Sowing Discord

Children were always so carefree. After dinner, while the sky was still bright, children from four to eight years old ran about in tank tops and shorts, slippers and sandals, their little feet black with grime. It was not that they did not wash their feet—they simply could not keep them clean. The roads outside the hutong were still dirt roads, and the dust kicked up while running mixed with their sweat, dirtying their feet again.

One child faced the wall, his hands folded against it, his head pressed to his arms as he stared at the ground beneath his feet. Every so often, he shifted his body as if uncomfortable and furtively checked both sides. At the same time, he loudly counted from one to one hundred.

The other little brats bolted off with a thump-thump-thump, hiding all over this not particularly long hutong. Some even scrambled onto the rooftops, sending chickens and dogs into a frenzy. A few also warned the boy counting not to peek, or they would make him count again next round.

One look at the scene and it was clear they were playing the ancient game passed down for thousands of years: hide-and-seek.

Once the boy counting finally struggled his way to one hundred, he ran off with a thump-thump-thump. Before long, bursts of laughter rang out. The children who had been found even puckered their lips and made meaningful eyes toward the others' hiding places, hoping that with this help, they would not be the first ones caught in the next round. Even at such a young age, they already knew how to break the rules...

Children had children's games, and adults had adults' pleasures. On summer evenings like this, people generally did not stay cooped up at home. Most lingered outside.

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