A Promising Youth novel Chapter 1

When I was very young, my parents argued every day about trivial things, but the arguments always led to angry looks, pot-busting and even big fights.

My father also loved to drink and beat me when he was drunk, for no reason.

My mother tried to stop him a few times, but then she became so afraid of being beaten by my father that she became numb to it, and it was rightly treated as a family affair.

At that time, I was really scared, especially when it was thundering and raining, I even wrapped myself in the blanket and went to sleep under the bed.

In the countryside, there were especially many ghost and god cults. The old people spread that thunder was from heaven to split the little ghost, who loved to hide in children's houses and took the disobedient children to the eighteen levels of hell.

I didn't think I was an obedient child, otherwise how could my father beat me every day?

So since childhood, I have been particularly timid and sensitive, living every day with trepidation and afraid to come into contact with anyone.

I had an elder brother, a year older than me, but our personalities and treatment from our parents were different.

My brother was a smooth talker, very good at making my parents happy. He was never scolded but had the best food and best clothes. He bullied me but he was uneducated.

If we didn't look like brothers, I would suspect that I was adopted by my parents.

It wasn't until I went to high school and lived in the school that my life got a little better.

Although I was ignored by my classmates because of my personality, I remained particularly content that at least I didn't have to be beaten every day and live in extreme fear.

During high school, all the students complained that the holidays were too short and that they only had one day off a month.

I was the only one who felt that a day off was too long, because I was too afraid to go home that depressed and terrified me.

So every time I was on vacation, I dawdled home late into the night. And early the next morning, I rushed to my mother to get my living expenses, fled for my life, got on a bus and left the village.

Our family was not rich. Even when I was in the county, I would not go to Internet cafes, play billiards, or visit supermarkets like other students. Later I found a Xinhua bookstore in which I could read many extracurricular books for free.

That became my happiest time of the month, for it was only by immersing myself in books that I could find myself, my faint sense of existence in this world.

In the bookstore, I often ran into a pretty girl, who looked like a city girl, dressed especially fashionable, tall, fair-skinned and smelling good.

We didn't talk, but we often sat and read together. She brought me fries, and that was the first time in my life, I had a snack.

Carefully eating one, I licked my fingers and she laughed her head off.

Then I came across a book about “family of origin”.

At the time I couldn't stop the tears while I was reading it, because I felt like it was talking about me, and every word stuck to my heart!