Chapter 5

"Don't bully Maomao anymore." In fact, I have been watching Zhang Song's every move these days. He has become less annoying, but I still want to remind him.

Zhang Song didn't say anything, lowered his head, not daring to look at me, and just nodded.

"Would you like to go with us to watch the acrobatics at Xiaogangzi tomorrow?" I said to him.

When Zhang Song heard what I said, he looked at me with surprise and said, "Me?"

"yes."

He nodded continuously, then scratched the back of his head with his hand, with a silly smile on his face.

I couldn't help laughing when I saw his expression: "Then tomorrow after school, Maomao, the three of us will go together."

"Hmm!" he said heavily.

After saying that, he ran out happily.

The waiting time always seemed so long. Even though it was only one day, it felt like a year. I was so focused on tomorrow's acrobatics that I didn't even notice what the teacher was saying on the blackboard.

After school finally ended, Maomao stayed behind to play with me, as usual. Zhang Song stayed with us the whole time. Maomao was reluctant at first, but with my help, he gradually came to accept him.

Finally, we agreed to meet at the school gate after school tomorrow and talk to our families tonight. After the discussion, the two of them went home. I didn't have much to do, so I went home too.

At night, I tossed and turned, unable to sleep. The chirping of crickets in the grass outside sounded particularly real.

I don't know when I finally fell asleep. I dreamed I was lying on a cold stone pile, unable to move no matter how hard I struggled. Although it was dark, I could see everything around me clearly.

With a "bang", the surrounding torches were instantly ignited, and the rising flames made crackling sounds, illuminating the dark night.

I found I could move, so I stepped down from the stone pile and observed my surroundings. Flames were blazing all around me. I was on a huge stone platform, and strangely, there was no one else there except me.

I tiptoed to the edge of the stone platform, my footsteps sounding particularly clear in the open air. I found some steps leading down ahead, so I walked down them.

There were torches on either side of the steps, lighting them one by one as I walked. The steps were long, indicating that the stone platform was very high. It took about two minutes to see the end.

As I walked down the stairs, the dream ended.

A very strange dream.

When I woke up, Grandpa had already prepared dinner. I asked him if I wanted to go to the circus tonight. Grandpa shook his head and told me not to play too late and to come back early. When I was about to leave, he gave me fifty cents.

I ran to school excitedly holding the five-cent coin.

Today's class was so difficult that I don't know how I managed to wait until school was over.

Maomao, Zhang Song, I, and I gathered at the school gate. A few other classmates also went to Xiaogangzi, but they always avoided me, and I didn't want to talk to them.

The three of us walked towards Xiaogangzi in high spirits.

Xiaogangzi is not particularly far from our village. It takes about half an hour to walk there if you walk slowly, and twenty minutes if you walk fast.

Walking west from our village, there is a bridge not far away. It is about 50 meters long and we call it Chunhe Bridge. Under the bridge is the Chunhe River. The water flow is not strong or fast, and it flows quietly beside our village.

After crossing the bridge, the north side of the road is full of rolling hills, and the south side is a farmland with a large field of corn.

After walking for about five minutes, you will reach Xigoukou, but Maomao never takes this road to school because it is too far compared to the mountain road.

After passing Xigou, the road begins to drop to the south, gradually rising above the farmland. Continue straight ahead until you reach a bend to the north. Here, on the south side of the road, the drop reaches its highest point, about twenty meters.

Under the road is a river that fills with water every summer and dries up in winter. Not far south of the river are three households called Niujiawan. If you continue south along the Niujiawan road, you can also reach Xiagou, where Zhang Song lives.

We continued westward along the road for about ten minutes before coming across a small village with a dozen or so households. This place was called Xibeishan. The elevation south of the road began to decrease until we reached Xiaogangzi, where the crops on the south side of the road gave way to a poplar forest.

We talked and laughed along the way and were very excited, so we didn't feel tired.

When we arrived at Xiaogangzi, the sun had just set, but the threshing ground was already crowded with people who had come to watch the fun.

The three of us squeezed in and finally made it to the front.

A dark-skinned young man began to warm up the crowd with the sound of gongs. After his opening remarks, the acrobatics officially began.

The three gasoline lamps set up in the threshing floor lit up at the same time, illuminating the threshing floor brightly.

Four young men in coarse shorts held up a bamboo pole, and the first thing they did was to cross the bridge with a unicycle.

A sister, with a bowl on her head, rode a unicycle up the slope of earth that had been prepared beforehand, and then rode on the bamboo pole. The four boys below held the bamboo pole steadily, and the sister rode towards the other end.

When she reached the middle of the unicycle, the troupe leader would toss a bowl over her head. The sister would catch it steadily with her head. We would clap excitedly every time she caught it. After catching about seven or eight, she would ride her unicycle through the bamboo poles and then hold up the gong to ask for a reward.

Those who like it will take out a dime and throw it into the bowl, and those who don’t like it will move on to the next one.

When she rode in front of us, I felt in my pocket and found the fifty cents that my grandfather gave me.

I threw it into her bowl reluctantly.

When I was a child, fifty cents was considered a huge sum of money, and a popsicle was only twenty cents.

The sister probably saw that I was young, so she smiled at me, took out the fifty cents I threw in, and put it in my hand.

I put it away embarrassedly and smiled at her.

She took out two more candies from her pocket and gave them to me. She ruffled my hair and said, "Eat it."

Then she rode away.

When Zhang Song and Maomao saw that she gave me candy, they stared at me without blinking. Candy was a fatal temptation for us kids.

I wanted to eat some candies too, but I gave them the candies in the end because friends are far more precious to me than those two candies.

After getting the candies, they quickly peeled off the candy wrappers and put them in their mouths.

Next was a fire-breathing performance. I don't know what the man drank, but he blew at the torch, and flames shot out of his mouth. Then two men bent an iron rod with their throats, and their faces flushed crimson. Another young man, lying on a board covered in nails, performed a stone-breaking performance. When the hammer came down, my heart leaped.

These acrobatics may not seem interesting now, but they were very novel to us at that time.

After that, there were high-wire walkers, monkey shows, etc. After each performance, the sister would ride a unicycle around and ask for money, but she never asked me for money, so the three of us watched the whole show for free.

Even after the acrobatic show was over, we were still not satisfied.

It was already very dark at this time, so we sent Zhang Song home first. Xiaogangzi was very close to Xiagou. There was a small road in the southeast, and it took about ten minutes to walk there.

After seeing him off, Maomao and I started walking back. Although the moon was hanging in the sky, it was hazy and I could only barely see the road clearly.

When I passed by the reservoir on my way back, I looked at the water surface with lingering fear. The wide water surface was pitch black and extremely calm.