Every winter, my mother would have problems with bronchitis. As the family was poor, my mother was reluctant to spend money on medicine. Thus, she suffered every winter and her condition worsened. At the sight of her painful wheezing, my younger brothers, younger sisters,and I felt very upset. I thought to myself: "Since there are so many orange peels in the school factory, why not bring some home for my mother?"
That same day, I secretly pocketed several slices of dried orange peels. From then on, every time I did volunteer work, I would do this same thing.
My mother drank water mixed with dried orange peels for a while, and her moments of violent wheezing were significantly reduced, which brought me joy beyond description. Naturally, my mother asked me where I got the dried orange peels. I lied, telling her that the school factory's master sent them to me. My mother stroked my head and expressed her relief with a smile.
However, due to an unexpected denunciation by a classmate, I became a thief.
That was a special time. No matter what you stole,even an eraser or half a pencil, any connection to the word "steal" was enough to leave permanent shame on a child,enough for a child to permanently lose his self-esteem.
On the school playground, I was forced to admit that I had stolen orange peels several times and that I was a thief.These admissions were made in public, in front of the entire school. After that, I had no friends at school and was not a student in the eyes of the teachers. I was in terrible isolation.Fearing that she would grieve for me, I didn't dare tell my mother what happened or about my plight at school.
Throughout this ordeal, our lean, stern, and middleaged teacher, who wore myopic glasses, was on maternity leave. During the first lesson after her return from leave, she sensed my unusual situation. After school, she called me to a secluded place instead of the faculty room, where she asked me what disgraceful thing I had done.
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