Integrity

When I was in primary school, I used to score 100 marks for my Chinese and English spelling. However sometime in primary four, I recall I started making mistakes for my spelling and I came home with grades of 95/100. I was afraid that my aunt - who was my legal guardian in my parents' absence - would punish me for not getting full marks, so I forged her signature and signed on the spelling books and submitted it to the teacher. The teacher did not detect the forgery, but after several weeks my aunt started to smell something wrong when I did not ask her to sign my spelling books, so she asked me for it. That was when she discovered that I had forged her signature, and she erupted like a volcano and tore my spelling books and severely punished me for it. I knelt before the Earth God altar that we had, and she refused to forgive me for the transgression, and I worried my guts out because I did not know what to do now that my spelling books were torn into pieces.

Fast forward by a few years, I was in secondary school in class 1/1. Due to my subpar performance, I was relegated to class 2/2 after a lacklustre stint in the school. I was required to get my report book signed, but my aunt refused to sign it because I failed to stay on in the top class. Together with my illiterate grandmother, we went to another relative for help and asked her to help sign my report book. Even though the other relative obliged, we went back and my aunt was incensed when she realised what we had done. This time, she tore my report book.

As I grew up, both were highly memorable points in my life because ever since then I did not dare to forge any signature even if were at the expense of my life, and I also dare not ask another person to countersign any document when the original signatory person was unavailable. I learned things the hard way since I was a child, and I dissuade anybody else from such malpractices.