Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

When Mrs. Han heard her husband's words, her face fell, "What's wrong? My child has never eaten such a dish. What's wrong with me choosing some meat for him to eat? You can't let your child go hungry, right?" She pushed her chopsticks hard. Put it on the table.

When Mrs. Chen saw it, she was really a little angry. Then he thought that today was a day of reunion, and it was really hard to get angry, so he smiled and said: "Fourth, it's nothing. My child, I eat well at your place, so I won't be used to it when I go home. Just let me The fourth daughter-in-law should get some meat to feed them, the children can't go hungry." As she said that, she put a few more pieces of meat into Wenxing's bowl.

"Mom, let's not stay here. I want to go home. I miss my grandma." Wenxing twisted around, but refused to eat and said he wanted to leave.

At this time, the old man was really angry, "Fourth, this is the good son you raised. You live in the town all year round, so it's fine if you don't come back. You can't escape from that school, and I don't blame you. If he didn't kiss us when he came back, I would admit it. Why didn't we help take care of the child for a day? But he is the root of our Xu family. If he was kissing his grandma, why didn't you just step in the door in the first place? "The old man was so angry that he threw his chopsticks and went to the side.

"Old man, why are you so angry? Wenxing is still young. When he grows up, he will naturally know that he is from the Xu family. Why is his surname not Xu? Look at you, come and eat quickly. "Ms. Chen naturally had to persuade her husband. When the fourth child came to town, the old man disagreed. But the fourth child just liked the Han family, so the Xu family had no choice but to agree. "Fourth, what did my mother say? When you were studying, our family lived frugally to provide for you. Finally, you got admitted as a scholar, got married, and lived in the town. Our family was incompetent. We can't afford to set up a school for you, but we haven't lost anything to you these years. Whenever we come back, we will bring you something. After all, this child is named Xu, so you have to take care of it in the future. Can you still deny your ancestors?" Mrs. Chen felt a little uncomfortable saying these words.

"Father, mother, don't be angry. If Wenxing is such a child, why doesn't he just kiss whoever is looking at him? It will be fine in a few years when he is older. The fourth child is not easy either, we can't help him What, don’t pick these things,” the boss said. "Fourth daughter-in-law, hurry up and coax the children to eat. It's rare to come back. There is really nothing good in our house, so you ladies can just make do with it."

Mrs. Han nodded, hugged the two children, fed them, and then ate a little for herself before getting off the table, "Dad, Mom, we are full, you eat slowly." After that, she led the way. The child is out. She has never served her parents-in-law since she got married, which is somewhat unfair.

The old lady and the boss all tried to persuade the old man, and then the old man ate some, "Do you think this dish is bad? Fourth brother, what do you eat in town on weekdays? Let me see each one. They are all very picky." The old man picked up a piece of meat and chewed it.

"Dad, it's not that the food is good. I teach about twenty students, and I don't have much training for a month. The main reason is that the two children often go to their grandma's place. If they can eat some good food, they can eat I'm used to this." The fourth child said quickly.

Jinghan and the others sat at the table on the floor and ate in silence. Just kidding, there are no such good dishes on weekdays. If you don’t eat it in your stomach quickly, what are you waiting for? So the children all ate there without saying a word. After listening to her fourth uncle's words, Jinghan felt that there was quite a bit of moisture in it. I'm afraid there will be no shortage of money for a child in the town. Plus, there are gifts for New Year's Eve, so I should be able to make some money this year. There are too many sons, so they all have their own minds.

Jinghan looked at the people at home and could actually see that her fourth uncle's family was really doing well. Clothes and everything are new. Third Aunt's family is still in the county town, but Third Aunt's clothes still have patches on them, as do Jingwan and Jingxian's. However, the clothes were washed very clean and the patches were stitched very finely, which showed that the third aunt was neat and tidy. In this day and age, it is very rare to find a person without a patch on his body.

Lunch was finished like this, and everyone put away the dishes together. The old man said, "Tomorrow is the Qingming Festival. All the men will go to the graves to worship their ancestors. The women can stay at home. Old lady, boil some eggs tomorrow morning." Mrs. Chen agreed there.

Early the next morning, Mrs. Chen indeed boiled eggs. She cooked them per head, one for each person. When the children saw the eggs, they were naturally very happy. They all held them in their hands and were reluctant to eat them. Xue put the eggs away and kept them for Wenxuan to eat. Zhixin also didn't want to eat them at all and kept them for the children.

Mrs. Wei didn't care about that. She finished the eggs in a few seconds and then picked up the bowl to drink porridge. Wencheng was older and knew he loved his younger brother, so he kept the egg and put it in front of his younger brother Wenchang, "Brother, you can keep it and eat it. Brother won't eat it." Wenchang refused to take it and pushed it back to his brother, "Brother, You eat it, I have it.”

Mrs. Wei looked at her two sons pushing each other and said, "Eat quickly. If you don't want to eat, give it to me and I will eat it." Then the two children ate the eggs.

Wenhan did the same, leaving the egg to Jinghan, "Little sister, you are recovering from your illness, keep it for supplementation." Jinghan didn't want it. He gave it to his brother Wenxuan again, but Wenxuan shook his head and said, "Sister, you should keep it to eat."

Mrs. Xue saw it from the side and smiled and said, "Eat all of them. You can eat eggs only during the Qingming Festival and Dragon Boat Festival in a year. Everyone can eat their own, and there is no need to give in." So the children all ate their own eggs. .

After breakfast, the old man led the young man to the grave. The ancestral tomb of the Xu family is on Nanshan Mountain and can be seen after climbing over a mountain. At this time, the snow had not completely melted away in the shady areas of the mountain. It was quite cold in the morning and the ground was still a little frozen, so it was still easy to walk. Everyone took burning paper and incense candles and walked all the way up the mountain.

When they arrived at the Xu family's cemetery, the old man took the lead in clearing away the dead grass around it, then placed incense candles and lit the paper. Everyone knelt in front of the grave and kowtowed, and then the old man poured wine in front of the grave and paid homage. Everyone then packed up, waited for the paper to be completely burned, pulled it apart with sticks, let the ashes cool, and then went down the mountain.

When we got home, the fourth child said he was going back to town, and the third child also said that he had only taken two days off from the drug store and had to go back quickly. Yesterday, I made an agreement with the guy who was pulling my leg, and I would go back today.

Mrs. Chen no longer tried to persuade them to stay, but brought some dried vegetables, beans, etc. to the two families, and some dry food to the third family. It takes more than three hours to get to the county seat from here, so bring some dry food and bedding on the road. Mrs. Zhu took the things and said: "Mom, my family is not well off, so there is no need to bring it to us. Now that the third brother has earned a lot of money, our life is not so tight. But there is a fifth brother at home who hasn't said anything. Wife, my little sister is not married yet, so this will cost money."

"It's okay, it's not a good thing. Your sister-in-law and I have nothing to show off in the summer, just save it for this time. You guys are in the county, you have to buy something to eat, so just save it if you can. Seeing that Jingwan also It’s too late, you have to make plans early.” Mrs. Chen has never shown shame to Mrs. Zhu for her daughter-in-law’s giving birth to a girl, and she still treats her the same way.

"Okay, listen to me, I'll take it." Mrs. Zhu picked up her bag, led her daughter, and left with her third child. The third child saw that his wife was not having a good time carrying the bag, so he took it and put it on his shoulders. He turned around and waved to his parents, "Mom, dad, go back."

The third child left, and the fourth child also finished packing and was about to leave. Mrs. Chen gave the things to Mrs. Han. When Mrs. Han looked at them, she curled her lips slightly and said, "Mom, we don't want these things. We keep them at home." Eat it. The children don’t like it.” After that, he led the children away. The fourth child hurriedly said to his mother, "Mom, let's leave first. We won't need our things. Let Wen Han and Wen Chengdu come to study at my place after a while." After saying that, he hurriedly left.

Mrs. Chen looked at her son's back and couldn't help but feel sad, "You said raising a son, what's the use of raising so many sons? None of them are around. Coming back is like pulling out a fire. , hurriedly walked back. Oh, it’s better for the boss to be in front of you.” After that, he turned around and went back to the house.

The old man and Zhixin were discussing some things about the Bangchui shed. Jinghan wanted to know more about the world, so she and Wenhan listened together.

"Boss, it will take several days to build a shed with these ten-foot-long sticks this year. By the way, are there enough stick boards? Do we need to get more? When we made sticks last year, I saw that some of the boards were rotten. ” the old man asked.

"Dad, we need to replace some boards. It's okay. There is a lot of wood felled last year next to our ginseng field. My fifth brother and I brought saws and we will break through some boards tomorrow. Anyway, we already smashed the pillar feet last year. Come on, make the shed faster." Zhixin looked at his younger brother Zhixiang, "Fifth brother, you've been tired for a few days."

The fifth child, Xu Zhixiang, smiled, "Brother, what are you talking about? If you hadn't supported my education all these years, I wouldn't be where I am today. It's just a small job, nothing much. I've done it before. If I could do it this year If we can pass the test, our family will be better off in the future. It doesn't really matter if we don't grow the sticks every year, and only three to five kilograms per foot will be left. Can’t get a good price.”

"You can't say that. We are just planting sticks. Although we turn in a little more, we can still have thirty or fifty taels left in a year, which is not bad. We can't make any money from farming. That’s all.” Zhixin disagreed with his brother’s statement. In their village, they all focus on growing ginseng to make money. There are about a hundred households in the village, and every household grows ginseng. The ginseng they planted was immediately confiscated by the government. This thing is so valuable that most people can't afford it.