My 1995 Small Farm

   Chapter 175

   "Candied haws, sweet and crunchy dripping candied haws."

   At five o'clock in the afternoon, Chen Ling rushed to the county primary school and waited for Wang Zhenzhen to finish school.

  Across from the school, there are candied fruit sellers, small snacks, and hawkers who hold wooden shelves and hang large-scale stickers, foreign pictures and other small toys, and there is a row along the wall.

   Before it was time for school, he started shouting.

   This fellow student doesn't have the heart to listen to the class, and his heart flew outside early.

  Wait 5:10, the school bell rang.

   One by one, they put on their schoolbags and ran towards the school gate.

  The stall was immediately surrounded by water.

  Wang Zhenzhen is in the third grade, so he left the school a little two minutes later.

   At this time, he was carrying a flower bag and talking with a few little girls while giggling.

   Seeing Chen Ling waiting outside, he waved his hands with his classmates, ran over, and quickly climbed into the back seat.

   "Brother-in-law, brother-in-law, after the temple fair in the city, I want to go to my classmate's house to play, okay?"

   "Huh? Temple Fair the day after tomorrow?"

  Chen Ling was stunned for a moment, then pinched his fingers and counted the days: "That's right, the day after tomorrow is September 21st, and it goes by so fast."

  Lingyun holds three temple fairs every year.

   is the 16th day of the first lunar month, the 5th day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, and the 21st day of the 9th month. It is very lively every time.

   "Do you still give your school a holiday after the temple fair?"

   "I'll definitely let it go. After the temple fair, the principal and teacher's house will also come."

"All right."

   "Then are you going to let me play at my classmate's house?"

   "You can go if you want, but when you come, remember to bring something to Aunt Hongyu's house and your elder sister Qiumei's house. Your sister and I can't leave, and they can take care of you..."

   Chen Ling instructed.

  The temple fair is full of people, it's a mess, and usually it's not that no one is kidnapped.

   When the little doll comes to the temple fair, you still have to ask the adults to watch it before you can rest assured.

   "You still have to spend time in the village, can't you come?"

   Wang Zhenzhen asked.

   "Yes, the old man who is missing is the fourth grandmother of our Chen family. Both my sister and I have brought mourning filial piety. You can't visit relatives these days."

  Chen Ling said, and saw Liu Ni'er get on Wang Lihui's donkey cart, so he approached and asked them to take Wang Zhenzhen with them when they came to the temple fair the day after tomorrow.

   Liu Nier's aunt is from the county seat.

  The two temple fairs on the 16th day of the first lunar month and the 21st day of the September every year are not busy with farm work, and they have to come to the county town to visit relatives.

   "Don't worry, Uncle Fugui, I'll be with my little aunt when the time comes."

   "Me too. Except for my grandfather and my grandmother, my family basically comes here..."

   "That's right, a lot of people will come to our village when the time comes, and the little aunt is watching. Don't worry, uncle and grandpa."

   "Okay, remember to follow the adults and don't run around."

After    instructed again, Chen Ling glanced at the things in the hands of the little children, and couldn't help laughing: "Good guy, rich, each one has a big foreign picture."

   "What? You lost all the ones I gave you last time? Why did you buy new ones?"

  When the house was built, the old house found half a box of this stuff, all of which were saved by Chen Ling when he was in school, and they were all distributed.

"No."

   Liu Nier immediately shook her head, "Not only did we not lose, we also won a pack against the boss."

   "Hahaha, you're just being stubborn, how can you buy it if you win? I don't think you won a pack from the boss, it's because you have a pack from the boss."

  Wang Lihui shook the donkey's whip and laughed.

   "Oops, Uncle Third, you've guessed right..."

Hearing this, Zhu Baby's eyes lit up, patted the car board and shouted: "During class, Liu Ni'er took advantage of the teacher's absence, and took people behind the classroom to take pictures of foreigners. She won a lot, but she hasn't come yet. When I was so happy, the teacher caught them, made them stand for two classes, and their hands were swollen, and they had a big bag."

   "That's right, the teacher was so angry that he searched out all the foreign pictures in our class and took them away."

   "Well, if you can fit a sack, it's so old, it would be nice if you gave it to me."

   "You guys, why are you talking about this..."

   Liu Ni'er's face immediately flushed: "Isn't this all paid to you?"

   "Whatever you pay, the third uncle bought it."

   Pig Baby was immediately dissatisfied: "You also let the teacher take away what Uncle Fugui gave us. Uncle Fugui has been saving for many years, and he is reluctant to lose it, so you lose it all."

  The little dolls quarreled with each other.

  Chen Ling and Wang Lihui didn't persuade them either, they watched happily and thought it was quite interesting.

   "There are still two days before the temple fair, so there will be more people selling things."

"Isn't it, just like when we were young, the hawkers are very bad, they just put things out early, otherwise they can arouse the little doll's mind, save money hard, and wait until the day of the temple fair. buy it?"

   Wang Lihui laughed.

   The two were laughing and laughing all the way, and they met many villagers along the way.

   "Brother Donkey, what are you looking at from there, hurry up and go home!"

   "Ha, you two are picking up the doll, I came over and played some cotton."

   Soon, he went up the mountain road and the donkey cart was slower, so he let Chen Ling go first.

   After all, when Chen Ling goes back, she will go to Fourth Grandma.

   In the village, dinner is relatively early, and when I go back slowly, I can't catch up with dinner.

   And there are a lot of things to do after dinner.

   As for Wang Lihui and the others who are not intimate, they don't need to be tied there every day like the old Chen family, just hang a funeral and follow the ceremony.

  …

"came back?"

   When he got home, Wang Susu took her sister's schoolbag and asked the little girl to wash her hands.

   Then he did not forget to remind: "There is a large pot of dishes left over from noon in the kitchen. I just heated it up. You can bring it out and eat it yourself. I went over with your brother-in-law."

   "Well, sister, do you feed the sheep?"

   "It hasn't been fed yet. Go and feed it if you want. It's going to get dark, and when you're ready to eat, close the door and I'll be back in a while."

   "I know, Heiwa and Xiaojin are all here, I'm not afraid."

After   , the young couple went out to the fourth grandma for dinner together.

   "The trumpet maker came very quickly."

   "Of course, you can't do it quickly, you have to hurry up. They will arrive soon after you go out in the morning."

   Chen Ling and Chen Ling heard the sound of blowing and beating before they even got there, and then there was a sound of cannons, which rushed into the sky and exploded. It was someone who came to the door to mourning.

   Sure enough, when he walked to the door, a middle-aged man with red eyes came out, stopped at the door and took out two coins as a gift.

The Eight Immortals Table was placed at the entrance of the courtyard, with a small book made of white paper on it, and a bottle of ink beside it. Wang Laishun took the money, put it in a box and pressed it neatly, and then wore reading glasses and wrote down his name and etiquette. The amount of money, after writing, take it up and show it to the man, if there is anything wrong, it is finished.

  The man came out and met with Chen Ling.

   After being stunned for a moment, he nodded, pushed the car and left.

   This is the fourth grandmother's nephew, whom I met this morning.

   "Fugui, you're here just in time. It's getting dark, and no one will come to the door. You should lead the speaker maker to let people eat first."

   As soon as he entered the courtyard and did not fully enter the courtyard, Chen Sangui assigned him a job.

   "Okay, go to Uncle Yongsheng's house or Uncle Yonggang's house?"

   "Yongsheng, your fourth grandmother was gone when it was Yongsheng's turn to take care of it. From now on, she will take it to Yongsheng's house."

   "Okay, got it."

   After Chen Ling responded, he went to call the speakers of the speaker, packed up his things, and walked to Chen Yongsheng's house.

   There are six trumpet makers, young and old, all men, who are in charge of suona, cymbal, sheng, gong, snare drum, and bangzi. The division of labor is clear, and everyone handles the same.

   After blowing and beating for a day, their faces were also tired.

   After dinner, we will stay at Chen Yongsheng's house to rest.

   They are not from the same village, they are a team together, and they will stay after they are invited. They will not leave until the fourth grandmother is buried on the last day.

   Now the scale of the loudspeaker team is not large.

   There are also generally fewer people, which makes it easier to manage.

   In a few years, after 1998, a large number of young people from rural areas went out to work.

  The old man left behind is not physically strong.

  I can't get things done.

   rises up to provide one-stop funeral services.

   Compared with that time, it is much easier to manage now.

  Tonight, we prepared meatball soup for the trumpet makers, and steamed buns with meat and vegetables.

   is slightly better than cauldron rice.

   After eating with them, Chen Ling gradually understood something.

   For example, what does Wang Susu mean by saying that this work should be done early.

  The trumpet maker would come over the morning of the first day of his business and blow his suona “straight”.

  Blow straight, is to play a straight tone, straight tone, is to make people red and remove evil.

It is said that when a person dies, there is a sha, a kind of "qi" that falls, and when he sees "green" and "red", he quietly escapes by himself and does not possess anyone. , is a kind of protection.

   Therefore, when the "straight" is played, the host family still has to prepare red cloth and reward money.

   "It turned out to be a straight tone, I know."

  Straight tone, it is a rough tone with a heavy bottom tone. It vibrates with a humming sound, giving people a sense of depression. When Chen Ling's father passed away, he was very impressed by this.

   This is a kind of tune that can magnify the sadness of people's heart, and it is very infectious.

   "I'm going over there, you should rest early, come over and shout if you have something, there are always people at night."

   "I know, we go to bed when we're full, go to work."

  The young boy of the trumpet maker nodded with a smile and sent Chen Ling out.

  It gets dark early on the mountains in autumn and winter.

   The sky started to get dark after six o'clock, and it was already pitch black.

  The old house also finished eating. Chen Ze and a few set off guns outside the door. This is the notification person who came over to gather quickly and went to the village to press paper.

   They are much more tired than Chen Ling at home today.

   But young boy, this occasion is for chores.

  No one can escape.

   "Shuiwa, Shuiwa, I didn't find the painter. I'll follow you to another village tomorrow and ask."

"understood."

  The painter is a coffin, and it is not easy to find.

  Like a paper maker, there are not many people who can do this kind of work.

   They do have a paper maker in their village, but they can't find one painter.

   is the one that sends souls. This is the most common one. Every village has it. There are several in Chenwangzhuang.

   Mainly old bachelors and old widowers.

   "Fugui, today is already optimistic about the day it will be buried in the ground. Tomorrow night at three o'clock, you and Dazhi will go to the tomb."

"it is good."

   "Bao Liang, I will follow you Brother Guoxing and Brother Guowang to make a monument tomorrow."

   "Treasure warehouse, you guys will be with you tonight to keep the spirit alive."

  “…”

   After pressing the paper back, Chen Sangui started to send the task again.

  Since the fourth grandmother left in the middle of the night, she could only be buried on the third day, so it will take five days for her to stop her spirits this time.

   It takes a long time, and there are many things inside and outside. It must be arranged in advance to avoid confusion.

   The next morning, nothing happened to the Chen Ling family.

   The young couple didn't eat there either. They went around and went home to cook for themselves.

  After breakfast, he and his daughter-in-law drove the ox cart to the field to collect vegetables.

  Before frosting.

   In just over ten days, the vegetable field looked the same every day.

  The Chinese cabbage was like a puffed ball, rushing up and down, and some of them weighed as much as three or five pounds.

   After the frosting, after a lot of days, the dishes did not grow long, and the taste became good enough.

   It's time to go and take the vegetables home.

  The cabbage after the wind and frost is not very delicate and beautiful.

   The dark green thick and fat leaves have been wrinkled, the bright yellow cabbage heart, the outermost cabbage leaves are rolled, yellow and burnt, the texture is rough, and there are some small holes bitten by insects.

   But this kind of Chinese cabbage is the most delicious.

   One tree is next to the other, hugging in clusters.

   In the sunlight, there are dewdrops that have never dissipated.

   As the two walked into the vegetable field, they slowly shook and fell into the soil.

   Started to collect the dishes.

   Lay down the cabbage one by one, remove the roots and yellow leaves, and stack them on the ox cart.

   You don’t have to pile it too full, it’s almost enough.

   A car was pulled home and put into the vegetable cellar for storage.

   Of course, there is a lot of cabbage this year, so you don’t need to save all of it.

  The rest are also pickled in two large pots of vegetables.

   It is a tradition to pickle vegetables to prevent spring famine. Every family in the village will pickle vegetables at this time, and many people will be able to eat them next summer.

   But the cabbage just recovered from the ground is not in a hurry to pickle.

   Let it dry for two or three days before marinating. The taste will be better.

   So the two put the cabbage into the cellar and put it in the cellar to dry it.

   Then I took a break for a while…

   took out the remaining goat milk and prepared to make yogurt.

  The goat milk produced at home cannot be consumed every day.

   It's good to make some yogurt, and then simply make some desserts such as cheese.

   Not only the preservation time is slightly longer, but also the taste is changed.

   Just a few days ago, Liang Hongyu's family brought some yogurt.

   is the kind of old-fashioned yogurt in a pot-bellied porcelain bottle, sealed with wax and wrapped with a yellow rubber band, and the amount is extremely large.

   With these yogurt as a primer, there is no need to buy any starter.

  After the goat milk is cooked, stir and stir, just add some, it's very simple.

  Otherwise, it is not easy to find a starter for yogurt locally.

  Chen Ling originally bought some rice wine.

  I want to use rice wine as an introduction.

   But it tastes like wine.

  My daughter-in-law and sister-in-law are not willing to drink it.

  I'm ready to make some and drink it myself.

  Boil the extruded goat milk and place it until it is slightly hot.

   Take advantage of this time to scald the canned bottle of milk with boiling water to sterilize it.

  The temperature on the mountain varies greatly during the day in autumn and winter.

   In order to have a temperature to ensure fermentation, heat the stove and boil water in the pot.

  Wait for the goat milk to cool down, add yogurt and rice wine and stir well, then seal it all up, put it on the stove, and ferment at this temperature.

   You can drink it almost until the evening.

   After everything is done.

  Chen Ling picked up the big pot of water in the yard and poured it outside.

  The water in the cooktop pot can be added or removed in the middle, as long as the temperature is sufficient.

   As my daughter-in-law is going to do laundry today, she will not waste it.

   "Drip."

  Chen Ling just poured out the water and was about to go to herd sheep when a pickup truck honked its horn and drove over.

   glanced at the license plate number.

  Chen Ling smiled, put the big basin at the door, and walked forward.

   It was Zhao Dahai, this time not only himself, but also his wife and daughter.

   "Last month I found out about my younger brother and sister having a baby. They'll come over a long time ago. My sister urged me, and Ju Sheng also called me. I almost recited the phone number in your village."

   "Who knows **** piles up, one by one, stumbling me to death..."

   Zhao Dahai sighed with a sad face.

   "Haha, you are busy with your work, come back when you are done."

  Chen Ling smiled and said to the woman holding the child next to her: "This is the first time my sister-in-law came here, so don't stand outside, hurry up and go home."

Zhao Dahai's daughter-in-law is a petite woman who is less than 1.6 meters tall. She is thin and slender. She is holding a female doll that is about the size of her head. The mother and daughter are very shy and greeted Chen Ling with a blushing face. Followed into the house.

   "This is the sister-in-law of Brother Hai's family, come and come, come in and sit down."

  Wang Susu removed the sheets and quilt covers in the room and took them out to wash. Just when Chen Ling brought someone into the yard, she put down the things in her hand and rushed over.

   Entered the room and chatted for a while, and after getting to know each other, Zhao Dahai couldn't sit still.

   "You and your siblings stay at home, and I go out with Fugui."

   Zhao Dahai said something to his daughter-in-law, then dragged Chen Ling outside, walked to the car, winked and smiled, "I'll show you something good."

  Chen Ling thought he had brought something else, but he opened the car door and a dog came down.

   is a thin, grass-grey dog ​​with a delicate holster around his neck.

   Looking at Zhao Dahai and then at Chen Ling, he turned his ears behind his back and slowly wagged his tail.

   "Good guy, you brought the dog with you."

  Chen Ling looked back and forth, "Let it go, let it **** first, pee, see its legs trembling, and hold it all the way."

   "Oh, yes yes yes."

   Zhao Dahai hurriedly took the dog to the side, came back after a while, and said to Chen Ling, "Where's your dog, why didn't you see it, hurry up, let's practice our legs together."

   This fat man has been shouting for a long time to bring the dog over to the mountain, but he has never had a chance.

   "Sleeping in the kennel, I haven't let them run much in the past two days."

   said, and called out the two dogs.

   Seeing two dogs running out, before the dogs brought by Zhao Dahai were doing well, Zhao Dahai shouted first: "Oh my mother, Heiwa, what's wrong with you?"

  I saw Heiwa's body, which was black and shiny like satin, as if it had been bitten by the dog.

   But Heiwa didn't seem to care, she was still the same as before, with her chest up and her head held high, she was arrogant and majestic.

   At this moment, he cocked his tail and went forward to smell the **** of the thin dog next to Zhao Dahai.

   As a result, the thin dog was so frightened that it groaned and squatted on the ground, carefully rolled up its belly, and stretched out its tongue to lick Heiwa.

   As a result, Xiao Jin was in a panic, and his hair exploded and growled, and the small dog was suddenly overwhelmed by fright. Look at this, and then look at that, innocent can't do it.

   "What can I do? I was beaten."

  Chen Ling kicked Heiwa, called the two of them over, and said with a smile.

   "Being beaten? Can't you? I've heard Jusheng said that Heiwa is old and fierce. If he dares to fight a wolf head on, he will kill a wolf in one bite."

   Zhao Dahai couldn't believe it: "Besides, there is Xiao Jinli, who would dare to provoke them."

   "Why not, the rabbit is biting in a hurry, I'll take you to see it."

   (end of this chapter)