Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

Perhaps sugar is the basic substance for the continuation of life, so the intake of sugar is the nature of life.

Children prefer sugar buns to vegetable buns.

When the pile of buns were put together, everyone wanted to eat the sugar buns.

A kind mother will mark the sugar buns and vegetable buns respectively so that the children can get the sugar buns they want to eat. However, a mother with strict family education will do nothing and let the children open the blind box of buns.

If they are lucky, there will be candy inside when they bite it open, and children are often very happy.

But if you hold on to hope and finally bite into it and find that it is vegetables, you will immediately pout and feel very reluctant, and feel that the new year will not be easy.

At this time, it is the father's turn to appear.

If the father is cheerful, he will say that vegetable buns and sugar buns are both buns, and it is okay to eat the sugar ones after eating the vegetable ones, to give the children hope.

The strict father would glare at his child and warn him not to be so arrogant. It would be good enough to have buns to eat. Otherwise, put down the buns and eat steamed buns directly.

The child was naturally afraid of eating steamed buns, but after thinking for a while, he thought that vegetable dumplings were always better than steamed buns, and his mood gradually improved.

Relatively speaking, adults mostly like to eat vegetables, while children prefer to eat sugar-coated buns, so it is basically a balance.

Of course, there are some people who don’t care about eating buns, because they always cook a lot of dishes during the Chinese New Year, which is a treat they don’t have at other times.

If you eat steamed buns with vegetables, I always feel that the taste of the vegetables and buns will affect each other, and it will end up being a lose-lose situation. It is better to eat steamed buns directly with vegetables, which is more delicious.

Another use of steamed buns is to bring them with you when paying New Year’s greetings after the Chinese New Year.

Fried cakes, twisted dough sticks, fried dough sticks, and steamed buns are all New Year gifts. Housewives usually reserve these things in advance according to the number of people who need to pay New Year gifts in the coming year, so that there will be enough when the time comes.

Of course, the things reserved are of the best quality.

People always give better things to others and keep inferior things for themselves.

During the Spring Festival this year, there were many children in the family, so Yu Qiutang told the sisters to steam more buns, not only sugar buns but also meat buns, so that the children could eat to their heart's content.

Never regret your choices again.

A large vat is specially set aside to store the buns. Since the temperature here is dozens of degrees below zero, there is no need to worry about the buns going bad. It will be no problem to keep them for a month.

Everyone at home was busy, and Yu Qiutang couldn't rest either.

I divided the meat into four nine-jin pieces, tied them to the motorcycle, and went out into the cold morning sun.

The morning sun in winter not only fails to add any warmth, but is actually cold at sunrise.

Combined with the northwest wind, even though he was wearing a helmet, some wind was still unstoppable and slipped in through the gaps, giving Yu Qiutang a headache.

But there is nothing we can do.

He was riding a motorcycle. If it was a bicycle, I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to move in such a strong wind.

More than 30 kilometers is not long, but because the road is uneven and full of ups and downs, riding a bike can be very tiring.

The town where my grandmother lives is called Hongxiang.

It is also a small town backed by the mountains, but it lags far behind Qingquan Town in terms of population or development.

In terms of configuration, although towns and villages are at the same level, there are still specific differences. The scale of a township is generally much smaller than that of a town.

Even many townships of this era are left over due to historical reasons, and they will gradually be merged in later years.

This Hong Township is one of those townships with a very small organization.

In his previous life, Yu Qiutang felt that the population of Hong Township might not be as large as that of Wangjiazhuang village.

When the motorcycle entered Hongxiang, he encountered the same problem again.

I forgot how to get to my grandma's house.

When his grandmother was alive in his previous life, he would visit her several times a year and also visit his uncle.

After his grandmother passed away, he was too lazy to go.

Anyway, my relationship with my uncles is just average, and we can't be called close at all.

Regarding the relationship between his uncles and his father, he was actually vague about it and didn't know where the problem lay. Anyway, his father had his grievances and his uncles had their dissatisfactions.

Whenever my grandmother talked about this, she always sighed and couldn't explain why.

Over time, he left the impression that the relationship was distant.

The marks left by a person in his childhood and even adolescence often determine his character and approach to things throughout his life.

When the impression of uncles is just average, when you grow up, you will have even less energy to improve it.

He just thought that since his mother had passed away and his only grandmother who loved him was also gone, then the people in his uncle's family, who were just relatives, didn't need to visit unless there was something important.

As long as the person is not dead, it’s no big deal.

So it was only when my uncles passed away that I went back to attend the funerals and just followed the etiquette.

After riding his motorcycle around the village for a long time, he finally found his uncle's yard.

There are two big willow trees in front of their house, which are very easy to identify.

But after finding it, he did not go in, but went around the main road and went to his grandmother's house first.

My grandmother lives with my uncle now.

According to the rules, I must go to my grandmother's house first to deliver it.

Yu Qiutang's understanding of his three uncles is only very rough.

All I knew was that my uncle Hong Fusheng was very tall, about 1.9 meters, but very thin. From childhood to adulthood, Yu Qiutang had only seen his uncle a few dozen times. Every time he looked at him, he felt uncomfortable with his neck because he had to tilt his head back, so he didn't look at him carefully.

But my uncle is my uncle after all. He is not as unfamiliar as my great uncle, who might not be recognized at all when he walks on the street.

According to my mother, my uncle was handsome, tall and handsome when he was young. When he took the HWB test that year, my uncle was selected. He was originally going to the capital, and the train had already started, but he jumped off the train because he couldn't bear to leave home.

Then I worked as a laborer for the rest of my life.

My uncle is the same age as my father Yu Dejin, and is also in his fifties.

My second uncle Hong Fucai sells tofu and doesn’t like to talk. My second aunt is very strong and there is always a strong smell of tofu in the house.

My uncle is just an ordinary farmer. He does farm work during the busy farming season and does odd jobs during the slack season. He doesn't have any special skills and doesn't talk much.

Thinking about it this way, my three uncles all spoke very little.

This may be another reason why he doesn't understand them.

The straight-line distance between my grandmother's house and my uncle's house is less than two hundred meters, separated by a field, but if you go around the field and take the main road, it's more than two miles away.

If I were unarmed, I would definitely walk through the fields, but now that I am riding a motorcycle, I have to take the main road.

On the road, you can often see many children standing at the door setting off firecrackers.

There are many children in this era, and every family must have two or three children. When children from nearby gather together, they form groups.

Unlike later generations, whether in the city or in the countryside, you would rarely see children anywhere.

The car arrived at my grandmother's house.

My grandmother lives in a troglodyte house, which is similar to theirs.

Everyone originally lived in a large troglodyte courtyard. As the older children moved out one by one, the parents ended up living in the old courtyard with the youngest son.

Yu Qiutang parked his motorcycle at the entrance of the alley, took off the bag of meat, carried it down to the door, pushed the door, and since it was not closed, he went straight in.

As soon as I entered the door, I saw a young woman in her twenties, holding a child less than one year old in one hand and carrying half a basket of firewood in the other. When she saw Yu Qiutang coming in, she looked at him curiously. "Who are you looking for?"

Yu Qiutang was a little dazed at first, but soon he recalled some things from the woman's appearance and remembered that this was his aunt-in-law Zhang Qiaoqiao.

My uncle is much younger than my mother, only seven years older than him, so my aunt is probably only four or five years older than him at most.

We are half the same age.

This is quite common in this day and age.

Because the time span of having children is long, there may be an age difference of more than 20 years between the first child and the last child. If the next generation also gets married and has children early, the elders may be younger than the younger ones.

Now that he is here, Yu Qiutang should perform better.

He put down the bag on his back, held it in his hand, and said with a smile: "Aunt, I'll bring you some meat."

Zhang Qiaoqiao suddenly shouted, "Oh, I remember now, you are Tangtang, right?"

Yu Qiutang nodded, "That's me."

Zhang Qiaoqiao immediately smiled brightly, and hurriedly threw the firewood basket in her hand to the ground, shouting, "Mom, Fugui, my eldest sister's family is here!"

While shouting, he pointed to the house, "Come on, Tangtang, come in, come in quickly. It's so cold, why are you sending meat? We have bought all of them."

The door curtain was pulled open again, and a man in his twenties with a weather-beaten face came out. It was my uncle Hong Fugui.

He was a few years older than Yu Qiutang, but perhaps because he had lived a hard life and suffered so much, he looked older.

He is definitely a “real elder”.

"Tangtang is here."

The uncle greeted him and stopped talking, standing at the door looking at him.

Not even a smile.

This is similar to what Yu Qiutang remembered.

But he was mentally prepared enough today, so no matter what the situation was, he could handle it.

For the sake of my grandma and mother, I can tolerate anything.

"Yes, uncle, I killed a pig this year and sent you some meat. Is my grandmother here?"

"Yes, she has a cold and just took medicine."

"Have a cold?"

Yu Qiutang was startled and pointed at the house behind Xiaojiu, "Inside this one?"

Zhang Qiaoqiao said hurriedly, "Your grandma is in the back room. It's warm over there."

Yu Qiutang nodded and handed the bag to Zhang Qiaoqiao, "Aunt, there are four pieces of meat in here. You keep two and leave the remaining two for my eldest uncle and my second uncle."

"You even specially delivered it... ah, it's so heavy, how much did you carry?"

"Not much, just one pig, many families sent it. I'm going to see my grandmother."

Yu Qiutang smiled and went straight to his grandmother's room.

After entering, grandma was sleeping with her back against the door and facing the railing. When she heard the footsteps, she didn't turn around and asked, "Fugui, who's outside? I was half asleep just now and heard people talking in the yard."

Yu Qiutang quietly sat on the edge of the kang, leaned his head over from the front, leaned over to his grandmother's ear and called out, "Grandma."

"what?!"

His voice was quite loud, and it was close to his ear, which scared my grandmother. She turned around suddenly, saw it was him, and immediately laughed.

"You kid, you almost scared your grandma away."

People here call grandma "Waina", so if grandma and grandma are not together, people usually just call her "Nai".

Because Yu Qiutang had been outside and learned Mandarin, she couldn't pronounce the term "wai-nai" right away, so she just called her "wai-po". Anyway, some people called her that, and she could understand it.

My grandmother, like my mother, is actually a miserable person.

In her later years, when she was herding sheep, she broke a bone and was paralyzed on the kang for seven or eight years.

I felt bad, and my uncle and aunt also felt bad.

She was cheerful and gentle at first, but later on became a little extreme. She always felt that her aunt-in-law was targeting her, and whenever someone visited her, she would make up stories to blame her aunt-in-law.

This caused the relationship between the two to become a little awkward.

My uncle was in a difficult position being caught in the middle, and my aunt-in-law was not someone who was easy to deal with either, so the situation was quite chaotic.

Yu Qiutang heard all this from his cousins.

And now, my cousin is still in my aunt's arms.

Seeing her grandson coming, the grandmother sat up, took Yu Qiutang's hands with both of her hands, and asked with a smile:
"Tangtang, why are you here? I was hoping you'd come to pay New Year's greetings after the New Year. It's been a while since I last saw you, and I was wondering what happened to my precious grandson. Does he not want his milk anymore?"

My grandmother has two daughters.

Yu Qiutang's aunt died young without getting married.

As a result, my grandmother’s only grandchildren were Yu Qiutang and her brother Yu Chunsheng.

Yu Chunsheng's life and death are now in a long-term uncertainty, so Yu Qiutang is the only grandson left.

People really look at things completely differently depending on their perspective.

Yu Qiutang didn’t have this feeling in his previous life.

What? He doesn’t even have this awareness of being the only grandson.

"No way, I'm always busy and don't have time. There are also many things to do at home."

"No matter how many more, you have to come to see me. Now that I can't see my daughter, I can only see my grandson. If you don't come, I will be confused and think that I have never given birth to a girl."

"Look at what you said, how come you have never given birth? Without a daughter, where would I come from?"

"Are Weiwei and Yunyun all right?"

"Very well, I came here in a hurry today, I will bring them to wish you a happy new year after the New Year."

"Okay, okay, you don't know, everyone in the village says that I have four generations living under one roof, but I want to see my great-grandson, but it's difficult. Your house is so far away, it's not convenient for me to go there.

Besides, I am not the same person now, and your father’s second wife will definitely not like me.”

As grandma spoke, she placed Yu Qiutang's hand in her palm and patted it gently.

Very kind, as if he was giving instructions to a child.

At this time, my uncle also came in from the door and stood against the wall, "Let's eat here at noon, Tangtang."

Yu Qiutang said quickly, "No more eating. I have to go back, uncle."

"Eat and then go back."

"Really? Besides, it's Chinese New Year, so why should we eat out? Right?"

This is of course also a custom.

Not inviting guests to dinner during the New Year is equivalent to sucking away their good fortune.

Yu Qiutang politely refused, but his aunt lifted the door curtain with a spatula in her hand and said, "Eat here. It's like your aunt doesn't care about your meal. You'll be embarrassed when you go back." (End of this chapter)