Before mid-October, the Jiang family finally ushered in the first wave of long-overdue harvest. The golden wheat fields are covered with heavy ears of grain, and the waves of yellow grass are shaking the sky. Jiang Shen hurried home after class, but was stopped by his mother when he wanted to help in the field.
"Don't go." Tan Lingling fetched hot water to soak his feet, "Your Aunt Hua'er borrowed our harvester, and your dad is driving it, so my waist won't be tired."
Jiang Shen is now able to gain a foothold, and his usual nutrition has also followed. His body has faint muscular lines, but after this class, his ankle joints tend to swell after standing for a long time. Tan Lingling is afraid of hurting her muscles and bones. Give my son a foot massage.
Mother pressed his feet and asked him: "What did you dance today?"
Jiang Shen thought for a while: "I learned from Batmang Tangjiu Ridai."
"What's that?" Tan Lingling laughed, "The name is really strange."
Jiang Shen explained: "It's just a small kick." He gestured while talking, but he kicked out the foot washing water.
"..." Tan Lingling wiped her face, reached out to pat his calf, and cursed, "Not honest!"
Jiang Shen laughed for a long time, took a dry towel and wiped his feet clean, Tan Lingling poured out the footwashing water, and said to him when she came back: "You go to Aunt Hua'er's house and bring Tony back."
Jiang Shen: "Why did Tony go to their house? Isn't Gou Mao the most afraid of him?"
Tan Lingling said: "Qing Lingzi said before that he wanted to see the hatching chickens, so he borrowed Tony's seed. It is happy to be in your Aunt Hua'er's hen flock, and it is helping to hatch the eggs."
Jiang Shen: "..."
Tony's chicken is really rich and colorful. It really helps to hatch eggs. When Jiang Shen went, he saw a rooster with a big flower tail nesting in the chicken coop. I could only squat outside the chicken pen, looking both expectant and frightened.
Jiang Shen sent the dumplings made by Tan Lingling, and Miao Huaer insisted on keeping him for dinner, so she called Jiang's house specially for this reason.
"Your mother agreed, auntie is going to cook." Miao Hua'er hung up the phone and rubbed Jiang Shen's head, "What do you want to eat? Tonight, auntie cooks braised pork, and I'll give you all of it."
Jiang Shen said embarrassedly: "I can't eat..."
Miao Hua'er: "Eat as much as you can, I can't make it cheaper for your brother."
Gou Mao probably heard it outside, and shouted unconvinced: "Mom, you are too partial!"
Miao Hua'er spat at him: "Look at your chicken!"
Jiang Shen also went to the yard, bent down and called the chicken: "Tony?"
Chicken Tony reacted a little to his voice, obviously knew someone, flapped its wings a few times, and made a coo or two.
"Ah!" Qing Lingzi pulled her brother excitedly, "Look, look, I saw the egg!"
Gou Mao made a "shh" gesture: "Tony has a bad temper, don't be scared."
Qing Lingzi immediately shut up obediently.
It was rare for Jiang Shen to see Qing Lingzi listen to what Gou Mao said, so he asked in a low voice, "How long will it take for the hatch to hatch?"
Gou Mao: "I don't know, there are two eggs under it, I have taken photos, and there are chicks." He pointed to a nest of hens next to him, "Then the bottom half and half, wait for Tony to lay it out and you will be small." Bring back?"
Jiang Shen was also looking forward to the chicken, so of course he happily agreed, and the three of them watched the rooster hatching eggs with relish for a while, until Miao Hua'er called for someone in the room, and then reluctantly washed their hands dinner table.
Qing Lingzi was still thinking about the chicken while eating, and in the middle of eating, he suddenly said to Miao Huaer: "I won't eat chicken anymore."
Miao Hua'er was stunned for a moment: "What's wrong?"
Qing Lingzi pouted: "How cute is the chicken."
Gou Mao teased her: "Then don't eat eggs, chickens come out of eggs."
Qing Lingzi probably didn't expect there to be eggs. He opened his eyes wide in shock and grief. Finally, the only remaining heartache was defeated by reality, and he muttered wronged: "I want to eat eggs..."
Miao Hua'er was so angry and funny, she patted her son's head with her chopsticks: "Don't bully your sister."
Gou Mao hid, but did not dodge, and shouted at the top of his voice: "Where did you bully her?! Don't tell the truth!"
Jiang Shen couldn't help laughing, and when he smiled, Qing Lingzi also laughed, Gou Mao covered his head and stared at the two of them.
After the meal, Jiang Shen helped Miao Huaer clean up the dining table. Gou Mao wanted to let Jiang Shen move Tony with the chicken coop, but he didn't have the guts to go into the chicken coop, so he had to let Jiang Shen go by himself. Not very happy to come out, Jiang Shen squatted beside it and touched its wings.
"Let's go home." Jiang Shen said, he carefully lifted the chicken together with the basket, Tony flapped his wings to keep his balance, found a comfortable position and nestled still.
To be honest, a fat rooster plus two eggs is not so light. Jiang Shen had no choice but to hold the basket in his arms. Recently got a moody peck from Tony.
"You have to change your habit of talking to chickens." Gou Mao accompanied Jiang Shen home, "Don't pet a chicken for anything."
Tony turned his neck and stared at him with one corny eye open.
"..." Gou Mao shut up.
Jiang Shen couldn't help but carried the basket into his arms. Tony's chicken head brushed against his neck and cooed twice.
"Brother Dog Mao." Jiang Shen raised his head, looked at Chen Maoxiu, and suddenly said, "I went to the Cultural Palace last time and saw you at the school gate... Who are those people? Did you really skip class to play?"
Chen Maoxiu was a little choked up: "How many times have I said, don't call me by nicknames, how ugly." He plucked his hair, with a kind of hidden pride and embarrassment, "I didn't skip class, I went to work .”
Jiang Shen didn't quite believe it, and tilted his head to look at him seriously.
"Really." Chen Maoxiu was rarely serious. "In half a year, it will be Qing Lingzi's tenth birthday. Ten years old, big birthday. I'm going to buy her a set of oil painting brushes."
Chen Maoxiu spoke mysteriously in foreign language with a particularly strong accent: "Do you know the brand Escoda?"
Of course Jiang Shen didn't know, so he could only shake his head honestly.
Chen Maoxiu's expression showed solid heartache: "It's too expensive. I don't have enough pocket money for most of the year, so I can only work part-time to fill it."
"..." Jiang Shen couldn't imagine how much it would cost, so he had to ask others, "Then what do you work for?"
Chen Maoxiu proudly said: "The rich seniors in our school like to go to KTV, and I can bring them drinks on errands, and I can earn double the money, at most one or two hundred a day, if I persist for more than half a year, Qing Lingzi I can buy my paintbrush.”
Jiang Shen opened his mouth, uncertain: "Aren't you going to tell Qing Lingzi?"
"This is a surprise, how can I say it." Chen Maoxiu said naturally, as if he was worried, he told Jiang Shen again, "This is our secret, you are not allowed to tell it."
After sending the chicken and Jiang Shen back, Chen Maoxiu returned home under the moonlight and stars, Miao Huaer and Chen Lao were enjoying the shade in the courtyard and talking, seeing him coming back, Miao Huaer asked: "Shen Zi went home? "
"I'm back." Chen Maoxiu was in a good mood, teased for a while, took the enamel cup and prepared to brush his teeth and wash his face, "Where is Qinglingzi?"
Miao Hua'er sent Chen Laoshi into the room to get her a blanket, and said casually: "Go to bed first, your sister is only so old, and the child lacks sleep."
Chen Maoxiu squeezed the toothpaste and muttered, "Why didn't I lack sleep when I was young..."
Although Miao Hua'er couldn't kick him, she still pretended to make a gesture to scare him. Chen Mao Xiuxu dodged, grinning and baring his teeth, the teeth were covered with toothpaste foam.
Chen Laoshi came out with the blanket, and the couple chatted about other things.
"In two years, Qing Lingzi's painting class will stop for her." Miao Hua'er covered her lap with a blanket, and she told Chen Laoshi, "Did you hear that?"
Chen Maoxiu, who was rinsing his mouth, moved his ears. He was still squatting in front of the faucet, and looked back at his mother, frowning: "Why did you stop? Isn't Qing Lingzi very good at drawing?"
Miao Hua'er: "What's the use of being good at painting? She still wants to eat? Only now can she be successful in studying. This kind of energy-distracting thing can be played when she was young. In two years, she will be promoted to junior high school. Culture class You have to work hard, how can you have time to draw."
"Why is there no time?" Chen Maoxiu turned up the volume, he straightened up, the corners of his mouth were still stained with white, "Qing Lingzi likes to draw, so I should let her do it, who said that drawing is useless?!"
"Why are you so angry, keep your voice down!" Miao Hua'er threw the blanket on her son, looked back into the room with a guilty conscience, she didn't see her daughter woke up before she felt relieved, and said angrily, "What do you know? How many people can be painters? Do you know how much it costs to learn painting for a year? It’s not that you don’t feel sorry for paying the money!”
Chen Maoxiu's hand holding the blanket trembled slightly. He opened his mouth a few times to refute his mother, but he couldn't get out of his mouth. In the end, he could only wipe his mouth with the blanket vigorously as if venting his anger, and threw it back. On Miao Hua'er.
"You're going to die! Little bastard!" Miao Hua'er held up the blanket and yelled in disgust, "Who allowed you to wipe your mouth with my old lady's blanket! Ah?!"
Chen Maoxiu turned a deaf ear and entered the room, thinking about it, he was still feeling depressed. He opened the refrigerator to get milk, and when he turned around, he saw Qing Lingzi standing barefoot at the door of his room.
The little girl had kept her hair for four years, and now it has grown to her back. Because of sleeping, she was dressed in a mess. Qing Lingzi seemed to have just woken up, rubbing her eyes sleepily.
Chen Maoxiu was startled, and hurried forward a few steps to hug her younger sister: "Why did you get out of bed? Where are the shoes?"
Qing Lingzi glanced at him, rubbing his eyes a little red.
"Are you dreaming?" Chen Maoxiu asked, he carried Qing Lingzi back to the bed, and found out the slipper that had been kicked somewhere.
Qing Lingzi lay on the bed hugging the pillow, Chen Maoxiu twisted a hot towel to wipe her feet, and then covered her with the quilt again.
Chen Maoxiu was like an old woman: "Arrange the pillows and sleep well."
Qing Lingzi raised his eyelids, and it was rare that he didn't talk back, and lay down with the pillows set.
"I haven't sorted out the draft yet." My sister said suddenly.
Chen Maoxiu knelt down to get her schoolbag: "Is that why you woke up? Tell me no, I'll help you."
Qing Lingzi didn't speak, she watched Chen Maoxiu sitting cross-legged on the ground, carefully arranging the draft paper for her, the clear moonlight in the countryside, like a gentle cocoon, passed through the window and landed on her brother's shoulder .