After suffering from hunger, so much food fell from the sky. From top to bottom, the Li family seemed to have forgotten their fatigue, and everyone was full of energy. The children worked until midnight and did not go to bed until all the food they had brought back was put away.
Thinking that the three elders in the family would have to go out to collect food tomorrow, Guihua got up before dawn and made a pot of pancakes, steamed a pot of potatoes, fried two eggs and fried a bowl of fragrant egg sauce.
Mrs. Li got up smelling the aroma and went to the kitchen. A look of distress appeared on her face: "It's not good to make raw sauce. Why use eggs to fry the sauce? If we eat the eggs, what will Zhen Zhen eat during the day?"
Osmanthus hurriedly smiled and said: "Yesterday, three more hens laid eggs, and a total of five eggs were found. My sister's eggs are indispensable. I think that my parents and milk are very tired when they go out to work, so I need to eat some egg sauce to replenish my body. body."
After hearing this, Mrs. Li couldn't help but smile a little on her face: "We are all very old. We can't eat anything. You should eat something good." After taking a puff from her cigarette bag, Mrs. Li told Osmanthus again: "Today we can just let the four brothers do the peeling of corns. You should keep an eye on Zhen Zhen in the house and don't let her bump into her."
Thinking of the half basket of wild fruits she brought back yesterday, Mrs. Li took a basin and put it all back. She scooped half a basin of water from the water tank and rinsed it. When Osmanthus stood up and saw the watery fruits inside, she was very surprised: " Where did you pick it? It looked half-cooked when I went to pick it yesterday.
Mrs. Li said without changing her face: "The driver of the big truck brought it here from Liao Province. It is warmer there than ours and the fruits ripen earlier." This wild fruit is grown in the mountains and some ripen early. It's late. Even now, when I go to the mountains, I can occasionally pick a few fruits that are starting to turn sweet, so I don't care about the sweet-scented osmanthus. Mrs. Li put the washed fruit in a small basin and told the sweet-scented osmanthus: "Zhen Zhen has teeth. Use this fruit to grind her teeth and let her taste it in her mouth. There is not much in total, so don't worry." Ming Nan and Ming Bei saw it, these two guys are so greedy."
Osmanthus smiled and said: "I will stuff some corns into the pit and roast them for them to eat. They like to eat that."
Mrs. Li nodded: "I told them that I would only eat this once, and the rest would have to be grinded into corn flour, so we can't waste it like that. By the way, the driver also brought a few large pine cones. I'm watching. It’s bigger than the pine cone on our mountain. In the morning, you went out to pack some sand and came back, fried the pine nuts, peeled out the kernels and crushed them, and put them on top when steaming chicken cakes for Zhen Zhen.”
Guihua responded, and quickly took off the pasted cakes one by one and put them in the basket. The grandfather and grandson were talking when Li Muwu came back from outside and brought back a small half pot of loach stewed in soy sauce.
"Where did it come from?" Mrs. Li couldn't help but ask after smelling the fragrance.
"Musen brought it to me. His family, Guangzi, went to fetch a basin late yesterday and came back. This is for our family." Li Muwu put down the basin and drank half a bowl of water in one breath: "I brought the food to Musen in the morning. He didn’t want it at first, but I told him that my mother had saved a lot and we had enough food at home, so he didn’t give it away anymore.”
Mrs. Li nodded: "I will send some food to them after a while. The two of them are busy going up the mountain and have no time to visit." After speaking, Mrs. Li asked Osmanthus fragrans: "When you are at home during the day Also lock the door. If anyone comes to visit, pretend you're not at home. Don't let others see the food we're drying." Osmanthus agreed and put the cornstarch paste in a big basin.
Seeing that the meal was ready, Mrs. Li took the fly slinger and knocked on all the items in the house. Wang Sufen had already tidied up quickly and fed Zhen Zhen milk.
The whole family had to do strenuous work today, so they cooked a sincere breakfast. In addition, looking at the food all over the yard, they felt confident, and everyone felt full after eating. After having a full meal, Li Muwu drove Old Mrs. Li and Wang Sufen to the mountains to collect grain.
Although this red pine mountain has towering trees, clusters of mushrooms, and wild vegetables everywhere, it is not a good place for growing crops. But Beicha is a forest area, surrounded by mountains. There are many seasonal crops on the east and west sides of my courtyard. If I grow food, I don't have that much space.
The mountain is blocked by trees and is cold and humid. In previous years, the harvest was mediocre, but this year, seven or eight corns can grow on a single stalk, and all of them are huge and plump. The heavy ears of sorghum are bending down with the stalks. The cabbage inside was so close to each other that it was almost impossible to get rid of it.
Li Muwu was the only one transporting so many crops down the mountain. The three of them worked together for seven or eight days before everything was collected in the field. The cellar was full of cabbage and potatoes, and the rest were placed in a few empty rooms at the back. The peeled cornstarch was placed on the flat ground in the backyard, one by one, filling the entire small courtyard.
After using the carriage for so many days, it was time to send it back. Mrs. Li opened the box and took out a pile of cents, counted out the agreed rent, and packed three kilograms of sweet potato noodles for Li Muwu to deliver.
Nowadays, money is not the most important thing, and food is the most scarce thing. The wife of the family who borrowed the carriage was so happy when she saw the sweet potato noodles that she even stopped counting the money: "Well, brother Muwu, next time you want to use the carriage, you have to come from my house." Borrow it!”
Li Muwu smiled and nodded. He put down his things and didn't say much, thinking that he had to take a good rest during the two-day holiday.
After working for so many days in a row, the whole family didn't feel tired until they lay down on the kang and took a nap. Mrs. Li was digging wild vegetables and mushrooms at the foot of the mountain without seeing the sky. I relaxed my feet, my legs and feet were a little swollen. Li Muwu's usual job in the grain store is to carry sacks. Except for his sore legs, everything else is fine. The most tiring person was Wang Sufen. She was digging potatoes, harvesting soybeans, and pulling cabbage. She was bending over and exerting herself like this from morning to night. When Wang Sufen was lying on the kang, she suddenly felt that this waist no longer belonged to her. After breakfast, she lay on the kang and fell asleep.
Zhen Zhen knew that Wang Sufen was tired these days, so she quietly sat on the kang and ate. The sour and sweet mountain grapes made her couldn't help but squint her eyes. Wang Sufen took a nap, turned over and saw that her daughter was still eating. She couldn't help but sit up and touch her belly: "Don't eat too much, your stomach will hurt."
Zhen Zhen smiled and picked up a blueberry and raised it to Wang Sufen's mouth: "Mom, eat it!"
Wang Sufen was so excited that she quickly held Zhen Zhen in her arms and kissed her for a few times, her face burst into laughter: "My good girl, my mother won't eat it, so I'll keep it all for you."
Zhen Zhen insisted and put it in Wang Sufen's mouth: "Eat!"
Wang Sufen looked at Zhen Zhen's serious face, then ate the blueberry, and touched the soft black hair on Zhen Zhen's head with satisfaction: "Our Zhen Zhen is so smart, she has learned to speak in just a few days."
Zhen Zhen naturally knew how to speak a long time ago, but her family had been busy looking for food in the mountains, and those at home had to take care of the children and clean up the house at the same time, so no one had time to teach her how to speak. In the past two days, when Guihua took Zhenzhen with her, she casually taught her how to speak. Zhenzhen pretended to have a big tongue, and after a few days of learning, she started to speak every word.
Wang Sufen didn't know these twists and turns, she just thought her daughter was extra smart. She took advantage of these two days to rest, so she leaned half on the folded quilt and coaxed her to learn to talk.
Mother and daughter, one teaching and the other learning, laughed loudly from time to time. Old Mrs. Li was lying in the next room and was feeling bored. When she heard the excitement next door, she got off the fire bed and came over to watch the excitement.
As soon as the door opened, Zhen Zhen looked up and saw the person who came in. Her big eyes immediately smiled like a crescent moon: "Brothers!"
"Oh, what a treasure!" Mrs. Li came over and sat cross-legged on the kang next to Zhen Zhen. She looked at the fruit that was still mostly left on one side and couldn't help but ask, "How come you can't eat enough but don't get any less?"
Wang Sufen said nonchalantly: "She can chew one fruit for half a day, and with such a small belly, she can't eat much." Zhen Zhen touched her nose guiltily and glanced at the ground, where she could vaguely see a few small ones. Green seedlings.
Nowadays, in the Beicha area, every house has a wooden structure and is covered with thick mud. The ground inside the house is no different from the yard outside. Usually, you just sprinkle some water on the ground to suppress the dust and it will be fine. It's common for grass to sprout.
After teasing her granddaughter for a while, Mrs. Li chatted with Wang Sufen about household matters: "This year our family harvested grain in advance, and the harvest is quite good. Once the corn is dried and ground, it will be able to survive the winter."
Wang Sufen still feels a little sad when she thinks of the heavy snow in the mountains in winter: "It's not easy to live in summer now. Even if there is no food at home, I can survive on mushrooms and wild vegetables picked in the mountains. Although I can't eat enough, I can't starve to death." , When the weather gets cold in two months, and the vegetables and mushrooms on the mountains are gone, how will those families without food survive? "
Mrs. Li couldn't help but sigh: "Didn't we dry out some mushrooms? Besides, there are some crops in the ground. Although the drought doesn't make them grow very well, they can still survive the whole winter. Maybe we can wait until next year. That’s good. I heard from Dongzi that our Heilongjiang province has been experiencing a severe drought for the past two years. We don’t have much farmland in the mountains, so those places that rely on farming to make a living are almost losing their harvests.”
After hearing this, Wang Sufen quickly put on her shoes and got down to the ground to go out: "I have to tell Osmanthus fragrans to make less dry food now that I'm not working. I guess I won't be able to count on the food supply this year."
Zhenzhen has been here for seven months, and she has roughly figured out the year. In 1961, Zhen Zhen put down the fruit in her hand, climbed to the window sill, and stuck her head out to look out the window.
The open space between the front and back houses is densely covered with corns, and a field of sweet potato seedlings can be seen on both sides of the house. This is a favorite crop of the Becha people. Although the ground flour is not delicious, it is very resistant to hunger. , every household has planted a lot in front of and behind the house.
"We should do something. Although it can't be as shocking as what we did in the mountains, it should be fine if we do some small actions in private. I just don't know how many crops I can control." Zhen Zhen's little face showed a thoughtful look that did not match her age. , Zhen Zhen thought about it for a while, then climbed down from the window sill, lay down on her small mattress and closed her eyes.
"Are you getting sleepy?" Mrs. Li was so happy that she picked up the thin sheet next to her and covered Zhen Zhen's body: "Haobao, go to sleep now." Zhen Zhen closed her eyes, but her consciousness extended outward along the earth. Go further…