The Northern Stories of Chef Lao Tan

Chapter 75
On the second day after arriving home, Lao Tan went to visit his father's grave.

As the old saying goes, descendants continue to offer sacrifices, and those who die without dying live long.

People, don't forget your ancestors when the time comes.

Lao Tan's father was buried on the hillside at the junction of Shanzui and Haernao, with pine trees behind, Nanshan in front, and Heichengzi River in the distance.The river surface in winter has been frozen, and it looks like a silver light belt from a distance.

At the foot of the hillside is a brick factory. Old Tan worked here for a summer vacation when he was in high school. He paid one yuan and fifty cents a day and was very tired.Those who get bricks out of the kiln earn more, three yuan a day.They are all naked, the temperature in the kiln is high, and the fire is burning, and often a cart of bricks is washed all over the body.

Lao Tan also wanted to enter the kiln to produce bricks, but the supervisor refused to let him in, saying that it was done by the old men, and the young man could not do it at all.

At that time, a female classmate of his in junior high school was also working in the brick factory. The female classmate did not study well and failed to enter high school. After graduating from junior high school, she worked as a farmer at home.

The female classmate’s father’s nickname is Wang Xiaoyan, the kind who loves to take advantage of small things. Every year during the autumn harvest, he will go to other people’s fields to pick a few ears of corn, not many, five or six ears. It's annoying to say it wasn't stolen.This man is bitter and mean, and looks weak. If you dare to touch him, he will lie on the ground and howl, saying that you have broken him and he must go to the hospital.

To put it bluntly, it is a rogue, there is such a person in every village, there is no great ability, and no one cares about it.

Wang Xiaoyan has two sons who are five-year-old and three-year-old, their IQ is worrying, the common people talk like a tiger, they are very natural, and they are good at fighting.Sometimes Wang Xiaoyan took advantage of a small advantage and was caught by others, lying on the ground and making jokes, and if the two sons came to him, they would immediately attack.People don't want to mess with this person who doesn't understand human language, so they are just ashamed.

So Wang Xiaoyan didn't look good, and no one bothered him in the camp.

He has a good daughter, Lao Tan's junior high school classmate, very sensible, kind-hearted, not outstanding, but definitely not ugly, there is no aunt or aunt in the camp who doesn't boast.

Wang Xiaoyan often shows off his daughter, which is the only thing he can be proud of.

Old Tan's family has a piece of land next to Wang Xiaoyan's. Old Tan's family planted mung beans, and Wang Xiaoyan's family planted soybeans.

During the autumn harvest, Lao Tan got up early every morning and went to the field to pick mung beans. After picking a woven bag, he put it in the mung bean field. Then he went to high school, and after school, he went to the field to pick mung beans until it was dark. Mung beans come home.

At that time, there was nothing to do. There were only Lao Tan and his mother in the family, and the fifth sister was studying in a normal school. He could only go to school and farm the land at the same time.

It was a little late after school that day, and it was getting dark when we got to the ground.Lao Tan was about to go into the field to take out the bag of mung beans that he had picked in the morning and go home. When he was about to enter the field, he saw Wang Xiaoyan coming out of his soybean field carrying a bag.

When Lao Tan saw that it was his own bag, he stopped Wang Xiaoyan when he went up.

Wang Xiaoyan and his two sons were cutting millet in the downhill field. After cutting the millet, he asked the two sons to load the car. He first went to the soybean field to see if the soybeans should use the sickle. There is a woven bag in it, so the greedy heart is alive.

In the past, he saw that they were picked mung beans. He knew that they were picked by Lao Tan and put them in the field, but there was no one in the field, so he just took them. When Lao Tan found out, he thought they were stolen by others, no think of yourself.

Unexpectedly, he was blocked by Lao Tan.

Who is Wang Xiaoyan, of course he doesn't admit it, not only doesn't admit it, but also says it belongs to his family.

At this time, a few villagers who were about to go home gathered around, and it seemed that Wang Xiaoyan knew what was going on, but they didn't come forward, fearing that Wang Xiaoyan would be clingy, and stood aside to watch the fun.

Old Tan got angry, snatched the bag from Wang Xiaoyan's hand, grabbed a handful of mung beans and said, "Why are mung beans growing in your soybean field, are you fooling a ghost?"

The surrounding villagers burst into laughter.

Wang Xiaoyan couldn't hold back anymore, his face was flushed with embarrassment, and when he got up, he threw himself on Old Tan. Old Tan knew what he was like, so he couldn't touch him. Fell down in the soybean field.

The moment Wang Xiaoyan fell to the ground, he yelled very performatively: "Old Tan's boy beat someone—" His tragic and desolate cry resounded through the dusk of the evening.

Coincidentally, his two sons came up with a millet cart and saw their father falling into the soybean field in a panic, stopped the cart without saying a word, and started fighting with Lao Tan when they came up.

Old Tan was no match for two big, five-year-old and three-year-old men, and was soon beaten with a bruised nose, a swollen face, and bleeding from the corners of his mouth.

All of a sudden, Lao Tan's blood was aroused.

Looking back now, Old Tan only remembers that his eyes were bloodshot at that time, and he looked like a wolf.I don't know how that battle ended, but Wang Xiaoyan's two sons were lying on the ground and humming, his arms were bleeding, and he asked Wang Xiaoyan if the mung beans belonged to him with red eyes.

That was the first time Wang Xiaoyan didn't blackmail anyone.

Wang Xiaoyan's daughter was indeed different from Wang Xiaoyan. She went to Lao Tan's house the next day to make amends to Lao Tan and even sent a basket of eggs. Lao Tan still remembered all this.

When he was working in the brick factory, the female classmate was very kind to him. When loading bricks, she gave him less load and helped him unload them.

Later, Lao Tan went out to work, and when he returned home, he heard from his mother that his female classmate got married and gave birth to a fat boy.

Now all this has become a memory, time has passed, and the current female classmate should be the same as me, who has become a woman in middle age.

Old Tan came to his father's grave.

The entire tomb was covered with snow, only half of the bricks that pressed the paper on the head of the grave were exposed, and the light khaki color was very conspicuous.

Put the burning paper in front of the grave, pull out the grave paper from inside, walk up to the grave and press it down.Then I broke off a branch from the elm tree next to me, broke off the excess branches, and made a stick more than one meter long, and drew a big circle around the tomb.

There was snow on the ground, so I could only squat down and light the burning paper.

When the paper money lit up, it melted a small piece of snow in front of the grave, exposing withered yellow grass, which quickly burned and mixed with paper ash, leaving black ash traces.

Bundles of paper money were burning, and the flames warmed the small space in front of the grave.

The snow where the paper was burned slowly melted around——
"Dad, I came to see you. I haven't been here for two years. It's a bit unfilial. The family is very good. My mother is now at my fifth sister's house. She is in good health. You don't have to worry about it. I am now in the provincial capital, and I still cook for others. It’s good to buy a house.”
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Old Tan knelt in front of his father's grave, mumbling while burning paper.

None of us know whether our departed relatives are alive in another world, or if there is real reincarnation and reincarnation.But the individual as a life does not exist, leaving behind the deep sorrow of the living.

Maybe there really are Yincao Jifu and Niu Tau Horse Noodles, Naihe Bridge and Meng Po, and that bowl of Meng Po soup.Maybe someone really brought the memory of the previous life, reincarnated into this world, experienced three lives, three lives and ten miles of peach blossoms, looking for the destined lover.

Those are legends.

We reminisce about the deceased relatives, grieve in front of the grave, and even hope that the deceased relatives will come back to life and share the family relationship——
Perhaps, the paper money that burned, drifted, and finally turned into ashes can really be received by relatives in another world. We think we can receive it for the time being, and wish them a happy life there.

The paper money was burned, and the fly ash was scattered in the air, leaving a pile of paper ash in front of the grave.

Lao Tan used a stick to pull the paper ash back and forth, seeing that there were no sparks in it, he put the stick aside with confidence.Fire prevention must be taken when burning paper at graves. There is a field of pine trees ten meters behind the grave. It is not a trivial matter if it is lit.

After waiting for a while, the slight mountain wind blew away the paper ashes on the ground. After confirming that there was no spark, Lao Tan respectfully knelt on the snow in front of the grave and kowtowed three times to his father, then stood up and said to the grave: "Let's go, Dad, I will come to see you next time."

After he finished speaking, he turned around, didn't rush to leave, took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit a cigarette, took a deep puff, looked at the brick factory below, and several families next to the brick factory.

He remembered that there used to be only one family here, but now there are several more. They should be rich, because the land here is very expensive.

Old Tan began to walk down the mountain slowly.

The trail is full of snow. It is difficult to go up the mountain, and it is even more difficult to go down the mountain. You have to step on the foot of the mountain to go down.

Ten minutes later, I came to the road in front of the brick factory, and there was a canteen next to it. When I came, my nephew Lan Jun told him to wait for him at the canteen after visiting the grave, and he went to the town to buy vegetables.

Lan Jun hadn't come back yet, it was cold outside, Lao Tan walked into the commissary.

There was a stove in the middle of the house, and three men were smoking and chatting around the stove.Standing at the counter was a woman in her forties who still had a good look, also smoking a cigarette.

The three men took a look at Old Tan, seeing if they knew each other, they turned their heads and went chatting on their own.

The woman was very enthusiastic and asked Lao Tan, "Are you shopping?"

Old Tan came to the counter and said, "Buy a pack of cigarettes."

"What smoke?"

"The Great Hall of the People."

The woman took out a box of the Great Hall of the People and handed it to Lao Tan. Lao Tan paid for it, and then lit one for himself—the smell of cigarettes in the room was too strong, and he smoked one.

"Why do you look familiar?" the woman asked.

Old Tan smiled, and couldn't help looking at the woman's eyes.The woman is slightly fat, with makeup on, big waves in her hair, fake eyelashes, plump breasts, and a red mole the size of a grain of rice on the corner of her mouth.

This red mole reminded Old Tan of someone——
"Your surname is Tan, right?" The woman obviously recognized Old Tan.

"You are--"

"Wang Yanli, don't you remember? A junior high school classmate."

In a dramatic scene, the woman is Wang Xiaoyan's daughter and Lao Tan's classmate.

I haven't seen each other for nearly twenty years. If I walk on the street, I don't know each other at all.

Lao Tan did not expect to meet Wang Yanli here, and was very excited.Wang Yanli did not expect that this was Lao Tan, and was very pleasantly surprised.

So the two old classmates chatted affectionately.

Through chatting, I found out that Wang Yanli was married to a mine worker, and her husband died in a roof fall accident. Old Tan seemed to have heard this matter from his mother, but he didn't pay attention at the time.The mine lost a sum of money. In order to take care of his family, he made an exception and opened a canteen by the road.

Now the child is in high school and is taken care of by her grandparents. She runs the canteen by herself to make ends meet.

The two chatted for a while, and Lan Jun drove up, so Lao Tan left.

(End of this chapter)