Page 203 - updated on July

Yu Jihui: “A Stinking Old Ninth – A Tale of the Coal Capital” (updated on July 2020)

like Squint would call me a hoodlum to my face.

Most others criticised me behind my back. Girls

would feel disgraced to greet me. With this historical

blemish, even if I took a fancy to a certain girl, I

dared not run after her.

Secondly, I once hit a fellow teacher. He was my

comrade and yet I had beaten him. I had hurt his

dignity. I had wounded him. I was taken as a rude

and reckless man. I was taken as a bellicose man. I

tried my utmost to speak for myself. I explained

myself many times, but nobody trusted me. In China,

at that time, domestic violence was a common

occurrence, especially among the coal workers. They

would beat their wives to give vent to their anger.

Women had become the coal workers’ punching bags.

They were rude and reckless. Girls hated to marry

those men. They would be careful to choose their

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