After eating a meal of pork, Laba Festival was approaching. Zhenzhen remembered that she had upgraded her new superpowers after a good night's sleep on her birthday last year. She lay on the kang with great anticipation and went to bed early the night before, hoping to get up early tomorrow to try out her new skills.
Nowadays, there is no entertainment after dark. Seeing that Zhenzhen was sleepy, the family dispersed and prepared to go to bed. Old Lady Li still stayed in the same room with her eldest son Li Muwen. Li Muwen thought of the rice and big white steamed buns he had in the evening and couldn't help asking Old Lady Li: "What's the matter with the seeds that my third brother said I sent you that day?"
Old Lady Li lit her pipe in the dark, took two puffs and then whispered, "I picked up a gold nugget while playing Landlord a few years ago. The harvest was really bad in the past two years, so I was brave enough to meet a man in Yidong who had a way to get food. I used the gold nugget and bought a lot of cornmeal, cabbage and potatoes from him, and exchanged them for some seeds of fine grains, thinking of trying to grow them in the mountains."
After taking a puff of cigarette, Old Lady Li continued, "This kind of thing is not the right way to go. If people knew about it, something bad might happen. So I quietly handled it with the second brother and his wife. I didn't tell your third brother, and I used you as an excuse to the outside world."
This kind of private trading of things is common everywhere, but it is rare to sell so much grain. Li Muwen pondered for a while and guessed: "I guess someone from some farm secretly traded it?"
"I don't know. I also met him when I went to Yidong to visit your second aunt. I haven't seen him since I exchanged things. Zhenzhen has a thin throat and doesn't like to eat coarse grains. I thought of growing one and who would have thought it would grow quite well." Old Lady Li tapped her pipe and asked Li Muwen, "How are your wife and children now?"
Li Muwen lay flat on the warm kang, and the muscles on his waist that had been injured were relaxed by the heat. "Wenhua is a doctor in the army. She is usually busy and can only take a few days off during the Chinese New Year. Her hometown is Shandong, and she hasn't been back for 10 or 20 years. But my father-in-law and mother-in-law passed away a few years ago, so she doesn't miss them much. The two boys are in school and look a bit like Mingnan and Mingbei."
Old Lady Li sighed: "Where you are staying now is too far away, one is in the south and the other is in the north. If you take the train, it will take about 20 days, right?"
"If you include the reverse, it could take a month." Li Muwen said with a guilty tone: "I'll think of a way when I get back to the army. I'll apply for a few months' leave and bring my wife and children back to show you. Mother hasn't even seen my two boys yet."
"If you can come back, bring him home to see me." Mrs. Li said, "If you really can't come back, don't worry too much. It's already good enough that you can stay at home for two months and celebrate the New Year. We can't cause trouble for the country."
"I understand, mother." Li Muwen responded, and then asked, "Have you received the national food coupons and money I sent you over the years?"
"Received." Old Lady Li said with a smile, "Your fourth brother has known to send money and food coupons home in the past two years. In the summer, I asked Mingnan to send a telegram to your fourth brother saying that we have enough food coupons and we can just send cloth coupons and industrial coupons home. In fact, they are in Bingcheng, and it is not as convenient as in Beicha to get food. You can see that we have wild vegetables and fruits in the mountains, and we can raise chickens and pigs at home, and we can also reclaim wasteland and grow crops, so we never lack food."
When Li Muwen returned home this time, he saw that the food at home was indeed very good and the children were growing strong, so he felt relieved.
The mother and son talked for a while and then went to sleep. Zhenzhen was sleeping soundly next door. A drop of golden blood kept turning between her eyebrows and constantly merged with the soul in Zhenzhen's body. Not far away, in the world's largest primitive red pine forest, everyone from wild tigers to birds hid in their nests, looking at the mountain below with admiration and fear.
"Oh-oh-oh..." As the first ray of sunlight illuminated the earth, the braised chicken was the first to jump out of the chicken coop. It stood with its head held high under the window of Zhenzhen's house, stretched its neck and began to crow.
Zhenzhen yawned and rubbed her sleepy eyes. Suddenly she remembered that it was her birthday today. She quickly closed her eyes again to see what new abilities she had acquired. As expected, the model of mountains, rivers and land in her mind had expanded a lot. Not only had it included the entire red pine forest, but even the entire Yidong was in her mind.
Looking at the terrain in her mind, Zhenzhen randomly selected a place in the red pine forest. Just as she was thinking about going over to take a look, her eyes suddenly lit up, and Zhenzhen found herself standing in the forest in her long underwear. Zhenzhen subconsciously hugged her shoulders and shivered, feeling a little confused. The tiger standing in front of Zhenzhen looked at her with fear, took a few steps back, and fainted with his eyes rolled back.
"I want to go home." Zhenzhen shouted quickly, and her eyes lit up. Zhenzhen returned to the kang. She felt cold all over, so she quickly crawled under the mattress, with her belly pressed tightly against the hot kang. Only then did she feel her almost frozen body recover.
This is because Zhenzhen has supernatural powers. If an ordinary person were to stand in the snow at minus 34 degrees Celsius wearing only a thin layer of clothing, he would probably get frostbite or become seriously ill.
Thinking about her new ability, Zhenzhen couldn't help laughing. Before, she could only move her consciousness out of her body, but now she could even move her body. This skill was even better than the Anywhere Door. Thinking about the Siberian tiger that fainted after her sudden appearance, Zhenzhen felt that it looked familiar. After careful recollection, it seemed that the sheep she had eaten before was taken from its mouth.
After lying down for a while, Zhenzhen finally felt warm all over. Old Lady Li opened the door and came in. Seeing her lying on the bed wrapped up like a ball, she smiled and lifted the quilt: "Hurry up and get up. It's not right to stay in bed on your birthday. Your mother cooked egg noodles for you to wrap around your legs."
It is also a local custom to wrap the legs with noodles, which means to hold the child tightly and prevent it from dying. In that era, growing up safely was the best blessing for the child.
After Zhenzhen put on a cotton-padded jacket and trousers, Old Lady Li used a red rope to braid two pigtails for her. After eating a big bowl of noodles and eggs, Zhenzhen found an opportunity to put on her big cotton-padded jacket and sneaked into the yard to play.
Children in the forest area have been playing outside since they were young. Zhenzhen will be three years old this Chinese New Year. She is nimble and quick-witted. Every time she goes out to play, Grandma Li only tells her not to run too far and not to go anywhere other than to the river, and then just let her go crazy.
But this time Zhenzhen did not go far. She slipped to the back of the yard, looked around to see if there was anyone around, and said something silently in her heart. When she opened her eyes again, she was back in the depths of the red pine forest.
The unlucky tiger that fainted before had no idea where it had gone. The forest was very quiet at this time. A silly man in a robe passed by and immediately stopped where he was, looking at Zhenzhen with curiosity.
Zhenzhen waved at the roe deer, and the roe deer involuntarily ran to Zhenzhen's side. Zhenzhen hugged the silly roe deer's neck, tried to climb onto its back, patted the roe deer's butt, and commanded: "Run over there." The roe deer ran two steps, its legs went soft, and it fell on the snow. It turned around and looked at Zhenzhen with an innocent face.
Zhenzhen climbed down speechlessly, looked at her chubby little legs, and widened her eyes: "Am I that fat?" The roe deer looked at her, stood up, and tried to bury his head in the snow, leaving only his butt outside.
Zhenzhen scanned the surroundings and finally found the stupid tiger. She quickly controlled herself to move towards the tiger and sat right on its back.
The tiger sensed that there was a heavy object on its back, and it roared and jumped up, just as it was about to throw it down, Zhenzhen slapped its head with her little hand and shouted, "Quiet down."
The tiger then realized that the aura on his back was very strong, and he immediately lay on the ground in fear. Zhenzhen smiled and touched the tiger's head: "Be good, carry me and run for a lap."
Zhenzhen's touch made the tiger feel very comfortable. It raised its head and rubbed it in Zhenzhen's palm, then jumped up and ran in the direction Zhenzhen pointed.
Zhenzhen clamped the tiger's body with her short legs, grabbed the tiger's fur with her hands, and tried to control her balance. The tiger understood Zhenzhen's intention and tried to run more steadily.
The man and the tiger ran in the forest for a long time, until Zhenzhen was a little tired. The tiger slowly stopped and walked to an open space according to Zhenzhen's instructions.
Zhenzhen got off the tiger's back and dived into the ground. As expected, she found the two large boxes she saw when she was a baby. Following Zhenzhen's thoughts, a crack appeared in the ground and two boxes emerged from underground.
Looking at the two large copper locks on top, Zhen Zhen felt helpless. She could control animals, plants, and land, but she was really helpless with this kind of metal thing. She scratched her head and walked around the box twice, and finally came up with an idea.
A green vine came out of the snow and stretched into the lock nose. Suddenly, the vine became thicker and harder, and soon the lock nose was deformed. Seeing the gap between the lock nose and the box getting bigger and bigger, a few more vines came out from the ground, and soon there was a "snap" sound, and the lock nose and the big copper lock fell off the box.
Zhenzhen was so happy that she quickly opened the box lid and lay on the neatly arranged gold bars. It was not that she was obsessed with money. She had never seen so much gold. She held a gold bar in her hand and raised it to her eyes. Zhenzhen smiled with her eyes narrowed: Why does it feel so good to touch gold? It seems that she is really a bit obsessed with money.
After touching the gold for a while, Zhenzhen pondered for a while and only kept one and stuffed it into the outer cover of her cotton coat. She put the rest back. It would be the time to mine gold in two years. At this time, it would be better to hide gold and other things in the mountains. After ten years, when she would be a teenager, she could dig out the gold and use it as start-up capital to build a career.
After sinking the box with the gold bars underground, Zhenzhen opened the lid of the second box, threw the loot on top aside, and took out the jewelry underneath one by one. These jewelry were probably all stolen by the bandits back then. They were of different qualities, some looked ordinary, and some looked like jade bracelets with very good water content, all thrown in there in a mess. Zhenzhen checked all the jade and white jade jewelry distressedly. Except for two with scratches, most of them were well preserved.
With a wave of her hand, a nearby tree instantly grew a lot of leaves and then fell down. Zhenzhen used the leaves to wrap up all the jewelry and stuffed them into the corner of the box to ensure that they would not be knocked again. When she was packing up to the end, Zhenzhen found a pair of silver bracelets in the box. After so many years of not seeing the sun, the silver bracelets were not very shiny, but the patterns on them were carved very delicately. Zhenzhen thought about it and put them in her pocket.
The box sank back into the ground, and the soil next to it returned to its original position and was pressed firmly. Zhenzhen touched the tiger's head and said to it happily, "I'm going home. I'll play with you next time."
The tiger rubbed Zhenzhen's hand and stuck out its barbed tongue, but after a pause it quickly retracted it and looked at Zhenzhen happily with an honest face.
With a flash of consciousness, Zhenzhen returned to her backyard, touched the gold bars and silver bracelets in her pocket, ran back to the house, and dragged Old Lady Li to the east room.
"What are you doing? I'm cooking eight-treasure porridge for you." Old Lady Li quickly grabbed a towel and wiped her hands, then followed Zhenzhen into the east room. Zhenzhen mysteriously closed the door and fastened the bolt. She took out the gold bars and bracelets from her pocket and placed them on the kang. She looked at Old Lady Li innocently, "Grandma, do you think this thing I dug from the foot of the mountain is pretty?"
Old Lady Li was shocked when she saw this. She picked up the gold bar and took a bite. Zhen Zhen felt a pain in her teeth when she saw this: "Grandma, you only have a few teeth. If you lose more, you won't be able to chew bones."
Old Lady Li quickly took the gold bar out of her mouth and wiped it on her clothes twice: "Did anyone see you when you dug this thing?"
"No." Zhen Zhen smiled innocently: "I went there by myself, I didn't even bring Li Mingzhong with me."
Li Mingzhong, who was lying on the mat, smelled the remaining tiger scent on Zhenzhen's body. He instinctively trembled with fear, and held his head with his front paws, not daring to say a word.
Taking out the key from her waist, Old Lady Li opened the cabinet, took out a piece of cloth from inside, put the bracelet and gold bars in three layers, and locked the box again: "Grandma, I'll tell you quietly, what you picked up is a good thing, but you can't tell anyone, understand?"
"I know." Zhen Zhen nodded repeatedly: "My grandma taught me that, to make a fortune quietly."
"That's right. We've really made a fortune this time." Old Lady Li happily opened the door and walked out: "Grandma will kill a chicken for you."
Zhenzhen immediately hugged Old Lady Li's thighs: "No, the chicken is still laying eggs."
"Don't we have two roosters? Kill one and leave the other one to lay eggs. We can hatch a nest of chicks next spring and save the trouble of exchanging grain for them." Old Mrs. Li opened the door and squatted in front of the chicken coop, thinking for a while: "Let's kill the one that crows all morning. It's so annoying."
The braised chicken immediately ran over from the chicken coop, stretched out its neck and howled twice: "It's me, it's me."
Of all the chickens at home, this braised chicken nugget is the only one that can consciously and actively communicate with Zhenzhen. It is quite interesting to chat with a chicken every day. Zhenzhen quickly sent it away: "I just like this one that can only bark, keep it, keep it."
"That's fine too." Old Lady Li always listened to her granddaughter: "Then kill that rooster?"
"Let's wait until the New Year. I want to eat braised pork ribs today." Zhenzhen thought for a moment and said, "The kind that's easy to chew in strips."
"That's called ribs." Old Mrs. Li told her as she picked up a handful of ribs from the snow and chopped them into pieces on the chopping board in the yard.
Seeing Old Lady Li carrying a pot of spare ribs into the house, Braised Chicken Nuggets rushed in front of Zhenzhen and stretched her neck to protest: "My ideal is to become Braised Chicken Nuggets. I don't want to be a breeder chicken."
Seeing that there was no one in the yard, Zhenzhen looked at the braised chicken nuggets obscenely and told it with her mind: "Do you see those hens in your nest? They are all your wives. Go quickly."
"Oh oh oh oh." The braised chicken nuggets fluttered its wings and ran quickly: "But my dream has not been realized yet..."
Zhenzhen couldn't help but cover her ears when she heard the chickens crowing in the chicken coop: "Braised Chicken Nuggets, you are so hypocritical."
The author has something to say: I wish all my readers good luck in the Year of the Dog, and a prosperous year! Happy New Year's Eve!
I should send red envelopes to everyone on such a good day, but I have been relying on data and apps to update my posts these days, so I need a computer client to send red envelopes. I will send them to everyone when I get home on the sixth day of the New Year. Happy New Year, muah.