Ordinary people's rice bowl

Chapter 9 Borrowing Benefits
After the summer solstice, the night came a bit late, and Father Sun was like a "Zhou Pai skin". He never gave the rural people the slightest chance to sleep in. He climbed up Dongshan early every day to wake up those big roosters who like to sing, so that they can lie down without sleep. People who sleep for several hours have to get up and go to the field to start the day's busy farming.

Today is the first day of school after the wheat harvest, Lao Mu went to school, Xiuhua cleaned up briefly at home, and called Mu Yan and Mu Zhen.

"Yan'er is cooking breakfast at home, Zhen'er is looking after your brother, I'll go to the fields for a while!" After arranging the housework, Xiuhua walked out of the house with a bench in one hand and a few handfuls of straw in the other.

Mu Yan got up obediently, and plunged into the kitchen, preparing to make breakfast.The five-year-old younger brother Mu Bao was soundly asleep. Normally, he would not wake up until after eight o'clock. Taking advantage of this time, Mu Zhen took out "The General of the Yang Family", lifted a small bench from the room, and sat on the jujube tree in the courtyard. Next, skillfully flipped to the position I saw yesterday, and read eagerly.The day of the farmhouse has officially begun.

"Brother, come and help me cook the pot. In case our mother and the others come back and cook badly!" Mu Yan shouted to Mu Zhen who was concentrating on reading.

"You do it yourself. Didn't you do it yourself when I was in school? Can't you do it yourself today?" Mu Zhen replied without taking her eyes off the book, and didn't continue.

Mu Yan, who was busy in the kitchen, pursed her lips, and didn't say anything, just stared out at her brother who was reading under the tree.The two were silently busy with their own affairs.

Just after eight o'clock, the school bell rang. Mu Zhen hurriedly closed the book, ran into the room, opened the drawer, and put the book in quickly.

"I must not let my father see that I am reading "The Yang Family", otherwise it is very likely to be severely criticized!" Mu Zhen put the book away, walked to the bed where her younger brother was sleeping in fear, and looked at his younger brother who was still in the slightest. He didn't intend to wake up, so he quietly walked to the kitchen to see what Mu Yan was cooking. Mu Yan saw him coming, and smiled: "Do you have time now?"

"Yes, now I really have time to cook for you."

"I don't need your help. I know you are reading extracurricular books, but you are afraid that we will see them, so you hide to help me!" Mu Yan said with a smile.

"Please, sister, don't say that in front of us, or he won't spare me!" Mu Zhen begged.

"Don't worry, if you want to say that I have already said it, look at you, I won't say it! You go to the field and ask our mother to come back for dinner!" Mu Yan said.

"Then pull the hook!" As he spoke, he stretched out his little finger with his right hand and grabbed Mu Yan's little finger. "If you pull the hook and hang yourself, it won't change for 100 years!"

After chanting, he ran out of the kitchen, turned around after leaving the hospital, and ran into Lao Mu who was coming home from school. Seeing Mu Zhen running so fast, "What are you doing? You're in such a hurry!"

"Go get my mother to eat." Mu Zhen promised to leave, but Old Mu stopped her and said, "You don't need to go, she will be back in a while, we just wait for her at home."

Old Mu pulled Mu Zhen back to the courtyard, stared at Mu Zhen and looked up and down, Mu Zhen felt hairy when he saw it, and murmured in his heart: "Do you know that I watched "The General of the Yang Family?"

"What have you been doing these two days?" Old Mu asked.Hearing such a question, a stone fell in Mu Zhen's heart.

"Play with my brother!" Mu Zhen replied casually.

"Didn't you read any books?"

Mu Zhen was taken aback for a moment, and pretended to ask: "The book? I read it."

Seeing his son's appearance, Lao Mu felt a little funny, knowing that his son was hiding something from him, so he smiled and said bluntly, "Where did you borrow that "General of the Yang Family" from?"

"Bring it from Grandpa! He said he bought it from a bookstore, and he even asked me to read it to him!" Mu Zhen was relieved when she found that her father didn't look angry.

"Oh, this holiday is long, you can use this holiday to read more books, Mr. Ma's house in our village has a lot of books, you can go to him to borrow and read!" Lao Mu said earnestly.

"That's good! It's just..." Mu Zhen stopped when she reached the point of her mouth.

"Just what?" Lao Mu asked suspiciously.

"Mr. Ma looks like that. If you see him and hide away, will he lend it to me?"

"Try it, you can get three points by opening your mouth, and you can get three points if you can't borrow it!" Lao Mu said.

"Okay! Then I'll try it!" Mu Zhen's desire for books far outweighed the fear of seeing the "old pedant". She nodded, expressing her agreement with her father.

Just as they were talking, Xiuhua came back from the field, went into the house to wake up Mu Bao who was still asleep, and put on clothes for him. But while he was stuffing the food into his mouth, he was thinking about borrowing books.

Mu Zhen understood that this time, Lao Mu allowed herself to read extracurricular books, and because she was admitted to the county No. [-] middle school, she set a precedent for herself. I read it through, because there are no other books to read, and I picked out those chapters that I think are classics to savor carefully.Today, my father Yan provided a place to borrow books. Although I was a little surprised, it seemed reasonable. Since school, my father basically didn’t mention any extracurricular books for me to read, and now I support myself to go to Ma Sanye’s house to borrow books. Read, it has indeed changed a lot, and this opportunity is really rare. "

After breakfast, Mu Yan followed Xiuhua to do farm work, while Mu Zhen watched Mu Bao at home, and his younger brother listened to him more.Mu Zhen moved two small benches and the old-fashioned armchair at home to the jujube tree in the yard, and took out the picture album she had read when she was a child from the drawer, and lay down in the yard to teach Mu Bao to read pictures and read characters. Zhen taught patiently, Mu Bao studied hard, and the two brothers cooperated very well.

After teaching for about half an hour, Mu Zhen stopped suddenly. He asked his younger brother to read it for a while, but he rested his chin and thought about borrowing books from Mr. Ma.

"What book should I borrow?" Mu Zhen was asking questions in her heart, and couldn't help but think of what happened two years ago: "Because I read a few comic books adapted from the stories in "Journey to the West", I really wanted to find them. I came to read this book. I went to the commune bookstore many times, and asked more than once if "Journey to the West" was on sale? After waiting for a negative answer, I was silently praying that one day when I found that the book was on the shelves, I would buy it. I asked the salesperson to show it to me. It was a set of books divided into upper, middle and lower volumes. Although the price of the three books was only [-] yuan and [-] cents at the time, I couldn't afford that much, so I discussed with the salesperson to sell them separately. , but the salesperson explained that selling the whole set is a regulation of the unit, and I don’t count what I said. When I save so much money and go to buy books, the books are sold out. Now that my father allows me to borrow books to read, I will borrow that set first. "Journey to the West"!"

After clarifying the title of the book, Mu Zhen was thinking about what to say when she met Mr. Ma. This Mr. Ma was different from the elder grandfather of the same clan. It's borrowing books, rather than buying books for someone who can read to him. Borrowing books is naturally a matter of course, but this Mr. Ma is different.Every time I saw Mr. Ma's serious eyes, I still remember when I was a child, a few children were playing glass balls at the entrance of the village, and suddenly a child yelled "Old man Ma is here!", and the children immediately picked up their own Liu Liqiu ran away as if flying, and since then, the children secretly nicknamed Sanye Ma "Ghost Seeing Sorrow". call.Borrowing books from him now, not to mention that I may not necessarily borrow it, even if my father borrows it himself, he may not be able to borrow it!Maybe my father is right, there is no harm in opening your mouth to try, even if you can't borrow it, you won't lose anything.

After thinking about it, Mu Zhen's desire to study finally overcame her fear, and he decided that no matter what the outcome would be?You should also boldly go to Ma Sanye's house to make a move.

Mu Zhen looked at Mu Bao who was seriously looking at the album, stroked Mu Ding's head and said, "Xiaobao, do you want me to tell you the story of Sun Monkey?"

After hearing this, Mu Bao immediately put down the picture album in his hand, raised his head and responded happily: "I think, tell me quickly!"

"Well, if you want to hear it, don't run around, read the picture album honestly at home, and when I come back, I promise to tell you the story of Sun Monkey!" After Mu Zhen finished speaking, she stood up and was about to go out.

"What are you going to do? I'll go too." Mu Bao raised his head and blinked.

"You can't go to this matter, you just wait at home, I'll tell you the story when I come back, okay?"

"Okay! I'll just wait for you at home." Mu Bao agreed to his brother's request a little unhappy when he heard his brother come back and tell the story.

Before going out of the gate, Mu Zhen walked over and stroked the head of the big yellow dog lying not far from her, and said to herself: "Rhubarb, take care of the house at home, don't let Bao'er go out!" After speaking, she hurried out of the gate, Running to the village, the distance from home to the village usually takes seven or eight minutes, but this time it has been doubled in Mu Zhen's cheerful steps.

Mu Zhen ran directly to the back wall of Ma Sanye's thatched cottage, stopped, panting heavily, and carefully looked at Ma Sanye's house. These three thatched cottages were a little different from other houses, with waist-high bricks underneath The wall, the upper outer wall is covered with a little whitish mud, which looks very flat. The roof is no different from other houses, and it is also inclined and thick wheat straw is laid on the bottom.

"This strange old man is really different from other houses!" Mu Zhen had never looked at any house carefully like now, and now she finished looking at Mr. Ma's house, and she was muttering in her heart.

Mu Zhen bypassed the back wall of Mr. Ma, took two steps, and arrived at the courtyard gate of Mr. Ma's house. The two wooden doors at the bottom of the gate are staggeredly hidden. Mu Zhen calmed down a little, pushed the door gently and went in. Seeing that the door in the courtyard was open, Mu Zhen did not approach immediately, but just stood in the courtyard. At the gate, she asked softly, "Is anyone at home?" After a while, there was no response, "Is anyone there?" This time Mu Zhen raised her voice again.

There was still no response, and then he heard the sound of something being moved in the room. Mr. Ma had already stood at the door of the room, and he looked Mu Zhen up and down. She turned her head and ran away, but at this moment, Mu Zhen stood there as if she had been frozen, and let Mr. Ma scrutinize her over and over again.

"Third Grandpa, I have something to do with you!" Mu Zhen said boldly.

"What do you want from me?" Third Master Ma answered with his eyes wide open.

Mu Zhen looked at Ma Sanye's surprised eyes, and really wanted to run away, but there was magnetism under her feet, she couldn't move, so she calmed down a little and replied, "I want to borrow a book from you!"

"What book to borrow?" Ma Sanye may have been infected by the idea of ​​such a child borrowing books, and a slight smile appeared on his face.

"Journey to the West." At this time, Mu Zhen saw Ma Sanye's forgiving smile, and she became much more courageous, and she no longer had any worries about speaking.

"Come in, I'll look for you." When Ma Sanye called Mu Zhen into the house, Mu Zhen's desire to run away relaxed a lot.

Mu Zhen walked a few steps quickly, entered the door, and Mr. Ma also retreated to the room.The three rooms are not separated by anything, and you can see the four walls of the room when you enter the door. The furnishings in the room are very simple. On the back wall directly opposite the door, there is a central hall painting of a crane prolonging its life, and couplets with black characters on a red background on both sides. ——"Fortune is like the long flowing water in the East China Sea, and the longevity is not as old as the Nanshan Mountain". Under the painting, there is a three-meter-long bar table against the wall, and under the bar table is an Eight Immortals table. A set of white porcelain tea sets are neatly placed.

In the middle of the room in front of the Eight Immortals' Table was a chopping board prepared by each family. On the chopping board were a few seal characters with wet ink. Mu Zhen looked at them carefully, but she couldn't understand which characters they were.Seeing that Mu Zhen was a little dazed, Ma Sanye pointed to the seal characters and said, "Sit quietly and always think about your past." After speaking, he went straight to the bed in the east bedroom, bent over and dragged a wooden wooden chair from under the bed with great difficulty. The big box, Mu Zhen stepped forward and knelt down to help, but Ma Sanye had already pulled it out, opened the lid of the box, and Mu Zhen saw that it was a whole box of books, and the books were neatly placed in the box in four stacks. The third master flipped through a few times, and carefully pulled out a book that was wrapped in dark yellow kraft paper. On the book cover, the words "Journey to the West (Part [-])" were written in block letters with a brush. After wiping the front, he handed it to Mu Zhen and said, "There are three volumes in this set, and this is the first volume. After you finish reading it, you can change to the second volume."

"En!" Mu Zhen stretched out her hands to take the still-new but slightly yellow book from Mr. Ma's hand, and quickly agreed.

Ma Sanye bent down again and pushed the bookcase under the bed.

Mu Zhen looked at Mr. Ma pushing the bookcase away, and said to Mr. Ma: "Thank you, I will read it as soon as possible and exchange it."

"Go, child, just take care of it and watch it!" Ma Sanye instructed.

"I will, Third Grandpa!" After finishing speaking, Mu Zhen exited Third Master Ma's room with the book in both hands, turned around and ran out of Third Master Ma's courtyard.

Ma Sanye stood at the door of the room, looked at Mu Zhen's bouncing figure, and nodded thoughtfully.

On the way home, Mu Zhen felt extraordinarily relaxed, "I didn't expect the strange old man who is so serious at ordinary times to be so amiable now, and his words are not unpleasant at all." When Mu Zhen returned home, her younger brother Mu Bao was still in the yard. Flipping through the picture book I was looking at when I left.

"Little Bao, what do you see in my hand?" Mu Zhen raised the newly borrowed "Journey to the West" with both hands, and shouted to Mu Bao.

"What picture book?"

"It's not a picture book."

"What's that?" Mu Bao raised his head and looked at the books his brother had raised above his head.

"It's the original book about Sun Monkey."

"Hello Monkey Sun!" Mu Bao put down the album in his hand and clapped his hands.

"How about I read a passage to you?"

"Okay, okay, go to Havoc in Heaven!" Mu Bao shouted.

Mu Zhen put the book down, turned to the table of contents, and saw the seventh chapter "Fleeing the Great Sage in the Eight Diagrams Furnace, Peace of Mind at the Foot of the Five Elements Mountain", "I will read to you that Monkey Sun practiced in Laojun's furnace for seven to seven days. Come out with a sharp eye!" Mu Zhen reminded.

"Okay!" Mu Bao agreed casually.

Mu Zhen turned to the seventh chapter and said to Mu Bao, "Move a bench!"

Mu Bao was really obedient, he hurriedly moved a bench and put it behind his brother Mu Zhen's butt.Mu Zhen sat down and read: "The words mean that the great sage Qitian was escorted by all the heavenly soldiers to kill the demons under the stage, tied to the demon subduing column, chopped with knives and axes, stabbed with spears and swords. Don't want to hurt himself. Nan Dou Xing Let the gods of the fire department set fire to simmer, but they can't burn..."

One of the two brothers spoke vividly, while the other listened mesmerizingly, having a great time.

(End of this chapter)