor said, and she continued to mistreat me.

The scars that Lei Caifeng dug out with an iron shovel are still on my leg today.

At that time, I had not thought of running away. Liu Jiazhuang was not a good place, but it was my place of refuge. If I wanted to run away, I didn't know where to go. My father, Wang Xigui, had hurt my heart too much, and I didn't want to see him again. Even if I wanted to run back home, I didn't know where home was.

I fled from Liu Jiazhuang when I was ten years old. That year, a circus came to the village.

As soon as the circus arrived in the village, they beat their copper gongs loudly. It was rare for outsiders to come to the village, so the sound of the gongs drew out the entire village. The circus set up camp on the threshing ground and erected two tall wooden poles, which were connected by ropes at the top. A monkey climbed up the pole lightly and swung back and forth on the rope, while a group of children stood under the rope, watching the monkey and clapping and laughing.

I also went to the edge of the threshing ground, wanting to watch from under the rope. But Lei Caifeng kicked me and said, "What are you looking at? Go wash my dirty clothes."

I didn't dare to resist, so I went home and put Lei Caifeng's smelly and dirty clothes in a wooden basin. Then I carried it to the small river outside the village. There was a soapberry tree by the river, and every time people in the village washed clothes, they would pick two soapberries from the tree and put them on the wet clothes, then beat them with a wooden mallet. The juice from the soapberries would enter the clothes and clean them. Soapberries act like soap, and there was no soap back then.

The small river was not far from the threshing ground, and I could hear the sound of the gongs and drums carried by the wind, as well as the happy laughter of the children. I had never seen a circus before, but hearing those laughter, I knew that the circus must be very exciting.

After washing the clothes, I carried the heavy wooden basin back to the village. There was no one in the village, everyone had gone to the threshing ground to watch the circus, and there was a bronze lock on every door. When I passed by Liu Dahuzu's house, I suddenly saw someone jumping from the paulownia tree in his courtyard over the wall. I knew it was a thief, but I dared not speak up, so I quickly hid in the open-air toilet by the village road.

The toilets of every household in the village were built outside the courtyard walls, and the walls were made of earth bricks with gaps between them. I saw the thief walking along Liu Dahuzu's courtyard wall to a pagoda tree in front of the door, and then slipping down the tree.

When the thief was far away, I dared to come out of the toilet. This thief was really smart, knowing that Liu Dahuzu was wealthy. Liu Dahuzu was the richest person in our village, and the only two donkeys in the village belonged to his family. The thief also picked the perfect time, just when everyone in the village was watching the circus, and there was not a single person in the village. He stole something and got away heartily.

I returned home and hung my wet clothes on a stick before heading to the wheat field to watch the circus. However, as soon as I arrived at the field, Lei Caifeng spotted me. She stormed towards me with her child in her arms and said angrily, "What a little puppy! Watching the circus? Do you even understand it? Go cut pigweed. If you can't fill a basket, don't bother coming back!"

We have a black pig that we raise at home. It's only a few months old, and I have to cut pigweed for it every day. Usually, I cut pigweed with my village friends, but today, they all went to watch the circus, leaving me to cut pigweed alone while Lei Caifeng watched the show.

I didn't dare argue, so I left the wheat field, picked up my sickle and manure basket, and prepared to head out. Just before leaving, I spat into Lei Caifeng's freshly washed clothes.

The place where we often cut pigweed is called Crow's Nest. It's a hill with many crow's nests, hence the name. There's a lot of pigweed on the hill, and it's impossible to cut it all, so I also went to Crow's Nest today.

Standing on Crow's Nest, I could see the village in the distance and the wheat field outside the village. I saw that the circus had ended, and people from the village were gradually heading home. The circus performers packed up their tools onto two horse-drawn carriages and left the village.

There's only one road that leads out of our village into the mountains, and it's so narrow that only one carriage can pass through at a time. As I watched the circus caravan get further and further away, I suddenly had an idea to follow them and escape.

I threw my manure basket into a black hole and ran down Crow's Nest with my sickle, chasing after the small path that led out of the mountains.

The circus caravan was moving at lightning speed along the small paths in the countryside, like a flat boat traveling on the rippling waves. Although I could see them in front of me, I was soon left far behind. I was out of breath, and the thought of returning to the village crossed my mind several times, but I couldn't go back because I had left my manure basket in the bottomless black hole. If I returned empty-handed, Lei Caifeng would surely break my legs.

There was no turning back now. I had to keep chasing!

The carriage went into a winding mountain road and slowed down. By the time I chased it down the mountain, it had reached halfway up the mountain. However, when I reached halfway up the mountain, it must have already reached the top. And when I reached the top, it must have already gone down to the other side of the mountain. If I kept chasing like this, I would never catch up.

I came up with a plan: I would take a shortcut.

I didn't go up the mountain, but instead zigzagged across the mountain foot. There were no roads here, so I ran through the bushes. Suddenly, I encountered a thorny thicket and couldn't pass. Fortunately, I had a sickle with me, which I used to clear a path. Originally, I had brought the sickle to protect myself from wolves, but it came in handy now.

There were many ravines around the mountain foot. Although they weren't wide, they were very deep. It would take half a day to hear an echo after dropping a stone into one of them. It was probably left by a cliff during an earthquake. I took a few steps back and then jumped over with all my might. Several times, I was only an inch away from falling off the cliff, and I looked back at the deep and unfathomable cliff, scared out of my wits.

At the foot of the mountain there was a river, the water of which flowed down from the top of the mountain, very clear and very cool. After I went down, my legs and stomach felt like cramping. When I crossed the river, I was delayed for a long time because the water was too strong and I was thrown down several times by the water. Fortunately, I grabbed the branches extending from the shore and was not washed down to the waterfall.

Finally, when I arrived at the other side of the mountain and stood on the mountain path, I suddenly saw a carriage passing by. I stretched out my arm and shouted loudly to make them stop. I saw a head pop out of the carriage, but not only did it not stop, but after a crisp sound of the whip, the carriage ran faster.

Strange, why didn't the carriage stop when I saw me, why did it run faster?

Going down the mountain is still a mountain path, which is much longer than the other side. I ran along the ridge and finally ran to the path and stopped in front of the carriage.

The carriage came and stopped, two people got off the carriage, holding something like a wooden stick and walked towards me angrily. I was nervous and scared, I didn't understand why a child would stop their car and why they would make such a big fuss.

One of them pointed a stick at me and asked, "What are you doing? Why did you stop the car?" The other one was looking around me.

I was not afraid when I was chasing them, but now seeing them like this, I was scared. What did I do to them that made them so aggressive towards me?

I said pitifully, "Take me with you, I can do anything."

The one who asked me the question poked my chin with the stick and said, "How many people are there with you?" The one who was looking around me was still looking around. They were like facing a great enemy.

I said, "There's only one person with me."

The one with the stick said, "If you dare to lie, I'll break your neck first." The one who was looking around me said, "There's no one else, just him."

The one with the stick changed his face and asked me calmly, "Why do you want to go with us?"

I said, "If I don't go, my parents will beat me to death."

The one with the stick laughed. They ignored me and sat on the cart, one each side. The one who had been silent had a long whip in his hand. With a crack, the cart started running again.

I stood in the increasingly dark sky and watched the cart getting further away, feeling panic in my heart and not knowing what to do. Then I thought, I have come this far, no matter if it was a ditch or a cliff, I had to jump down, so I started running after the cart.