Zhenzhen fell directly to the ground about ten meters away and landed on a big rock. Fortunately, Zhenzhen came out of the soul, otherwise she would have been bleeding. She touched her head in fear and sat up on the rock, thinking about walking around the farmhouse here and taking a look at the mountain.
Zhenzhen's consciousness had just taken a few steps when suddenly the surrounding soil trembled slightly, as if it wanted to tell something. Zhenzhen stopped, closed her eyes and merged her consciousness with the soil. After a moment, she opened her eyes in surprise and turned around to look at the stone that had just caught her.
It was pitch black underground, and she couldn't see anything with her eyes. Zhenzhen used her consciousness to wrap around the stone and carefully studied its color, size, and texture. She saw that the stone was as big as a watermelon, with a strange shape and a golden color. Almost instantly, Zhenzhen guessed what it was: gold nuggets.
Gold nuggets are mostly found near gold mines. Zhenzhen rarely puts her consciousness underground except to increase crop yields. She suddenly realized that there might be more resources and treasures under the Yidong forest than on the mountain. After leaving the gold nuggets, Zhenzhen felt the guidance of the earth and found a gold mine about two or three miles away.
Zhenzhen did not go deeper, firstly because she was too young to do anything even if she found a gold mine, and secondly because she had to wait until the ten-year catastrophe was over before she could start mining. Slowly floating up from the ground, Zhenzhen walked back and increased the income of crops on both sides. When her consciousness returned to her body, Wang Sufen's sister-in-law He Dongmei had already prepared the dishes and set up a kang table on the kang in the south of the east room. Wang Sufen's parents and eldest brother accompanied the old lady Li's family for dinner, and He Dongmei took the children to eat in the west room.
As soon as everyone sat down, Zhenzhen also turned over and sat up. Old Lady Li quickly put down the wine glass she had just picked up, got off the kang, put on her shoes, and went to the north kang opposite. She hugged Zhenzhen in her arms: "Baby, are you awake? Are you hungry?"
Zhenzhen rubbed her eyes and yawned. Her bright eyes seemed to be misty. Old Mrs. Li quickly carried her off the kang and walked around the room twice. Seeing that Zhenzhen looked more energetic, she carried her to the table and sat down.
Seeing how Old Lady Li held Zhen Zhen in her hands, Old Man Wang couldn't help but say, "Mother-in-law, you love your child so much. Let Su Fen hold her. You can eat your food quickly."
Old Mrs. Li waved her hands and said, "Our Zhenzhen is not very energetic right now. I will hold her for a while. When she wants to eat, Sufen will feed her. My dear relatives, I am not afraid of you laughing at me, but since my granddaughter was born, I have been inseparable from her. I miss her terribly when I am away from her for a while. I went up the mountain to work a while ago, and I really couldn't leave Zhenzhen at home for her sister-in-law to look after. I felt like I had lost my soul that day in the mountain."
Old Man Wang looked at his granddaughter. She was indeed very tender and fair-skinned, and very lovable. However, he could not imagine that this person loved his granddaughter more than his grandson. However, as a family, they lived in the same way. Old Man Wang was puzzled, but he did not dare to ask any more questions. However, he did not look down on Zhenzhen as he did before. He thought that he had only sent some eggs when the child was born, and had not visited her for a while. This was the first time she came home, so he had to give her a red envelope. Otherwise, considering how much the mother-in-law doted on the child, she might be unhappy.
Zhenzhen leaned against Mrs. Li for a while, then reached for the spoon to eat. Wang Sufen quickly took her over and scooped the mushy rice porridge for her to eat. Zhenzhen's little teeth were fine for chewing soft and juicy wild fruits, but she couldn't chew vegetables. Wang Sufen could only pick up a piece of potato and crush it with a spoon to feed her a little bit.
Old Lady Li took a sip of wine, picked up a piece of braised pork and put it in her mouth. Not only was the taste rich and juicy, but it was also very soft and fragrant. Old Lady Li praised it again and again: "Your eldest daughter-in-law's braised pork is very fragrant. We usually stew it at home, but it never tastes as good as this."
Old Lady Wang said quickly, "My eldest daughter-in-law's father was a butcher before liberation. His other cooking was average, but his pork tasted the best, especially his blood sausage. It's a pity that the harvest is bad now, and wild vegetables alone cannot fatten the pigs, and they are reluctant to feed them sweet potatoes. I haven't eaten his blood sausage for several years."
Old Mrs. Li sighed: "I see that the rain has been more frequent in the past two months than in the past two years. I just hope that next year will be better."
Zhenzhen listened to the gossips of her family members and quickly drank half a bowl of porridge. Although her stomach was full, Zhenzhen's mouth was not willing to be idle. She reached out and took a cucumber from the basket of wild vegetables next to her and put it in her mouth and chewed it hard. She was able to bite off bits and pieces. Zhenzhen had eaten a lot of cucumbers in her previous life, but this was the first time she had eaten such a fragrant and delicious cucumber. She always heard the old people say that cucumbers now don't taste like cucumbers, and she didn't understand it. Now she finally knows that compared with the pure natural and pollution-free cucumbers now, the cucumbers grown in greenhouses in the future can at most be considered radishes.
He Dongmei ate a piece of pancake with potatoes in the west room and hurried over to see if there was anything she needed to buy. Old Mrs. Li looked at her with a smile and said, "Daughter-in-law, you don't have to worry. These dishes are already quite a lot. We can't eat much. Can you sit down and eat some more?"
"I'm full, Auntie." He Dongmei said modestly. Seeing that Zhenzhen had already eaten her fill, she reached out to hug her and said, "Sister, I'll take care of the kids for you. You can chat with our parents."
Zhenzhen didn't like sitting here all the time, so she quickly reached out her hand. He Dongmei took the opportunity to hug her in her arms, rocked her and said with a smile, "Zhenzhen is much less troublesome than my stinky ball when he was a child."
Zhenzhen originally thought that having four brothers and one sister-in-law was already a lively enough life, but when she went to the west room, she was shocked to see five boys and three girls. Zhenzhen looked back at He Dongmei in shock, and she really couldn't figure out how this aunt gave birth to so many children.
Eight children gathered around a table on the kang, all with their heads down trying to eat food. He Dongmei sat down on the edge of the kang holding Zhenzhen. Zhenzhen took a look at the table. There was no soup left in the small pot of braised pork and potatoes. Several children were desperately fighting for eggplants. In the past, the Wang family would not use oil when cooking. They would just boil it in water and eat it. Today, because there were distinguished guests, He Dongmei used oil to cook the food.
The five boys ate like wolves, picking up large pieces and stuffing them into their mouths, while the three girls obviously hesitated for a moment, and only one girl, about seven or eight years old, stretched out her chopsticks again, while the remaining two dared only lower their heads to nibble on the biscuits. Even so, He Dongmei did not forget to mutter, "Okay, why eat so much? You can't pull wood to help, just fill your stomach and not starve to death."
Zhenzhen watched them forget to eat cucumbers. Although the Li family was also living in hardship, Zhenzhen ripened the crops in time when they were about to run out of food. She could catch a fish or a rabbit or a pheasant every now and then, so she lived better than most people. Moreover, Mrs. Li treated her better than all her grandchildren combined. Zhenzhen almost forgot that this was an era that favored boys over girls.
The oldest of the three girls was only ten years old, and the youngest was only three years old. They were twins, a boy and a girl, with Chouqiu. When they heard He Dongmei talking, they all ate two bites at the same time, drank the porridge in the bowl, and then came down from the table.
After all, she was her own child. Although He Dongmei felt bad about the food, she didn't say anything more. She stuffed Zhenzhen into the arms of her eldest daughter Chunni and told her: "Take your little sister to the garden to play for a while. I'll go wash some wild vegetables for your grandmother. Be careful not to drop her. She is your aunt's golden nugget."
When Zhenzhen heard the word "gold nugget", she almost choked on the cucumber. She handed the cucumber in her hand to He Dongmei with lingering fear. He Dongmei took the cucumber and went to the kitchen to get a small piece of leftover tomato and stuffed it into her hand.
Chunni carried Zhenzhen, Xia Ni and Qiu Ni to the garden. The Wang family's garden was at the west end of the mud house. They planted crops that could resist hunger, such as corn, eggplant, potato, sweet potato and cabbage. Chunni sat down against the root of the house and looked at the crops in her own field. She also looked enviously through the fence at the bunches of red tomatoes planted by her next-door neighbor.
Qiu Ni put her finger in her mouth and drooled: "I want to eat it!"
Xia Ni sighed, "As if I can give you food if I plant them? By then, they will all be iron balls and stinky balls. Besides, grandma doesn't allow us to plant that stuff, saying it won't satisfy hunger and it wastes space. It seems that the seeds are hard to exchange. I heard that the seeds planted next door were brought by relatives from other places."
Chunni touched Qiuni's hair and said, "That thing doesn't taste good. Wait for another month or so. There will be everything you want on the mountain. I'll pick it for you then."
Zhenzhen looked at the uneaten persimmons in her hand, then looked at her three sisters with yellow faces. She carefully controlled a seed and planted it next to the fence. Under the cover of the eggplant vines, it quickly took root, sprouted, bloomed and bore fruit. In a flash, three red persimmons were hanging on it.
Chunni and the other two were still staring at the fence, but no one noticed the three ripe persimmons under the fence. Zhenzhen had no choice but to control the butterfly to fly over Xiani's head. When Xiani saw the butterfly, she forgot about the persimmons and ran to catch them. In a few steps, she ran into the field. Chunni was so anxious that she kept shouting, "Don't step on the seedlings, or I'll beat you."
Suddenly Xia Ni stopped, she quickly looked back at the yard, and seeing that no one was outside, she quickly peeled off the eggplant vines, picked up the three persimmons that were pressed behind, put them in her clothes pocket, and ran back in a hurry.
Chunni immediately picked up Zhenzhen and dragged Xiani and Qiuni to the back of the room, and asked Xiani quietly, "What's going on? Why are there tomatoes?"
"I don't know either." Xia Ni shared the persimmons with Chun Ni and Qiu Ni while smiling foolishly. She lowered her voice and said, "It's growing behind the eggplant vines. I guess it fell to our side when the neighbors were sowing seeds."
"No way?" Chunni estimated the distance: "Unless it was blown by the wind."
Xia Ni rolled her eyes at her and said, "No matter how it grows, just eat it quickly. If mom sees it, you won't have any left." She took a bite of the one in her hand first. The sweet and sour persimmon juice flowed into her mouth. Xia Ni couldn't help squinting her eyes and said, "It's delicious."
Chunni wiped the persimmon on her clothes twice, and just as she was about to put it to her mouth, she took it back. Xia Ni and Qiu Ni had the persimmon all over their faces. Seeing that Chunni didn't eat, they couldn't help asking her, "Sister, why don't you eat it? Mom will be out soon."
"How about I save it for you two?" Chunni said hesitantly, "Actually, I don't really like eating this stuff."
"Stop it." Xia Ni rolled her eyes at her, snatched Chun Ni's persimmon and stuffed it into her mouth: "Eat it quickly and don't get us into trouble. Are you stupid? You ate it secretly and left a tail. Aren't you asking for a beating?"
After being scolded by her sister, Chunni was not angry but happy. She ate the persimmon in a few bites, and scooped a scoop of water from the bucket prepared for watering the ground at the back. The three of them washed their hands and faces, checked each other's bodies to see if there were any traces, and then they breathed a sigh of relief. At this time, the tomato vine quickly shrank and turned into soil and fell to the ground.
After He Dongmei washed the wild vegetables and brought them into the house, she sent the boys out to play and cleaned up the dishes before she remembered Zhenzhen. She went outside and looked around but didn't see anyone. She hurried into the vegetable garden to look for them and sure enough, she found a few people behind the house.
He took Zhenzhen from Chunni's arms and couldn't help but glared at her: "I told you to play in the yard, but you made me look for you for so long. I thought you had lost the child. I tell you, even if you three were sold together, you wouldn't be worth as much as this girl."
Xia Ni looked at He Dongmei unconvinced and couldn't help asking her, "Are we your children? Why does your aunt love her daughter so much, but you don't love us?"
He Dongmei was so angry that she laughed: "I don't care about you, but I feed you and drink you all day long? Why do you think I raise you, you ungrateful bastards!"
Chunni was so scared that she quickly pulled Xiani, but Xiani shook Chunni's hand off and glared at He Dongmei with an unconvinced look on her face: "Anyway, you know how you treat us. All the delicious food goes to those guys, and all the housework is done by me and my sister."
He Dongmei saw that she was yelling too loudly, and was afraid that the sound would be heard by others in the house, so she did not dare to yell at her. She could only suppress her anger and explain: "All of us who earn wages by pulling wood are men. If I don't let your brother and your brother have enough to eat, how can they go to work and earn money? You just stay at home and clean up the house. What does it matter if you eat more or less? How can I starve you to death?"
"They won't starve to death, but they'll soon be unbearable to feed." Xia Ni lowered her head with red eyes, "You gave birth to them all, so you're partial to them. Anyway, my uncles separated from the family and didn't give much to my grandparents every year. In the past few years, my aunt sent us meat." Xia Ni turned around and walked out, saying viciously, "If you don't treat me well, don't expect me to show respect to you in the future."
He Dongmei was so angry that she was at a loss for words. She had been raised like this at home since she was a child, so why couldn't she do that now when she was raising a daughter? She was so angry that she chased after her and wanted to slap her. As if she had noticed He Dongmei's intention, Xia Ni turned her head and stared at He Dongmei viciously.
He Dongmei was startled and took a step back involuntarily. Although she didn't think highly of the girl, she didn't want to be separated from her daughter just like that. She was afraid that her daughter would really hold a grudge and cut off all contact with her in the future.
He Dongmei stood there holding Zhenzhen for a long time, not knowing what to say. But seeing Chunni and Qiuni with frightened expressions, she finally felt a little uncomfortable. She tucked her hair behind her ears and said after a while, "I'll give you two pieces each when there's some meat left at your grandma's table. Your grandfather will find out about the extra meat."
Chunni lowered her head and tears fell down. He Dongmei sighed and walked back in embarrassment: "This is all because of poverty."
After eating and chatting for a while, Old Lady Li rushed back with her family. By the time they got home, Mingxi had already cooked a pot of porridge and stewed a pot of pork, cabbage and vermicelli.
Wang Sufen put the sleeping Zhenzhen on the kang and asked casually, "Is your sister-in-law not back yet?"
"No." Mingxi said, "Her home is so far away, and my sister-in-law left late this morning, so she might have to stay overnight before coming back."
Old Mrs. Li sat at the door and took a puff of her pipe. She couldn't help but mutter, "There's only one room in Old Wu's house. There's no place for her to sleep. The last time she came back from her parents' home, I saw that her clothes were covered in dirt. I asked her about it and found out that she was sleeping on the kitchen floor."
Wang Sufen glanced at the sky and said, "It's still a long way from getting dark. I guess I'll be back soon."
Old Lady Li took another puff of her cigarette, looked at Wang Sufen and asked, "I was thinking of getting Dongzi and Guihua married this winter, and now we have some free time, go to the street tomorrow and buy whatever you need, don't put it off until the end of the year, when it will be hard to buy anything."
"Okay." Wang Sufen said cheerfully, "I just told Carpenter Xu in front a few days ago to make a big box. I'll send two pounds of meat to his house later to urge him to hurry up."
"Yes!" Old Lady Li nodded. "I asked your sister-in-law to leave me some cloth coupons. Your fourth brother also brought back a few last time. I'll make a new cotton-padded jacket for Guihua and Dongzi, and one for Zhenzhen. The cotton-padded jacket and trousers that Mingbei wore when he was a child have all been torn down and the quilt is gone."
After the two of them had discussed it, Wang Sufen started to buy things. As for making furniture, it was even simpler. The wood in the mountains was readily available. Although it was all owned by the state, as long as it was not resold, as usual, just telling the business owner, you could use it as you like, just to build a house or make a cabinet.
Carpenter Xu saw the meat and worked faster. Rural wedding boxes don't need any particular style, just square and sturdy. A month later, two boxes and a kangqin were ready, and he quickly borrowed a cart to bring them to Old Li's house.
Guihua had been a little uneasy since Mingdong left, often lost focus while talking, and had a gloomy look on her face. Old Lady Li saw this but didn't say much until all the things were brought back and put on display. She quickly pulled Guihua to see, and only then did Guihua's face light up a little.
Old lady Li held up her pipe and looked around, then pressed the box and nodded with satisfaction: "This thing is sturdy, it will last for decades." After looking at the cabinet and the kangqin, Old lady Li couldn't help but feel a little dissatisfied. The kangqins in Beicha usually like to be painted with flowers and grass, which look festive and have good meanings. The kangqins made in the past years all had these things. In recent years, there is no paint and no one willing to paint, so this step was omitted.
Old Mrs. Li was a little unwilling to accept this. She always felt that her eldest grandson's wedding should be more splendid. She took a few puffs of her pipe and remembered something: "Guihua, I remember your mother was a lady from a wealthy family. Would she be able to draw these things?"
Guihua hesitated for a moment: "My mother knew how to paint when she was young, but she hasn't touched it since liberation. The paints, banknotes and other things at home are all hidden. I don't know if she can paint now."
"A couple of strokes will make it look better than being bald." Old Lady Li took down her pipe and said, "Go and invite your mother tomorrow."