country bumpkin

At the No. 1 Primary School on Yuhua Street in Yicheng, the school bell rang, and the first-grade students pushed and shoved each other into the classroom.

The teacher walked into the classroom, and the class monitor stood up and led the way by shouting, "Stand up, hello teacher!" The students followed suit.

The teacher replied, "Hello, students!"

Squad leader: "Sit down."

After the class commencement ceremony, the teachers and students began reading the report cards.

Whenever someone's name is called, that person is asked to come to the podium to collect their test paper.

"Teacher Huang Zhongxiang!" he called out, then looked at the students below. Huang Zhongxiang stood up and walked to the podium, shouting, "100 points!"

Huang Zhongxiang received the test paper with a broad smile, and the teacher led the applause. The students below also applauded to congratulate him on his excellent results.

"Shang Yanqiu got 100 points, Fu Ziling got 100 points, Ding Yuhui got 100 points..." They all came up to receive their papers.

The teacher also led the applause to congratulate them on their excellent results. Out of 60 students in the class, 20 got full marks, and the teacher was all smiles.

When the teacher received the last few failing grades, his expression immediately changed, as unpredictable as the weather in June.

"Sun Fei 57, Qi Feiyun 58, Wang Guoqiang 49, Guo Jingyi 53, Sun Yunya 59, all of you, stand on the podium!" the teacher scolded the five of them fiercely.

Several students stood on the platform in turn, heads down, not daring to look at the teacher's face. From the teacher's voice, it was clear that he was very angry.

This is math teacher Pan Guojiao. His students nicknamed him "Bound Foot Cloth" because his face was long and smelly, like a bound foot cloth, and he almost always had a droopy face, as if everyone owed him money.

The children were also afraid of this teacher. He had a dark, square face, large, glaring eyes like copper bells, a big nose, and a big mouth.

He is about 1.65 meters tall, which is not considered a normal height for a man.

Most importantly, he has a bad temper, and anyone who crosses him will definitely suffer the consequences.

When he gets angry, he doesn't care if you're a 6 or 7-year-old child; he'll just beat you until you're done. As long as he doesn't kill you, he'll beat you to death.

I remember once a boy got a perfect score of 10 on a math test. But he got a good beating.

Pan Guo was furious and dared to hit the boy with a thick water-carrying stick. With one blow, the stick broke in two.

But it terrified the entire class; they didn't even dare to breathe loudly. The classroom was completely silent.

The boy fell straight down. Pan Guojiao was also frightened; he was afraid that, by some chance, the boy might have been killed—it was a stick as thick as a baby's arm, smashed right onto his head.

The boy was taken to the hospital. Pan Guojiao visited him at the hospital, paid some medical expenses to his family, and that was the end of it.

The principal also protected the teacher, and the child's parents didn't understand the law. So, with pressure from above, the bad guy was let off the hook.

In the past, families often had many children, sometimes several. In particular, some families had a strong preference for sons over daughters, and even after having three daughters, they would still have more children until they had a son.

Being a teacher was a prestigious profession in those days, and having a teacher in the family was a source of great pride.

Now that school fees and textbooks are required, parents cherish this learning opportunity and dare not offend teachers. This has led to the development of many spoiled, arrogant, and smug "teachers."

After that incident, he changed his "tool of the crime." He switched to a small bamboo pole.

The bamboo stick was about the thickness of an index finger, and it was quite long. When it hit a child's palm, it would leave red welts all over the hand. Some children with delicate skin would even develop blisters on the wounds. It looked quite pitiful.

The five children who did poorly on the test were beaten with bamboo poles. They were all hit on the scalp.

The children cried and shouted, "Teacher... I was wrong, I was wrong..." They didn't even dare to sob.

Yun Ya felt a burning pain on her head. She dared not scream or sob, but silently endured it, tears streaming down her face.

The other children also had red eyes, and tears were streaming down their faces.

Perhaps they had never been beaten like this at home. But they dared not tell their parents because their parents approved of teachers physically punishing students for poor academic performance.

The parents believed that "spare the rod and spoil the child," and that their children would improve in both character and academic performance after being beaten.

Little did they know that learning also depends on talent; some people can memorize everything in one go while playing.

Some people study and memorize day and night, yet only remember a small part. That's the difference in talent.

Parents only care about the grades they want to see, and don't care about the abuse their children have suffered.

Sun Fei wasn't in much better shape; her face, contorted with pain, trembled slightly.

After venting his emotions, Pan Guojiao returned to the podium and began to go over the test paper.

The five children who had been beaten badly stood at the very back of the classroom, ignored by everyone.

When the bell rang and Pan Guojiao walked out of the classroom, the children's tense emotions finally relaxed.

When Yunya got home from school, she didn't dare tell her mother that she had been hit by the teacher at school. She was afraid that her mother would think she was useless.

Sun Fei's mother was very concerned about her daughter; the child looked unwell when she came home from school. Yu Huimin asked her daughter what was wrong.

Sun Fei told her mother about being beaten. Yu Huimin pulled her daughter over, parted her hair, and saw that her scalp was covered in large bumps.

The bumps were large, red, and looked very painful. Yu Huimin felt extremely distressed and quickly found some purple-blue disinfectant to disinfect them, then applied some medicine.

She said angrily, "Tomorrow I'm going to the school to find you, the teacher. Who hits someone on the head? If you beat them so badly they become mentally disabled, they'll have to support them for life."

Seeing how much her mother cared about her, Sun Fei felt less sad. She looked at her mother and said, "Mom, I'm okay now, it doesn't hurt as much."

Yu Huimin asked, "Were any other children beaten?"

Sun Fei nodded: "Yes, there are five other classmates, including Yun Ya."

Yu Huimin said, "Was Yunya also beaten? Then I need to bring her some medicine. I guess her family doesn't have any medicine for external injuries."

After Yu Huimin finished speaking, she went to the house across the street. As soon as she entered the courtyard, she called out, "Auntie, is Yunya home?"

When Kong Xiujuan saw that it was Yu Huimin, she asked, "Feifei's mom, what's wrong?"

Yu Huimin said, "Feifei said the school teachers hit them on the head with bamboo poles. Feifei has already applied the medicine. I came to see if Yunya has applied the medicine yet. I've brought the medicine with me."

After saying that, she showed the bottle in her hand to Kong Xiujuan. Kong Xiujuan, of course, had no idea that Yunya had been beaten.

She went inside and called Yunya, who was doing her homework, over, asking, "Did you get beaten up at school today? Why didn't you tell me?"

Yunya lowered her head, not daring to look at her, and stammered, "Yes, I was beaten."

Kong Xiujuan thought it was nothing serious and looked at Yu Huimin. She said, "It's nothing serious. Isn't it normal for students to get beaten by teachers for not studying properly? They won't amount to anything without being beaten."

Yu Huimin frowned and said, "What do you know? Go to the top of Yunya's head and see for yourself. The wound is very serious. I'm not lying to you. Feifei has the same wound."

Kong Xiujuan slowly walked over to Yun Ya's side and looked up. It was covered in large, red, swollen bumps and blisters.